Actions are what an E-form does. The same list of actions is offered everywhere on a form that can run something, so learning it once covers all of them:

  • a Button, which runs a single action
  • a Multi-Action field, which runs a list of them in order
  • a Button Bar or Toolbar option, each of which runs its own list
  • a Timer, which runs a list after a delay
  • a Date Badge set to run an action when clicked
  • a field's Change, Focus or Blur event


An action is chosen from the Action Type drop-down, and the settings below it change to suit the action picked.


Where each action lives

Field Actions - Set a field's value, show or hide it, enable or disable it, put the cursor in it, or replace the choices in an option list. See Field Actions.


Basic E-form Actions - Save, cancel, print, move between pages, refresh the form's data, run an Action Set, and the three actions that control a sequence: Please Wait, Confirm, and Validate. See Basic E-form Actions.


Search Field Actions - Run a search field, refresh its results, export them, or take a record out of them. See Search Field Actions.


Calendar Field Actions - Add, delete and replace calendar events, and move the calendar to a date. Part of the paid add-on that provides the calendar fields. See Calendar Field Actions.


Map Field Actions - One action, Refresh Map, which redraws a Locations Map after its data has changed. Its only setting is the Map Field to refresh. Part of the paid add-on that provides the map fields.


Required Documents Field Actions - One action, Refresh Required Documents, which brings a Required Documents field up to date after a document has been added or removed. Its only setting is the Required Documents Field to refresh. Run it after any upload on the same form, or the list will still show the document as outstanding.


Miscellaneous Field Actions - Drive another field: open a modal, save an embedded E-form, download from a viewer, trigger a Multi-Action or a file upload, scan, sort a table, or make a REST call. See Miscellaneous Field Actions.


Environment Actions - Leave the form or act on the wider system: open a record, start another E-form, run a search, open a web link, refresh the browser, copy to the clipboard, or show a message. See Environment Actions.


Actions that are not always available

Some actions only appear in certain places, so an action described in these topics may be missing from the drop-down you are looking at:

  • Show/Hide Please Wait, Confirm / Stop Actions and Validate Fields appear only inside a Multi-Action field. They control a sequence, so they have nothing to do on a field that runs a single action.
  • Drop-Down Menu appears only on a Toolbar, where it turns an option into a menu holding further options.
  • Run Action Set requires workflow to be licensed.
  • The Calendar Field Actions and Map Field Actions groups belong to the paid add-on that provides those fields. Without it, neither group appears.


Running several actions

Where a field runs a list - a Multi-Action, a Button Bar option, a Toolbar option, a Timer - the actions run in the order they are listed, and can be dragged to reorder them. Order matters more than it first appears:

  • Put Validate Fields or Confirm / Stop Actions at the top, not partway down. Both stop the rest of the list when they fail or the user declines, which is only useful before anything has been changed.
  • A Show/Hide Please Wait that is turned on must be turned off by a later action in the same list, or the form is left waiting.
  • Actions that reach the server - Run Action Set, Make REST Call, a search - take time. Anything depending on their result belongs after them.


Running an action only sometimes

Every action in a list carries its own condition. It is called Execute When inside a Multi-Action and Show When on a Toolbar or Button Bar option, where it decides whether the option appears at all. Both use the builder described in Field Conditions, so an action can be limited by another field's value, by who the user is, by the record's workflow step, or by where the form is being shown.


This is what lets one Multi-Action serve several situations rather than building a separate one for each - and one Button Bar offer different options to different people.


Passing values into actions

Most action settings that take text accept {FieldName} references to other fields on the form and [variables], both replaced when the action runs. That is what makes actions general: a web link can carry the record the user is looking at, a REST call can post what they just typed, and a message can name them.