Custom operations

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Purpose

Custom operations allow you to:

• extend the downstairs level beyond the current functionality;
• integrate with external systems.

In this chapter we'll see the different types of custom operations and how, despite being custom, they fit into the standard permission mechanism of ManyDesigns Portofino.

To create a new operation, click on the Operations tab. A search page appears and shows "read" and "delete" as existing operations (it is advisable you never touch these two, as they belong to the core framework).
Then click on create and choose the operation type (global, class, object, object set) you want from the picklist.

Common fields

All operations have the following common fields:

• Name: the name of the operation, used for hyperlinks and buttons.
• Link: the operation's URL.
• Order: relative order for sorting and layout.

Global operations

A global operation can be accessed anytime, anywhere in the system. In fact, global operations appear on every page of the system. A global operation can appear:

• in the page header, above the global search box, or
• as one of the tabs.

A global operation has the following specific field:

• Tab: if checked, the operation appears as a tab, otherwise above the global search box.

Class operations

A class operation is applicable to a class in general, without necessarily referring to a specific object of the class.
Class operations appear on the sub-tab bar on any page of the class.

A class operation has the following specific field:

• Class: the class to which the operation applies. This field is optional. If left bank, the operation applies to all the classes.

Object operations

An object operation applies to a specific object of a given class. It appears as a button on the object's details page.

A object operation has the following specific field:

• Class: the class to which the operation applies. This field is optional. If left bank, the operation applies to all the classes.

Object set operations

An object set operation applies to a set of one or more objects, rather than a single object.

These operations are displayed:

• on a search page -  the object set is the result set of the search;
• on a relationship section of a details page - the object set is the set of related objects.

An object set operation has the following specific field:

• Class: the class to which the operation applies. This field is optional. If left bank, the operation applies to all the classes.

Permissions

Global, class and object set operations

Operations of type global, class and object set are subject to visibility by user groups. To define it, use theVisible by meta user group relationship to grant visibility to the user groups you want. If no user group is chosen (which is the case for newly-created operations) the operation is visible by all users.

Object operations

Object operations follow the standard permission scheme we discussed for objects. Visit the class for which the object operation is defined. Click on the Permissions button. Make sure you have defined some actors. Scroll down to the permission matrix and locate the operations section.

Here you should see the two default operations (create and delete), as well as the custom object operations you have defined. Set the permissions using the checkboxes.

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Next: Listeners