Opening an Existing Screen
- Load your application.
- To open a screen:
- either, in the header bar, click Screen and click a screen from the list
- or in the repository, expand your application's Screens section and double-click a screen name.
- PhixFlow opens the locked screen in the canvas.
- To unlock the screen for editing, right-click anywhere on the screen to open the popup menu and select Error rendering macro 'excerpt-include' : No link could be created for '_layout_unlock'..
- PhixFlow displays the toolbar for the screen indicating it is ready to edit.
- Click Palette to display the palette on the right and you can begin editing the screen.
Creating a New Screen
- In the header bar, click
- Screen
- Click Add New, PhixFlow opens the screen creation wizard.
- Enter a Name for the screen.
- Tick to specify if the screen should open maximised or not.
- These can be changed at a later time by accessing the screen's properties from the toolbar. Here are some example setups:
- Popup screen for data entry:
- tick Always on top
- tick Allow user to resize
- Set Position to Floating and if desired set the other positional settings such as the size and location of the screen.
- Full-screen properties for displaying tables of data
- tick Open Maximised
- untick Always On Top
- if you intend to make your own navigation or screen controls, untick Show Window Button Bar.
- optionally, untick Allow user to resize
- Popup screen for data entry:
- These can be changed at a later time by accessing the screen's properties from the toolbar. Here are some example setups:
- Click on the template the screen should be based on.
- PhixFlow opens a new, unlocked, Screen with the palette opened.
Designing or Using an Application
When you are creating and editing screens that make up an application, you are working in Design Mode .
PhixFlow runs applications in Application Mode. Only essential PhixFlow options are shown in the header bar. All other PhixFlow options are hidden. Instead the application user interacts with the screens you have created .
To switch modes, click the icon in the right of the header bar.
Unlocking and Locking a Screen for Editing
When you first open a screen in Design Mode, it is locked so that you do not accidentally move any of the components. There is no canvas toolbar visible. To edit the screen, you must unlock it. Right-click on the canvas and select
An unlocked screen has all the toolbar and pop-up menu options that you need to move components and edit their properties. If you click on a component, such as a button, PhixFlow opens its properties.
Testing Screens
When you have configured part of a screen, you may want to test how it behaves for an application user. For example, you may want to click a button and run its action, or have a URL component display its content. To do this:
- either, in Design Mode, in the screen toolbar, click on Error rendering macro 'excerpt-include' : No link could be created for '_layout_lock'..
- or, in the header bar on the right, click Application Mode to run your application.