This page explains how to open a screen or create a new one, as well as how to add components to a screen.

Select an Existing Screen

From the application Home window, select Design Screens.
Select one of the listed screens.

PhixFlow opens the screen canvas on the left and the palette on the right.

Create a New Screen

If you have defined your data in an ERD, you can create a screen and its components based on that data; see Create a Screen From ERD Data. To create the screen first:

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Click Insert excerpt_new_newnopaneltrue Create New to create a new screen.

Select a screen template. This will give you pre-set layouts such as:

desktop or mobile dimensions
full screen or pop-up
a data grid or form.

PhixFlow prompts you to:

Enter the name and description for the screen.
Select whether or not the screen will Open Maximised.
When you select this option, the screen will open "full screen" for the application user.
Otherwise, PhixFlow assumes the screen will be a pop-up window. It automatically selects the following options: This need to be updated with the logic from flow: 5.5 if you want to include this level of detail here.
- Always on top
- Allow user to resize

Click Confirm.

PhixFlow opens a new screen canvas on the left and the palette on the right.

To add components to the screen, drag them into the canvas from the palette.

The Screen Canvas and Options

PhixFlow has several areas of the screen with features to help you when designing a screen.

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The central area is the canvas where you design your screen.
Along the top of the canvas is the toolbar
On the left is the layers panel, which shows how the components are nested; see Using Layers, below.
On the right is the palette. Drag components from the palette onto the canvas. Do we want to talk about preferred parent here?
Above the toolbar, you can find quick access to lists of:
- other palettes
- component categories
- templates: components that can be added to a palette
- styles
- menus
- images.

Unlock a Screen Canvas

To prevent accidental editing of a screen, PhixFlow opens an existing screen with the canvas locked:

when you first open an existing screen in Insert excerpt_design_mode_design_modenopaneltruewhen you switch between Insert excerpt_design_mode_design_modenopaneltrue and Insert excerpt_app_mode_app_modenopaneltrue.To unlock the canvas, right-click on the canvas and select Insert excerpt_layout_unlock_layout_unlocknopaneltrue. This can also be done from the context toolbar see flow 3.4 When the screen is locked the toolbar has different options enabled.

Using the Palette

Check the flow 5.8

The way a screen is made up of layered components is reflected in the way components are grouped in the palette. At the top level are the pre-built items, such as:

Complete Forms - drag in a single tile that has all the components to create a full screen. Should we calls these complete screens?
Form Elements - drag in several tiles to design your own screen. Each tile has layers of components, such as an area with headers, fields and labels. Form elements is not limited to tiles.

If you want more control over the design of your screen, use partially prepared components:

Tile containers - drag these in to be the containers. Containers create distinct areas on the screen, with padding and margins so that child items can be automatically positioned.
Tiles - drag in composite components called tiles.

If you want to go right back to the basic screen components and fields, use the last 2 palettes.

Base Components - build up the different things you want on the screen from the base up.
Data Components - add components designed to display data.

Creating Forms Easily

If your screen is going to be a form to display individual data records for a user to edit, it's easier to start with the data rather than creating lots of individual fields. You can:

Select the attributes you want to appear in a form. How?
Drag the attributes onto the parent container.
Let PhixFlow create default form fields in which to display data records.

For how to do this, see Showing Data on a Screen. if is is covered else where why duplicate it here in part?

If you have already created fields fields should this be form fields?, they are displayed with a broken link icon. Drag on attributes to bind them to the field.

For your selected template, PhixFlow displays a palette. This has all the ~~"bits" or~~ components you need to build a screen.

Tip

The easiest way to move components around is in the layers panel, rather than in the screen itself. Not sure this is true if we get the preferred parent. When you are dragging things around in the screen, PhixFlow may not know if you want to drop a component: feels like an issue with our system that perhaps shouldn't be highlighted. can we positively spin this? e.g. for more precision use the layers option

into another component, creating a parent-child relationship
next to another component, creating a sibling relationship.

If instead you drag a component in the list of layers, you can be specific about how the component relates to other components on the screen.

If you are using PhixFlow's palette, most components will flow into the space that is available to them. flow is a little vague and would not be clear for a new user, are we talking about sizing here? see Using Size and Position for Responsive Design.

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Screen Design and Layers : Anchorlayerlayer

A typical screen has a nested structure, in which the main areas are the parents for other components. This is illustrated below: I would state that this is to create a responsive design that will look as good on a desktop as it would on a mobile device.

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Another way to show these layers is as a heirarchy. For example:

Screen

Controls area

Menu 1

Menu 2

Main area

Header

Tile container area

Sub-header

Tile Body

Area 1

Grid

Area 2

Form

Button Bar

Footer area

Button 1

Button 2

To show the parent/child hierarchy for a screen, click Insert excerpt_layer_slider_layer_slidernopaneltrue. There is an example on the right.

You can

Select something on your screen to see it/them highlighted in the layers list.
- Selected items outlined in blue
- Parent item outlined in orange.
In the layers panel, drag components around to change their position on the screen.

Layout components have a Postion Settings → Prevent Dragging option so that once something is set up you don't accidentally change it's size or drag it out of position on screen. You can rearrange it via the layers list. We haven't mentioned the option for that stops dragging being permitted?

