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Overview
When designing a screen, you drag a template component from a palette onto a screen. When preferred parents are configured, PhixFlow can highlight the appropriate areas onto which you can drop the component. This can be useful where you have a screen with different areas designed to display different things, such as:
- headers for static and dynamic text
- form container for data fields and text labels
- card container for cards
- button bar for buttons.
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Overview
Component Categories are used to highlight on a screen where an item is expected to be placed.
For example, a Tile Container has the Component Category "Tile Holder". If a user then drags a tile with "Tile Holder" specified as its Preferred Parent onto a screen that has a Tile Container it will highlight with a pink surround.
The PhixFlow palettes contain templates with component categories and preferred parent specified to help make creating screens easier. For example,:
- Header areas highlight when header items are dragged over a screen.
- Button bars highlight when buttons are dragged over a screen.
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The following palettes predate version 9.0.0 and the preferred parent feature is not supported for them. We recommend using the Serene Grey Template Package, see Installing Template Packages.
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PhixFlows Base components, theme 1 and theme 2 are not configured with preferred parents.
I am using a template and dragging things into a screen. PhixFlow hightlights stuff to show where I can drop it.
I am creating or modifying a component that will be a template and want to select the preferred parent from the list in the component properties.
Where components on a palette have been configured with preferred parents, as you drag a component onto the screen, PhixFlow highlights parent components that are designed to hold this component.
You can see which components would be preferred parents in the Preferred Parent Categories.
Set layout categories in template components.
Added a new Type of object "Layout Category", an Area Component can be given a Layout Category and additionally all layout components have a collection of "preferred parent categories". When dropping a layout component onto a layout it will try to find an area component with one of its preferred parent categories to set as its parent. If one is not found it will drop as before.
Creating Layout Categories
PhixFlow uses layout categories so that template components can be configured with preferred parents. When you drag a component from the palette, PhixFlow can then highlight the areas of the screen that are an appropriate container for the component.
To create a layout category:
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How to Configure Preferred Parents
Define a Component Category and apply it to an object, then any objects we want to be place in this object have this Component Category set as their Preferred Parent. A Component Category is just a label that is used to create an association. Objects can have multiple Preferred Parents and can also have their own Component Category.
Setup
- For the item you want to be the Parent,
- Open its properties.
- In Basic Settings → Component Category,
- If you have a Component Category already defined, click
and from the window that opens drag the component category into the box.Insert excerpt _componentCategory _componentCategory nopanel true - If you have not defined a Component Category yet, click
to create one.Insert excerpt _add _add nopanel true
Layout Category Type Properties
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- For all the template items that you want to be placed in this Component Category repeat the following:
- Open the template section in the repository where your desired items is held.
- It is advised to add this feature to a template, however if you have not yet made your component a template, simply open its properties from where it resides.
- Double click on item to open its Properties.
- In the Preferred Parent Categories section click
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- Open the template section in the repository where your desired items is held.
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componentCategory _
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componentCategory nopanel true
Basic Settings
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- From the repository, drag the required Component Category onto the Preferred Parent Categories list and save your changes. This is illustrated below:
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When you are dragging a component from the palette, you can drop it onto any suitable container - it does not have to be a preferred parent. Simply hold the shift key to force the item into the desired location. See Moving Components on a Screen for more help on this subject. |