External actions

External actions let you extend OpenText Core Software Delivery Platform's functionality in various ways.

In this topic:

Overview

External actions can add the following extension types:

An external action usually includes two parts:

• The external action code. This takes the form of a web application, optionally backed by server-side services.

• A JSON object that defines where and how the action appears.

Prerequisites and permissions

• External actions are available as a technical preview.

• Creating and managing external actions requires Shared Space admin permissions.

Declare an external action

An external action is declared by a JSON configuration object. For examples of full JSON configuration objects, see the child topics.

The JSON object can be added to OpenText Core Software Delivery Platform in either of the following ways:

• Upload a zip bundle that includes a JSON file and the required code files.

• Add a JSON object directly in the External action editor, and reference an external web application, or a locally installed OS native application.

Upload a zip bundle

Bundle requirements:

• A top-level JSON file named action-configuration.json containing a single action configuration.

• Code files referenced by the action url.

The bundle must have the following structure:

my-action-bundle/
├── action-configuration.json
└── my-app/
    ├── index.html
    └── ...

Use the {bundle_url} token in your JSON configuration to reference files inside the bundle. At runtime, OpenText Core Software Delivery Platform resolves {bundle_url} to the root of the uploaded bundle.

To upload a zip bundle:

1. Open Settings > Management > External action editor.

2. Click Upload Bundle.

3. Select Upload New Action.

4. Choose the zip file.

5. Confirm upload.

Define an external action in the editor

1. Open Settings > Management > External action editor.

2. Add a valid JSON external action object.

3. Click Save.

Delete a bundle

To remove an uploaded bundle, remove the related action object from the JSON in the External action editor and save.

Next steps

Use the following topics to build each type of external action:

• Custom toolbar buttons: Add buttons to entity lists or details that trigger actions on selected entities.

• Custom Aviator chips: Add a custom prompt chip in Aviator for supported entities.

• Sidebar plugins: Create custom side panels for modules or entity details.

• Scripted widgets: Extend dashboards with custom widget types.

Related topics

• CORS for external actions: Configure Cross-Origin Resource Sharing when your external action is hosted on a different domain than OpenText Core Software Delivery Platform.

• User verification for external actions: Authenticate the invoking user from a remotely hosted external action using token-based verification or CORS-authenticated requests.