Working with actions

Add actions to a workflow

Click Add Action to open the Add Action dialogue. Actions are grouped according to a particular application or function. The five most recently used actions automatically appear at the top of the Add Action dialogue for easy access. Locate the action you want to use and click its name to add it to the workflow.

Choose an input

To select an input for an action, click Choose File to browse for a file on the Typefi server (click Browse within the Choose File dialogue to browse for a file on your local computer). Some actions require specific file types while other actions are generic and can work with any file type. An action acts on its inputs and then passes its output to following actions. Actions added later will automatically select from the outputs of earlier actions.

Use workflow variables

Some actions allow you to use variables within inputs, outputs, or other settings. A variable is a shorthand notation for referencing a known or unknown value, such as a user name, a file or folder name, or the current date and time. Click Add Variable to display a menu of available variables, and then select the variable you want to use.

For a complete list of the workflow variables you can use, see Workflow variables.

If your workflow uses the Edit Metadata workflow action or has an InDesign template that includes project fields, those project fields will also be listed in the Add Variable menu. If Typefi can resolve the project fields to actual values (for example, a real Content XML file is an input in the workflow), the description shown in the Add Variable menu will be the actual value; otherwise, only the project field name will be shown. Project fields are grouped below named variables, while relevant outputs from previous actions are grouped at the top of the Add Variable menu for quick access.

Change the order of actions in a workflow

You can change the order of actions in a workflow by dragging an action to a new position. For workflows with many actions, it may be easier to use the Reorder button to first minimize the action panels. When minimized, you can also use the Move Down and Move Up controls.

After you've made changes, the workflow graph will automatically update.

Use the Action menu

The Action menu is displayed at the top right corner of every action. Click the Action menu icon to save a copy of the action, disable the action, or delete the action.

Save a copy of an action

Choose Save a copy… from the action menu to save a copy of the action and its current settings for reuse as a preconfigured action in a future workflow. This is useful for actions with many options such as Create InDesign Document and Export to EPUB.

Disable actions

Choose Disable from the action menu to run a workflow without a particular action. Disabled actions are automatically minimized and are ignored when running a workflow.

When you want to use the action in the workflow again, choose Enable from the action menu.

If you disable an action whose output is required as an input later in the workflow, the workflow will fail.

Delete actions from a workflow

Choose Delete from the action menu to delete an action from a workflow.

Deleting an action from a workflow will also delete any changes made to the action settings.

Update an action

When features are added or changed in an update to a workflow plug-in, any existing workflow that uses this plug-in must also be updated (see Workflow Plug-ins for a list of workflow plug-in releases and links to their release notes).

When an action displays an 'Update' banner, choose Update from the action menu to update the action. For step-by-step instructions, see this article.

While many existing workflows may run 'as is' without updating (previous settings and preferences will be converted at runtime for compatibility with the new action), we strongly recommend updating existing workflows anytime updated workflow plug-ins are installed.