Please check your agent type and version and read on or switch to the right documentation.
Create and manage Smart Actions
What is a Smart Action?
Sooner or later, you will need to perform actions on your data that are specific to your business. Moderating comments, generating an invoice, logging into a customer’s account or banning a user are exactly the kind of important tasks to unlock in order to manage your day-to-day operations.
On our Live Demo example, our companies collection has many examples of Smart Action. The simplest one is Mark as live.
If you're looking for information on native actions (CRUD), check out this page.
Creating a Smart action
In order to create a Smart action, you will first need to declare it in your code for a specific collection. Here we declare a Mark as Live Smart action for the companies collection.
classForest::CompanyincludeForestLiana::Collection collection :Company action 'Mark as Live'end
app/forest/companies.py
from django_forest.utils.collection import Collection
from app.models import Company
class CompanyForest(Collection):
def load(self):
self.actions = [{
'name': 'Mark as Live'
}]
Collection.register(CompanyForest, Company)
Ensure the file app/forest/__init__.py exists and contains the import of the previous defined class :
app/forest/__init__.py
from app.forest.companies import CompanyForest
app/Models/Company.php
<?php
namespace App\Models;
use ForestAdmin\LaravelForestAdmin\Services\Concerns\ForestCollection;
use ForestAdmin\LaravelForestAdmin\Services\SmartFeatures\SmartAction;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
/**
* Class Company
*/
class Company extends Model
{
use HasFactory;
use ForestCollection;
/**
* @return SmartAction
*/
public function markAsLive(): SmartAction
{
return $this->smartAction('single', 'Mark as Live');
}
}
After declaring it, your Smart action will appear in the Smart actions tab within your collection settings.
A Smart action is displayed in the UI only if:
it is set as "visible" (see screenshot below)
AND
in non-development environments, the user's role must grant the "trigger" permission
You must make the action visible there if you wish users to be able to see it.
It will then show in the actions dropdown button:
At this point, the Smart Action does nothing, because no route in your Admin backend handles the API call yet.
The Smart Action behavior is implemented separately from the declaration.
In the following example, we've implemented the Mark as live Smart Action, which simply changes a company's status to live.
You must make sure that all your Smart Actions routes are configured with the Smart Action middleware: permissionMiddlewareCreator.smartAction(). This is mandatory to ensure that all features built on top of Smart Actions work as expected (permissions, approval workflows,...).
You must make sure that all your Smart Actions routes are configured with the Smart Action middleware: permissionMiddlewareCreator.smartAction(). This is mandatory to ensure that all features built on top of Smart Actions work as expected (permissions, approval workflows,...).
The route declaration takes place in config/routes.rb.
/config/routes.rb
Rails.application.routes.draw do
# MUST be declared before the mount ForestLiana::Engine.
namespace :forest do
post '/actions/mark-as-live' => 'companies#mark_as_live'
end
mount ForestLiana::Engine => '/forest'
end
The business logic in this Smart Action is extremely simple. We only update here the attribute status of the companies to the value live:
/app/controllers/forest/companies_controller.rb
class Forest::CompaniesController < ForestLiana::SmartActionsController
def mark_as_live
company_id = ForestLiana::ResourcesGetter.get_ids_from_request(params, forest_user).first
Company.update(company_id, status: 'live')
head :no_content
end
end
You must make sure that all your Smart Actions controllers extend from the ForestLiana::SmartActionsController. This is mandatory to ensure that all features built on top of Smart Actions work as expected (authentication, permissions, approval workflows,...)
You may have to add CORS headers to enable the domain app.forestadmin.com to trigger API call on your Application URL, which is on a different domain name (e.g. localhost:3000).
Make sure your projecturls.py file include you app urls with the forest prefix.
urls.py
from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include
urlpatterns = [
path('forest', include('app.urls')),
path('forest', include('django_forest.urls')),
path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
]
The route declaration takes place in app/urls.py.
app/urls.py
from django.urls import path
from django.views.decorators.csrf import csrf_exempt
from . import views
app_name = 'app'
urlpatterns = [
path('/actions/mark-as-live', csrf_exempt(views.MarkAsLiveView.as_view()), name='mark-as-live'),
]
The business logic in this Smart Action is extremely simple. We only update here the attribute status of the companies to the value live:
app/views.py
from django.http import JsonResponse
from django_forest.utils.views.action import ActionView
class MarkAsLiveView(ActionView):
def post(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
params = request.GET.dict()
body = self.get_body(request.body)
ids = self.get_ids_from_request(request, self.Model)
return JsonResponse({'success': 'live!'})
Note that Forest Admin takes care of the authentication thanks to the ActionView parent class view.
You may have to add CORS headers to enable the domain app.forestadmin.com to trigger API call on your Application URL, which is on a different domain name (e.g. localhost:8000).
The route declaration takes place in routes/web.php.
routes/web.php
<?php
use App\Http\Controllers\CompaniesController;
use App\Http\Controllers\OrdersController;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
Route::post('forest/smart-actions/company_mark-as-live', [CompaniesController::class, 'markAsLive']);
The business logic in this Smart Action is extremely simple. We only update here the attribute status of the companies to the value live:
app/Http/Controllers/CompaniesController.php
<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use App\Models\Company;
use ForestAdmin\LaravelForestAdmin\Http\Controllers\ForestController;
use Illuminate\Http\JsonResponse;
/**
* Class CompaniesController
*/
class CompaniesController extends ForestController
{
/**
* @return JsonResponse
*/
public function markAsLive(): JsonResponse
{
$id = request()->input('data.attributes.ids')[0];
$company = Company::findOrFail($id);
$company->status = 'live';
$company->save();
return response()->noContent();
}
}
What's happening under the hood?
