Actions Overview

In the RoleTailored client for Microsoft Dynamics NAV, menu items are called actions. Actions are displayed at the top of each page as menu buttons. In this topic, you learn about different kinds of actions, and how you can enable users to quickly locate the actions they want to use.

Pages can have the following actions.

Actions replace Classic client form menu items. When you choose an Action button, a drop-down menu is displayed enabling you to perform a task, access related information, or view a report.

Each page has a different set of actions depending on the page type, and the processes that the page supports. In order to create the appropriate set of actions for a particular page, you should have a good understanding of your customer's business processes.

Each process in an organization has several actions associated with it. You should try to create a full set of actions that mirror all tasks and processes that are performed.

Example: The Sales Orders list page at CRONUS International contains all actions related to processing sales orders. During user configuration and personalization, some of these actions may be hidden or promoted to the ribbon. Therefore, you must initially create a full set of actions for the customer.

Types of Actions

The following sections describe actions available in the RoleTailored client.

Actions

The Actions button is displayed on the menu bar of all page types.

It opens a drop-down menu giving you a choice of tasks. For example, if you choose the Actions button on page 22, the Customers list page, you can select one of the following system actions:

• View

• Edit

• New

• Delete

• Notes

• Links

• Open in New Window

• Refresh

• Clear Filter

• Print Page

These are the actions that you would expect to see on all list pages.

This menu also contains two other actions that are more specific to the business processes on the Customers list page:

• Cash Receipt Journal

• Sales Journal

These two actions directly help the order processor to process customer payments. They are regular daily tasks, so must be on the Actions menu, and promoted to the ribbon.

You can add actions to the Actions menu, group actions together under action submenus, or promote them to the ribbon. You cannot create submenus or promote actions on a Role Center page.

Related Information

The Related Information button is displayed after Actions on the menu bar. Rather than providing tasks for the user, this menu provides additional information by taking the user to a specific page in Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Example: On the Customers list page, the order processor can select Sales, and then choose Prices to go to the prices page. This could save the order processor time looking up prices, when creating a customer order.

Reports

The Reports button is displayed after Related Information on the menu bar. The reports menu lists the reports most relevant to a page. If a user does not require a reports menu, then the button is hidden.

Example: On page 9006, the Order Processor Role Center, the order processor can choose Reports, and view her Customer - Top 10 List.

New Document

The New Document action is a submenu of Actions. You can use this action to open new documents within Microsoft Dynamics NAV, without searching through the whole application. When you create a New Document submenu in Action Designer, you must use the NewDocumentItems SubType.

Example: On the Customers list page, if the order processor wants to create a new invoice, she can open the New Sales Invoice page directly from the Actions menu. This is useful as she creates new sales invoices daily.

Home Items

Home Items are actions displayed under the Home button, on the Role Center navigation pane. This navigation has a tree structure, and each node in the tree links to a list page.

The user Role Center is like a home page, and home items in the navigation pane are links to a users most useful list pages. For example, on page 9006, the Order Processor Role Center has twelve top-level menu items in the navigation pane, all related to processing sales orders. Each of these can also have sub-home items.

Activity Buttons

If there are too many activities to fit on the Role Center without scrolling, then activity buttons can be used to group other important processes together.

Example: The Order Processor Role Center could have activity buttons called Approving Web Orders, or Sales Forecasting. These are secondary activities for the order processor, so do not need to be placed under the Home button.

Each activity button has its own navigation pane, with links to list pages and can be configured in the same way as the user Role Center.

Promoted Actions

Promoted actions are existing actions in the Actions, Related Information or Reports menu that are also displayed in the ribbon. In the RoleTailored client, the ribbon is located just below the menu bar.

Promoted actions provide quick access to common tasks, since users do not have to browse through a menu to access them. You can promote any command from the existing actions menus to the ribbon. If there are no promoted actions, the ribbon remains hidden.

Promoted actions can be put into one of the following categories:

• New

• Process

• Reports

Each promoted action has an icon associated with it. You can accept a default icon for your promoted action or choose to use a larger icon, making it more prominent to the user. Use the Properties window in the Action Designer to set the size and location of an icon.

Example: On the Sales Orders list page, Post is promoted to the ribbon, and placed in the Process group. This helps the order processor in her work, since posting sales orders is one of her most important daily tasks.

See Also

Tasks

Walkthrough: Adding Actions to a Customer List Page
How to: Add Actions to a Page
How to: Promote Actions to the Ribbon on Pages