public static void setEdgeType(String selectedType){
		edgeTypeShortName = selectedType;
		if(selectedType.compareTo("Edge") == 0) { // the default edge from the framework
			edgeType = "sinalgo.nodes.edges.Edge";
		}	
		else if(selectedType.compareTo("BidirectionalEdge") == 0) { // the bidirectional edge from the framework
			edgeType = "sinalgo.nodes.edges.BidirectionalEdge";
		}	
		else if(selectedType.contains(":")) { // edge specification of the form project:edgeName
			String[] modelParts = selectedType.split(":");
			edgeType = Configuration.userProjectsPath+"."+modelParts[0]+".nodes.edges."+modelParts[1];
		}	
		else if(!selectedType.contains(".")){ // just the name of an edge (without '.') -> from the default project
			edgeType = Configuration.defaultProjectPath+".nodes.edges."+selectedType;
		} 
		else { // the edge is given already in explicit form 
			edgeType = selectedType;
			edgeTypeShortName = Global.toShortName(edgeType);
		}
		edgeTypeChanged = true;
	}