Controlling the Visual Query palette

By default, the palette of query items that analysts see when they create and edit query structures contains all the item types in the i2 Analyze schema. To make the palette contain only the item types that you want analysts to use, you can edit the Visual Query configuration file.

Before you begin

Changing the contents of the Visual Query palette means adding the <PaletteItemTypes> element to the configuration file. For example, the visual-query-configuration.xml file in the toolkit\configuration\live directory includes a commented-out demonstration of using the element with the law enforcement schema:

<PaletteItemTypes Mode="DENY" ItemTypeIds="ET3, LAS1"/>

The <PaletteItemTypes> element has two mandatory attributes: Mode and ItemTypeIds. The value of the former determines how the server interprets the value of the latter:

  • To specify exactly which item types the palette contains, use Mode="ALLOW". Then, only the types whose identifiers are in the ItemTypeIds list appear in the palette that users see.

  • To exclude certain item types specifically (but allow the palette to contain all other item types), use Mode="DENY". Users do not see the types whose identifiers are in the ItemTypeIds list in the palette.

Important:

  • It is not valid to specify operator usage rules for a denied type. Neither the identifier of a denied item type nor those of its property types must appear anywhere in the <OperatorUsageRules> element that the Visual Query configuration file also contains.

  • If you exclude item types from the palette after analysts have started to use the system, any saved queries that use those item types become invalid. If analysts have configured alerts for those queries, they will no longer receive them. Always check with your analysts before you exclude item types from the palette.

About this task

Because it involves editing the Visual Query configuration file, the procedure for controlling the Visual Query palette and updating the server with your changes is similar to the one for restricting Visual Query conditions. See that topic for more information.

Procedure

To change the item types that users see in the Visual Query palette:

  1. Open the toolkit\configuration\live\visual-query-configuration.xml file in an XML editor.

  2. Using the supplied example as a guide, remove the comment from the <PaletteItemTypes> element and edit it according to your requirements.

  3. Save your changes.

  4. If you have not done so already, follow the instructions in Restricting Visual Query conditions to update DiscoServerSettingsCommon.properties with details of your configuration file.

    Follow the instructions in the final part of the same procedure to update the i2 Analyze deployment.

What to do next

Connect to i2 Analyze through either the i2 Notebook web client or the Analyst's Notebook desktop client. Verify that the item types available in the Visual Query palette are what you expect them to be.