This page is for application designers. It explains the basic principles for how to add components from the palette as well as features to help you.

still todo-Anthony

•  overview
• icons
• move pinning to bottom and note its more legacy
• tidy text and a link to data-binding
• design a basic form - series of - link to pages from video
• Screen -button - create actionflow - wiring a basic actionflows

Overview

If you are new to PhixFlow and designing screens for an application, start with the Designing Screens fundamentals course found here: Designing Screens

Dragging Components Reminder

Components can be moved on a directly on a screen, in the layers section or in the repository using the following techniques, see Moving Items on a Screen:

• Click and Drag, places items next to one another (siblings).
• Click + Shift and Drag, places the dragged item inside the item it is dropped on (parent-child)
• Where a Preferred Parent is present, drag puts an item directly inside the preferred parent.

Dividing Screens

You can divide a screen into multiple, resizing panes a number of ways:

1. Use Palette layouts that have multiple areas; see  Divide a Screen Using a Palette Layout, below.
   This layout has:
   
   1. a container area type: split view
   2. sibling areas
2. Use pop-up menu options Add Area...; see Divide a Screen Using "Add Area" Options, below.

To resize a pane, drag its dividing line. This automatically resizes adjacent panes. To prevent resizing, right-click to display the pop-up menu and select:

•  Lock Width
•  Lock Height

To remove a pane:

1. First delete any layouts or components in it.
2. Right-click on the empty pane to display the pop-up menu.
3. Select  Delete Pane. 

Divide a Screen Using "Add Area" Options

1. Right-click a screen
2. Use one of the Add Area... options to add a new part for the screen, separated with a dividing line.
   PhixFlow creates a new dashboard element for this part of the screen.
3. Add a suitable container, such as an area, form or card container. 

Divide a Screen Using a Palette Layout

Some palettes have layouts that have 2 areas contained by a split-view area. For example:

• Basic Components → Split View 
• Theme 2 - App Builder Base Components → Area Split  

1. In the screen canvas toolbar, click  Palette.
2. Expand a palette to find a layout that has 2 areas.
3. Drag the layout from the palette onto an existing area.
4. PhixFlow creates a layout with the following structure:

Area

Split View (special type of area)

Area 1

Area 2

Dragging into a Screen

To add a component to a screen, you can drag in:

• components or layouts from:
  • the palette
  • the repository → Templates
• streams or views to add data-components such as grids, graphs, bar or pie charts or cards.
• attributes to add labelled fields
• actions to add buttons.

Theme 2.1 has been configured so that, as you drag a component or layout from a Theme 2.1 palette onto a screen, PhixFlow will highlight which containers are designed to act as parents for the layout or component.

Dashboard Elements

To add a data-component to a screen or pane, drag on:

• either a stream
  PhixFlow prompts you to select how you want to display the data and creates a view.
• or a view
  PhixFlow recognises the view type, such as a grid or chart.

PhixFlow:

• adds a data-component to the screen or pane
• creates a new dashboard element. This is listed in the repository as a child of the dashboard. The dashboard element has the same name as the view.

To remove a dashboard element, right-click to display the pop-up menu and select  Screen Options →   Delete Element.

See also:

• Table
• View
• Dashboard Element 

Pinning and Unpinning 

You can fix the position of a component on an area by pinning it. When you drag a component or layout in from the palette it is automatically pinned. (See the table above for all pinned/unpinned).

Unpinned

When you drag in an unpinned component, PhixFlow automatically puts it in in the next space available. By default, this is underneath the previous component. However, you can control the flow using CSS properties. Components in forms are represented as DIV objects. 

You can drag unpinned components around in their parent component, and PhixFlow puts them wherever you drop them.

You can also manually control the order of unpinned components by editing the Order field in the details of the component. This is found in the Positional Settings section of the details. The video above gives an example of using both of these methods - dragging, and manual update.

Pinned

Pinned components can be placed anywhere on an area and you can drag pinned components to any position on a screen.

You can pin the edges of the component to its parent component using the Positional Settings in the component's details. To do this, set the offsets between the top, right, bottom and left edges of the component to those of the parent. The offsets are in number of pixels between the edge of the component and the edge of the parent. 

Switching Between Unpinned and Pinned

Pinned components can be dragged over unpinned components, so be careful when mixing pinned and unpinned components on a form. Think of these as being laid out in two separate, overlapping layers on the screen.

To change an unpinned component to pinned, press Ctrl and drag it.

To unpin a pinned component, right-click on it and select Unpin Selected Objects. You can select several components at once, and unpin them all using this option. The components will move into the next available space in their respective parent components.

Finding a Component's Container

To find the container of a component in a screen, you can:

• right-click on the component and select  Find in Repository.
  PhixFlow opens the Layouts with the component selected. You can then see how the selected component fits into the parent-child hierarchy.
• click on the component to open its properties.
  The name of the container is in Basic Settings → Parent.
• click on the space next to the component to open its properties.
  This option is less reliable as a screen becomes more complex, as you may not be able to select the immediate parent.

Preventing Accidental Dragging

To prevent accidental dragging of components and layouts on the screen, go to the components properties → Positional Settings section, and tick Prevent Dragging.

Auto Sizing

When you are designing a screen, you can use the Layout area → Style Settings→ Auto-size property to make components adjust automatically when the application's window is resized by the user. 

You can use the context menu option  Turn Auto Size Off/On to toggle the Auto Size property as you work. 

Connecting Layouts to Data

Todo-Anthony - check To connect a form area to data in a stream 

• From the repository, drag the stream name onto an area or layout
• From the stream properties, drag the icon at the top of the properties onto an area or layout.

PhixFlow will prompt you to select the type of stream or card view that you want to create; see Stream Views Pop-Up Menu.

Build Up a basic form

Note that there are no fancy flow stuff for this.

What data do you need to show - 

1. Create screen 
2. Open palette
3. Add Basic Components > Form, and name
4. Click on the screen to open the properties for your area. In shared styles you will see that this has some default shared styles applied.
5. Palette Labelled fields > Add labelled fields you need. Click to see properties
   • The Labelled fields palette has composite items - see the Basic Settings checkbox.
   • there are two parts, a static text label and the data field. Making them composite means
   • They move as if they are one thing
   • The name you give to the items is used as the text for the label.
6. Attributes list - open stream > attributes section or expand for list in repository
7. Drag from attribute onto form