When you trigger the Smart Action from the UI, your browser will make an API call: POST /forest/actions/mark-as-live.
If you want to customize the API call, check the list of available options.
The payload of the HTTP request is based on a JSON API document.
The data.attributes.ids key allows you to retrieve easily the selected records from the UI.
The data.attributes.values key contains all the values of your input fields (handling input values).
Other properties of data.attributes are used to manage the select all behavior.
(optional) If true, the action triggers a file download in the Browser. Default is false
endpoint
string
(optional) Set the API route to call when clicking on the Smart Action. Default is '/forest/actions/name-of-the-action-dasherized'
httpMethod
string
(optional) Set the HTTP method to use when clicking on the Smart Action. Default is POST.
description
string
(optional) Add a description shown in the smart action form. This supports html tags. ⚠️ only available in forest-express-sequelize and forest-express-mongoose9.4.0
submitButtonLabel
string
(optional) Sets the text written on the submit button at the end of the form. Default value is the Smart Action name. ⚠️ only available in forest-express-sequelize and forest-express-mongoose9.4.0
Name
Type
Description
name
string
Label of the action displayed in Forest Admin.
type
string
(optional) Type of the action. Can be bulk, global or single. Default is bulk.
(optional) If true, the action triggers a file download in the Browser. Default is false
endpoint
string
(optional) Set the API route to call when clicking on the Smart Action. Default is '/forest/actions/name-of-the-action-dasherized'
http_method
string
(optional) Set the HTTP method to use when clicking on the Smart Action. Default is POST.
description
string
(optional) Add a description shown in the smart action form. This supports html tags. ⚠️ only available in forest_liana9.4.0
submit_button_label
string
(optional) Sets the text written on the submit button at the end of the form. Default value is the Smart Action name. ⚠️ only available in forest_liana9.4.0
Want to go further with Smart Actions? Read the next page to discover how to make your Smart Actions even more powerful with Forms!
Available Smart Action properties
req.user
The JWT Data Token contains all the details of the requesting user. On any authenticated request to your Admin Backend, you can access them with the variable req.user.
You can find important information in the body of the request.
This is particularly useful to find the context in which an action was performed via a relationship.
{
data: {
attributes: {
collection_name: 'users', //collection on which the action has been triggered
values: {},
ids: [Array], //IDs of selected records
parent_collection_name: 'companies', //Parent collection name
parent_collection_id: '1', //Parent collection id
parent_association_name: 'users', //Name of the association
all_records: false,
all_records_subset_query: {},
all_records_ids_excluded: [],
smart_action_id: 'users-reset-password'
},
type: 'custom-action-requests'
}
}
Customizing response
Default success notification
Returning a 204 status code to the HTTP request of the Smart Action shows the default notification message in the browser.
On our Live Demo example, if our Smart Action Mark as Live route is implemented like this:
If we return a 200 status code with an object { success: '...' } as the payload like this…
/routes/companies.js
...
router.post('/actions/mark-as-live', permissionMiddlewareCreator.smartAction(), (req, res) => {
// ...
res.send({ success: 'Company is now live!' });
});
...
/routes/companies.js
...
router.post('/actions/mark-as-live', permissionMiddlewareCreator.smartAction(), (req, res) => {
// ...
res.send({ success: 'Company is now live!' });
});
...
class Forest::CompaniesController < ForestLiana::SmartActionsController
def mark_as_live
# ...
render json: { success: 'Company is now live!' }
end
end
app/views.py
from django.http import JsonResponse
from django_forest.utils.views.action import ActionView
class MarkAsLiveView(ActionView):
def post(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
return JsonResponse({'success': 'Company is now live!'})
app/Http/Controllers/CompaniesController.php
class CompaniesController extends ForestController
{
/**
* @return JsonResponse
*/
public function markAsLive(): JsonResponse
{
# ....
return response()->json(['success' => "Company is now live !"]);
}
}
… the success notification will look like this:
Custom error notification
Finally, returning a 400 status code allows you to return errors properly.
/routes/companies.js
...
router.post('/actions/mark-as-live', permissionMiddlewareCreator.smartAction(), (req, res) => {
// ...
res.status(400).send({ error: 'The company was already live!' });
});
...
/routes/companies.js
...
router.post('/actions/mark-as-live', permissionMiddlewareCreator.smartAction(), (req, res) => {
// ...
res.status(400).send({ error: 'The company was already live!' });
});
...
/app/controllers/forest/companies_controller.rb
class Forest::CompaniesController < ForestLiana::SmartActionsController
def mark_as_live
# ...
render status: 400, json: { error: 'The company was already live!' }
end
end
app/views.py
from django.http import JsonResponse
from django_forest.utils.views.action import ActionView
class MarkAsLiveView(ActionView):
def post(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
return JsonResponse({'error': 'The company was already live!'}, status=400)
app/Http/Controllers/CompaniesController.php
class CompaniesController extends ForestController
{
/**
* @return JsonResponse
*/
public function markAsLive(): JsonResponse
{
# ....
return response()->json(['error' => "The company was already live!"], 400);
}
}
Custom HTML response
You can also return a HTML page as a response to give more feedback to the admin user who has triggered your Smart Action. To do this, you just need to return a 200 status code with an object { html: '...' }.
On our Live Demo example, we’ve created a Charge credit card Smart Action on the Collection customersthat returns a custom HTML response.
