The following notes provide useful information on general interaction features of the client application that are used in many of the PhixFlow screens.
Double clicking
Double clicking items on a list (and elsewhere) generally opens the object definition form however for Stream Views, Dashboards, Analysis Models and Workflow Models PhixFlow will open the object representation e.g. the Chart implied by the Stream View. To open definition forms for these objects you need to use the "Edit" option on the context menu.
Selecting Items
Clicking an item "selects" it (the item will be highlighted) and any previously selected items will be deselected. To select multiple items, press the Control key at the same time as you click the item. This will add the new item to the list of selected items. Note that if the item clicked is already selected, it will be removed from the selection list. If you want to select a continuous list of items, select the first item on the list and then select the last item while holding down the Shift key.
Note that there are several places in PhixFlow where operations can be carried out on multiple selected items, for example object deletion or updating the status on Alarms.
Drag and Drop
The user can drag and drop the majority of object items within PhixFlow. The outcome of each drag/drop operation is dependent upon the context and is explained on help for each form however here are a few general tips:
- Objects can only be dragged/dropped between compatible forms i.e. only if it makes sense for the object to be dropped onto the target location.
- Many forms support drag/drop for multiple selected items.
- Items can be reordered by dragging and dropping on ordered lists i.e. lists where the order of the items is important e.g. the list of Stream Attributes for a Stream. Note that the list should be ordered in the (default) ordered state.
- On Analysis Model panes and Workflow Model panes, single or multiple objects can be dragged off the modelling pane and onto another object by selecting the objects you want to drag and then holding down the Shift key and dragging the item(s). If the Shift key is not held down, the selected objects are just moved on the modelling pane.
- Stream Views and Alarm Generators can be dragged onto Dashboards to create your own layout.
Multiple object windows - undocking and re-docking
These concepts are explained in a little more detail below, but to start watch this short video:
Undocking - creating floating windows
It is often useful to create a stand-alone window, outside of the main repository browser. To do this, simply select the tab of the object you want to pull out, and drag it to somewhere on the PhixFlow background. A new floating window will appear.
Re-docking windows
If you open a new repository browser for an object, but want to re-dock it in the main repository browser area:
- hold the shift key down
- drag the banner of the window over the banner of the main repository browser
The window will now re-dock.
Deleting Items
PhixFlow will always ask for confirmation that you really do want to delete an item or selected list of items before actually deleting it. Note that you will not be able to delete an item that is referenced by other objects within PhixFlow (an message box will appear indicating the number and types of referencing items).
Context Menus
All objects have context menus associated with them which are accessed by right-clicking the mouse button. One key context menu item is which is always the last item on the list (to help ensure it is not pressed accidentally)! Any menu items below this entry should be ignored as they are nothing to do with the PhixFlow application but have been placed there automatically by the Flash container application.
Note that all objects that appear on Analysis Models have a context menu entry "Show Models" which will display a list of all the models that contain that object.
Forms
Forms within windows all have the usual minimise, maximise, restore and close icons. Note that you can find a link to all forms (including minimised forms) on the Form Bar which appears when the mouse is near the bottom edge of the screen.
Double clicking the form header region is a fast way to toggle between maximised and restored states.
The following functional icons are common to many forms:
Save any changes and close the form. Note that an error message will pop up if there are any problems and the form will remain open with each problem field flagged with | |
Save any changes but keep the form open. Again any errors will be reported. | |
Shows a full Audit trail for all changes to this object i.e. who changed it, when and what they changed. | |
Print the form details. On the majority of forms this will launch a browser window with the object formatted for printing. | |
Back - go back to the previous object | |
| Forward - return to the next object (after going back one or more objects) | |
| Find in Explorer - show the object within the object hierarchy, in a repository browser. | |
Open the help page for the form. |
Note that the Audit trail is a useful way of reversing changes made by mistake as each audit entry shows both the new and old values. In the case of text fields, simply copy the old value and paste it into the form field.
Object Lists
Many forms include lists of objects that are associated with the object edited by that form. E.g. the list of stream attributes belonging to a stream.
Object lists have the following buttons:
Refresh the object list. | |
 | Add a child object to the object being edited. E.g. add a stream attribute to a stream. |
| Delete the child object. E.g. delete the stream attribute from the stream. |
Drop down list
Many forms have fields which are set using drop down lists (also known as combo boxes). These drop down lists also have context menus to provide a quick way to open up the form describing that item or even to add or delete items from the list.
Grids
There are two types of grid display. The first are simply lists of the configuration objects but showing more details than the Slider Panes. The second type of grid shows data e.g. Stream Items, Alarms and Workflow Tasks. The operations on configuration object grids are all very similar (e.g. add, delete, refresh etc.) however data grids will have additional operations which are all described on the help page for that object.
The following general features of grids are worth noting:
- The items on grids are paged which means that PhixFlow fetches a batch of data at a time to populate the grid. The grid footer bar indicates which items are being shown, how many items there are in total and the page size. The user can page forwards and backwards using
and
- Columns can be ordered by clicking the column header. Each click reverses the order direction. Please note that only the items currently paged in the display are ordered.
The following functional icons are common to many grids:
Select an existing (or predefined) Filter or create, delete and modify Filters. This causes the grid to refresh and display only those entries which match the selected Filter. | |
Select an existing (or predefined) multi-column Sort Order or create, delete and modify Sort Orders. Note that data is ordered across all records which are implied by the Filter, not just the current page of data. | |
Pressing this icon toggles the display of additional icons for the form. | |
Export the data being shown to an Excel spreadsheet. However, please note that when viewing Stream Data, pressing this button causes an option form to open which amongst other things allows you to choose to export the data to Excel, CSV or HTML. Note also that this will export all data implied by the Filter, not just the current paged result. When viewing data in a Chart, an Excel template can be configured on the Stream View that is used to specify the settings for the Chart. | |
Delete the currently selected items. A form will appear to confirm that you wish to proceed. | |
Refresh the contents the current grid. | |
Open the help page for the grid. |
Tooltip Descriptions
Most configured PhixFlow objects have an optional description field. PhixFlow will display this description as you hover over the item whether the item is on a list or on a model pane. We highly recommend that you provide descriptions for all your objects to help document your work for both yourself and colleagues.