XMM-Newton Science Analysis System: User Guide

3.5 Parameter dialogs

Each task has an associated parameter dialog window. These individual task GUIs are used to enter the values of the different task parameters and to run the task. The parameter dialog windows are opened by double-clicking any of the tasks listed under the "task" column.

The following parameter dialog window (figure 6) illustrates some of the basic parameter types. Each parameter type has a corresponding widget type. For example, a boolean parameter is entered using a check-box (withexposure); a choice parameter is entered by using a pop-up menu that allows to select from a set of options (sampling); a filename parameter is entered as a string (imagesets), with the option of popping up a file browser by pressing the button with the folder icon (see § 3.7).

Figure 6: SAS parameter dialog window.

If the task has a large number of parameters, the dialog window may have scroll-bars. The scroll bars will disappear if the size of the dialog window is increased sufficiently.

Further information on a parameter can be obtained by placing the cursor over the parameter widget. This causes a yellow tool-tip to pop-up if the parameter file defines a prompt field for the parameter.

The parameter dialog has the following buttons:

Run	Run the task with the selected parameters
Cancel	Close the parameter dialog window without running the task or changing
	the parameters
Save	Saves the value of the parameters
Defaults	Reset the parameters to their default values

When a task has been run, the parameter values are retained until the next time that the task is run (within the same session). The Defaults button may be used to reset the parameters of a task to their default values. The "Task" menu in the main SAS GUI provides an option "Revert to defaults" to reset all the parameters of all the tasks to their defaults.