Forms Tour

Once a form is loaded StarView's interface becomes complete. Here we have loaded the Quick Search screen from the new format screens.

Here we see the panel is divided into four basic areas.  The menus, button bar, qualifiers table (the gray and white table) and the form result desktop (the blue area with the form displayed in it). Note that once a form is loaded the status of the button bar changes.  You will find that it changes according to the state of the selected record in the active form as well.  The buttons do the following:

1. Save - saves the current form to the local disk (does not save the results or the query)
2. Search - executes a search based on the current form's state
3. Scan (Backward) - scan backwards through the search result records
4. Prev - move back one search result record
5. Stop - stops a scan or a search
6. Next - move forward one search result record
7. Scan (Forward)- scan forward through the search result records
8. Mark - mark the currently selected search result record(s) for retrieval
9. (Mark) All - marks all records for retrieval
10. Unmark - unmarks currently selected search result record(s) from retrieval
11. (Unmark) All - unmarks all records from retrieval
12. XQual - load qualifiers from a saved search result or from the results of another screen
13. Export - export current search results
14. Preview - previews image data (if available)
15. Spectrum - previews spectral data (if available)
16. Overlay - displays digital sky survey (DSS) image of currently selected search result record and overlays the space telescope backplain on the sky
17. DSS - displays DSS image of currently selected search result record

Qualifications

Qualifications are where the searches are specified. The fields of the currently selected results form are displayed in the qualifier table.

The buttons at the top of the form allow you to load saved qualifiers, save the current qualifiers, clear the form to its default state, and launch the target resolver to query the Simbad or Ned object catalogs for coordinates of an object.

Below this can bee seen the qualifiers in the qualifiers table. The qualifiers form label (and simple text description) is found in the first column. The second is where the user enters qualifiers. The third specifies which database field this qualifier matches up with (helpful for those who know the database) and the last column has the logical type of the field, to help the user know what sort of information goes in this field. To enter a qualifier, simply click in the qualification cell you wish to specify and type in the qualifier.  The syntax of qualifiers will be handled in the next section.

To do more than enter information in the qualifier, the user can right click on the qualifier row to get a popup menu of options

With the program in the current mode, you can utilize the copy and paste functions as well as Get DB Field Info.  This options displays details about this particular field in greater detail

You can rearrange the row order of a qualifiers table. To do this we need to jump ahead a little in concepts. We will go into editing forms later. However, we can simply say here that when a form is loaded it is in static mode and cannot be altered.  To change that, click the Static button on the results form window and change it to read Edit

becomes

Now the form can be changed.  Of interest to the qualifiers is that the qualifiers can now be rearranged in the table.  The popup menu now looks like this:

You can now move the selected field up and down the table.  Thus you can put the fields you find most important at the top and demote the lesser used fields to the bottom.

Finally notice the divider bar between the Qualifiers and the form desktop.  This can be moved up and down to change the viewing window on the qualifiers.
 

Results Form

Here we see the results of a search stored in the quick search form.  There are four different kinds of fields that appear on a results form:

1. Text Fields - one line fields of text (such as Target Name above)
2. Text Areas (not pictured) - multi line fields of text
3. Tables - a 2-d table of the retrieved records with the current record hilited.
4. Lists (not pictured) - a single column table listing the results of one field for all retrieved records

Notes on Tables and Lists

and tables

To select a record in a table or list, simply left click on the record.  This will select this record in ALL of the fields on the form.  You can select multiple records using the standard key modifiers of shift, to select a range or records, and control, to add a single record to the selection.  Note that when multiple records are selected, the text field and areas display the top most record's data, as they cannot display multiple records.

You can also rearrange the order of fields in a table by left clicking on the column header and holding the mouse button down while you drag the column to where it should reside.  Note you must save the form locally and use the locally saved form in order to have the columns displayed in the desired order by default.

In addition to the table found on the results form, you can view ALL of the retrieved data in a single table by clicking on the Table button on the bottom of the results form window.

Clicking on this produces a separate window:

Note that the form needs to be in Static mode (not Edit mode) for this option to be available.  If the button on the far left reads Edit, click it again to put the form into static mode.

Also, popup menus exist in all results fields.  By right clicking on a field, you can copy the results to the clip board.  You can also mark datasets for retrieval directly from this menu, or by using the hot key Control-M in any table (including the table window displaying all data in a single table).