This page is for application designers who are editing or creating palettes with custom components. It explains how to use layout categories on template components to set preferred parent highlighting.

Overview

When designing a screen, you drag a template component from a palette onto a screen. When preferred parents are configured, PhixFlow can highlight the appropriate areas onto which you can drop the component. This can be useful where you have a screen with different areas designed to display different things, such as:

• headers for static and dynamic text
• form container for data fields and text labels
• card container for cards
• button bar for buttons.

PhixFlows Base components, theme 1 and theme 2 are not configured with preferred parents.

I am using a template and dragging things into a screen. PhixFlow hightlights stuff to show where I can drop it.

I am creating or modifying a component that will be a template and want to select the preferred parent from the list in the component properties.

Where components on a palette have been configured with preferred parents, as you drag a component onto the screen, PhixFlow highlights parent components that are designed to hold this component. 

You can see which components would be preferred parents in the Preferred Parent Categories.

Set layout categories in template components.

See Palette Template

Added a new Type of object "Layout Category", an Area Component can be given a Layout Category and additionally all layout components have a collection of "preferred parent categories". When dropping a layout component onto a layout it will try to find an area component with one of its preferred parent categories to set as its parent. If one is not found it will drop as before.

Creating Layout Categories

PhixFlow uses layout categories so that template components can be configured with preferred parents. When you drag a component from the palette, PhixFlow can then highlight the areas of the screen that are an appropriate container for the component.

To create a layout category:

• either in the repository, expand the Layout Categories section and click  Add New.
• or in an area component properties, in Basic Settings → Layout Categories, click  Add New.

Layout Category Type Properties

Property Pane Toolbar

For information about the toolbar options, see the Common Properties page, Toolbars and Controls section.

Parent Details

If this item is within or belongs to another, it's parent name is shown here. See the Common Properties page, Parent Details section for more details.

Basic Settings

Description

We recommend that you always enter a description to explain the purpose of this item.

 Audit Tab

Audit Summary

See the Common Properties page, Audit Summary section.