Buttons that run an API action

An action is a change a connected API accepts: create an invoice, refund a payment, cancel an order. A button puts that action where people work, so they run it from Sterodata without opening the other system. A button can sit in a table's menu, or on every row.

Where actions come from

Actions are part of a connection. An imported OpenAPI or WSDL description brings its own; review them when you connect the API. To add one by hand, open the connection under Settings, Integrations, go to the Actions tab and choose Add action: give it a Label, a Machine name, a Method (POST, PUT, PATCH or DELETE) and a Path, then add its inputs with Add parameter. Tick Destructive for an action that cannot be undone, and add a Confirmation message if people should read something first.

A button in a table's menu

1. Open the table and its More actions menu, then choose Custom actions.
2. Choose + Add button. Pick an action lists the API actions and the automations of the workspace. Pick one and choose Next.
3. Give the button a Label. For each of the action's Parameters, switch on Ask user to let the person fill it in, or leave it off to send the value you enter automatically. Insert variable offers values Sterodata fills in, such as the person pressing the button.
4. Add a Confirmation message if you want one, choose Done, then Save.

The button appears in the table's More actions menu. Pressed, it asks for the parameters marked Ask user and calls the API. A button that runs an automation starts it, after its confirmation message if it has one, and says so.

A button on every row

1. Add a field of type Actions (Buttons that run an action on the row, under Advanced).
2. In its settings choose + Add button, then Pick an action. Only the actions that fit this table are offered.
3. Set the Label, the Parameters and the Confirmation message as above. Insert variable also offers the row's own fields, so the action gets, for example, the order number of the row it was pressed on.
4. Choose Done and save the field.

Each row then shows the buttons in that field. Pressing one runs the action for that row.

Who can use them

• Adding buttons to a table's menu needs the right to change the table's structure. Actions themselves are added by workspace admins.
• The buttons are shown only to people who can edit the table, because they change data. On a row, they are greyed out for anyone who cannot.
• A button whose action is destructive is drawn in red with a warning sign, and asks before it runs.

See what was run

On the connection's page, Action log lists the recent calls: the action, the address it called, the API's answer code, how long it took and when, with the error when there was one.