Actions tab

Action

Description

Evaluates conditions on the client, based on a Keyboard event. All conditions with Run On Client enabled, such as Visible When and Refresh When, are evaluated.

Provides an explicit close action for an overlay.

Overlays, configured by specifying the Launch>Local ActionTarget as an Overlay, close automatically when the user clicks outside of the overlay.

Displays the contents of a navigation rule as a menu. The top-level menu appears in a column below the control. Second and lower levels expand to the right.

• Content — Select the Name key part of a navigation rule.

• Align Menu — Specify Left or Right to indicate how you want to horizontally align the top-level menu border with respect to control's image or label ( For example, assume you create a link control labeled Link Menu. If you select Right alignment, the menu's right border aligns with the letter "u" when the user opens the menu.
• Maximum Width — Select either of the following:

Auto — The menu width at each level expands to the width of the menu item with the greatest number of characters. By default, there is no limit.

Custom — The menu width at each level is determined by the number of text characters you enter in the Ellipsis After... field. For example, if you enter a value of 7, a menu item named Resolve Work truncates at "Resolve" and is followed by three dots.

When using this action, the menu contents are generated each time they're requested. This eliminates on-load processing and ensure that the items are always up-to-date. As a best practice, use the Menu action for complex menus (such as the Actions link in a flow action) and in repeating layouts.

See Completing the Layout tab — Adding a menu bar.

Posts the property value to the clipboard and refreshes the cell's contents.

Post Value is triggered by Change or OnBlur of the field and prior to any other event (such as a click action) initiated from a control, or from the calculation of expressions.

For example: a pxButton control refreshes another section using an activity that requires three updated properties before the control can update the target section. When the user clicks the button, the properties are posted to the clipboard and are synchronized with the activity. The properties are already on the clipboard, in most cases, when the button is clicked.

Starts browser-based printing, which prints the current user form as displayed. This printout may not include desired fields and may use colors, fonts, and labels that are not desired in hard copy prints.

Refreshes the target specified in the action parameters. By default, changes are submitted before refreshing.

• Target — Specify the element that you want to refresh:
  • Section — Refreshes the section
  • Other Section — Refreshes the section specified in the Section field
  • Harness — Refreshes the harness

• Disable submit on refresh — Select if you do not want to submit edited data to the clipboard. For example, you may want to use this option to reset either a form (harness) or a section in a form by populating it with data from the clipboard – without submitting data that the user entered.
• Class — Specify the class of the section that you want to refresh. Appears when Other Section is selected.
• Section — Specify the Name of the section to refresh. Appears when Other Section is selected.
• Data Transform — Optional. Enter the Name key part of a data transform that may affect the content of the refreshed section. The prompt is based on information in the Pages and Classes tab of the current section. See About Data Transforms.
  
  Parameters listed on the Data Transform form's Parameters tab appear beneath this field. Enter the values you want pass to the data transform.
• Activity— Optional. Enter the Activity Name key part of an activity. Specify an activity that may affect the content of the refreshed section. The prompt is based on Pages and Classes of current section. This activity is processed after a data transform.
  
  Parameters listed on the Activity rule form's Parameters tab appear beneath the field. Enter the values you want pass to the activity.

Select to refresh a row in a grid by configuring this action on an element outside of the grid.

• Target — Enter a Page List or Page Groupproperty reference:

  .propertyName
  

  
  Additional fields display, enabling you to refresh the Active Row, First Row, Last Row, or to specify an index position within a grid, tree, or tree grid.
  
  To refresh a specific row index, select Other in the Target field, and then specify the Row index to refresh.

  .PageList.propertyName
  .PageList (15)

Sets the focus to an editable control that is bound to a property or to a specific row in a grid, tree, or tree grid.

• Target — Enter a property reference:

  .propertyName
  

  
  If you specify a Page List or Page Group property, additional fields display, enabling you to set Focus On the First Row, Last Row, or to a specific index position within a grid, tree, or tree grid.
  
  To set focus to an index position, select Other in the Focus On field and then use a constant or property reference:

  .PageList.propertyName
  .PageList (15)

Examples:

• If a section or layout becomes visible on click of a button, set focus to an editable control in the now visible section.

