DeepaMehta Blog

New Draft of The DeepaMehta User Manual

Vincent wrote on 7. March 2008 – 19:12

Good News for DeepaMehta Beginners here ist the first draft of the new “Deepamehta User Manual”. Feel free to use, copy, link or comment it.

Index of contents

1 Where to use DeepaMehta - Online or on your local machine

Online as web application

On your local machine

2 What you will see after login or launching

Description of your personal workspace

Topic Map

Property Panel

Navigation Bar

Topic Map Selector

Forward/Backward Buttons

3 How to get started

Create a Topic Map

Create a Topic

Create an Association

This Manual wants to guide you just in time through all features of DeepaMehta’s user interface.
Please note: DeepaMehta is full service software. There is no other application launched in background. No dialog boxes will appear. You don´t have to care for save, cancel or OK. All data will be saved just in time.

1 Where to use DeepaMehta – Online or on your local machine

Online as web application

To use DeepaMehta you don’t need to download and install any software. You can use DeepaMehta completely online. While using DeepaMehta online, you need a constant internet connection. All content you create is stored at the DeepaMehta website. You just need a Java-capable (at least version 1.4) web browser and a DeepaMehta account. To get an account, please write an email to accounts@deepamehta.de containing your desired username/password and – if you want to - your intended purpose of use just for our interest. We will create then an account for you and inform you.
You will find the login-link on top of our DeepMehta.de Homepage beneath the elephant´s image: `Use DeepaMehta online / Login´, or you might go directly using: http://deepamehta.de/install/client/login.html
DeepaMehta is loaded from the net and runs in your browser as a Java applet. It opens in a separate java applet window. Resize it by grabbing the lower right window edge with your mouse. For security reasons the Java applet provided here has no access to your hard disk. If you deliberately want allow DeepaMehta to access your hard disk, e.g. to upload documents or images please login with the signed applet. You will find the link at the end of the page. For a direct secure login go to http://deepamehta.de/install/client/signed.html
Please note that we can´t grant more privacy on your data as our provider. DeepaMehta does not run on an inhouse-server. We will change this feature in future and looking forward to enable you to share topic maps with others on a most secure level.

On your local machine

Another way to use DeepaMehta is to download and install it on your own machine. You will find a download link on top of our DeepMehta.de Homepage beneath the elephant´s image: `Download´, or you might go directly using: http://deepamehta.de/docs/download.html
Just download and install DeepaMehta if you want to
* Use DeepaMehta independant from any network connection.

* Use DeepaMehta cooperatively in your local area network.

* Develop and serve customized DeepaMehta applications.

* Develop and serve dynamic websites with DeepaMehta in the backend.
If you download and install DeepaMehta on your own machine you have an independant installation and full administrator access. There is no connection to the DeepaMehta website anymore. All content you create is stored on your own machine.
Be aware installing DeepaMehta is not as easy as you might know from installing other software. We are trying hard to make it easier in the coming versions. Help for installation is described in README.txt you will access on http://deepamehta.de/README.txt

2 What you will see after login or launching

Description of your personal workspace

After your first login you will face your meta-workspace. Itself is a topic map. It actually serves as a container for any topic map you may create.
Your meta-workspace and all following workspaces are divided into two main sectors:

The Topic Map on the left side visualizes your data and the related associations.

The Property Panel on the right side will show the content of the currently selected topic map.

Moving the shiftline between the sectors, you can give any sector the space you need.

Topic Map

The left side always shows a Topic Map. It represents the portal to the Topic Maps you will generate.

Property Panel

The right side will always show a Property Panel. It contains all data belonging to your topic or topic map. Click on a topic and the Property Panel shows all information you gave about this topic.
In the first line you can select a type of topic. The Property Panel is context sensitive to your selection and offers you optimized topic fields for your data. The icon will change too. If you e.g. select the type `Email´ the icon will show an envelope.

The description area gives space for all your notes, addresses, infos or stories. Please feel free to structure your text using the Bold/Italic/Underline – Buttons.

Import images on your local machine by drag & drop. For your topic on the topic map you can choose an icon of your own in the last line. Browse your data for any gif, jpg, png - image. For online use, login with signed applet to enable this features.

