Rules Guide

Chapter 8   Installed Actions

This chapter describes the actions installed with your Director project in Workbench. It has these sections:

• Accessing condition and action sources

• Properties that support the !valueOf template

• Properties that support database drivers and URLs

• Action definitions

    For information about how to use conditions and actions in the Rule Editor, see Rule and Macro Editors.

Accessing condition and action sources

Condition and action class files, sources, and supporting files are contained in JAR files that are added to your project using the Director EAR Wizard. The default location for the JARs in your project is ResourceSet/Web-INF/lib. Here is a list of the JARs that are added, depending on the subsystems you select:

Properties that support the !valueOf template

Some of the condition and action properties support the !valueOf template. You can either enter the actual value you want to use or specify a whiteboard key that holds the value you want. Properties that support this feature are marked with the ^ character. Use this format:

  !valueOf.keyname

You can also specify a key that holds the name of another key. To get a value from another key, specify !valueOf.anotherkey.

    For more information about the !valueOf construct, see Using whiteboard values.

Properties that support database drivers and URLs

Some of the conditions and actions have properties for accessing a database. These properties include JDBC Driver and Database Name. These values vary with the database and server vendors. You should consult your database and application server documentation for details.

Here is a list of database drivers and URL patterns for some of the databases supported in Director:

Action definitions

• Add

• Add Eraser

• Calculate Age

• Clear Request Data From Whiteboard

• Create Collection Of Objects From SQL

• Default

• Delete Cookie

• Deny Access

• Display Component

• Display Cookies

• Display Request Headers

• Display Whiteboard

• Divide

• Drop Cookie User ID

• Fire Rule

• Flush

• Format Date

• Get Cookie Value

• Get User Property

• Log User Off

• Multiply

• Query

• Remove From Whiteboard

• Return As Decimal Format

• Return As Html Body

• Return As Html Bold

• Return As Html Break

• Return As Html Checkbox

• Return As Html File Upload

• Return As Html Hidden Field

• Return As Html JavaScript

• Return As Html Option List

• Return As Html Password

• Return As Html Radio Button

• Return As Html Reset Button

• Return As Html Scripted Button

• Return As Html Submit Button

• Return As Html Table

• Return As Html Text Area

• Return As Html Text Field

• Return As XML

• Return Authentication Required

• Return False

• Return Response

• Return Response With Default

• Return True

• Save Cookies To Whiteboard

• Save Form Get Data To Whiteboard

• Save Request Data To Whiteboard

• Save To Whiteboard

• Send Mailer SMTP

• Set Component Parameter

• Set Cookie Value

• Set Date On Whiteboard

• Set Expired

• Set Next Activity

• Set Pipeline Status

• Set Response Header

• Set Response Status

• Set User Property

• Set Workitem Priority

• Set Workitem Value

• SQL Hierarchy

• SQL String

• Stop Rule Processing

• Subtract

Add

Performs addition. The value you specify is added to a value stored in a whiteboard key.

Results   The whiteboard key contains the new, incremented value. No response status or response phrase is set.

Add Eraser

Specifies that a whiteboard key will be removed at some future time: either after a number of seconds or after a number of times accessed. Set seconds to zero to use the activation counter, and set the activation counter to zero to use seconds.

Results   No immediate result—but after the number of seconds has elapsed or the specified number of hits has occurred, the key is deleted.

Calculate Age

Calculates the difference in years between a date on the whiteboard and the current date and stores the difference in another whiteboard key.

Setup   Code in the component must add a key to the whiteboard using the name you specified in Date Key, or you could use the Save To Whiteboard action. The data type of its value must be Date.

Results   The key specified in Detail Key contains the number of years between the dates. The value is saved as an integer.

Clear Request Data From Whiteboard

Removes a key and its value from the whiteboard.

Setup   If you use a template for Detail Key, you need to add the key to the whiteboard either in your application or through another action (see the Save To Whiteboard action).

Results   The whiteboard key and its value are removed. If the key doesn't exist, nothing happens.