• Set focus to the first row in a list of search results.

Optionally, set Conditions. See Conditions below.

All browsers may not visually indicate that a control has focus, for example, a check box or radio button.
If you want to set focus from within a row in a repeating grid to an editable control outside of the grid, provide the full path to the property, beginning with the parent page, and represent it on the Pages & Classes tab of the layout containing the repeating grid.

The UI Gallery contains a working example of Set Focus. To view and interact with examples and review configurations, select select > User Interface > UI Gallery and select Date/Time in the Components group.

Sets a target property to the source value. You can configure multiple properties and values. The source property can be editable or read-only.

• Property — Enter a property reference (target).

  For Value List, Value Group, Page List, and Page Group properties, enter a literal, property reference or symbolic index value (subscripts):

  .myList(15)
  
  .myGroup("Massachusetts")

• Value — Enter a property reference or a literal constant (source).

Click the add row icon to add more properties and values.

Examples:

• Use multiple properties to quickly populate a form.
• Set the value of a hidden property (in a cell using pxHidden control), which triggers an event such as making a layout visible.

To set a value from within a row in a repeating grid to an editable control outside of the grid, provide the full path to the property, beginning with the parent page, and represent it on the Pages & Classes tab of the layout containing the repeating grid.

Appears when the UI Element is Icon or Link, and the Event is Hover. Displays a SmartInfo pop-up. The contents of the display are determined by a section, presented in read-only mode.

• Section — Select the section that you want to include in the pop-up.
• Title — Optional. Enter a phrase that appears in the header area.

Appears for a UI Element when the Event is Click or Hover. Displays a smart tip in an overlay. At run time, the smart tip is visible until the user hovers or clicks away from the element.

Select Display header if you want to display a smart tip with a header.

Specify the Header Source, if applicable, and the Tip Source (the body of the smart tip) as one of the following: Message, Property, Field value, or Plain text.

• Message — displays if you selected Message as the Header Source or Tip Source. Press the down arrow to select a blank or tip category message. You can enter literal strings or property references in the Value field when the specified message supports parameters.
• Property — displays if you selected Property as the Header Source or Tip Source. Press the down arrow to select the property value that you want to display.
• Field value — displays if you selected Field value as the Header Source or Tip Source. Press the down arrow to select the field value that you want to display.
• Plain text — displays if you selected Plain text as the Header Source or Tip Source. Type the text that you want to display.

Format — select the format for the smart tip. You can style smart tips and create additional smart tip formats in the skin rule.

Invokes the spellchecker. This tool determines which dictionaries to apply, how to operate the spellchecking algorithm, and other details.

Action

Description

Adds a new work item using the primary page data. Saves the new work item on the deferred list.

Closes the current form without applying any changes.

For a cover work item, changes the form to allow users to view and navigate among the member work items. You can override a standard list view rule to control details of this display.

Presents the user form in review-only mode; inputs area allowed in the action section only.

For a folder work item, changes the form to allow users to view and navigate among the associated work items.

Submits changes and marks this assignment as complete.

Submits the flow action and completes the assignment if either is true:

• The specified flow action and the current flow action have the same interface (reference the same named section).
• The flow action does not use HTML to render the interface (an autogenerated action where No HTML is selected on form's HTML tab). Otherwise, clicking the control renders the flow action form only.
• Flow Action — Select the Name key part of a flow action.

Presents the user form or flow action form in review-only mode; no updates are allowed.

Saves the work item with Submit.

Known as the Where-Am-I? icon marks the location of the current assignment with an arrow. Requires the Work-.Perform privilege.

Shows the form in review mode but allows users to reopen a resolved work item, if they hold the Work-.Reopen privilege. Runs the standard activity Work-.Reopen or an activity of that name in your application.

Redraws the form in update mode, for users who hold the Work-.Update privilege. This allows changes to previously input values that appear in sections other than the TAKE ACTION section presented by the flow action.

This capability is not desirable in all applications, as it allows users to overwrite values entered previously, perhaps by other users.

