What

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are Drag Types and Drop Targets?

Drag and drop actions allow users to click and drag an item from location to another within a screen. This allows users to intuitively interact with content, rearrange items, and trigger further actions by dropping onto a designated area. Some examples of drag and drop actions are:

• Dragging a record from a grid onto a delete area to remove it
• Dragging a contact from a grid onto a specific company on a company table to move that contact to that company
• Dragging items into different sections on a Kanban board to change the state of the record - see Making Kanban Boards

How are Drag Types and Drop Targets Configured?

To set up drag and drop on components, a 

• grids
• cards

Any component which has an

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For example, to assign a new company to an employee, a user creates two grids on a screen. The employee and company table have a relationship and are linked by a CompanyIDfield. The employee can be dragged and dropped onto a company to update CompanyID attribute for the employee. 

Creating Drag and Drop Actions

Creating a Drag Type

1. Right-click on the grid and select

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Creating For Each Actions

1. Click and drag the  on the component from which data will be dragged

2. On the

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   , in the Action Settings section, under Drag Type, select or create a drag type, e.g. Move Contact

3. If creating a Drag Type, click the

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    icon from the toolbar onto the canvas button
   1. Name: Enter a name
   in the Create For Each Action window and select Create ActionIn
   1. for the drag type
   2. Attributes: create the attributes to be used in the Actionflow, e.g. CompanyID

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4. A Drag Mappings section will become available in the Action Settings
5. Click the 

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    button
6. Map across attributes from the table onto the 

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    action attributes set above, to be used within the Actionflow

Components with a drag type can be dragged and dropped onto any component which has a drop target with a matching drag type.

Creating a Drop Target

Attributes mapped into the For Each action will appear here. 

If adding a new input attribute, a Name and Type are required. See Understanding Data Types.

Attributes mapped out of the For Each action will appear here.

If adding a new output attribute, a Name, Type and Expression are required. This is a PhixScript expression. Values returned by the Input Expression are available in this expression as:

See also:

• Expression Basics
• Internal Variables
• Functions

Name: Invoices

Type: String 

Expression: _result.value

1. Click on the component where data will be dropped to open the

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    on the right, populate the following:

The input expression provides the source of the data to be iterated over. Typically, this will be a simple expression pointing at an Input Attribute, using the syntax, Connector.AttributeName.

If an empty record set or empty list is provided then no output will be generated.

This field is mandatory (PhixFlow version 11.1 +).

// Receives a list of Invoice IDs, these are iterated over using

in.InvoiceID     

1. On the

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   , in the Drop Targets section, select or create a drop target, e.g. Add Contact
2. If creating a Drop Target, click the

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    button
   1. Name: Enter a name for the drop target
   2. Drag Type: Select the drag type (e.g. Move Contact) that matches the drag type set on the component being dragged
   3. Drop Action: Select

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   4. Actionflow: Select or create an Actionflow to run when a component with a matching drag type is dropped onto this component

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3. If creating an 

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   , select the

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   as the an

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4. Map in the attribute(s) created on the 

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5. Then configure your Actionflow as required, e.g. delete a record, move that contact to a company, change the state of the record, etc.

Worked Examples

Here's a worked example using the Company Data (available from the Learning Centre).

In this example, we are using:  

• A Company For Each ExampleApproval Review screen containing:
  • an multi-line string field and Save button that will be used by the user to enter a list 
  • a string field that will be used to create a filter
  • a grid backed by the ForEachExample tablea grid backed by the Companies table
    • with a Background Filter to only companies where their Status does not equal Approved or Rejected
  • two areas containing Approve and Reject icons  - this screen was created using the Multi-Tile  template

Example 1: Approve Company Using Drag and Drop

In this example, we'll take a list of values inputted by a user and convert these into individual records.

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Actionflow Setup

configure company records on a grid to be draggable, and set up an area on a screen as a drop target to receive the record(s). When a company is dropped in the area, its Status will be updated to Approved. We'll add some additional processing to our Actionflow to update the audit details on the record, showing who made the change, along with the date and time.

