Application Mode
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Your PhixFlow applications usually have a menu bar at the top of the screen. On the top left is the PhixFlow name and logo, which looks like this. Dot menu only in mobile. The dots will always be there but in mobile view only the dots should show.
The PhixFlow logo is not present if:
- you are running PhixFlow on a mobile device
- your administrator has configured PhixFlow logo to display your company logo instead.
Application developers can configure PhixFlow to not display the menu bar. Instead the PhixFlow logo is displayed the bottom right of the screen.
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Applications are shown as a set of cards. You can use the buttons on the right to switch between a card and a list view.
Click anywhere in a card to open run the application. PhixFlow always asks if you want to confirm any action, including opening an application. Click Yes to continue. When When you select load an application:
In, all the window except the grey header bar, is an application designed by your company. It will have its own menus and navigation, to provide you with the options you need.
You can return to the Welcome window at any time by clicking on the ??Add dot icon. The PhixFlow logo also returns to the Welcom window. However, this logo is not present if:
- you are running PhixFlow on a mobile device
- your administrator has configured PhixFlow logo to display your company logo instead.
See also: Application Menu.
On Mobile Devices
How will this look What's visible on mobile devices??
PhixFlow applications are often deployed on mobile devices, such as tablets. This means team members can access and update data whilst in the field. As mobile devices have less screen space available, the task header bar is simplified to show the icons:
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Application Help
Application designers are responsible for providing help about how to use an application.Task Bar Anchor
At the bottom of the PhixFlow window is the grey task bar. The task bar display varies for desktop and mobile devices.
Design Mode
Design mode has a workspace on the left and the repository tab on the right. The repository lists the items in PhixFlow to which you have access. If the repository is not visible, click the
Selecting an Application
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The Welcome window lists all the applications available to you.
Applications are shown as a set of cards. You can use the buttons on the right to switch between a card and a list view. You can change the view from tile to list view or search for an application by name. This is also where you can find links to the latest videos from the learning centre.
To return to the Welcome window, click the ??Add Application list icon or PhixFlow logo in the top right.
The PhixFlow logo is not present if:
- you are running PhixFlow on a mobile device
- your administrator has configured PhixFlow logo to display your company logo instead.
The ??Add Application list icon is always present.
??Add link to the Application page
If you do not want to work on something that is in an application, such as an analysis model, click the repository icon on the right. The repository list slides open and you can search for the item you want to work on.
Application Design Home Window
In Design Mode, when you select an application to work on PhixFlow shows the Application Design Home window.
Click anywhere in a card to open the application. PhixFlow always asks if you want to confirm any action, including opening an application. Click Yes to continue.
When you select an application:
- In
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From here you can select one of main application items on which to work.
PhixFlow Window Areas
PhixFlow is a visual tool for developing applications or modelling data. There are several different diagrams that you can work on, such as workflows, ERDs, screen layouts and analysis models.
The following labelled screenshot shows the main areas of the PhixFlow window when you are working on a diagram, in this case an ERD.
Design mode has a workspace on the left and the repository tab on the right. The repository lists the items in PhixFlow to which you have access. If the repository is not visible, click the
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The Header
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For desktop or laptop computers, the task bar shows:
- on the left:
- the
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- in design mode, the number of windows open in the workspace
- the right of the grey status bar at the bottom of the screen shows the status of any actions, and lists how many items, such as models or dashboards, are open
When there are several model windows or dashboards open in the workspace you can Show/Hide Windows Bar; see 13 Using the Windows Bar. This displays icons for all the open windows (both open and minimised). Click on a link to maximise or bring a window to the front of the workspace. Each icon also has a context menu which allows you to close it.Anchor formBar formBar
- the
- on the right: the user name of the currently logged in user, and the following icons. For information about these icons; see Menu Options and Toolbar Buttons.
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- In design mode, PhixFlow displays green, blue or red notification pop-ups on screen. You can click Dismiss notifications to close all green and blue notifications. You must close red error messages individually.
The Repository, Items and Properties
When you open PhixFlow in design mode, PhixFlow opens the Repository tab on the right of the screen; see Using the Repository.