/forest/companies.js
const { collection } = require('forest-express-sequelize');
collection('customers', {
actions: [
{
name: 'Charge credit card',
type: 'single',
fields: [
{
field: 'amount',
isRequired: true,
description:
'The amount (USD) to charge the credit card. Example: 42.50',
type: 'Number',
},
{
field: 'description',
isRequired: true,
description:
'Explain the reason why you want to charge manually the customer here',
type: 'String',
},
],
},
],
});
class Forest::Customer
include ForestLiana::Collection
collection :Customer
action 'Charge credit card', type: 'single', fields: [{
field: 'amount',
is_required: true,
description: 'The amount (USD) to charge the credit card. Example: 42.50',
type: 'Number'
}, {
field: 'description',
is_required: true,
description: 'Explain the reason why you want to charge manually the customer here',
type: 'String'
}]
end
/config/routes.rb
Rails.application.routes.draw do
# MUST be declared before the mount ForestLiana::Engine.
namespace :forest do
post '/actions/charge-credit-card' => 'customers#charge_credit_card'
end
mount ForestLiana::Engine => '/forest'
end
<?php
namespace App\Models;
use ForestAdmin\LaravelForestAdmin\Services\Concerns\ForestCollection;
use ForestAdmin\LaravelForestAdmin\Services\SmartFeatures\SmartAction;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\HasMany;
/**
* Class Customer
*/
class Customer extends Model
{
use HasFactory, ForestCollection;
/**
* @return SmartAction
*/
public function chargeCreditCard(): SmartAction
{
$this->smartAction('single', 'Charge credit card')
->addField(
[
'field' => 'amount',
'type' => 'Number',
'is_required' => true,
'description' => 'The amount (USD) to charge the credit card. Example: 42.50'
]
)
->addField(
[
'field' => 'description',
'type' => 'String',
'is_required' => true,
'description' => 'Explain the reason why you want to charge manually the customer here'
]
);
}
routes/web.php
<?php
use App\Http\Controllers\CustomersController;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
Route::post('forest/smart-actions/customer_charge-credit-card', [CustomersController::class, 'chargeCreditCard']);
app/Http/Controllers/CustomersController.php
<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use App\Models\Customer;
use ForestAdmin\LaravelForestAdmin\Http\Controllers\ForestController;
use Illuminate\Http\JsonResponse;
/**
* Class CustomersController
*/
class CustomersController extends ForestController
{
/**
* @return JsonResponse
*/
public function chargeCreditCard(): JsonResponse
{
$customer = Customer::find(request()->input('data.attributes.ids')[0]);
$stripe = new (
'sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc'
);
$response = $stripe->charges->create([
'amount' => request()->input('data.attributes.values.amount'),
'currency' => 'usd',
'customer' => $customer->stripe_id,
'description' => 'My First Test Charge (created for API docs)',
]);
return response()->json(
['html' => '
<p class="c-clr-1-4 l-mt l-mb">'. $response->amount / 100 .' USD has been successfully charged.</p>
<strong class="c-form__label--read c-clr-1-2">Credit card</strong>
<p class="c-clr-1-4 l-mb">**** **** **** '. $response->source->last4 .'</p>
<strong class="c-form__label--read c-clr-1-2">Expire</strong>
<p class="c-clr-1-4 l-mb"> '. $response->source->exp_month .'/ '. $response->source->exp_year .'</p>
<strong class="c-form__label--read c-clr-1-2">Card type</strong>
<p class="c-clr-1-4 l-mb">'. $response->source->brand .'</p>
<strong class="c-form__label--read c-clr-1-2">Country</strong>
<p class="c-clr-1-4 l-mb">'. $response->source->country .'</p>
']
);
}
}
You can either respond with an HTML page in case of error. The user will be able to go back to his smart action's form by using the cross icon at the top right of the panel.
/forest/companies.js
const { collection } = require('forest-express-sequelize');
collection('customers', {
actions: [
{
name: 'Charge credit card',
type: 'single',
fields: [
{
field: 'amount',
isRequired: true,
description:
'The amount (USD) to charge the credit card. Example: 42.50',
type: 'Number',
},
{
field: 'description',
isRequired: true,
description:
'Explain the reason why you want to charge manually the customer here',
type: 'String',
},
],
},
],
});
/routes/customers.js
...
const stripe = require('stripe')(process.env.STRIPE_SECRET_KEY);
router.post('/actions/charge-credit-card', permissionMiddlewareCreator.smartAction(), (req, res) => {
let customerId = req.body.data.attributes.ids[0];
let amount = req.body.data.attributes.values.amount * 100;
let description = req.body.data.attributes.values.description;
return customers
.findByPk(customerId)
.then((customer) => {
return stripe.charges.create({
amount: amount,
currency: 'usd',
customer: customer.stripe_id,
description: description
});
})
.then((response) => {
res.status(400).send({
html: `
<p class="c-clr-1-4 l-mt l-mb">$${response.amount / 100} USD has not been charged.</p>
<strong class="c-form__label--read c-clr-1-2">Credit card</strong>
<p class="c-clr-1-4 l-mb">**** **** **** ${response.source.last4}</p>
<strong class="c-form__label--read c-clr-1-2">Reason</strong>
<p class="c-clr-1-4 l-mb">You can not charge this credit card. The card is marked as blocked</p>
`
});
});
});
...
module.exports = router;
/forest/companies.js
const { collection } = require('forest-express-mongoose');
collection('Customer', {
actions: [
{
name: 'Charge credit card',
type: 'single',
fields: [
{
field: 'amount',
isRequired: true,
description:
'The amount (USD) to charge the credit card. Example: 42.50',
type: 'Number',
},
{
field: 'description',
isRequired: true,
description:
'Explain the reason why you want to charge manually the customer here',
type: 'String',
},
],
},
],
});
/routes/customers.js
...
