AX2148

Slider component for Axiom forms

The Slider component allows users to slide a button along a designated range of values, which can be used as an interactive component to change something in the Axiom form.

Component properties

You can define the following properties for a Slider component.

Component properties can be configured using the Form Assistant task pane or the Form Designer unless otherwise noted. All properties can also be defined on the Form Control Sheet directly if desired. For example, if you want a property to be dynamic depending on the result of a formula, you can define that formula in the control sheet. To access the control sheet settings for the component, double-click any property name to go to that property in the Form Control Sheet.

Component behavior properties

The following properties control the display and behavior of this particular component type.

Item	Description
Slider Value	The initial value for the slider. If you do not specify a value, then the slider will display with the button at the bottom (lowest value) of the scale. By default, the initial slider value is 50, with the default scale set at 1 to 100 (the min and max values). You should edit this setting as appropriate for your defined slider scale. When a user slides the button along the scale and then stops at a particular value, that value will be submitted back to the source file and written into this field.
Orientation	Specifies the orientation of the slider. Select either Horizontal (button slides side to side) or Vertical (button slides up and down).
Min Value	The minimum value for the slider scale. By default this is 1. You should edit this to be the lowest value that you want users to be able to select in the slider.
Max Value	The maximum value for the slider scale. By default this is 100. You should edit this to be the highest value that you want users to be able to select in the slider.
Step Frequency	Defines the selectable intervals within the slider range. By default this is 2. This option specifies the amount the slider will increase or decrease as the button is moved. For example, if the range is 1 to 10 and the step frequency is 1, this means that moving the mouse will go from 1 to 2 to 3, etc. If the range is 1 to 100 and the step frequency is 5, this means that moving the mouse will go from 1 to 5 to 10 to 15, etc. This setting also determines the selectable values within the range. For example, if the range is 1 to 100 and the step frequency is 5, there is no way for a user to select 37, they can only select 35 or 40.
Tooltip	Optional. The tooltip text for the component. When a user hovers the cursor over the component, the text displays in a tooltip. The user must hover over the body of the slider or the slider button in order to see the tooltip. The up and down buttons have built-in tooltips, and if tick marks are shown then hovering over a tick mark shows the corresponding value.
Show Ticks	Specifies whether selectable intervals are shown as tick marks along the slider. By default, this is not selected.
Auto Submit	Specifies whether the Axiom form automatically updates when a user changes the state of the component. By default, this is enabled, which means that the form automatically updates when the user moves the slider button. If this setting is disabled, then the user must use a separate Button component in order to update the form for the changed state.
Save on Submit	Specifies whether a save-to-database occurs when a form update is triggered by this component. If disabled (default), then changing this component does not trigger a save-to-database. If enabled, then a save-to-database will occur as part of the form update process when this component triggers an update. The save occurs after editable values have been submitted to the source file and after data has been refreshed in the source file. A save-to-database process must be enabled and configured within the source file. For more information, see Saving data from an Axiom form. This setting only applies if Auto Submit is enabled for the component. If you are not using the auto-submit behavior but you do want to save data to the database from the Axiom form, then you should instead enable Save on Submit for the Button component that you are using to trigger the update process.

General properties

The following general properties are available for all components:

Item	Description
Component Name	The name of the component. This is for identification in the file; this name does not display on the Axiom form canvas. The name of the component identifies the corresponding settings for the component on the Form Control Sheet. The component names are also useful if you have multiple types of the same component within an Axiom form, so that you can tell which component you are currently editing. Component names must be unique within a file and must start with a letter. Names can only contain letters, numbers, and underscores. Names are validated when the file is saved; an invalid name will prevent the save. NOTE: Spaces are not allowed in component names and will be automatically removed by Axiom Software. For example, if you enter "My Component" as the component name, it will be automatically adjusted to "MyComponent".
Visible	Specifies whether the component is visible on the Axiom form (On/Off). By default this is set to On. This setting can be used to dynamically show or hide the component using a formula. Keep in mind that if you have multiple components that you need to dynamically show or hide based on the same condition, then it is preferable to place those components on a dedicated layer and then show or hide the entire layer instead of the individual components. NOTE: This setting is only available on the Form Control Sheet; it cannot be set in the Form Assistant or in the Form Designer.
Layer	The layer that the component belongs to on the Axiom form canvas. In the Form Assistant and the Form Designer, this displays as the layer name (for example: Layer 1). In the Form Control Sheet, this is recorded as the layer ID (for example: 1). If the canvas only has one layer, then the component is automatically assigned to that layer and cannot be changed. If the canvas has multiple layers, you can assign the component to any layer using the drop-down list. By default, the component will be assigned to whichever layer is selected in the Layers box when you initially drag the component onto the canvas. For more information on layers, see Using multiple layers on the canvas. If desired, you can jump to the applicable layer settings on the Form Control Sheet by clicking the binoculars icon next to the drop-down list.
Parent	The parent component that this component is assigned to. If blank, then the component does not have an assigned parent. Currently, only Panel components can be designated as parents. If a component has an assigned parent, then that component is positioned within the parent instead of within the canvas at large. If the parent is hidden, all "child" components of that parent are also hidden. The parent assignment is automatically completed when a component is dragged into a panel in the Form Designer, and automatically cleared when a component is dragged out of a panel. In most cases, you should not need to manually assign a parent. For more information, see Using panels to group and position components.

