<?xml version="1.0"?>
<record><wiki id="wiki?page_id=6">
	<page_name>actions.ini_file</page_name>
	<page_id>6</page_id>
	<page_title>actions.ini_file</page_title>
	<content>==actions.ini file Reference==

[[toc]]

The actions.ini file stores information about the various [[action]]s that can be performed by your application.  An action may be manifested in two ways:

# As a web page
# As a menu item

And there is no reason why an action cannot serve in both capacities simultaneously.  All menu items and functions that Xataface performs are defined in the Xataface actions.ini file (in the root of the Xataface installation dirctory).  You can also create an actions.ini file in your application&apos;s root directory to override existing Xataface actions, or to create your own.  If you want to modify an existing action instead of overriding it, you can use this syntax.

&lt;code&gt;
[browse &gt; browse]
	label = Browse
&lt;/code&gt;

The &amp;gt; symbol simply means to inherit from the existing browse action.  All the attributes are the same, and we just override the label to Browse (originally was Details)

Additionally, for actions that pertain only to a single table, an actions.ini file may be placed in any [[table configuration directory]].

===Syntax===

As with the [[fields.ini file]] and the [[valuelists.ini file]], the actions.ini file uses the simple [[INI file syntax]] to define its actions.  Each action is defined in its own section, and can have a number of directives to specify the action&apos;s behavior.

Here is a snippet from the Xataface actions.ini file to give you an idea:

&lt;code&gt;
;; Show the details of the current record
[browse]
	label = Details
	category = table_tabs
	url = &quot;{$this-&gt;url(&apos;-action=view&apos;)}&quot;
	accessKey = &quot;b&quot;
	mode = browse
	permission = view
	order=0

;; Show a list of the records in the current found set
[list]
	label = List
	category = table_tabs
	url = &quot;{$this-&gt;url(&apos;-action=list&apos;)}&quot;
	accessKey = &quot;l&quot;
	mode = list
	template = Dataface_List_View.html
	permission = list
	order=0.5

;; Show a &quot;Find Record Form&quot;
[find]
	label = Find
	category = table_tabs
	url = &quot;{$this-&gt;url(&apos;-action=find&apos;)}&quot;
	accessKey = &quot;f&quot;
	mode = find
	permission = find
	template = Dataface_Find_View.html
	order=0.75
&lt;/code&gt;

This snippet shows the definition of the browse, list, and find actions - three of the most central actions in a Xataface application.  Notice how each action has its own section (according to [[INI file syntax]]) with a number of directives which specify how the action behaves.  For instance, each action has a &quot;category&quot; value of &quot;table_tabs&quot;, which tells Xataface to display the actions as part of the table tabs in the user interface.

===Directives===

{| class=&quot;listing listing2&quot;
|-
! Name
! Description
! Version
|-
| [[action allow_override|allow_override]]
| An optional directive to indicate that this action can be overridden by more specific directives in another ini file.  Currently there is only support for a value of &quot;relationships.ini&quot; indicating that the settings can be overridden in the relationships.ini file.  In order for this to work, related=1 must also be set.
| 1.3rc4
|-
| [[action label|label]]
| The label to display if the action is used as a menu item.
| all
|-
| [[action category|category]]
| The name of the action&apos;s category which can be used to group this action together with other similar actions to be used in a menu in the user interface.
| all
|-
| [[action url|url]]
| If the action appears as a menu item, this is the URL that the menu item points to.  This may contain PHP expressions inside curly braces.
| all
|-
| [[action accessKey|accessKey]]
| The key code to automatically select this action if it is included as a menu item.  I.e. ALT+accessKey calls the action.
| all
|-
| [[action mode|mode]]
| This indicates which tab of the table tabs (find, details, list, etc...) that this action should appear to be part of when the action is viewed as a web page.  If this is left undefined, or it does not match any existing visible action in the table tabs, then no tab will appear to be selected.
| all
|-
| [[action permission|permission]]
| The name of a permission required to both see the action as part of a menu and to access the action as a web page.
| all
|-
| [[action visible|visible]]
| A boolean value indicating whether the action should be visible as a menu item.
| all
|-
| [[action condition|condition]]
| A boolean value or a PHP expression evaluating to a boolean value to indicate whether the action should be visible as a menu item.
| all
|-
| [[action url_condition|url_condition]]
| A PHP expression evaluating to a boolean value to indicate whether the URL directive should be evaluated.  This basically checks to make sure that its OK to evaluate the &quot;url&quot; expression, just in case the current state of affairs would cause it to throw a fatal error.
| all
|-
| [[action order|order]]
| A numeric value indicating the order in which the action should be displayed as part of a menu.  Low numbers result in higher placement in the menu.
| all
|-
| [[action icon|icon]]
| The path to an icon that should be used when the action appears as a menu item.
| all
|-
| [[action template|template]]
| The path to the template that should be used when the action is displayed as a web page.
| all
|-
| [[action description|description]]
| Mouseover text for the action (when displayed as a menu item).
| all
|}

===PHP Expression Context===

Notice that the [[action url|url]], [[action condition|condition]], and [[action url_condition|url_condition]] directives allow you to use a PHP expression for their values.  In order for this to be helpful, you should know a little bit about the context and environment in which these expressions will be executed.  All expressions are evaluated immediately prior to being rendered, so the same action can be displayed multiple times in the same page, but have very different resulting values for their [[action url|urls]] and [[action condition|conditions]].

These expressions are all executed within the context of the Dataface_Application::parseString() method, with the following variables loaded in the local symbol table (i.e. you can use the following variables in your expressions).

{| class=&quot;listing listing2&quot;
|-
! Name
! Description
! Version
|-
| [[action context:site_url|$site_url]]
| The URL to the current application&apos;s directory (not including &quot;index.php&quot;)
| all
|-
| $site_href
| The URL to the current application including &quot;index.php&quot;
| all
|-
| $dataface_url
| The URL to the xataface installation directory.
| all
|-
| $table
| The name of the current table (i.e. the value of the &quot;-table&quot; request parameter&quot;
| all
|-
| $query
| An associative array of the current query variables.
| all
|-
| $app
| A reference to the current Dataface_Application object.  Alias of &quot;$this&quot;
| all
|-
| $resultSet
| A reference to the Dataface_QueryTool object for the current query.
| all
|-
| [[action context:record|$record]]
| A reference to the current Dataface_Record object.
| all
|-
| [[action context:context|$context]]
| An associative array of context variables that are passed to the action from the context in which the action is called.
| all
|}</content>
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