System Configuration
Former user (Deleted)
Zoe Baldwin
Dominic Sandhu (Unlicensed)

This page is for administrators who need to configure system-wide options for PhixFlow.
Overview
There are several ways to access system configuration:
- Scroll to the bottom of the repository list and click
System Configuration
- In the header bar, click
Administration →
System →
Configuration
For information about the properties toolbar, and about the sections Parent Details, Analysis Models, Description and Audit Summary, see Common Properties. We recommend you always add a Description that explains the purpose of the item you are creating.
For a full list of all the PhixFlow property tabs and windows, see Properties, Windows, Menus and Toolbars.
General Settings
Field | Description |
---|---|
Customer Name | This field is read-only. PhixFlow displays the customer name that was set in the PhixFlow database during system installation. |
PhixFlow Instance | Any text entered here appears on the application banner. For example if you have multiple instances of PhixFlow installed (Live, Test etc.) then you can enter a value in this field so that users can easily see which system they are using. After changing this field you will need to restart the browser or reload the application (User → Reload Application) to see the new value in the banner. You can return the instance name using |
Default Export Excel Version | The default version of Excel to be used when exporting data from PhixFlow to Excel. This is only used if a non-valid excel extension, such as "csv", is used in the file name extension specified in the exporter. Otherwise PhixFlow will determine the correct format from the extension specified in the file name. See file exporters for details. |
System Locale | Select the default locale to use for the PhixFlow system. You can set a different locale for users. The list of locales available in PhixFlow is a standard list. The presence of a specific locale does not indicate that translations are available for the locale. The locale sets the default date style. It can also change the language of an application if it has a translation table; see Translating an Application Interface. |
Default Component Palette | Select a default layout component palette. |
Decimal Places | The default number of decimal places to show for float values in view, unless a different value is set for an individual view attribute. |
Suppress Trailing Zeroes | Select one of the following:
This setting can be over-ridden using a Number Format. |
Default Date Format | The default format for dates in views, unless a different format is applied for an individual view attribute. |
Default Date/Time Format | The default format for datetimes in views, unless a different format is applied for an individual view attribute. |
Allow access to data by default | Specifies the default data access permission on new tables. Possible values are:
|
Notification Timeout (s) | Specify how long, in seconds, PhixFlow should display the popup notifications before closing them automatically. |
File Download Expiry | By default, this option is set to 24 hours. Specify how long files remain available in the File Download Location before they are deleted. Specify the time using one or more of:
where If you do not specify the time by d, h, m or s, PhixFlow defaults to the entered value as hours. Example To keep downloads for:
|
Help Url | The base URL for PhixFlow help. This is preset for each PhixFlow release, and should not be changed without consulting PhixFlow support. |
Online Support Url | The URL to open when the user requests online support through PhixFlow. Under normal circumstances you should not need to update this setting. If you have problem with PhixFlow help, please contact the PhixFlow support team (see the welcome page for contact details). After changing this field you will need to restart the browser or reload the application (User → Reload Application) to start using the new help location. |
System Email Address | Specify the email address from which system-generated mails will be sent, such as password reset requests. For example, create an email account for notifications@company.com and use it as the System Email Address. It is important to set a system email address as the registered owner of the email account. This is because some email services reject emails that are not from the registered owner of the email account. If you do not set a System Email Address, PhixFlow sends the email as if it is from the person making the request. For example, if Georgia Smith requests a password reset, the email will be “from” georgia.smith@company.com. This email may not be delivered by some email services. |
Feedback Email Address | Specify an email address to receive any feedback emails. These are sent from the Administration → Support Menu → Email Support option. We recommend that this email address is your onsite system administration email. Issues that cannot be resolved internally should then be forwarded to support@phixflow.com. |
Error Reporting Email Address | Specify an email address to receive emails sent when a user clicks the Report button on a system error message. We recommend that this is set to an onsite system administration. Issues that cannot be resolved internally should then be forwarded to support@phixflow.com. |
Only allow users with the restricted login permission to log in | Use this option when you need maintain or upgrade PhixFlow and you need to prevent any users from logging in; see Restricting Access During System Maintenance.
Before using this option, make sure the Administrators role has the Restricted Login Only privilege. You may need to add this privilege to other roles for users who require system access, such as PhixFlow support or consultants. Remember to untick this option when maintence is complete. |
Only allow users with the restricted permission to run task plans and actions | Use this option when you need maintain or upgrade PhixFlow and you need to prevent processes from running; see Restricting Access During System Maintenance.
Scheduled task plans will not run, although the Suspended tick box will not be ticked on individual task plans. Before using this option, make sure the Administrators role has the Restricted Login TaskPlan Processing privilege. You may need to add this privilege to other roles for users who require system access, such as PhixFlow support or consultants. Remember to untick this option when maintence is complete. |
Suspend processing for non admin users | Suspend processing for all users except those in the administrators group. Non-admin users will be prevented from running analysis, task plans, table-actions and rollback. Scheduled task plans will also be suspended (but the suspended box will not be ticked on individual task plans). |
Allow access to run actions by default | If ticked, by default all users will have access to run actions (providing they have functional rights to run actions), unless this is overridden at the level of individual actions. |
Home Screen Message HTML | Enter and format a message which is displayed to users when they log in; see Configuring a Login Message. |
Banner Colour | Use the colour picker to select a colour for the menu bar at the top of the screen. |
System Directories
Use these options to configure root directories that PhixFlow needs on its server. On a Windows-hosted system, prefix directory paths with a drive letter, for example C:
When you set a Restricted Directory, all other system directories, except the Database Driver File Directory, must be sub-directories of the restricted directory.
