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Activity formComplete the Steps tab to define processing.
You can create activities with more than thirty steps, but a best practice to promote modularity is to limit each activity to thirty or fewer steps. If your planned activity requires more than this limit, consider how to break it up into modular parts for clarity and maintainability.
If this activity is to support a Declare Trigger or Declare OnChange rule, select an Activity Type on the Security tab before entering steps.
This form is wide. Click the collapse arrow (
) to hide the navigation panel and reveal more of this form. When done, click the expand arrow (
) to restore the navigation panel.
For more detail on parts of this tab, see:
Steps tab — Entering preconditions
Steps tab — Iteration
Steps tab — Entering a method and parameters
Steps tab — Entering transitions
Steps tab — Using the Show Calls button
Methods by function
Methods by name
This tab defines a numbered list of method calls, known as steps. Activities may contain one or dozens of steps. Steps execute in sequence except as described. Each row contains:
- A row number, optional label, and optional description
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Iteration instructions, for looping within a step -
Precondition — an optional True-False condition to be tested before the method starts - A method or instruction, the name of a PRPC Rule-Method rule
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Parameters used by the method or instruction - The step page for this method or instruction
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Transitions — optional conditions to be tested after the method completes
Many choices and values for each row are initially hidden. Click any field in the row to make additional controls and fields visible. Use the standard add row (
), append row (
), and delete row (
) buttons with this array.
You can reorder rows using drag-and-drop. Click the numeral at the left of a row and drag. Also, when you have two activities open (each with the Steps tab displayed) you can drag a step from one activity and drop it onto the steps array of the other. Or, right-click the numeral to access a context menu with Cut, Copy, and Paste options.
Element |
Description |
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Click to insert a new blank row above the current row. |
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A number identifying this step. As the activity runs, the system executes steps in numeric order, with exceptions as described below. You can reorder steps easily. Click and drag to move any step to a different position in the array of rows. |
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Click to expand the form to display all elements of this row — Iteration, precondition, method parameters, and transition. Click |
| Label |
Optional. Enter a one- or two-character unique step label name if you intend to reference this step as a destination in an (earlier-numbered) precondition or transition. To make a step become a comment, enter two slash marks (//) in the Label box. When the activity executes, the system ignores and skips over steps that are commented out. When you mark a parent step of a multistep iteration as a comment, all the child steps of that iteration are also treated as comments. In system-generated Java, label names are referred to as block names. |
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The When the row is selected, click the |
| Description |
Optional. Enter a brief description of what this step does, as internal documentation. |
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The |
| Step Page |
Optional. Identify the page on which this step is to act. If you leave this field blank, this step acts on the primary page of the activity. Start the page name with a letter and use only letters, digits, and the underscore character in the page name. See Understanding page names and reserved pages. You can enter a period followed by a property name to identify an embedded property of mode Omit the parentheses if this step involves an iteration over the elements of a All page names must also appear on the Pages & Classes tab. For most methods and the Java instruction, the step page must already exist. However, the following methods create a page from the Step Page information when it does not exist:
If the step is to contain a Call or Branch to another activity, identify the page that is to become the primary page of the called activity (unless it is the same as the current activity's primary page). The class of that page must match the Applies To key part of the activity. If this step is within a multistep iteration of type For
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Click |
| Method |
A few methods are used only in Parse Structured rules, and cannot appear in activities. Certain methods cannot be used in activities with an Activity Type of You can leave the Method field blank; any preconditions and transitions in the step are evaluated normally. |
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After you've entered a method, you can click this button to review the types (not the values) of that method's parameters. If you entered a Call, Branch, Collect or Rule instruction, you can click this icon to display the target activity in a new window. If you entered the Java instruction, click to display the Java source code. |
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Transition |
The When the row is activated, the click |
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Click the trash can button to delete a step. |
to collapse the form, hiding these elements. (Or click
indicates that this step is iterated.
button to add an iteration or 
to access the details of the existing iteration. See 
As a best practice to avoid potential confusion, don't start a page name that your activity creates or updates with the prefix 
Page names are unique within the clipboard. When creating a page, if another page with the name is already present at the same point in the clipboard structure, the system deletes it and replaces it with an empty page.
to expand the Method area. In the expanded area you can define or review parameters for the method, or other aspects of the method or instruction, such as Java source code. See 
Optional. Identify the method or instruction that this step executes.
These appear at the bottom of the Steps tab:
Element |
Description |
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Click to expand all step rows. |
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Click to collapse all step rows. |
| Show Calls |
Click to display a calling hierarchy display. See Activity form — Using the Show Calls button. |
| API Version |
Accept the default value of
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A value of 
About Activities