Creating Actions
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Actions define the steps for your task. You must define actions in the order that they should execute in your task.

Each action uses a specific component to get something done. For example: to update a database with a SQL statement the SQL Task component will be used, to write to an Excel Spreadsheet the Write Excel component will be used to do the writing.

To add an action to your task right-click on the Task or select the Actions node under the Task and click on New Action from the menu or toolbar.

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From the New Action dialog select the type of component that you want to use with this action and click OK.

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To configure the action right-click on the action and select Properties from the context popup menu.

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The Action properties window will appear with four property pages:
·    General
·    Filters
·    Settings

General Page
  
Action Name
The name of the action. This is for your own use and can be anything you like.
Description
A description for the action for your own use.
Action enabled
Indicates if the action can be executed by the task. If it’s disabled the action will be skipped when the task is executed.
Execute once in loop
Indicates if the action will be executed for each record in a parent task or only once. If your parent action is a SQL select that returns a dataset with records, the child action can be executed for each record in the dataset or only once one the first record in the loop.
Complete parent loop before calling child actions
In some scenarios you may need an action to complete any loops before continuing with the child actions.
Ignore failure and continue with sibling actions
This option allows you to enforce the task to continue execution if this action has a severe failure.
Suppress log messages
Select this option if you want to stop messages being logged for this action.
Pause after execution
Specifies the number of seconds to pause after the action is executed before sibling and child actions are executed.
 
Retry attempts
Specifies the number of times to retry the action if a severe failure occurs and the pause attempts between each retry.

Filters Page

Refer to Using Filters

Settings

The settings page are the place where  you configure the component that you chose to use for this action. The settings pages look different for all components and will be discussed individually under the components section for each component.

About Components

Optitask uses an open plugin model for components that developers can use to develop add-on components for developers. There are many plugins available that are not distributed with the default installation, for more information on available plugins visit the Optitask Plugin Download page.


The next step: Learn how to Create Triggers