What is an Embedded Actionflow?

Embedding Actionflows allows an An action node or group of action nodes to can be nested within an

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 node that can be reused without reusing the entire Actionflow, for . For example, a Calculate Action that normalises an area code can be extracted from its original Actionflow and reused (embedded) within many other Actionflows by embedding using an its 

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 node.                         

For reusing entire Actionflows, see 1.17 Instances and Reusability. For extracting or moving an action(s) to another Actionflow, see 2.13 Extracting and Moving Actions.

Notetitle

Embedding

Compatibility

When an attempt is made to embed an actionflow a number of checks should be made

1. The actionflow must not have phases or start phase nodes, confirmation dialogs

2. That no embedding loops are created (A embedding B, which embeds C which embeds A

   1. A recursive check is made, at the minimum checking on descendants don’t embed A (as existing loops should have previously been prevented, but better to keep track of the layers in case you encounter A->B->C->B..

3. An actionflow in an app can’t be embedded in a package

An error plink will be displayed if the embedded Actionflow is incompatible (e.g. has phases, confirmation dialogs).

When editing an action flow which has been embedded it will prevent the creation of phases etc.

Embedding Actionflows

An action(s) can be embedded by after using the 

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 option,  see 2.13 Extracting and Moving Actions, or by opening the list of Actionflows in the Repository and dragging

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 and dragging one onto the canvas.

1. Click the

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    option in the toolbar
2. Drag and drop an Actionflow from an 

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    from the Repository onto the canvas
3. An embedded Actionflow

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    node is created
   1. If any edits changes are required to the functionality within the embedded Actionflow, right-click on the embedded node and choose

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       Display

Note
title Embedding Compatibility
Actionflows containing  Insert excerpt _action_phase _action_phase nopanel true s, Insert excerpt _action_phase _action_phase name start nopanel true  actions, and confirmation screens cannot be embedded When editing an Actionflow that has been embedded, Insert excerpt _action_phase _action_phase nopanel true s cannot be created An Actionflow in an application cannot be embedded in a package

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Worked Example

Here's a worked example using the Shop Data (available from the Learning Centre).

In this example, we are using:  

• A Staff Form screen containing blank input fields, set up to create a new staff member  - this screen was created using the Edit Form template

Tip
If you are completing this chapter as part of the Actionflow course and using a training instance, the data and screens have already been pre-loaded into the Actionflow Intermediate Application. For this example, we'll be working on the Save button on the Staff Form screen.

GIF/SCREENSHOT OF FINISHED RESULT

Prerequisites 

For this example, we'll embed an extracted Actionflow. If you have not completed 2.13 Extracting and Moving Actions, expand the section below and follow the steps to create an extracted Actionflow.

.

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.

Embed Proper Case Actionflow

In this example, we'll embed an extracted action node that converts a string entered for a First Name attribute First Name string to proper case. We'll embed this within the Save action on the Staff Form.

Embed Extracted Action in Actionflow

1. Open the Actionflow on the Save button on the Staff Form
2. Click 

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    in the toolbar and drag the Proper Case Actionflow from the

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3. Drag it onto the connector between the

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   and Save action

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    and

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    action and drop it when the 

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    icon appears
4. Choose the out_ProperCase connection point from the Select Connection Point pop up
5. Click on the connector between the Proper Case and Save action 

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    node and 

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    action
6. Map across the ProperCase attribute from the embedded action node to the firstName attribute on the Save action embedded 

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    node to the first_name attribute on the 

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    action 

1.02 Actionflow Principles