Home| Printable Version

The Actions represent the THEN part of the rule. If the rule conditions evaluate to true and this rule has the highest priority (lowest number) then the actions will get executed to perform the work required for this rule. There are a number of available actions for performing a variety of functions (as described in the following sections), but the format of each is the same. Each action consists of a name field that should briefly state what the action does, along with a set of parameters specific to the selected action type. A new action is added in a similar way to rules and conditions, by dragging one from the toolbar into the rule container (a black line will indicate where this new action will be placed). An action can be removed easily by clicking the 'cross' button on the right hand side. The type of each action is controlled by the Action: dropdown. The actions are displayed in the order in which they will be executed. This can be altered as required using the up and down arrows at the side of each action. There is no limit upon the number of actions within a rule, however if this number gets to large it may be a sign that you should separate out into multiple rules. We recommend that actions such as 'Invoke Service' and 'Transform' should always be the last action in a rule so that it is possible to check the success or otherwise of the operation before continuing. The full set of available actions is listed in the table below, and each is described in more detail in the following sections. Table of Available Actions

Assign	This sets the value of an element or attribute within the FactBase.
Compare	This action compares two XML fragments and details the differences between them.
Copy	Copies XML fragments from one location to another.
Copy Directory	This is used to copy files or directories on the file system from one location to another.
Delete	Deletes an XML fragment.
Delete File	This is used to delete a file (or directory) from the file system.
File Information	This is used to retrieve information about a file (or directory) on the file system.
Insert	Parses an XML document or fragment into the FactBase. E.g. a document template, an XML fragment or content of another XPath into the FactBase.
Insert Attribute	Enables the addition of attributes against elements.
Invoke Service	This is the main orchestration operation. A Service call can be made to any other agent (node) within XPlatform. The target agents may be native XPlatform agents or proxies to remote web services. The Service operation always assumes it is calling a named native XPlatform agent. The physical manifestation of this agent (node) can be specified during deployment of the application.
Log	Enables the logging of XML information to the underlying XPlatform logging system.
Move	Moves XML fragments from one location to another.
Record Cache	Caches named XML fragment either in User Session or Application scope.
Remove Cache	Clears cached XML information.
Rename	Renames an element or attribute.
Retrieve Cache	Retrieves named XML information from the cache.
Save	Saves specified FactBase information to a file on the file system.
SQL Statement	This provides the ability to define and execute SQL statements/queries against a relational database.
Terminate	This action stops the processing in the current agent (node) and returns to the calling agent/application. The response returned is specified by the RuleBase return XPath.
Transform	This is an XSLT operation on specified FactBase content using a specified XSL file.
Validate	This validates specified FactBase information using an XSD file.
XML String	This is used to convert between XML formatted strings and actual XML data.