Overview

 Startup Actions run when an application is first opened. It can be used for:

1. Opening a landing screen.
2. Opening a custom navigation menu bar.
3. Opening a static menu. 

If you do not want to create your own navigation menu, the startup actions provide the ability to create a static menu bar for your application, on which you can add menu options. These contain top-level menu items, which is the container for menu options. The menu options can be:

• either options that trigger an action
• or sub-menus that list other menu options. 

For applications that are designed for use on both PCs and mobile devices, it is possible to set startup actions independently for either or both. 

Startup Landing Screen (Automated Creation)

Adding a Screen

1. Open an application.
2. On the Screens home page, right-click on a screen.
3. Select Open Screen on Startup
   1. If a Startup Action exists this screen will be added to it.
   2. If no startup action exists, one will be created.
4. More than one screen can be added to the startup Action.

Removing a Screen from the Startup Action

1. Open an application.
2. On the Screens home page, right-click on a screen
3. Select Remove from the Application Startup Action.

Start Landing Screen and/or Navigation

1. In the repository open  Startup Actions.
2. Click  Add New
3. Enter a Display Name.
4. Tick one or both of the following, as appropriate. Typically both are ticked.
   1. Default Desktop Startup Action
   2. Default Mobile Startup Action
5. Click  Save, this creates the Startup Action.
6. For Action Method select Actionflow.
   1.  List Actionflows: If you have an actionflow which opens the desired screen or screens click the actionflow button to navigate to it and drag it into the place holder.
   2.  Add New: If you need to create an actionflow click add new:
      1. Enter a Name and click Confirm.
      2. The Actionflow opens.
      3. Click on Connect.
      4. Select on Click.
      5. Click  Screen on the toolbar.
      6. Drag the desired screens and or navigation menus you want to be present when your application opens for a user.
      7. Now drag the connection point to each of your screens as illustrated below:
      8. 
      9. Changes are automatically saved, so close your actionflow.
7. Click  OKto save your startup action and close it.
8. Now when you next open the application it will open the selected screens.

To learn more about navigation menus see Adding a Navigation Menu Bar.

Static Menu Creation

Adding Menu Options 

To add menu options, in the repository for your application find the Startup Actions branch. For a new application there is always one menu option, which is added by PhixFlow when you create the application.

1. Double-click the menu item to open its properties.
2. Optionally, you can change its Name.
3. In the Menu Items section, click  Create New.
4. Select one of:
   • Add a new sub-menu
   • Add a new menu item 
5. PhixFlow opens a new menu item properties.
   • For a menu item, select an action and specify the order for the menu in the menu bar.
   • For a sub-menu, enter a name, a display name and an order. Then add the Menu Items for the sub-menu.

The structure of the menu items in the repository reflects the menu structure you have created, for example:

• The top-level menu item is the top of a tree of menus in the repository. The menu items listed in the top-level menu are displayed in the menu bar at the top of the screen. The top-level menu does not have a display name because it acts as a container for the menus, rather than being a menu option itself.
  
  
• Menu options are associated with an action. Actions are often linked to underlying tables. When a user clicks the option, PhixFlow runs the action. For example, if your application has a form to which a user can add data, the menu option "Save Changes" would save the data to the underlying table.
  
  
• A sub-menu contains more menu options or sub-menus, so it is not associated with an action. Sub-menus are displayed with a drop-down arrow to indicate they contain a list of options.

PhixFlow displays menu options and sub-menus on the menu bar. For example the menu structure illustrated above displays the following menu options:

You can create multiple top-level menus, but PhixFlow can display the options contained in only one top-level menu. 

Changing the Default Menu

To specify a default menu for an application, in the repository, right-click on the menu name and select:

• either Make Default Desktop Menu
• or Make Default Mobile Menu.

To specify an alternative menu to display instead of the default, provide users with a URL to the application that specifies the alternative menu.

 Properties Tab

Parent Details

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

Basic Settings

Menu Items

This section is available when Hide the Menu Bar is not ticked. The grid shows the list of menu items, including their:

• Order
• List: ticked indicates a sub-menu
• Name
• Display Name
• Description

To add sub-menus and menu items, use the  Create New button in the section toolbar; see Adding Menu Options, above.

Description

We recommend that you always enter a description to explain the purpose of this item.

 Audit Tab

Audit Summary

See the Common Properties page, Audit Summary section.

Learn More

• Understanding Actionflows
• Using Table-Actions

For links to all pages in this topic, see Connecting Events to Actions