This page explains how to set context parameters for an action.

Overview

When a user triggers an action, PhixFlow can take into account other values or attributes to decide whether or not to run. These are called context parameters. At the start of an action, PhixFlow calculates the context parameters first. This is because they are needed to decide whether or not to run the action. This is called action validation.

Use context parameters to identify values:

to pass from one dashboard to another
for action validation
that determine stream item actions
to determine what your action will do.
Examples include:
- which dashboard will open after the action completion
- which updates will take place (stream item action rules)
- whether or not a task plan will run.

The order of the context parameters is important!

Context parameter values can come from:

a field in a form
a calculation.
The source values for the calculation can be
- a field in a form
- previous context parameters
results obtained from lookups.

You cannot directly refer to a context parameter from another context parameter. However, you can refer to a dollar $ variable that is defined in another context parameter expression. Make sure the dollar variable will be calculated before the current context parameter expression is evaluated. This can be useful to avoid repeating the same calculation. For example, sometimes you need to use a value in both a stream item action and dashboard rule.

In the action properties → Context Parameters section, the Include Previous Context Parameters adds to the context parameters of your action any existing context parameters from the dashboard. You can overwrite them by including it in your action and giving it a new value.

Context Parameter Properties

This properties tab is not available from the repository. It opens from an action properties → Context Parameters section.

For information about the properties toolbar, and about the sections Parent Details, Analysis Models, Description and Audit Summary, see Common Properties. For a full list of all the PhixFlow property tabs and windows, see Property Tabs.

Basic Settings

Field	Description
Order	Enter the order in which context parameters will be evaluated.
Name	Enter the name of the context parameter. Either select an attribute name from the drop-down list, or enter a different name.
Use these values as	Select an option to set these values as: Default Values: the context parameter has a default value can be changed interactively Fixed Values: once set the value cannot be changed.
Expression	Enter the expression for the context parameter. Unlike stream action attribute expressions, context parameter expressions can evaluate to a list of values as well as single values. The context parameter expressions can refer to: data from the dashboard, view or form from which the action was initiated $-variables used in other context parameter expressions on the same action. Use the notation: to refer to values on a form: `_prompt.<Form Field Name>` to refer to attributes of selected records: `<View name or alias>.<Attribute name or alias>` The expression can include the message functions debug(message), info(message), warning(message), and error(message), which write messages to the system console logs. Remember that error(message) function stops the action from completing.

Example

A view called Customers shows a list of customers including the account ID, name and other account details. You want to create an action button to open up another dashboard, containing a view called Invoices, which will show the invoices for the customer selected on the Customers view.To do this:

Add an action button to the Customers view, and configure it to open the dashboard containing the Invoices view
Add a context parameter called Account to the action, with the context parameter expression set to customers.account_id
On the background filter of the Invoices view, set the filter to only select those invoices whose account_id is equal to _context.account.

Referring to a Context Parameter

The values returned by the context parameter expressions can be referenced by:

the validation expression
the filter
the maximum and minimum items expressions
any stream action attribute expressions
any dashboard opened by this action.

The context values are referenced using the syntax:

_context.<context parameter name>