action

The actions can be any of the following types: link, replace, submit, done, display, print, refresh, pagedone, save, select, or cancel. See section type for a description of each of these actions.

Action items can be defined to occur only once or repeat at specified time intervals, and after the page opens but before the page appears. See the section on the delay option for information on timing options. Action items can trigger either background actions or actions involving user interaction. A form can contain only hidden items such as action items and operate in the background. Such forms are called daemon forms.

Available options

activated, active, data, datagroup, delay, itemnext, itemprevious, printsettings, saveformat, transmitdatagroups, transmitformat, transmitgroups, transmititemrefs, transmititems, transmitnamespaces, transmitoptionrefs, transmitoption, transmitpagerefs, type, url, xforms:submit, xforms:trigger

Example

The following action will send a status message to the server. The transaction happens automatically every 10 minutes (600 seconds).

   <action sid="sendStatus_action">
      <delay>
         <type>repeat</type>
         <interval>600</interval>
      </delay>
      <type>submit</type>
      <url>mailto:manager@company.com</url>
   </action>

Usage details

1. Repeating automatic actions is one method of creating a sparse-stated connection. It allows the form to indicate periodically to a server application that it is still running. Use the delay option to specify repetition.
2. Actions, by the form definition rules, reside on a page; therefore, actions occur only when the page is open, and repeating actions stop when the page closes. Actions defined to occur before the page displays, occur each time the page opens.