Create Collection Of Objects From SQL

Creates a Vector of objects from a specified database column and makes the Vector available from the whiteboard through a specified detail key.

NOTE   All of the properties for this action support the !valueOf template construct. For more information, see Properties that support the !valueOf template

Default

Does nothing. Use this action when you want nothing to happen if the conditions are met. You can also use it as a placeholder as you work on a rule.

TIP   Instead of using the Default action, you can use the Set Response Status action to set a success status code. Portal code that uses the rule can check the status code to confirm that the rule ran correctly.

Delete Cookie

Deletes a cookie from the client. If the cookie exists, the action sets the cookie's age to zero, which signals the browser to delete it.

Results   Removes the cookie from the user's Web browser or other client. No status code is set. If the cookie does not exist, nothing happens.

Deny Access

Sets the response status and response phrase. Application code can check the response status and act accordingly.

Results   The response status is set to 403 and the response phrase is set to the specified message. (Neither the console nor the log displays the response status.)

Display Component

Displays the contents of a component.

Display Cookies

Displays the cookies and their values in the Rule subsystem log. By default, the log output displays on the server console. Use this action when debugging a rule.

    For information on configuring logs, see the chapter on error handling in the Core Development Guide.

Display Request Headers

Displays the parameters in the request header and their values in the Rule subsystem log. By default, the log output displays on the server console. Use this action when debugging a rule.

    For information on configuring logs, see the chapter on error handling in the Core Development Guide.

Display Whiteboard

Displays the whiteboard keys and their values in the Rule subsystem log. By default, the log output displays on the server console. Use this action when debugging a rule.

    For information on configuring logs, see the chapter on error handling in the Core Development Guide.

Divide

Performs division. The value you specify is divided into a value stored in a whiteboard key.

Results   The whiteboard key contains the quotient of the division. If the divisor value is zero, the whiteboard key's value is set to the text Infinity. No response status or response phrase is set.

Drop Cookie User ID

Puts a cookie named userID in the browser with a value of the portal user's ID. (Drop is used to mean dropping it into the browser, not dropping tables in a database.)

Results   The cookie is set in the browser. No response status or response phrase is set. If the user has disabled cookies, nothing happens.

Success or failure is reported in the log (the default log output is displayed on the server console.)

Fire Rule

Executes a rule.

Flush

Tells the system to empty the caches that hold rules.

Format Date

Gets a whiteboard Timestamp value stored in a specified Date key, formats it for the current locale, and saves the result to the whiteboard in the specified Detail key. See also Set Date On Whiteboard.

Setup   A key must be on the whiteboard. The keyname is the value you specified in the Date Key property, and the key's value has a data type of Timestamp.

Results   The formatted date text is put on the whiteboard using the key named in the Detail Key property. If the value for Date Key is not a valid Timestamp object, the Detail Key is set to an empty string.

Get Cookie Value

Gets the value of the specified cookie.

Results   Sets the response phrase to the cookie value.

Get User Property

Gets the value of a user attribute for the current portal context. The attribute must be set on the whiteboard in the specified key.

    See also the Set User Property action and the Check User Property condition.

Log User Off

Resets the user to Anonymous and removes all key/value pairs from the whiteboard.

Results   Does not set a response status or response phrase.

Multiply

Performs multiplication. The value you specify is multiplied by a value stored in a whiteboard key.

Results   The Whiteboard Key contains the result of the multiplication. No response status or response phrase is set.

Query

Returns the result of a query to the Content Management Subsystem as an XML string. This action is used in the Content Query sample application.

    For more information, see Using the Content Query Action in Samples.

Remove From Whiteboard

Removes a value and its key from the whiteboard.

Results   The key is removed. No response status or response phrase is set.

Return As Decimal Format

Formats a decimal value as text using the specified formatting. You can add special characters such as currency and percent signs. This action does not support formatting as phone numbers and other non-arithmetic formats.

Results   The formatted number is stored as text in the key specified by Detail Key. The response type is set to TEXT and the response status is set to 302.

