The Browse perspective is the central place for users to access, view, and manage collections in the Instrument UI. By selecting a collection group or collection as the top node, users can perform all essential browse perspective actions, which include like adding and removing nodes, deleting collections, refreshing search‑based collections, and viewing tailored browse tables. For additional information on how to create and configure Browse Perspective , refer to the Creating a Browse Perspective topic.
The Instrument UI supports two types of collections:
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Static collections: Static collections contain manually added nodes. You can add nodes to a static collection from anywhere in Instrument (for example, from the Browse Perspectives, Task Perspectives, or search ), but you can remove nodes only from within the collection itself. In addition, you can create or delete static collections in the UI if you have the required privileges.
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Search‑based collections: Search‑based collections are dynamic. They rely on stored search criteria and can only be refreshed, not manually edited. When a search-based collection is refreshed, Instrument re‑runs the search criteria and updates the collection with the latest matching items. More details are provided later in this topic.
Search‑based collections can be created only in the workbench and Web UI and cannot be created in Instrument
Accessing collections in the Browse Perspective
When creating a new Browse Perspective, users can select either a collection group or collection as the top node. This selection behaves like any other hierarchy root. As displayed in the screenshot below, the left panel displays the selected node as the tree root, with browsable children arranged hierarchically. The right panel displays tables containing the children of the selected tree node.
When users open the details view of a node within the collection hierarchy, the left panel continues to show the tree structure. The center panel displays the selected node and its children. The right panel shows the detailed properties of the selected node.
Working with Collections
Adding Items to a Collection
You can add items to static collections (not search‑based collections) directly from any perspective or search.
To add items to a collection, follow the instructions below:
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Open the Browse Perspective where the items are visible, and select one or more nodes.
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From the Collections toolbar action, select Add to a collection.
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Within the 'Add to a collection' window, choose whether to add the items to an existing collection or create a new one.
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If selecting the 'Add to an existing collection' option, navigate to and select the desired collection.
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However, if selecting the 'Add to a new collection' option, enter a name and select a parent collection group.
In the example above, a new collection named 'Headsets with ANC' is created under the parent folder (collections group) 'Data Quality.'
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After the items are added, a notification displays in the top- right corner of the screen confirming the update.
You can view the updated collection in any Browse Perspective configured for collections. The following screenshot shows the collection after items are added.
Removing Items from a Collection
For non‑search‑based collections, users with the relevant privileges can select nodes within the collection and then remove those nodes using the 'Remove from collection' action.
Deleting a Collection
You can delete both search‑based and static collections, provided you have the required privileges.
The Instrument UI always prompts for confirmation before deleting a collection to prevent accidental deletions.
Refreshing Search‑Based Collections
Search‑based collections contain nodes returned by the most recent evaluation of the underlying search criteria. Refreshing may sometimes be necessary because search‑based collections can return different items over time as the underlying data changes. When you refresh, the system re-runs the original search criteria associated with the collection, removes all previously linked nodes, and adds the updated set of nodes that match the search results. Use this feature when the underlying data has changed and you want the collection to include the most current nodes. This option is available only for search-based collections and not for static collections or collection groups.
Note: Search‑based collections cannot have items added or removed manually.
In the screenshot below, a link named 'Refresh collection' is visible because the collection displayed below is a search‑based. Notice the text before the link that displays the time of the previous refresh and also the user who has refreshed the collection.
Clicking on the 'Refresh collection' link will displays a notification ion the top- right corner of the screen confirming that the refresh has been initiated.
The refresh process runs in the background, so updating large collections may take some time. Once the collection has been refreshed, the user receives a notification. Clicking the 'Go to perspective' link in the notification takes the user directly to the updated collection.
After the refresh, the time stamp gets updated.
