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titlePlan your data (optional)

Before you start any PhixFlow project, it is important to understand your data and what you need to do with it. For large projects this means detailed analysis using an Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD).

For this example, a sales team is using an Excel spreadsheet to manage a list of customer businesses and associated contacts. You want to make it easy for the team to access and maintain the data. You also want to add some simple CRM functions, for example, to add descriptions about the business.

PhixFlow has many options that you can use to define the data, its properties and relationships. But if you already have data available you can quickly and easily load it into PhixFlow. The following video guides you through this process.


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titleConnect PhixFlow to existing dataUpload data into PhixFlow

Create an analysis model

  1. In the repository, right-click Analysis Model and
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     to create a new model.
  2. Set Basic Settings > Name to Businesses and click 
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    .
  3. PhixFlow opens a new empty model on the left.

Load the Excel file

  1. Drag a 
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    _file_collector
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     from the model toolbar into the model.
  2. Set Basic Settings > Name: BusinessData,  and click 
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    .
  3. In the model, hover your mouse pointer over the file collector. PhixFlow displays a pop-up toolbar. Click 
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    and browse to the Excel file.

  4. In the upload window, click the  

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     button. PhixFlow creates a new stream and opens its properties.

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    titleExplore the possibilities
    When you upload an Excel file, PhixFlow automatically sets many of the file collector and stream properties. There are many options that you can use to load different types of data from file. To connect PhixFlow to databases you can use a
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    .


Your model now looks like this.



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titleSet the some data properties


In the stream properties on the right, set:

  1. Basic Settings → Period to Transactional

    Expand
    titleWhy?

    Usually PhixFlow By default, a stream is optimised for processing large volumes of data.  You are aiming to create a form for users to update individual data records (transactions). This Setting this property to Transactional tells PhixFlow how you want to manage the data.


  2. Tick Audit Manual Changes dd

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    titleWhy?

    This data will be updated manually by individuals. By ticking this box, PhixFlow will add a set of attributes to automatically record audit information about changes.


  3. Click 
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     and then click on the
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     to keep the stream properties open.

  4. In the Attributes section, double-click Description and change its Type to Bigstring then click 

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    . 

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    titleWhy?

    When you create a form for the data, PhixFlow recognises that data with the type Bigstring needs field edit tools.



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titleExplore the possibilities

Look in the Attributes section. When you connect PhixFlow to the Excel spreadsheet, it automatically identifies the properties of the data columns (attributes) such as their type (string, numerical) and length. This also happens when you connect PhixFlow to data stored in databases. 


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