Return As Html Body

Returns the opening of an HTML BODY tag with a color attribute.

Results   The action does these things:

• Sets the response phrase to <body bgColor="colorvalue">

• Sets the response type to TEXT

• Sets the response status to 302

• Ends rule processing

Return As Html Bold

Returns the specified text enclosed in HTML bold tags.

Results   Sets the response phrase to <b>value</b>. It does not set the response status or response type.

Return As Html Break

Returns the specified text preceded or followed by HTML break tags.

Results   Sets the response phrase to one of the following:

• If Before is checked, <br>value

• If After is checked, value<br>

• If both are checked, <br>value<br>

The action does not set the response status or response type.

Return As Html Checkbox

Returns HTML for a check box.

Results   Sets the response phrase to HTML that looks something like this:

  <INPUT TYPE="CHECKBOX" VALUE="important" NAME="cb1" CHECKED>

The action sets the response type to TEXT and the response status to 302. If Stop Processing is checked, rule processing ends.

Return As Html File Upload

Returns HTML for a file upload field.

NOTE   Three of the properties for this action support the !valueOf template construct. For more information, see Properties that support the !valueOf template.

Results   Sets the response phrase to HTML that looks something like this:

  <INPUT TYPE="FILE" VALUE="Select a file" NAME="fileupload" ACCEPT="image/*, text/html">

The action sets the response type to TEXT and the response status to 302. If Stop Processing is checked, rule processing ends.

Return As Html Hidden Field

Returns HTML for a hidden field.

Results   Sets the response phrase to HTML that looks something like this:

  <INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" VALUE="important" NAME="hfld1">

The action sets the response type to TEXT and the response status to 302. If Stop Processing is checked, rule processing ends.

Return As Html JavaScript

Returns the JavaScript code you specify enclosed in HTML SCRIPT tags.

Results   Sets the response phrase to HTML that looks something like this:

  <SCRIPT LANGUAGE=JavaScript> [your code here] </SCRIPT>

The action sets the response type to TEXT and the response status to 302.

Return As Html Option List

Performs a SQL query and creates an HTML SELECT element from the result set.

NOTE   Several of the properties for this action support the !valueOf template construct. For more information, see Properties that support the !valueOf template.

Results   Sets the response phrase to HTML that looks something like this:

  <SELECT id=opt1 name=opt1 size=1 width= 100">
  <OPTION value="portalcorpid">Official
  <OPTION value="anonymous">Anonymous
  <OPTION value="administrator">User0
  <OPTION value="contentadmin">User1
  <OPTION value="default">null
  <OPTION value="sample">Sample
  <OPTION value="testID">Smith
  </SELECT>

The action sets the response type to TEXT and the response status to 302. The result set and SQL statement are stored on the whiteboard (see the Detail Key property in the table above). If you specify a Detail Key, the rule ends after this action.

Return As Html Password

Returns HTML for a password input field.

NOTE   Several of the properties for this action support the !valueOf template construct. For more information, see Properties that support the !valueOf template.

Results   Sets the response phrase to HTML that looks something like this:

  <INPUT TYPE="PASSWORD" VALUE="PASSWORD" NAME="default" SIZE="25" MAXLENGTH="50" READONLY >

The action sets the response type to TEXT and the response status to 302. If Stop Processing is checked, rule processing ends.

Return As Html Radio Button

Returns HTML for a radio button.

Results   Sets the response phrase to HTML that looks something like this:

  <INPUT TYPE="RADIO" VALUE="One" NAME="radio1" CLASS="INPUT">

The action sets the response type to TEXT and the response status to 302. If Stop Processing is checked, rule processing ends.

Return As Html Reset Button

Returns HTML for a reset button.

Results   Sets the response phrase to HTML that looks something like this:

  <INPUT TYPE="RESET" VALUE="Reset">

The action sets the response type to TEXT and the response status to 302. If Stop Processing is checked, rule processing ends.

Return As Html Scripted Button

Returns HTML for a reset button.

