Viewing Classes and Members

The Object Browser provides two lists for viewing the classes and members in a package or library. The primary list can display either classes or members (or both). When a class is selected from the primary list, its members are displayed in the dependent list; when a member is selected from the primary list, all classes containing that member are displayed in the dependent list.

To set the Object Browser view

1. To toggle whether classes are displayed in the primary list, right-click the Object Browser and click Show Classes on the shortcut menu. You can also click the Show Classes button on the Object Browser's command bar.
   
   
2. To toggle whether members are displayed in the primary list, right-click the Object Browser and click Show Members on the shortcut menu. You can also click the Show Members button on the command bar.

To help distinguish classes from members, classes appear in bold. Note that by default, the Object Browser groups the items in the primary list into their respective packages or libraries, which also appear in bold. To toggle whether these items are grouped by packages and libraries, right-click the Object Browser and click Group by Packages/Libraries on the shortcut menu. You can also click the Group by Packages/Libraries button on the command bar.

Viewing Class and Member Information

You can use the Object Browser to obtain specific information about the classes and members in a package or library:

• When a class or member is selected in the Object Browser, the lower description pane displays information about the item and supports hyperlinking to other classes, packages, and libraries.
  
  
• When a class node is expanded, the following subnodes are displayed (when applicable):
  • Implemented Interfaces, which lists all interfaces implemented by the class.
    
    
  • Subclasses, which lists all classes that extend the class.
    
    
  • Superclasses, which lists all classes in the inheritance hierarchy.
• When a Java method is displayed in the dependent list, its signature is included. (The signatures for COM methods are not displayed.)

Viewing Definitions

If the source code for a package or library is available on your computer, you can navigate to a class or member definition from the Object Browser. Select the item and then right-click the Object Browser. On the shortcut menu, click View Definition.

Viewing Hidden Members

The Object Browser can show any hidden members of COM libraries. To toggle the display of hidden members, right-click the Object Browser and click Show Hidden Members on the shortcut menu. Hidden members appear in gray text.