<Action>

After a form submits successfully, the <Action> tag loads a .NET assembly from your site's /bin folder and runs its custom code. Use it as an escape hatch when none of the built-in action tags (<Email>, <SilentPost>, <AddUser>, etc.) cover your need.

Custom actions can read and modify the in-memory form values, so an <Action> early in the form's action list can transform data that later actions consume.

Action timing

Action tags only run when the form submits successfully — they run after the <SubmitCommand> writes to the database, so they cannot prevent the database write or alter what was written. They evaluate their tokens at that point, so [[FieldName]] tokens read the values the user submitted.

Example

<AddForm>
  <SubmitCommand
    CommandText="INSERT INTO Users(FirstName, LastName) VALUES(@FirstName, @LastName)" />
  <Action Assembly="MyCompany.XMPActions" Namespace="MyCompany.XModPro.Actions.MyCustomAction" />

  <table>
    <tr>
      <td><Label For="txtFirstName" Text="First Name" /></td>
      <td><TextBox Id="txtFirstName" DataField="FirstName" DataType="String" /></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><Label For="txtLastName" Text="Last Name" /></td>
      <td><TextBox Id="txtLastName" DataField="LastName" DataType="String" /></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2"><AddButton Text="Add" /> <CancelButton Text="Cancel" /></td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</AddForm>

Properties

Property	Values	Default	Description
Assembly *	string		Name of the DLL in /bin (without the .dll extension)
Namespace *	string		Namespace + class name pointing to the action class within the DLL

* Required property

Child Tags

Tag	Required	Description
<Property>	optional	Passes a name/value pair to the custom action's Properties collection

<Property>

Adds a single name/value pair to the action's Properties list. The custom action class must expose a public Properties property (List(Of ActionProperty)) for these to be applied.

Attribute	Values	Default	Description
Name *	string		Property name
Value	string | token		Property value. Field tokens are evaluated when the action runs

Property Details

• Assembly: The file name of your compiled DLL in the site's /bin directory, without the .dll extension. For example, if bin\MyCompany.XMPActions.dll is your DLL, set Assembly="MyCompany.XMPActions".

• Namespace: The full namespace plus class name pointing to your action class — XMP loads the type {Assembly}.{Namespace} from the assembly. The way you set this depends on whether your project is VB.NET or C#:

  VB.NET

  Visual Studio's VB.NET projects automatically set the project's Root Namespace to the same value as the Assembly name. We recommend clearing the Root Namespace (set it to empty), so XMP can prepend the assembly name itself.

  With a class file like this:

  Imports DotNetNuke.Entities.Modules
  Imports KnowBetter.XModPro.Common
  Imports KnowBetter.XModPro.Web.Controls.Form.Action
  
  Namespace MyActions
    Public Class SendNotification
      Inherits ActionBase
  
      Public Overrides Sub Execute(pmb As PortalModuleBase, ByRef xi As XItem)
        ' Code to send notification here
      End Sub
    End Class
  End Namespace

  The matching tag is:

  <Action Assembly="CustomXMPCode" Namespace="MyActions.SendNotification" />

  If you don't include a Namespace block in the class file, drop the namespace from the tag:

  <Action Assembly="CustomXMPCode" Namespace="SendNotification" />

  C#

  Visual Studio's C# projects set the Default Namespace to the assembly name. Keep that default and omit it from the tag's Namespace. With a class file like this:

  namespace CustomXMPCode.MyActions
  {
    using DotNetNuke.Entities.Modules;
    using KnowBetter.XModPro.Common;
    using KnowBetter.XModPro.Web.Controls.Form.Action;
  
    public class SendNotification : ActionBase
    {
      public override void Execute(PortalModuleBase pmb, ref XItem xi)
      {
        // code to send notification here
      }
    }
  }

  The matching tag is:

  <Action Assembly="CustomXMPCode" Namespace="MyActions.SendNotification" />

Building a custom action

1. Create a class library in Visual Studio.

2. Add references to DotNetNuke.dll and KnowBetter.XModPro.Common.dll (and KnowBetter.XModPro.Web.Controls.dll if you inherit from ActionBase).

3. Create a class that inherits from KnowBetter.XModPro.Web.Controls.Form.Action.ActionBase.

4. Override the Execute method:

   Imports DotNetNuke.Entities.Modules
   Imports KnowBetter.XModPro.Common
   Imports KnowBetter.XModPro.Web.Controls.Form.Action
   
   Namespace MyActions
     Public Class MyAction
       Inherits ActionBase
   
       Public Overrides Sub Execute(pmb As PortalModuleBase,
                                    ByRef xi As XItem)
         ' pmb provides environmental data (PortalId, UserId, etc.).
         ' xi contains the form values that were just submitted.
         ' xi is passed by reference, so any values you change or add
         ' are visible to <Action>, <Email>, and <Redirect> tags
         ' that run after this one.
       End Sub
     End Class
   End Namespace

5. Compile and copy the DLL to your site's /bin folder.

6. Reference the action from your form using <Action>.