Create new topic

New topic is created with New instance topic... or New subclass topic... options in Topics > New Topic menu. Top menu bar also contains option New topic... to create disconnected topics. All options open dialog window used to enter initial base name and subject identifier for the topic. If basename field is left blank created topic has no base name. If subject identifier field is left blank the topic is given a default identifier. Topic must contain at least one subject identifier in Wandora.

After topic creation you may want to open the topic for more detailed edition. If you created the topic with New instance topic... or New subclass topic... options it is probably available at topic tree. In any case you find new topic with Finder panel. Double click the topic in topic tree or in search results and Wandora opens topic to the topic panel. Now you can edit the topic as described in How to open and modify topic. If you created disconnected topic with New topic... you may need Finder to locate and open the created topic.

Creating topic with existing base name or subject identifier

Topic map standard defines that a topic should have unique base name (within the scope) and subject identifiers. If two topics share same base name (within the scope) or at least one subject identifier topics should be merged.

If you give new topic a base name or a subject identifier that already exists within another topic Wandora merges new topic with the existing one. If both topics locate in the same topic map layer the merge is real. Real merge is always irreversible. If both topics are part of different layers the merge is virtual. Virtual merge keeps both topics apart but the real-time representation of topics is a merged topic. Merge is confirmed with a dialog window. If you disallow the merge the topic creation is cancelled.

Implicit topic creation

Wandora creates topics also whenever you

• Paste associations, instances, or classes to Wandora. Paste interprets text in clipboard as tab and new line separated base names. If Wandora faces unknown base name i.e. name that have no corresponding topic, new topic is created for it. As paste does not know topic's subject identifier, default subject identifier is given to the created topic.
• Drop associations, instances, or classes to Wandora. Drop feature works just like paste described above. Wandora assumes dropped text contains tab and new line separated base names and creates new topic if base name is not found.
• Modify topic in layer that does not contain the topic. Modifying a topic while you have selected a topic map layer not containing the edited topic, creates a topic stub to the selected topic map layer. Topic stub contains one, arbitrary selected subject identifier from the original topic and the edited topic property (name, occurrence, association). As the created topic contains subject identifier from the original topic, a virtual merge binds original and created topics. However, changing the subject identifier of original topic breaks the merge and separates topics. Editing topics in multilayer projects requires careful inspection of selected topic map layer.