Overview

A palette provides quick access to set of configured templates, which you can dragging onto forms to create components. 

PhixFlow comes with two default palettes:

  • Basic Components: contains all basic components, such as String Field and CheckBox without any additional labels and styling.
  • Labeled Fields: contains a set of predefined form fields that have configurable labels. This is the palette to use when designing application forms. 


You can also install additional Theme palettes. These are designed to have everything you need to create GUI screens by simply dragging the tiles from the palette into a screen. See also About Template Packages, Using a Template Package and /wiki/spaces/HELP12/pages/9615720309.

You can also configure PhixFlow to use automatically your prefered palette; see application properties → Basic Settings → Default Component Palette.



Creating a Palette

To create a palette:

  1. Right-click the repository branch → Application → Palette and select .
  2. PhixFlow opens a properties tab for the palette. Name the palette and save it.
  3. In the Screens section, click the  button to see all the templates in the repository.
  4. Drag components into the Component list.
  5. Optionally set up Default Components.
  6. Optionally define Palette Groups.
  7. Save your palette.

To remove items from a palette, right-click on the item in the palette and click . This removes the component from the palette, but does not remove it from the repository.

Default Components

For any screen that you design, there are common elements, such as forms, true/false fields, or fields for specific types of data, such as long strings or floating point numbers. After you have added these to the Components section of the palette properties, use the Default Component section to select which of the components you want to use for the base components. PhixFlow displays these in a "Base Component" palette. 

Adding a Template to a Palette

If you have a component that you want to add to a palette, you must first copy it as a template; see Layout Template.

To add a template to a palette:

  1. Open the repository tab and palette tab.
  2. Drag one of the tabs into the workspace to show the tabs side-by-side.
  3. From the repository branch → Template, drag a template from the repository into a palette.

To remove items from a palette, right-click on the item in the palette and click . This removes the component from the palette, but does not remove it from the repository.

You can group components into sub-sections of a palette; see Palette Groups, below.

Palette Properties

Basic Settings

FieldDescription
NameName of the palette.
Help URL

For palettes supplied by PhixFlow, this URL links to the help page about the palette.

If you create your own palette, add a link to additional information to help people to use your palette.

PhixFlow displays the palette header bar with a  icon which links to the URL specified here.

Components

This section has a toolbar with standard buttons and .

The grid contains a list of components that this palette contains. To add a component to the list:

  1. Click  to list all the components in the repository.
  2. Drag components into this list to add them to the palette. 

To remove a template from the palette, use the  in the toolbar.

Default Components

You can select a  template to use by default for common form fields.

FieldDescription
String Component              





Add a template:

  • either select one from the drop-down list. 
  • or drag in a template from the repository list, opened from the Components section toolbar: 
Bigstring Component
Long Component
Float Component
True/False Component
Date Component
DateTime Component
Action Component
Form Component
Card Component

Palette Groups 

This section has a toolbar with standard buttons. The grid contains a list of the groups this palette contains.

Use palette groups to organise your templates, making it easier to find what you need. For example, Theme 2 has 3 palettes. The Theme 2 - App Builder palette has different components grouped together.

We recommend you have a guiding principle for creating groups. For example, Theme 2 is organised with the most complete components, such as entire forms, first. Individual data fields are last. The groups in between have container components that you add to a screen first, then the tiles or tile elements that need to be dropped into a container.

To add a group to the list:

  1. Click .
  2. PhixFlow opens the Palette Group properties.
  3. Set the name and order. Add the components you require.
  4. .

To remove a group from the palette, use the  in the toolbar.

Pallet Group Properties

FieldDescription
NameName of the palette group.
OrderEnter a number to specify where this group appears in the palette.
Components

This section has a toolbar with  standard buttons. 

Click  to open the full repository list of Templates. If you want to see only templates from your application, find your application → Templates.

Drag in the templates you want to appear in this group.

Description

Tooltip Enter a tooltip. This will be displayed when a user hovers their mouse pointer over the palette group.

Description Enter a description for this palette group.

Description

FieldDescription
TooltipThe description that will appear at the tooltip for this palette.
DescriptionWe recommend you always add a description of this palette.