The  Apply button on the update form sends changed user inputs to the server, but does not commit these changes. Users must select and complete a flow action to cause these changes to save. See Understanding transactions in flow executions.

Presents a list of work item attachments, so users can view or add attachments. The button is visible only for users who hold the Work-.AccessAuditTrail privilege.

Displays the work item history, for users who hold the Work-.AccessAuditTrail privilege.

Action

Description

Allows a user to start a flow in a user form and run the process in a modal dialog. The user cannot continue work in the main user form until the modal dialog closes.

You can place this control in all standard harnesses inheriting from Work-, Data- or Embed-. The modal flow must be available from the class of the section containing the control.

When the user starts a modal flow, it runs on its own thread on the primary page of the harness containing the control.

When the user submits the modal flow's final assignment, the flow's page merges into the parent flow primary page. The following then occurs:

• The modal thread is deleted.
• The modal dialog automatically closes.
• The system refreshes the section on the user form containing the control. You can update other areas on the user form by appending actions such as Refresh Section (other), or Set Value to this control. These actions are triggered after the modal closes (cancelled or submitted).

Specify the following:

• Using Page — Optional. If you want to run the flow in the context of an included section that uses either an embedded page such as .pyWorkParty(Originator), or another top-level page, enter a Page or Page List name defined on the section's Page & Classes tab.
  
  When this control is used in a grid, and this field does not contain a value, then the primary page becomes the row page.
  
• Flow Name — Enter the Flow Name key part of a flow rule.
• Parameters — Optional. Displays parameters listed on the Flow rule form's Parameters tab. Specify values to pass to the flow.

As a best practice, use auto-generated controls within modal dialogs. This ensures accurate server processing if a modal dialog is launched from a list or grid of work items configured with actions. An action on a work item in a list is created in a temporary work processing thread. Auto-generated controls default to this temporary thread. However, non-auto-generated controls may default to use the thread of the base document for AJAX interactions, instead of the temporary thread. Using auto-generated controls ensures accurate server processing.

More on modal flows

• The modal displays only the action sections of the flow actions. Harnesses are not displayed. The Harness Name settings on the Assignment shape properties panels are ignored. You do not need to create modal-specific harnesses.
• If an assignment has multiple flow actions, only the default flow action (the one with the highest likelihood) appears in the modal dialog.
• A modal flow does not create its own pzInsKey or pyID. The Creates a new work object? setting on the Flow rule form's Process tab is ignored.
• If the parent primary page has a pyID, the system applies the modal Flow rule form's Temporary object? check box setting as follows:
  
  • Selected (create temporary object) — The modal flow does not save and commit the work item between modal screens. Assignments are not created. The modal flow page is merged with the parent primary page only when the final modal assignment is submitted.
    
    This configuration is useful for screen flows, and prevents hanging assignments if the user cancels the modal.
  • Not selected — The modal flow saves and commits the work item at each assignment, and can create assignments.
    
    This configuration is useful when the flow in the modal is routed to another operator who needs to perform the assignment.
• If the parent flow is a temporary work item (no pyID), the modal flow always runs as a temporary work item, regardless of the Temporary object? check box setting.

• You can define styles and create custom formats for modal dialogs in the skin. Styles that you set in the modal dialog format in the skin are applied to the modal dialog templates, pyModalTemplate or pyGridModalTemplate. See Skin form — Components tab — General — Modal dialogs.

  If you want to customize the modal's buttons, copy the appropriate template, standard section Work-.pyModalFlowTemplate to your application (do not change the Purpose key part). Modal flow actions use the buttons in this template. These are styled using the settings in the Standard Button format in the skin.

• The implementation and CSS classes for modal dialog formats differ, depending upon whether the application is rendered in HTML5 Document Type - standards mode or in quirks mode. For example, in HTML5 Document Type – standards mode, modal dialogs honor the design time width of the layout, while, in quirks mode, modal dialogs shrink to the minimum width and height possible. Drag and drop is not supported in modal dialogs rendered in standards mode. If your application contains modal dialogs and is rendered in both standards and quirks modes, generate test cases for each.

