Exploring your database

iBridge allows you to interactively browse your database, starting with a single entity expansion. You can then continue expanding one entity at a time within the Explore window. At any time, you can select one or more entities and/or links and add them to the chart.

When an Explore window is opened, the selected entity is displayed as the central entity and a one level expansion is performed within that window. The central entity (the one you selected originally) is highlighted in bold with a blue label. Any other items which already exist on your chart are shown with a blue label.

Note: Any charting settings that have been specified in the Charting Settings dialog will be applied to any Explore that you do until you either change the charting settings or finish the session. It is optional whether you reset charting settings before you start to Explore entities and links. To do this:

Right-click on the chart background, and select Charting Settings.
Click Reset to ensure that the charting settings are set to their default values.
Click OK to close the Expansion Settings.

Select the entity to expand, and do one of the following:
- On the Selection page of the Data Sources Pane, select Explore.
- Right-click, and select database > Explore, where database is the name of your iBridge database.
Once you have displayed your Explore window, you can:
- Decide which entity and link types appear using the buttons at the top left of the window.
  Click Entity Types. The entity types listed are those that currently appear in the Explore window. Turn off the check boxes next to the entity types you do not want to see in the Explore window. If you turn off any entity types, links connected to the hidden entity types are also hidden.
  Click Link Types. The link types listed are those that currently appear in the Explore window. Turn off the check boxes next to the link types you do not want to see in the Explore window. If you turn off any link types, entities connected to the hidden link types are also hidden.
- Double-click on an entity to add it to the chart.
  A single level expand is performed on the entity in the Explore window and the entity is added to the chart along with any links to the previously selected entity.
- Double-click on a link to add it to the chart.
  A single level expand is performed on the entity at the end of the link in the Explore window and the entity is added to the chart along with the link.
- Select any number of entities and links and click Add to Chart to add them to the chart. Any other links from the selected entities to the originally selected entity are also added to the chart. The Explore window remains open.
- Holding down the Shift key, double-click on an entity to continue with the exploration without adding anything to the chart.
- Navigate within the Explore window as follows:
  - right-click to center the window on that position
  - press the Home key to display actual size
  - press the End key to fit the chart in the window
  - press the Page Up key to zoom in
  - press the Page Down key to zoom out
  - Press the Esc key to close the Explore window.