Menu Options and Toolbar Buttons

This page is for PhixFlow data modellers and application developers. It describes the different menu and toolbar options available in the PhixFlow interface.

Sections on this page

There are several places where you can switch how PhixFlow displays list items. 

  •  Condensed List
  •  Card List

You can also set your preference for the application menu in User Details.

Most PhixFlow objects have an optional description field. PhixFlow will display this description as you hover over the object in a list or on a model. We recommend that you provide descriptions for all your objects to help document your work for both yourself and colleagues.

The Header bar is the grey bar at the top of the PhixFlow window.

Option

Description

Left Side

Running Actions: n

Information about the number of actions that are currently running.

Dismiss Notifications

Only available when there are open notifications. Close any green or blue notification messages 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, views and screens, that are open in the workspace.

Right Side

 User Options

Open user options menu, which includes access to the User Details window.

 Logout

Logout of PhixFlow. Returns PhixFlow to the startup screen so that you must log back in to resume work.

 System Console

Show the System Console. This displays currently running tasks and log messages from PhixFlow processes.

 Downloads

Show the download area. This displays files created by an export process that are ready to download; see Using the Download Area.

 Palette

Open the Changing or Creating a Palette tab on the right. You can drag preconfigured layout components from the palette into screens.

 Repository

Open Using the Repository. This shows all of the available items in your PhixFlow instance.

 Administration

Select options related to importing or exporting applications, packages or table data. Also contact PhixFlow for support. See Administration menu, below.

Application Mode

 Design Mode

The icon indicates the view or mode you are currently using.

In  Design Mode you can create data analysis models and design applications. In Application Mode you can run your application. Click the icon to switch between the views.

 HelpOpen the PhixFlow Help Overview page in a browser window.

Right-click any object to open its popup menu. One key popup option is Permanently Delete 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 popup option Show Models,  which will display a list of all the models that contain that object.

There are two types of grid display. The first are simply lists of the configuration objects but showing more details than the repository. The second type of grid shows a data record. 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:

 Filter

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.

 Sort Order

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.

 Download data to file

Export the data being shown to an Excel spreadsheet or CSV file.

For views, this option opens the Download CSV or Excel Data window. If the data is filtered, all data selected by the filter will be exported, not just the current paged result.

When viewing data in a Chart, an Excel template can be configured on the View that is used to specify the properties for the Chart.

 Delete

Delete the currently selected items. A form will appear to confirm that you wish to proceed.

 Refresh

Refresh the contents of the current grid.

 Help

Open the help page for the grid.

 Toggle Paging Bar

Show or hide the paging bar

When you drag attributes onto a layout, such as a screen 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 attributes as a form.