A 'business action' is a piece of business logic that can be executed to manipulate data or perform an action. Business actions define the operations that can happen during a variety of system processes and events. For example, at approval of an object, within a workflow (on entry to a state, exit from a state, on the transition between tasks, or when a deadline is met), as part of an import process, or from a bulk update process.
While business actions can be created using JavaScript, simple operations are available as described in the table below.
Important: Business actions can be used to modify data and/or take action, while business conditions should be used to validate data only (not to modify data). For more information, refer to Business Conditions here. Alternatively, business functions will produce an output based on non-changing input parameters. For more information on business functions, refer to the Business Function topic here.
Error Messages
Exceptions can be thrown during business rule execution, for instance by deliberately instantiating and throwing a localizable message, as defined in the Localized Messages for JavaScript Business Rules topic here. When this occurs, processing is stopped and any updates are rolled back. There are use cases where this will streamline the writing and execution of business rules by mixing validations and data updates, especially if the conditions include data, as it appears after the updates have been made. However, it is strongly recommended that, whenever possible, conditions (which are read-only) and actions (which contain updates) be separate, and that any validation-related error messaging is performed only in the business condition. This will ensure the best performance. Additionally, there are situations where conditions can be evaluated dynamically to provide on-the-fly feedback to users prior to performing an expected action (e.g., enabling / disabling action buttons based on condition results). Keep in mind that when an action encounters an error message, any included updates will not be run until the action is actually performed.
Business Action Operations
To add a business action to a business rule, refer to the Specifying a Business Action Operation topic here.
|
Menu |
Action |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Assets
|
Create Assets from URL |
Works on a product level and looks at a specified attribute which contains asset file URLs. If a file URL is found, the asset is downloaded, created, and an asset reference is created according to the configuration. For more information, refer to Configuring the Asset Download Component in the Digital Assets documentation here. |
|
Send Derived Event for Assets |
Raises the Asset Keywords Event. Send assets to the Google Cloud Vision API and returns keywords, but does not set them. For more information, refer to Configuring the Asset Analyzer Component in the Digital Assets documentation here. |
|
|
Set Asset Keywords |
Handles the communication to and from the Google Vision API. Send assets to the Google Cloud Vision API, then and returns and sets keywords. For more information, refer to Configuring the Asset Analyzer Component in the Digital Assets documentation here. |
|
|
Attribute values |
Merge Attribute Values |
Merges the value of one attribute into another attribute. For more information, refer to Business Action: Merge Attribute Values here. |
|
Data quality |
Generate Match Codes |
Generates match code values as a part of a business action. For more information, refer to Business Action: Generate Match Codes here. |
|
Standardize address |
Overwrites the existing standardized address. Additionally, can be used to generate Loqate address hash values, renew address validations older than a specified number of days, and enable CASS validation for US addresses. For more information, refer to Business Action: Standardize Address here. |
|
|
References and Links |
Add Attribute Link |
Adds a link to an attribute without additional configuration. For more information, refer to Business Action: Add Attribute Link here. |
|
Add Reference |
Adds a reference of a specified type to a target. For more information, refer to Business Action: Add Reference here. |
|
|
Add Referenced By |
Adds a reference of a specified type from the specified source to the object that is executed as target. For more information, refer to Business Action: Add Referenced By here. |
|
|
Automatic Classification |
Classifies the selected objects automatically according to a set of rules. For more information, refer to Business Action: Automatic Classification here. |
|
|
Remove Attribute Link |
Makes it possible to remove a link to an attribute without additional configuration. For more information, refer to Business Action: Remove Attribute Link here. |
|
|
Remove Reference |
Removes references to a specific target or all references of a specific type. For more information, refer to Business Action: Remove Reference here. |
|
|
Set Product to Classification Link Type |
Assigns a new object type and classification link type to the selected product. For more information, refer to Business Action: Set Product to Classification Link Type here. |
|
|
Workflow |
Claim |
Claims the task of the current object in the specified workflow and state. For more information, refer to Business Action: Claim here. |
|
Initiate Items in STEP Workflow |
Initiates the object the action runs on in a specified workflow. For more information, refer to Business Action: Initiate Items In STEP Workflow here. |
|
|
Remove object from STEP Workflow |
Removes the object the action runs on from the specified workflow. For more information, refer to Business Action: Remove Object from STEP Workflow here. |
|
|
Trigger STEP Workflow Event |
Triggers a specified workflow event. For more information, refer to Business Action: Trigger STEP Workflow Event here. |
|
|
Execute JavaScript |
Enables you to use the methods available in the STEP Public Java API. For more information, refer to Business Action: Execute JavaScript here. |
|
|
Overlap Analysis |
Compares records in a pre-defined format with all record of the same object type by specifying a matching algorithm. For more information, refer to Business Action: Overlap Analysis here. |
|
|
Reference Other Business Action |
Allows the node to reference other business actions without additional configuration. For more information, refer to Business Action: Reference Other Business Action here. |
|
|
Send Email |
Sends email to specified recipients. For more information, refer to Business Action: Send Email here. |
|
|
Send Republish Event |
Sends a republish event to an event queue processor. For more information, refer to Business Action: Send Republish Event here. |
|
|
Set Attribute Value |
Sets a specified attribute value for the object where the action is executed. For more information, refer to Business Action: Set Attribute Value here. |
|
|
Set Name |
Sets the name of the object that the action runs on. For more information, refer to Business Action: Set Name here. |
|
|
Set Object Type |
Changes the object type the action runs on. For more information, refer to Business Action: Set Object Type here. |
|
|
Set Workflow Variable |
Enables assignment of workflow variables. For more information, refer to Business Action: Set Workflow Variable here. |
|
|
Start Translation |
Initiates an asynchronous translation via a business rule. For more information, refer to Business Rules for Asynchronous Translations here. |
|
|
Value Generators |
Assign a Value |
Based on the configuration of the Value Generator, a value is assigned to the selected attribute. For more information, refer to any of the specific Value Generator topics included in the Value Generators topic here. |
|
Release a Value |
Based on the configuration of the Value Generator, a value is removed from the selected attribute. For more information, refer to any of the specific Value Generator topics included in the Value Generators topic here. |
|