A Viewpoint is a specification of the conventions and rules for constructing and using a view for the purpose of addressing a set of stakeholder concerns. The languages and methods for specifying a View can reference methods and languages in another Viewpoint. They specify the elements expected to be represented in the view that may be formally or informally defined.
A Viewpoint has a Method property which describes the expectation of what stakeholder(s) wish to see exposed from the model, how the stakeholder wishes the information to be structured and presented, and in what kind of artifact the stakeholder wants to consume the information. It is the set of rules that describe how the view should express the information from the model to address the stakeholder concerns. The methods are used to construct the Views for the Viewpoint.
You can use these predefined Viewpoints with a Method property defined:
| Predefined Viewpoint | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Simple Paragraph | A simple paragraph is a text fragment without a title and indented in the first row. |  |
| Formal Paragraph | The formal paragraph is a text fragment with a title. The first line of the formal paragraph text is indented. |  |
| Ordinary Paragraph | An ordinary paragraph is an itemized list. A new item in the itemized list is created from each exposed element. |  |
| Figure | The figure viewpoint allows constructing a viewpoint that specifies how an image object should be included into the view. The image object is constructed from the diagram shape that is exposed by the view. |  |
| Table | The viewpoint that uses the predefined Table method implementation is used to produce a table view in our constructed report. The table can be constructed in two ways. The table view can be produced by exposing the table shape directly or by exposing an element or collection of elements and specifying what properties of exposed elements should be displayed as columns. |  |
| Title Page | The title page viewpoint defines what property of exposed elements is used as a paragraph title source. |  |
| Grouping Viewpoint |  |