• If this control is located in a repeating layout row, then settings for sorting, filtering, and expand-pane display will be lost when the section refreshes.

Replaces an open harness or displays a new one.

• Target — Define where the system will render the specified harness.

Replace Current — Replaces the current tab or dynamic container contents with the new harness.

Pop-Up Window — Displays the harness in a new browser window.

New Document — Opens the harness and replaces the current dynamic container contents.

Note that if the harness is launched outside a dynamic container, it always opens in a pop-up window.

• Harness — Select the harness that is displayed.
• Tab Name — Optional. Select a property or enter a text string that identifies a tab. If this value matches the name of an open tab, the new harness replaces the tab. Otherwise, the new harness appears in a new tab. Used with New Document and Replace Current.
• Class — Select the class to which the harness belongs.
• Read Only — Select if you want the harness contents to display in read-only mode. If set to No you must enter a window name (Pop-Up Window target only).
• Submit Current — Select to save the harness data before the system replaces the harness. Used with Replace Current.
• Window Name — Optional. Enter a name that the system uses to identify a browser window. If a window of that name is open, the new harness replaces the contents of that window. Otherwise, the harness appears in a new window. Used with Pop-Up Window.
• Window Width — Optional. Enter a positive integer to set the window width in pixels. If you leave this and the Window Height field blank, the system replicates the dimensions of the current window. Used with Pop-Up Window.
• Window Height — Optional. Enter a positive integer to set the window height in pixels. Used with Pop-Up Window.
• Key — Optional. Enter the key value (pzInsKey) of a data instance you want to automatically open as the new primary page when the harness is displayed. The system uses this value to identify the record. This action executes before a pre-activity (if defined). Used with New Document.
• Data Transform — Optional. Enter a Name key part of a data transform that may affect the content of the harness. See About Data Transforms.
  
  Parameters listed on the Data Transform form's Parameters tab appear beneath this field. Enter the values you want pass to the data transform.
  
• Activity — Optional. Enter the key part Activity Name to cause the system to execute it before rendering the harness. This activity is processed after a data transform. Select to open the rule.
  
  Parameters listed on the Activity rule form's Parameters tab appear beneath the field. Enter the values you want pass to the activity.

Opens a landing page for display or CreateNewWork to create a new work item based on a landing page.

• Action — Choose Display to open a landing page for display, or CreateNewWork to create a new work item based on a landing page.
• Name — Enter a unique name for the landing page. Attempting to open a landing page while a landing page with the same Name value is open will result in the new landing page overriding the tab in which the already open landing page was displayed.
• Class — Enter one of the following based upon the action:

– DisplayAction — Enter the class on which the harness for the landing page is based.

– CreateNewWorkAction — Enter the class on which the flow run to create the work item is based

• Harness Name — DisplayAction only. Select the harness that the landing page is built on.
• Data Transform— DisplayAction only. Select the data transform used to generate the landing page.
• Page — DisplayAction only. Specify an existing page.
• Read Only — CreateNewWorkAction only. Specify the name of the flow used to create new work.
• Level A — Enter a value to work with a when condition on the harness to open the selected item in a specified tab on the landing page.
• Level B — Enter a value to work with a when condition on the harness to open the selected item in a specified tab on the landing page.
• Level C — Enter a value to work with a when condition on the harness to open the selected item in a specified tab on the landing page.

• Specify additional parameters to pass to the harness or flow.
• Specify additional parameter values to pass to the harness or flow.

Opens a list view.

Specify the class of a list view, the Purpose key part. Choose Refresh, Redisplay, or Sort. Select the Header check box to display the list view header.

Loads the local or local & connector flow action and presents it as a modal dialog, overlay, or in an action section.

Select the local action in the Local Action field. In the Target field, select to present the local action as one of the following:

• Modal dialog — requires the user to complete or dismiss the dialog before continuing work.
• Overlay — launches the local action in a panel overlaying the current window. The user can dismiss it by clicking outside the overlay area or through an explicit Display>Close action, configured in the Local Action.
  
