In this chapter we will create a template to allow commonly used components of apps to be easily created. In this case, we will take something from the contacts app that can be widely used - the set of buttons to edit and manage records, including the rules that hide certain buttons when the user is carryout out a particular activity:
You can save any level of layout as a template, including an entire form.
You can include fields. Some fields are generally useful across many apps, for example:
UID(which you can made hidden, so that you don't need to set this on each app build)NamefieldDescriptionfield
This works even if you change the underlying stream because we are using the setting Copy Values By Name - as long as the fields in each stream share the field names (including capitalisation), this will work.
You can also include data validation in custom actions if this applies across multiple forms - this may be true across a number of related apps, even if they use different underlying streams.
Typically, rather than saving entire forms as templates, you may want to build a list of sub-components, using areas, which provide flexibility while still supporting the rapid creation of new apps. For example:
- An area containing a set of form buttons
- An area containing a set of commonly used hidden fields
- An area containing a set of commonly used visible fields
In future versions, PhixFlow will be shipped with a set of pre-built layouts, so at each new version it is worth checking out the standard shipped templates to see if there is already something you can use directly, or use with a few customisations.
Create template
Create a template for your app buttons:
Create country list app
Create a new dashboard to manage a country list: