Custom Actions

From Clarizen

Custom Actions allow organizations to add buttons that activate their own series of actions. It is very useful when a procedure has to be performed in Clarizen many times.

Custom Actions allow Admin User to:

• Define organizational procedures as a series of actions and pack them as a Custom Action.
• Define different Custom Actions for different entities in Clarizen.
• Let users select an object in the system and click a button to run the Custom Action on it.
• Define a Custom Action on a family of entities such as on all Work Items, which will be available for all family members: Projects, Milestones and Tasks.
• Define which users are allowed to run the action and what conditions have to be met.
• Define interaction with the user:
  • Request user confirmation after the user selected a Custom Action
  • Include variables that the user will have to fill-in. A dialog box will open after a Custom Action is selected. For example: postpone due date by X days, where X will be filled by the user.
  • Show a success message that the Admin creates or receive a system error

The Custom Action’s entity type determines which subsystem has a Custom Action button. For example, if a Custom Action was defined on Users, it will show in the Users and in the Resources subsystems. The button shows in the toolbar under ‘Custom Actions’ and in the context sensitive menu for the selected object.

Custom Actions for Timesheets

Contents 1 Creating a New Custom Action 1.1 Properties 1.2 Permissions 1.3 Evaluation Criteria 1.4 User Input 1.5 Variables 1.6 Set Actions 1.7 Success Message 1.8 Open URL 2 Saving and Enabling 3 Using the Custom Action

Creating a New Custom Action

Creating a new Custom Action is done by Administrators from the Centralized Customization Console in Settings, Customization. To create a new Custom Action, select the entity type on which you would like to create the Custom Action, open the Create New dropdown, and click ‘Custom Action’.

Properties

Properties require that you to fill in the ‘Action Name’ while the ‘Description’ is optional and will later help in easy finding in the Centralized Customization Console.

Permissions

You can allow all or some users to activate a Custom Action. Selecting All Users allows everyone to run the Custom Action regardless of his system permissions. With Allowed By, you can specifically choose users or select all members of specific groups. In addition you can include users according their roles in the item that the Custom Action runs on.

You can type in the Allowed By field and an autocomplete helps finding Users or User Groups. You can also click the square button to the right of the Allowed By field so a dialog box assists in selecting Roles, Groups or Users.

By default, to have a Custom Action available for a user, he should match one of the user names/groups/roles in the list. Alternatively, the Admin can select Match All and then the current user should match all items in the list.

In runtime, a Custom Action will be grayed out for a user if he is not allowed to use it. Note that it applies either in general for the Custom Action or depending on the selected object and the user’s role in that a object.

Evaluation Criteria

The Evaluation Criteria sets conditions for a Custom Action to be shown in the menu. It can either show always or show under conditions set by a formula. The formula has to equal to True in run-time for the Custom Action to be available in the menu. When creating a formula you should use allowed system fields, system objects, functions and operators, available in the Formula Options.

In runtime, a Custom Action will be grayed out if it did not pass the evaluation criteria on the selected object.

User Input

When you check the ‘Request values or confirmation from user’, you build a dialog box (a form) for the user to fill-in need data for the Custom Action. By default this is not checked and the Custom Action has all the data it needs for running.

In ‘Dialog box title’, type the title that you would like the dialog box to show. In ‘Instructions for user’ fill-in either a confirmation message like “Are you sure you want to…” or a directive for the user to fill-in variables for the Custom Action, like “Please fill-in the…”.

Example Dialog box

Variables

Variables are fields added in the dialog box that the end user has to fill in with data. This data will be used in the actions when the Custom Action runs.

Variable Name

The name that has to be used in formulas within the actions, so they use the data the user fills in the field.

Label

The field name that will be shown to the user.

Type

Select the field data type from a list of possible data values. See the Help on [Field Types]

Mandatory

Check this so the end user will be forced to fill in a value on this field.

Default

Suggests the default value and the end user will be able to change it as needed. The default value can be set by a formula.

Set Actions

The Set Actions section is where you create the actions that will run after the user selected the Custom Action. You can define up to 10 actions that will run one after the other, like a macro. Explanations about each type of action is detailed in Set Actions List.

Success Message

Type the message that will show after the Custom Action run successfully. You can use a formula to customize the success message for the current user, the entities or the variables that were used. If the Custom Action did not run successfully, an error message will appear.

Open URL

When selecting the open URL option radio button, the system will open a new window with the specified URL after a Custom Action runs successfully.

A standard URL can be entered, or you can create a URL via a formula customized for the current user using any variables or parameters.

If the custom action did not run successfully the URL will not open, but rather an error message will appear.

Saving and Enabling

Type the message that will show after the Custom Action run successfully. You can use a formula to customize the success message for the current user, the entities or the variables that were used. If the Custom Action did not run successfully, an error message will appear.

Using the Custom Action

The Custom Action will show in the system in a place according the entity which it runs on. A button shows in the toolbar ‘Custom Actions’ menu and in the context sensitive menu

Custom Actions at the Organization Level