Versions Compared

Key

  • This line was added.
  • This line was removed.
  • Formatting was changed.

The following is a list of all key terms within PhixFlow and links to relevant help pages.

actionButtonsactionButtonsAction ButtonUsed to group Stream Actions into drop-down lists or display single Stream Action as a button. Archives Stream Sets from Streams Drill DownReport TaskShortcutLinks to objects from the Control FrameworkStream Attributes
TermDescription

Anchor

action

action

action

Defines a set of operations on  the values of data in a stream.

 stream item. A stream action can be applied from the stream view properties.

Anchor
actionButtons
actionButtons
action button

Used to group actions into drop-down lists or display a single 2168684979 as a button. In both cases Action Buttons are displayed on the top of Stream View .

Action Button Details

2168684979 .

Anchor
aggregateField
aggregateField
Aggregate Attributeaggregate attribute

Aggregate Attributes define the aggregated properties that are available when data is read from an aggregating Pipe 2168684979.

Anchor
analysisModel
analysisModel
Analysis Modelanalysis model

Allow users to logically represent a business process / control flow using configured PhixFlow objects, e.g. streams, file collectors etc.

Anchor
analysisTask
analysisTask

Analysis Task

analysis task

The Analysis Engine is initiated whenever the generation of a Stream Set or alarm is requested. Users can do this by configuring Analysis Tasks in a Task Plan 2168684979.

Anchor
archiveTaskRun
archiveTaskRun
ArchiveTask
archive task

A task to archive 2168684979 from 2168684979 with archiving configured on them.

Anchor
array
array
Arrayarray

And An object that contains an ordered list of other objects.

Anchor
attributeFunction
attributeFunction
Attribute Functionattribute function

PhixFlow provides an extensive list of Attribute Functions which may be used within all expression strings.

Anchor
auditDetail
auditDetail
Audit Detailaudit detail

Details of an individual audited action performed on a PhixFlow object.

Anchor
auditSummary
auditSummary
Audit Summaryaudit summary

A summary of all audited action performed on PhixFlow objects. Can be viewed in the System Console.

Anchor
auditAffectedObject
auditAffectedObject
Audited Itemaudited item

PhixFlow objects that have auditing switched on to allow for any changes in the system to be tracked.

Anchor
candidateSet
candidateSet
Candidate Setcandidate set

Candidate sets are a fundamental concept of function calculation in PhixFlow.

Every time a function calculation is carried out, all the required input data is brought together and organised into sets of data - one set for each Key group.

The Key groups are worked out using the Pipe Grouping Attributes defined on input Pipe for each Stream.

Anchor
centerViewDatabase
centerViewDatabase
PhixFlow Databasedatabase

The database that stores the PhixFlow schema and all processed data

Anchor
chart
chart
Chartchart

A Chart displays data in table form, or in one of a number of graphs styles.

Charts

Anchor
comparator
comparator
Comparatorcomparator

Refers to the comparator types that can be used in a filter, e.g. greater than, starts with.

Anchor
collector
collector
Collectorcollector

A generic term for a File Collector 2168684979, a Database Collector 2168684979, or an Http Collector 2168684979.

Anchor
contextMenu
contextMenu
Context Menucontext menu

A context menu appears above each Model Element 2168684979 when the user hovers over it in a model view. This menu shows all of the actions that can be performed on that element.

Anchor
csvfile
csvfile
CSV Filefile

A CSV (comma-separated variable) file is a plain text file where each line in the file consists of a number of fields separated by commas ','. If fields may contain spaces, commas or double quotes, they should be enclosed in double quotes '"'. A double quote may be represented by 2 double quotes.

A CSV file is always encoded using a specific character set. On Windows this is typically Cp1282, and on Unix/Linux US7ASCII, though the following are sometimes used: UTF-8, UTF-16, ISO-8859-1.

A CSV file typically has an extension '.csv'.

A CSV file can be created directly in a plain text editor (e.g. Wordpad/Notepad), in Excel (by saving as a CSV), or by some other application.

Anchor
cycle
cycle
Cyclecycle

Whenever an analysis model is run it will carry out a number of tasks e.g. read a number of files, generate a number of stream sets, export a number of files. It is possible to configure an analysis model so that in a single analysis session it will actually run several times. When a model is configured in this way, each time it runs is termed a 'cycle' and all of the items processed or generated during that cycle (i.e. the files processed, streamsets stream sets created, files exported etc) are flagged with the cycle number. This cycle number is visible in the Log File for that analysis run on each of the relevant tabs showing files andstreamsets and stream sets processed.

