The Variant Selector is available outside of Modeler in Microsoft's Internet Explorer and through it you can choose to include or exclude Variants for the external Variation Points in a Decision Set.

Unlike the Decision Set Editor, the Variant Selector is designed to allow customers, marketers, managers, etc. to make decisions for external Variation Points without exposing the internal Variation Points. If also provides a simplified but powerful user interface.

Note that you can use the Variant Selector only on computers that have Modeler installed.

To start the Variant Selector: from Modeler, on the Tools menu, click Variant Selector.

The first time you use the Variant Selector, it shows all the Decision Sets in the active model (unless there was a Decision Set selected in Modeler).

To select the Decision Set you want to set up, in the left pane click that Decision Set. The Variant Selector shows the external Variation Points in the active model (this is how the Variant Selector opens if there is a Decision Set selected in Modeler).

Non-mandatory Variation Points are shown in the Variant Selector with a dashed border.

When you click an external Variation Point, the Variant Selector opens the rightmost pane to show the Variants of that Variation Point, that is, Variants that are linked to the Variation Point through Variability Dependencies.

The Decision of each Variant is Undecided by default. For each Variant you can leave the Decision as Undecided or you can set it to Include or Exclude. After choosing to include or exclude a Variant, you can later set that Decision back to Undecided if required. To set the Decision of a Variant: click the appropriate button:

Each Variant has a Status that is set to Undecided, Excluded or Included. When a Product Model is created, it the Status of a Variant (not the Decision) that determines whether that Variant and its artifacts are removed from the Product Model or not.

The buttons to the left of a Variant name show its Decision and Status:

When a Variant has a parameter and the Variant is not Excluded, a control appears to the right of the Variant name for you to set the value of that parameter.

Hover the mouse pointer over the parameter control to see information about the required data.

Note that when the value shown for a parameter is a derived parameter, the value is shown in italic.

The navigation buttons in the rightmost pane allows you to view the next or previous undecided Variation Point, or view the next or previous inconsistent Variation Point.

The progress bar shows you how many of the Decision Set's external Variation Points are set to Included or Excluded.

By default, the Status of a Variant is set to Undecided, but it can be set to Excluded or Included in the following ways, assuming an inconsistency does not occur:

For more detailed information about how the Status of a Variant can be set, including worked examples, see How the status of a variant can be set - variant selector.

By default, the Status of a Variation Point is set to Undecided, but it can be set to Excluded or Included in the following ways, assuming an inconsistency does not occur:

For more detailed information about how the Status of a Variation Point can be set, including worked examples, see How the status of a variation point can be set - variant selector.

When you set a Decision for a Variant, it can result in an inconsistency occurring for that Variant, another Variant or a Variation Point.

An inconsistency occurs when Modeler attempts to set the Status of a Variant or Variation Point to both Included and Excluded. When a Decision Set has inconsistencies, those inconsistencies must be resolved in order to create a Product Model from that Decision Set.

Note that because you cannot see internal Variation Points in the Variant Selector, you may have to use the Decision Set Editor to resolve all inconsistencies.

For information about how inconsistencies can occur for a Decision Set and how you can resolve those inconsistencies, see Resolving inconsistencies in a decision set - variant selector.

From the Variant Selector you can create a Product Model from the Product Line Model using the selected Decision Set.

The Status of a Variant or Variation Point determines whether that Variant or Variation Point and its Artifacts (items linked through Artifact Dependencies) are removed from the Product Model or not:

For information about creating a Product Model, see the following topics:

The Variant Selector has the following toolbar buttons:

The left pane of the Variant Selector can show the Decision Sets in the model, or the external Variation Points for a selected Decision Set:

When the left pane shows all the Decision Sets in the model:

When the left pane shows the Variation Points for a Decision Set:

The rightmost pane of the Variant Selector shows the Variants of the Variation Point that is selected in the left pane.

For the Variation Point at the top of the pane:

The Variants of the Variation Point are listed:

The progress bar shows you how many of the Decision Set's external Variation Points are set to Included or Excluded.

The View Next Inconsistent Variation Point button selects the next Variation Point that has its Status set to Inconsistent, the View Previous Inconsistent Variation Point button selects the previous Variation Point that has its Status set to Inconsistent.

The Find Next Undecided Variation Point button selects the next Variation Point that has its Status set to Undecided, the Find Previous Undecided Variation Point button selects the previous Variation Point that has its Status set to Undecided.

The following keyboard shortcuts can be used with the Variant Selector.