Part 1 - Analysis Fundamentals
Part 2 - Analysis Fundamentals
Analysis Models Overview
Analysis models are the graphical representation of the processing that will be carried out by PhixFlow. They define how data is imported, transformed, viewed, analysed and exported. They are made up of modelling objects, each of which performs one or more of these functions. For example, a datasource allows PhixFlow to connect to an external database. A table (formerly known as a stream) allows you to write functions to manipulate data such as calculating a value.
The analysis models are the main back-end process in PhixFlow and run whenever a table is requested. This can be triggered in two ways:
- Run analysis: An ad-hoc request from a model, by clicking the
Run Analysis in the table's popup toolbar. - Scheduling a task: By a
Task Plan.
As PhixFlow runs the analysis steps, it reports on progress using messages in the System Console. You can open the system console up at any time by clicking the icon 
System Console under the 
Administration menu.
Analysis Model Window Layout
Below is a simplified view of the screen editor.
- The Toolbar provides screen specific options, such as displaying existing tables which can be added to the canvas and the option to create new tables or file collectors.
- The Repository and Property Editors are displayed to the right of the canvas. They provide navigation to locate existing items, the ability to create new items and access to the options for each editable item.
- The Canvas area where the Analysis Model will be configured. New items, such as Tables and File Collectors, can be added to the canvas by dragging on the associated toolbar icon, existing items are added by dragging the items from the repository onto the canvas.
- Steps, such as Tables and Datasources appear on the canvas and are connected by pipes. Pipes perform different roles such as allowing data to flow through (solid lines) or performing lookups (dashed line) to retrieve additional information such as looking up a product code and returning its name.