const stripe = require('stripe')(process.env.STRIPE_SECRET_KEY);
router.post('/actions/charge-credit-card', (req, res) => {
let customerId = req.body.data.attributes.ids[0];
let amount = req.body.data.attributes.values.amount * 100;
let description = req.body.data.attributes.values.description;
return Customer
.findById(customerId)
.then((customer) => {
return stripe.charges.create({
amount: amount,
currency: 'usd',
customer: customer.stripe_id,
description: description
});
})
.then((response) => {
res.status(400).send({
html: `
<p class="c-clr-1-4 l-mt l-mb">\$${response.amount / 100} USD has not been charged.</p>
<strong class="c-form__label--read c-clr-1-2">Credit card</strong>
<p class="c-clr-1-4 l-mb">**** **** **** ${record.source.last4}</p>
<strong class="c-form__label--read c-clr-1-2">Reason</strong>
<p class="c-clr-1-4 l-mb">You can not charge this credit card. The card is marked as blocked</p>
`
});
});
});
...
module.exports = router;
/lib/forest_liana/collections/customer.rb
class Forest::Customer
include ForestLiana::Collection
collection :Customer
action 'Charge credit card', type: 'single', fields: [{
field: 'amount',
is_required: true,
description: 'The amount (USD) to charge the credit card. Example: 42.50',
type: 'Number'
}, {
field: 'description',
is_required: true,
description: 'Explain the reason why you want to charge manually the customer here',
type: 'String'
}]
end
/config/routes.rb
Rails.application.routes.draw do
# MUST be declared before the mount ForestLiana::Engine.
namespace :forest do
post '/actions/charge-credit-card' => 'customers#charge_credit_card'
end
mount ForestLiana::Engine => '/forest'
end
/app/controllers/forest/customers_controller.rb
class Forest::CustomersController < ForestLiana::SmartActionsController
def charge_credit_card
customer_id = ForestLiana::ResourcesGetter.get_ids_from_request(params, forest_user).first
amount = params.dig('data', 'attributes', 'values', 'amount').to_i
description = params.dig('data', 'attributes', 'values', 'description')
customer = Customer.find(customer_id)
response = Stripe::Charge.create(
amount: amount * 100,
currency: 'usd',
customer: customer.stripe_id,
description: description
)
render status: 400, json: {
html: <<EOF
<p class="c-clr-1-4 l-mt l-mb">\$#{record.amount / 100} USD has not been charged.</p>
<strong class="c-form__label--read c-clr-1-2">Credit card</strong>
<p class="c-clr-1-4 l-mb">**** **** **** #{record.source.last4}</p>
<strong class="c-form__label--read c-clr-1-2">Reason</strong>
<p class="c-clr-1-4 l-mb">You can not charge this credit card. The card is marked as blocked</p>
EOF
}
end
end
app/forest/customer.py
from django_forest.utils.collection import Collection
from app.models import Company
class CompanyForest(Collection):
def load(self):
self.actions = [{
'name': 'Charge credit card',
'fields': [
{
'field': 'amount',
'description': 'The amount (USD) to charge the credit card. Example: 42.50',
'isRequired': True,
'type': 'Number'
},
{
'field': 'description',
'description': 'Explain the reason why you want to charge manually the customer here',
'isRequired': True,
'type': 'String'
},
],
}]
Collection.register(CompanyForest, Company)
app/urls.py
from django.urls import path
from django.views.decorators.csrf import csrf_exempt
from . import views
app_name = 'app'
urlpatterns = [
path('/actions/charge-credit-card', csrf_exempt(views.ChargeCreditCardView.as_view()), name='charge-credit-card'),
]
app/views.py
import stripe
from django.http import JsonResponse
from django_forest.utils.views.action import ActionView
from .models import Customer
class ChargeCreditCardView(ActionView):
def post(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
params = request.GET.dict()
body = self.get_body(request.body)
ids = self.get_ids_from_request(request, self.Model)
amount = body['data']['attributes']['values']['amount'] * 100
description = body['data']['attributes']['values']['description']
customer = Customer.object.get(pk=ids[0])
stripe.api_key = os.getenv('STRIPE_SECRET_KEY')
response = stripe.Charge.create(
amount=amount,
currency='usd',
customer=customer.stripe_id,
description=description,
)
data = f'''
<p class="c-clr-1-4 l-mt l-mb">\${response.amount / 100} USD has not been charged.</p>
<strong class="c-form__label--read c-clr-1-2">Credit card</strong>
<p class="c-clr-1-4 l-mb">**** **** **** {response['source']['last4']}</p>
<strong class="c-form__label--read c-clr-1-2">Reason</strong>
<p class="c-clr-1-4 l-mb">You can not charge this credit card. The card is marked as blocked</p>
'''
return JsonResponse({'html': data}, safe=False, status=status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST)
app/Models/Customer.php
<?php
namespace App\Models;
use ForestAdmin\LaravelForestAdmin\Services\Concerns\ForestCollection;
use ForestAdmin\LaravelForestAdmin\Services\SmartFeatures\SmartAction;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\HasMany;
/**
* Class Customer
*/
class Customer extends Model
{
use HasFactory, ForestCollection;
/**
* @return SmartAction
*/
public function chargeCreditCard(): SmartAction
{
$this->smartAction('single', 'Charge credit card')
->addField(
[
'field' => 'amount',
'type' => 'Number',
'is_required' => true,
'description' => 'The amount (USD) to charge the credit card. Example: 42.50'
]
)
->addField(
[
'field' => 'description',
'type' => 'String',
'is_required' => true,
