To Create an Action Manually

1. Open an existing database file or create a new one.

   See the previous section, Configuration Files for Actions.

2. Create the action definition using the syntax:

   	ACTION action_name
    	{
    		TYPE		action_type
    		action_field
    		…
    	}

   where:

   action_name—name used to run the action.

   action_type—COMMAND (default), MAP, or TT_MSG.

   action_field—one of the required or optional fields for this type of action. All fields consist of a keyword and a value.

   Many of the action fields are covered in this chapter. For more information, see the dtactionfile(4) man page.

3. Save the file.

4. If you want the action icon to have a unique image, create the icons for the action. The default location for icons is:

   • Personal icons: HomeDirectory/.dt/icons

   • System-wide icons: /etc/dt/appconfig/icons/language. The default language is C.

     For more information, see Specifying the Icon Image Used by an Action.

5. Double-click Reload Actions in the Desktop_Tools application group.

6. Create an action file for the action. The action file creates an icon in File Manager or Application Manager that represents the action. (If the action is written to start an application, the icon is called an application icon.)

   To create the action file, create an executable file with the same name as action_name. You can put the file in any directory to which you have write permission. You can create as many action files as you like.