Record-Action Attribute

Owned by Fiona Sargeant (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Aug 13, 2024 by Zoe Baldwin

This page is for application designers who want to configure actions.

Overview

When you are creating a record-action for a table, use this property tab to add an expression that evaluates to the new value for that table attribute.

  1. Create a record-action.
  2. In the Basic Settings →  Attributes to Update section there is a grid of attributes.
  3. In the grid, double-click on a attribute.
  4. PhixFlow opens the record-action attribute property tab. 

Record-action properties are not available from the repository. It only opens from the record-action properties → Basic Settings →  Attributes to Update section.

 Properties Tab

Parent Details

If this item is within or belongs to another, its parent name is shown here. See the Parent Details section on the Common Properties page for more details.

Basic Settings

FieldDescription
OrderEnter the order in which the attribute expression will be evaluated. 
AttributeSelect the name of the table attribute that will be populated.
Expression

Enter an expression to generate a new attribute value. 

To refer to table attributes, pipes and screen zones in the expression, use:

  • <attribute-name> to refer to the current value of the record you are about to update.
  • <pipe-name> to refer to lookup pipes on the same table as the action. The pipe cannot reference _out variables directly.
  • <screen-zone-name> refers to selected records from other views using their screen zone names.
Example

For example:

  • A screen zone name is ACCTS.
  • In the screen, the user will select records in a grid view.
  • For the selected records, you want the action to sum the values in the amount attribute.

Enter an expression:

sum(ACCTS.amount)

You can also use the following prefixes:

  •  _prompt.<form-field-name> to refer to fields from any user input form associated with this action.

  • _form.<form-field-name> to refer to the current value displayed in a field on the form.

    Example

    In the screenshot below, the expressions use _form to refer to fields Unit Price, Quantity and VAT Percentage. The user sees these fields on a form.


  • _out.<attribute-name> to refer to the current value of an attribute in the action.
    For example, in the screenshot above, you could refer to the value for the attribute ChargeAmount in VATAmount with the expression _out.ChargeAmount.

  • _context.<context-variable-name> refer to any context variable defined for this action.

  • _gridRow.<table-view-attribute-name> to refer to the edited value of an attribute when the Filter Type is Edited Items.
     _gridRow contains a recordset pointing to an individual row that has been modified.

Messages

You can use the following message functions in the expression. When the action runs, any messages are written to the system console and logs.

If PhixFlow reports an error, it stops the action from being completed for the current record in the table.  However, the error does not stop the action from updating or inserting other records.

Sections on this page

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Terminology changes in progress

As part of the redesign of PhixFlow, we are changing the following terms:

dashboard → screen   
stream → table
stream attributes → attributes
stream item → record
stream set → recordset
stream view → view
stream item action → record-action 
stream action → table-action
driver class → database driver