The most common reason for configuring a model in this way is to allow a number of files to be processed in a single analysis session but to have the results from each file saved in a separate streamsetstream set. In this way, whenever a file fails to process the user can simply rollback the streamsets stream sets associated with that file rather than rolling back all of the streamsets stream sets associated with all of the files for the whole analysis session.

To achieve this, a model is configured with a push pipe from the final stream in the model pointing back to itself. This push pipe is then given positive offsets. The file collector at the start of the model is then configured to process a single file at a time. When this model is run the file collector will read in one file, process it to create a stream set (or a chain of stream sets if there are several streams in the model) and will flag the file processed, the stream sets generated and any associated alarms or output files with the cycle number 1. When the last stream in the model has finished producing its stream set it will send a notification to itself down the push pipe. This notification (because of the positive offsets) will be taken as a signal to create another stream set which will effectively cause the whole model to run again. This second run of the model will be deemed to be cycle 2 and all files processed, stream sets produced , alarms raised or files output will be flagged with this cycle number.

When later viewing the log files the user can see which items were processed in which cycle and can choose how many cycles to roll back. In the case where the last file processed was unsuccessful the user can therefore choose to only roll back the last cycle.

Anchor
dashboard
dashboard
Dashboarddashboard

A dashboard allows the user to gather into a single view a set of charts and filtered lists of alarms and tasks. This grouping of related reports and statistics provides the user with preconfigured overviews of selected areas, making all the data that is required to view and monitor the health of the system both accessible and easy to read.

Anchor
dataGrid
dataGrid

Data Grid

data grid

A Data Grid is a particular type of view which displays the data in a table format.

Anchor
databaseCollector
databaseCollector
Database Collectordatabase collector

Used to gather information from a external database, defined as a PhixFlow PhixFlow Datasource. It holds the SQL that will be sent to the datasource to retrieve data.

Anchor
driverClass
driverClass

Database Driver

database driver

The driver used to access the source database.
Anchor
databaseExporter
databaseExporter
Database Exporterdatabase exporter

Used to write information from PhixFlow to external databases.

Anchor
datasource
datasource
Datasourcedatasource

Defines a connection to an external database.

Anchor
datasourceInstance
datasourceInstance
Datasource Instancedatasource instance

Allows for multiple connections for individual database instances to be configured for a specific Datasource 2168684979.

Datasource Instance Details

Anchor
directedPipe
directedPipe
DirectedPipedirected pipe

A Directed Pipe is used as a secondary input to a Merge Stream.

Primary Pipes to a Merge are implemented by reading all input records from all Primary Pipes in a single operation, ordered by the Group-By fields. The primary pipes determine the key values of the Candidate Sets that will be generated.

A Directed pipe is implemented after the Primary Pipes have run, by reading records matching each Candidate Set grouping key in turn. This can result in a significant performance improvement in certain circumstances.

A Pipe can be marked as a Directed Pipe on the Pipe Details / Advanced tab.

Anchor
drillDowndrillDown

A user can drill down into an alarm to view the recordset that caused the alarm to be generated.

Users can drill down through successively more detailed reports from the original data item which raised the alarm through to the source data at the root of the problem.

A Pipe can be marked as a Directed Pipe on the Pipe Details / Advanced tab.

Anchor
expression
expression
Expressionexpression

An expression returns a value, usually by manipulating or transforming input data, although some expressions can be very simple: e.g. the expression "hello" always returns the string "hello" and requires no input.

Anchor
fileCollector
fileCollector
File Collectorfile collector

Describes the structure, content, naming patterns and location of files of data to be imported into PhixFlow.

Anchor
fileCollectorAttribute
fileCollectorAttribute

File Collector Attribute

file collector attribute

The data columns that a File Collector expects  expects to be present when importing a file.

Anchor
fileExporter
fileExporter
File Exporterfile exporter

Used to write information from PhixFlow to external files.

Anchor
filter
filter
Filterfilter

Filters are made up of a set of clauses; each clause in turn contains a number of conditions. These conditions must be satisfied for data to be passed through a Pipe pipe or returned in a filtered list.

Anchor
formBar
formBar
Form Barform bar

If you move your mouse pointer to the bottom of the screen the PhixFlow Form Bar will appear. Contains links to all open forms (both open and minimised).

Anchor
fTPSite
fTPSite
FTP Sitesite

A file system that is reachable via the FTP protocol.

Anchor
orderByField
orderByField
Group By Attributegroup by attribute

Groups the pipe data into candidate set, forms key for condidate candidate set. However if data is coming from database or file collector, order by fields need to be specidied specified in the collector sqlSQL.

