This page is for data modellers and application designers who want to select specific attributes to appear in a screen, and to format how the data will be displayed.

Overview

To display data on a screen, start by dragging a data view component from a palette to the screen. PhixFlow displays a window in which you can select attributes from one or more tables; see Displaying Data (Views).

This page explains the properties you can set for the view. These properties affect

how the data is presented, for example in a form, grid or a type of chart
charts legends, appearance and the attributes you want to use for the axes etc
how records are filtered, sorted and ordered
whether or not the data displayed is from the latest analysis run, or across all time
the appearance of the view, for example the styles that set borders, and headers
the actions that an application user can run, for example when they:
- double-click in the view
- drop something onto the view
- click a menu option in the view's header.

You can send data reports from PhixFlow by emailing the output of a File Exporter, a Task Plans, or a Screen.

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, its parent name is shown here. See the Parent Details section on the Common Properties page for more details.

Basic Settings

Field	Description
Name	The name of the view. By default, a space will be included before each capital letter. For example, the name `CustSpendAverage` will be displayed in the column heading as `Cust Spend Average`.
Display Type	A number of chart types are available: Barchart: plot a quantity as a set of bars against a set of categories along the horizontal axis. 3D Barchart: a 3D version of the standard barchart. Barchart (horizontal) Grid: show data laid out in a grid. Line Chart (category horizontal axis): plot line, or lines, representing quantities against a horizontal axis of 'categories'. The categories are printed along the horizontal axis, ordered alphanumerically. Line Chart (numeric horizontal axis): plot line, or lines, representing quantities against a numerical horizontal axis. 3D Pie Chart: a 3D version of the standard pie chart. Pie Chart: show a quantity as a pie chart, grouped by a category. Pivot: show data laid out in a table, with data for values of one attribute broken out ('pivoted') into multiple columns. For the additional options available when Display Type is Pivot, see Pivot View Popup Options and Pivot Details below. Stacked Barchart: a bar chart where multiple series/multiple attributes per category are displayed in a stacked form. Line Chart (times series horizontal axis): plot line, or lines, representing quantities against a date/time value - an attribute of type Date or Datetime. For the additional options available when Display Type is any of the chart options except Pivot, see Chart Layout and Chart Layout: Line Chart (time), below.
Default Sort Order	If specified, the default order in which data should be displayed. See Sort Order.
Default Filter	Any filter on the table can be selected as the default filter for this view.
Background Filter	Any filter on the table can be selected as the background filter for this view. When the user opens this view the background filter is applied first and any other filter applied to the view (either specifically created/selected by the user or automatically applied as the default filter described above) applied on top of the background filter.
Double-click Action	The default action to run when the user double-clicks on a row in a data grid; see Table-Action. For example: run an update action so that a user (with permission) can update the record open a read-only detailed view of the record.
Drag Type	The drag type that will be used when dragging data from this view. See Drag Types and Drop Targets.
Enable Filter Picker	Tick to allow the filter picker to be used for filters created for this view. See Filters on Data Views.
Form View	Tick to make this a form view. This can be used to accepting input from a user, for an insert or update action.
Include History Records	Tick to include superseded records in the view data. The superseded records will be identified by a grey background on the grid row. Untick to automatically filter out superseded records.

View Attributes

A list of attributes displayed in the view. Click to show Available Attributes window. Drag the attributes you want to add to the view into this list. If there are related tables, you can also drag in attributes from the related tables; see Available Attributes Window.

When you create a chart view, PhixFlow displays a skeleton chart builder in the screen canvas. You can drag attributes from this list onto the parts of the chart builder, such as the x-axis or the y-axis.

In the attribute list:

to edit the attribute's properties, double-click an attribute; see View Attribute
to delete an attribute, right-click and select Delete

Pivot View Popup Options

For pivot views, you must assign a purpose to each attribute. Right-click an attribute to open the popup menu, and select one of the purposes listed in the table below. For the additional properties available when Display Type is Pivot, see Pivot Details below.

