External Actions

External Actions (Main Menu / Admin / External Actions) offer a convenient way to integrate Txture with other tools through dynamic links to external web URLs.

Introduction

External Actions are a great fit if you want to provide "jump links" from within Txture to an external website or web application. External links are always shown in the External Actions menu in the Sidebar:

For example, if you import Assets from your CMDB, and your CMDB has a web interface which allows to pass the Asset ID via the URL, the configuration could look as follows:

Please note that ${id} is a special placeholder which will be substituted with the ID belonging to the Asset in the datasource.

Further use cases include for example:

• Send an E-Mail to the caretaker: Use a mailto: URL and a Caretaker E-Mail property.
• Creating a ticket for the Asset in a ticket system: Use a suitable command URL and supply the ${id}.

Creating or Changing an External Action

You can create an External Action with the add button. The right panel will show a form for your new External Action. To change an existing action, select it from the list to open its editing form.

The Name field is a descriptive name for this action which will be shown in the list of External Applications. It will not be used anywhere outside the administration area. The name which will be displayed to the user in the sidebar is configured later on.

The Enabled checkbox allows you to enable or disable this External Action. A disabled action will appear in the list in the admin area, and can be saved and modified, however it will not be visible to any users outside the administration area. Disabling an action is useful if you want to temporarily disable an action, or to keep a configuration for future reference without exposing it to the users.

The Filter section determines for which Assets this External Action will be available. You can make the action available for All Datasources, manually created Assets only or for any of your existing Data Sources. Furthermore, you can restrict the External Action to be only applicable to Assets which belong to a given Asset Type. Please note that you can add multiple Asset Types here.

The Output section configures how the External Action link will be displayed to users, and which URL will be opened when the link is clicked. The Display Text is the actual name of the External Action which is visible to end users in the Sidebar. Please note that the listed variables are enabled in this field, so you can customize the display name based on the Property values of the Asset.

The URL field contains the actual URL which will be opened when the action is clicked. This field offers the same variables as the Display Text. Also note that different URL prefixes, such as mailto: are also possible.

You can also set an Icon for the action. This icon will appear next to the Display Name and can ease navigation for the user. We recommend to set up an icon which indicates the website or web application the URL will lead to.

Deleting an External Action

An External Action can be deleted by selecting it and clicking on the delete button. This action is permanent and cannot be undone. If you might need the action again in the future, consider disabling it instead.

FAQ

Why is a Property missing in the list of variables?

The list of available variables is the intersection of Properties which are linked to the Asset Types specified in the Filter section. For example, if you only select Application, all Properties of Application will be available. If you select Application and Database, only the Properties which are present in both Application and Database will be available.

Why is the ${id} variable not available?

The ${id} variable grants access to the ID of the Asset at its Data Source. Therefore, it is only available if you specify a Data Source in the Filter section. The ${id} variable will not be available if you select All Data Sources (including manually created assets) or Manually created Assets only.