Navigation Bar

On upper left of your workspace you will find two navigation elements: the Topic Map Selector (TMS) and two buttons for simple backward and forward navigation.

Topic Map Selector

The TMS allows you to select a topic map in a pop-down menu after clicking on it. You can choose out of three different types of topic maps:
The yellow single person with your login name represents your personal meta-topic map containing all of your topic maps.

The colored group of three persons shows the topic maps you share with other users.

The eyes list all the topic maps you created and don´t share with other users.

Click on icon or title for an instant access to a topic map in the menu.

Backward/Forward Buttons

The two buttons for backward and forward navigation will serve the same functions you know from your browser´s navigation bar: A call-up of recently used topic maps.

3 How to get started

A topic map consists of topics and associations. A topic is an “informational object”, it might represent a “real world object”, e.g. an art gallery. An association is a semantically relationship between topics you will define.

Create a Topic Map

Right click on your mouse in the left Topic Map sector and choose “Create Topic Map”. A small icon – an open eye – will show you the successful finished action. Is your Topic Map activated optionally naming it in the Property Panel on the right side. Type a name or title into the second field titled “Name”. Double click the icon and the empty topic map will be opened.

Create a Topic

Put your mouse pointer into an empty space in your topic map where you want to place your topic. With a right click on your mouse you will access a variety of actions now. First go to `Create´ and select a type out of the menu. For example take `Person´ if you want to manage your community. You will get a smiling face as icon and the adjusted Property Panel shows an interface, fit to take all the personal data like name, gender, birthday and further descriptions. Other types are Topic, Workspace, Document, Appointment, Email, Webpage, Institution, City, Country. You can retype all of them later into any other type you want, if your data will change or grow. Right click the icon and select `retype´ in the middle of the menu.
If you definitely need a topic type of your own, go ahead and create it. Go to `Topic Builder´ at bottom of menu and select `Topic Type´. Name your new Topic Type in the Property Panel. Your personal Topic Type is instantly added to your `Create´ menu for further use.
All other features listed will grow more and more important later on, if your Topic Map contains a lot of data or you will work on shared maps. Therefore now just small notes:

• Search - The search feature: What are you looking for?
• Hide all - Select a type to be invisible on the map
• Close - Closes the recent map und beams you back to your workspace

containing all your topic maps

• Publish to - Publish your Topic Map to the DeepaMehta Community.

Your map will be a shared map other users will work with or modify.

• Export - Saves your Topic Map into a zip-container
• Export Format - Save your Topic Map as pdf, svg or xml file
• What is a – One time this will be a Just-in-time-help explaining the contents

you see on your screen.
If your Topic Map grows larger, you generate space for more Topics by moving your entire Topic Map. Left click on your mouse and drag the Map. There is no limit. A Topic Map is as large as you want. Arrowheads at the border of the visible Topic Map are pointing to the direction where further content is placed.

Create an Association

All topics until now are just objects. You can express relationship between 2 topics by creating an association between them. An association is visually represented as a straight line.Every Association Type has got its own color. Associations are a grey line, assignments are a violet line.
To create an association on your Topic Map, highlight one object. Click once on it and wait for the red icon frame. Push the Alt-Button; click again on your object und move your mouse pointer, now displayed as a target cross, to the object you want to connect to. This method will work on a PC.

Mac:

Unix:

If you highlight the association you can comment the relationship in the Property Panel.
A right click in the line will show you again your options: Hide, Retype and Delete.

The `Retype´ offers 5 different types of associations to choose: Association, Assignment, Aggregation, Composition, Derivation is more sophisticated object-oriented programming paradigms, we do not explain in this manual. For further information please contact your local nerd.
Of course you are able to create an Association Type of your own. Go to `Create Association Type…´ at bottom of your `Retype´ list in the Association options. Name your new Association Type in the Property Panel. Your personal Association Type is instantly added to your `Retype´ list for further use.
At this point you don´t need more information to start and discover.

The DeepaMehta User Manual will be continued with these chapters:
Retyping

• Topics & Associations

Control Vour View

• Hide (all)
• Move (topic map, topic & cluster)

The Corporate Memory

• Retrieving content from the corporate memory

Search

What´s related

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