What is an Action?

Actions are operations that can be performed on the DataView such as creating, deleting or altering objects.

Actions are available depending on the type and configuration of each DataView, some DataViews do not expose any actions some will expose many.

An Action has one of 3 types: Create, Delete or Advanced (Other). When a DataView exposes Actions, they are located in the corresponding actions menus in the top toolbar, each menu is only visible if at least one Action of the corresponding type is available.

Performing Miracles Actions

To execute an Action, select row(s) in the Grid to perform the Action on, open the drop down menu and click the Action item. Actions will often require additional information to run, or Parameters, that you will have to fill in the dialogue that opens.

TIPS
	Actions that use existing objects can pre-fill Parameters values for you if a row is selected before you run the Action. Check the Default Value options.

Default Actions and Shortcuts

If a default action has been defined for a given type, it will show as ticked in the actions drop down and can be executed with a keyboard shortcut.

The default Create action is called with the shortcut Ctrl+N (New)
The default Delete action is called when pressing the Delete key
The default Other action is called with the shortcut Ctrl+E (Execute)

Actions Parameters

Actions Parameters can be of 4 types: Locked, Required, Optional or Reference:

Locked Parameters are required for the Action to be executed. They cannot be edited by the user so you must provide a Default Value.
Required Parameters are required for the Action to be executed; they can have a Default Value but are editable.
Optional Parameters are not required to execute the Action but allow you to provide additional information if needed.
Reference Parameters are for information only, they will not be used for the Action. They cannot be edited by the user so you must provide a Default Value.

TIPS
	Typically Reference Parameters can be used to display an item name in plain text alongside its unique id while only the Id is used to perform the Action.

Parameters Default Values

Some Parameters can have or require a Default Value.

The Default Value can be:

A Value: a fixed value that is specified in plain text
A RowValue: this must be the name of a property of the DataView (i.e. column in the grid). The value to use will be inferred from the row that is selected at the time the Action is run.

warning

Locked and Reference Parameters must have a Default Value as they are not editable by the user.

However, Actions with missing Reference Parameters can be executed, whereas Actions with missing Locked Parameters cannot.

See the SQL walk through for an example of Actions and Parameters setup.

Actions Repeat and Loop Modes

When executing an action you have the option to click Create/Delete/Execute or Repeat. Clicking Repeat will execute the action and immediately reopen the Action dialogue to execute the action again. If you had selected rows, clicking Repeat execute the action on the same row.

If you select more than one row you have 2 additional options, Next and All. Clicking Next will execute the action on the first row, and reopen the Action dialogue to execute the action on the following row, and so on until the last row. Clicking All will execute the action on all rows at once.

NOTE
	When clicking the All button, the value for the Locked parameters with a default value mode of RowValue are reloaded for every row, but the values for the Required and Optional parameters are kept the same for all rows.