This page is for application designers who want to design re-usable components and add them to palettes.
Overview
The easiest way to design a screen for an application is to:
- Create a dashboard; see Screen Reference Information
- Drag in pre-designed components and layouts from the palette. For information about
- components and layouts see Screen Structure and Component Reference Information properties.
- the palettes that can be installed with PhixFlow, see pages in the Adding Screen Content topic.
Components and layouts in a palette have been designed to have consistent formats; see pages in the Styles and Formats topic.
If you have a specific component that you want to reuse on multiple dashboards, you can make a layout template, then add it to a new or existing palette.
For the repository sections Components and Layout Templates, there is no context menu option to add a new one.
Making a Layout Template
- On a dashboard canvas, add components from a palette to create a layout
- Set all the style options you require.
- In the dashboard canvas, right-click the component and select Find in Repository.
- In the repository, right-click the component name.
- From the context menu, select Copy as a Template.
- PhixFlow opens a new property tab. This is a copy of the original component, with the Advanced → Template property ticked. It is saved in the Layout Template section of the repository.
- Edit the name to reflect that this component is now a layout template.
We recommend that you add a layout template to a Using and Creating Palettes:
- Open the repository and palette. Drag one of the tabs into the workspace to show the tabs side-by-side.
- Drag the layout template from the repository into the palette.
Reusing Components in Dashboards
To use a layout template, simply drag it into the dashboard canvas:
- either from the repository Layout Template
- or from the palette.
When you drag in the layout template, PhixFlow prompts you to add a name. PhixFlow saves the copy in your application as a component on the dashboard, using the new name. This means that changing a layout template
- does not change the components that have already been copied from it.
- new copies will have the change.
When you set up a layout template, you might want the option of changing the appearance of components that have been copied from a layout template. To do this, set up a shared style.
- Configure the formatting in a style.
- Add the style to the layout template's Shared Styles; see Style and Shared Styles and Style Order.
Managing Layout Templates
When you use a style or Layout template in your dashboard, they become part of your application. To successfully move an application to a different PhixFlow instance, you must include the layout template and styles in the export. Consider adding your application, and any items it uses, such as layout templates and styles, to a package, to ensure they are all included in an export; see Package.
Use the Administration menu options Export Full Configuration or Open Export Pane to include the layout templates and styles in your package; see Export Configuration and Import Configuration.