Page Comparison

Used to group Stream Actions streamAction into drop-down lists or display a single Stream Action streamAction as a button. In both cases Action Buttons are displayed on the top of Stream View .

streamView .

Aggregate Attributes define the aggregated properties that are available when data is read from an aggregating Pipe pipe.

• Aggregate Attribute DetailsAttribute

Alarms are generally used to alert users to problems that need to be investigated but can also be used to indicate (positively) that there are no problems.

• Alarm Details

Specifies when an alarm will be generated by an Alarm Generator.

• Alarm Generation Details

Alarm Generators contain the configuration that defines the checks that PhixFlow carries out on collected and analysed data. They define the conditions which cause an Alarm. to be raised.

• Alarm Generator Details

Priority code that can be assigned to alarms to prioritise which are tackled first.

• Alarm Priority Details

Rule used to determine the Alarm Priority that will be assigned to a generated alarm.

• Alarm Priority Rule Details

Status code that can be assigned to alarms to allow it to be tracked through the alarm management lifecycle as and when it`s status changes.

• Alarm Status Details

Rule used to determine the Alarm Status that will be assigned to a generated alarm.

• Alarm Status Rule Details

Allow users to logically represent a business process / control flow using configured PhixFlow objects, e.g. streams, file collectors etc.

• Analysis Model Details

The Analysis Engine is initiated whenever the generation of a Stream Set or alarm is requested. Users can do this by configuring Analysis Tasks in a Task Plan.

• Analysis Task Details

In most Workflow models, Arcs simply pass Tokens from the Transition to an output Place, however dashed lines represent Arcs with Guards.

Output Arcs can implement Guards. These are filter conditions which act to stop Tokens being added to Places if they evaluate to false.

• Arc Details

Archives Stream Sets from Streams with archiving configured on them.

• Archive Task Details

And object that contains an ordered list of other objects.

• Arrays

PhixFlow provides an extensive list of Attribute Functions which may be used within all expression strings.

• Attribute Functions

Details of an individual audited action performed on a PhixFlow object.

A summary of all audited action performed on PhixFlow objects.

• Audit Summary Details

PhixFlow objects that have auditing switched on to allow for any changes in the system to be tracked.

These Transitions do not have any associated tasks/processes. They execute immediately and typically are used to split a workflow into two or more strands.

• Auto Transition Details

Candidate sets are a fundamental concept of function calculation in PhixFlow.

Every time a function calculation is carried out, all the required input data is brought together and organised into sets of data - one set for each Key group.

The Key groups are worked out using the Pipe Grouping Attributes defined on input Pipe for each Stream.

The database that stores the PhixFlow schema and all processed data

A Chart displays data in table form, or in one of a number of graphs styles.

• Charts

When alarms are set to a status of Closed, a closure reason can be specified to identify the reason why alarms are closed.

• Alarm Closure Reason Details

Refers to the comparator types that can be used in a filter, e.g. greater than, starts with.

A generic term for a File Collector, a Database Collector, or an Http Collector.

A context menu appears above each Model Element when the user hovers over it in a model view. This menu shows all of the actions that can be performed on that element.

Primarily a "Requirements Specification" describing a process, either wholly or partially implemented in PhixFlow, to provide revenue assurance and detect potential problems in systems and operations.

• Control Details

A structured classification of controls that should be put in place to monitor data throughout the enterprise.

• Control Framework

These are primarily used as a grouping mechanism. Controls can be grouped according to structures within the organisation, by functional area or some other criteria.

• Control Group Details

A CSV (comma-separated variable) file is a plain text file where each line in the file consists of a number of fields separated by commas ','. If fields may contain spaces, commas or double quotes, they should be enclosed in double quotes '"'. A double quote may be represented by 2 double quotes.

A CSV file is always encoded using a specific character set. On Windows this is typically Cp1282, and on Unix/Linux US7ASCII, though the following are sometimes used: UTF-8, UTF-16, ISO-8859-1.

A CSV file typically has an extension '.csv'.

A CSV file can be created directly in a plain text editor (e.g. Wordpad/Notepad), in Excel (by saving as a CSV), or by some other application.

