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This page is for application designers who want to design re-usable layout components and add them to palettes.

Overview

The easiest way to design a screen for an application is to:

  • create a dashboard; see Screen
  • drag in pre-designed layout components from the palette. For information about the palettes that can be installed with PhixFlow, see pages in the Using Palettes and Themes topic.

Layout components in a palette have been designed to have consistent formats; see pages in the  Styles and Formats topic.

If you have a specific layout component that you want to reuse on multiple screens, you can make a template of the component, then add it to a new or existing palette.

For Layouts and Layout Templates the repository does not have a context menu option to add a new one. 

Making a Layout Template

  1. Design your layout component and set all the style options you require.
  2. In the dashboard, right-click the layout component and select  Find in Repository.
  3. In the repository, right-click the layout component name.
  4. From the context menu, select Copy as a Template.
  5. PhixFlow opens a new property tab. This is a copy of the original component, with the Advanced → Template property ticked. It is saved in the Layout Template section of the repository. 
  6. Edit the name to reflect that this component is now a template.

We recommend that you add a layout template to a Palette:

  1. Open the repository and palette. Drag one of the tabs into the workspace to show the tabs side-by-side.
  2. Drag the layout template from the repository into the palette.

Reusing Components in Dashboards

To use a layout template, simply drag it into the dashboard:

  • either from the repository Layout Template 
  • or from the palette.

When you drag in the component, PhixFlow prompts you to add a name. PhixFlow saves the copy in your application as a layout component, using the new name. This means that changing a template

  • does not change the components that have already been copied from it. 
  • new copies will have the change.

To be able to change the appearance of existing copies of a layout template:

configure the formatting in a style,

Add the style to the layout templates Shared Styles; see Style and Shared Styles and Style Order.

Managing Layout Templates 

When you use a style or layout template in your dashboards, they become part of your application. To successfully move an application to a different PhixFlow instance, you must include the layout template and styles in the export. Consider adding your application, and any items it uses, such as templates and styles, to a package, to ensure they are all included in an export; see Package.

Use the Administration menu options Export Full Configuration or Open Export Pane to include the templates and styles in your package; see Export Pane  and Import Configuration.


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