5 Perform Actions in a Table or Form-over-Table Layout
In addition to data entry operations such as edit, create, and delete described previously, some web applications define special operations, "custom actions", on business objects. These actions can be defined on individual rows from a business object or on an entire business object.
Let's take an example of a expense reports layout in a workbook. The web application may have a number of actions defined for this business object. Some of these actions are performed on individual expense reports, such as "Approve" and "Reject".
Other actions are performed on the entire business object. For example, you may have two actions on your expense reports layout, "Send to Auditor" and "Escalate Overdue Reports". The first one identifies all expense reports that are not in compliance and forwards them to an auditor. The second one prompts you to provide the number of days overdue and then sends an email to the assigned approver for each matching expense report.
Perform an Action on a Row
To perform an action on a single row, select the row in either the form or table of a layout, then use the appropriate command from the Form Changes (Perform Action) or Table Row Changes (Mark for Action) menu.
For tables, you can also update a cell in the action columns as you would any other field's cell value. In the following Table layout, rows marked as Reject are those where the user has updated cell values corresponding to the Reason (Reject) and Notes (Reject) action columns.
Description of the illustration custom_actions_table.png
When you add or update a value in an action cell first, the row is marked for that action in the Change column. Other cells in that row that don't involve actions are grayed out and cannot be edited. But if you add or update a value first in a cell that doesn't involve an action, the row is marked as an Update in the Change column and the action cells in that row are grayed out (as shown in the following image). In other words, the first action you perform on a row determines that row's pending action. See also Understanding Read-Only Behavior.
Description of the illustration custom_actions_table_automark.png
You can also mark rows for an action by selecting Mark for Action from the Table Row Changes menu. With this option, if only one action is defined, you'll be prompted to confirm. If more than one is defined, you'll be prompted to select from a list of available actions:
Description of the illustration custom_action_markforaction.png
When a row is marked for an action, the action's fields also receive the same validation, as described in Understanding Data Validation.
The actions for these marked rows are performed during the next upload.
If you're working with a Form-over-Table layout, select Perform Action in the Form Changes menu, then follow the prompts in the wizard to perform an action on a Form row. 
Description of the illustration fot_custom_action.png
An action can be performed only on an existing row (not on a pending Create row).
An action on a form is performed immediately, unlike one in a table (where rows are marked for actions and the actions are performed later during an upload).
After uploading (for table rows) or performing an action (for the form), any result from the action returned by your web application is displayed in the Status Viewer. For example, after invoking the action "Reject" on an Expense Report table row, the Status Viewer shows a confirmation code as the result:
Also, form row data is not automatically refreshed after an action is performed, even if the action was successful. Click Download Data again to refresh data in the form row.
Perform an Action on a Business Object
Perform a business object action using the Perform Action button on the Oracle Visual Builder ribbon. This button launches a wizard that prompts you to select the action and provide values for any required parameters.
The action is performed at the scope of the entire business object. It may act on some, all, or none of the items in the business object. In particular, there may be no relationship between the items affected and those items (rows) displayed in the layout.
- Open the layout for the business object with the defined action.
If there are one or more business object actions defined, Oracle Visual Builder Add-in for Excel displays the Perform Action button on the Oracle Visual Builder ribbon.
Note:
If you do not see the Perform Action button, this means that the business object associated with the current layout does not have any defined actions. - Click Perform Action to launch the Perform Action wizard.
- Select the required action from the list, then click Next.
- If required, provide values for each action field, then click Next to perform the action.
The final screen of the wizard shows the results of the action.
- Click Finish to close the wizard.