'description' => 'Explain the reason why you want to charge manually the customer here'
]
);
}
routes/web.php
<?php
use App\Http\Controllers\CustomersController;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
Route::post('forest/smart-actions/customer_charge-credit-card', [CustomersController::class, 'chargeCreditCard']);
app/Http/Controllers/CustomersController.php
<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use App\Models\Customer;
use ForestAdmin\LaravelForestAdmin\Http\Controllers\ForestController;
use Illuminate\Http\JsonResponse;
/**
* Class CustomersController
*/
class CustomersController extends ForestController
{
/**
* @return JsonResponse
*/
public function chargeCreditCard(): JsonResponse
{
$customer = Customer::find(request()->input('data.attributes.ids')[0]);
$stripe = new (
'sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc'
);
$response = $stripe->charges->create([
'amount' => request()->input('data.attributes.values.amount'),
'currency' => 'usd',
'customer' => $customer->stripe_id,
'description' => 'My First Test Charge (created for API docs)',
]);
return response()->json(
['html' => '
<p class="c-clr-1-4 l-mt l-mb">\$$response->amount / 100} USD has not been charged.</p>
<strong class="c-form__label--read c-clr-1-2">Credit card</strong>
<p class="c-clr-1-4 l-mb">**** **** **** $response->source->last4}</p>
<strong class="c-form__label--read c-clr-1-2">Reason</strong>
<p class="c-clr-1-4 l-mb">You can not charge this credit card. The card is marked as blocked</p>
'],
400,
);
}
}
Setting up a webhook
After a smart action you can set up a HTTP (or HTTPS) callback - a webhook - to forward information to other applications.
To set up a webhook all you have to do is to add a webhookobject in the response of your action.
response.send({
webhook: {
// This is the object that will be used to fire http calls.
url: 'http://my-company-name', // The url of the company providing the service.
method: 'POST', // The method you would like to use (typically a POST).
headers: {}, // You can add some headers if needed (you can remove it).
body: {
// A body to send to the url (only JSON supported).
adminToken: 'your-admin-token',
},
},
});
response.send({
webhook: {
// This is the object that will be used to fire http calls.
url: 'http://my-company-name', // The url of the company providing the service.
method: 'POST', // The method you would like to use (typically a POST).
headers: {}, // You can add some headers if needed (you can remove it).
body: {
// A body to send to the url (only JSON supported).
adminToken: 'your-admin-token',
},
},
});
render json: {
webhook: { # This is the object that will be used to fire http calls.
url: 'http://my-company-name', # The url of the company providing the service.
method: 'POST', # The method you would like to use (typically a POST).
headers: {}, # You can add some headers if needed (you can remove it).
body: { # A body to send to the url (only JSON supported).
adminToken: 'your-admin-token',
}
}
}
return JsonResponse({
'webhook': { # This is the object that will be used to fire http calls.
'url': 'http://my-company-name', # The url of the company providing the service.
'method': 'POST', # The method you would like to use (typically a POST).
'headers': {}, # You can add some headers if needed (you can remove it).
'body': { # A body to send to the url (only JSON supported).
'adminToken': 'your-admin-token',
}
}
})
return response()->json(
[
'webhook' => [
'url' => 'http://my-company-name', # The url of the company providing the service.
'method' => 'POST', # The method you would like to use (typically a POST).
'headers' => [], # You can add some headers if needed (you can remove it).
'body' => [ # A body to send to the url (only JSON supported).
'adminToken' => 'your-admin-token',
],
],
]
);
Webhooks are commonly used to perform smaller requests and tasks, like sending emails or impersonating a user.
Another interesting use of this is automating SSO authentication into your external apps.
Downloading a file
On our Live Demo, the collection customers has a Smart Action Generate invoice. In this use case, we want to download the generated PDF invoice after clicking on the action. To indicate a Smart Action returns something to download, you have to enable the option download.
/forest/customers.js
const { collection } = require('forest-express-sequelize');
collection('customers', {
actions: [
{
name: 'Generate invoice',
download: true, // If true, the action triggers a file download in the Browser.
},
],
});
On our Live Demo, the collection customers has a Smart Action Generate invoice. In this use case, we want to download the generated PDF invoice after clicking on the action. To indicate a Smart Action returns something to download, you have to enable the option download.
/forest/customers.js
const { collection } = require('forest-express-mongoose');
collection('Customer', {
actions: [
{
name: 'Generate invoice',
download: true, // If true, the action triggers a file download in the Browser.
},
],
});
On our Live Demo, the collection Customer has a Smart Action Generate invoice. In this use case, we want to download the generated PDF invoice after clicking on the action. To indicate a Smart Action returns something to download, you have to enable the option download.
Don’t forget to expose the Content-Disposition header in the CORS configuration (as shown in the code below) to be able to customize the filename to download.
