This page is is for application designers who need to create forms. It explains techniques for associating text with a data field, to label a field.
Overview
We can use data held in PhixFlow to set labels seen on our dashboards. Stream data can be used to:
- Setup the Dynamic Text Field Value
- Set the label on a Form Field (aka Data Fields)
- Set the Place Holder Text on a Form Field (aka Data Field)
For information about these components see Understanding Components and Layouts
For information about Binding Data to a form, also known as Backing Data, see Showing Data on a Screen.
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Setup the Dynamic Text Field Value
Dynamic text fields link to data by matching its name with the name of a Stream attribute that is bound to the form, or area, the dynamic text field resides on.
Worked example
Create a dashboard with a dynamic text field and back it with data (see Showing Data on a Screen for more detail)
The dashboard is backed by a stream called
Business.
The dashboard contains a dynamic text field, its Name is set to
Name.
- As the dynamic text field name matches the name of an attribute on the Business stream a link is created, and the name of the business is displayed.
Set the Label on a Form Field
When designing a dashboard we most often want the form fields to have a label to indicate what the data is. For example:
Data is stored in streams and displayed using views. Any form field associated to an attribute from either of these items will automatically use the name of the attribute as its label.
Creating Form Fields from a Stream or View
To set this up as follows:
Open a stream, or view.
Open the attributes section.
Drag one or more attributes onto a dashboard.
PhixFlow creates a form field based on the default component defined for your application, automatically associated the attribute with the form field and uses the attribute's name as the label.
Editing a Form Field Label
To change the default name of a form field:
Click on the form field, then click again to select the label.
In the properties window on the right, update the
Display Text
to the desired value.Save your changes.
Manually Creating Form Fields
In the Screen's toolbar click the Palette buttonOpen the your desired palette e.g. Theme 2.1
Open the Labelled Fields section e.g.
Drag a labelled field onto your screen. Note, select a field that matches the type of data the attribute will display.
Provide a name when prompted.
Optional Steps
If you need your field to be backed by data it will need to be associated to an attribute on a stream.
Click on the broken link Icon.
Follow the wizard prompts.
Setting Place Holder Text
Place holder text can be used to display a message to communicate information to the user. The value can be set manually or set to match the form field label.
- Select the Form Field on the dashboard.
- In the properties window on the right:
- Type a value in the Place Holder Text field to manually set a value.
- Tick Use Field Name as Place Holder to use the name of the field as the place holder text.
- Type a value in the Place Holder Text field to manually set a value.
Advanced Editing
In addition to a label, you may want additional text below the field. For example you might want to add
- static text, to explain what the user can do.
- dynamic text that depends on selected data.
- In a basic components palette, such as Basic Components, drag a Static Text or Dynamic Text layout onto a form area.
Right-click the new field and select Find. In the layouts list, find the container for the fields and double-click it to open its properties.
In the Advanced section, the View Type is Field container. Expand the drop-down list and select the empty row. Save the container component. This "opens" the container so you can add more components to it.
- In the layouts list, shift-click and drag the new component into the container. PhixFlow moves your component to be a child of the container component.
Important: Open the field container properties again and reset Advanced →View Type to Field container. All child components are now contained within the parent, which is also a composite component.
Additional Reading
Showing Data on a ScreenInsert excerpt | ||||||||
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Overview
PhixFlow has different components that you can use to add text to a screen.
- Static Text: for specific text that you want to show on a screen.
- Dynamic Text: for text that changes depending on screen activity.
- Labelled Fields: for displaying table attribute values with labels.
- Place Holder Text: for form field. It appears as low-light text that displays details about a data field or instructions for the user to follow.
Adding Static Text
Static text is useful for many purposes including headings, button labels and instructions that you want the screen to display. To add static text:
Open your Palette, drag a static text field component onto your screen.
Static text templates can typically be found in the Basic Layout and Text sections of a palette.
To edit the text, in the properties for the static text navigate to Basic Settings → Display Text.
- To open the properties for the item simply click on the item on the screen.
Enter the fixed text you want to appear.
Use the Style Settings section to format the text. For example, you can specify the colour, weight and size of the text.
Save your changes.
Adding Dynamic Text
Dynamic text is useful when the text needs to adapt to the content of the screen, for example to show the name of a selected company. To add dynamic text:
Open your Palette, drag a dynamic text field component onto your screen.
Dynamic text templates can typically be found in the Basic Layout and Text sections of a palette..
To have the dynamic text reflect the value held in a table backing your screen, such as the name of an employee, simply name the Dynamic Text field to be the same as the attribute you wish to display. It is also possible to do the same with context variables.
Where there is no underlying table or the attribute value is empty, we can specify the default text to be displayed. In the properties for the dynamic text navigate to Basic Settings → Default Value.
- To open the properties for the item simply click on the item on the screen.
Enter the text you want to appear.
Use the Style Settings section to format the text. For example, you can specify the colour, weight and size of the text.
Save your changes.
Adding Dynamic Text with Returns
Text that has carriage returns in the text, aka new lines of text, for example outputting a set of results to a dynamic text area where each record is on a new line, is achieved as follows.
- Add a Dynamic Text Field to your screen.
- Such as Palette → Serene Grey → Basic Layouts → Text - Dynamic.
- When creating the value that is to be written to the dynamic text, use "\n" to add carriage returns to your string value.
- For Example:
Code Block do( forEach($i,1..countElements($myArray), $message = $message + "\n" + getElement($myArray, $i) ) //Output the message $message )
- This outputs each value in $myArray on a new line.
- For Example:
- The Dynamic Text field requires an entry in the CSS Properties
- CSS Tag,
white-space
- Value,
pre-wrap
- CSS Tag,
Adding Labelled Fields
Labelled fields are used to display and enter data on a form. We recommend adding attributes directly to a screen as PhixFlow will automatically:
- chooses a component that matches the attribute's data type.
- names the components.
- binds the field to the attribute.
- Styles the form field.
Tip |
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All the fields on a form must display data from the same table or view. You can create a view that includes attributes from different tables, provided the tables are related: see Entity Relationship Diagrams. |
Starting with Data (recommended)
- In the screen or screen element, to add a form container, right-click and select
.Insert excerpt _form_new _form_new nopanel true - From a list of attributes, drag an attribute onto the form container.
- For the first attribute you add, PhixFlow asks you to confirm that you want to bind this form container to the table or view.
- PhixFlow recognises that you want to add fields to a form. It uses the default labelled field, which is set in the Application Properties properties or in System Configuration.
Starting with Components from the Palette
Open your palette and expand one of the Form Fields sections, such as Form Fields by Data Type.
Drag components onto a form container, these should match the type of data you wish to display for example Date or Number.
Enter a name so that PhixFlow can save the component to the repository. Labelled fields use the name entered as it's label.
- No date will display until the screen is backed by data.
To bind the screen to data
- Bind the form container to a table or view; see Showing Data on a Screen.
If the name of the labelled field matches the attribute name from the table or view backing the screen the data will be displayed. If the names do not match you can:
right click on a field
Select Change Backing Attribute.
Select the appropriate attribute.
Save your changes.
Setting Place Holder Text
It can be useful to display information in the field itself. For example, giving instructions to the user to "Add customer's request here". Placeholder text is only displayed when a field has no data to display.
Drag a form field from the palette onto a form.
- Name the field. PhixFlow opens the field properties.
In the Basic Settings section:
either edit the Place Holder Text property to enter the placeholder text you want to use
or tick Use Field Name as Place Holder. PhixFlow uses field's name as the placeholder text.
Click
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