Results   Sets the response phrase to HTML that looks something like this:

  <INPUT TYPE="BUTTON" VALUE="Cancel" onclick="JavaScript code here">

The action sets the response type to TEXT and the response status to 302. If Stop Processing is checked, rule processing ends.

Return As Html Submit Button

Returns HTML for a submit button.

Results   Sets the response phrase to HTML that looks something like this:

  <INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" VALUE="Submit">

The action sets the response type to TEXT and the response status to 302. If Stop Processing is checked, rule processing ends.

Return As Html Table

Constructs an HTML table tag, using the result set from the SQL query specified to create associated HTML table row and table data tags, and sets the result in the specified detail key.

NOTE   Many of the properties for this action support the !valueOf template construct. For more information, see Properties that support the !valueOf template.

Return As Html Text Area

Returns HTML for a multiline text field.

NOTE   Several of the properties for this action support the !valueOf template construct. For more information, see Properties that support the !valueOf template.

Results   Sets the response phrase to HTML that looks something like this:

  <TEXTAREA NAME="txt1" ROWS="25" COLS="50">This is where to enter text</TEXTAREA>

The action sets the response type to TEXT and the response status to 302. If Stop Processing is checked, rule processing ends.

Return As Html Text Field

Returns HTML for a single-line text field.

NOTE   Several of the properties for this action support the !valueOf template construct. For more information, see Properties that support the !valueOf template.

Results   Sets the response phrase to HTML that looks something like this:

  <INPUT TYPE="TEXT" VALUE="TEXT" NAME="default" SIZE="25" MAXLENGTH="50" READONLY>

The action sets the response type to TEXT and the response status to 302. If Stop Processing is checked, rule processing ends.

Return As XML

Submits a SQL query and formats the result set as XML. The root element is table, and its subelements are:

• columns, which contains column elements that identify the column names.

• tuples, which are the rows of data. Each tuples element contains a tuple element for each row. Each tuple element contains tuple subelements for each column in the result set. The order of these match the column elements. The order of the elements must be preserved.

NOTE   Many of the properties for this action support the !valueOf template construct. For more information, see Properties that support the !valueOf template.

Results   Sets the response phrase to XML that looks something like this:

  <table description="test user list" key="test" sqlString="select * from FWUSERS">
      <columns count="3">
          <column value="USERID"/>
          <column value="FIRSTNAME"/>
          <column value="LASTNAME"/>
      </columns>
      <tuples count="2">
          <tuple number="1">
              <tuple value="portalcorpid"/>
              <tuple value="Portal Corporate Administrator"/>
              <tuple value="unknown"/>
          </tuple>
          <tuple number="2">
              <tuple value="anonymous"/>
              <tuple value="Portal Anonymous User"/>
              <tuple value="unknown"/>
          </tuple>
      </tuples>
  </table>

The action sets the response type to TEXT and the response status to 302. The result set and SQL statement are stored on the whiteboard (see the Detail Key property in the table above). If you specify a Detail Key, the rule ends after this action.

Return Authentication Required

Sets the context response status 401, forcing the browser to ask for authentication.

Results   The response status is 401.

Return False

Sets the response status to 412, which signifies the boolean value false.

Results   The response status is 412.

Return Response

Sets the response phrase to the specified text. You can use !valueOf templates to build a text value from phrases stored on the whiteboard.

Results   Sets the response phrase. It also sets the response type to TEXT and the response status to 302. If Stop Processing is checked, rule processing ends.

Return Response With Default

Returns text associated with a whiteboard key or uses a default message.

NOTE   The properties for this action support the !valueOf template construct. For more information, see Properties that support the !valueOf template.

Results   Sets the response phrase to the message, stores the message on the whiteboard, sets the response type to TEXT, sets the response status to 302, and stops rule processing.

Return True

Sets the response status to 200, which signifies the boolean value true.

Results   The response status is 200.

Save Cookies To Whiteboard

Puts the cookies the browser has sent onto the whiteboard. The whiteboard keys are created using the cookie name as the keyname and the cookie's value as the value for the key.

