Entity Actions

Entity Actions add custom action buttons to the right-hand sidebar of any entity edit page in the DonorPoint admin. They are the primary tool for extending the admin UI with account-specific operations without modifying any generated code.

What Entity Actions Do

An Entity Action places a button in the sidebar of a record’s edit page. When a staff member clicks the button, one of three things happens depending on the action type:

Entity Actions are defined per account and appear on every record of the configured entity type.

Creating an Entity Action

Entity Actions are found on the Integration sidebar.

1. Go to Integration > Entity Actions.
2. Click Create New Entity Action.
3. Enter a Name — displayed as the button label (can be an EL expression for dynamic labels).
4. Select the Entity Type the action applies to (Contact, Campaign, Organization, PurchaseOrder, etc.).
5. Set the Action Type (ScriptModule, Dialog, or Link Fragment).
6. Configure type-specific settings (see below).
7. Set optional Rendered Rule, Disabled Rule, and Confirmation Prompt.
8. Choose an Icon (Font Awesome class).
9. Ensure Active is checked.
10. Save.

Common Properties

ScriptModule Action

The most common type. Runs a Script Module when the button is clicked. The current entity is available as this in the script.

Example: Send Custom Acknowledgment

Entity Type: Contact
Script Module: SendMajorGiftAcknowledgment

import "mailer";
import "queryService";

// