This topic is for application designers who want to understand the concepts of actionflows.

Reusing Actionflows

You can reuse an actionflow throughout your application. This means you only need to create one actionflow for functionality that occurs on different screens or layouts, such as to update stream-items or open a screen. You can also include an actionflow as a node within another actionflow.

For each instance of an actionflow, you specify which data the actionflow uses by wiring to connection points. This means you can connect to attributes with any name, and changing the names of these attributes will not affect the actionflow.

To select an existing actionflow to reuse it, click 

Actionflow Diagram

The  illustration shows the layout of an actionflow diagram. The central white area with blue outline represents the reusable part of the actionflow. The outer grey area with pink numbers represent items related to the actionflow instance only. The numbered areas are explained below.

1. Toolbar
   The toolbar contains is split into 3 sections:
   • Create
     Contains icons that you drag onto the actionflow canvas to create the different nodes, such as a calculate action.
     Image Added
   • List
     Clicking on these options will open the repository pane to display a list of all available items in the application and associated packages for the selected action node. The
   toolbar also contains
   • available options are actionflow, screen and table.Image Added
   • Canvas
     Contains canvas properties, such refresh
   and alignment
   • , alignment and save. It will also take you to the actionflow help page.Image Modified
   Image Removed
2. Instance Origin
   The origin indicates the event that triggers the actionflow instance. It displays its location in a hierarchy showing:
   • the name of screen 
   • the name of the component, such as a button, grid or card component
   • the event type, such as a double-click 
3. Instance Options
   These options affect the entire actionflow instance, such as closing the screen after the action runs. 
4. Instance Inputs
   Inputs to an actionflow for that actionflow instance
   • Event starts the actionflow regardless of data. The actionflow will always run when triggered by the origin.
   • Data provides data to the actionflow. The data displayed belongs to the same screen or component as the event handler.  Data could be any data bound component on a screen, including:
     • grid components.
     • card components.
     • forms
5. Input Interface
   This is the first junction between the actionflow instance and the actionflow contents. The interface contains connection points which connect the inputs to the action nodes. There are 2 connection points available, these are:

   1. Insert excerpt
      _driving_interface_connection_point _driving_interface_connection_point nopanel true

   2. Insert excerpt
      _request_interface_connection_point _request_interface_connection_point nopanel true

6. Actionflow Canvas
   The canvas represents the reusable actionflow. It contains action nodes which are connection together using connection points. The nodes on the diagram represent individual actions that pass or process the data from the connections. The data passes using either a
   

   • Insert excerpt
     _driving_connection _driving_connection nopanel true

      or

   • Insert excerpt
     _request_connection _request_connection nopanel true

7. Output Interface
   This is the second junction between the actionflow instance and the actionflow contents. The interface contains connection points which connect the action nodes to the outputs. There is only 1 type of connection point available, a

   Insert excerpt
   _driving_interface_connection_point _driving_interface_connection_point nopanel true

   .
8. Instance Outputs
   Outputs from an actionflow for that actionflow instance. These are data bound components which you want to send data to after the actionflow has completed. The output resembles the input area without the event. Outputs could be any data bound component on a screen, including:
   • • grid components.
     • card components.
     • forms

Actionflow Nodes

In an actionflow diagram, each smallest action that PhixFlow can perform is represented as a circle, called a node. Nodes can be:

• data interactions - save, delete, add
• data calls and calculations - connecting to views to look-up, use or process stream-items
• screen interactions - to open or close screens in the application
• another actionflow - this means you can represent a complex step as a single node
• gateways - decision points with logic to determine which path PhixFlow takes next.

As you add nodes to the actionflow, you wire the output connection point of one node to the input connection point on the next. In this way, you are create the logical steps needed to complete a specific piece of functionality. 

To learn more, see Actionflow Nodes.

Reusability Example

The picture below shows an actionflow that validates the format of data to ensure it is a valid area code. It's input connection is called Area Code.

The actionflow is reused by two applications, shown on the left. The actionflow is owned by a package that is shared between the applications. Each application has separate data with different fields. The actionflow takes data from:

• Postcode data in the Contact App
• Zip Code in the Asset Manager App. 

This shows that an actionflow can take its input from an attribute with any name. It also illustrates the 2 instances of the actionflow:

• Instance 1 is the actionflow with input from Postcode 
• Instance 2 is the actionflow with input from Zip Code

As actionflows are reusable, you:

• create an actionflow, setting up all the nodes, wires and the logic
• use and actionflow, connecting it to screen components, events and data, thin mapping the data through the actionflow.

Unreachable Actions (to do once implemented in V9)

Actionflows can be added to screens before being assigned to an event handler. These actionflows are known as unreachable actions and appear in the property editor for that screen. These actionflows can then be dragged and dropped onto the desired component and the instance can subsequently be mapped.