Style and formatting properties

To define the component formatting, you can assign one or more styles to the component. Styles can impact formatting properties such as fonts, borders, and colors.

If you do not want to apply a style to this component, or if you want to override one or more formatting properties in an assigned style, click the Show Advanced Settings link underneath the Style box to display the individual formatting properties. For more information on defining individual formatting properties for a component, see Formatting overrides for Axiom form components.

Currently, the Axiom Software platform does not provide any styles specifically designed for Slider components. Only the generic styles are available. Most slider styling is controlled by the form-level skin.

Item	Description
Style	Optional. The styles used to determine the formatting of the component. You can assign one or more styles. Click the Select component styles button [...] to open the Choose Style dialog. Using this dialog, you can select one or more styles to apply to the component. The available styles depend on the component type and the skin assigned to the form. For more information, see Using component styles. Some components have several styles that are specifically designed for that component type, while other components may only have the "generic" styles that are available to all components. When using a generic style, keep in mind that they may not be useful for all components. You can view a description of each style and view the effective formatting applied by the selected styles within the Choose Style dialog.
Component Theme	(Deprecated.) The theme to use for the component instead of the form-level theme. If left blank, the component uses the form-level theme. This setting should be left blank unless you need to override the form theme. Generally speaking, themes should be set at the form level and only overridden at the component level when necessary. This setting is available in the advanced component properties (click Show Advanced Settings under the Style box). On the Form Control Sheet, the setting displays using the name Theme Override. NOTE: This setting only applies if your form uses a legacy skin (any skin except the default Axiom2018). The Axiom2018 skin does not use themes.

Item

Description

Style

Optional. The styles used to determine the formatting of the component. You can assign one or more styles.

Click the Select component styles button [...] to open the Choose Style dialog. Using this dialog, you can select one or more styles to apply to the component. The available styles depend on the component type and the skin assigned to the form. For more information, see Using component styles.

Some components have several styles that are specifically designed for that component type, while other components may only have the "generic" styles that are available to all components. When using a generic style, keep in mind that they may not be useful for all components. You can view a description of each style and view the effective formatting applied by the selected styles within the Choose Style dialog.

Component Theme

(Deprecated.) The theme to use for the component instead of the form-level theme. If left blank, the component uses the form-level theme.

This setting should be left blank unless you need to override the form theme. Generally speaking, themes should be set at the form level and only overridden at the component level when necessary.

This setting is available in the advanced component properties (click Show Advanced Settings under the Style box). On the Form Control Sheet, the setting displays using the name Theme Override.

NOTE: This setting only applies if your form uses a legacy skin (any skin except the default Axiom2018). The Axiom2018 skin does not use themes.

Position and size properties

You can view the position and size properties for a component by clicking the Show Advanced Settings link under the Style box. If necessary, you can edit these properties directly (instead of automatically modifying them by adjusting the component's position and size on the canvas). For more information on using these settings, see Controlling component position and size.

Item	Description
Reference Location	The reference location determines how the x-position and y-position of a component are evaluated. By default the reference location is UpperLeft. NOTE: This setting is not exposed in the advanced component settings. It can be changed on the canvas by double-clicking the corner selection handles of a component, or you can edit the setting on the Form Control Sheet directly.
X Position Y Position	The x-position determines the component's position along the horizontal axis, and the y-position determines the component's position along the vertical axis. Both are evaluated relative to the reference location. Positions can be set in pixels (default) or percentages.
Width Height	The width and height determine the size of the component. The width and height can be set in pixels (default) or percentages. Size keywords are also available to support special behavior.
Rendering Order	The order in which the component is rendered in the layer. A component with a larger order number will display above a component with a smaller order number. For components that support tab navigation (tabbing to the next editable component), the rendering order also determines the tabbing order. NOTE: On the Form Control Sheet, this setting is labeled as Z-Index.
Lock Layout	If enabled, the component size and position are locked and cannot be changed by dragging and dropping on the canvas. This optional setting is intended to protect against accidentally moving or resizing a component while working on the canvas.

Interactive behavior

The Slider component allows the user to slide a button along a range of values, and then submits the currently selected value back to the file. The current slider value is written to the Slider Value setting on the Form Control Sheet.

If you want the Axiom form to respond to the current value of the slider, then you must set up the file so that another component references the slider value and changes based on it. For more information on setting up interactive components for an Axiom form, see Using interactive components in an Axiom form.

Example

An Axiom form could have a chart or a formatted grid that is configured to show data as of a particular period, and then a slider could be used to allow users to specify which period to use. One of the report sheets in the source file could contain a cell reference to the Slider Value on the Form Control Sheet. The data for the chart or grid could then be set up to change based on the value, for example to return GL2019.YTD3 when 3 is the slider value, GL2019.YTD4 when 4 is the slider value, etc.

A slider could also be used to perform "what-if" analysis. For example, you could have a slider that specifies a particular percentage for a key planning assumption, and then adjust the data in charts and grids based on the selected percentage. The Axiom form could also be configured to save the changed assumption and data back to the database.