Actions Editor – Feature List, Usage and Maintenance of Actions Project

Motivation

This blog focusses on the usability of the Actions Editor to maintain Actions Project.

Previous Blog:

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

Quick Recap:

What is Actions Editor ?

Actions Editor is the entry point for the Action Designer to create and maintain Action(s) using the Actions Project. The users can navigate to the Lobby within the tenant to access their existing projects or create new Actions Project.

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.

Moving Forward:

The following points helps to detail the different capabilities of Actions Editor.

1. Use the Create option to Create a new Action Project.

The Action Designer can use the “Create” button within the lobby to create a new Actions Project.

2. Entering the Actions Project Details

Action Designer needs to provide the details for the Project Name, Description and upload the corresponding API specification. The system will validate the OpenAPI specification standards in the attached specification and display an error to perform corrective measures.

If the validation is successful, the Action Designer will need to click on the Create button to trigger the creation of the Actions Project.

If the project is successfully created, it can be seen in the Lobby and it would automatically open within the Actions Editor without any user intervention.

3. Restrict and use relevant Action(s) in the Actions Project.

Action Designer must select and add a “minimum of 1 Action and a maximum of 20 Actions” to be included in the Actions Project. This allows the Actions Designer to only include the most relevant and important Action(s) as a part of the intended business process.

NOTE: Searching, Sorting and Filtering capability is provided to help the Actions Designer to easily find the required Action(s) that should be included in the Actions Project.

4. Understanding the Actions Editor layout to maintain Actions – List Section

The current Actions Editor application is designed into two major sections. This section represents the left panel where the list of added Action(s) are displayed. The following functionalities are possible within the list section –

• Provision to UPLOAD a new “version” of the specification with changes.
• Provision to ADD Action(s) within the Actions Project.
• SEARCHING, SORTING, FILTERING capability is provided to help the Actions Designer to easily find a specific Action which needs to be customised.
• Maintain the XCSRF Parameter for database modifying operations (POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE) for supported API’s.
• Provision to DELETE an Action from the Actions Project.

Please check out this blog from my colleague, Ronit Nath to know more details on the CSRF implementation and use cases.

5. Understanding the Actions Editor layout to maintain Actions – Detail Section

This section represents the right panel which displays the corresponding details of the Action that is selected from the List section. The following functionalities are possible within the detail section –

• Maintenance of the Action Name.
• INPUT Parameter tab –
  • Helps to define and enable the “required” signature of the Action that can be used for the TEST capability and also during subsequent execution and cross consumption of the Action from the Actions Project.
  • Provides the capability for maintenance of Header and Body Parameters such as Label, Static parameter assignment, Static Value and API Format.
  • Capability to ADD, DELETE and SEARCH parameters for easy location and maintenance.
  • Provision to Add CUSTOM Parameters that are NOT available from the standard definition of the specification that was used to create the Actions Project.

Input Section – Header Parameters

Input Section – Body Parameters

Please check out the following feature centric blogs on different topics in the input section –

• Blog on Maintenance of Standard and Custom Parameters from Anshul Kumar

• Blog on use cases for Static Parameter and Value Assignment from Chirag

• Blog on supported API formats from Akshil Verma

• OUTPUT Parameter tab –
  • Helps to define and enable the “required” signature of the Action that can be used for the TEST capability and also during subsequent execution and cross consumption of the Action from the Actions Project.
  • Provides the capability for maintenance of Output Parameters based on the selected HTTP code.
  • Capability to ADD, DELETE and SEARCH parameters for easy location and maintenance.

Output Parameters

Please check out this blog from my colleague, Clarence Star Wanrap to know more details on the usability of the Output section.

• Test tab –
  • Helps to test the changes implemented by the Action designer in reference to a certain Action and its INPUT, OUTPUT values.
  • A Connectivity option needs to be chosen to Test the Action –
    • Destination – Preload whitelisted destinations that are linked to the corresponding system.
    • Manual – Use a URL, No Auth/Basic Auth based mechanism.
  • The Test Result is displayed in the Response Preview section which is based on the output parameters that were selected in the Output tab. This could either result into a successful state (Ex – 201: CREATED) [values have been concealed in the below snapshot]

Test Section

Please check out this blog from my colleague, Jasmeet Singh to know more details on the “Test” capability provided by the Action Editor.

6. Global Functions –

The following global functions are provided within the editor for a smooth lifecycle experience on the Actions Project.

• Save – Helps to save the edited state of every Action within the Actions Project.
• Reset – Helps to reset the Action state to the previous saved state removing all unsaved changes.
• Release – It will release the Actions Project with its assigned Actions and create a version of the Actions Project.
• Publish – This feature helps to publish the Actions Project with its corresponding release Actions for subsequent cross consumption.
• 

Thanks for reading and i hope it helped to understand the concept of Actions Project and usability of Actions Editor. I would really appreciate your feedback so please feel free to leave a comment in this blog post.

References –

Blog Series –

1. Part 1 of the Blog Series: Actions Project – Major Changes including the Actions Editor Available Now !!
2. Actions Editor – Functionalities, Usage and Maintenance of Actions Project. [Current Blog]
3. Feature Blogs on different use cases from the Actions Editor –
   1. Use cases and recommendations on X-CSRF Token in Actions Editor.
   2. Static Parameter Assignment and Static Value Handling.
   3. Maintenance of API Formats.
   4. Maintenance of Standard & Custom Parameters in Actions Editor.
   5. Usability of the Output section in Actions Editor.
   6. Capabilities of the Test feature in Actions Editor.
4. Exposing Actions Project as reusable artefacts for a simplified cross consumption – Please check this blog from my colleague, Thomas Jentsch

Videos –

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