This page is for PhixFlow data modellers and application developers. It describes the different menu and toolbar options available in the PhixFlow interface.
Task Bar Options
| Dismiss Notifications | Close any green or blue notification windows that are open |
| Show/Hide Windows Bar | Toggle between showing or hiding the windows bar. This bar displays icons for all the items, such as models, stream views and dashboards, that are open in the workspace. |
 Users Details | Open the User Details window. |
 Logout | Logout of PhixFlow. Returns PhixFlow to the startup screen so that you must log back in to resume work. |
 Palette | Open the Palette tab on the right. You can drag preconfigured layout components from the palette into dashboards. |
 System Console | Show the System Console. This displays currently running tasks and log messages from PhixFlow processes. |
 Repository | Open Using the Repository. This shows all of the available items in your PhixFlow instance. |
 Administration | Administration Menu. Options to Import Configuration, Export Full Configuration or Open Export Pane |
 Application Mode Design Mode | The icon shows the current view. Click to switch between the views. |
Administration Menu
The Administration menu is on the right of the grey task bar at the bottom of the PhixFlow window.
The options that are available in the Administration menu depend upon your privileges. Administrators configure privileges in roles; see Managing User Groups and Privileges.
The menu has the following options:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Opens a browser window into PhixFlow's online support desk. Your designated support contacts will have login details. | |
| Opens a new email window. | |
| Shows general information about PhixFlow, in particular the current version that you are using. | |
 Help | Opens this online help system. |
| Import applications or packages previously exported from another PhixFlow instance. | |
| Import stream data previously exported from another PhixFlow instance. | |
Error rendering macro 'excerpt-include' : No link could be created for '_admin_export'. | Export everything. |
Error rendering macro 'excerpt-include' : No link could be created for '_admin_export_open'. | Open a window where you can select the applications or packages that you want to export. |
Error rendering macro 'excerpt-include' : No link could be created for '_admin_stream_open'. | Open a window where you can select the stream data that you want to export. |
Property Tab Toolbar
When you open the property tab for a model or one of its modelling objects, the tab has a toolbar at the top.
| Save the current properties and close the tab. |
 Apply | Save the current properties and keep the tab open. |
 Back | Toggle between the current property tab and one that was previously open. |
 Forward | |
| Repository | Find in Explorer. This icon will bring the repository browser tab to the front and will close all nodes except those leading to this object. You may need to scroll the explorer to see the selected object. |
| Help | Context sensitive help. |
Error rendering macro 'excerpt-include' : No link could be created for '_toolbar_squashed'. | If there is insufficient space on the header bar then some buttons are moved into this drop-down menu. The following options are always on the drop-down menu:
permanent as there is no "undo" option everywhere, so if the object is used by other models, it is also deleted there.
|
The Audit trail is a useful way of reversing changes made by mistake as each audit entry shows both the new and old values. In the case of text fields, simply copy the old value and paste it into the form field.
Property Section Toolbars
Each property tab can contain a number of sections. Each section has a header represented by a green bar with a small arrow before the section label which can be clicked to collapse and open the section.
Some sections contain fields whereas other sections can contain grids. Sections which contain grids may have a number of icons on them to allow you to add and delete records, see a more detailed grid with more columns or refresh the current grid.
 Add New | Create and insert a new item into the list. |
 Show a Detailed List | Open up a grid showing more details about each item. |
 Delete | Delete the selected item or items. |
 Refresh | Refresh the list (e.g. if the list has been updated on another computer by another user). |
| Add New | Create and insert a new item into the list. |
Model Toolbar
Context Menu
All objects have context menus associated with them which are accessed by right-clicking the mouse button. One key context menu item is which is always the last item on the list (to help ensure it is not pressed accidentally)!
Note that all objects that appear on Analysis Models have a context menu entry "Show Models" which will display a list of all the models that contain that object.
Grid
There are two types of grid display. The first are simply lists of the configuration objects but showing more details than the repository explorer. The second type of grid shows data e.g. Stream Items. The operations on configuration object grids are all very similar (e.g. add, delete, refresh etc.) however data grids will have additional operations which are all described on the help page for that object.
The following general features of grids are worth noting:
The items on grids are paged which means that PhixFlow fetches a batch of data at a time to populate the grid. The grid footer bar indicates which items are being shown, how many items there are in total and the page size. The user can page forwards and backwards using and
. Note that the user can also change the page size (the number of rows brought back from the PhixFlow Database). Please note that with very large datasets it will be more efficient to filter the the data rather than page through it!
Columns can be ordered by clicking the column header. Each click reverses the order direction. Please note that only the items currently paged in the display are ordered.
The following functional icons are common to many grids:
Select an existing (or predefined) Filter or create, delete and modify Filters. This causes the grid to refresh and display only those entries which match the selected Filter. | |
Select an existing (or predefined) multi-column Sort Order or create, delete and modify Sort Orders. Note that data is ordered across all records which are implied by the Filter, not just the current page of data. | |
Export the data being shown to an Excel spreadsheet. However, please note that when viewing Stream Data, pressing this button causes an option form to open which amongst other things allows you to choose to export the data to Excel, CSV or HTML. Note also that this will export all data implied by the Filter, not just the current paged result. When viewing data in a Chart, an Excel template can be configured on the Stream View that is used to specify the properties for the Chart. | |
Delete the currently selected items. A form will appear to confirm that you wish to proceed. | |
Refresh the contents of the current grid. | |
Open the help page for the grid. | |
| Show or hide the paging bar |
Stream Views Pop-Up Menu
When you drag stream attributes onto a layout, such as a dashboard or form, PhixFlow prompts how to display the data.
| Icon | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Grid | Display the data laid out in a table. |
| Line Chart | Plot a line or lines to represent quantities against a horizontal axis of categories. |
| Barcharts | Plot a quantity as a set of bars aligned vertically against a set of categories along the horizontal axis. |
| Plot a quantity as a set of bars aligned horizontally against a set of categories along the vertical axis. | |
| Pie Chart | Plot a quantity as a pie chart, grouped by a category. |
| Form | Layout the stream attributes as a form |
Tooltip Descriptions
Most PhixFlow objects have an optional description field. PhixFlow will display this description as you hover over the item whether the item is on a list or on a model pane. We highly recommend that you provide descriptions for all your objects to help document your work for both yourself and colleagues.