/lib/forest_liana/collections/customer.rb
class Forest::Customer
include ForestLiana::Collection
collection :Customer
action 'Generate invoice', download: true
end
/config/routes.rb
Rails.application.routes.draw do
# MUST be declared before the mount ForestLiana::Engine.
namespace :forest do
post '/actions/generate-invoice' => 'customers#generate_invoice'
end
mount ForestLiana::Engine => '/forest'
end
/config/application.rb
module LiveDemoRails
class Application < Rails::Application
config.middleware.insert_before 0, Rack::Cors do
allow do
origins '*'
resource '*', :headers => :any, :methods => [:get, :post, :options],
# you MUST expose the Content-Disposition header to customize the file to download.
expose: ['Content-Disposition']
end
end
end
end
/app/controllers/forest/customers_controller.rb
class Forest::CustomersController < ForestLiana::SmartActionsController
def generate_invoice
data = open("#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/../../../public/invoice-2342.pdf" )
send_data data.read, filename: 'invoice-2342.pdf', type: 'application/pdf', disposition: 'attachment'
end
end
On our Live Demo, the collection Customer has a Smart Action Generate invoice. In this use case, we want to download the generated PDF invoice after clicking on the action. To indicate a Smart Action returns something to download, you have to enable the option download.
Don’t forget to expose the Content-Disposition header in the CORS configuration (as shown in the code below) to be able to customize the filename to download.
app/forest/customer.py
from django_forest.utils.collection import Collection
from app.models import Customer
class CustomerForest(Collection):
def load(self):
self.actions = [{
'name': 'Generate invoice',
'download': True
}]
Collection.register(CustomerForest, Customer)
app/urls.py
from django.urls import path
from django.views.decorators.csrf import csrf_exempt
from . import views
app_name = 'app'
urlpatterns = [
path('/actions/generate-invoice', csrf_exempt(views.GenerateInvoiceView.as_view()), name='generate-invoice'),
]
app/views.py
from datetime import datetime
from django.http import HttpResponse
from django_forest.utils.views.action import ActionView
class GenerateInvoiceView(ActionView):
def post(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
params = request.GET.dict()
body = self.get_body(request.body)
ids = self.get_ids_from_request(request, self.Model)
with open('public/invoice-2342.pdf', rb) as f:
file_data = f.read()
return HttpResponse(
file_data,
content_type='application/pdf',
headers={
'Content-Disposition': f'attachment; filename="invoice-2342.pdf"',
'Last-Modified': datetime.now(),
'X-Accel-Buffering': 'no',
'Cache-Control': 'no-cache'
},
)
On our Live Demo, the collection Customer has a Smart Action Generate invoice. In this use case, we want to download the generated PDF invoice after clicking on the action. To indicate a Smart Action returns something to download, you have to enable the option download.
app/Models/Customer.php
<?php
namespace App\Models;
use ForestAdmin\LaravelForestAdmin\Services\Concerns\ForestCollection;
use ForestAdmin\LaravelForestAdmin\Services\SmartFeatures\SmartAction;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
/**
* Class Customer
*/
class Customer extends Model
{
use HasFactory, ForestCollection;
/**
* @return SmartAction
*/
public function generateInvoice(): SmartAction
{
return $this->smartAction('single', 'Generate invoice')
->download(true);
}
}
routes/web.php
<?php
use App\Http\Controllers\CustomersController;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
Route::post('forest/smart-actions/customer_generate-invoice', [CustomersController::class, 'generateInvoice']);
app/Http/Controllers/CustomersController.php
<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use App\Models\Customer;
use ForestAdmin\LaravelForestAdmin\Http\Controllers\ForestController;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\BinaryFileResponse;
/**
* Class CustomersController
*/
class CustomersController extends ForestController
{
/**
* @return BinaryFileResponse
*/
public function generateInvoice()
{
return response()->download(public_path('files/invoice-2342.pdf'));
}
}
Want to upload your files to Amazon S3? Check out this this Woodshop tutorial.
Refreshing your related data
If you want to create an action accessible from the details or the summary view of a record involving related data, this section may interest you.
In the example below, the “Add new transaction” action (1) is accessible from the summary view. This action creates a new transaction and automatically refresh the “Emitted transactions” related data section (2) to see the new transaction.
Below is the sample code. We use faker to generate random data in our example. Remember to install it if you wish to use it (npm install faker).
/forest/companies.js
const { collection } = require('forest-express-sequelize');
collection('companies', {
actions: [
{
name: 'Add new transaction',
description: 'Name of the company who will receive the transaction.',
fields: [
{
field: 'Beneficiary company',
description: 'Name of the company who will receive the transaction.',
reference: 'companies.id',
},
{
field: 'Amount',
type: 'Number',
},
],
},
],
});
/routes/companies.js
...
const faker = require('faker');
router.post('/actions/add-new-transaction', permissionMiddlewareCreator.smartAction(),
(req, res) => {
let emitterCompanyId = req.body.data.attributes.ids[0]
let beneficiaryCompanyId = req.body.data.attributes.values['Beneficiary company']
let amount = req.body.data.attributes.values['Amount']
return transactions
.create({
emitter_company_id: emitterCompanyId,
beneficiary_company_id: beneficiaryCompanyId,
beneficiary_iban: faker.finance.iban(),
emitter_iban: faker.finance.iban(),
vat_amount: faker.finance.amount(500, 10000, 0),
fee_amount: faker.finance.amount(500, 10000, 0),
status: ['to_validate', 'validated', 'rejected'].sample,
note: faker.lorem.sentences(),
amount: amount,
emitter_bic: faker.finance.bic(),
beneficiary_bic: faker.finance.bic()
})
.then(() => {
// the code below automatically refresh the related data
// 'emitted_transactions' on the Companies' Summary View
// after submitting the Smart action form.
res.send({
success: 'New transaction emitted',
refresh: { relationships: ['emitted_transactions'] },
});
});
});
Below is the sample code. We use faker to generate random data in our example. Remember to install it if you wish to use it (npm install faker).