Field | Description |
---|---|
Plugin Location | Enter the path to a directory for any PhixFlow plugin applications. |
Application Location | Enter the path to a directory for the PhixFlow installation. |
Import File Location | Enter the path to a root directory for files to be imported into PhixFlow. This directory is used as the default location. This field can be left blank. See File Collectors for further details. |
Export File Location | Enter the path to a root directory for files to be exported from PhixFlow. This directory is used as the default location. This field can be left blank. See File Exporters for further details. |
Template Location | Enter the path to a directory for the templates that PhixFlow uses when creating Microsoft Excel file downloads. |
Temporary File Location | Enter the path to a directory where PhixFlow can save temporary files that it generates. |
Performance File Location | Deprecated. This directory is no longer used by any feature. In previous versions, this was where PhixFlow stored performance analysis files. |
Archive Directory | This directory is used when Archive deleted log messages to file is ticked. Enter the path to a root directory where log messages can be archived. This directory is used as the default location. This field can be left blank. |
Restore Directory | Enter the path to a root directory from which data can be restored. This directory is used as the default location. This field can be left blank. |
Restricted Directory | When you set a Restricted Directory, all other system directories, except the Database Driver File Directory, must be sub-directories of the restricted directory. Also, for file collector or exporter properties with Ignore Base Directory selected, all paths must be in the restricted directory; see File Collector → Ignore Base Directory or File Exporter → Ignore Base Directory. Read-only. PhixFlow displays the directory path that is set in the PhixFlow database. For security reasons, we recommend that you configure a restricted directory so that Phixflow only reads data from the restricted directory. To set the restricted directory in the PhixFlow database, use an SQL statement, for example: update system_configuration set restricted_dir = '/opt/phixflow/data'; commit; Restart Tomcat to make the change visible to the PhixFlow application. |
Database Driver File Directory | Read-only. PhixFlow displays the directory path that is set in the PhixFlow database. Use this directory to store driver jar files to enable PhixFlow to communicate with different databases. To avoid your files being overwritten during Tomcat or PhixFlow upgrades, we recommend that you specify a directory outside of
To set the database driver file directory in the PhixFlow database, use an SQL statement, for example:
Restart Tomcat to make the change visible to the PhixFlow application.
See also Database Driver. If the Restricted Directory is set, this directory does not need to be within the restricted directory. |
File Upload Directory | Enter the path to a root directory where PhixFlow stores all loaded files, for example from file collectors, and received email messages. Loaded files and processed emails are saved in standard sub-directories as follows:
where
For each email message received, the folder has:
|
Download Location | Enter the directory path for the download area. The download area is where PhixFlow saves files generated by analysis models or actions in applications. These are CSV or Excel files. Users can download the files from this area. To ensure data security, the files are encrypted and are deleted after a period of time; see File Download Expiry. |
System Tuning
This section contains options related to the PhixFlow system. Only change key options related to PhixFlow infrastructure sizes and tuning with advice from PhixFlow support. For advice about using the other system tuning options, please contact support@phixflow.com.
Field | Description |
---|---|
Thread Pool Size | Only change this option with advice from PhixFlow support. The number of threads that can be in the pool at any time. This is an advanced option which should not be updated without advice from the PhixFlow support team. This is generally a small multiple of the number of CPU cores on your machine. |
Database Flush Size | Only change this option with advice from PhixFlow support. How frequently objects are written to disc. |
Result Expiry Time (sec) | Only change this option with advice from PhixFlow support. The length of time the PhixFlow front end application will wait for a result from an asynchronous query before abandoning it. |
Default Page Size | Only change this option with advice from PhixFlow support. The default number of rows to be loaded into to a grid when displayed in PhixFlow. After changing this field you will need to restart the browser or reload the application (User → Reload Application) to apply the new default page size. |
Default Buffer Size | Only change this option with advice from PhixFlow support. When reading in data from a collector, how many rows are held in memory before passing them on for processing. This means that if PhixFlow is reading in 10,000,000 records, it doesn't have to wait until all have been loaded before it begins to process them, but can begin processing after the first 2000 have been read. |
Delete Batch Size | Only change this option with advice from PhixFlow support. Defines the default number of rows to be deleted from a table in a single transaction when archiving or rolling back data. |
Write Processes Per Recordset | Only change this option with advice from PhixFlow support. Enables PhixFlow to multi-thread the process of writing table data to the database. The value of this parameter is dependent upon machine versus database performance. |
Maximum Records Per Download File | This value affects how much data a user can export to a single Excel or CSV file using the Specify the largest number of data records that a user can downloaded to a single file. Downloads with more than this number of records will be split into multiple files which are zipped together. |
Default Download File Limit | This value affects how much total data a user can export to Excel or CSV files using the |