Dalet Flex Core: Understanding Actions

Introduction to Actions

An action is a small unit of work that Dalet Flex carries out on your behalf.

Examples of action types are:

• Ingest: Ingesting a media file.
• Transcode: Converting a media clip from one format to another.
• Publish: Publishing your media to the appropriate platform.

An action type is an abstract term and relies on actions (plugins) to implement specific work. For example, the Publish action type states that we are planning to publish some content to a remote platform.
However, it doesn't specify which platform or how the content will be processed and delivered to a platform.

This is where the action or plugin comes in. An action is a specific implementation of an action type.

The Publish action can have the following actions:

• Publish to YouTube
• Publish to Daily Motion

Differences between Action and Plugin

An action is also a type of Dalet Flex plugin, we can use the word action and plugin interchangeably.
Plugins help developers to extend the functionality of Dalet Flex in a simple, modular way. New plugins can be created using Flex API. So if, for example, a new internet TV service
(let’s call it "New TV") is launched, a developer could create a new plugin with the action type of Publish, and then deploy it to Dalet Flex.

A typical instance of Dalet Flex will have a default action for each action type. The default plugins are highly configurable to support lots of different scenarios. When the default action does not deliver the functionality you need, for example publishing a video to YouTube, then you would utilize a more specialised action.

Action Object Properties

Action Classifications

Actions can be grouped into certain classifications as follows:

• I/O: This means that this action carries out work that is related to I/O operations and relies on I/O resource types.
• Process: This means that this action carries out work that is related to processing and computing operations. It also relies on processing resource types.
• Capacity: This means that this action carries out work that is related to storage and retrieval of files, and relies on capacity resource types.
• Workflow: This means that the action carries out work that is related to the workflow context, and relies on a workflow instance to operate.

Action Behaviours

An action may or may not support the following behaviours depending upon the way it is executed or the way they handle a single asset or asset groups:

• Workflow Supported:If an action supports workflows then it can be accessed from within the Workflow Designer and it can be run within a workflow instance.
• Manual Launch Supported: If an action supports this behaviour then it can be run as a job from the asset toolbar.
• Group Execution Supported: If this is supported it means that this action can run against an asset group as well as a standalone asset. In this context a single job is created.
• Group Member Execution Supported: If this is supported it means this action can be run against the members of an asset group. In this context a group job is created.
• Redo Supported: This means that the action can be redone by executing a linked redo action. Such a redo operation is run as a separate job.
• Undo Supported: This means that the action can undone by executing a linked undo action. Such an undo operation is run as a separate job.