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Drag Type Setup

1. Open the Company Approval Review screen by clicking on the Approvals button in the top menu
2. Right-click on the Companies Pending Review grid and select 

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    to the Save button
3. Configure the Input as the CompanyForEachExample form
4. Map the attribute Text into the Actionflow

Calculate Action - Convert List to Array

1. Click the 

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1. In the Action Settings section, click the 

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1.  icon next to 

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    to

1. Map across the Text attribute

1. create a new drag type:
   1. Name:

Calculate Action - Create Session ID (Optional)

1. 1. Company
   2. Click 

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   3. Attributes: select 

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1. 1. 1. Name: CompanyID
      2. Type:

1. 1. 1. Integer

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For Each Action - Convert Array to Records

1. 1.  the Drag Type tab
2. A Drag Mappings section will become available in the Action Settings on the View
3. Click the 

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1. Create a  button
2. Map across the CompanyID attribute from the Companies

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    action 
   1. Name: Convert to Records
3. Connect it to the Calculate action and map across the Split attribute
4. On the For Each action, enter the following:
5. Input Expression: in.Split
6. Input Attributes: Split
Create two Output Attributes: 
7. Name: Name
   1. Type: String
   2. Expression: trim(_result.value)
      1. The trim function is used here to remove the whitespace after the comma separator in the list
      2. If this was not used and the list "one, two, three" was entered, the records "two" and "three" would be saved with prefixed whitespace
Name: LastUpdated
8. Type: Datetime
Expression: now() to the 

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9. Click Confirm Mappings

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Create a Sequence Number for UID (Optional)

Create a Sequence in your application to give each record a unique value. Alternatively, the UID attribute can be left unmapped and PhixFlow will automatically create a unique identifier.

1. Open the  the View

Drop Target Setup

1. On the Company Approval Review screen
2. Click on the area holding the Image Added icon
3. Ensure the

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    for your applicationExpand the area, OuterBorderTop, is selected
4. Click the 

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5.  option, then click In the Drop Targets section, click the 

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6. Name: Unique_ID
7. Start Value: 1
Block Size: 1 icon to add a new drop target:
1. Name: CompanyApproval
2. Drag Type: Select the Company Drag Type you set up above
3. Drop Action: Actionflow
4. Actionflow: click 

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Add the Sequence Number to the UID Attribute (Optional)

1. 1.  to create a new Actionflow
      1. Name: Company Approval

Actionflow Setup

1. Connect the input of the Company 

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2. Map in the CompanyID attribute 
3. Create a 

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    action

1. 1. Name: Update Status and Audit
2. Add three Output Attributes:
   1. NewApprovedStatus: this should contain a string with the new status
   2. NewUpdatedByName: this should contain details of the user making the change using the internal variable _user - see Internal Variables
      1. Review the Companies table data to see the formatting of this attribute

   3. NewUpdatedByTime: this should contain the date and time the user updates the record
      
      

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1. 1. Code Block theme Emacs title Name: NewApprovedStatus, Type: String "Approved" Code Block theme Emacs title Name: NewUpdatedByName, Type: String _user.name + " (" + _user.fullUsername + ")" Code Block theme Emacs title Name: NewUpdatedTime, Type: Datetime now()

      
      

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Save Action 

1. 1. 
      

2. Connect the 

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    to

1. the 

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    action

2. Hover over the Calculate action and click,

1. out
2. Click anywhere on the canvas to create a new 

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Output - Map SessionID Onto Screen (Optional) 

If you have created a SessionID attribute, an output will need to be created to map this value onto the SessionID String Field on the screen, so that it can be used for filtering.

1.  action
   1. Name: Save Company
   2. Type: Update
   3. Table: Companies
2. Map across the three attributes created by the Calculate action onto their relevant attributes in the Companies table, and the CompanyID from the input

Filter Setup (Optional)

Create a Default Filter that filters the view by the values in the SessionID field

Testing

Testing

1. Close and reopen the Company Approval Review screen, 

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    the screen
2. Enter a list into the Text field, e.g. Extra Small, Small, Medium, Large, etc. and click Save
   1. Your list will be converted into individual records in the grid
3. Enter another list and you will see that the previous list disappears as the grid is being filtered by the SessionID 
4. Once you have confirmed your default filter is working, hide it 

1. Drag a company from the Companies Pending Review grid onto the Approve icon
   1. The company should be removed from this screen and instead appear on the Companies screen

Example 2: Reject Company Using Drag and Drop (Optional)

Repeat the steps above to set up the area holding the Image Added icon as a Drop Target. Remember to change the Expression in the Output Attribute to "Rejected".

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