Studio Preference Settings

To view and set StreamBase Studio preferences, invoke WindowPreferences in the main menu (Windows) or StreamBase Studio n.mPreferences (macOS) You can control basic Eclipse settings with various pages in the Preferences window, and can manage StreamBase-specific settings, by opening the StreamBase Studio page.

For information on Project Property settings, see StreamBase Project Properties.

Preferences are preserved separately for each Studio workspace. You can keep more than one workspace with different preference settings.

Use the PreferencesGeneralAppearanceColors and FontsStreamBase panel to set color and font options for the components listed therein.

StreamBase Studio Panel

The following preferences can be set in the main StreamBase Studio panel of WindowPreferences.

Option Description Default
StreamBase Installation Directory The root directory where the current release of StreamBase is installed.

This is where Studio looks for global operators and adapters at startup, and where Studio finds the StreamBase and LiveView Server executables for local launches.

If you modify this setting, restart Studio for the change to take effect. Do not change this setting, except under the direction of StreamBase Technical Support.

See Default Installation Directories
Automatic Perspective Switching

A perspective is a collection of Eclipse views that are opened together to perform a task. StreamBase Studio can be set to automatically switch between perspectives on certain triggering events.

The setting for Switch to SB Test/Debug perspective when running an application applies only to Studio's default launch configuration.

The setting for Switch to SB Authoring perspective when stopping an application applies to running all StreamBase applications, whether started with the default launch configuration or a custom one.

Both options enabled.
Auto-save Options When you attempt to run an application, StreamBase Studio checks for unsaved files and resources in the current project, which must be saved before proceeding. This preference controls how and when resources are saved before running applications. The options are:
Save without prompting

Automatically saves if unsaved resources are detected. The Save Resources dialog is never displayed.

Prompt for save each time

Displays the Save Resources dialog if unsaved resources are detected.

Ask me next time

This option has the following effect when you run an application:

  • If the application has unsaved changes, the Enable Auto-save On Run dialog is displayed. This dialog lets you change your Auto-save preference to Save without prompting without reopening the Preferences window.

  • If there are no unsaved changes, the application runs immediately.

When either of the first two options is set, the Ask me next time option is no longer shown in the Preferences page. To make it visible again, click Restore Defaults, then close and reopen StreamBase Studio.

Ask me next time
Advanced
Allow loading deprecated Global Operators/Adapters When disabled (default), Studio does not load deprecated operators or adapters and does not display them in the Insert Adapter or Insert Java Operator dialogs. When enabled, deprecated operators or adapters are loaded and displayed in the those dialogs.

An operator or adapter is marked deprecated with the Java annotation @Deprecated in its primary Java source file. You can mark your custom operators or adapters deprecated as your application evolves and new components replace older ones.

TIBCO StreamBase occasionally marks certain components as deprecated to encourage the use of newer components. If you are working on a legacy application and need to continue using a deprecated component, enable this setting.

With this setting disabled, the display of EventFlow applications that were saved with now-deprecated components is not affected. However, such applications cannot pass typechecking and cannot be run in Studio, because the code that underlies the deprecated components was not loaded. You can continue to work on such applications by enabling this option, or by upgrading the deprecated components with their replacements.

Enabled.
Use custom Component Exchange URL When unspecified, the default behavior for the StreamBase Component Exchange dialog is to retrieve its list of available components from streambase.com. Use this field to specify an alternate URL that contains an in-house or company-specific location for downloading StreamBase components. Contact TIBCO Software Inc. Technical Support for guidance in setting up an in-house component exchange site.

Site-specific Component Exchange URLs can use the HTTPS protocol, in which case Studio prompts you for access credentials on the specified server.

If you supply a URL that begins with HTTPS or FTP, Studio automatically prompts for credentials. If you supply a URL for another protocol, you can force authentication prompting for that protocol by setting the Java property streambase.ide.component-exchange-force-auth to true for the VM that runs Studio.

Not specified.
Buttons
Restore Confirmation Messages button Some StreamBase Studio confirmation dialogs include a check box labeled Do not show this again, which lets you suppress that confirmation dialog in the future. Click Restore Confirmation Messages to restore the original behavior for all confirmation dialogs. Cleared
Restore Defaults button Restores all preferences settings to their as-installed defaults. Cleared

Authoring Panel

Use the PreferencesStreamBase StudioAuthoring panel to set options for the SB Authoring perspective. The EventFlow Editor options do not affect the StreamSQL Editor.