  Use an overlay to display information such as simple forms or flows. You can use this in conjunction with actions on other controls; for example, a Text Input box, to create an advanced picker as shown in the UI Gallery ( > User Interface > UI GalleryCombinations>Search and Select>Using Overlay.) 
  
  Some of the more advanced flow action features are not supported for overlays.  For example, a flow action can launch a Dynamic Container-based harness.  Launching this flow action in an overlay is not supported.
  
• Replace current — appears in the current action section (.pyActionArea).

The Perform Action is similar to the Local Action. However, the Perform action is used with flow actions to advance the flow when the flow action does not have a UI.

If this control is located in a repeating grid row (from a button or icon, for example), then as a best practice, you should click the All actions link and select List > Open local action. Local action does not operate normally in the repeating grid environment.

Using an activity that returns an HTML stream, opens a URL in a browser window.

Action

• Use Alternate Domain — Select to specify an alternate domain for the URL to open.
  
  – Select a URL in the Alternate Domain URL field.
  
  – Optional. Use the Querystring area to specify the names and values of query strings for the alternate domain URL.
  
• User Primary Page — Optional. Select to invoke an activity based on the contents of the primary page when this node is selected.
• Data Transform — Optional. Enter a Name key part of a data transform. See About Data Transforms.
  Parameters listed on the Data Transform form's Parameters tab appear beneath this field. Enter the values you want pass to the data transform.
• Activity — Select an activity to return an HTML stream that displays in the opened window. This activity is processed after a data transform. Select () to open the rule.
  Parameters listed on the Activity rule form's Parameters tab appear beneath the field. Enter the values you want pass to the activity.

• Window Name — Specify a text string to define the name of the opened window.
• Replace History — Select to erase the history of the opened browser window.
• Height — Enter a numerical value to represent the height in pixels of the opened window
• Width — Enter a numerical value to represent the width in pixels of the opened window
• Top — Enter a numerical value to represent the offset in pixels from the top of the screen
• Left — Enter a numerical value to represent the offset in pixels from the left of the screen.
• Resizable — Select to enable the opened window to be resized.
• Scrollbars — Select to enable scrollbars in the opened window.
• Location Bar — Select to enable the location bar in the opened window.
• Menu Bar — Select to enable the browser's menu bar in the opened window.
• Status Bar — Select to enable the browser's status bar in the opened window.
• Tool Bar — Select to enable the browser's tool bar in the opened window.

Executes the retrieval and sorting operations, but not the formatting and display processing, of a report definition.

Launch a wizard based on key part Label and class of the wizard (class name begins with PegaAccel- ). Optionally, specify parameters such as operator ID, status, and so on.

Action

Description

Creates a new covered or non-covered work item. Called with a primary page that inherits from the Work- base class. Commits the new work item if there is no flow execution to start; if it starts a flow execution, the commit operation typically occurs when that flow execution creates an assignment.

Returns the next assignment for the operator to work on. This assignment can either come from the operator's worklist or from one of the workbaskets they have access to.

Open an assignment based upon its key value pxAssignmentKey. Enter the key of the assignment you wish to open.

Opens work based upon the internal key that uniquely identifies the instance. Specify the handle of a work item, beginning with the class name.

Opens work based upon the work item ID. Specify the full ID of the work item.

Reopens a resolved work item, for users who hold the Work-.Reopen privilege. Runs the standard activity Work-.Reopen or an activity of that name in your application.

Action

Description

Adds a child item beneath the selected row or branch or in a repeating grid or tree.

Adds (above or below) a row to a layout.

Deletes a row in a layout.

Enables edit of the selected item in the layout. Not available if the repeating layout Edit Mode is Read Only.

Displays the flow action you specify.

• Flow Action — Select the flow action that will be invoked.
• After Action — Select Refresh Current Item (recommended) to refresh only the current row after the flow action has ended. In most cases, leave this selection (default). Select Refresh All Items to refresh the entire layout.

Use auto-generated controls if you plan to configure actions on a list of work items. An action on a work item in a list is created in a temporary work processing thread. Auto-generated controls default to this temporary thread. However, non-auto-generated controls may default to use the thread of the base document for AJAX interactions, instead of the temporary thread. Using auto-generated controls ensures accurate server processing.

