An action template specifies the object and event types to which the action applies. In addition, an action template for a design or change time policy contains your custom action rule, which fires when the action executes.
CentraSite supports the following types of actions:
Manual Actions are long-run processes that involve manual user intervention to complete the execution of the action. For example, Approval is a manual action.
Be aware that although CentraSite allows you to use system-defined manual actions in creating policies, you cannot create a new manual action.
Axiomatic Actions are simple actions used to configure parameters. No code is involved in the execution of axiomatic actions. Axiomatic actions are used in run-time policies.
Programmatic Actions are usually executed by means of program code. Specifically, a programmatic action fires an action rule when the action executes. You write an action rule as a Java class or a Groovy script. Programmatic actions are used only in design/change-time policies. CentraSite provides sample action rules, as described in the following section.
You upload action rules when you create a custom action template, as described in Adding an Action Template to the Action Category.
For more information on the policy actions that CentraSite ships, see the documents Built-In Design/Change-Time Actions Reference and Built-In Run-Time Actions Reference.
Although it is possible to create an action template whose scope encompasses any combination of object types and event types, be aware that not all combinations are enforceable. This is because certain types of events do not occur for certain types of objects.
For example, a PreStateChange event occurs only on Assets, Policies and Lifecycle Models. If you create a policy for a PreStateChange event on a User object, that policy will never execute, because a PreStateChange event will never occur on a User object.
To see the types of events that each object type supports, see the topic Working with Design/Change-Time Policies > Functional Scope > Supported Object and Event Combinations.
