About actions

Actions are tasks that users are assigned to and that users can complete when dealing with long-running workflows. and user intervention is required before proceeding to the next step in the workflow.

Check the Working with long running workflows page for an overview of long-running workflows

Action types

Form actions

Form Actions ask for input through forms and they are compatible with the form.io framework only. Orchestrator handles form visualization, action assignment, and completion.

According to your use cases, you can further customize your form actions. Visit Working with Form Actions to learn what features you can use inside form actions.

External actions

External Actions are handled in external systems, such as JIRA or Salesforce, contributing to the suspend-resume cycle in an Orchestration Process, as external automation can create the Action in Orchestrator and suspend the workflow until the Action is completed. A form schema does not restrict them, and there is no visualization provided for such Actions. Upon completion, data input is mapped back to the workflow variables.

Action assignment is handled externally. Therefore, External Actions cannot be assigned to users.

In case the external automation cannot complete the action, you can do it instead based on an action performed within the corresponding external system. To complete an external action, you need Edit permissions on Actions and access to the associated folder.

Data Labeling actions

Data Labeling Actions handle user input to identify data coming from attached files, and add specific labels to it. The labels indicate what the data is about. These labels are later used to train ML models in AI CenterTM. Data labeling Actions, based on classification, allow users to select one or more classes. Data labeling Actions based on (NER) Named Entity Recognition, allow users to recognize specific entities in data.

When you select Submit inside the Data Labeling action, you save the labels that will later appear in AI Center.

You can create a Data Labeling action either through the Create Labeling Task activity, or by selecting Send to labelers. You can find the Send to labelers button in AI Center, in the Data Labeling page, inside the Label tab.

Document validation actions

Document validation Actions handle user input in order to review and correct automatic data extraction results.

Document validation is performed in Orchestrator using the validation station. At action creation, document data is uploaded into a storage bucket, enabling the user to act upon it. Upon completion of the action, the validated extracted data is downloaded, and the workflow resumes. To delete the downloaded data, automatically, check the Remove Data from Storage box in the Wait For Document Validation Action And Resume activity.

Document classification actions

Document classification Actions handle user input in order to review and correct document classification.

Document classification is performed in Orchestrator using the classification station.

At action creation, document data is uploaded into a storage bucket, enabling the user to act upon it. Upon completion of the action, the validated classified data is downloaded, and the workflow resumes. To delete the downloaded data, automatically, check the Remove Data from Storage box in the Wait For Document Classification Action And Resume activity.

Note:

Starting with Action Center 2021.10, document types used in Document Validation and Document Classification Actions can be created either as single files or as part of a group in their corresponding taxonomy.

Read more in our Document Understanding guide.

Important:

Web browser access to Amazon and Azure storage buckets can sometimes be restricted due to Cross Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) and Content Security Policy (CSP) settings.

Allow identified entities in the web application.

For details on how to configure CORS and CSP settings, click here.

Generating processes

Visit Processes types to learn about the generating processes for each type of action.

Action statuses

The following Action statuses are available:

• Unassigned—The Action has been generated and hasn't been assigned to any user.
• Pending—The Action has been assigned and awaits user validation.
• Completed—The Action has been validated and completed. Once completed, validation cannot be reverted.

Action views

The Action views display the lists of Pending,Unassigned, and Completed Actions available in the tenant and the folder that you have access to.

Action Center has two predefined views for Actions:

• My Actions - enabled for all Action users. Allows you to manage your Actions only.
• Manage Actions - usually enabled for an Action Admin User. Allows you to manage both your Actions, and other users' Actions.

Action filtering operations

The table below describes the filtering operations that are available for Actions, inside the Inbox tab.

Filter by	Description
Priority	Show Actions based on their priority status.
Time	Show Actions based on the time when they were created.
Type	Show Actions based on their type: Form, External, Document Validation, Document Classification. To learn more about action types, see the Action Types section.
Action Catalog	Show Actions based on the Action catalog they are linked to.
Label	Show Actions based on the labels that they have.
Forwarded Actions	For the My Actions view, show Actions forwarded to the current user only. For the Manage Actions view, show Actions forwarded to all users only.

Action sorting operations

The table below describes the sorting operations that are available for Actions, inside the Inbox tab.

Sort by	Description
Priority (High to Low)	Sort actions based on their priority status, from High (Critical) to Low.
Time	Sort actions based on the time when they were created, from newest to oldest.
Type	Sort actions based on their type. Sort them in: Ascending order (Forms,External,Data Labeling,Document Validation,Document Classification) OR Descending order (Document Classification,Document Validation,Data Labeling,External,Form).
Action Catalog	Sort actions based on the name of the Action catalog they are linked to. Sort the names in Ascending (A to Z) or Descending (Z to A) order.

Editing actions properties

Both Action Users and Action Admin Users can perform the Edit properties operation. However, Action Users can edit the properties of their own Pending actions, whereas Action Admin Users can edit the properties of either Pending or Unassigned Actions.

You can edit the following Action properties:

• Name
• Priority
• Action catalog
• Comments.

Note: The editing operation and the user performing it are visible on the Audit page of the corresponding tenant.

Bulk editing and completing actions

Action Users can perform the Bulk edit operation for the Form Actions assigned to them.

Important:

• To enable bulk edit on Actions, the corresponding Form Actions must be created using the Bulk Form Designer, which is available starting with v1.3.0 of the UiPath.Persistence.Activities package.
• Bulk editing is available only for Actions with the same bulk form layout. You can bulk edit Actions generated by different process versions only if the bulk form layout has not been modified between versions.
• You can bulk edit a maximum of 100 actions at a time.

Labeling actions

Labels (or Tags) offer optimal management of Actions, through quick Action identification and accurate Action assignment. Together with Action catalogs, action priorities, or action names, labels provide a more granular structure for actions. Therefore, action users and administrators can search, sort, or filter the Action Center inbox by specific labels, narrowing the list and the corresponding operations.

Label permissions

Both Action Users and Action Admin Users can perform the Edit labels operation, as long as they have the proper permissions set.

To see the required permissions to manage labels, check the Roles and permissions section.