Action

The Context Parameter expressions can refer to any values entered on the Form View using the notation

_prompt.<Form Field Name>

The Context Parameters can also refer to any attributes of any records selected on the view or dashboard from which the action was initiated using the notation

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

This expression can refer to:

• any values entered on the Form View using the notation:

_prompt.<Form Field Name>

• the values of any Context Parameters using the notation:

_context.<ContextParameter Name> 

• any attributes of any records selected on the view or dashboard from which the action was initiated using the notation:

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

This validate action expression can reference any values entered on the Form, the values of any Context Parameters, using the notation

_context.<ContextParameter Name>

and any attributes of any items selected on the view or dashboard from which the action was initiated.

If the validation expression generates any error messages (including by using the error function) then no further action processing will take place.

An expression for the context parameter. The Context Parameter expressions can refer to any values entered on the Form View using the notation

_prompt.<Form Field Name>

The Context Parameters can also refer to any attributes of any records selected on the view or dashboard from which the action was initiated using the notation

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

It is not possible to refer to one context parameter from another.

The values returned by the context parameter expressions can be referenced by the Validation expression, the Filter, the Maximum and Minimum Items expressions, any Stream Action Attribute expressions and any dashboard opened by this action.

The context values are referenced using the syntax

_context.<context parameter name>

Example

• For example, you have a view called 'customers' which shows a list of customers including the account id, name and other account details.
• You want to create an action button to open up another dashboard, containing a view called 'invoices', which will show the invoices for the customer selected on the 'customers' view.
• To do this:
  • Add an action button to the 'customers' view, and configure it to open the dashboard containing the 'invoices' view
  • Add a context parameter called 'account' to the action, with the context parameter expression set to customers.account_id
  • On the background filter of the 'invoices' view, set the filter to only select those invoices whose account_id is equal to _context.account

Unlike stream action attribute expressions, context parameter expressions can evaluate to a list of values as well as single values.

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.

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 stream item 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'))

The expression used to generate the new attribute value. This is written as a PhixFlow Expression.

You can reference selected records from other dashboard views by using their dashboard element names within the expression. E.g.

sum(ACCTS.amount)

will sum up all values in amount from the records select in the view with dashboard element name ACCTS.

If you want to refer to the current values of the record you are about to update, then simply refer to the attribute name with no prefix.

You can reference fields from any user input form associated with this action by referencing the form field name prefixed by _prompt.

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 for the current stream item. However, it will not stop the action from updating/ inserting other stream items.

The Result Message is displayed when the Action has completed, and can be used to provide a summary of the Action.

The message can contain multiple expressions inside {} brackets - these expressions are evaluated in turn before the message is displayed.

For example:

Action {_action} failed with {_errors} errors and {_warnings} warnings.

A number of internal variables are available in these 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.

This field only appears if the All Users Can Run Action box is ticked. This is a list of the User Groups permitted to run this Action.

This list provides the button - press this to bring up the list of user groups. Drag user groups into the list as needed.

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 from the drop-down list of all forms views in PhixFlow, or by pressing  - this brings up the list of streams in PhixFlow; you can select a form view from a stream, and drag it into the form view field.

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.