/forest/companies.js
const { collection } = require('forest-express-mongoose');
collection('Company', {
actions: [
{
name: 'Add new transaction',
description: 'Name of the company who will receive the transaction.',
fields: [
{
field: 'Beneficiary company',
description: 'Name of the company who will receive the transaction.',
reference: 'Company',
},
{
field: 'Amount',
type: 'Number',
},
],
},
],
});
Below is the sample code. We use the gem 'faker' to easily generate fake data. Remember to add this gem to your Gemfile and install it (bundle install) if you wish to use it.
/lib/forest_liana/collections/company.rb
class Forest::Company
include ForestLiana::Collection
collection :Company
# ...
action 'Add new transaction', fields: [{
field: 'Beneficiary company',
description: 'Name of the company who will receive the transaction.',
reference: 'Company.id'
}, {
field: 'Amount',
type: 'Number'
}]
# ...
end
/controllers/forest/companies_controller.rb
class Forest::CompaniesController < ForestLiana::SmartActionsController
# ...
def add_new_transaction
attrs = params.dig('data','attributes', 'values')
beneficiary_company_id = attrs['Beneficiary company']
emitter_company_id = ForestLiana::ResourcesGetter.get_ids_from_request(params, forest_user).first
amount = attrs['Amount']
Transaction.create!(
emitter_company_id: emitter_company_id,
beneficiary_company_id: beneficiary_company_id,
beneficiary_iban: Faker::Code.imei,
emitter_iban: Faker::Code.imei,
vat_amount: Faker::Number.number(4),
fee_amount: Faker::Number.number(4),
status: ['to_validate', 'validated', 'rejected'].sample,
note: Faker::Lorem.paragraph,
amount: amount,
emitter_bic: Faker::Code.nric,
beneficiary_bic: Faker::Code.nric
)
# the code below automatically refresh the related data
# 'emitted_transactions' on the Companies' Summary View
# after submitting the Smart action form.
render json: {
success: 'New transaction emitted',
refresh: { relationships: ['emitted_transactions'] },
}
end
end
/config/routes.rb
Rails.application.routes.draw do
# MUST be declared before the mount ForestLiana::Engine.
namespace :forest do
# ...
post '/actions/add-new-transaction' => 'companies#add_new_transaction'
# ...
end
mount ForestLiana::Engine => '/forest'
# For details on the DSL available within this file, see http://guides.rubyonrails.org/routing.html
end
Below is the sample code. We use the python Faker package to easily generate fake data. Remember to add this package to your requirements.txt and install it if you wish to use it.
app/forest/company.py
from django_forest.utils.collection import Collection
from app.models import Company
class CompanyForest(Collection):
def load(self):
self.actions = [{
'name': 'Add new transaction',
'fields': [
{
'field': 'amount',
'type': 'Number'
},
{
'field': 'Beneficiary company',
'description': 'Name of the company who will receive the transaction.',
'reference': 'app_company.id'
},
],
}]
Collection.register(CompanyForest, Company)
app/url.py
from django.urls import path
from django.views.decorators.csrf import csrf_exempt
from . import views
app_name = 'app'
urlpatterns = [
path('/actions/add-new-transaction', csrf_exempt(views.AddNewTransactionView.as_view()), name='add-new-transaction'),
]
app/views.py
from faker import Faker
from django.http import JsonResponse
from django_forest.utils.views.action import ActionView
from .models import Transaction
fake = Faker()
class AddNewTransactionView(ActionView):
def post(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
params = request.GET.dict()
body = self.get_body(request.body)
ids = self.get_ids_from_request(request, self.Model)
attrs = body['data']['attributes']['values']
beneficiary_company_id = attrs['Beneficiary company']
emitter_company_id = ids[0]
amount = attrs['Amount']
Transaction.objects.create(
emitter_company_id=emitter_company_id,
beneficiary_company_id=beneficiary_company_id,
beneficiary_iban=fake.iban(),
emitter_iban=fake.iban(),
vat_amount=fake.random_number(4),
fee_amount=fake.random_number(4),
status=['to_validate', 'validated', 'rejected'],
note=fake.paragraph(),
amount=amount,
emitter_bic=fake.bban(),
beneficiary_bic=fake.bban()
)
# the code below automatically refresh the related data
# 'emitted_transactions' on the Companies' Summary View
# after submitting the Smart action form.
return JsonResponse({
'success': 'New transaction emitted',
'refresh': {
'relationships': ['emitted_transactions']
}
})
Below is the sample code. We use the Faker package to easily generate fake data. Remember to add this package to your composer.json and install it if you wish to use it.
