Guide to the Object Browser


The Object Browser gives you a Java-oriented perspective on your classes, enabling you to view a hierarchy of source files filtered in the way that you specify.

To open the Object Browser, do one of the following operations:

The Object Browser window is divided into three panes - Packages, Objects, and Members.

Packages pane

The Packages pane lists all of the packages from all of the file systems visible under the Filesystems tab of the Explorer. The first icon on the top of the pane is the Show as tree icon, which gives you the choice whether to view the packages as a tree (when selected) or a list (when deselected). The second icon is for expanding the whole tree. A pull-down menu in the upper left corner enables you to choose different package filters.

Objects pane

The Objects pane displays objects of the package selected in the Package pane. Three types of objects (classes, interfaces, and sourceless files) can be filtered. The seven toggle icons in the top of the pane represent filters for these objects. The first three icons (Class, Interface, and Sourceless Data Object without source) represent general filters, meaning you can choose whether to display any objects of these types. The second group of icons (Public, <default>, Protected, and Private) are filters for the class or interface according to their access modifiers.

For example, if only the Class, Private, and Package filters are selected, all classes with private and package-private modifiers will be displayed.

No classes with public or protected access and no interfaces at all will be shown.

By default, all seven filters are selected, meaning that all objects are shown, including classes and interfaces with any access modifier.

Whereas the Explorer uses a tree structure, the Objects pane uses a list structure. Whereas the Explorer tree would should show class Innerclass as a subnode of Outerclass, the Object Browser would display them in a list as the separate items Outerclass and Outerclass.Innerclass.

Members pane

The Members pane displays members of the object selected in the Object pane.

The first icon in the Members pane is a toggle switch that enables you to view members as bean properties and events. When this icon is selected, the other filters in the pane are disabled.

The next three icons represent filters for general member types (methods, variables, and constructors). As with class and interface objects in the Objects pane, you can further filter method, variable, and constructor members according to their access modifiers using the second group of icons (identical to the last four icons in the Objects pane).

Clicking on the last icon in this pane enables you to sort the members alphabetically within member type.

Tip: You can use the tool tip feature to find out the names of the filters and more information about the items listed in the panes. To get an item's tool tip, place the mouse cursor over the item and wait about a second for the tool tip to appear.


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