News Window Settings Affecting Index Selection

Every news window maintains a news index list independent from all other news windows. The content of a news window’s index list at any time depends on the value of various news window settings. These settings and their relationship to the selection of any particular news index list are defined as follows:

Every news story in the database belongs to one or more categories. Categories are usually defined by the data vendor. In addition, there are artificially-created categories known as super-categories. Super-categories are usually defined by Aspen Research. The distinction is of little concern when using news windows, as any command that requires a category specification will accept super-categories as well.

A news window’s index list is always drawn from a particular news category. There can only be one index list, or current index, at a time, for any news window. The category from which that index list is formed is known as the current category for that window.

Each window’s current category is selected independently of any other news windows. Two or more news windows may select the same category, but their index lists will still function independently from each other.

In the absence of a search query, a news window’s current index includes every story belonging to the window’s current category, except those which the user is not authorized to see. Stories for which the user has no authorization are called invisible stories. All other stories are considered visible.

If a search query is active in a particular news window, its search parameters will only be applied to stories belonging to the current category. Therefore, we say that the scope of any search is bounded by the current category, and only visible stories meeting the search criteria will be kept in the news window's index list.

A news window always maintains a current query setting and a previous query setting; either or both may be empty. When the current query is non-empty, the current query is always considered an active search query. Conversely, an empty current query indicates there is no active search query for that news window.