Adding Form Actions

In addition to the UI.FieldGroup definition given above, form actions can also be added via UI.Identification or UI.StatusInfo.

<Annotation Term="UI.Facets">
    <Collection>
    ....                  
        <Record Type="UI.ReferenceFacet">
            <PropertyValue Property="Label" String="Technical Data"/>
            <PropertyValue Property="Target" AnnotationPath="@UI.Identification#ID"/>
        </Record>
    ....
    </Collection>
</Annotation>

@UI.Facet: [
  {
    label: 'Technical Data',
    targetQualifier: 'ID',
    type: #IDENTIFICATION_REFERENCE,
    purpose: #STANDARD
  }
]

  {
        $Type  : 'UI.ReferenceFacet',
        Label  : 'Technical Data',
        Target : '@UI.Identification#ID'
    },

Placing Form Actions Inside the Form Toolbar

You can also place action inside the form toolbar using the inline parameter.

When you set inline=true, a given action from a FieldGroup shows up directly in the form toolbar instead of the section toolbar. You can see the result in the following image:

<Annotation Term="UI.FieldGroup" Qualifier="OrderData">
    <Record Type="UI.FieldGroupType">
        <PropertyValue Property="Data">
            <Collection>
                <Record Type="UI.DataFieldForAction">
                    <PropertyValue Property="Label" String="Facet Form Action" />
                    <PropertyValue Property="Action" String="com.c_salesordermanage_sd.FacetFormAction" />
                    <Annotation Term="UI.Importance" EnumMember="UI.ImportanceType/High" />
                </Record>
                <Record Type="UI.DataFieldForAction">
                    <PropertyValue Property="Label" String="Facet Form Action at Form Level" />
                    <PropertyValue Property="Action" String="com.c_salesordermanage_sd.FacetFormAction2" />
                    <PropertyValue Property="Inline" Bool="true" />
                    <Annotation Term="UI.Importance" EnumMember="UI.ImportanceType/High" />
                </Record>
            </Collection>
        </PropertyValue>
    </Record>
</Annotation>

@UI.fieldGroup: [
  {
    importance: #HIGH,
    label: 'Facet Form Action',
    dataAction: 'com.c_salesordermanage_sd.FacetFormAction',
    type: #FOR_ACTION,
    position: 1 ,
    qualifier: 'OrderData'
  },
  {
    importance: #HIGH,
    label: 'Facet Form Action at Form Level',
    dataAction: 'com.c_salesordermanage_sd.FacetFormAction2',
    type: #FOR_ACTION,
    position: 2 ,
    qualifier: 'OrderData'
  }
]

FieldGroup #OrderData: {Data : [
    {
        $Type             : 'UI.DataFieldForAction',
        Label             : 'Facet Form Action',
        Action            : 'com.c_salesordermanage_sd.FacetFormAction',
        ![@UI.Importance] : #High
    },{
        $Type             : 'UI.DataFieldForAction',
        Label             : 'Facet Form Action at Form Level',
        Action            : 'com.c_salesordermanage_sd.FacetFormAction2',
        Inline            : true,
        ![@UI.Importance] : #High
    }
]}

Visibility and Enablement of the Action Button

The visibility of the action button is mainly controlled by the UI.Hidden annotation for the action button. In addition, if the value of OperationAvailable is set to false (that is, to a static false value), then the button is not rendered.

The enablement of the button is controlled by the OperationAvailable annotation for the action as follows:

• For the value false (static false value),the action button is not rendered at all since disabling the button is the expected behavior.

• For the value true, or if no value is defined, or if only a term is given (as in <Annotation Term="Core.OperationAvailable"/>, for example), then the button is always enabled.

• For path-based values the button is enabled if the path evaluates to true, and disabled if the path evaluates to false.

Passing Context when Invoking the Form Action

If the form action is defined as a bound action, the entire context of the object page is passed to the action when the form action is triggered. If it is defined as an unbound action, then no context is passed.

For a DataFieldForIntentBasedNavigation button, the page context is passed if the RequiresContext is set to false. Setting it to true will result in an error, since users cannot select and provide context for a form button (they can only do so when the button is used in a table or a chart-like control).

Emphasizing the Most Important 'Form' Action

By default, all form action buttons are rendered with a transparent background. If you need to set a focus on the most important action, you can highlight it by using a 'ghost' styling.

You can highlight form actions maintained via the DataFieldForAction and DataFieldForIntentBasedNavigation by adding UI.Emphasized to the action definition as shown in the examples below:

<Record Type="UI.DataFieldForAction">
    <PropertyValue Property="Label" String="Static Action" />
    <PropertyValue Property="Action" String="com.c_salesordermanage_sd.DummyStaticAction" />
    <Annotation Term="UI.Emphasized" />
</Record>
<Record Type="UI.DataFieldForAction">
    <PropertyValue Property="Label" String="Static Action" />
    <PropertyValue Property="Action" String="com.c_salesordermanage_sd.DummyStaticAction" />
    <Annotation Term="UI.Emphasized" Bool="true" />
</Record>
<Record Type="UI.DataFieldForAction">
    <PropertyValue Property="Label" String="Static Action" />
    <PropertyValue Property="Action" String="com.c_salesordermanage_sd.DummyStaticAction" />
    <Annotation Term="UI.Emphasized" Path="…" />
</Record>

<Annotation Term="UI.LineItem">
<Collection>
<Record Type="UI.DataFieldForIntentBasedNavigation" >
     <PropertyValue Property="Label" String="IBN"/>
     <PropertyValue Property="SemanticObject" String="SalesOrder"/>
     <PropertyValue Property="Action" String="manageInline"/>
     <PropertyValue Property="RequiresContext" Bool="false"/>
     <Annotation Term="UI.Emphasized" Bool="true" />
</Record> 
</Collection>
</Annotation>

@UI.lineItem: [{ 
  label: 'IBN',
  type: #FOR_INTENT_BASED_NAVIGATION,
  emphasized: true,
  requiresContext: true,
  semanticObjectAction: 'manageInline',
  semanticObject: 'SalesOrder'
}]

{
    $Type               : 'UI.DataFieldForAction',
    Label               : 'Static Action',
    Action              : 'com.c_salesordermanage_sd.DummyStaticAction', 
    ![@UI.Emphasized]   : <<Path>>
}

{
    $Type               : 'UI.DataFieldForIntentBasedNavigation',
    SemanticObject      : 'SalesOrder',
    Action              : 'manageInline',
    Label               : 'IBN',
    RequiresContext     : false,
    ![@UI.Emphasized]   : true
}

Triggering Actions Connected to a Field Value

You can trigger an action that is connected to a field value on a form. For more information, see Adding Actions to Tables.