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This dropdown list shows all Form Views associated with this stream. If a Form View is selected then it will be presented prior to this action being run to allow the user to enter values to be used in Context Parameter, Validation, Filter or Action Attribute expressions. These values are referenced in those expressions by preceding the field name from the form with '_prompt'. For example if there is a field on the form with the label "Name" then the value entered in that field by the user can be referenced in subsequent expressions as _prompt.Name.
If the Stream Action selected on the Item Updates tab is 'Update' then the form will be pre-populated with the values from the selected record; where multiple records are selected then only those values which are common to all the selected records will be displayed. If any other Stream Action is selected then the form fields will initially be blank.

Field Description

Basic Settings

Name The name of the Stream Action.

Display Name The name that will be used to display this action on a Stream View

Stream Name The name of the parent Stream that this action belongs to

Show progress indicator after (ms) A number of milliseconds which need to pass after the Action is submitted before the progress indicator is shown .

Context Parameters

A list of the context parameters for this action. For each context parameter, define the following fields:

Name The name of the context parameter

Expression

An expression for the context parameter. The Context Parameter expressions can refer to any values entered on the Form View using the notation

Code Block
_prompt.<Form Field Name>

The Context Parameters can also refer to any attributes of any records selected on the view or dashboard from which the action was initiated using the notation

Code Block
<View name or alias>.<Attribute name or alias>

It is not possible to refer to one context parameter from another.

The values returned by the context parameter expressions can be referenced by the Validation expression, the Filter, the Maximum and Minimum Items expressions, any Stream Action Attribute expressions and any dashboard opened by this action.

The context values are referenced using the syntax

Code Block
_context.<context parameter name>

Example

For example, you have a view called 'customers' which shows a list of customers including the account id, name and other account details.
You want to create an action button to open up another dashboard, containing a view called 'invoices', which will show the invoices for the customer selected on the 'customers' view.
To do this:
- Add an action button to the 'customers' view, and configure it to open the dashboard containing the 'invoices' view
- Add a context parameter called 'account' to the action, with the context parameter expression set to customers.account_id
- On the background filter of the 'invoices' view, set the filter to only select those invoices whose account_id is equal to _context.account

Unlike stream action attribute expressions, context parameter expressions can evaluate to a list of values as well as single values.

The usual message functions debug(message), info(message), warning(message), and error(message) are all available to be used in these expressions and will result in messages being written to the system console logs.

Be careful when using the error(message) function - this will stop the action from being completed.

Confirmation Message

Ask for Confirmation

If this flag is ticked, a message will pop up asking the user if they want to proceed with the action. By default (i.e. if you do not enter a value in the field Confirmation Message), the message will have the format:

HELPDEVTODO - what is default message format?

Confirmation Message The message you want to display to users when asking them to confirm whether they want to complete the action.

File Upload

File Upload

If this flag is ticked, users will be prompted to browse to a file and select it for upload when they run this action.

Tag Expr.

An expression that sets the value of the tag for the file. You can use this tag in a file collector to read into PhixFlow files that the action has uploaded.

The tag expression can refer to:

any values entered on the Form View using:

Code Block
_prompt.<Form Field Name>

the values of any Context Parameters using:

Code Block
_context.<ContextParameter Name>

any attributes of any records selected on the view or dashboard from which the action was initiated using:

Code Block
<View name or alias>.<Attribute name or alias>

List of names of uploaded files can be accessed through _files variable.

Form View

Run Selected TaskPlan A Check box to determine whether a combo box is displayed which is then used to allow the user to choose a task plan to be run. Any expression evaluated during this task plan can reference any Context Parameter.

Open Post Dashboard A Check box to determine whether a combo box is displayed which is then used to allow the user to choose a dashboard to be opened once the action has completed. Any filter of any view on that dashboard can reference any Context Parameters set on this action. If the specified dashboard is already open it will be brought to the front and refreshed rather than a second instance of the dashboard opening.

Close Parent Dashboard A Check box to determine whether the Parent Dashboard should be closed after the Action is finished.

Prevent Parallel Processing A Check box to determine whether the Action can be submitted again before the previous run is finished.

All Users Can Run Action If checked, this specifies that all users can run this Action provided they have the basic privilege to run stream actions. If this field is not checked, then access to the stream action is controlled by adding user groups onto the stream's "User Groups" tab.

URL Expression A URL which will be open when the Action has completed. This may be provided as a fixed URL or as an expression evaluating to a plain text string. The expression can reference the Form fields, Context Parameters or attributes of Records selected on the view or dashboard from which the action was initiated.

