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; see Applying Formatting Rules for some examples.

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

Property Pane Toolbar

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

Properties Tab

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

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 PhixScripts.
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.

Audit Tab

Audit Summary

See the Common Properties page, Audit Summary section.

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 determine the maximised state of a screen, use _screen. In a formatting rule, use the state of this variable to set the button icon. This means the button can match the current maximised state of the screen.
To act on a specific record use one of the following:

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
_selected acts on the selected item	na	Currently selected field	na	Currently selected card Currently selected field	na
_value acts on composite components	na	Access the value in the field	na	Access the value in the field	na

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.

Sections on this page

Learn More

For links to all pages in this topic, see Designing Screens.

Formatting Rule