Option Description Default
EventFlow Editor
Automatically typecheck components

Specifies that components are automatically typechecked as you build your EventFlow application. Disable this preference to suppress automatic typechecking.

See also the related check box to enable Typecheck EventFlow Editors in background on the Typechecking panel, described below.

This preference has no effect on StreamSQL applications, which are always typechecked automatically. See Typechecking for more on StreamBase typechecking.

Enabled
Skip deep typechecking of strict module references and extension points Enable to avoid full-depth typechecking of Extension Points and Module References that have all output schemas explicitly set. This can greatly speed up typechecking for some large applications. Disabled
Show tooltips Specifies that summary information about each component is to be shown when you hover the mouse pointer over an icon or arc on the canvas. For example:
Enabled
Automatically select newly inserted components Specifies that components newly placed on the EventFlow canvas are automatically selected. This automatically opens the new component's Properties view. Disabled
Automatically edit names of newly inserted components. With this check box enabled (the default), when you drag a component icon to the EventFlow canvas (or use a keyboard shortcut to accomplish the same thing), the new component's name is selected and an edit cell open, ready for you to start typing to change the component's name. Press Enter to close the edit cell with your new name, or press Esc to exit the edit cell without saving your edits.

This feature adds an extra step to keyboard shortcuts that place new components on the canvas. For example, to add a Map operator, the keyboard shortcut is (at minimum) O M Enter with this option enabled, but is O M with this option disabled. You may prefer to disable this option temporarily when entering a long sequence of keyboard shortcuts to quickly fill a new canvas, then re-enable it. See Studio Keyboard Shortcuts.

Enabled
Use middle mouse button to scroll instead of pan This option refers to a mouse with three buttons, or with a scroll wheel that can be used as a middle button. With this option disabled, hold down the middle button or scroll wheel (without scrolling the wheel) to move the entire EventFlow drawing within the frame of the canvas window. With this option enabled, holding down the middle button or scroll wheel lets you scroll in four directions, exactly like using the canvas' scrollbars. Disabled
Save and restore view location and zoom factor When enabled, Studio preserves the current zoom level of EventFlow Editor sessions and the position of components relative to the top left corner of the EventFlow Editor canvas. These display features are saved when you save the EventFlow application, and are restored when you re-open the application. Enabled
Center canvas on selection during navigation

When enabled, auto-centers the canvas on components selected when navigating in two ways:

  • With the Back and Forward arrows in the Studio toolbar, or

  • In the Outline view, when the Follow Editor button is active

With this check box cleared, Studio highlights the selected component on the canvas, but does not center the canvas. If the component is offscreen when selected, Studio moves just enough of the canvas to make the component visible.

Enabled
Hide Control to toggle to/from text fields in Java Operator Properties

When cleared, the check box, radio button, and drop-down menu controls in Java operator and adapter Properties views display a T icon () to the right of their text labels. Clicking the icon or typing Alt+F2 (Option+F2 on Mac) replaces the check box, radio button, or drop-down menu with a text field, in which you can enter:

  • An expression, preceded by an equals sign (=), or

  • A module parameter name, in the form of ${param}.

When this preference is enabled, you can still convert a UI control to a text box with the keyboard shortcut when the control has focus. For additional details, see Parameterizing Java Operator and Adapter Properties.

Enabled
For new applications, store layout information in: Controls how graphical layout and EventFlow semantic elements are stored in EventFlow source files. This setting takes effect only for newly created EventFlow applications.
Application file

Layout and semantic information are stored together in the EventFlow module's source file (the .sbapp file).

Separate layout (.sblayout) file

Layout information is stored in a separate file with .sblayout extension. This is the default state.

StreamBase Studio respects the layout status it detects for each EventFlow application individually. That is, if Studio detects an .sblayout file with the same base name as the EventFlow file you are opening, it uses the layout information in the .sblayout file, and stores layout information there when saving the application. If Studio detects no .sblayout file, then it uses the layout information in the .sbapp file, and on save, stores layout information back to the .sbapp file. This Studio behavior is NOT changed by setting this preference.

This setting controls only whether .sblayout files are created automatically when you create and save new EventFlow application files, and does not affect existing .sbapp files in your workspace. For further details, see EventFlow Layout Options.

