Application actions and folders

This page explains how to configure actions and folders for an MDM application.

Overview

An application’s actions are organized in a hierarchy of folders. Action types include:

  • Browse a Business View, to see a business view’s data or errors, possibly opening it with a search form.

  • Global Search, to search the entire application.

  • My Tasks, to view user tasks that are in progress and not yet started, team tasks that are not yet started, and the workflows initiated by the current user.

  • Open URL, to open any URL.

  • Profile, to open the user’s profile editor.

  • Import, to start a data import operation in a stepper or workflow.

  • Create, to start creating new records using a stepper or workflow.

  • Browse Entities Folder, to automatically generate a folder and browse entities' data using various pre-built views (golden, master, or error records, etc.).

  • Open Dashboard, to open a dashboard defined in a Semarchy xDM Dashboard application.

  • Open Documentation to open the documentation configured for the application.

  • Start Workflow, to trigger a workflow instance based on a workflow definition.

These actions can be displayed as shortcuts in the navigation drawer for direct access.
The Browse Business View and My Tasks actions also support badges displayed in the navigation drawer of an application.

Create folders

To create a folder:

  1. In the Application Builder, expand Applications from the navigation menu.

  2. Double-click the Folders and Actions node under your application’s name. The Application screen displays your application’s Folders and Actions tree table.
    This tree table shows the hierarchy of folders and actions. All folders and actions are located under a root folder which cannot be deleted.

  3. Select a folder in the hierarchy, and then click the Add folder Add Folder button in the toolbar. The Create New Application Folder wizard opens.

  4. In the Create New Application Folder wizard, enter the required values:

    • Name: internal name of the folder.

    • Label: user-friendly label for this folder.

    • Icon: icon used to display this folder in the navigation drawer.

    • Image: image used to display this folder as a tile in its parent folder.

  5. Click Finish to close the wizard. The folder is added to the folder hierarchy.

Create actions

To create an action:

  1. Expand Applications from the navigation menu.

  2. Double-click the Folders and Actions node under your application’s name. The Application screen displays your applications' Folders and Actions tree table.

  3. Select a folder in the hierarchy, and then click the Add Action Add Action button in the toolbar. The Create New Application Action wizard opens.

  4. In the Create New Application Action wizard, enter the required values:

    • Name: internal name of the action.

    • Action Type: select the type of action.

  5. Click Next

  6. If the action type requires it, enter the relevant configuration parameters, and then click Next.

    • For Browse Business View:

      • Business View: select the business view to open.

      • Use Search on Open: select this option to open the business view with its configured search methods for the user to filter the data before seeing it.

      • View Type: select the type of view to browse:

        • Golden Data is the data certified in the hub.

        • Golden Data With Errors is golden data flagged as erroneous.

        • Master Data is the latest records from source systems (for ID- and fuzzy-matched entities).

        • Source Authoring designates records directly authored by users.

        • Source Authoring With Errors designates source records authored by users and flagged as erroneous.

        • Source Data is data loaded from source systems or authored by users.

        • Source Data With Errors is data loaded from source systems or authored by users, and rejected by the validations.

      • Applied Filter: (optional) select a built-in filter to be applied to the business view by default. Note that users cannot disable this filter.

      • Define specific values for the Business View Icon, Business View Label, Root Label, and Root Plural Label. These values override the ones defined in the business view when it is opened using this action. Using these values, you can customize the appearance of the business view according to the type of applied filter.

    • For Open URL:

      • URL: URL to open.

      • Target: location where the link should open when clicked. Select an option from the dropdown menu: New Browser Tab, Same Browser Tab, Embedded Editor without Title, or Embedded Editor with Title.

        Websites with stringent security policies that limit framing from various origins based on their content security policy (CSP) may restrict xDM’s capability to embed content from those sites. Consequently, URLs configured within xDM to open in an embedded editor (with or without title) might not function due to these security measures implemented on the accessed websites.

    • For Create or Import:

      • Action: select the corresponding action in an action set to trigger.

    • For Browse Entities Folder:

      • Lineage Enabled: select this option to enable lineage navigation (e.g., golden to master records) in the generated views.

In an MDM application, the Browse Entities Folder action generates all views related to each entity in a model. This can potentially cause memory-related issues, especially when there are various combinations of roles assigned to authenticated users, as each unique combination results in the creation and storage of additional views.
Additionally, the group of items generated by this action—​including business views, actions, collections, and forms—​cannot be customized.
Overall, this action proves most beneficial in development environments and is primarily recommended for use by platform administrators.

  • For Open Dashboard:

    • Dashboard Application: select the dashboard application containing the dashboard to display.

    • Dashboard: select the dashboard in this dashboard application.

      1. In the Display Properties step, configure how the action appears:

  • Label: user-friendly label for this action.

  • Description: description for this action. This description appears as a secondary text for this action and as a tooltip in the navigation drawer.

  • Icon: icon used to display this action in the navigation drawer.

  • Image: image illustrating the action as a tile in its parent folder.

    1. Click Finish to close the wizard. The action is added to the folder hierarchy.

Restrict access to actions and folders

To restrict access to a folder or action to a certain role:

  1. Select the folder or action in the Folders and Actions tree table.

  2. In the Name and Definition finger tab of the Properties view, select a Required Role.

The required role selected for a folder does not apply recursively to the folder or actions contained in this folder. You must configure a required role for each folder or action you want to restrict access to.

Organize actions and folders

Use drag-and-drop—​or the Move up Move up and Move down Move down buttons—​to organize folders and actions in the Folders and Actions tree table.

The order set in the tree table is reflected in the application at run-time if you have selected Position for the application’s Sort Method. If you have selected the Label sort method, items in folders are automatically sorted alphabetically based on their label.

Customize display properties

Additional display properties are available to customize the appearance of actions and folders in your application’s navigation drawer. To access additional properties:

  1. Select an action or folder from the Folders and Actions tree view.

  2. In the bottom panel of the screen, select the Display Properties finger tab in the side menu of the Properties view.
    Here, you can see and modify the properties you configured when first creating the action or folder, along with the following additional properties:

    • Color: font color of an application action in the navigation drawer. For more information on colors, see Advanced properties.

    • Icon Color: color of the action icon in the navigation drawer. For more information on icon colors, see Advanced properties.

      The Icon, Color, and Icon Color properties are exclusively applicable to subfolders and actions. They cannot be used to customize the root folder of folder groups in the navigation drawer.

    • Image Alignment: determines the positioning of the image within its designated space. Select an option from the dropdown menu (bottom, middle, or top, and left, center, or right).

    • Resize Mode: determines how the image is adjusted within its designated space. Select an option from the dropdown menu:

      • Contain: scales image up or down to fit within the available space and fill the space while maintaining the image’s aspect ratio.

      • Fill: resizes the image to fill the available space, possibly cropping parts of the image. The aspect ratio may not be maintained.

      • Fit: resizes the image to fit within the available space while maintaining its aspect ratio.

      • No Scale: displays the image in its original size without any resizing, possibly cropping parts of the image.

      • Stretch: resizes the image to fill the available space, regardless of its original aspect ratio.