A dashboard allows the user to gather into a single view a set of charts and filtered lists of alarms and tasks. This grouping of related reports and statistics provides the user with preconfigured overviews of selected areas, making all the data that is required to view and monitor the health of the system both accessible and easy to read.

• Dashboard Details

A Data Grid is a particular type of Chart which displays the data in a table format.

• Charts

Used to gather information from a external database, defined as a PhixFlow Datasource. It holds the SQL that will be sent to the datasource to retrieve data.

• Database Collector Details

Used to write information from PhixFlow to external databases.

• Database Exporter Details

Defines a connection to an external database.

• Datasource Details

Allows for multiple connections for individual database instances to be configured for a specific Datasource.

• Datasource Instance Details

A Directed Pipe is used as a secondary input to a Merge Stream.

Primary Pipes to a Merge are implemented by reading all input records from all Primary Pipes in a single operation, ordered by the Group-By fields. The primary pipes determine the key values of the Candidate Sets that will be generated.

A Directed pipe is implemented after the Primary Pipes have run, by reading records matching each Candidate Set grouping key in turn. This can result in a significant performance improvement in certain circumstances.

A Pipe can be marked as a Directed Pipe on the Pipe Details / Advanced tab.

• Pipe Details

A user can drill down into an alarm to view the recordset that caused the alarm to be generated.

Users can drill down through successively more detailed reports from the original data item which raised the alarm through to the source data at the root of the problem.

An Email Task is generated when an Email Transition is triggered. It allows for specified data to be automatically emailed out to a list of recipients.

• Email Task Details

An Email Transition generates an Email task to be processed. The details of the email (subject, recipients, message body, attachment) are configured using the Email Transition.

• Email Transition Details

An expression returns a value, usually by manipulating or transforming input data, although some expressions can be very simple: e.g. the expression "hello" always returns the string "hello" and requires no input.

• Introduction to scripting

An External Task is generated when an External Transition is triggered, placing a task on a Process Queue for external processing.

• External Task Details

An External Transition generates an External task to be processed. The details of the external task (process queue, data expression) are configured using the External Transition.

• External Transition Details

Describes the structure, content, naming patterns and location of files of data to be imported into PhixFlow.

• File Collector Details

The data columns that a File Collector expects to be present when importing a file.

• File Collector Attribute Details

Used to write information from PhixFlow to external files.

• File Exporter Details

Filters are made up of a set of clauses; each clause in turn contains a number of conditions. These conditions must be satisfied for data to be passed through a Pipe or returned in a filtered list.

• Filter Details

If you move your mouse pointer to the bottom of the screen the PhixFlow Form Bar will appear. Contains links to all open forms (both open and minimised).

• Form Bar

A file system that is reachable via the FTP protocol.

• Form

Groups the pipe data into candidate set, forms key for condidate set. However if data is coming from database or file collector, order by fields need to be specidied in the collector sql.

• Group By Details

Hypertext transfer protocol - the language of the internet. In the context of PhixFlow, it means using standard internet communication as means of importing into and exporting data from a Control.

• HTTP Collector
• HTTP Exporter

Collect data from an HTTP Datasource.

• HTTP Collector

A web site, web service or some other target that allows XML, HTML or text data to be collected from it, or exported to it, over HTTP. Data is collected from an HTTP Datasource using a HTTP Collector , and exported to an HTTP Datasource using a HTTP Exporter.

An HTTP Datasource Instance must define at least one HTTP Datasource Instance.

An HTTP Datasource Instance may define multiple XML Namespaces to support XPath expressions on HTTP Collectors .

• HTTP Datasource

An HTTP Datasource Instance provide a default username, password and url to an HTTP Collector or HTTP Exporter.

• HTTP Datasource Instance

Export data to an HTTP Datasource.

• HTTP Exporter

Pre-defined variables for use in PhixFlow Expressions.

• Definitions

The display language of the user.

• User Details

Definition

• Form

Within each log list, log messages are output by the Analysis Engine as it performs analysis.

• Log Message Details

A macro is a user-defined function that can be called from other Expressions.

A macro can be called with parameters. These parameters are available within the body of the macro as $arg.

• Macro Details

Measurement Types are uused to evaluate a type of score that can be assigned to an alarm or control.

