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Overview
To design a screen, you drag components and layouts, from the
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PhixFlow comes with two pre-installed base palettes that provide the essential building blocks you need. You can download additional palettes. that have a full set of layouts with a consistent style. Using these palettes mean you can quickly create new applications with a consistent look-and-feel. Additional palettes are provided as template packages; see the Installing Template Packages.
Once the template package is installed, when you create a new application, you can select the one you want to use. This sets some default styles for your application and adds its palettes to the list in
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We recommend you use Theme 2.1 palette, as this makes use of all the latest features for components, including highlighting where on a screen canvas you can drop a component; see the Installing Template Packages. |
What Palettes Do I Have?
To see the palettes available to you:
- In the right panel, switch to the repository tab, or click
to open it.Insert excerpt _repository _repository nopanel true - Expand the Packages section to see all the packages available to you, for example, Theme 2.1.
To make a package available in your application, open 2 :
- Open two repository tabs side-by-side.
- From the Packages
- section, drag a template package into your application's
- properties Packages list.
Adding Content to a Screen
To add content to a screen, drag components and layouts from the
onto the screen canvas. Insert excerpt _palette _palette nopanel true
Starting with a Complete Layout
Theme 2.1 has some complete screen layouts. These provide screen templates with different header-body-footer layouts, to which you can add more components. Open the palette → Theme 2.1 → Complete Screens and drag one of the layouts from the palette onto an empty screen canvas.
Adding Components
If you start with a complete layout, or create your own layout, drag components from the palette onto the screen canvas. For Start with container components then drag in components for headers, footers, buttons and labels.
When you drag components from the Theme 2.1 palette, PhixFlow highlights containers on the screen canvas where you can drop the component, as shown below. This is known as a Preferred Parent.
Adding Data Tables
You can also add content based on table data
Adding Data Tables
Adding Form Fields
- To create form fields Table attributes can be added directly to a screen by dragging them from the tables Attributes section onto a screen. PhixFlow will automatically create the form fields based on the default style specified for your application.
Starting with a Template
- If you have a blank screen and wish to start from a Template screen simply expand the Complete Screens section in a palette and drag the required item onto the screen.
Drag from Locations
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drag a data table onto the screen canvas to display its data.
- Find the table you want to use:
- either in the repository Tables list
- or open its properties.
- Drag the table icon onto the screen canvas.
The screenshot below shows how to drag the table icon from the properties onto the canvas. - Select how you want to display the data, for example in a grid or chart.
Adding Form Fields
It is easy to create data display or data entry using fields on a form by dragging attributes onto the screen canvas:
- Open the table properties.
- Drag attributes from the Attributes section onto the screen canvas.
- Enter a name for the field component.
- PhixFlow automatically creates the form fields using on the default style specified for the type of data that the attribute represents. For example, a telephone number has a number field, whilst a name has a text field. The default styles are set in your application properties.
Understanding Default Styles
When you set up your application, it is important to:
- either choose a template, which configures your default styles
- or to select default styles in the Application Properties.
This tells PhixFlow which component to use when you drag tables or attributes onto a screen canvas; see Understanding Template Packages. If you do not set a default style in your application, PhixFlow uses the styles set for the whole system in System Configuration.
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If you change the defaults set in System Configuration, the change affects all users and applications for the PhixFlow instance. |
Dropping
items into or next to existing content?As discussed in Screen Structure → moving layouts and components,
- Add next to an item: Dragging an item from the palette onto a screen creates a sibling relationship. For example, if you drag ad drop a form field on top of another form field they appear next to one other.
- Add inside an item: Holding shift and dragging an item from the palette onto a screen creates a parent child relationship, where your dragged item drops into the item you drop it on.
Preferred Parents, where a preferred parent is setup the dragged item will always drop into its preferred parent. For examples a Tile will always try and drop into a Tile Container.
Items can also be moved directly in the layouts section, this can provide greater flexibility on where items are placed.Components Into or Next To Existing Content
When you drop a component, table or attribute onto a screen canvas, PhixFlow needs to know if you want to put the item into or next to any existing component in that location.
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Where the palette component has a preferred parent configured, when you drag the component onto the screen canvas, PhixFlow highlights suitable containers; see Component Categories and Preferred Parents.
Palettes
Palette content is organised into logical groups (see Theme 2.1), with icons and descriptions to indicate their styling and purpose. At the top level are the pre-built screens such as*:
- Confirmation Screen: A complete screen designed to be used as a confirmation message or other binary option.
- Full Screens: A complete dashboard screen containing windows controls, a content area, a single tile with a header and CRUD buttons in a footer.
- Data Entry Forms: Data Entry form with centre alignment designed as a complete screen for data entry or a popup window.
- a form or popup window for an application user to enter data.
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Palette names vary. Check your palette and the descriptions of the items for full details of what is available to you. |
If you require more control over the To make changes to a screen from the palette, or to design of your screen or want to edit or add to the pre-built screensown screen, use components such as:
- Tiles - come in various configurations from data entry tiles to google maps integrated variants. Drag these items into a Tile container to control their layout and produce a design that is device responsive.
- Headers - can be added to your screens to provide Headers: provide clarity and structure to the content on the screen , headers can be used and act as labels to divide a screen into logical sections.
- Footers - can be used to house : useful for the buttons to provide create, update and delete buttons that act upon your datafunctionality, so that the application user can make changes to data.
- Tiles: special layouts from data entry forms to Google maps. The container for a tile is configured so the components in the tile can shift their layout in response to the form-factor of the device on which your application is running; see Sizing and Positioning Screen Content.
Finding a Component
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To find a component When you are working on a screen:
Selected items on a screen will be highlighted in the Layers section on the left hand side of a screen canvas. You can then see how the selected, it can be useful to see how a component fits into the
screenhierarchy layers.
Right-click on a component and selectYou can see this more clearly in:
- either the
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PhixFlow opens the Components section with the component selected. You can then see how the selected component fits into the screen hierarchy.
- or in the repository Components section, in the right panel.
To highlight the component in the Layers panel or the repository, select it on the screen canvas.
To open the properties for a component:
- in the canvas right-click on the component and select Show Details
- In the Layers panel or repository click on its name and click
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What's Next?
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