Action

If this flag is ticked, a message will pop up asking the user if they want to proceed with the action. By default, the message is:

Please confirm that you want to apply action Action Name

To provide a customised confirmation message, use the next field.

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>

<View name or alias>.<Attribute name or alias>

List of names of uploaded files can be accessed through _files variable.

The validation 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.

The usual message functions debug(message), info(message), warning(message), and error(message) are all available to be used in these expressions and will result in messages being written to the system console logs.

Be careful when using the error(message) function - this will stop the action from being completed.

Example 1

Validate that the sum of the selected record amounts equate to zero before allowing the action to be executed.

if(sum(_this.amount) == 0, info('OK'), error('Not performing Action as the Sum does not equate to zero'))

Example 2

Validate that the user entered comment is at least 10 characters long, else write a warning to the log.

if(stringLength(_prompt.UserComment) >= 10, info('OK'), warning('Comment should be at least 10 characters'))

Using values from other views

You can also refer to records selected in other dashboard views by using their dashboard element names. E.g. if the dashboard also contains a view with database element name ACCTS, you could use the following in your validation expression:

if(sum(ACCTS.amount) == 0, info('OK'), error('Error as ACCTS Sum does not equate to zero'))

 Untick to report the result in a message without any information about warnings. You can view the warnings in the console.

 Untick to report the result in a message without including any information about errors. You can view error messages in the console.

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.

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.

{if(_context.balance < 0,"Money still owed", "Balance paid")}

 Untick so that a user can run this action multiple times, even if the previous run has not completed.

 Untick so that the action can run even if the dashboard is refreshing. This property is ticked by default.

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 click

Values entered in the form view are referenced in expressions in the action with the form.

_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

_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.