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Action system overview

The action system runs on event hooks (onChanged, onCreated, onBeforeSave, onAfterSave) and provides template automation without writing scripts.

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Action input formats

Actions can be specified as:
  • A single action string
  • A pipe-delimited chain: action1 | action2
  • A JSON array string
  • A programmatic string array

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Conditional actions

Actions can be guarded with a when clause: 
action:params when condition
The condition language includes:
CategoryOperators
Equality==, !=
Textcontains, startsWith, endsWith
Numericgt, lt, gte, lte
EmptyisEmpty, isNotEmpty
BooleanisTrue, isFalse
Logicand, or, not
See Templates and syntax for the full conditional expression reference.

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Runtime variables

Common runtime variables available in action expressions:
VariableAvailable in
${newValue}onChanged
${previousValue}onChanged
${createdObjectId}onCreated
${objectKey}onCreated
${selectedObject}, ${selectedObject.Attribute}RelationPicker onChanged
${selectedObject.Relation.Attribute}Nested relation traversal
${changedFields}, ${oldValues.X}, ${newValues.X}Save hooks
${scriptResult}, ${scriptResult.X}, ${scriptError}Script actions
${today}, ${now}All contexts
Nullish fallback is supported: ${selectedObject.DefaultStatus ?? "New"}

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Built-in actions

ActionDescription
closeClose the current view
closeWindowClose the browser window or tab
refresh:<queryKey>Refresh an object search component
refreshDocuments:<queryKey>Refresh a document search component
refreshDataset:<queryKey>Refresh a field dataset
setValue:{"attributeName":"...","value":"..."}Set a field value on the current object
createObject:{"className":"...","attributes":{...}}Create a new object
throwError:{"message":"..."}Halt execution with a user-facing error
callScript:{"script":"...","inputs":{...}}Execute a script and chain results

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Practical action patterns

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Refresh dependent lists

onChanged="refresh:tasks-list"

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Capture previous state

onChanged='setValue:{"attributeName":"_previous","value":"${previousValue}"}'

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Conditional workflow update

onChanged='setValue:{"attributeName":"CompletedDate","value":"${today}"} when ${newValue} == "Completed"'

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Validation gate on save

onBeforeSave='throwError:{"message":"Notes required"} when ${newValues.Status} == "Closed" and ${newValues.Notes} == ""'

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Scripting

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Integration paths

There are three ways to integrate scripts:
  1. autofillScript on EditableField — field-triggered autofill
  2. ScriptButton — explicit user-triggered execution
  3. callScript action — part of an action chain

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Script types

Caseflow uses two script types:
Triggered by field changes. The request context includes:
  • Application name
  • Class name
  • Object ID
  • Trigger attribute and value
  • Target attribute list
The expected result is a values map ({"values": {...}}) which is applied to the target attributes.

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ScriptButton vs callScript

  • Use ScriptButton for explicit user-triggered operations — “run this script now”
  • Use callScript action when the script should be part of an action chain, typically as a side effect after a change or save

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Error handling

  • Script failures can trigger toast feedback
  • onError hooks can execute fallback actions
  • throwError can intentionally halt save/action chains with user-facing messages
See ScriptButton and SaveButton for component-specific details.