Application Properties
- Former user (Deleted)
- Zoe Baldwin
- Anthony George
This page is for PhixFlow application designers who need to create a new application, or change the defaults for an existing application.
Overview
When you create an application in PhixFlow, you select a template. This configures default styles and formats for your application. For how to create a new application, see Creating an Application.
When you are working on your application in 
Design Mode, you can:
- define data relationships: see Entity Relationship Diagrams
- design screens that form the graphical user interface (GUI) of an application: see Designing Screens
- connect parts of the screen to actions or Actionflows that create functionality: Understanding Actionflows
This page lists the application properties. To open the application properties tab:
- Go to the
Repository tab.
If the tab is not present, in the PhixFlow toolbar, click the Repository icon. - In the Applications section, double-click your application's name.
- PhixFlow opens the properties tab for the application on the right.
Use the options to set:
- icons for the application
- defaults for:
- number formats
- styles for grids
- components to use for displaying data.
- menus so that user's can navigate through the application
- access privileges to specify which users can use the application.
- any packages containing shared resources that your application can use; see Package.
Loading an Application
Application users can load an application into 
Application Mode to interact with data, for example to view and update it.
You can work on the files in an application's project without loading it. However, if you load an application, the repository is automatically filtered to show just the files available to the application.
There are several ways to load an application.
- From the application menu, click the application card to load it.
By default, PhixFlow opens with the application menu displayed. To redisplay the menu, in the top left of the PhixFlow window click:- either the
Application menu - or the
, if it appears.
- either the
- From the repository, right-click on the application name and select
Load Application. - In a browser address bar, enter the application URL; see Starting PhixFlow on the Client. When PhixFlow is started in this way, you can still navigate to other applications that you have permission to access.
Application
Property Pane Toolbar
For information about the toolbar options, see the Common Properties page, Toolbars and Controls section.
Properties Tab
Basic Settings
Field | Description | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | Enter the name of the application. | |||||
| Model Validation Status | When you save changes to the properties of a table or view attribute, PhixFlow validates that the properties are set correctly. If there is an issue with the properties, PhixFlow indicates the status of the validation check:
When a table or view attribute has validation errors, PhixFlow also reports that the parent application and package have errors. PhixFlow can process data from tables or view attributes that have validation errors. The validation checks help you to configure tables and view attributes so that PhixFlow can continue to run efficiently. For example, PhixFlow reports an error if a table has no Data Retention option set because it can affect performance when all old tablesets are retained, To run validation checks on all tables, view attributes, applications and packages, use Administration Menu → More → Validate Model Objects. | |||||
| Version | Enter a version number for your application. Use this to track the stages of development or maintenance for your application. | |||||
| Do not show in the Application Menu | Select whether or not this application appears in the
| |||||
| Default Date Format | Select the default format for Date attributes and components. | Select a format from the drop-down list or click the icons to:
| ||||
| Default Date/Time Format | Select the default format for DateTime attributes and components. | |||||
| Default Number Format | Select the default format for numbers. | Select a format from the drop-down list or click the icons to:
| ||||
| Default Component Palette | Select the palette that you want to use when you drag a table, view or attribute onto a screen canvas. PhixFlow uses this palette when its container application is running. If the container application for is not running, PhixFlow uses:
If you do not set a default palette, PhixFlow uses the system default palette. Basic palettes are installed with PhixFlow. Additional palettes are available, see Understanding Template Packages and Installing Template Packages.
| |||||
| Application Icon | Select an uploaded image to use in the application menu card for this application. We recommend an image size of approximately:
| See Adding Images for how to upload an image to PhixFlow. PhixFlow uploads application icons and logos to the images folder in its database. You can see a list of uploaded images in the repository > Images section. | ||||
| Application Logo | Select an uploaded image to provide customised branding for the application. When a user clicks this image, it will open the application menu. We recommend an image size of approximately:
| |||||
Style Settings
When you drag a table or view onto a screen canvas, and select a grid component to display the table data, PhixFlow adds a grid. In this section, set the default appearance of grid views for the application. You can set the following:
- Default Header Icon Style
- Default Header Dropdown Pane Style
- Default Paging Style
- Grid Header Style
- Grid Header Button Style
- Grid Header Dropdown Button Style
- Grid Row Style
- Grid Alternate Row Style
- Grid Row Hover Style - applies when the mouse is over a row in a grid.
- Grid Column Style
- Grid Column Header Style
- Row Selection Style
To specify a style, select it from the drop-down list or click the icons to:
List Styles to show available styles
Add New to create a new style; see Style.
The styles you select override any styles set in System Configuration. You can override these defaults for individual grids using the style settings in the View properties.
Default Components
In this section, select an appropriate component for PhixFlow to add when you drag attributes onto a form or card container. For information about data types, see Understanding Data Types.
- String
- Bigstring
- Long
- Float
- Decimal
- True/False
- Date
- DateTime
Also set the styling for a:
- Form
- Card
- Drop Down
- Dynamic Text
And select a default:
- Table Action - This is the button that PhixFlow adds when you drag a table-action onto a screen canvas.
- Menu Button
Menus
This section has a toolbar with standard buttons. The grid lists the menus that have actionflows or record-actions that can be applied for this application.
PhixFlow automatically creates a default menu when you create the application project. PhixFlow will display in the default menu in the menu bar:
- once you have added options to the menu
- and when Show Default Menu Bar is selected (see below).
If there are several menus, listed PhixFlow uses the selected (ticked) menu as the menu bar for the application.
You can specify that PhixFlow uses a different menu for desktop and mobile devices. Right-click on a line in the list to show the popup menu options:
Desktop Menu: use this menu on desktop devices. The grid shows the desktop icon next to the menu name.
Mobile Menu: use this menu on mobile devices. The grid shows the mobile icon next to the menu name.
Create New create another menu to the list; see Startup Actions properties.
Delete delete the menu from this application.
Security Tab
Access Permissions
See the Common Properties page, Access Permissions section.
Advanced
Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Backslashes must be escaped in expressions | There is a change in 9.0.0 which affects escaped backslashes in expressions. This option maintains backwards compatibility. By default this will be ticked for applications created before 9.0.0, and unticked for later applications. |
Packages
This section has a toolbar with standard buttons. The grid contains a list of packages.
A package is a bundle of PhixFlow items that are shared between multiple applications. When you export/import an application to another PhixFlow instance, it is important to export/import all packages with the application; see Moving Items and Data Between Instances.
One package will include your applications theme settings. To add another package to the application:
- Click
Packages to list all the packages in the repository. - Drag packages into this list.
To remove a package from the list, use the toolbar button Delete.
Audit Tab
Audit Summary
See the Common Properties page, Audit Summary section.
Description
We recommend that you always enter a description to explain the purpose of this item.
Popup Menu Options
To access popup menus for an application:
- Either, in the repository, right-click on an application's name to show the popup menu.
- Or, in the application menu:
- click the
More Options - right-click anywhere on the card
- click the
| Available in a popup accessed from | Option | Description |
|---|---|---|
application card and |  Load Application | Load the selected application so that it is running in Application Mode. |
| application card | Load application in a New Tab | Open a new browser tab with the selected application loaded. |
| application card | Load Application in a New Window | Open a new browser window with the selected application loaded. |
| repository application name | Filter by Name | In the repository. filter the list of applications to only show the selected application. The application is not loaded. |
| repository application name |
| In Design Mode, open the application properties tab to make changes. |
| repository application name | Delete | Delete the selected application from the repository. This cannot be undone. |