Pivot View Purpose	Description
Pivot Column	Assign only one attribute to be the Pivot Column. The attribute generates columns in the pivot table. Formatting of the column headings is be controlled by the formatting options set on this view attribute.
Pivot Row	Assign any number of attributes to be Pivot Rows. These attributes generate the rows of the pivot.
Pivot Label	Assign only one attribute to be the Pivot Column. If Pivot Column Source is View Data, this attribute provides the pivot column headings. In most cases, the number of values for the Pivot Label should be exactly the same as the number of values for the pivot column.
Pivot Value	Assign only one attribute to be the Pivot Value. The values in this attribute generate the data values in the pivot. You must apply an aggregate function to this attribute in order to provide the `Sum`, `Minimum`, `Maximum` etc. of these values for each row and column; see Aggregating Data for the aggregate functions.
Pivot Row Total	Assign any number of attributes to be a Pivot Row Total. Each Pivot Row Total attribute generates a value for each row calculated as single-value aggregate of the individual pivot column values. Use any single-valued aggregate; see Aggregating Data for the single-value aggregate functions `Sum`, `Minimum`, `Maximum`, `Average`, `Count.`

Filters

The list of filters that will be available to application users in the drop-down list of filters on the view.

There are two ways to add a filter to this list:

Click on the filter button in this section
- PhixFlow opens a list of all the available filters on the parent table.
- Drag a filter from this popup into the list.
Go to the parent table's filters and drag filters into this list; see Filter

Only filters listed in the section App Mode Filters will show in Application Mode.

Advanced

Field	Description
Selection Attribute	This attribute will be used to determine the record selected. This is important when the data will be refreshed while users are looking at it - for example, if they run actions that run task plans to update the data, and which are set as refresh actions (see above). Setting this using a key field of the data means that after the refresh, the same record will be selected as before.
Auto Save	See Auto Save below.
Auto Save Action	See Auto Save Action Method below.
Row Selection Style	The style that will applied to rows in this view when they are selected. If set, this will override the default selected row style set in the System Configuration.
Select First Row By Default	Tick to automatically select the first row shown in the view when the view is opened.
Show Paging Bar	Available when Display Type is Grid. Tick to show the paging bar by default.
Show Records Count	Tick to calculate the total number of rows. Users do not have to click the '...' symbol to see this information.
Show Row Number	Tick to display the row number on the grid.
Always Show the Column Filter Icon	Tick to always display the a filter icon on this grid's column headers. This means users can quickly select values on which to filter the grid.
Periods	Number of processing periods from the table to display on the chart. If a full set of data is generated in each period, then this will be 1. If the data is spread across processing periods in the table - for example, each processing period only contains new data for that day, but we want to plot data across a number of days - then this number must be high enough to include all data of interest to show on a chart.
Default Width	The default width of the view. If empty, the view's width will be set to the system default value.
Default Height	The default height of the view. If empty, the view's height will be set to the system default value.
Allow Multi-Select	Tick to enable users to select more than one row in the grid.
Frozen Columns	Number of columns frozen while scrolling the View horizontally.
Excel Template	An Excel template can be linked to the view to specify the format the chart data should be exported in. The location that excel templates must be saved to is specified in the System Configuration.

Chart Layout

Available when Type is one of the chart view options. PhixFlow only shows options that are relevant for the type of chart selected.

To configure attributes to display as a chart:

Drag the table or view onto a screen.
Select the chart option you want.
Select the attributes you want to use on the chart.
PhixFlow creates the view and the screen displays a chart builder.
Drag attributes from the view properties onto the chart builder boxes.
- Series and Series (right axis)
- on the vertical axis: Y attributes and Y attributes (right axis)
- on the horizontal :X axis
- Label attribute
- For a horizontal bar chart or line chart, the chart builder boxes are:
- Series, Y Attributes , X Attributes, Label Attributes

Behind the chart builder you can see the chart. To show the chart without the chart builder overlay, either lock the layout or switch to Application Mode.

