PhixFlow screens have been designed to provide quick access to the functions you are likely to need from the current view without having to navigate complex menus. This help page provides an overview of the navigation features and key screens in PhixFlow.

Accessing Help

When you first log into PhixFlow in   Design Mode, you will see a Help tab on the right, as well as the Repository tab. The Help tab provides links to the help and training.

If you do not want to show the help panel again,  Tick the check box at the bottom of the panel. To subsequently show the panel, go to the User menu, select My User Details and  Tick Show the Help Tab on Startup.

To open the help about the options in a properties tab, click  Help in the toolbar at the top of the tab.

General Notes on the User Interface

Please read Menu Options and Toolbar Buttons for general advice on mouse and other actions available on the user interface.

Applications

On the top left of the PhixFlow screen is the Applications button. Clicking an Applications button opens a list of all Applications available for the user. The user can run the selected one using its default Menu by clicking or right clicking to open in a new tab or window. An application may have more than one menu item which will be displayed after clicking on the application.

The user can also choose an Application and Menu by adding ?application=APPLICATION_NAME&menu=MENU_NAME to the PhixFlow URL where APPLICATION_NAME is the name of the selected application and MENU_NAME is the name of the selected Menu.

The following notes provide useful information on general interaction features of the client application that are used in many of the PhixFlow screens.

Double-click Action

Double clicking items on a list (and elsewhere) generally opens the object definition form however for Stream Views, Dashboards, and Analysis Models PhixFlow will open the object representation e.g. the Chart implied by the Stream View. To open definition forms for these objects you need to use the "Edit" option on the context menu.

Selecting Items

Clicking an item "selects" it (the item will be highlighted) and any previously selected items will be deselected. To select multiple items, press the Control key at the same time as you click the item. This will add the new item to the list of selected items. Note that if the item clicked is already selected, it will be removed from the selection list. If you want to select a continuous list of items, select the first item on the list and then select the last item while holding down the Shift key.

Note that there are several places in PhixFlow where operations can be carried out on multiple selected items, for example object deletion.

Drag and Drop

The user can drag and drop the majority of object items within PhixFlow. The outcome of each drag/drop operation is dependent upon the context and is explained on help for each form however here are a few general tips:

• Objects can only be dragged/dropped between compatible forms i.e. only if it makes sense for the object to be dropped onto the target location.
• Many forms support drag/drop for multiple selected items.
• Items can be reordered by dragging and dropping on ordered lists i.e. lists where the order of the items is important e.g. the list of Stream Attributes for a Stream. Note that the list should be ordered in the (default) ordered state.
• On Analysis Model panes, single or multiple objects can be dragged off the modelling pane and onto another object by selecting the objects you want to drag and then holding down the Shift key and dragging the item(s). If the Shift key is not held down, the selected objects are just moved on the modelling pane.
• Stream Views can be dragged onto Dashboards to create your own layout.

Multiple Object Windows 

To open a form in a new tab, drag the tab header onto the modelling pane. This will create a new pane for the form. To move a form to another pane, drag the header tab onto the destination pane.

Deleting Items

PhixFlow will always ask for confirmation that you really do want to delete an item or selected list of items before actually deleting it. Note that you will not be able to delete an item that is referenced by other objects within PhixFlow (an message box will appear indicating the number and types of referencing items).

Context Menus

All objects have context menus associated with them which are accessed by right-clicking the mouse button. One key context menu item 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 context menu entry "Show Models" which will display a list of all the models that contain that objects.

Repository browser and object property editor forms

When opening PhixFlow in design mode the Using the Repository will open on the right side of the screen. When an object is opened to edit, a property editor form will be opened in a new tab in this pane. If an object is opened for editing when another property editor form is already open, the new property editor form will replace the already opened one, unless the open form contains unsaved data or the tab is pinned.  You can close the property editor by clicking on the white cross on the tab.

If the Pin icon is yellow when another edit form is opened, then the tab will be closed and the other tab will be opened. If the open tab contains unsaved data then a new tab will be opened. Clicking the Pin icon turns it red indicating that the pane is now pinned. This means that when another form is opened, this pane remains open (in addition to the new pane opening). Click the icon again to toggle the pinned status.

The property editor form has a number of icons at the top.  If there is insufficient space on the header bar then some icons may be moved to the hamburger menu which can be accessed by clicking on the hamburger menu icon shown in the table below.

	Save the current details and close the editor
	Save the current details without closing the editor.
	Back.  This icon will cause the form to refresh to show the details for the previous object that was in this editor
	Forward.  This icon will cause the form to refresh to the details of the object that was in this editor before the Back icon was pressed.
	Find in Explorer.  This icon will bring the repository browser tab to the front and will close all nodes except those leading to this object.  You may need to scroll the explorer to see the selected object.
	Context sensitive help.
	The hamburger menu icon.  This icon reveals a dropdown menu with additional options.  If there is insufficient space to show all of the items above on the header bar of the editor then some items may be moved to the hamburger menu.

The hamburger menu on the top of the property editor form may also contain the following options which are configured to remain in the hamburger menu even if there is space on the header bar:

	Permanently delete the current object
	Close the property editor

Each property editor form may contain a number of sections.  Each section has a header represented by a green bar with a small arrow before the section label which can be clicked to collapse and open the section.  Some sections contain fields whereas other sections can contain grids.  Sections which contain grids may have a number of icons on them to allow you to add and delete records, see a more detailed grid with more columns or refresh the current grid.

	Open up a grid showing more details about each item.
	Delete the selected item or items.
	Refresh the list (e.g. if the list has been updated on another computer by another user).
	Create and insert a new item into the list.

Windows Bar

The Windows bar appears in the bottom of the screen if 'Show Windows Bar' is selected from the footer bar. The Windows bar contains links to all open windows (both open and minimised). Click on a link to restore the window (if needed) and bring the window to the front of the screen. Each window link also has a context menu which allows you to close it directly.

Task Bar

The task bar is at the bottom of the PhixFlow window. On the left the number of currently running actions is shown. There is also the button to show/hide the windows bar. If there are any notifications on screen, they can all be dismissed in one go by clicking 'Dismiss notifications'. This will dismiss the green notification pop ups but not red error/failure messages.

On the right are icons which can be used to access different features:

	Show the System Console. This shows currently running tasks and log messages from processes run in PhixFlow.
	Open Using the Repository. This shows all of the available objects in your PhixFlow instance.
	Administration Menu. Options to Import Configuration, Export Full Configuration or Open Export Pane
	Switch between App Mode and Design Mode