Anchor
http
http
HTTP

Hypertext transfer protocol - the language of the internet. In the context of PhixFlow, it means using standard internet communication as means of importing into and exporting data from a Control.

Anchor
httpCollector
httpCollector
HTTP Collectorcollector

Collect data from an HTTP Datasource 2168684979.

Anchor
httpDatasource
httpDatasource
HTTP Datasourcedatasource

A web site, web service or some other target that allows XML, HTML or text data to be collected from it, or exported to it, over HTTP. Data is collected from an HTTP Datasource using a HTTP Collector 2168684979 , and exported to an HTTP Datasource using a HTTP Exporter 2168684979.

An HTTP Datasource Instance must define at least one HTTP Datasource Instance 2168684979.

An HTTP Datasource Instance may define multiple XML Namespaces 2168684979 to support XPath 2168684979 expressions on HTTP Collectors 2168684979 .

Anchor
httpDatasourceInstance
httpDatasourceInstance
HTTP Datasource Instancedatasource instance

An HTTP Datasource Instance provide a default username, password and url URL to an HTTP Collector 2168684979 or HTTP Exporter 2168684979.

Anchor
httpExporter
httpExporter
HTTP Exporterexporter

Export data to an HTTP Datasource 2168684979.

Anchor
internalVariable
internalVariable
Internal internal variables

Pre-defined variables for use in PhixFlow Expressions.

Anchor
cVLocale
cVLocale
Languagelanguage

The display language of the user.

Anchor
logFile
logFile
Log Filelog file

A record of a task or action completed in PhixFlow, including any messages output and details about stream sets created.

Anchor
logMessage
logMessage

Log Message

log message

Within each log list, log messages are output by the Analysis Engine as it performs analysis.

Anchor
macro
macro
Macromacro

A macro is a user-defined function that can be called from other Expressions 2168684979.

A macro can be called with parameters. These parameters are available within the body of the macro as $arg.

Anchor
modelElement
modelElement
Model Elementmodel element

The individual objects that make up an Analysis Model 2168684979 e.g. streams, file collectors etc. These elements are added via drag and drop controls and context menus.

Anchor
paging
paging
Pagingpaging

Where a list is displaying more data than can be viewed in the display grid, paging allows the user to scroll through the whole list, e.g. alarm lists, log messages, Stream Set data.

Anchor
period
periodperiod
Periodperiod

A period is set on a Stream. This can be either a regular period, or variable. There are three four possible settings:

  • Daily: generate or collect data every day.
  • Monthly: generate or collect data every month.
  • Variable: generate or collect data since the more recent run of the stream to the current date.
  • Transactional: allows multiple users to run independent analysis tasks at the same time.
Anchor
pipe
pipe
Pipepipe

A pipe is a connector that links two elements in a PhixFlow model.

Anchor
privilege
privilege
Privilegeprivilege

Privileges are used to define what actions can be performed in PhixFlow.

Privilege Details

performed in PhixFlow; see Privileges.

Anchor
repository
repository
repository
The PhixFlow repository lists the files, modelling objects and application components to which you have access; see Using the Repository
Anchor
recordset
recordset
Recordsetrecordset

A record set is a list of records returned, usually by a pipe, where each record consists of named attributes, each with a value.

Anchor
refreshAction
refreshAction

Refresh Action

refresh action

Represents an action that once completed will cause the enclosing view to be refreshed.

Anchor
reportTaskreportTask

Report Tasks can be configured to distribute key information to a list of recipients. Users can do this by configuring Report Tasks in a Task Plan.

Report Task Details

cause the enclosing view to be refreshed.

Anchor
role
role
Rolerole

Roles represent the type of access required to do specific tasks (e.g. Designer, Operator etc). ) Roles are assigned to User Groups (or vice versa)

; see Roles.

Anchor
role
role
Rollbackrollback

Deletes a specified set of Stream Sets 2168684979 from a Stream 2168684979 and updates the tidemarks for that Stream 2168684979.

Anchor
rollbackTask
rollbackTask
Rollback Taskrollback task

A Rollback Task can be configured to rollback one or more streams. Users can do this by configuring Rollback Tasks in a Task Plan.

Anchor
linklink

configuring Rollback Tasks in a 2168684979.

Anchor
sequence
sequence
Sequencesequence

A Sequence is used to generate a numeric sequence of values.

The Sequence lets you define the properties of the sequence e.g. the starting value.

