You have seen how to use the workflow when you are creating responsive apps in Studio. There are workflows for completing tasks to update sheets, create PDFs, and so on. These are typically tasks that are completed on the server-side and for which you need to wait for the response to move on to the next. Studio also provides you with the Action flows that are more oriented towards completing on-screen actions. The Action Flow that is available on the click action of the Action button, provides you the capabilities to build your customized actions visually on the screen and gives an immediate response as to the action completion.
Understanding the Action blocks
Once you add an Action button, you can see the Actions option. When you click the Actions option, you can see the **button_click (click) ** Action/ Event.
Now click to go to the Action flow interface. Note that it is similar to the Workflow interface. Here you can see the different Action blocks available for you and categorized as On-screen actions and Server-side actions.
The on-screen actions are the local actions or the client-side actions which need no inputs from the server-side. These actions are typically those where the action directly affects the form like showing a page loader or hiding it and so on.
The server-side actions are actions like the workflow to update sheets, use of API connectors - third party as well as DB connectors which would typically get inputs from the forms but actions are completed only on the server-side.
The On-screen actions are categorized under the following action blocks:
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Logic: This block includes tasks to add conditional actions using Branching and Delay.
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Native: These are the common tasks to send SMS, Call and send Email that are added under the Native action block.
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App: This block provides some APP specific actions to show or hide Page Loader, display a Confirmation dialog box, and validate and/ or reset pages on submission.
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Controls: This block allows you to set the value for the specific control when an action is performed. Moreover, you can set the state of the controls namely to show or hide using ShowCTRL and HIDECTRL actions.
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Navigate: This block provides you with the features to add navigation to certain pages or open a specific URL when a certain action is performed.
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Utility: This block provides you with features to trigger alerts and toast on say completion of a task.
The Server Side actions are categorized under the following action blocks:
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DronaHQ Services:
- Update sheet
- Call workflow
- Call workflow from other apps
- Generate PDF
- Logic block: The Logic block has an action item or features to add a conditional branch that helps define the next action if a condition is satisfied. You can also define Persistent and non Persistent variables and Set Variables using the Computation block. These variables can then be also used in other actions as well as required.