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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
When you are designing a form, first add a form component. The form component is the container for all the data fields and labels; see Understanding Components and Layouts. You bind the form component to a stream or view; Showing Data on a Screen. This tells PhixFlow what attributes are available to display in data fields or labels.
Opening the List of Attributes
To open the list of available attributes for a form component:
either right-click on the form in the dashboard and selector open the properties tab for a stream or view and expand the Attributes section.
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Adding a Static Text Label
Use a static text component to add your own text to a dashboard. This is useful for headings or- 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
You can create a label or heading that changes depending on the user-selected record, using a dynamic text component. This is useful to add headings to a form or card that change depending on the selected record. This is illustrated for a form heading on the right.
To bind the component to the attribute, give the dynamic text component the same name as the attribute.
todo-Fiona any attribute or just primary keys?
todo-Fiona anything else
This is useful to add headings to a form or card.
todo-Fiona - Name fields are often the display name for the primary key
For a Grid
Create a dashboard with a grid and form, both bound to the same stream or view.
Add a dynamic text component to the form.
Bind the component to an attribute.
For a Card
Drag a stream onto a dashboard. In the pop-up window, select the card component.
Optionally select related attributes.
In the card header, add a dynamic text component.
Bind the component to an attribute.
To bind the dynamic text component to an attribute, do one of the following:
In the dynamic text properties, give it the same name as the attribute you want to show.
on the dashboard, drag an attribute from the grid header onto the dynamic text component
open the list of available attributes and drag one onto the dynamic text component.
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A dashboard has a heading that displays the business name from the selected record. Dashboard with grid (top) and form (below)In the dashboard below, the first record, for the business Avaveo, is selected. The heading is a dynamic text component. It is set to display the attribute Name from the selected record in a grid. Both the data grid and the form are bound to a stream called Stream that is bound to the grid and the formIn the dynamic text field properties, the Name property is set to
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Creating Labelled Fields on a Form
For forms that display data or in which the application user can add or edit data have data fields. The easiest way to add a label to a data fields is to add a labelled field component to the form:
- either by starting with data
- or by starting with components from the palette.
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 |
see Understanding Labelled Fields, below.
A form with labelled fields
tables are related: see |
- 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.
Where the attribute name is a good reflection of it's data, you can use this to add a label. To change the label to something that is more helpful to the application user:
- Click on the data field, then click again to select the label. PhixFlow opens the label's property tab.
- In Basic Settings change the Display Text, then save your changes.
You cannot drop an attribute directly onto a dashboard, dashboard element or area as PhixFlow does not know what type of component you want to add.
Starting with Components from the Palette
Expand a palette that has field or labelled field components, such as:
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.
For each labelled field, rename the area to be the same as the name of an attribute in the backing data.
PhixFlow automatically renames the data field and displays its data. The label remains unchanged.
Understanding Labelled Fields
Basic Components: individual data field and text components
Labelled fields: a composite component comprising a data field and a static text field
Changing Names and Labels
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PhixFlow binds the data field to an attribute in the backing data that has the same name. To bind the data field to a different attribute, change
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If you change the name of either the data field or the area, PhixFlow automatically:
- updates the name of the other component, so the names always match
- looks in the backing data for an attribute with the same name
- displays data from the attribute, if there is one that matches.
The static text field is called Label
. Edit the static text properties to change it's name or the Display Text.
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.
In Basic Setting:
either enter the placeholder text in Place Holder Text
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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When you drag an attribute onto an area, PhixFlow adds the default labelled field
A labelled field that you add from the palette is a composite component that includes:
- a container with:
- property → Basic Settings → Composite Component ticked
- property → Advanced → View Type: Field container
- child components:
- a static text field, with properties → Basic Settings:
- Name is
Label
- Display Text is the name of the attribute.
- Name is
- a data field that displays data from the attribute.
- a static text field, with properties → Basic Settings:
For information about composite components, see Grouping Components.
You may want to add another text component to a labelled field. For example, you could add:
- a static text component, to explain what the user can do.
- a dynamic text component, to show information from a selected record.
However, the property View Type Field container prevents additional components being added to the container. To add another text field:
PhixFlow opens the repository listing Layouts. In the layouts list, find the container for the labelled field and double-click it to open its properties.
All child components are now grouped as a composite component in the container.
Field Containers
todo-fiona What is it field containers do related to sharing data...
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Not yet implemented To bind the field to an attribute:
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