You can display up to 6

Field	Description
Show Legend	When a series is used, Tick to display a box listing all lines, along with the corresponding values.
Display Legend Below The Chart	Available when Show Legend is ticked for charts with left axis only. Tick to display the legend below the chart. Untickto display the legend above the chart.
Show Controls	Available when Display Type is Barchart. Tick to display a Grouped/Stacked switch on the chart.
Mark Selection	Available when Display Type is Barchart. Tick to add a visible border around the currently selected bar.
Tooltip Number Format	Select or add a number format to be applied to a chart tooltip.
Colour Map	Select or add a colour map.
Group Spacing	Available when Display Type is Barchart. Specify a value between 0 and 1 to define custom spacing between bar groups.

Chart Axis Options

Horizontal Axis Section	Vertical Axis Section Left or right axis	Description
Show Horizontal Axis	Show Vertical Axis	Tick to display the axis on the chart.
Horizontal Axis Title	Vertical Axis Title	Available when Show Horizontal/Vertical Axis is ticked. The label to appear below the axis.
Title Style	Title Style	Available when Show Horizontal/Vertical Axis is ticked. Select or add a style with properties to specify the format of the axis title text.
Label Angle	-	Available when Display Type is Barchart, Barchart (stacked) and all Line Charts. The orientation of the values displayed along the horizontal axis. Select a value from the drop-down menu.
Horizontal Axis Increment	Vertical Axis Increment	Specify the interval between tick marks on the axis. For example if the data values have a range from 1 to 100, specify a value of 5 or 10.
Force Horizontal Axis Ticks	-	Tick to force ticks to appear on the horizontal axis.
-	Logarithmic Scale	Available when Display Type is any type of Line Chart. Tick to scale the vertical axis logarithmically.
Minimum Value Only for Barchart (horizontal)	Minimum Value For charts except Barchart (horizontal)	Specify a minimum value to show on the axis. If the data includes lower values, they will not be plotted. If no minimum is specified, PhixFlow scales the chart from the lowest data point. Compares min and max and then it compares to data and says I don't need it If over the range they don't have an effect unless you tick fixed scale If its smaller, you are chopping off those parts of the graph top and bottom It plots everything but then the top is chopped off - so the bar will go to the top or the line will disappear off or appear on
Maximum Value Only for Barchart (horizontal)	Maximum Value For charts except Barchart (horizontal	Specify a maximum value to show on the axis. If the data includes higher values, they will not be plotted. If no maximum is specified, PhixFlow scales the chart up to the highest data point.
Fixed Scale Only for Barchart (horizontal)	Fixed Scale For charts except Barchart (horizontal	Tick to always use the Maximum Value and Minimum Value as the highest and lowest values on the axis. Left axis you can choose, Right axis cannot be adjusted to the data.... For the right axis it will use the min and max, whatever the data is doing (so it is effectively always fixed). Right axis is different
Horizontal Axis Increment	Vertical Axis Increment	Specify a value to use as increments on the axis
Show Horizontal Gridlines	Show Vertical Gridlines	Tick to show grid lines on the chart.
Horizontal Axis Date Format	Vertical Axis Date Format	Available when the attribute selected for the axis is a date or date/time. Select or add a Date or Date/Time format to use for the value labels.
Horizontal Axis Number Format	Vertical Axis Number Format	Available when the attribute selected for the axis is a number. Select or add a Number Format for for the axis labels.
Text Style	Text Style	Select or add a style with properties to specify the format of the text for the axis labels

Line Chart (time) options

Available when Type Line Chart (time). These apply to the horizontal axis, which in this case is a time series:

Field	Description
Primary Axis Unit	Units for date display along the horizontal axis. Choose a value from the drop-down list. Note, however, that only as many values will be displayed as can comfortably be fitted in the space available.
Primary Axis Format	Choose a format to display dates along the primary horizontal axis.
Secondary Axis Unit	Units for an optional, second date display along the horizontal axis. This might be used, for example, to create a graph where the months are shown along the primary horizontal axis (Primary Axis Unit = 'Month', Primary Axis Format = 'Jan, Feb') and the years are shown along a line below this, along the secondary horizontal axis (Secondary Axis Unit = 'Year', Secondary Axis Format = 'Four digit year').
Secondary Axis Format	Choose a format to display dates along the secondary horizontal axis, if this is being used.

