Quickstart

Wandora application is launched running start-up scripts in bin folder. Folder contains bat scripts for Windows and sh scripts for Linux and similar systems. Default bin script is Wandora.bat and default Linux script Wandora.sh. Default script gives Wandora a maximum memory amount of 1 GB.

After you have launched Wandora application, you should see initial Wandora window with six different GUI areas. These GUI area are Button bar, Topic tree, Finder, Layer stack, Topic panel and Info fields. Next image views the Wandora window. Window has also a menu bar containing Wandora tools. Available menus are

• File menu contains options to Open and Save Wandora projects, options to import and export topic maps and RDF documents for example.
• Edit menu contains usual Select, Cut, Copy and Paste options.
• View menu is used to control topic panels and how a topic panel views a topic.
• Topics menu contains tools to create and modify topics and associations. These tools usually take the topic in topic panel as a context. To modify a specific topic under mouse pointer use context menu opened with right mouse button.
• Layers menu contains options to control topic map layers and the layer stack. Layers are Wandora's way to separate and organize topic maps.
• Shortcuts are topic map bookmarks easing topic findability and topic map navigation.
• Tools menu contains tool manager, button sets and special user selected tools. Tool manager is used to control application features.
• Server menu is used to control Wandora's embedded HTTP server. Also, it contains shortcuts to available services.
• Help menu contains few info dialogs and a shortcut to Wandora Wiki.

Button Bar

Button bar at the top of the window contains some useful tools. First button from the left is Open topic button. It opens a dialog window to select and open topics. Arrow buttons behave like WWW browser's back and forward buttons except that browser history contains topics. The back button recalls the previous topic in the topic panel and the right button restores the next topic in the history. Arrow button is disabled is there is no topic available in the history. Right clicking the arrow button reveals a context menu of history topics. Selecting a topic in the menu opens the topic in a topic panel. Next image describes the tools found in the button bar.

To open a topic in Wandora, press the leftmost button in the button bar. The button has an icon representing circle with a gap. Wandora opens a dialog window to select a topic. The window has several options to locate the topic. Different options have been placed into separate tabs. Available topic selection methods include tree selection, regular expression search, similarity search, query and TMQL. Next image views the topic selection dialog when it is opened for the first time. The topic selection dialog is used when ever the user is expected to select a topic.

Topic Tree

Topic tree is one of the most convenient and most used UI element in Wandora. Topic tree is used to browse and select topics. Topic tree is similar to file and folder hierarchy but contains topics and the topic hierarchy is based to relations between topics. By default the topics are arranged along type-of and super-sub-class relation in the tree. The icon looking like a hollow triangle represents super-sub-class relation between topics. The icon looking like a filled rectangle represents type-of relation between the topics.

At the startup Wandora's window contains default topic tree in the top-left corner. Tree's root node is topic Wandora class and the root node has only one branch.

Mouse clicking the handle beside topic name opens the branch of the topic. Double clicking a topic in the tree opens the topic into the topic panel. Right clicking a topic in the topic tree reveals a context menu with a large number of topic tools. Topic tools can be used to manipulate the topic, copy parts of the topic and so forth. Below is an example of a topic tree with Wandora class and Schema type topics open. Notice that Schema type is a subclass of Wandora class. Visible topics are part of Wandora's base ontology. Base ontology contains Wandora's schema topics for example.

Finder

Although topic tree offers very efficient method to browse and select topics there may be topics in the topic map that can not be reached with the topic tree. Finder offers another way to locate topics. Finder tab locates beside the default topic tree.

Finder is a free text search for the topic map. The user may search for topics with any topic element or element combination. Search result appears below the search field. Double clicking a topic in the search result opens the topic into the topic panel. Right clicking a topic opens context menu with a large number of topic tools. Below is an example of finder where user has searched with word title. Search results locate below the search word field. Search result contains topics including word title in their base name. To open search result topic for detailed inspection you can double click the topic for example. Wandora contains also more sophisticated search dialog you can open with menu Edit > Search.

