Actions in the Action Pane are called promoted actions. Promoted actions are copies of existing actions in the command bar that are displayed in the Action Pane and provide quick access to common tasks, because users do not have to look through a menu to find them. For example, on the Customer Card page, you can promote an action to create a new sales order to help the salespeople do their work, because creating sales orders is one of their most important daily tasks. The following figure illustrates the Action Pane on a Customer Card page.

Action Pane with four categories.

Promoted actions can be organized under different categories. In this illustration, the categories are New, Tasks, Reports, and Discounts. The order of actions under a category is determined by its order in the Action Designer. You define the caption for each category. For more information on defining the promoted categories, see How to: Define Promoted Action Categories Captions for the Action Pane.

When you promote an action to the Action Pane, you can set up an image that displays with the action. If you do not set up an image yourself, then a default image is used. For more information about promoted action images, see How to: Set an Image on an Action.

NoteNote

If an action does not already appear in the command bar menu, then it cannot be promoted. Also, if there are no promoted actions, then the Action Pane is hidden.

Adding a Promoted Action to a Page

To add a promoted action to a page

  1. In the Classic client, on the Tools menu, click Object Designer.

  2. In Object Designer, select a page that already has actions, and then click Design to open the page in Page Designer. For example, select page 22, which is the Customer List page.

  3. To open Action Designer, select a blank row, and then in the View menu, click Actions.

  4. In Action Designer, select the action to promote to the Action Pane.

  5. In the View menu, click Properties.

  6. In the Properties window, set the Promoted property value to Yes.

  7. Set the PromotedCategory property to the category under which you want the promoted action to appear.

    Unless you define your own caption, the category name that you select will be used as the category's captions on the page. For more information, see How to: Define Promoted Action Categories Captions for the Action Pane.

    NoteNote

    For more information about the promoted action category location in the Action Pane, see Promoted Action Category Location in the Action Pane.

  8. To assign an image to the action, set the Image property to the name of the image. For a list of images, see Action Image Library.

    NoteNote

     To associate a larger icon with your action, set the PromotedIsBig property.

  9. Close the Properties window and exit Page Designer.

  10. Save and compile the page.

  11. To preview your promoted action, in Object Designer, select the page, and then click Run.

Promoted Action Category Location in the Action Pane

The locations of promoted action categories in the Action Pane are determined by their first instance in Action Designer. Starting from top of Action Designer and working down, the category of the first promoted action encountered is located on the far left of the Action Pane, the next category encountered is located to the right of the first category, and so on.

See Also