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.

Elements of the 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 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.
     
   • 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 available options are actionflow, screen and table.
     
   • Canvas
     Contains canvas properties, such refresh, alignment and save. It will also take you to the actionflow help page.
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 click.
3. Instance Options
   These options affect the entire actionflow instance, such as closing the screen after the action runs. 
4. Instance Inputs
   Inputs The inputs to an actionflow for that actionflow instance:
   • Event starts the actionflow regardless of data. The actionflow will always run runs when triggered by the instance 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.views
     • cards
     • forms
5. Input Interface
   This is the first junction between There are 2 connection points to wire 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 arenodes in the reusable actionflow:

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     _driving_interface_connection_point _driving_interface_connection_point nopanel true

      to provide data that the actionflow will process

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     _request_interface_connection_point _request_interface_connection_point nopanel true

      to provide look-up data to the actionflow.
6. Actionflow Canvas
   The canvas represents the reusable actionflow. It contains action nodes which are connection actions, or nodes, that are wired 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. Each action has a specific purpose. It can look-up data, processes data or pass data on unchanged. Data passes from one action to another via:
   
   • a 

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     _driving_connection _driving_connection nopanel true

      or to move data through the actionflow
   • a 

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     _request_connection _request_connection nopanel true

   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
   •  to look-up data and use it in a calculation.
7. Output Interface
   There are

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   _driving_interface_connection_point _driving_interface_connection_point nopanel true

    connection points to wire the reusable actionflow to the actionflow instance outputs.
8. Instance Outputs
   Outputs from For an actionflow for that actionflow instance. These are data instance, connect to the specific data-bound components to which you want to send data to after when the actionflow has completedrun. The output resembles the input area without the event. Outputs could be any data instance outputs are similar to the instance inputs, without events. Data can be output to a data-bound component on a screen, including:
   • • grid components.card components.views
     • cards
     • 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 - , such as save, delete, add
• data calls and calculations - connecting that connect to data views to look-up, use or process stream-itemsprocess records
• screen interactions - , for example to open or close screens in the application
• another actionflow - this means you can represent a complex step , so that you can simplify an actionflow diagram by nesting complexity in nodes. You can also reuse common functionality as a single node; see Reusing Actionflows, below.
• gateways - , which are decision points with logic to determine which the path that PhixFlow takes next.

As you add action 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. 

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 records or to open a screen. You can also include an actionflow as a node within another actionflow.

For each instance of an actionflow, you specify the data that the actionflow uses by wiring into 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 

Reusability Example

The picture below shows an actionflow that validates the format of data to ensure it is a valid area code. It's Its 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 todo once implemented in V9)

Actionflows can be added to screens before being assigned You can add an actionflow to a screen before assigning it to an event handler. These actionflows are known as unreachable actions and appear  and are listed 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 mappedproperties. When you are ready to wire the actionflow, from the screen properties Unreachable Actions section drag the actionflow onto a component on the screen. PhixFlow opens the actionflow diagram where you can connect the instance inputs.