Catalog Legend

Valuemation catalogs use rendering conditions to graphically differentiate between important aspects of the displayed information. The Valuemation administrator can make understanding these graphical clues easier for the end user by creating so called 'Catalog Legends' for individual catalogs. Catalog Legends provide an explanation of rendering conditions used in the given catalog.

Catalog legend information is stored using two Valuemation object types: CatalogLegend and CatalogLegendItem.

Default catalog legends for most catalogs are provided in standard Valuemation. New catalog legends can be created and the existing ones edited as described below.

Accessing the Catalog Legend editor

1. Go to the 'Valuemation Core' business view and locate the 'Catalogs' catalog in the sidebar.
2. Open the 'Catalogs' catalog. It represents a "master" catalog listing all other Valuemation catalogs.
3. In the 'Catalogs' catalog, select the Valuemation catalog for which a legend needs to be created or edited.
4. With the Valuemation catalog selected, click button 'Prepare Rendering Legend' at the bottom of the 'Catalogs' catalog. The Catalog Legend editor opens.

Note: It is also possible to call the 'Prepare Rendering Legend' action directly from the Legend pop-up. Right-click anywhere in the left, right or bottom margin of the pop-up window and select the 'Prepare Rendering Legend' context menu item. The action is available only to users with administrative permission.

Creating or editing catalog legends

With the Catalog Legend editor opened, two scenarios exist:

• A legend for the catalog has already been prepared. Its content (legend description, translations and items) are displayed in the editor and can be modified.
• No catalog legend has been specified for the catalog yet. In this case default legend content is automatically generated when the editor is called but it should be edited by a human in order to have the expected information value for the end user. Namely:
  • Legend description

    Provide a succinct and understandable description of the catalog content. This text will be displayed in the upper section of the Legend pop-up.

  • Translations

    Provide translations of the legend description in all relevant languages.

  • Legend items

    During automatic content generation, individual legend items are generated from corresponding rendering conditions. Their 'Description' attribute is by default filled in with the rendering condition itself. This should be replaced with a human description of the rendering condition.

    Note: If studying the rendering condition in the legend editor does not provide sufficient information for the description, open the catalog (for which the legend is being prepared) in the Catalog Customizer, go to the 'Rendering Conditions' tab and examine what the actual condition represents.

    In addition to item descriptions, you should:

    - Check the automatically generated samples

    - Provide translations of each legend item description (see below)

How to edit individual legend item attributes in the Legend Items reference catalog:

• Sample - item sample can be edited by in-place editing
• Description - item description can be edited by in-place editing
• Rendering Condition - rendering condition cannot be edited. Existing rendering conditions are linked to the legend items during automatic legend generation. Legend items without without a rendering condition cannot be created.
• Translation of legend item description - Select an item and click the 'Edit Catalog Legend Item' button. The item opens in the legend item editor. Go to the 'Translations' tab and type the translations in its 'Description' column.

Actions in the Legend Items reference catalog:

• Update Legend - updates the preview in the bottom section of the Catalog Legend editor to reflect possible changes made to the legend and/or legend items definition
• Edit Catalog Legend Item - opens the selected legend item for editing. Item translations need to be specified in the item editor.
• Remove Catalog Legend Item - removes the selected legend item. Can be used to remove unwanted automatically generated items.

Note: Missing temp directory

When trying to use Catalog Legend for the first time, you may receive the following error message:
'Catalog legend could not be shown. Main parameter VMWeb:LocalFilesRoot or servlet init-param vmsf.localfiles.root should be set properly.

The functionality stores temporary data in a local directory. By default, location C:/temp is set up. If this directory is missing, the above mentioned error message gets displayed. In such case

• either: create a directory called 'temp' in your C root
• or: go to the 'web.xml' file (found in 'war/WEB-INF') and edit the 'vmsf.localfiles.root' parameter to point to an existing location on your hard drive. For example:

  <param-name>vmsf.localfiles.root</param-name>
  <param-value>D:/temp</param-value>