What is an Embedded Actionflow?

An action node or group of action nodes can be nested within an

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 node that can be reused without reusing the entire Actionflow. For example, a Calculate Action that normalises an area code can be extracted from its original Actionflow and reused (embedded) within many other Actionflows using 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 2.06 Extracting and Moving Actions.

Embedding Actionflows

An action(s) can be embedded after using the 

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 option,  see 2.06 Extracting and Moving Actions, or by opening the list of Actionflows in the

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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 

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    from the Repository onto the canvas
3. An embedded

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    node is created
   1. If any 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 the Retail 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.

Prerequisites 

For this example, we'll embed an extracted Actionflow. If you have not completed 2.06 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 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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    onto the canvas
3. Click and drag 

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    node onto the connector between the

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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 input and embedded node and map across the attribute first_name
6. Click on both connectors between the

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    node and 

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    actions

   1. On both connectors, map across the ProperCase attribute from the embedded 

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       node to the first_name attribute on the table

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Testing

1. To test the Actionflow, open the Shop Staff screen
2. Select an existing staff member from the grid and press Edit
3. Change their first name to be in capitals and click Save
4. You should see on the Staff grid that their first name has saved in proper case

2.08 Minimum and Maximum Records