This page is for application designers who are editing or creating palettes with custom components. It explains how to use layout categories on template components to set preferred parent highlighting.
Overview
When designing a screen, you drag a template component from a palette onto a screen. When preferred parents are configured, PhixFlow can highlight the appropriate areas onto which you can drop the component. This can be useful where you have a screen with different areas designed to display different things, such as:
- headers for static and dynamic text
- form container for data fields and text labels
- card container for cards
- button bar for buttons.
| Note |
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The palettes supplied by PhixFlow that predate version 9.0. |
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0 are not configured with preferred parents. This means when you drag components from
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PhixFlows Base components, theme 1 and theme 2 are not configured with preferred parents.
I am using a template and dragging things into a screen. PhixFlow hightlights stuff to show where I can drop it.
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Set layout categories in template components.
Added a new Type of object "Layout Category", an Area Component can be given a Layout Category and additionally all layout components have a collection of "preferred parent categories". When dropping a layout component onto a layout it will try to find an area component with one of its preferred parent categories to set as its parent. If one is not found it will drop as before.
Creating Layout Categories
PhixFlow uses layout categories so that template components can be configured with preferred parents. When you drag a component from the palette, PhixFlow can then highlight the areas of the screen that are an appropriate container for the component.
To create a layout category:
- either in the repository, expand the Layout Categories section and click
.Insert excerpt _add _add nopanel true - or in an area component properties, in Basic Settings → Layout Categories, click
.Insert excerpt _add _add nopanel true
Layout Category Type Properties
Insert excerpt _property_toolbar _property_toolbar nopanel true
Insert excerpt _parent _parent nopanel true
Basic Settings
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Enter the name for the layout category. These will appear in the drop-down list of layout categories when you are setting a preferred parent for a component. |
Insert excerpt _description _description nopanel true
Insert excerpt _audit _audit nopanel true