Overview of the Arezzo Composer

This section provides a basic explanation of the Arezzo Composer. For full help on Arezzo, select Help > User Guide from within the Composer.

Accessing the Arezzo Composer

Select View > Arezzo shortcut button. The Study Definition module will automatically minimise and cannot be viewed whilst the Composer remains open. On closing the Composer, the Study Definition module will automatically be restored.

The main screen

You can re-size the main screen and drag the sides of the windows to adjust their width.

Arezzo technology provides a method for specifying clinical guidelines and protocols in terms of 'Tasks' and collection of 'Tasks'. A guideline, or top level plan, is created from tasks and data items. Tasks and data items have attributes that define their properties and determine their behaviour.

In Arezzo, there are four 'objects':

Symbol	Data Item	A definition of an item of data, with possible values and validation conditions used when data is entered.
	Action	Represents a procedure to be carried out.
	Enquiry	A request for data: includes a description of the information required.
	Decision	Includes options and a set of arguments used to determine which option should be chosen according to data item values.
	Plan	A collection of other tasks, usually with scheduling constraints.

In MACRO terminology, Arezzo objects have the following equivalents:

MACRO	Arezzo
Study	Guideline or Protocol
eForm	Task of type "Plan" containing a task of type "Action"
Visit	Task of type "Plan"
Question	Data item

In the Composer's hierarchy, the top level parent plan, or root plan, represents the study, followed by parent plans for visits, parent plans for eForms within visits, and action tasks within eForms.

Each plan above another plan or another task is considered a 'Parent Plan'.
The icons used for the tasks in the hierarchy tree are the same as those described for the Action, Decision, Enquiry and Plan toolbar buttons.
To check the Arezzo expressions connected with a task, right click a task item on the tree and select Check Task, or Check All Tasks to analyse all expressions in the study (you can also find these options on the Tools menu).
You can select Tools > Check Protocol to check and view a summary of Arezzo expressions in all data items (such as derivations and warning conditions) as well as in all tasks.
If warnings or errors are triggered from any of these checks, the following icons will be displayed next to the relevant tree item:
- A question mark (?) serves as a warning, meaning that a definition may be incomplete or inconsistent in some way.
- A cross (X) indicates some serious error which you must rectify.

As with the Expression Checker in the Arezzo Expression Editor, it is possible to get 'false' warnings, for example when Arezzo treats numeric category codes as text rather than numbers.

Click on a plus (+) or minus (-) sign in front of a tree item to expand or collapse a section of the hierarchical tree.
Click once on a task in the tree to select the current task in the 'Task Attributes area'. See information on Attributes.
Right click on an item for context-sensitive help. Context sensitive menu options include some of the options described for the menu bar, plus standard copy, cut and paste options. You cannot remove items originating from the Study Definition module.

This is where you view, edit, add tasks and where you define the scheduling constraints for tasks.

Click on a tab title to display the associated plan, or select a plan from the Plans drop down list.
Use the Scale facility to enlarge or reduce the plan area and view all tasks in the plan
Click on a task icon in the toolbar, then click in the required location in the plan area to insert the task. Existing tasks can be dragged from the 'Hierarchical tree area' and dropped onto the plans.
Click on a task and drag one of its side handles to re-size it
Click once on a task in the 'Plans area' to select the current task in the 'Task Attributes area'.
Double click on a Decision task to launch the Decision Editor
Double click on an Enquiry task to launch the Enquiry Editor
Right click over a task in the tree. Context sensitive menu options include some of the options described for the menu bar, plus standard copy, cut and paste options. You cannot remove items originating from the Study Definition module - a warning message will be displayed.

This is where you define and edit the task attributes. A small context sensitive help section is displayed at the bottom of this window. Each task has a set of attributes that define its type and behaviour. Each task has 'task generic' attributes, i.e. attributes that can be found for all task types, for example the task description, caption, preconditions, etc. Certain attributes are 'task specific' and apply to given tasks only or to a particular occurrence of a task. For example, only 'Action' tasks have a procedure, and only 'Decision' tasks have candidates, etc. Data Items attributes are all 'Generic'.

Click in a cell in the 'Attributes' area to type data, insert data in a box or select data from a drop down list.
Click on the Data items/Task button to toggle between Data Item and Task definitions.
Click on the Editor button to open the Decision Editor box.
Select View > Toggle display of Attributes area to close or open the Attributes window pane.
Click here to go to an explanation of the fields within the Attributes area.