This page is for data modellers or application developers who want to apply special formatting to data that meets specific criteria.

Overview

A formatting rule allows you to specify an expression which evaluated can apply the selected style to the parent object. It allows to apply styles conditionally, depending on current values displayed on the screen.

A formatting rule can be applied to a view attribute or to a component. If you apply a formatting rule to a template, all components created from the template will have a copy of the formatting rule applied.

Basic Settings

For information about the properties toolbar, and about the sections Parent Details, Analysis Models, Description and Audit Summary, see Common Properties. We recommend you always add a Description that explains the purpose of the item you are creating.

For a full list of all the PhixFlow property tabs and windows, see Properties, Windows, Menus and Toolbars.

Field	Description
Rule Expression	Expression to be evaluated on order to determine should the Style be applied. This expression takes PhixFlow Internal Variables. See examples below. For more help on expressions, see Regular Expressions and Expressions and Scripts.
Style	Style to be applied when the Rule Expression evaluates to true.
Order	Order of the Rule Expression.
Enabled	Flag showing is the Rule Expression enabled.
Stop If True	Flag showing if other rules shouldn't be applied if the current Rule applies.

Example

For the Status Type attribute in a view, set the properties to:

Properties

For the Status Type attribute in a view, set the properties to:

Rule Expression:
- either _field.value == "OK"
- or _current.StatusSummary=="Validation Passed"
Style: BackgroundColour-LightGreen
Enabled: Tick

_field.value == "OK" identifies the status type of OK and highlights the cell

_current.StatusSummary=="Validation Passed" identifies the status summary of Validation Passed and then highlights the corresponding status type cell.

Resulting View

This displays the OK field with a green background.

Formatting Rule Expressions

Variables

In formatting rules, you can use the following Internal Variables.

To set a button toggle for whether or not a screen is maximised, use _screen.
To act on a specific record, use: _form, _grid and _current. The record depends on the structure of components on the screen, as shown in the following table.

Formatting expression variable	Where
Formatting expression variable	View directly on a screen	form on a screen	view on a form	form on a card	grid on a card
`_form` acts on the record	na	currently displayed on the form	currently displayed on the form	currently displayed on the card	backing the card
`_grid` acts on the record	`na`	currently displayed on the form	na	currently displayed on the card	na
`_current` acts on the record	currently displayed in the grid	na	currently displayed in the grid	currently displayed in the card	currently displayed in the grid

Functions

For quick changes to screen appearance, you want formatting rules to be evaluated quickly. To ensure a quick response, only use the attribute functions that are evaluated by the client rather than the server; see the list of Responsive Attribute Functions.

Formatting Rules