• Measurement Type

An instance of a value of a measurement type at a given point in time

• Measurement Details

The individual objects that make up an Analysis Model e.g. streams, file collectors etc. These elements are added via drag and drop controls and context menus.

Where a list is displaying more data than can be viewed in the display grid, paging allows the user to scroll through the whole list, e.g. alarm lists, log messages, Stream Set data.

A pipe is a connector that links two elements in a PhixFlow model.

• Pipe Details

All Workflow models have a Start Place. The PhixFlow Analysis Engine places a Token here when a new alarm is raised and so initiates the workflow.

• Place Node Details

Privileges are used to define what actions can be performed in PhixFlow.

• Privilege Details

Process Queues are referenced by External Workflow Transitions. They represent a queue of jobs to be done by a specific process external to PhixFlow. That process will pick up jobs from the Process Queue.

• Process Queue Details

A record set is a list of records returned, usually by a pipe, where each record consists of named attributes, each with a value.

• Arrays and Record Sets

Represents an action that once completed will cause the enclosing view to be refreshed.

• Stream Action

Report Tasks can be configured to distribute key information to a list of recipients. Users can do this by configuring Report Tasks in a Task Plan.

• Report Task Details

Roles represent the type of access required to do specific tasks (e.g. Designer, Operator etc.)

Roles are assigned to User Groups (or vice versa)

• Role Details

Deletes a specified set of Stream Sets from a Stream and updates the tidemarks for that Stream.

• Rollback

Links to objects from the Control Framework.

A Sequence is used to generate a numeric sequence of values.

The Sequence lets you define the properties of the sequence e.g. the starting value.

The nextValue function returns the next value in the sequence each time it is called.

The curValue function returns the most recent value returned by nextValue.

• Form

SQL query used to retrieve data from, or SQL or PL/SQL statement used toupdate data in, a Datasource.

• Database Collector Form
• Database Exporter Form

Represent a structured store of data within PhixFlow receiving data from one or more components, processing it then storing it.

• Stream Details

Defines a set of updates to the values of a Stream Item.

A Stream Action can be applied from a Stream View from a Stream Item Details form.

• Stream Action Details

Each Stream Action Attribute defines the new value to be assigned to a single field of a Stream Item. The new value is defined as an Glossary / Index#expression, which can refer to the original values of the Stream Item.

When a Stream Action is applied, each attribute's expression is evaluated in turn and the result is saved back to the Stream Item.

• Stream Action Attribute Details

Define the type, precision and expressions of how each individual attribute is calculated based on the inputs to the Stream.

• Stream Attribute Details

Defines the basic Stream operation. Form the basis of transformations in PhixFlow to get from raw data to the elements of a control framework - controls, reports and alarms.

• Stream Functions

Individual record in a Stream Set.

A Stream Item Details form can be opened from a Grid Stream View by opening the view, selecting a Stream Item then selecting Show Stream Item Details from the pull-down menu.

Physical table in PhixFlow schema that stores the Stream data.

Used to customise the display of data in one or more Stream Sets.

• Stream View Details

Stream Attributes used in a Stream View. Each attribute has a role that defines how the data will be displayed.

• Stream View Attribute Details

A set of data items for a given period.

• Stream Set

Where all general system wide properties are configured in PhixFlow.

• System Configuration Details

A System Task runs standard system-wide housekeeping activities. It must be run as part of a Task Plan.

The standard housekeeping activities are:

• Deleting and (optionally) archiving Log Messages
• Deleting Managed File entries.

The parameters controlling how long to keep Log Messages / Managed Files before deleting them, and whether first to archive Log Messages to file, are set in System Configuration.

• System Task Details

A Task can be set up to carry out an action or set of actions in PhixFlow. Tasks can be one of:

• Analysis Tasks
• Archive Tasks
• Report Tasks
• System Tasks

Contains a set of Tasks to run.

• Task Plan Details

An Timer Task is generated when a Timer Transition is triggered.

• Timer Task Details

A Timer Transition generates a timer task to be processed. The details of how the timer task will be generated are configured in the Timer Transition.

• Timer Transition Details

Tokens store the state of the workflow.

