Using Manual Instance Actions¶
Info
New in Atfinity 17.
A Manual Instance Action is rule logic a user runs on demand on a single instance. Actions are configured under Processes, in the Other Rules section. Every action belongs to one ontology and can assign values, create a lifecycle case, send an email, run an integration and call one of your own API requests. An action can combine several of these, and they all run when the user presses the button.
The condition¶
The condition is written about the instance the action runs on, so it refers to it as self:
It holds no declarations, because the ontology of the action already says which instances it applies to. Without a condition, the action is offered on every instance of its ontology.
The condition decides where the action is offered, and it is checked again when the action runs. An action pressed on a page that was loaded before the instance changed is refused with an error rather than running and changing nothing.
Input parameters¶
An action can ask the user for values before it runs, for example the new address a client just gave over the phone. Each input parameter is asked for as a field of its own, and only the simple information types can be asked for this way: text, whole and decimal numbers, yes or no, a single or multiple choice from a list, a date and a date with a time.
The fields are independent of each other, so none of them can be shown or hidden based on another. An action can ask for up to 32 values, and all of them have to be filled in before it runs.
The entered values are available in the actions under PARAMETERS, by the key of the parameter, so an Assign Values
action can write them onto the instance:
The same references work in the input assignments of the other actions, for example to put a value the user entered into the subject of an email.
Where users find an action¶
Configuring an action does not yet show it anywhere. It is offered only on the pages it has been selected on, in one of two ways:
- On an instance page, on the Actions tab of every matching instance, each with its description next to the button.
- On an instance tree page, as a button in an info list. The button runs the action straight away, so use it for actions that ask for no values, as there is no dialog to enter them in.
Users are offered an action only if their roles have access to it, which is configured in the permissions of the action, the same way the permissions of a tab work.
Running an action¶
An action that asks for no values is a single button. An action with input parameters opens a dialog that asks for them first, and runs once the dialog is confirmed. While it runs, the button shows that it is working, and finishing is confirmed with a message. If the action created a lifecycle case, that message links to it.
Values written by an action appear in the History tab of the instance with the name of the action as the reason, so it stays visible who ran what and when.