    See the Save Cookies To Whiteboard condition.

Save Form Get Data To Whiteboard

Puts the query string from the browser on the whiteboard using the specified key.

    See the Save Form Get Data To Whiteboard condition.

Save Request Data To Whiteboard

Puts the parameters in the request header on the whiteboard. The names of the request parameters are used as the whiteboard keys and the values of the request parameters are their values.

    See the Save Request Data To Whiteboard condition.

Save To Whiteboard

Saves a value on the whiteboard using the specified keyname.

NOTE   Two of the properties for this action support the !valueOf template construct. For more information, see Properties that support the !valueOf template.

Results   The value is set on the whiteboard. No response phrase or status is set.

Send Mailer SMTP

Sends a mail message to a specified e-mail address. Use this action to send alerts or logging information to an administrator.

Results   The mail is sent. No response phrase or status is set.

Set Component Parameter

Sets the value of a component parameter for the current portal context. The component parameter must exist.

NOTE   The properties for this action support the !valueOf template construct. For more information, see Properties that support the !valueOf template.

Set Cookie Value

Creates a cookie or changes its value and expiration date.

Results   The cookie is set. No response phrase or status is set.

Set Date On Whiteboard

Sets the current date on the whiteboard with a specified key and format. The default format is a timestamp and the default time is the runtime value.You can specify other formats and time values..

  yyyy-MM-dd k:mm:ss.S

  yyyy-MM-dd 00:00:00.000 

Set Expired

Sets the context response headers in the browser to be expired.

Results    The headers are set to expired. No response phrase or status is set.

Set Next Activity

Sets the destination link in a workflow process. For use with a Rule Link the Workflow Editor.

Two of the properties for this action support the !valueOf template construct. For more information, see Properties that support the !valueOf template.

Set Pipeline Status

Sets the active pipeline's canProcessRequests flag to the On/Off for this action.

Result    The active status is changed for this action only.

Set Response Header

Sets a named parameter value in the HTTP response header (EbiResponse).

Results   Sets the parameter using the keyname and value you specify. No response phrase or status is set.

Set Response Status

Sets the response status.

Results   Sets the status to the value you specify. If your rule performs several actions, the response status will be the last status that was set. To control the status value, make the Set Response Status action the last one in the rule.

Set User Property

Sets the value of a user attribute for the current portal context. The user attribute must exist.

NOTE   The properties for this action support the !valueOf template construct. For more information, see Properties that support the !valueOf template.

Set Workitem Priority

Sets the specified value as an Integer associated with the current workitem. For use with a Rule Activity or a Rule Link in a workflow process.

NOTE   If you use this action with a Rule Link, be sure the action section also sets the next destination. See Set Next Activity.

.

Set Workitem Value

Sets the property value for the Document associated with a workitem in a workflow process. The document and property must exist and have been added previously to the workitem. The action handles locking and unlocking of the Document to set the property. For use with a Rule Activity or a Rule Link in a workflow process.

NOTE   If you use this action with a Rule Link, be sure the action section also sets the next destination. See Set Next Activity.

The properties for this action support the !valueOf template construct. For more information, see Properties that support the !valueOf template.

SQL Hierarchy

Does the same as the SQL String action. There is no corresponding condition.

SQL String

Executes a SQL statement and stores the result on the whiteboard. If more than one row is returned, only the last row in the result set is saved to the whiteboard.

    See also the SQL String condition.

NOTE   The properties for this action support the !valueOf template construct. For more information, see Properties that support the !valueOf template.

Stop Rule Processing

Ends processing of the current rule. If the rule has been invoked as part of a rules pipeline, it ends the pipeline too.

Results   Stops rule processing by throwing EboActionException.

Subtract

Performs subtraction. The value you specify is subtracted from a value stored in a whiteboard key.

Results   The whiteboard key contains the result of the subtraction. No response status or response phrase is set.

Rules Guide

Copyright © 2002, SilverStream Software, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Novell, Inc. All rights reserved.