A transition of a workflow may fire whenever there is a token at the start of all input arcs; when it fires, it consumes these tokens, and places tokens at the end of all output arcs.

• Workflow Model

Users represent the individuals working in the organisation that will be logging onto PhixFlow and performing tasks. Users are assigned to User Groups.

• User Details

Users belong to User Groups that represent the area of the business they work in (e.g. Customer Service, Finance, Billing Support etc.) User Groups are assigned to Roles (or vice versa).

• User Group Details

Specifies the User that will be notified of generated alarms or workflow tasks based on a set of rules.

• User Notification rule Details

A User Task is generated when a User Transition is triggered, sending a task to a specific user for manual processing.

• User Task Details

A User Transition generates a user task to be processed. The details of how the user taks will be generated are configured in the User Transition.

• User Transition Details

When configuring an Alarm Generator, the user can specify the Workflow Model that generated alarms will be passed to using a set of rules.

• Workflow Assignment Rule Details

Workflow Models are the graphical representation of manual and automated tasks that should be completed to resolve an alarm.

• Workflow Model Details

Any node on a workflow model, i.e. a place or a transition

Allow users to logically represent a business process / control flow using configured PhixFlow objects, e.g. streams, file collectors etc.

• Analysis Model

The Analysis Engine is initiated whenever the generation of a Stream Set is requested. Users can do this by configuring Analysis Tasks in a taskPlan.

• Analysis Task

A task to archive streamSet from stream with archiving configured on them.

• Archive Task

An object that contains an ordered list of other objects.

• Arrays

PhixFlow provides an extensive list of Attribute Functions which may be used within all expression strings.

• Attribute Functions

Details of an individual audited action performed on a PhixFlow object.

A summary of all audited action performed on PhixFlow objects. Can be viewed in the System Console.

• Audit Summary

PhixFlow objects that have auditing switched on to allow for any changes in the system to be tracked.

Candidate sets are a fundamental concept of function calculation in PhixFlow.

Every time a function calculation is carried out, all the required input data is brought together and organised into sets of data - one set for each Key group.

The Key groups are worked out using the Pipe Grouping Attributes defined on input Pipe for each Stream.

The database that stores the PhixFlow schema and all processed data

A Chart displays data in table form, or in one of a number of graphs styles.

Refers to the comparator types that can be used in a filter, e.g. greater than, starts with.

A generic term for a fileCollector, a databaseCollector, or an httpCollector.

A context menu appears above each modelElement when the user hovers over it in a model view. This menu shows all of the actions that can be performed on that element.

A CSV (comma-separated variable) file is a plain text file where each line in the file consists of a number of fields separated by commas ','. If fields may contain spaces, commas or double quotes, they should be enclosed in double quotes '"'. A double quote may be represented by 2 double quotes.

A CSV file is always encoded using a specific character set. On Windows this is typically Cp1282, and on Unix/Linux US7ASCII, though the following are sometimes used: UTF-8, UTF-16, ISO-8859-1.

A CSV file typically has an extension '.csv'.

A CSV file can be created directly in a plain text editor (e.g. Wordpad/Notepad), in Excel (by saving as a CSV), or by some other application.

Whenever an analysis model is run it will carry out a number of tasks e.g. read a number of files, generate a number of stream sets, export a number of files. It is possible to configure an analysis model so that in a single analysis session it will actually run several times. When a model is configured in this way, each time it runs is termed a 'cycle' and all of the items processed or generated during that cycle (i.e. the files processed, stream sets created, files exported etc) are flagged with the cycle number. This cycle number is visible in the Log File for that analysis run on each of the relevant tabs showing files and stream sets processed.

The most common reason for configuring a model in this way is to allow a number of files to be processed in a single analysis session but to have the results from each file saved in a separate stream set. In this way, whenever a file fails to process the user can simply rollback the stream sets associated with that file rather than rolling back all of the stream sets associated with all of the files for the whole analysis session.

