Overview

A screen is made up of components (the smallest building block) and layouts (a group of components) arranged into layers. Components are areas, static text labels and fields, which display data from a table. Multi-component layouts can be simple, such a a lable and a field, or more complex parts of a screen with responsive design, these are called tiles. Layouts can also be full screens.

Screen Layers

A typical screen has a layered structure, in which one layer is the parents for another layer. This structure, combined with appropriate styling, creates a responsive design that adapts to both desktop and mobile devices. The nested structure for screens is illustrated below. Click on the image to make it larger: 

Components

Components are the most basic building blocks that are combined to design a screen.

Components are available from any palette. For example, one of the Theme 2.1 palettes has the Basic Layouts. For every component you add, you need to give it a name and specify the formatting using the Component properties. It's a good idea to include a meaningful description too.

The basic components are:

Layouts

Layouts are groups of preconfigured components. You can create these yourself by combining components or you can use the layouts from a palette (recommended). For example, a simple layout for a tile is illustrated below:

• Tile is an area container with styling to control its size and the layout of its child components.
  • Header is an area which contains
    • an icon 
    • a static text text field for the header.
  • Body, in the illustration, the body area is empty. This is where you can add data components, such as a grid displaying table data, or form fields. The body area has styling to control its size and the layout of its child components. It also has spacing around its edge.
  • Footer, area which contains a set of buttons. 
    The application user will use the buttons to make changes to data will appear in the body.

Finding Layouts and Components

It can be very useful to find a layout, component or container. There are two ways to do this:

Using Layers

The Layers pane is expandable from the left of the screen canvas. Select an item:

• on the canvas to highlight it in the Layers pane
• in the Layouts pane to highlight it on the canvas.

If the layer section is not visible click  Show/Hide Layer Panel. 

Using Find in Repository

Right-click any item on an unlocked screen and select  Find in Repository Alternatively, to search the repository, expand the Components section and navigate to the component. The position of the components on a screen is reflected in their order and nesting in the repository list. 

Moving Layouts and Components

When you move a component or layout, you drag it onto another component. 

• drag and drop places a component next to the component on which you drop. This creates a sibling relationship. 
• shift+drag and drop places a component into the component on which you drop. This creates a parent-child relationship.

If you drag a component that is a parent, all its children move with it.

The location that PhixFlow places components on the screen canvas depends on whether the container is configured to flow in rows or columns. For example, if a container is set to flow:

• in rows, PhixFlow puts a component on the right
• in columns, PhixFlow puts a component below.  

Moving Using the  Layers Panel

To move components on the screen canvas, we recommend that you use the  Layers panel. This makes it easy to see container components that can be hard to select on the canvas. The hierarchical list also makes the parent-child relationships clear. You can select and drag an individual components or a group of components up and down the hierarchy to move them in the screen canvas.

To find a component in the Layers panel, on the screen canvas click a component to select it. PhixFlow automatically highlights it in the Layers panel.

• Move next to:
  In the Layers panel, click and drag a component to a different location in the list. 
  PhixFlow moves the component to be next to the component:
  • where you drop in the list
  • and also moves the component on the screen canvas.
• Move into:
  To move a layout or component inside another component, in the Layers panel, hold Shift and drag it onto a container component in the list. 
  PhixFlow moves the component into the component:
  • where you drop in the list
  • and also moves the component on the screen canvas.

Moving on Screen

To move components around on the screen canvas:

• Move next to:
  On the canvas, click and drag a component and drop onto another component 
  PhixFlow moves the component next to the drop location. For example, if you drop a field on top of another field, PhixFlow puts them next to each other.
• Move into:
  On the canvas, Shift+click and drag and drop onto another component.
  PhixFlow moves the component inside the other component. For example, if you drop a field onto an area, PhixFlow puts the field into the area.