The nextValue function returns the next value in the sequence each time it is called.

The curValue function returns the most recent value returned by nextValue.

Anchor
sql
sql
SQL

SQL query used to retrieve data from, or SQL or PL/SQL statement used toupdate to update data in, a Datasource 2168684979.

Anchor
stream
stream
Streamstream

Represent a structured store of data within PhixFlow receiving data from one or more components, processing it then storing it.

Anchor
streamAction
streamAction
Stream Actionstream action

Defines a set of updates to the values of a Stream Item stream item. A Stream Action stream action can be applied from a Stream View from a Stream Item Details form.

Stream Action Details

the stream view properties.

Anchor
streamActionAttribute
streamActionAttribute

Stream Action Attribute

stream action attribute

Each Stream Action Attribute defines the new value to be assigned to a single field of a Stream Item 2168684979. The new value is defined as an Glossary / Index 2168684979, which can refer to the original values of the Stream Item.

When a Stream Action is applied, each attribute's expression is evaluated in turn and the result is saved back to the Stream Item.

Anchor
streamAttribute
streamAttribute
Stream Attributestream attribute

Define the type, precision and expressions of how each individual attribute is calculated based on the inputs to the Stream.

Anchor
streamFunctionFactory
streamFunctionFactory
Stream Functionstream function

Defines the basic Stream operation. Form the basis of transformations in PhixFlow to get from raw data to the elements of a control framework - controls, reports and alarms.

Stream Functions

The type of stream may be aggregate, calculate, calculate by set, cartesian or merge.

Anchor
streamItem
streamItem
Stream Itemstream item

Individual record in a Stream Set 2168684979.

Anchor
streamItemDetails
streamItemDetails
Stream Item Detailsstream item details

A Stream Item Details form can be opened from a Grid Stream View 2168684979 by opening the view, selecting a Stream Item 2168684979 then selecting Show Stream Item Details from the pull-down context menu.

Anchor
streamTables
streamTables
Stream Tablesstream tables

Physical table in PhixFlow schema that stores the Stream 2168684979 data.

Anchor
streamView
streamView

Stream View

stream view

Used to customise the display of data in one or more Stream Sets.

Anchor
streamViewAttribute
streamViewAttribute
Stream View Attribute
stream view attribute

2168684979 used in a Stream View 2168684979. Each attribute has a role that defines how the data will be displayed.

Stream View Attribute Details

Anchor
streamSet
streamSet
Stream Setstream set

A set of data items for a given period.

Anchor
systemConfiguration
systemConfiguration
System Configurationsystem configuration

Where all general system wide properties are configured in PhixFlow.

Anchor
systemTask
systemTask

System Task

system task

A System Task runs standard system-wide housekeeping activities; see System Task for details. It must be run as part of a Task Plantask plan. 

The standard housekeeping activities are:

  • Deleting and (optionally) archiving Log Messages
  • Deleting Managed File entries.

The parameters controlling how long to keep Log Messages / Managed Files files before deleting them, and whether first to archive Log Messages log messages to file, are set in in System Configuration.

System Task Details

Anchor
task
task

Task

task

A Task can be set up to carry out an action or set of actions in PhixFlow. Tasks can be one of:

Anchor
taskPlan
taskPlan
Task Plantask plan

Contains a set of Tasks 2168684979 to run.

Anchor
user
user
Useruser

Users represent the individuals working in the organisation that will be logging onto PhixFlow and performing tasks. Users are assigned to User Groups.

Anchor
userGroup
userGroup
User Groupuser group

Users belong to User Groups that represent the area of the business they work in (e.g. Customer Service, Finance, Billing Support etc.) User Groups are assigned to Roles (or vice versa).

Anchor
userNotificationRule
userNotificationRule

User Notification Rule

user notification rule

Specifies the User 2168684979 that will be notified of the completion of a task plan based on a set of rules.

Anchor
xmlNamespace
xmlNamespace
XML

Namespace

namespace

When parsing an XML response, the XPath on an HTTP Collector 2168684979 determines the node in the XML response that will cause an output record to be generated. In general, XML node names are relative to namespaces, and are referred to by namespace aliases. An XPath can use any XML Namespace alias defined by the HTTP Datasource 2168684979 linked to the HTTP Collector 2168684979 .

Anchor
xPath
xPath
XPath

An XPath expression on an HTTP Collector 2168684979 determines the node in the XML response that will cause an output record to be generated.

An XPath is a '/'-separated list of node names.

If any of the node names in the XPath use non-default namespaces, these may be defined in XML Namespaces 2168684979