Pivot Details

Remember that when you create a pivot table, you must assign a purpose to each attribute, so that all the pivot table data is generated; see Pivot View Popup Options above.

When Display Type is Pivot, the following properties are available.

Field

Description

Pivot Column Source

This controls how the field given the role Pivot Column will be used to generate columns in the pivot table. Choose from one of:

View Data - the pivot columns are generated directly from the data in the Pivot Column field. If a field has been given the role Pivot Label, the label values corresponding to values in the Pivot Column field will be used as pivot column headers. The is the simplest way to generate the pivot columns, but does not allow any control of the order of values, or the ability to handle missing values e.g. when generating standard reports
Expression - the pivot column values are the result of an expression.

Pivot Column Expr

If Pivot Column Source is Expression, this expression must return either a list of values or a list of pairs of values (the values and corresponding labels).

The expression can refer to any lookup pipe that is an input to the parent table of the view.

E.g.

['20150101', '20150201', '20150301']

In this example the resulting view displays three pivot columns.

The pivot view only displays data where the value of the pivot column attribute equals one of the three quoted values - data that does not match any of the pivot column values is ignored.

The pivot column labels are generated from the pivot values using the formatting rules of the Pivot Column field. In particular, the Label expression can be used to generate formatted label values automatically. If no formatting or Label expression is provided, a default label is generated. This is the recommended way of formatting column labels.

E.g.

[['20150101', 'January 2015'], ['20150201', 'February 2015'], ['20150301', 'March 2015']]

In the second example, the same data is displayed, but the column headers are provided in the second values for each pivot column.

This method of setting column labels is not recommended, and is provided for compatibility with existing pivot views.

Maximum Pivot Columns

This is the maximum number of pivot columns that can be displayed. If this is blank, the system-wide default in System Configuration is used.

Custom Series

This feature is available in PhixFlow version 11.1.1+.

Available when Display Type (in Basic Settings) is one of the chart view options. PhixFlow only shows options that are relevant for the type of chart selected.

The list of custom series' set on the view. To add a new custom series, click the icon.

For full details on the custom series properties such as trend lines and pareto graphs, see Custom Series. For a how-to guide on setting up different types of custom series, see Creating a Custom Series on a Chart (Trends).

Actions Tab

Action Settings

Field	Description
Double-click Action	Select the type of action that PhixFlow will run when the user double-clicks the view. No Action Table-Action Actionflow
Drop Action	Available when Double-click Action is Table-Action. Select action that will run when something of the chosen Drag Type is dropped onto this view. To show the list of available tables, click Table
Actionflow	Available when Double-click Action is Actionflow. Select the Actionflow that will run when the chosen Drag Type is dropped onto this view. To show the list of available Actionflows, click Actionflow. To create a new Actionflow, click Add New; see Understanding Actionflows.
Auto Save	Tick to save the edited row after another row is clicked. If a user makes a change to a view with Auto Save selected, then clicks Refresh, PhixFlow runs auto save first. Note When a record is being autosaved, double clicking on another record is momentarily disabled.
Auto Save Action Method	Available when Auto Save is ticked. Choose an action from the list: Actionflow Table-action Other - this will run the default Auto Save This option is available in PhixFlow version 11+ When an application user clicks elsewhere in the screen, PhixFlow runs the selected autosave action.
Drag Type	The drag type that this drop type is listening for.

Refresh Actions

A list of refresh action. These actions run and then redisplay the enclosing view with the latest data.

To add a Refresh Action go to a the Actions tab and drag actions into this tab. The table does not have to be the parent of this view.

