InFocus utilizes a parent/child structure to represent the relational hierarchy (tree) in a project structures. Commonly, a given project will consist of child levels often referred to as phases and tasks. Consider the following project tree.
Nodes
In the above diagram we have a project linked to three phases, each of which are linked to two or more tasks. Each item on the tree is called a node. Therefore, Empire State Building, schematic design, and cad work are all nodes. The numbers and letters in parenthesis are generically referred to as node codes. So 9801 (typically referred to as the project code) is a node code as is 10 for phase schematic design. Two other terms used in this manual in regards to trees are top nodes and bottom nodes. Top nodes (also known as root nodes) are level one nodes (nodes with no parent). Bottom nodes (also known as terminal nodes) are nodes with no children. Nodes must be uniquely coded in respect to their immediate parent- level one nodes must be unique to all other level one nodes.
Project Path
Since some nodes can have the same code (e.g., cad work and meetings) it is necessary to refer to nodes not only by their code, but also by what branch of the tree they live on. The way InFocus accomplishes this is to cite each code along the branch to the node in question. For purposes of clarity, a separating character (also know as a delimiter) is used between each node code. This notation is called a path. An example of a path would be 9801-10-A. In this example, the project is Empire State Building, the phase is Schematic Design, and the task is CAD work. A hyphen is used as the delimiter.
Parent-Child
Nodes can have parents and children. For instance, CAD Work has an immediate parent called Schematic Design but no children. Schematic design has an immediate parent called Empire State Building and two immediate children called Cad work and research. The use of the word immediate means adjacent to. In other words Empire State building is a non-immediate parent to CAD work since it is related to CAD work indirectly through Schematic Design.
Level
The relative position of a node to the beginning of the tree is called the level. In the above example, 9801 is on level one, phases 10,20 and 30 are on level two. All other nodes are on level three. Levels can be labeled so we can refer to them in real world terms such as project, phase and task.