The New Actions Project - Major Changes including the Actions Editor Available Now !!

[vivek_vishal]

We are excited to announce the general availability of the new Actions Project and the Action Editor as on 18th October 2022.

Motivation

Actions Project is one of the core building block of the SAP's LCNC portfolio and provides a central experience for cross consumption of API's and artefacts. In this blog post series, I will cover the following strategic topics through a series of blogs:

1. The new Actions Project, availability of Action Editor, and list of major changes. [Current Blog]
2. Actions Editor - Functionalities, Usage and Maintenance of Actions Project.
3. Feature Blogs on different features from Actions Editor [Upcoming]
   1. Configuring X-CSRF in Actions Editor
   2. Maintenance of Standard & Custom Parameters (Header & Body) for Actions Project
   3. Handling of Static Parameter Assignment and Static Value
   4. Maintenance of API Formats in Actions Project
   5. Definition and usage of Output section in Action Project
   6. Testing an Action Project using the Action Editor
   7. Simplifying Destination Configuration with Resource Path in Action Editor.
   8. Creating OData $filter expressions in SAP Build Actions Editor
   9. Concept of Flattening an Object/Attribute using Actions Editor

For information on use cases to consume Actions, Please check the blog - Consuming API's via Actions in Process from my colleague, @TJe  

The new Actions Project requires you to understand a few important terms that are listed in the following table.

Terms	Definition
Open API specification	It is the standard specification for describing, producing, consuming and visualising RESTful APIs and services.
Citizen Developer	It is a persona who creates application capabilities for self and cross consumption using simplified tools.
Action Designer	It is a persona that will use the Actions Editor to define and maintain the Actions Project and the Actions for subsequent cross-consumption.
Action	A single operation or a method that references an API can be consumed in a reusable manner.
Actions Project	Is a collection of customisable Action(s) that is implemented using the OpenAPI specification by the Action Designer.
Store	A central space that offers reusable and curated content to be consumed by SAP Process Automation.

What is the new Actions Project ?

It represents a collection of operation(s) or method(s) with a defined customisable signature that works like a thin layer of abstraction over an API to simplify its consumption. The new Actions Project is the result and the core offering from the upgraded Actions framework and helps to achieve the following objectives.

1. Is built on the Action Metadata which is the core of the framework and aids the design time consumption of an “Action”.
2. Provides functional operability and consumption experience for Actions interfacing the APIs to manage your business processes.
3. Provides an ability to customise “Action” within the Action Project through the “Action Editor”, making it reusable across consumers.
4. Provides publishing and discovery of “Action” across the Low-Code/No-Code products and tools.

What is Actions Editor ?

It is created to manage Actions Project and its corresponding Action(s) in a simplified way. It provides the following capabilities –

1. Add, maintain and delete Action(s) within the Action Project.
2. Select an Action to define and customise the Input parameters for use cases like header, query, path, custom, and body parameters.
3. Select an Action to define and customise the output parameters for an HTTP code.
4. Test an Action with the customised Input/Output parameters to ensure the business purpose of an Action is fulfilled before this can be published for cross consumption across Low-Code/No-Code products and tools.
5. Analyse the response/test result of an Action using the Response Preview section. This aids in refining the Action content to suit the required business context.

Action Editor

NOTE: What happens to the existing Actions Project that were created prior to the update?

All existing Actions Project needs to be clicked from the Lobby area to open it in the new Actions Editor. The Action Designer would need to release and publish the Action Project with its artefacts to make it available for cross consumption.

Usability within SPA:

If you would like to ask a question about Actions used in the SAP Process Automation, please post under the tag SAP Process Automation. Our team would be happy to take your questions into consideration and incorporate any suggestions that you may have. I truly appreciate your participation in our community.

Thanks for reading, and I would really appreciate your feedback. Please feel free to leave a comment in this blog post. You can look forward to my next blog of the series for a more detailed information on the usability of Actions Editor and its capabilities.

References

1. Help portal documentation on the topic Actions Editor can be found here.
2. This page lists some of the restrictions on managing Actions that can be found here.

Tutorials

Initial understanding of how to create Actions Project can be found here.

Videos

More details on consumption of Actions within SPA is available here –
Develop Process Extensions with SAP Process Automation (Actions)