Presentation Tables

You can use presentation tables to organize columns into categories that make sense to the user community. Presentation tables in the Presentation layer contain columns. A presentation table can contain columns from one or more logical tables. The names and object properties of the presentation tables are independent of the logical table properties.

The Presentation Tables dialog box has three tabs: General, Columns, and Aliases. The functionality provided in each tab is described in the following list:

Tab	Comment
General	Use this tab to create or edit a presentation table.
Columns	Use this tab to reorder or sort the Presentation layer columns in the Administration Tool workspace, and to delete columns. You can also use this tab to access the Presentation Column dialog box, where you can create and edit columns.
Aliases	Use this tab to specify or delete an alias for a presentation table.

To create a presentation table

1. Right-click a catalog folder in the Presentation layer, and then select New Presentation Table from the shortcut menu.
   The Presentation Table dialog box appears.
2. In the General tab, specify a name for the table.
3. Click the Permissions button to open the Permissions dialog box, where you can assign user or group permissions to the table.
   For more information about assigning permissions to a presentation table, refer to Setting Permissions for Repository Objects.
4. (Optional) Type a description of the table.
   NOTE:  To give the appearance of nested folders in Answers, prefix the name of the presentation folder to be nested with a hyphen and a space and place it after the folder in which it nests (- <folder name>). For example, to nest the Sales Facts folder in the Facts folder, place the Sales Facts folder directly after Facts in the metadata and change its name to - Sales Facts. When Answers displays the folder name in the left pane, it omits the hyphen and space from the folder name. To nest a second folder, for example Marketing Facts, in the Facts folder, change its name to - Marketing Facts and place it directly after Sales Facts. The standard preconfigured repositories provide additional examples for you to review.

To delete a presentation table

1. In the Presentation layer, right-click a catalog and select Properties.
2. In the Presentation Catalog dialog box, click the Presentation Tables tab.
3. In the Presentation Tables tab, select a table and click Remove.
   A confirmation message appears.
4. Click Yes to remove the table, or No to leave the table in the catalog.
5. Click OK.

To reorder a table or sort all tables in a presentation catalog

1. In the Presentation layer, right-click a catalog and select Properties.
2. In the Presentation Catalog dialog box, click the Presentation Tables tab.
3. To move a table, perform the following steps:
   1. In the Presentation Tables tab, in the Name list, select the table you want to reorder.
   2. Use drag-and-drop to reposition the table, or click the Up and Down buttons.
4. To sort all tables in alphanumeric order, click the Name column heading.
   This toggles the sort between ascending and descending alphanumeric order.