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Definition

A UWL Action defines an activity that can be performed in UWL. Actions can be defined for views and items. Item actions can be displayed in the item preview, detail view and UWLiView as action buttons. Item actions are also displayed as context menu items for a certain workitem. View actions displayed as buttons can have an effect on none, one or multiple selected items. Group actions can be used in views to render decision options directly as check boxes or radio buttons in the item rows, for example, for mass execution scenarios.

Each item type can have a default action, which is the action for the item, executed when the user selects on the item subject. Each item can support any number of additional actions.

The handler attribute of the action determines how the action is executed - the referenced handler contains the actual implementation. There are two basic handler categories:

  1. Launch actions (Launchers) navigate to a user interface. This user interface can be implemented as iView, SAP GUI for HTML, Web Dynpro, ITS MiniApp, or any URL, depending on the type of handler specified.

  2. Functional actions call a function that is usually provided by the UWL (UIActionHandler) or the provider system connector (ProviderActionHandler). It is also possible to call provider backend system functions directly through handlers like FunctionsModuleActionHandler , or for SAP Business Workflow: UserDecisionHandler , UpdatingContainerHandler and TerminatingEventHandler .

Actions have properties which further refine the action behavior. They are passed on as parameters to the action handler (see below).

Item type actions are inherited from parent item types.

Actions are defined in a UWL XML configuration. Actions are enumerated under the “Actions” element. Each action is described in an “Action” element that is child element of the “Actions” element. The action properties are described via XML attributes of the “Action” element.

Attributes

Description

Name

The action name which will be passed to the action handler

reference

If an action should be used by many item types or views, it can be defined once in the action section directly under UWL Configuration, and referenced from all other locations. You can refer the names of those general actions in this attribute. The referenced action will be taken from the same configuration, or, if not found, from the uwl.standard configuration. Note that if this attribute is used, all other attributes are ignored.

Example: < Action reference="refresh" / >

groupAction

Group actions by a name. This is used to create a button on the user interface, with a drop down list of group actions. Use the defaultGroupAction flag to indicate the button name and defaultAction to describe the button action when pressed.

Specifies that this action is a group action. Group actions are presented to the user as decision alternatives.

List views can render group actions as check boxes or radio buttons (see DisplayAttribute attribute type), and the user can submit decisions for multiple items at once (for example: mass approval scenarios).

Handler

The handler determines how the action is executed. The following handlers are available: IViewLauncher, SAPWebDynproLauncher, SAPAppLauncher, SAPTransactionLauncher, SAPMiniAppLauncher, ObjectLinkLauncher, ObjectNavigationLauncher, UrlLauncher, TerminatingEventHandler, FunctionModuleActionHandler, UpdatingContainerHandler, UserDecisionHandler.

For details of the launchers, refer to the Task Launch Customization documentation.

referenceBundle

Specifies the description bundle that contains the internationalized display texts for the action. The long descriptions in the bundle will be displayed as tool tip.

Alternatively, the descriptions can also be directly added to the action using the descriptions tag.

returnToDetailViewAllowed

Specifies which page should be displayed after a functional action was executed. Yes (the default) specifies that the detail view page should remain open. No returns to the list view page in any case.

launchInNewWindow

Specifies a flag to indicate that the action should be launched in a new browser window ( Yes or No ).

launchNewWindowName

Window name to be used if the new window option is used.

launchNewWindowFeatures

Specifies the JavaScript features to open the new browser with.

Example: " width=520, height=560, resizable=yes, scrollbars=yes, status=yes, toolbar=no, menubar=no,location=no,directories=no "

Child Tags: Properties, Descriptions , ConfirmDescriptions

Properties

Properties are name and value pairs that can be added to an Action, which will be passed to the provider.

Example
<Action name="defaultGlobalWizard" handler="IViewLauncher" referenceBundle="new_task" launchInNewWindow="yes"
launchNewWindowFeatures="width=520,height=560,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=no,menubar=no,location=no,directories=no">
<Properties>
    <Property name="iview" value="com.sap.workflow.template.wizard.CreateNewProcess"/>
    <Property name="passThisOn" value="Passed as parameter to navigation target" />
    <Property name="appContext" value="${item.appContext}" />
</Properties>
</Action>

Some properties are used internally to control actions and are not passed to the provider.

Reserved property names are as follows:

  • type- Obsolete. Do not use. Specifies link or button for the display.

  • display_order_priority - The higher the number the closer the action will be display to the left.

    If the key word uwlExcludeFromPreviewDetail is used as value of this property, the action will not be displayed on the detail preview pages (for example, when the action is only intended for a menu item).

Other properties are handler specific.

  • iView - name of the target iView component. This is handler specific property. Other launch handlers may require other properties to specify the navigation target. See handler attribute documentation above.

Property values can use dynamic parameters, which are filled in at run time before the action is executed. Dynamic parameters are defined using ${item.attribute} where attribute is the attribute name which value is retrieved from the item.

Any standard item attribute and custom item attribute can be used.

Other dynamic parameters are as follows:

  • ${user}- Can be used when a single user selection is needed. UWL will display a user selection screen to prompt for a single user before calling the action.

  • ${users}- Can be used when a multiple user selection is needed. UWL will display a user selection screen to prompt for multiple users before calling the action.

  • ${usernote}- Specifies that a comment should be allowed for the user selection options above.

  • ${webflowUser} - Specifies a Business Workflow user, executing a Business Workflow work item

ConfirmDescriptions

Contains descriptions that are used to display a text within a confirm dialog box to the user before the action is executed.

If no confirm descriptions are present, the user is not asked to confirm the action.