To achieve this, a model is configured with a push pipe from the final stream in the model pointing back to itself. This push pipe is then given positive offsets. The file collector at the start of the model is then configured to process a single file at a time. When this model is run the file collector will read in one file, process it to create a stream set (or a chain of stream sets if there are several streams in the model) and will flag the file processed, the stream sets generated and any associated output files with the cycle number 1. When the last stream in the model has finished producing its stream set it will send a notification to itself down the push pipe. This notification (because of the positive offsets) will be taken as a signal to create another stream set which will effectively cause the whole model to run again. This second run of the model will be deemed to be cycle 2 and all files processed, stream sets produced or files output will be flagged with this cycle number.

When later viewing the log files the user can see which items were processed in which cycle and can choose how many cycles to roll back. In the case where the last file processed was unsuccessful the user can therefore choose to only roll back the last cycle.

• Rollback or Repeat Cycles

A dashboard allows the user to gather into a single view a set of charts. This grouping of related reports and statistics provides the user with preconfigured overviews of selected areas, making all the data that is required to view and monitor the health of the system both accessible and easy to read.

• Dashboard Details

A Data Grid is a particular type of view which displays the data in a table format.

• Stream View

Used to gather information from a external database, defined as a PhixFlow Datasource. It holds the SQL that will be sent to the datasource to retrieve data.

• Database Collector Details

Used to write information from PhixFlow to external databases.

• Database Exporter Details

Defines a connection to an external database.

• Datasource Details

Allows for multiple connections for individual database instances to be configured for a specific datasource.

A Directed Pipe is used as a secondary input to a Merge Stream.

Primary Pipes to a Merge are implemented by reading all input records from all Primary Pipes in a single operation, ordered by the Group-By fields. The primary pipes determine the key values of the Candidate Sets that will be generated.

A Directed pipe is implemented after the Primary Pipes have run, by reading records matching each Candidate Set grouping key in turn. This can result in a significant performance improvement in certain circumstances.

A Pipe can be marked as a Directed Pipe on the Pipe Details / Advanced tab.

• Pipe Details

An expression returns a value, usually by manipulating or transforming input data, although some expressions can be very simple: e.g. the expression "hello" always returns the string "hello" and requires no input.

• Introduction to scripting

Describes the structure, content, naming patterns and location of files of data to be imported into PhixFlow.

• File Collector Details

The data columns that a File Collector expects to be present when importing a file.

Used to write information from PhixFlow to external files.

• File Exporter Details

Filters are made up of a set of clauses; each clause in turn contains a number of conditions. These conditions must be satisfied for data to be passed through a pipe or returned in a filtered list.

• Filter Details

If you move your mouse pointer to the bottom of the screen the PhixFlow Form Bar will appear. Contains links to all open forms (both open and minimised).

• Form Bar

A file system that is reachable via the FTP protocol.

• FTP Site Details

Groups the pipe data into candidate set, forms key for candidate set. However if data is coming from database or file collector, order by fields need to be specified in the collector SQL.

• Group By Attribute

Hypertext transfer protocol - the language of the internet. In the context of PhixFlow, it means using standard internet communication as means of importing and exporting data.

• httpCollector
• httpExporter

Collect data from an httpDatasource.

• HTTP Collector

A web site, web service or some other target that allows XML, HTML or text data to be collected from it, or exported to it, over HTTP. Data is collected from an HTTP Datasource using a httpCollector , and exported to an HTTP Datasource using a httpExporter.

An HTTP Datasource Instance must define at least one httpDatasourceInstance.

An HTTP Datasource Instance may define multiple xmlNamespace to support xPath expressions on httpCollector .

• HTTP Datasource

An HTTP Datasource Instance provide a default username, password and URL to an httpCollector or httpExporter.

• HTTP Datasource Instance

Export data to an httpDatasource.

• HTTP Exporter

Pre-defined variables for use in PhixFlow Expressions.

• Internal Variable Definitions

The display language of the user.

• Language

A record of a task or action completed in PhixFlow, including any messages output and details about stream sets created.

• System Console

Within each log list, log messages are output by the Analysis Engine as it performs analysis.

• Log Message Details

A macro is a user-defined function that can be called from other expression.

A macro can be called with parameters. These parameters are available within the body of the macro as $arg.

• Macro Details

The individual objects that make up an analysisModel e.g. streams, file collectors etc. These elements are added via drag and drop controls and context menus.

