Actions are human-executable operations that are associated with a context. A list of available actions may appear, for example, in the context menu for a System Tree node.
There is a key difference between context actions and context functions: Unlike functions, actions may interact with a user by generating some output or requesting data input. Not all actions are interactive, but most involve several steps that require user attention.
Actions interact with the user using UI Procedures. Every action is a combination of UI Procedures and server-side data operations, such as function calls, changing or analyzing variable values, etc. For more information, see the UI Procedures chapter.
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The sequence of server-side data processing operations and UI procedures performed by an action is called action flow. |
Just for contrast, here are some Actions:
| • | The Data Terminal context has a Configure action that interacts with the user and lets them change the settings for a Data Terminal |
| • | The Alerts context has a Create New Alert action that prompts for the basic settings of a new Alert, creates it (by calling the "Create new alert" function) and then interacts with the user again, allowing him to configure the newly created alert. |
And here are some Functions:
| • | The Root context of the AggreGate Server has a Stop Server ("stop") function that stops the server. |
| • | The Users context has a Delete User Account ("delete") function that removes a given user account. |
As you can see, functions are "machine" operations, while actions actually require user intervention and input.
Most contexts have a so-called default action. This action is executed when user double-clicks the context in the AggreGate Client System Tree, for example.
Here are two examples of default actions:
| • | The default action for the Event Filters context is "Create New Filter". |