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The validation expression is evaluated at the start of any stream item Insert or Update actions and if the validation expression generates any error messages (using the error function) then the action is abandoned. The validation expression is not used to decide whether or not to run the selected Task Plan.

The validation expression can include multiple statements by wrapping them in a do() clause. A number of internal variables are available in these expressions:

_this: A reference to all the selected records within the view to perform the action on.
_prompt: A reference to all the user prompted action attributes.

The usual message functions debug(message), info(message), warning(message), and error(message) are all available to be used in these expressions and will result in messages being written to the system console logs.

However special attention should be taken when using the error(message) function as this will also STOP the action from being completed.

e.g To validate that the sum of the selected record amounts equate to zero before allowing the action to be executed.

if(sum(_this.amount) == 0, info('OK'), error('Not performing Action as the Sum does not equate to zero'))

e.g To validate that the user entered comment is at least 10 characters long, else write a warning to the log.

if(stringLength(_prompt.UserComment) >= 10, info('OK'), warning('Comment should be at least 10 characters'))

Note that you can also reference selected records from other dashboard views by using their view names:- i.e if(sum(ACCTS.amount) == 0, info('OK'), error('Error as ACCTS Sum does not equate to zero'))

Field Description

Validation Expression Action Validation

Validation Expression

The validation expression is evaluated at the start of any stream item Insert or Update actions. If the validation expression generates any error messages (using the error function) then the action is abandoned. The validation expression is not used to decide whether or not to run the selected Task Plan.

The validation expression can include multiple statements by wrapping them in a do() clause. A number of internal variables are available in these expressions:

_this: A reference to all the selected records within the view to perform the action on.
_prompt: A reference to all the user prompted action attributes.

The usual message functions debug(message), info(message), warning(message), and error(message) are all available to be used in these expressions and will result in messages being written to the system console logs.

Be careful when using the error(message) function - this will stop the action from being completed.

Example 1

Validate that the sum of the selected record amounts equate to zero before allowing the action to be executed.

Code Block
if(sum(_this.amount) == 0, info('OK'), error('Not performing Action as the Sum does not equate to zero'))

Example 2

Validate that the user entered comment is at least 10 characters long, else write a warning to the log.

Code Block
if(stringLength(_prompt.UserComment) >= 10, info('OK'), warning('Comment should be at least 10 characters'))

Using values from other views

You can also refer to records selected in other dashboard views by using their dashboard element names. E.g. if the dashboard also contains a view with database element name ACCTS, you could use the following in your validation expression:

Code Block
if(sum(ACCTS.amount) == 0, info('OK'), error('Error as ACCTS Sum does not equate to zero'))

Form View

This dropdown list shows all Form Views associated with this stream. If a Form View is selected then it will be presented prior to this action being run to allow the user to enter values to be used in Context Parameter, Validation, Filter or Action Attribute expressions. These values are referenced in those expressions by preceding the field name from the form with '_prompt'. For example if there is a field on the form with the label "Name" then the value entered in that field by the user can be referenced in subsequent expressions as _prompt.Name.

If the Stream Action selected on the Item Updates tab is 'Update' then the form will be pre-populated with the values from the selected record; where multiple records are selected then only those values which are common to all the selected records will be displayed. If any other Stream Action is selected then the form fields will initially be blank.

Run Selected TaskPlan A Check box to determine whether a combo box is displayed which is then used to allow the user to choose a task plan to be run. Any expression evaluated during this task plan can reference any Context Parameter.

Open Post Dashboard A Check box to determine whether a combo box is displayed which is then used to allow the user to choose a dashboard to be opened once the action has completed. Any filter of any view on that dashboard can reference any Context Parameters set on this action. If the specified dashboard is already open it will be brought to the front and refreshed rather than a second instance of the dashboard opening.

Close Parent Dashboard A Check box to determine whether the Parent Dashboard should be closed after the Action is finished.

Prevent Parallel Processing A Check box to determine whether the Action can be submitted again before the previous run is finished.

All Users Can Run Action If checked, this specifies that all users can run this Action provided they have the basic privilege to run stream actions. If this field is not checked, then access to the stream action is controlled by adding user groups onto the stream's "User Groups" tab.

URL Expression A URL which will be open when the Action has completed. This may be provided as a fixed URL or as an expression evaluating to a plain text string. The expression can reference the Form fields, Context Parameters or attributes of Records selected on the view or dashboard from which the action was initiated.

The following field is configured on the Result tab:

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Old Version 12

New Version 13

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