Where a list is displaying more data than can be viewed in the display grid, paging allows the user to scroll through the whole list, e.g. log messages, Stream Set data.

A period is set on a Stream. This can be either a regular period, or variable. There are four possible settings:

• Daily: generate or collect data every day.
• Monthly: generate or collect data every month.
• Variable: generate or collect data since the more recent run of the stream to the current date.
• Transactional: allows multiple users to run independent analysis tasks at the same time.

A pipe is a connector that links two elements in a PhixFlow model.

• Pipe Details

Privileges are used to define what actions can be performed in PhixFlow; see Privileges.

A record set is a list of records returned, usually by a pipe, where each record consists of named attributes, each with a value.

• Arrays and Record Sets

Represents an action that once completed will cause the enclosing view to be refreshed.

• Stream Action

Roles represent the type of access required to do specific tasks (e.g. Designer, Operator etc). Roles are assigned to User Groups (or vice versa); see Roles.

Deletes a specified set of streamSet from a stream and updates the tidemarks for that stream.

• Rollback

A Rollback Task can be configured to rollback one or more streams. Users can do this by configuring Rollback Tasks in a taskPlan.

A Sequence is used to generate a numeric sequence of values.

The Sequence lets you define the properties of the sequence e.g. the starting value.

The nextValue function returns the next value in the sequence each time it is called.

The curValue function returns the most recent value returned by nextValue.

• Sequence Details

SQL query used to retrieve data from, or SQL or PL/SQL statement used to update data in, a datasource.

• Database Collector
• Database Exporter

Represent a structured store of data within PhixFlow receiving data from one or more components, processing it then storing it.

• Stream Details

Defines a set of updates to the values of a streamItem.

A Stream Action can be applied from a Stream View from a streamItem form.

• Stream Action Details

Each Stream Action Attribute defines the new value to be assigned to a single field of a streamItem. The new value is defined as an expression, which can refer to the original values of the Stream Item.

When a Stream Action is applied, each attribute's expression is evaluated in turn and the result is saved back to the Stream Item.

• Stream Action

Define the type, precision and expressions of how each individual attribute is calculated based on the inputs to the Stream.

• Stream

Defines the basic Stream operation. The type of stream may be aggregate, calculate, calculate by set, cartesian or merge.

• Streams

Individual record in a streamSet.

A Stream Item Details form can be opened from a Grid streamView by opening the view, selecting a streamItem then selecting Show Stream Item Details from the context menu.

Physical table in PhixFlow schema that stores the stream data.

Used to customise the display of data in one or more Stream Sets.

• Stream View Details

streamAttribute used in a streamView. Each attribute has a role that defines how the data will be displayed.

A set of data items for a given period.

• Stream Set

Where all general system wide properties are configured in PhixFlow.

• System Configuration Details

A System Task runs standard system-wide housekeeping activities; see System Task for details. It must be run as part of a task plan. 

The parameters controlling how long to keep files before deleting them, and whether first to archive log messages to file, are set in System Configuration.

A Task can be set up to carry out an action or set of actions in PhixFlow. Tasks can be one of:

• analysisTask
• archiveTaskRun
• Rollback Tasks
• systemTask

Contains a set of task to run.

• Task

Users represent the individuals working in the organisation that will be logging onto PhixFlow and performing tasks. Users are assigned to User Groups.

• User Details

Users belong to User Groups that represent the area of the business they work in (e.g. Customer Service, Finance, Billing Support etc.) User Groups are assigned to Roles (or vice versa).

• User Group Details

Specifies the user that will be notified of the completion of a task plan based on a set of rules.

• User Notification Rule

When parsing an XML response, the XPath on an HTTP Collector httpCollector determines the node in the XML response that will cause an output record to be generated. In general, XML node names are relative to namespaces, and are referred to by namespace aliases. An XPath can use any XML Namespace alias defined by the HTTP Datasource httpDatasource linked to the HTTP Collector httpCollector .

An XPath expression on an HTTP Collector httpCollector determines the node in the XML response that will cause an output record to be generated.

An XPath is a '/'-separated list of node names.

If any of the node names in the XPath use non-default namespaces, these may be defined in XML Namespaces xmlNamespace