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Links

Introduction

Common Canvas will display one link line on the canvas for each link defined in the pipeline flow. There are three types of link supported by Common Canvas:

  • Data links - a directional link between the ports on two nodes
  • Association links - a relationsjip link between two nodes
  • Comment links - a link from a comment to a node

Links can be enhanced by:

Data links are designed to model a flow from a source node to a target node. Data links are defined in the pipeline flow to connect a port on the source node to a port on the target node. The host application can choose whether or not to display ports on the nodes. Data links are typically displayed with an arrow head to display the flow along the link from source to target.

Data Links can be drawn as:

  • Curved

  • Elbow

  • Straight

Note: Typically data links must be drawn between nodes however, if the config field enableLinkSelectionType is set to Detachable, the links are allowed to be drawn to and/or from arbitrary points on the canvas.

Association links are designed to capture a relationship between two nodes where there is no implied direction. By default these are displayed as a single straight link line in a dashed style. There are no arrow heads by default for that type of link.

Comment links connect a comment to one or more nodes. They can be created by the user by: (a) pulling out the small handle/circle that appears below a comment and dropping it on a node. (2) by selecting nodes before the comment is selected and then creating the comment. This will automatically create a comment link from the selected nodes to the newly created comment.