Web integration

Southbeach Modeller provides simple integration with Web browsers. For example, Web searches and launching URLs can be invoked from agents. Web links and Web content can be dragged to the canvas to create agents, or to a notes panel.

Southbeach also provides a simple 'built in' Web browser. It appears as a tab in the Notes panel (Ctrl+R). This basic browser is good enough for simple tasks, but some users prefer to work with an external browser. Links and content can be dragged from any open browser window (i.e. Explorer, Firefox, Chrome), but if you wish to invoke searches or URLs from elements of your Southbeach model, you need to decide whether to direct them to the internal browser or external browser. This can be configured in Tools-Options-View.

The full list of functions are:

From browser to Southbeach

Drag a link from any web page to an agent on the canvas. If annotations are turned on, a star will appear bottom right of the agent. This signifies there is a linked URL. This will also appear in the Properties dialog of the agent (right mouse Properties).

Drag a link from any web page to the canvas. A new agent is created. The name of the agent is the text of the web link. The URL is set in properties as before.

Drag any content from a web page to the canvas. A new agent is created. The name of the agent is the full content copied.

If the content is more than a few words, you might wish to have Southbeach store it in the agent notes. Hold down ALT and drag one or more paragraphs of content to the canvas. A new agent is created. The name of the agent is the first few words of the content. Cick inside or hit F2 to edit the name if you wish. The whole content is stored in the agent notes. This will appear in the agent notes (a tab in the Notes panel called 'This'). Clicking around a model with the 'This' notes open allows you to read notes of any agent. (The notes are also in agent Properties like all other attributes).

You can also drag URLs onto agents or onto the canvas from the Web browser's address bar. This works in most browsers. However, if you find it does not, hold down Ctrl and then drag. It should then work.

Note - The drag operations listed above also work for dragging content and URLs into model notes or agent notes panels.

You can also associate a URL with an agent by using the right mouse - Associate URL - menu option on the agent. Note that the URL will be that of the internal browser, even if you have configured an external browser. This is because Southbeach cannot know which external web browser window you are referring to.

From Southbeach to browser

You can invoke previously stored URLs. Click on an agent and then right mouse - Go To - URL. A short cut Ctrl+F8 is provided. Thus, you can click around a model pressing Ctrl-F8 to invoke web pages.

Agents and effects can also be used to directly involve Web searches. Right mouse on either an agent, or an effect, and use the Search sub-menu. This provides built in searches for many common search engines and resources, e.g. news, patents, Wikipedia, future scanning databases. (If you need more sources added, please write to us.)

A short cut key F8 is provided to directly invoke a standard Google search from any agent or effect. In the case of the effect search, the names of the agents, and the type of the effect, are combined, when provided to Google. This is a simple, but powerful, way to explore a model and open up new or related information via the Web. Web links found can then be dragged to the canvas, or to agents, to extend the model.