Actions

Plone has concept of actions which refer the end user functionality associated with site or content objects:

• View, edit, sharing etc. are actions
• Sitemap is action
• Contact form is action
• Cut, copy, paste are actions

Actions are managed by

• portal_actions for generic actions
• portal_types for view, edit etc. actions and object default action

Action URLs

Actions are applied to objects by adding action name to url.

E.g.

http://localhost:8080/site/page/view

for view action and

http://localhost:8080/site/page/edit

for edit action.

Default action

Default action is executed when the content URL is opened without any prefix.

Default action is defined in portal_types.

Default action can be dynamic - meaning that site editor may set it from Display menu. For more information see Dynamic Views.

Action export/import

Type actions

Content-type specific actions can be registered in portal_types. Actions are viewable and editable in Zope Management Interface under portal_types. After editing actions, content type XML can be exported and placed to your content type add-on product.

GenericSetup example file for content type “ProductCard” which has a new tab added next to view, edit, sharing, etc. File is located in profiles/default/types/ProductCard.xml.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<object name="ProductCard"
   meta_type="Factory-based Type Information with dynamic views"
   i18n:domain="saariselka.app" xmlns:i18n="http://xml.zope.org/namespaces/i18n">
  <property name="title" i18n:translate="">Tuotekortti</property>
  ....
  <alias from="(Default)" to="(dynamic view)" />
  <alias from="edit" to="atct_edit" />
  <alias from="sharing" to="@@sharing" />
  <alias from="view" to="(selected layout)" />
  <action title="View" action_id="view" category="object" condition_expr=""
    url_expr="string:${object_url}/" visible="True">
    <permission value="View" />
  </action>
  <action title="Edit" action_id="edit" category="object" condition_expr=""
    url_expr="string:${object_url}/edit" visible="True">
    <permission value="Modify portal content" />
  </action>

  <!-- Custom action code goes here. We add a new tab with title "Data" and
         uri @@productdata_view which is a registered BrowserView for the content type.
    -->

 <action title="Data" action_id="productdata_view" category="object" condition_expr=""
    url_expr="string:${object_url}/@@productdata_view" visible="True">
    <permission value="Modify portal content" />
  </action>

</object>

The corresponding BrowserView is registered as any other view in browse/configure.zcml:

.. code-block:: xml

<browser:page

for=”*” name=”productdata_view” class=”.productdataview.ProductDataView” template=”productdataview.pt” allowed_attributes=”renderData” permission=”zope2.View” />

Non-type actions

Usually all actions are rewritten by site policy product using portal_actions import/export. Actions are in GenericSetup profile file default/profiles/actions.xml.

1. actions.xml is exported from the development instance using portal_setup
2. actions.xml is made part of the site policy product

Alternatively, if you are developing add-on product, you can add actions one-by-one by manually creating entries in actions.xml.

Example:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<object name="portal_actions" meta_type="Plone Actions Tool"
   xmlns:i18n="http://xml.zope.org/namespaces/i18n">
 <object name="document_actions" meta_type="CMF Action Category">
  <property name="title"></property>
  <object name="sendto" meta_type="CMF Action" i18n:domain="plone">
   <property name="title" i18n:translate="">Send this</property>
   <property name="description" i18n:translate=""></property>
   <property name="url_expr">string:$object_url/sendto_form</property>
   <property name="icon_expr"></property>
   <property name="available_expr">object/@@shareable</property>
   <property name="permissions">
    <element value="Allow sendto"/>
   </property>
   <property name="visible">True</property>
  </object>
</object>

Toggling action visibility programmatically

Warning

This applies only for Plone 2.5. You should use actions.xml instead.

Example:

def disable_actions(portal):
    """ Remove unneeded Plone actions

    @param portal Plone instance
    """

    # getActionObject takes parameter category/action id
    # For ids and categories please refer to portal_actins in ZMI
    actionInformation = portal.portal_actions.getActionObject("document_actions/rss")

    # See ActionInformation.py / ActionInformation for available edits
    actionInformation.edit(visible=False)