Opens the item selected in the layout.

Refreshes the content of the active row in the active grid.

Disable submit on refresh — Select if you do not want to submit edited data to the clipboard. For example, you may want to use this option to reset the row by populating it with data from the clipboard – without submitting data that the user entered.

Refreshes the content of the repeating grid or tree based on data in the clipboard. Maintains the current page, filter, or sort.

Sets the cursor focus to the Current Item, Next Item, or Previous Item in the repeating layout.

Current Item is the default action for Click events.

You can use Set Focus with Keyboard events to enable users to navigate within a repeating grid using the Up and Down arrow keys.

For example, configure the KeyboardEventUp to Set Focus to the Previous Item in the grid and the KeyboardEventDown to Set Focus to the Next Item in the grid. Use the KeyboardEventEnter to take an action, such as edit the selected item (Handle List Items>Edit Item.)

If you want to set focus from within a row in a repeating grid to another grid or to an editable control outside of the current grid, select Set Focus in the Display category and provide the full path to the property, beginning with the parent page, and represent it on the Pages & Classes tab of the layout containing the repeating grid.

Action

Description

Select to specify a clipboard page that contains the action that you want to perform when the specified events occurs. When the event occurs, the clipboard page is passed into the action and the action is performed.

This is supported for the following actions:

• Open rule by handle
• Open work by handle
• Get next work
• Show harness
• Open landing page
• Create new work
• Open rule by keys
• Open rule by class name
• Open rule specific

Log out of the system.

Opens a rule that takes the pzInsKey value as its parameter.

Handle — A pzInsKey key value in the rule you want to open.

Resolve By — To determine how the system locates the rule, enter one of the following:

• Name – A Property Name key value.
• Handle — Value entered in the Handle field.
• Handle By Condition — A when condition that qualifies the value entered in the Handle field.

Opens a rule by its class and the class key values. Specify the class that has keys defined. Select values for the Keys specified on the Class rule form General tab .

Opens a rule based upon the rule type (concrete class derived from the Rule- base class) and a Property Name key part.

Runs the activity you specify in the Activity field. Enter the Activity key part.

Parameters listed on the Activity rule form's Parameters tab appear beneath the field. Enter the values you want pass to the activity.

Runs the data transform you specify.

• Page — Select Auto to keep the primary page context. Select Other to use another page context.
• Name — Appears if you select Other on the Page field. Enter the page name.
• Data Transform — Enter the Name key part.
  Parameters listed on the Data Transform form's Parameters tab appear beneath the field. Enter the values you want pass to the data transform.

Calls a custom JavaScript function or PRPC API.

• Function Name — Select the property or literal reference that contains the function you wish to run. (In the Control form, only @ baseclass properties appear).
  
  Enter the JavaScript file using this function on the Harness rule form's Scripts and Styles tab. The Run Script action instructs the browser to find a JavaScript function with that name and then pass those parameters. If the same function is used in multiple files in the list, the last file is used (the last function overwrites the others with that name). The browser uses the defined function when it executes the JavaScript file.
  
  

  Do not use ( ) in the function or parameter names.
  You can specify a property that stores the name of the function.
  To use javascript object references, prepend script: or javascript: to name of the javascript function.
  For example script:window.alert
  Use “ ” to specify literal values.
  You can also use script:MyObject.MyField to access objects in function parameters.  

• Parameter area — Optional. Enter parameter names and values (constants or properties). Order is important; if necessary, reorder the list by selecting a row and moving it.

Switch between the standard view of the site and the view optimized for mobile devices.

Group/Selection

Description

The field has focus.

Property value specified in the control's Cell Property panel (Value of associated property option) is equal, greater, or less than another property value.

The control does not contain a property value.

The field does not have focus.

An input field that is not required.

Property value given for the Value of a different property option on this tab is equal, greater, or less than another property value.

The control contains a property value.

An input field that must have a non-blank value. The Required condition checks whether the field is required, but does not consider the value of the input field. Most forms label a required field with an orange asterisk () .

A when condition that you configure.