Separate layout (.sblayout) file
Outline View
Show empty categories (EventFlow Editor) Displays container folders in the Outline view for every component type, even if the application contains no instances of some components. By default, the view contains only Outline view categories for existing components. Disabled
Palette View
Show separate entries for Input, Output Adapters and Java Operators The Palette view by default contains a single icon labeled Adapters, Java Operators that you drag to the canvas. Once there, a dialog opens that lets you select one or more adapters or global Java operators for placement on the canvas.

In previous releases, this single Palette view icon was shown as four separate icons: Input Adapter, Output Adapter, .NET Operator, and Java Operator. Select this check box to restore those four separate icons to the Palette view.

Disabled

For detailed information about using these options, see the EventFlow Editor topic.

EventFlow Rendering Panel

Use the WindowPreferencesStreamBase StudioAuthoringEventFlow Rendering panel to set options for the EventFlow Editor.

A note at the top of this page directs you to the Preferences panel GeneralAppearanceColors and Fonts to specify color and font settings for all aspects of Studio. Look in that panel to set the background color for Groups, which was specified on the EventFlow Rendering in previous releases.

Option Description Default
Render tiles around component icons

Enable this option (default) to show tiles around component icons, whose left and right edges are where ports attach. Disable to remove the tiles. The selection outline still appears with or without tiles.

Enabled
Render selection without filled outline

When disabled (default) the selection outline is filled with light blue as shown above. When enabled, the selection outline shows as an unfilled dotted line, as follows:

Disabled
Show mouse hover feedback

When enabled (default), shows a yellow information box for a component when hovering the mouse over it.

Enabled
Use animations When enabled (default), shows an animation effect when you use the Rearrange components and arcs function ( button or Ctrl+L). Enabled
Use simple colors instead of gradients When enabled, tiles and selection outlines are shown with flat colors. When disabled (default), colors are shown as gradients. Disabled
Hide adapter tiles when there is only one port When enabled (default), adapters that have only one input port or only one output port are shown without an enclosing tile. When disabled, tiles are always shown for adapters. Enabled
Show indicator for components that run in a separate thread

When enabled (default), if a component has the Run this component in a parallel region option selected in its Properties view, the component is shown with a circle inside the bounds of the icon.

When disabled, the circle decoration is not shown, and there is no visual indicator of the component's separate thread state.

Enabled
Use slanted arcs during arc routing and auto-layout When enabled (default), arcs placed by the Layout Application (Ctrl+L) and Reroute Arcs (Ctrl+Alt+L) functions are shown with an angled slant between components. When disabled, arcs are only placed horizontally or vertically, with right angles for every direction change. Enabled
Ignore label widths during auto-layout When disabled (default), EventFlow modules are laid out during auto-layout or arc routing by taking the widths of the names of each component into account. When enabled, text widths are ign Disabled
Display additional label above components Specifies the amount and type of information to display in blue lettering above certain components on the EventFlow canvas. Specify one of the following:
Module Reference/Class Name

Show labels only of module references, embedded operators, and adapters. (For custom operators and adapters, the name shown is the one set with the setShortDisplayName() method.)

Component Type

Show the type of each component (not including input and output streams).

Nothing

Show no labels.

Module Reference/Class Name

Decision Table Panel

Use the PreferencesStreamBase StudioDecision Table panel to set initial state options for the Decision Table operator.

Option Description Default
Show column alias if present Displays aliases if present from an imported decision table or aliases manually entered in the Decision Table Editor. Disabled
Automatically resize columns to fit content

Resizes columns to fit content.

Disabled
Automatically resize rows to fit content

Resizes rows to fit content.

Enabled
Automatically merge rows Merges rows of similar content. Disabled
Show expanded text Displays full row syntax or expressions. Disabled
Show domain descriptions if present Displays domain descriptions. Currently not supported. Disabled
Show column filter

Displays filter when present.

Enabled
Use existing IDs when importing Use existing rule IDs from imported decision table. Enabled
Export column alias Exports column aliases, for use by another Decision Table operator. Disabled
Show condition area string Displays condition area string when present. Enabled

Decision Table — Analyzer Panel

Use the PreferencesStreamBase StudioDecision TableAnalyzer panel to set initial state options for the Table Analyzer.

Option Description Default
Highlight partial ranges Highlights rows whose condition falls completely or partially within the specified condition range. Disabled
Use Domain Model for Table Completeness

The Table Analyzer takes into consideration the optional domain model when analyzing the decision table to report any uncovered domain entries.