app/Models/Company.php
<?php
namespace App\Models;
use ForestAdmin\LaravelForestAdmin\Services\Concerns\ForestCollection;
use ForestAdmin\LaravelForestAdmin\Services\SmartFeatures\SmartAction;
use ForestAdmin\LaravelForestAdmin\Services\SmartFeatures\SmartActionField;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\HasMany;
/**
* Class Company
*/
class Company extends Model
{
use HasFactory, ForestCollection;
/**
* @return SmartAction
*/
public function addNewTransaction(): SmartAction
{
return $this->smartAction('single', 'Add new transaction')
->addField(
[
'field' => 'Beneficiary company',
'type' => 'Number',
'reference' => 'company.id',
'description' => 'Name of the company who will receive the transaction.',
]
)
->addField(
[
'field' => 'Amount',
'type' => 'Number',
]
);
}
}
app/Http/Controllers/CompaniesController.php
<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use App\Models\Company;
use App\Models\Transaction;
use Faker\Factory;
use ForestAdmin\LaravelForestAdmin\Http\Controllers\ForestController;
use Illuminate\Http\JsonResponse;
/**
* Class CompaniesController
*/
class CompaniesController extends ForestController
{
/**
* @return JsonResponse
*/
public function addNewTransaction(): JsonResponse
{
$faker = Factory::create();
$emitter_company_id = request()->input('data.attributes.ids')[0];
$beneficiary_company_id = request()->input('data.attributes.values.Beneficiary company');
$amount = request()->input('data.attributes.values.Amount');
$transaction = new Transaction();
$transaction->beneficiary_iban = $faker->iban();
$transaction->emitter_iban = $faker->iban();
$transaction->vat_amount = 20;
$transaction->amount = $amount;
$transaction->fee_amount = $faker->numberBetween(10, 100);
$transaction->note = '';
$transaction->emitter_bic = $faker->swiftBicNumber();
$transaction->beneficiary_bic = $faker->swiftBicNumber();
$transaction->reference = $faker->text(16);
$transaction->status = 'WAITING';
$transaction->beneficiary_company_id = $beneficiary_company_id;
$transaction->emitter_company_id = $emitter_company_id;
$transaction->save();
// the code below automatically refresh the related data
// 'emitted_transactions' on the Companies' Summary View
// after submitting the Smart action form.
return response()->json(
[
'success' => 'New transaction emitted',
'refresh' => ['relationships' => ['emittedTransaction']]
]
);
}
}
routes/web.php
<?php
use App\Http\Controllers\CompaniesController;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
Route::post('forest/smart-actions/company_add-new-transaction', [CompaniesController::class, 'addNewTransaction']);
Redirecting to a different page on success
To streamline your operation workflow, it could make sense to redirect to another page after a Smart action was successfully executed.
It is possible using the redirectTo property.
The redirection works both for internal (*.forestadmin.com pages) and external links.
class Forest::Company
include ForestLiana::Collection
collection :Company
action 'Return and track'
action 'Show some activity'
end
/config/routes.rb
...
namespace :forest do
post '/actions/return-and-track' => 'company#redirect_externally'
post '/actions/show-some-activity' => 'company#redirect_internally'
end
...
from django_forest.utils.collection import Collection
from app.models import Company
class CompanyForest(Collection):
def load(self):
self.actions = [{
'name': 'Return and track',
}, {
'name': 'Show some activity',
}]
Collection.register(CompanyForest, Company)
app/urls.py
from django.urls import path
from django.views.decorators.csrf import csrf_exempt
from . import views
app_name = 'app'
urlpatterns = [
path('/actions/return-and-track', csrf_exempt(views.ReturnAndTrackView.as_view()), name='return-and-track'),
path('/actions/show-some-activity', csrf_exempt(views.ShowSomeActivityView.as_view()), name='show-some-activity'),
]
app/views.py
from django.http import JsonResponse
from django_forest.utils.views.action import ActionView
class ReturnAndTrackView(ActionView):
def post(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
return JsonResponse({
'success': 'Return initiated successfully.',
'redirectTo': 'https://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/track?trackNumber=ZW924750388GB',
})
class ShowSomeActivityView(ActionView):
def post(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
return JsonResponse({
'success': 'Return initiated successfully.',
'redirectTo': '/MyProject/MyEnvironment/MyTeam/data/20/index/record/20/108/activity',
})
app/Models/company.php
<?php
namespace App\Models;
use ForestAdmin\LaravelForestAdmin\Services\Concerns\ForestCollection;
use ForestAdmin\LaravelForestAdmin\Services\SmartFeatures\SmartAction;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
/**
* Class Company
*/
class Company extends Model
{
use HasFactory, ForestCollection;
/**
* @return SmartAction
*/
public function returnAndTrack(): SmartAction
{
return $this->smartAction('single', 'Return and track');
}
/**
* @return SmartAction
*/
public function showSomeActivity(): SmartAction
{
return $this->smartAction('single', 'Show some activity');
}
}
<?php
use App\Http\Controllers\CompaniesController;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
Route::post('forest/smart-actions/company_return-and-track', [CompaniesController::class, 'returnAndTrack']);
Route::post('forest/smart-actions/company_show-some-activity', [CompaniesController::class, 'showSomeActivity']);
Your external links must use the http or https protocol.
Enable/Disable a Smart Action according to the state of a record
Sometimes, your Smart Action only makes sense depending on the state of your records. On our Live Demo, it does not make any sense to enable the Mark as Live Smart Action on the companies collection if the company is already live, right?
In the collection settings, you can configure the UI options of your Smart Actions.
Restrict a smart action to specific roles
When using Forest Admin collaboratively with clear roles defined it becomes relevant to restrict a smart action only to a select few. This functionality is accessible through Smart Actions Permissions in the Role section of your Project Settings.
Learn more about roles.
Require approval for a Smart action
Critical actions for your business may need approval before being processed.
Set up your approval workflow
To add an additional layer of security over a smart action, head over to the Roles tab of your projects settings. From there, you'll be able to select Trigger with approval for that smart action. Note that this must be set for each role.
Review approval requests
Actions requiring approval will be available in the Collaboration menu (3) in the “Approvals” section:
“Requested” for all incoming requests (yours to approve or not)
“To Review” (4) for requests you need to review
“History” for all past requests.
In “To Review”, you will be able to approve or reject the request (5) with an optional message (6) for more details.
Review past approval requests
All past approval requests - made by you or other approvers - in the History tab (1).
You can export your approval requests history from this tab using the top right button (2).
You can get more details on a specific action by clicking on it:
Want to go further with Smart Actions? Read the next page to discover how to make your Smart Actions even more powerful with Forms!
