Actions

The named packages of labels and reports a run emits at Start or at Completion, their commands, the marker mappings of a label, and how a procedure selects them.

An action is a named package of paperwork a run emits: inside it, one command per emission, each saying what comes out (a label or a report), when (at Start or at Completion), with which template of the station library and, at Completion, for which verdicts. A procedure selects whole actions, so a package written once serves every procedure that emits it, and correcting a command is one edit instead of one per procedure. Actions live under Process > Models > model > Setup > Actions. Creating them, removing them and editing an action's name, its commands and their mappings are all gated by the same Edit recipes & evaluations permission, and the pages say so ("Changing actions needs the “Edit recipes & evaluations” permission.").

The Actions folder

Selecting the Actions row opens a page unlike the other folders of Setup: a list of the model's actions beside the one picked in it, because an action is read against its siblings. The list's order is the order every procedure emits the actions in, so the row verbs move an action and never a command. The page loads the two station libraries (label templates and report layouts) to judge readiness; when one cannot be loaded, a banner says "Global label templates could not be loaded: …" or "Global reports could not be loaded: …".

The column beside the list is headed Action and shows the picked action's Name (editable here too), its Commands as read-only lines with a Ready / Review pill each ("The commands are edited on this action's own page in the column, in this order."), and a Needs review banner listing everything that is short. With no action, the list says "No actions. Add one when a procedure of this model should emit labels or reports."; with none picked, the column says "Select an action to read what it emits. Its commands are edited on its own page in the column."

The action's page

Selecting an action in the tree opens it: the header with the action's name and a pill counting its commands, the permission and library banners, an Action card with the Name field (committed on blur; blank refused), and the Commands list beside the command picked in it.

The Commands list

With no command the list says "No commands. Add one when this action should emit a label or a report."; with none picked the column says "Select a command to edit all of it in one place. Add one from the bar above when this action should emit a label or a report."

The command in full

The column opens the picked command, headed Command <n> · <Kind> at <Trigger>. It shows only the fields the chosen kind owns.

A Needs review banner under the fields lists everything the command is short of (see Readiness below).

The queue a printed document goes to is not a field of the command: it is resolved by the command's kind and trigger through the unit's four printer slots, so two commands of the same combination share the printer deliberately. See Printers.

Markers

Markers are the {{NAME}} fields a label template leaves for the run to fill in, so this section is drawn for a label command and for nothing else. Its state follows the template:

The sources, in the order the picker lists them:

Under the marker rows, Removed markers lists the mappings stored for markers the current template no longer declares ("<n> stale"; "These mappings no longer exist in the selected template and must be removed."), each with Remove stale marker mapping.

Readiness

The Ready / Review pills on both pages, and the rows the Validation page lists, come from one judgement. An action with no command is short of one: "Add a command: this action emits nothing yet." A command is short of, in the order it is repaired:

• "Select at least one completion verdict." (a Completion command with no verdict ticked)
• "Choose a report." / "The selected report no longer exists."
• "Choose a label template." / "The template was cleared or deleted; stored mappings are preserved." / "The selected global template no longer exists."
• "The selected template has no printer commands yet; write or import them before a run reaches this command."
• "Template markers cannot be read: <error>"
• "{{M}} needs a source." / "{{M}} is mapped more than once."
• "{{M}}: choose a source", "this source is not available at Start", "select a field of this model's metadata catalogue", "select a criterion from one of this model's evaluations", "set an explicit zero-based cycle from 0 to <n>", "remove decimal places from this date/time source", "use the default format for this numeric source", "decimal places must be between 0 and 9", "remove numeric/date formatting from this text source"
• "{{M}} was removed from the current template; remove its stored mapping."

A command under review still runs: nothing is dropped at emission, and a marker that cannot resolve fails that one label as it always did. The configuration screen is where this is learned, not the printed tag.

How a procedure selects actions

A procedure's page carries the card Actions this procedure emits with a "<n> selected" pill and one checkbox per action of the model, in list order. Each row shows the action's emission line ("Label at Start, Label and report at Completion", or "Emits nothing yet: this action has no commands.") and, once selected, a Ready or Review pill. Review lists what this procedure lacks for the action's markers, one remark per marker, because a marker resolved per run resolves only where the procedure has the thing it names:

• "{{M}} reads a metadata field this Procedure does not prompt. Tick it in Metadata above."
• "{{M}} reads a criterion result, and this Procedure judges by no evaluation."
• "{{M}} reads a criterion this Procedure's evaluation does not declare."
• "{{M}} reads cycle <c>, and this Procedure runs a single cycle." / "… runs <n>."

The action is neither hidden nor refused: the procedure says what it lacks, and the remedy is on the same page. With no action in the model the card says "No actions in this model yet. Add some under the model's Actions."

The emission order

At a run boundary the selected actions emit in the model list's order, and inside each action in its command order, filtered to that boundary's trigger: one answer for the whole model, never one per procedure. Start commands run once the run has materialized (after the sequential metadata has been reserved), and Completion commands once the terminal verdict has been sealed. Each command is isolated: a failure publishes nothing, changes nothing about the run and never stops the commands behind it. A report is named after the run and the action that emitted it; a later render of the same command replaces that command's document and nothing else. What each emission records in the run, and how it is reissued from Histories, is on Emitting labels and reports.

What an action does not do

• It emits nothing on its own. A procedure has to select it, and a run of that procedure has to reach the boundary.
• It does not check the procedure. Whether a procedure prompts the field or judges by the evaluation a marker names is stated on the procedure's page, beside the selection.
• It does not pick the printer. The queue is the unit's, by kind and trigger, on Printers.
• It does not edit templates. Label commands and report layouts are written under Templates; the action only names them.
• It does not confirm physical printing. Queue acceptance is what a label or a printed report records, never proof that paper came out.