Image below views Wandora's finder tab.

Layer Stack

Layer stack locates below the topic tree and finder. It contains all topic maps loaded into Wandora application. Layer stack keeps all topic maps separate but views a merged map.

Whenever Wandora starts, layer stack contains one layer with the predefined schema map called Base. You should be careful in changing the Base layer. Especially deleting topics or subject identifiers in the Base may break some features in Wandora application.

You can add new layer to the layer stack by right mouse clicking empty space in the stack area and selecting menu option New layer. New layer is created once the user has selected layer type and entered a name for the layer. To create a database topic map you have to enter database's connection information also.

Layer stack has one layer selected. Selected layer is colored light blue. Layer is selected by clicking the layer with left mouse button. All "write" operations to the layer stack are changing selected layer only.

A layer can also be hidden and locked. Near layer name locates two icons, an eye and a lock. Clicking the eye icon toggles layer visibility. Clicking the lock icon toggles layer lock. If layer is invisible you can not see or edit topics and associations in the layer. If layer is locked all changes to topics and associations in that layer are rejected.

Below is an example image of layer stack with three separate layers i.e. topic maps. Topic maps have been labeled Base, Last.fm, and Art of noise. Last.fm layer is light blue indicating the layer is selected. The icon at the right edge indicates the layer is a memory topic maps. All layers are visible. Layers Last.fm and Base are locked i.e. write-protected.

Topic Panels

Topic panels cover the right column of Wandora window. A topic panel is used to view topics more detailed. Sometimes they can be used to modify a topic, too. Wandora can view several topic panels at once but only one topic panel is active at a time. To open new topic panel, select a menu option topic under View > Add topic panel. To close a topic panel, click the cross (X) icon top right corner of the topic panel. To open a topic to the topic panel, double click a topic in the topic tree, for example. Available topic panels include Traditional topic panel, Tabbed topic panel, Graph topic panel, Custom topic panel, Treemap topic panel, Processing topic panel and R topic panel. By default topic is viewed with Traditional topic panel.

Traditional topic panel collects and views topic's internal structure:

• Base name
• Subject locator
• Subject identifiers
• Variant names
• Classes
• Occurrences
• Associations (where topic is a player or a role)
• Associations where type
• Instances

Traditional topic panel contains edit fields for base name, subject locator, and variant names. Subject identifiers, classes, instances, occurrences, and associations are edited with tools found in context menus. To open class, instance or association player topic double click table cell with topic's base name. Thus, topic panel is a kind of topic browser. You can open a topic in topic panel by double clicking it.

Tabbed topic panel is similar to traditional topic panel but views topic elements in separate tabs. Graph topic panel is used to view topic map graphs. Each graph node represents topic and edge single association. Custom topic panel allows Wandora user to write simple scripts that searches for topics viewed in the panel. Processing and R topic panels are programmable panels for advanced topic visualizations. Treemap topic panel is used for association visualizations. Image below views Wandora's Traditional topic panel.

Info Fields

Last but not least there is a info field strip in the bottom of the Wandora window. The leftmost information snippet is a base name of the current open topic. Second field contains topic's layer distribution of the current topic. Topic distribution 1:0:0 indicates how the inspected topic merges between layers. Third field contains name of current layer. Two icons on the right edge indicate current topic panel type and embedded server status. Clicking the topic panel type icon reveals a pop-up menu used to change the type of selected topic panel. Clicking on the server status icon starts and stops the embedded HTTP server.

Tips

To start using Wandora

• Try to right click topics and UI elements in Wandora. Many important tools locate in context pop-up menus.
• Try to double click table cells and tree nodes to open topics for inspection.
• Try to drag and drop stuff. In Wandora you can drag topics and text snippets.

To get more familiar with Wandora you might want to see available documentation now. Or maybe you want to watch tutorials on wandoratv.