# Actions

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## Actions

Visualizing data is great, but at some point you're going to want to interact with it.

#### What is an action?

An action is a button that triggers server-side logic through an API call. Without a single line of code, Forest Admin natively supports all common actions required on an admin interface such as CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete), sort, search, data export, and more.

#### Native actions vs Smart Actions

In Forest Admin, all the available actions can fall into 2 categories.

**Native actions**

Those actions come out-of-the-box. We've covered them in details *from a route perspective* in [Routes](/documentation/reference-guide/routes.md), but here is what the most common ones look like in the interface:

* **Create**: create a new record in a given collection **(1)**
* **Duplicate**: create a new record from an existing one **(2)**
* **Update**: edit a record's data **(3)**
* **Delete**: remove a record **(4)**

![](/files/-Lih5kcvWqcC6pZ_emmz)

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Some actions are only available when 1+ record(s) are selected. This depends on [their type](#triggering-different-types-of-actions).
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![](/files/-Lih65f_tYIH0lQkqHGq)

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Native actions' **permissions** are set from the Roles section of the [Project settings](https://docs.forestadmin.com/user-guide/project-settings/teams-and-users/manage-roles).
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**Smart Actions**

Smart actions are your own business-related actions, built with your own code. You'll learn how to use them in the [following page](/documentation/reference-guide/actions/create-and-manage-smart-actions.md#what-is-a-smart-action).

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Smart actions can be triggered from the *Actions* button or directly from a [Summary view](https://docs.forestadmin.com/user-guide/getting-started/master-your-ui/build-a-summary-view).
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#### Triggering different types of actions

Triggering an action is very simple, but the behavior can differ according to the type of action.

There are 3 types of actions :

* **Bulk** actions: the action will be available when you click on one or several desired records
* **Single** actions: the action is only available for one selected record at a time
* **Global** actions: the action is always available and will be executed on all records

In the following pages, we'll cover everything you need to know about interacting with your data through actions.


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# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.forestadmin.com/documentation/reference-guide/actions.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.