Where Can I Drop This?

Whenever you start to drag a component from the palette, or an attribute, PhixFlow highlights the area onto which you can drop something using light blue, as shown below.

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Testing Screens

DRAFTING

To test, clcik

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To create or edit a screen, load your application then in the header bar, click

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. PhixFlow opens the screens window.

Screens

Opening an Existing Screen

To open an existing screen:
- either, in the header bar, click
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  and in the list, click on the screen name you want to open
- or in the repository, expand your application's Screens section and double-click a screen name.
  Alternatively, right-click the name and select Display.
PhixFlow opens the screen in the canvas with the screen locked.
To unlock the screen for editing, right-click anywhere on the screen to open the popup menu and select
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.
PhixFlow displays the toolbar for the screen so that you can begin to make changes.
Click
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to display the palette on the right. Drag components from the palette into the screen.

Unlocking and Locking a Screen for Editing

When you first open an existing screen in

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, it is locked so that you do not accidentally move any of the components. There is no canvas toolbar visible. To edit the screen, you must unlock it. Right-click on the canvas and select

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.

An unlocked screen has all the toolbar and pop-up menu options that you need to move components and edit their properties. If you click on a component, such as a button, PhixFlow opens its properties.

Creating a New Screen

To create a new screen:
- either, in the header bar, click
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  .
  PhixFlow displays the list of available screens with an
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  button on the left.
- or in the repository, expand your application's Screens section, which includes an
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  button.
Click
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. PhixFlow opens a window with basic options for your screen. These options are saved in the screen properties.
- Enter a Name for the screen.
- By default, the screen opens maximised in the PhixFlow window.
  Untick Open Maximised if you want a popup window.
- Select one of the screen layout templates. To design your own, screen, select the empty layout.
PhixFlow opens the new screen with the selected layout template and prompts for the details of the table that will be used to populate the screens data.
1. The screen is unlocked and the palette is open in the right panel.

More Screen Properties

There are additional screen properties that affect how the screen behaves. In the toolbar, click

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to open the Screen properties in the right panel. Here are some example screen setups.

For a popup screen, for example for data entry:

in
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→ Basic Settings:
- tick Always On Top
- tick Allow Manual Resizing
in
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→ Style Settings
- set Position to Floating
- PhixFlow has defaults for the size and position of a screen. To change these defaults, set:
  - the size of the window using Width and Height
  - the position of the window, using Top, Left, Right and Bottom.

For a maximised screen, for example to display data:

in
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→ Basic Settings:
- tick Open Maximised
- untick Always On Top
if you intend to make your own navigation or screen controls, untick Show Window Button Bar
optionally, untick Allow user to resize.

Creating a Menu

To create a menu for you application that is always present

To create a menu in the header bar, click
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.
PhixFlow displays the list of available screens.
Click the
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button on the left.
Enter a Name for the menu.
Select one of the menu layout options.
PhixFlow creates a new menu with the selected layout and will open the menu when your application starts.

Tip
A quick way to create menu options is to drag a screen from the repository directly onto a menu to create a button and actionflow that will open that screen. On the screens home page right-click on the

Testing Screens

When you are creating and editing screens that make up an application, you are working in

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PhixFlow runs applications in

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, with only essential PhixFlow options displayed in the header bar. All other PhixFlow options are hidden. Instead the application user interacts with the screens and menus you have created.

To switch modes, click the icon in the right of the header bar.

When you have configured part of a screen, you may want to test how it behaves for an application user. For example, you may want to click a button and run its action, or have a URL component display its content. To do this:

either, in
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, in the screen toolbar, click on
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.
or, in the header bar on the right, click
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so you can interact with the screen as if you are

to run your application as an application user.

Design mode is pretty wisiwig but it does not behave how the screen will behave for an app user.

Remember you can switch to app mode to do this

Deleting Screens

Screen can be deleted from the Screens homepage or the

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by right-clicking and choosing

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.

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Deleting a screen containing an area only used by that screen also deletes the area.

Note:

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are unaffected.

Version	Old Version 36	New Version Current
Changes made by	Fiona Sargeant (Unlicensed)	Zoe Baldwin
Saved on	Jun 23, 2021	Aug 14, 2024

Versions Compared

Key

Select an Existing Screen

Create a New Screen

Live Search
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type page

The Screen Canvas and Options

Unlock a Screen Canvas

Using the Palette

Creating Forms Easily

See Also

Where Can I Drop This?

Testing Screens

Opening an Existing Screen

Unlocking and Locking a Screen for Editing

Creating a New Screen

More Screen Properties

Creating a Menu

Testing Screens

Deleting Screens

Page Comparison

Versions Compared

Key

Select an Existing Screen

Create a New Screen

Live SearchspaceKey@selfadditionalnoneplaceholderSearch all help pagestypepage

The Screen Canvas and Options

Unlock a Screen Canvas

Using the Palette

Creating Forms Easily

See Also

Where Can I Drop This?

Testing Screens

Opening an Existing Screen

Unlocking and Locking a Screen for Editing

Creating a New Screen

More Screen Properties

Creating a Menu

Testing Screens

Deleting Screens

Live Search
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