Disabled
Show Analyzer Contents while opening table

Displays Table Analyzer contents when the decision table is open. However, you must click the Analyze button to invoke the analysis.

Enabled

Decision Table — Appearance Panel

Use the PreferencesStreamBase StudioDecision TableAppearance panel to set appearance options for the Decision Table Editor.

Use these default color sets or customize as needed.

Alternate row colors in editor

Alternates decision table row colors. Enabled by default.

Use color gradients in headers

Alters the decision table header color with a subtle light-to-dark change. Disabled by default.

Built in Palettes

Select a color palette from the drop-down list. The number of colors displayed varies by palette. Select a field in the Colors group to view that field's color in the Text color button. The default palette is Classic.

Colors

Click Text color to customize the palette selected above by field chosen in the Colors group.

Font

Click Change to select the desired font. A font menu appears based on category selected.

Compiler Cache Panel

Studio maintains a cache of compiled build artifacts when you run a module in Studio, and uses cached items when re-launching the same module. The cache is automatically maintained such that any portions of an application are rebuilt if the underlying EventFlow or StreamSQL code changed, but unchanged portions are read from the cache.

You can control the location of the compiler cache and its persistence with three options:

Use a temporary directory for each Studio session

This is the default setting. The cache is written to a directory created in the system temporary directory determined as described for the TMP environment variable.

Use a workspace specific directory, and persist cache across sessions

The cache is written to a directory in the .metadata folder of your Studio workspace.

Persist cache at a specific directory

Use the Browse button to navigate to your preferred location.

When you click Apply, the full path to the selected cache directory is shown in the Current Location field.

Use the Clear Cache Now button to force all components to be rebuilt at the next launch.

When running the sbd and sbargen commands at the command prompt, you can specify the location of the compiler cache with the streambase.codegen.cachedir system property. For example:

sbd -Dstreambase.codegen.cachedir=/path/to/compiler/cache

Launching Panel

Use the PreferencesStreamBase StudioLaunching panel to set options for running StreamBase applications in Studio.

Option Description Default
Launch Options
Default Launch server Either Local Server or Remote Server. This preference affects the Run and Debug launch modes (especially in conjunction with the Run and Debug buttons in the Studio toolbar). This setting has no effect on Trace mode launches, or using the Trace toolbar button.

Select Remote Server to specify that using Run or Debug launch mode always runs the current StreamBase application against a remote server instance. Specify the default host name and remote user name elsewhere on this Preferences page.

The default is to run against a local server instance on the machine running StreamBase Studio.

Local Server
Open editor for running StreamBase Application when launched The running application opens in the EventFlow or StreamSQL editor, as appropriate for the selected application. Enabled
Remote Options
Remote options, if set, are used as workspace defaults in the StreamBase launch configuration wizard.
Default remote server If you select the Remote Server option above, enter the name or IP address of the host UNIX machine where the StreamBase software is installed, and an SSH server is running. The specified host must be configured as described in Configuring UNIX Servers for Remote Studio Access.

If your network administrator gave you a specific port number, enter it after the server name and a colon. The port is for the SSH server running on the specified host, not StreamBase Server. (For example: machine.example.com:22).

Empty
Default remote user Enter a user name that will allow you to connect via SSH to the specified remote server. Your current local user name is entered by default. Change this, if necessary, to reflect the correct user name for the remote server.
Use SSH tunneling for all server connections

Enable SSH tunneling for the connection to the remote host UNIX machine where StreamBase is installed. When you launch an application to run on a remote server, Studio normally detects whether tunneling is required (for example, when the server host has a firewall).

Note

Before connecting from StreamBase Studio to a remote UNIX host machine, the remote system must have an SSH daemon running with TCP port forwarding enabled. Follow the instructions in Configuring UNIX Servers for Remote Studio Access.

If you do not enable tunneling and StreamBase later detects that it is needed, StreamBase displays a prompt that gives you another chance to enable it. Click Yes in the dialog to enable SSH tunneling for the connection to StreamBase Server's host machine. If you are not certain, contact the administrator of the host machine.

Disabled
SSH Authentication

Either Password Authentication or Keyboard-Interactive.

Specify Password Authentication, the default, to connect to a server whose SSH configuration allows it. If the server hosting StreamBase Server has an SSH configuration that allows keyboard-interactive authentication, select Keyboard-Interactive.

Some servers, including Solaris servers, may be configured to only allow keyboard-interactive SSH authentication. In this case, you must select Keyboard-Interactive to connect to StreamBase Server running on such hosts.

