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Creating Actions
You can create an action that is not associated with any stream. This is useful for actions that do not operate on stream data. For example you may want a button-click to open a different screen.
Actions created this way appear in the repository under Actions. You can also export this type of action.
You can also create an action that belongs to a stream. This option is available for backwards compatibility with applications designed with earlier versions of PhixFlow, that did not have stream item actions.
create action onto a stream view to Action Buttons which appear on the top of the stream view. Actions can also be dragged Application Properties.See also OLD Actionflows and Action Configuration for related pages.
Action Properties
Basic Settings
A stream view can have a default action configured. PhixFlow runs the action when the user double-clicks on a record in the stream view.
Enter the name for the default action. PhixFlow displays this action name on a Stream View.
Progress Indicator Settings
Context Parameters
Use context parameters to specify conditions that apply to the action
This property has a toolbar with standard buttons. The grid contains a list of context parameters that affect whether or not the action runs.
To edit the properties of a context parameter, double-click its name. To add a stream item action to the list, clickConfirmation Message
Please confirm that you want to apply action Action Name
To provide a customised confirmation message, use the Confirmation Message property.
File Upload
Enter 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:
_prompt.<Form Field Name>
- the values of any Context Parameters using:
_context.<ContextParameter Name>
- any attributes of any records selected on the view or screen from which the action was initiated using:
<View name or alias>.<Attribute name or alias>
You can return a list of the names of uploaded files using the _files
variable.
Action Validation
Enter a validation expression. This expression is evaluated at the start of any 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.
If you tick this flag, a separate screen will be opened once the action has completed. The screen to open is determines by the screen rules. These are only available if you have ticked this flag.
Any filter of any view on the post screen can reference any context parameters set on this action. If the specified screen is already open it will be brought to the front and refreshed, rather than a second instance of the screen opening.
This field is only available if the Open Post Screen is ticked.
A list of screen that can be opened after this action, for each one a rule to determine whether this is the screen that will be opened.
The first screen whose expression evaluates to true will be opened. Only this screen will be opened. If none of the expressions evaluates to true, no screen will be opened.
For each screen rule define the following fields:
- Order: The order in which the rules are evaluated.
- Screen: The screen that will be opened if the accompanying expression evaluates to true.
- Expression: If this expression evaluates to true, this screen will be opened once the action has completed. A blank (null) expression counts as true.
Result
Enter the text for a message that PhixFlow will display when the action has completed. Use the toolbar to format the message. You can use the message to notify the user of a summary of the action, or the to provide information about the completed state.
You can include expressions within the message by enclosing each expression in curly brackets { }
. PhixFlow evaluates each expression in turn before displaying the message.
For result messages that report on the status of the action, you can use the following internal variables in the expressions:
- _error: Details of the error messages generated.
- _errors: The number of error messages generated.
- _warning: Details of the warning messages generated.
- _warnings: The number of warning messages generated.
- _messages: The number of warning messages generated.
- _taskPlan: The name of the Task Plan that the Action ran (may be null)
- _runId: The runId of any Stream data generated by this Action (may be null).
- _action: The name of the Action.
- _file: Details of files processed (imported or exported) by the Action.
- _fileCount: The number of files processed by the Action.
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Action {_action} failed with {_errors} errors and {_warnings} warnings. |
You can also use context parameters and values to report different messages. For example if you have a context parameter (called balance
) that calculates the outstanding balance, you can use an expression that reports different messages depending on the calculated value.
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{if(_context.balance < 0,"Money still owed", "Balance paid")} |
Access Permissions
For details about how to control access to an action, see Common Properties → Access Permissions.
Advanced
You can specify a form view to appear when the user starts the action. They will be able to enter values on this form view, and the values can be used to update selected records for an update action, or populate fields for an insert action.
Select a form view
either from the drop-down list of all forms views in PhixFlow
or clickValues entered in the form view are referenced in expressions in the action with the form.
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_prompt.<form field name> |
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
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_prompt.Name |
If this is an update action, 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. For insert action, when the form pops up all fields will be blank.
Additional Properties for Update or Delete Actions
Minimum Items Expr.
If the number of items selected on the view from which this action is initiated, or retrieved by the filter configured on this action, is less than this number then an error message will be generated and no updates or deletes will take place.
Using Variables in Expressions
In actions, the _form, _grid and _gridRow act on a specific record. The record depends on the structure of layout components on the screen.
_form
acts on the recordcurrently selected in the view
currently displayed on the form
_grid
acts on the record_gridRow
acts on the record