Working with Views – BlueDolphin

The term 'view' in BlueDolphin refers to the location where users visualize their ideas in a diagram. Take, for example, Architecture designs or Business Process Management outlines to gain insight into a chain or visualize a specific object.

You start creating your own view by using a blank canvas or from a relationship diagram of an object.

Click Views within BlueDolphin to start with the interface below. You will see the toolbar with a canvas:

Your most recently edited view will be opened automatically.

Note: Any change you make on the canvas is saved immediately to the view. For this reason, a 'save' button is not present.

Toolbar Actions

You enter or change the name of the current view in the text box on the far left of the toolbar.

Below, the purpose and functioning of most buttons are clarified.

Action	Description	ArchiMate	BPMN
	Switch the view between private mode or visible to other users (read-only).	YES	YES
	Create an object. When you create an object in the repository, this object is added directly to the view.	YES	NO
	Create a relationship between two objects. BlueDolphin will show possible relationships between the objects, once you select two objects with this 'relationship button'.	YES	YES
	Add a square shape to a view to clarify. Be aware that you should use the 'grouping' feature when you aim to group objects.	YES	NO
	Add a circle shape to your view to highlight/clarify. Be aware that you should use the 'grouping' feature when you aim to group objects.	YES	NO
	Text block; add content to certain relationships, objects or other areas within your view.	YES	NO
	Toggle between content/text or icon representation of each object's type; Choose whether or not BlueDolphin shows the type of relationship next to the arrows.	YES	NO
	Add, modify or delete conditions.	YES	NO
	Enable/disable the grid.	YES	YES
	Enable/disable the 'snap to grid' function. When enabled, objects will be linked to the gridlines automatically when they are moved. Snap to grid helps you to neatly align objects.	YES	YES
	Enable/disable the outline map. The outline map shows in the bottom right corner. When your entire view is extremely large, the part of the view that is visible on the canvas may be small, making it hard to understand the bigger picture. The outline map shows the location of the canvas on the entire view.	YES	NO
	Enable/disable the legend	YES	NO
	Locates objects/elements within the view using a free text search:	YES	YES

	Create a new view. You must choose a type for the view (ArchiMate, BPMN or Logical Data). The currently opened view is closed, and your new view is opened.	YES	YES
	Busy. This icon indicates when BlueDolphin is busy saving your changes.	YES	YES
	Open a view. After selecting this action, the Open View window will be shown.	YES	YES
	Undo. Undo your recent changes.	YES	YES
	More view options: Share Publish Download Save as Delete	YES	Partially
	Object browser. Use the object browser to add existing objects to your view (by drag and drop).	YES	NO

Opening a view

For more information on how to open a view, please see Open View.

Object quick actions

When you select an object, a menu with some quick actions will become available.

ArchiMate

Action	Description
	Signs related objects. By performing this action, all direct surrounding relationships are added (one level deep) of the selected object in the View.
	Relationship tool. With this action you can create a relationship with an object. BlueDolphin will present the relationship possibilities when you click on the other object with the relationship tool. Note: Possible relationships between object combinations are configured by the Administrator.
	Remove or delete the object. In the following screen, you can choose whether you only want to remove the object from the view or if you want to delete the object from the repository.

BPMN

Action	Description
	Link a BPMN element to an ArchiMate object in the repository. This is very convenient if you want to: Show which application is used by a task in the process; Show which Business Process is called by a Call Activity.
	Select which markers to apply to an element; What type of element it is.
	Helps to quickly draw your BPMN chart. When you click one of these buttons, BlueDolphin will: Create a new element on the view of the corresponding type; Link the new element to the previous element; Select the new element and show its context menu.
	Draws flows between objects
	Deletes the selected object(s)

Object context menu

In addition to the quick actions, you can view the context menu with extra possibilities by right-clicking on an object in the view.