If your Linux host runs OpenSSH as its SSH implementation, you specify keyboard-interactive authentication by setting ChallengeResponseAuthentication to yes in the sshd_config file and restarting the SSH daemon. Consult your site's SSH administrator for details on configuring SSH on your server machines.

Password Authentication

Test/Debug Panel

Use the PreferencesStreamBase StudioTest/Debug panel to set options for the SB Test/Debug perspective.

Option Description Default
Application Input/Output Views
Input View tuple buffer size

When you run an application and enqueue data, the number of input tuples can become quite large. It can be helpful to limit the number of tuples in the Application Input view's display buffer. When the limit is reached, newer tuples are kept in the view while older tuples are allowed to scroll off the view.

The specified display buffer size applies to the total number of tuples in the Application Input view, from the total of all input streams.

400 tuples
Output View tuple buffers size

Same as above, but for output tuples in the Application Output view.

The specified display buffer size applies to the display of each output stream, as well as when (All Output Streams) is selected.

400 tuples
Output View highlight color Specifies the color applied to matching rows in the Application Output view when you have specified a filter in the Application Output Filter dialog, and have specified the highlight selected option in the Results section of that dialog. #FFFF00, a solid yellow
EventFlow Debugger
Bring Variables view to front when a StreamBase breakpoint is hit By default, the Variables view shares the lower-left quadrant of the SB Test/Debug perspective with the Application Output, Application Input, and Profiler views. When this option is selected, the Variables view is brought to the front when the EventFlow Debugger hits a breakpoint. You can also toggle the StreamBase button in the Variables view's toolbar to specify the same preference.

Enabled

Field Value Formatting Options
Indicate nulls using The null token is used in editors and views when a field contains no value. You can substitute any string to indicate nulls.

"null"

Display blobs as In the Application Input and Application Output views, and elsewhere in Studio, show the first few characters of blob fields as hexadecimal values or ASCII characters. Hex
Maximum blob characters to display Specifies the number of bytes of blob fields to display as character data in the Application Output view. 16
Server Port
Default Port

Specifies the default TCP port number used by StreamBase Server when launched from Studio, on which to listen for client connections.

An explicit server port number specified in this application's server configuration file can override this preference setting. See <server> for more on the configuration file.

10000
If default port is not available

When attempting to run an application from Studio, if the port specified in the Default Port field is in use:

Try another random port

Automatically select another port.

Fail launch

Block attempts to launch the server from Studio.

An explicit server port number specified in this application's server configuration file can override this preference setting. See <server> for more on the configuration file.

Try another random port

Typechecking Panel

Use the PreferencesStreamBase StudioTypechecking panel to enable or disable categories of typecheck warnings from appearing as decoration markers on the EventFlow Editor canvas, in the StreamSQL editor, in the Package Explorer view, and as warning messages in the Properties view. You can set any typecheck warning category as Warning or Ignore. By default, all categories are set as Warning.

Use the Restore Defaults button to return all typecheck warnings to their default enabled state.

The settings on this panel affect the Studio workspace as a whole. You can also specify typecheck warning preferences for Studio projects and for individual EventFlow modules:

  • To change typecheck warning settings for an individual EventFlow module, select the EventFlow Editor's Annotations tab for that module.

  • To change warning settings for a project, right-click the project's name in the Package Explorer view and select Properties from the context menu. In the resulting dialog, select StreamBaseProject Builder.

In all three locations, the typecheck warnings have the meanings described in the table on the EventFlow Editor Annotations Tab page. See Typecheck Warnings for an overview of where the warning text and warning icons appear.

The Typechecking panel also has a check box for one Builder feature:

Builder
Enable module signature change analysis during builds Select this check box to have Studio store a hash of the signature for all modules and all intermediate stream schemas in the metadata of each module file. This allows Studio to build dependent modules only when the hash value changes, for a speedup when building large complex applications. Enabled

Setting Preferences

Use the buttons on the Preferences page as follows:

  • Click Apply to preserve your changes for the current page. If you set preferences on two pages, click Apply on the first page before moving on to the next page.

  • Click Restore Defaults to restore the state of a page's settings as installed.

  • Click OK to preserve changes for the current page and exit the Preferences dialog. Changes that require you to restart StreamBase Studio for the setting to take effect are noted in the tables above. Otherwise, changes take effect immediately when you click OK.