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Inheritance

The Inherits_from field is used by the Contenta portal to build a valid Tool List for a specified platform, browser, Contenta application, or web service.

The list must include not only the Tools for a specific option but for all options—that is, not only Tools unique for the current option but also those available by inheritance for more generic contexts.

Note the following delivered platforms:

OS Platform (Name)Inherits_fromRuns on
ANYAny OS platform
UNIXANYAll UNIX/Linux platforms
AIXUNIXAll AIX platforms
SOLARISUNIXAll Solaris platforms
WINDOWSANYAll Windows platforms
WINDOWS NTWINDOWSOnly the Windows NT platform
WINDOWS 2003WINDOWS NTOnly the Windows 2003 platform
WINDOWS XPWINDOWS 2003Only the Windows XP platform

* WINDOWS NT and WINDOWS 2000 are currently still available on the list of platforms but note that they are no longer supported with this version of Contenta.

The Inherits_from field for WINDOWS 2003 is WINDOWS; for WINDOWS it is ANY. This tells the Contenta portal that when building a Tool List for the WINDOWS 2003 platform to include the Tools that are defined to run on the (more generic) WINDOWS, and ANY platforms as well as those defined specifically to run on WINDOWS 2003.
  • ANY is the default; it cannot be defined with other, specific options.
  • To add an option, select the option from the Available... list, and then click Add. The selected option moves to the Selected... list.
  • If you Add an option from the Available... list to the Selected... list, ANY is automatically removed from the Selected... list and replaced with the one that you just added.
  • You can define as many specific options as needed.
  • The Selected... field can contain up to 256 characters (based on the selection of multiple options.)
  • To redefine ANY as the Selected... option, remove all specific options from the Selected... list; ANY is automatically moved to the Selected... list.
  • To remove an option from the Selected... list, select the option then click Remove. The selected option moves to the Available... list.
  • To select several options at once in the Available... or Selected... field, hold down the Ctrl key while selecting the option. All options selected may be moved at the same time using Add or Remove.
  • When creating new options build from the specific to the generic. For example, note that new operating systems (OS) are generally backward compatible. In this case, if a new OS were introduced, you could create a new Platform and may only need to specify the last OS in the list on which the new OS is based for inheritance.
  • When you delete an inherited type (for example, Tool Platform, Tool Application, Tool Web Browser, and so on.) if any entries inherit from the one being deleted, you are prompted if you want to delete the descendants. The following example explains what happens when you respond Yes and No to this prompt.

For example, assume:

  • A inherits from B and C
  • C inherits from D and E
  • You delete C
  • You are prompted: Do you want to delete the descendants?
You answer:The result is:
YesA inherits from D and E
NoA inherits from B and D and E