Catalogs & Tables
In this tutorial, you’ll create a catalog — a tabular view of your model elements — and use it to view, sort, filter, and edit property values across many elements at once.
Prerequisites: You’ve completed Properties & Property Values and have several Application Component elements in your Farquind project with some property values filled in.
What you’ll build: An application catalog showing all of Farquind’s systems with their properties in a sortable, filterable table.
1. What is a Catalog?
Section titled “1. What is a Catalog?”A catalog is a table view of elements in your model. Each row is an element, and each column is a property defined by the metamodel. Catalogs are useful when you need to:
- See all elements of a particular type at a glance
- Compare property values across elements
- Bulk-edit properties without clicking through elements one at a time
- Review completeness — spot which elements are missing required values
Like diagrams, catalogs are views of the model, not separate data.
2. Create a Catalog
Section titled “2. Create a Catalog”- Right-click on the M1 Farquind Applications package in the Explorer
- Select New Catalog
- Name it Application Catalog
- Press Enter
The catalog opens in the Canvas area, showing a table. Initially, it displays elements from the package with a default set of columns.
3. Add Columns
Section titled “3. Add Columns”The catalog starts with basic columns (name, type). You can add columns for any property defined by the metamodel.
- Look for the column configuration controls (typically a + button or column menu)
- Add property columns that are relevant — the available properties depend on what the ArchiMate metamodel defines for the element types in the catalog
Each column corresponds to a property from the M2 metamodel.
4. Inline Editing
Section titled “4. Inline Editing”One of the most powerful features of catalogs is inline editing — you can change property values directly in the table cells.
- Click on a cell in the table
- Edit the value — type text for strings, select from a dropdown for enumerations, toggle for booleans
- The change is applied to the element immediately
This is much faster than selecting each element individually and editing in the Properties panel. When you have dozens of elements to populate, catalogs are the way to do it.
5. Sort and Filter
Section titled “5. Sort and Filter”Sorting
Section titled “Sorting”Click a column header to sort the table by that column. Click again to reverse the sort direction. You can sort by any column — name, type, or any property.
Filtering
Section titled “Filtering”Use the filter controls to narrow down which elements appear in the table. This is useful when you have many elements and want to focus on a subset — for example, only Application Components with a particular lifecycle status.
6. Configure the Layout
Section titled “6. Configure the Layout”You can customize the catalog layout:
- Reorder columns — drag column headers to rearrange them
- Resize columns — drag the column border to adjust width
- Hide columns — use the column configuration to hide properties you don’t need
Your layout configuration is saved with the catalog — the next time you open it, the columns, sort order, and widths are preserved.
7. Review Your Catalog
Section titled “7. Review Your Catalog”With the catalog configured, you should have a clear tabular view of all your Farquind application elements:
| Name | Type | Properties… |
|---|---|---|
| FQ Orders | Application Component | … |
| FQ Vessels | Application Component | … |
| FQ Owners | Application Component | … |
| FQ Manufacturing | Application Component | … |
| FQ Finance | Application Component | … |
| FQ People | Application Component | … |
| FQ Insights | Application Component | … |
| FQ Financing | Application Component | … |
Use the catalog to fill in any missing property values. You’ll immediately see which fields are empty and which are complete.
What You’ve Learned
Section titled “What You’ve Learned”- What catalogs are and when to use them
- How to create a catalog from a package
- How to add, reorder, resize, and hide columns
- How to edit property values inline in the table
- How to sort and filter the catalog
- That catalog layout is persisted
Next Steps
Section titled “Next Steps”- Formatting & Appearance — Change the visual styling of elements on diagrams — colors, borders, stereotypes
- How to import a .farki package — Bring in models and metamodels from external files