Drop Targets

A list of the drop targets that this view will contain. To add a drop target, click on the + button at the top of the grid.

For each drop target you set the following fields:

Field	Description
Name	The name of the drop target.
Drag Type	The drag type that this drop type is listening for.
Drop Action	The action that will run when something of the chosen drag type is dropped onto this view.

Menu Items

A view component on a screen is designed with a header bar. You can configure the header to display options. When the the application user clicks on an option, PhixFlow runs the associated a table-action or actionflow.

Single options are referred to as buttons.
Nested options are referred to as menus and sub-menus.

Option 1: Drag a table-action onto the header:

In the screen canvas, right-click on the view component and select Show Table Properties; see Table properties
In the table properties, drag an action from the Actions section list onto the header bar of the view. You can only add table-actions from view's parent table.
PhixFlow automatically updates the Menu Items grid to show the action you have added to the view component.

Option 2: Drag a table-action into the Menu Items

In the view properties → Menu Items toolbar, click on the Actionflow icon.
PhixFlow opens a list of the table-actions available on the parent table.
Drag a table-action from the list onto an empty line in the grid.
PhixFlow adds the action to the list as a menu item.
If the screen containing the view is currently displayed, PhixFlow automatically updates the header to show the new option.
Optionally, double-click the menu item to change its properties. For example you can change the text that appears in the header; see View Menu Item

You can also drop a table-action onto an existing item in the grid. In this case, PhixFlow asks if you want to create a new item or add this as a sub-item.

Option 3: Create a new Menu Item

In the Menu Items toolbar, click the Add New icon.
In the properties for the menu item, select the table-action or actionflow that you want to use; see View Menu Item.

Styles Tab

Style Settings

For grid views, there are default styles set in System Configuration that determine the appearance of the grid on a screen. To apply different styles to a grid view, select the style from the drop-down.

Field	Description
Grid Header Style	Select the style for the grid's header row.
Grid Header Button Style	Select the style for buttons in the header row.
Grid Header Icon Style	Select the style for icons in the header row.
Grid Header Drop-down Button Style	Select the style for drop-down buttons in the header row.
Grid Header Drop-down Pane Style	Select the style for drop-down panes.
Grid Paging Style	Select the style for the paging bar.
Grid Row Style	Select the style for rows.
Grid Column Header Style	Select the style for column headers.
Row Selection Style	Select the style for the currently selected row(s).

To see a full list of styles, click Style.

To create a new style, click Add New; see Style.

Security Tab

Access Permissions

See the Common Properties page, Access Permissions section.

Audit Tab

Audit Summary

See the Common Properties page, Audit Summary section.

Configuring Coloured Rows in a Grid

The colours of rows in grid views can be set by creating an attribute called gridRowColour, and adding this to the view. This value will not be shown in the grid.

The value of this attribute must evaluate to either a hexadecimal value representing a colour or to the lower case name of one of the basic HTML colours. Visit www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_colorpicker.asp to see how hexadecimal values correspond to real colours. The table below lists the basic HTML colour names:

Aqua	Black	Blue	Fuchsia
Gray	Green	Lime	Maroon
Navy	Olive	Purple	Red
Silver	Teal	White	Yellow

We recommend that you avoid dark colours, as they make data in the grid very hard to read.

View Context Menu

Show Record Details	Opens a window with all the information contained in that grid row
View Properties	Opens the properties tab for the view.
Table Properties	Opens the properties tab for the table.
List Attributes <viewName>	Opens a list of all of the attributes (column headers) for this view. Attributes formatted in italics are present in the table but are hidden in the grid. To change whether an attribute is hidden or visible, right-click the attribute and select Show this column or Hide this column.

Sections on this page

Learn More

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

Terminology changes in progress

As part of the redesign of PhixFlow, we are changing the following terms:

dashboard → screen
stream → table
stream attributes → attributes
stream item → record
stream set → recordset
stream view → view
stream item action → record-action
stream action → table-action
driver class → database driver

View