4.1 Starting Up OSATE for the First Time
OSATE is invoked by double clicking on the shortcut for the executable, or on the “eclipse.exe” icon in the installation root folder.
When you start up Eclipse/OSATE for the first time you will be prompted to select a folder as your workspace.  By default this will be a folder called “workspace” in the installation root folder of Eclipse/OSATE.  You will want to change that to a folder you have created that is separate from the installation root folder or any of its subfolders.  This workspace folder can be created anywhere on your hard disk with a name of your choice, e.g., “AadlProject1WS”. You can use the convention of placing the workspace folders in a folder called “OSATE Workspaces”.  By keeping the workspace separate from the Eclipse installation root folder area, you can delete the installation root folder for a clean re-installation without loosing your workspaces/projects.  Keeping the workspace separate also allows you to have the workspace backed up without backing up the installation itself.  For more on OSATE workspaces see section 4.1.6.
After OSATE comes up you may see a welcome panel.  If you close this panel you will see the OSATE window divided into four areas; see Figure 3.  The top left is used by the “Navigator” or “Package Explorer”.  You can create a new project through the “File” menu “New” -> “Project..” and then select “Aadl Wizards” -> “Aadl Project”.  This will create an AADL specific project and open the Aadl perspective.  You can also switch to the Aadl Perspective through “Window”->”Open perspective”->”Other…”->”AADL”.  For more details see section 4.2.1
The AADL perspective uses the “Aadl Navigator” instead of the “Navigator”.  This navigator decorates files with errors and hides files starting with “.” (.settings and .project) and aaxl files for which there are syntax errors in the corresponding AADL text file.  The AADL perspective also opens the Properties View, Problem View, and AADL Property Value View.
The AADL Navigator allows you the browse the OSATE workspace and open files (called resources in Eclipse) by double clicking on them or by opening them through their context menu.  The top right area is used by editors when files in the Aadl Navigator are opened.  If multiple files are opened, their windows are shown in tabbed panels.  An editor window can be placed next to another editor window by dragging it on its tab. The bottom left is used by the “Outline” view, a panel that shows an outline of the editor content.  The bottom right is used to show a number of views in tabbed window panels. 
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Figure 3: The Eclipse/OSATE main window, showing the "Aadl Navigator," "Outline," and "Problems" views, along with two open editors and the "Show View" dialog box.
The following subsections describe useful Eclipse views that can be activated, if not already visible, by going to the menu “Window > Show view”.  Some of the views are found under “Other…”.
4.1.1 The “Problems” View
This view is opened by selecting “Window > Show View > Problems”.  Figure 4 shows a close-up of the view.  This view is shows errors, warnings, and status information messages that are attached to files through the Eclipse marker mechanism.  OSATE uses these markers to report syntax and semantic problems in AADL models as well as record results of executing analysis plug-ins.
We have defined two AADL-specific root marker types as subclasses of Eclipse problem markers: “AADL Text Marker” to report problems on textual AADL files, and the “AADL Object Model Marker” to report problems on AADL model files in XML.  The AADL parser, semantic checker, and analyses define subtypes of these marker types. This allows the user to select the analysis results they are interested in by changing the settings in the filter for the Problem view. 
Make sure these OSATE marker types, and those marker types for which they are parent types, are enabled in the “Problems” view “Filter” dialog, which can be invoked as shown in Figure 4. In the “Filter” dialog box, shown in Figure 5, make sure the two marker types are checked. You may also want to select “On selected resource and its children.”  This will show those problem markers for the selected file, folder, or project and its children only.
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Figure 4: A close-up of the "Problems" view also showing how to open the filters dialog box.
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Figure 5: Checking AADL-related marker types in the "Show items of type" list in the "Problems" view "Filters" dialog box
4.1.2 The “AADL Property Values” View
This view is opened by selecting “Window > Show View > Other” and then selecting “AADL > AADL Property values”. This view displays AADL property values for elements of your AADL object model when viewing in the AADL Object Model editor.  New in OSATE 1.1: You can also edit the property associations of the model object using this view. You do so through the context menu in the AADL Property Values pane.
4.1.3 The “Properties” View
This view is opened by selecting “Window > Show View > Properties”, or by selecting “Window > Show View > Other” and then selecting “Basic > Properties”. This view displays and allows you to edit attributes and references of the elements of your AADL object model. For more detail see “AADL Object Editor”.
4.1.4 The “Tasks” View
This view is opened by selecting “Window > Show View > Tasks”, or by selecting “Window > Show View > Other” and then selecting “Basic > Tasks”. This view maintains a list of tasks to be done.  The context menu of this view allows you to add and manage the status of tasks. When developing OSATE plug-ins this view also displays a list of “to-do” tasks that are recorded in the plug-in Java code as comments starting with the word “TODO”.
4.1.5 The “Aadl Navigator” View
This view is opened by selecting “Window > Show View > Aadl Navigator”, or by selecting “Window > Show View > Other” and then selecting “AADL > Aadl Navigator”. This view shows the progress during an automatic build (see also section 4.6).
4.1.6 The “Progress” View
This view is opened by selecting “Window > Show View > Progress”, or by selecting “Window > Show View > Other” and then selecting “Basic > Progress”. This view shows the progress during an automatic build (see also section 4.6).
4.1.7 The “Error log” View
The SDK version of Osate/Eclipse offers a view for the error log.  The error log is kept as “.log” in the .metadata folder in your workspace and can be viewed through the file system. The error log view allows you to view the error log  within Osate/Eclipse. The error log contains error messages about null pointer exceptions and other internal errors in Osate.  This information allows us to track down problems with the tool set.