The following notes provide useful information on general interaction features of the client application that are used in many of the PhixFlow screens.
Double clicking
Double clicking items on a list (and elsewhere) generally opens the object definition form however for Stream Views, Dashboards, Analysis Models and Workflow Models PhixFlow will open the object representation e.g. the Chart implied by the Stream View. To open definition forms for these objects you need to use the "Edit" option on the context menu.
Selecting Items
Clicking an item "selects" it (the item will be highlighted) and any previously selected items will be deselected. To select multiple items, press the Control key at the same time as you click the item. This will add the new item to the list of selected items. Note that if the item clicked is already selected, it will be removed from the selection list. If you want to select a continuous list of items, select the first item on the list and then select the last item while holding down the Shift key.
Note that there are several places in PhixFlow where operations can be carried out on multiple selected items, for example object deletion or updating the status on Alarms.
Drag and Drop
The user can drag and drop the majority of object items within PhixFlow. The outcome of each drag/drop operation is dependent upon the context and is explained on help for each form however here are a few general tips:
- Objects can only be dragged/dropped between compatible forms i.e. only if it makes sense for the object to be dropped onto the target location.
- Many forms support drag/drop for multiple selected items.
- Items can be reordered by dragging and dropping on ordered lists i.e. lists where the order of the items is important e.g. the list of Stream Attributes for a Stream. Note that the list should be ordered in the (default) ordered state.
- On Analysis Model panes and Workflow Model panes, single or multiple objects can be dragged off the modelling pane and onto another object by selecting the objects you want to drag and then holding down the Shift key and dragging the item(s). If the Shift key is not held down, the selected objects are just moved on the modelling pane.
- Stream Views and Alarm Generators can be dragged onto Dashboards to create your own layout.
Multiple object windows - undocking and re-docking
These concepts are explained in a little more detail below, but to start watch this short video:
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Undocking - creating floating windows
It is often useful to create a stand-alone window, outside of the main repository browser. To do this, simply select the tab of the object you want to pull out, and drag it to somewhere on the PhixFlow background. A new floating window will appear.
Re-docking windows
If you open a new repository browser for an object, but want to re-dock it in the main repository browser area:
- hold the shift key down
- drag the banner of the window over the banner of the main repository browser
The window will now re-dock.
Deleting Items
PhixFlow will always ask for confirmation that you really do want to delete an item or selected list of items before actually deleting it. Note that you will not be able to delete an item that is referenced by other objects within PhixFlow (an message box will appear indicating the number and types of referencing items).
PhixFlow will not allow you to delete a Stream which contains data. To carry out the delete you must first remove all the data using the Rollback context menu item.
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All objects have context menus associated with them which are accessed by right-clicking the mouse button. One key context menu item is which is always the last item on the list (to help ensure it is not pressed accidentally)! Any menu items below this entry should be ignored as they are nothing to do with the PhixFlow application but have been placed there automatically by the Flash container application.
Note that all objects that appear on Analysis Models have a context menu entry "Show Models" which will display a list of all the models that contain that object.
Forms
Forms within windows all have the usual minimise, maximise, restore and close icons. Note that you can find a link to all forms (including minimised forms) on the Form Bar which appears when the mouse is near the bottom edge of the screen.
Double clicking the form header region is a fast way to toggle between maximised and restored states.
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Save any changes and close the form. Note that an error message will pop up if there are any problems and the form will remain open with each problem field flagged with . Note that if you hover over this icon, the error message relating to that field will appear.
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Save any changes but keep the form open. Again any errors will be reported.
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Shows a full Audit trail for all changes to this object i.e. who changed it, when and what they changed.
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Print the form details. On the majority of forms this will launch a browser window with the object formatted for printing.
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Back - go back to the previous object
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Open the help page for the form.
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This page is for PhixFlow data modellers and application developers. It describes the different menu and toolbar options available in the PhixFlow interface.
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User Menu
On the top right of the PhixFlow screen is the
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| Opens a User Details Form allowing the user to change their own account settings (including their password). | ||||||||
| Opens a browser window into PhixFlow's online support desk. Your designated support contacts will have login details. | |||||||||
| Opens a new email window. | |||||||||
| Shows general information about PhixFlow, in particular the current version that you are using. | |||||||||
| Opens this online help system. | ||||||||
| Returns PhixFlow to the startup screen so that the user must log back in to resume work. |
Status Bar
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The status bar is at the bottom of the PhixFlow window. On the left the number of currently running actions is shown. There is also the button to show/hide the windows bar. If there are any notifications on screen, they can all be dismissed in one go by clicking 'Dismiss notifications'. This will dismiss the green notification pop ups but not red error/failure messages.