Double-click on an item in the repository to open its properties tab. Here you can set the properties for modelling objects and application components.
In addition to having properties, you can open and edit some items in the workspace on the left. These are:
- Analysis Models: represent the flow and transformation of data.
- Stream Views: display the data in streams as tables (called grids) and charts.
- Dashboards: combine several stream views. Application screens are dashboards with more complex layouts, including menus and actions.
To display and update these items:
- From the repository, open the item's properties.
- From the toolbar on the properties tab, click the icon for the item, which is its Display option.
- PhixFlow opens the item in the workspace on the left.
Property Tabs
Click on the name of an item to open its properties tab. Usually PhixFlow opens each property tab in the same space and automatically closes any saved property tab.
- To switch between tabs, click on the tab, which shows the name of the item.
- To keep a property tab open, click the
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icon.Insert excerpt _pinned _pinned nopanel true - To view tabs side-by-side, drag the property tab onto the workspace. This creates a second properties area. You can create several property areas and you can drag properties tabs between them.
- To close a property tab, click on the white cross on the tab.
Every properties tab has a toolbar at the top, next to the item name. If the item name is long, toolbar icons are condensed into a
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For information about the properties tabs and their toolbar options, see Menu Options and Toolbar Buttons.
Accessing Help
When you first log into PhixFlow in
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If you do not want to show the help panel again, tick the check box at the bottom of the panel. To subsequently show the panel, go to
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To open the help about the options in a properties tab, click
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When you delete a PhixFlow item it is deleted from the repository and from any model or dashboard that contains it. Deleting cannot be undone. For this reason, PhixFlow
- always asks for confirmation that you really do want to delete an item before actually deleting it.
- will not delete an item when another object within PhixFlow still refers to it.
PhixFlow notifies you about how many and what type of items still refer to the item you are trying to delete.
In analysis models, consider using the alternative pop-up toolbar option,
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To delete an item completely, right-click any item to display its context menu and click
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Selecting and Deleting Items
Either in the repository or in dashboards or models, you can click an item to select it. A selected item is highlighted. Also the highlighting on any previously selected items is cleared.
There are several places in PhixFlow where you can make a change to several items at the same time, for example deleting items. To select a continuous subset of items in a list,
- Select the first item on the list.
- Hold down the Shift key.
- Then select the last item.
To select several items separately, press the Control (Ctrl) key as you click the different items. This will add each item to the list of selected items. If you click on an item that is already selected, it is removed from the selection list.
Drag-and-Drop
The user can drag-and-drop many of the items in PhixFlow. What happens when you drag items depends on the context. In general:
- Items can only be dragged onto a compatible location. PhixFlow does not let you drop an item if it makes no sense for the item to be in that location.
- You can often drag multiple selected items to/from lists.
- Items can be reordered when dragged into ordered lists. For example, the order of the items is important in the Stream Attributes.
- In model windows, you can drag single or multiple modelling objects around the model; see Using the Model Window.
To drag objects off the model and onto another location, select the object and then use Shift-drag. - One or more Stream Views can be dragged onto Dashboards to display data.
Context Menus
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Right-click any item to display its context menu. You can display a context menu when you right-click:
- its name in the repository
- for modelling objects, its icon in a model
- for layout components, its representation in a dashboard
Analysis Model objects always have the context menu entry
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Deleting Items
PhixFlow does not have an option to undo an action such as deletion. Take care when you use the
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For analysis models, it is safer to use the
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Error Messages
If you are using a PhixFlow application, the messages you see related to actions within the application are written by application designers using the Action → Confirmation Message.
If there is an error that prevents PhixFlow completing something, it will display the system error message.
The message window can include | If | Administrator Links |
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a More Detail link to technical information | your user account or user group has the Show Console privilege | |
a button to open the log file containing the error message | your user account or user group has the View Log Files privilege | |
a Report button to email the details to IT support, The email includes a link to the log file, so the administrator can easily access full details of the error. | there is an IT email recipient configured in System Configuration → General settings → Error Reporting Email Address. |
Administrators monitor the details of what PhixFlow is doing using the System Console and can configure how much detail is logged; see System Monitoring and System Logging Configuration.