On ArchiMate views

Action	Description
Open object	Leaves the view and opens the selected object.
Group objects	Puts the selected object(s) into a group. The group is an element which is movable.
Add new relationship	Adds a relationship between two objects, if the selected related object is not present in the view, it will be added.
Delete	The selected object(s) will be deleted from the view. During this process you can choose whether the objects should also be deleted from the database.
Child objects	Allows you to create or add existing child objects (limit 50 child objects) to the selected object based on the 'Composition' relationship. For example: Note: You can only create or add child objects that are of the same object definition as the parent object.
Layout	Lets you: Set the dimensions of the selected object(s) to that of the first selected object. Change the background color of the selected object(s) Change the text color of the selected object(s)
Alignment	Allows you to align the selected object(s) against the first selected object.
Layer	Modifies how the selected object(s) overlap with other objects. Bring to front: Bring all the way to the front Send to back: Send all the way to the bottom Bring forward: Move it one step up Send backward: Move it one step down

On BPMN views

Action	Description
Open object	If a BPMN element is linked to an ArchiMate object, then this option leaves the view and opens the selected object.

ArchiMate views: Creating a new object

In the views screen you can also add an object to the repository. For this, you can use the option Create new object in the toolbar.

In addition, you can create a new object after you have found out that the object does not exist yet. See the section below for more information.

ArchiMate views: Adding an existing object

You can add an existing object to the view in several ways:

Double-click on the canvas
Right-click on the canvas and choose Add object
Drag from the object browser

When you double-click on the canvas and select Add object, you will get the following screen:

If you want to add an object that is not yet present in BlueDolphin, you get the option No results, click here to create new object (see the image below):

After you have chosen this option, you will get the screen below. The object is created in the database and added to the view, after selecting the appropriate object type.

ArchiMate views: Creating a relationship between two objects

If you want to create a relationship between two objects, you can do this via the magic stick. When you select the relationship tool from the toolbar, you need to click on two objects between which you want to create a relationship. When the relationship tool is selected via the “quick actions” of an object, simply click on the object that you want to make a relationship with.

The context menu:

Shows how many relationships already exist between the two objects. You can open the submenu to select a specific relationship to add to the view.
Shows if a derived relationship exists between the two objects. Clicking on this option will add that relationship to the view.
Shows which type of relationships are allowed by the system administrator. Clicking on the plus icon creates a new relationship of that type. Selecting one of the existing relationships from the submenu adds it to the view.

Possible relationships between object types are maintained by the admin of the site.

Grouping of objects

If you want to group objects in a view, for example because they belong together logically, you can do so by performing the following steps.

1. Select the objects that you want to group

2. Choose in the context menu the option Group objects or use the combination <CTRL>-<G>

3. The title of the group can be changed by double-clicking on it.

Once a group is present, you can drag objects in and out of the group. Objects then automatically become part of the group. The size of the group is automatically adjusted. When you drag the last object out of the group, the group will be deleted.

Note: Grouping and ungrouping actions cannot be undone.

Publishing a view

You can publish your own view when it is ready to share with other users. Other users can open the published view but not edit it. The published view is a non-editable copy of the original.

For more information on how to publish a view, see here.

Downloading a view

To use the image of a view in a document, for example, you can download the view as a file in PNG, SVG, PDF and AMEFF format.

Click on the three-dot menu in the toolbar and select Download.

Choose the file format and click OK. The file is now downloaded to your local machine.

Collaborating on a view

You can choose the collaborate feature if you want to work on a view with several people at the same time. To start collaborating, click on the three-dot menu from the toolbar and select Share.

Next, the screen appears where you can add the people with whom you want to share the view.

You can add a user by clicking on the plus sign through the combo box below Add user. You can see on the screen the people you share the view with. The shared view is visible under the Shared views category by the people with whom you have shared the view with. When you open a shared view, you will see that BlueDolphin connects with a collaborative environment.

You will receive notifications when people enter or leave the collaboration space. Changes that are made by other people will be directly visible to you. So that all users have the same version of the view.

To see all keyboard / mouse shortcuts available in BlueDolphin, go here.

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