Actions
The anatomy of Actions
An Action is a code-based operation that runs where that Action is mounted. Actions run when a user clicks the corresponding user prompt in Flatfile. Additional Actions can be mounted on a Sheet, a Workbook, or a file by a developer.
Types of Actions
Built-in Actions
Workbooks, Sheets and files come with five default built-in actions:
- Mapping data from one workbook to another (moving data from a workbook to a Workbook)
- Deleting data from a Workbook (or the entire file)
- Exporting (downloading) data from a Workbook (or a file)
- Find and Replacing data in a Sheet
- Applying a Mutate function to data in a Sheet
When these built-in actions are clicked, they create Jobs. You can listen for these events and take appropriate actions if required. Learn more about Jobs.
Developer-Created Actions
Additional Actions can be mounted on a Sheet, a Workbook, or a file. When an action is clicked, it will create a job operation on the domain it is mounted.
For example, an Action with the property operation: 'my-action' placed on a Workbook would spawn a job called: workbook:my-action. This is the job you’d listen for to respond accordingly.
The Anatomy of an Action
Required Parameters
All Actions contain the the information needed to let a user run the Action. This includes:
A unique identifier for the Action that is used by the listener to determine what work to do as part of the resulting Job.
The text that will be displayed to the user in the UI as a button or menu item.
Optional Parameters
Optionally, an Action can also contain extra details about how it appears in the UI. These include:
Whether the Action is a primary Action for the resource. Depending on the resource, primary Actions are displayed in the UI in a more prominent way.
When set to true, a modal is shown to confirm the Action.
The text that will be displayed to the user when a confirmation modal is used. Phrase this as a question.
Setting this will display text in the UI for both buttons and list items as a tooltip on hover.
Setting this will display text on disbaled actions [based on the state of the action] in the UI for both buttons and list items as a tooltip on hover.
[{ type: 'error' }]
[{ type: 'hasAllValid' }]: Adding this constraint will disable a Sheet or Workbook Action when there are invalid
records.
[{ type: 'hasSelection' }]: Adding this constraint will disable a Sheet or Workbook Action when no records are selected.
[{ type: 'hasData' }]: Adding this constraint will disable a Sheet or Workbook Action when there are no records.
Can be foreground, background or toolbarBlocking. Foreground mode will
prevent interacting with the entire resource until complete. toolbarBlocking
disables the sheet-level toolbar and Column Header menus, while still allowing
users to enter records manually.
Usage
An Action with all of the above properties would look like this:
{
operation: 'my-action',
label: 'My Action',
primary: true,
confirm: true,
description: 'Are you sure you want to run this action?',
constraints: [{ type: 'hasAllValid' }, { type: 'hasSelection' }],
mode: 'foreground'
tooltip: 'Click to run action'
}
inputForm
When initiating an action, there may be instances where additional information is required from the end user to successfully complete the intended task. For example, you might want to enable users to specify the name of the file they intend to export.
In such cases, if you configure input fields for your action, a secondary dialog will be presented to the end user, prompting them to provide the necessary information. Once the user has entered the required details, they can proceed with the action seamlessly
An object representing the input form configuration for the action.
The type of the input form. Accepts: simple
fields
An array of field objects representing the input form fields.
The key for the field.
The label for the field.
The type of the field. Accepts: string | textarea | number | boolean | enum
The default value for the field.
A description of the field.
config
An object containing configuration options for the field.
An array of options for the field, each represented as an object.
The value or ID of the option.
A visual label for the option.
A short description of the option.
An arbitrary JSON object associated with the option.
constraints
An array of constraints for the field.
The type of constraint. Accepts: required
Usage
An Action that requests input from the end user using inputForm would look like this. Your listener would then grab this data from the Job and take action on it. Learn more about Using Actions with Inputs.
actions: [
{
operation: "submitActionFg",
mode: "foreground",
label: "Submit data elsewhere",
type: "string",
description: "Submit this data to a webhook.",
primary: true,
inputForm: {
type: "simple",
fields: [
{
key: "priority",
label: "Priority level",
description: "Set the priority level.",
type: "enum",
defaultValue: "80ce8718a21c",
config: {
options: [
{
value: "80ce8718a21c",
label: "High Priority",
description:
"Setting a value to High Priority means it will be prioritized over other values",
},
],
},
constraints: [
{
type: "required",
},
],
},
],
},
},
];
Learn more
Guides
Learn more about Workbook, Sheet, and File Actions.
Workbook
Run an operation on the entire dataset
Sheet
Run an operation at the Sheet level
File
Attach additional actions to a File
Example Projects
Find an Actions example in the Flatfile GitHub repository.