On the right are icons which can be used to access different features:
| Open the palette panel on the right. You can drag preconfigured layout components from the palette into dashboards. | ||||||||||||||||
 Console | Show the System Console. This shows currently running tasks and log messages from processes run in PhixFlow. | ||||||||||||||||
 Show Repository | Open Using the Repository. This shows all of the available objects in your PhixFlow instance. | ||||||||||||||||
 Administration | Administration Menu. Options to Import Configuration, Export Full Configuration or Open Export Pane | ||||||||||||||||
| The icon indicates which mode you are currently running. Click it to switch between App Mode and Design Mode. |
Windows Bar
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The Windows bar appears in the bottom of the screen if 'Show Windows Bar' is selected from the footer bar. The Windows bar contains links to all open windows (both open and minimised). Click on a link to restore the window (if needed) and bring the window to the front of the screen. Each window link also has a context menu which allows you to close it directly.
For the Administration Menu, see System Administration.
Property Tab Toolbar
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When you open the property tab for a model or one of its modelling objects, the tab has a toolbar at the top.
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| Save the current properties and keep the tab open. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Toggle between the current property tab and one that was previously open. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Find in Explorer. This icon will bring the repository browser tab to the front and will close all nodes except those leading to this object. You may need to scroll the explorer to see the selected object. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Context sensitive help. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| If there is insufficient space on the header bar then some buttons are moved into this drop-down menu. The following options are always on the drop-down menu:
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The Audit trail is a useful way of reversing changes made by mistake as each audit entry shows both the new and old values. In the case of text fields, simply copy the old value and paste it into the form field.
Object Lists
Many forms include lists of objects that are associated with the object edited by that form. E.g. the list of stream attributes belonging to a stream.
Object lists have the following buttons:
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Refresh the object list.
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Add a child object to the object being edited. E.g. add a stream attribute to a stream.
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Drop down list
Many forms have fields which are set using drop down lists (also known as combo boxes). These drop down lists also have context menus to provide a quick way to open up the form describing that item or even to add or delete items from the list.
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Property Section Toolbars
Each property tab can contain a number of sections. Each section has a header represented by a green bar with a small arrow before the section label which can be clicked to collapse and open the section.
Some sections contain fields whereas other sections can contain grids. Sections which contain grids may have a number of icons on them to allow you to add and delete records, see a more detailed grid with more columns or refresh the current grid.
| Create and insert a new item into the list. | ||||||||
| Open up a grid showing more details about each item. | ||||||||
| Delete the selected item or items. | ||||||||
| Refresh the list (e.g. if the list has been updated on another computer by another user). | ||||||||
| Create and insert a new item into the list. |
Model Toolbar
Context Menu
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All objects have context menus associated with them which are accessed by right-clicking the mouse button. One key context menu item is which is always the last item on the list (to help ensure it is not pressed accidentally)!
Note that all objects that appear on Analysis Models have a context menu entry "Show Models" which will display a list of all the models that contain that object.
Grid
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There are two types of grid display. The first are simply lists of the configuration objects but showing more details than the
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repository explorer. The second type of grid shows data e.g. Stream Items
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. The operations on configuration object grids are all very similar (e.g. add, delete, refresh etc.) however data grids will have additional operations which are all described on the help page for that object.
The following general features of grids are worth noting:
- The items on grids are paged which means that PhixFlow fetches a batch of data at a time to populate the grid. The grid footer bar indicates which items are being shown, how many items there are in total and the page size. The user can page forwards and backwards using
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- Columns can be ordered by clicking the column header. Each click reverses the order direction. Please note that only the items currently paged in the display are ordered.
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The following functional icons are common to many grids:
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Select an existing (or predefined) Filter or create, delete and modify Filters. This causes the grid to refresh and display only those entries which match the selected Filter. | |
Select an existing (or predefined) multi-column Sort Order or create, delete and modify Sort Orders. Note that data is ordered across all records which are implied by the Filter, not just the current page of data. | |
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Pressing this icon toggles the display of additional icons for the form.
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Export the data being shown to an Excel spreadsheet. However, please note that when viewing Stream Data, pressing this button causes an option form to open which amongst other things allows you to choose to export the data to Excel, CSV or HTML. Note also that this will export all data implied by the Filter, not just the current paged result. When viewing data in a Chart, an Excel template can be configured on the Stream View that is used to specify the |
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Delete the currently selected items. A form will appear to confirm that you wish to proceed. | |
Refresh the contents of the current grid. | |
Open the help page for the grid. | |
| Show or hide the paging bar |
Stream Views Pop-Up Menu
When you drag stream attributes onto a layout, such as a dashboard or form, PhixFlow prompts how to display the data.
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| Grid | Display the data laid out in a table. |
| Line Chart | Plot a line or lines to represent quantities against a horizontal axis of categories. |
| Barcharts | Plot a quantity as a set of bars aligned vertically against a set of categories along the horizontal axis. |
| Plot a quantity as a set of bars aligned horizontally against a set of categories along the vertical axis. | |
| Pie Chart | Plot a quantity as a pie chart, grouped by a category. |
| Form | Layout the stream attributes as a form |
Tooltip Descriptions
Most
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PhixFlow objects have an optional description field. PhixFlow will display this description as you hover over the item whether the item is on a list or on a model pane. We highly recommend that you provide descriptions for all your objects to help document your work for both yourself and colleagues.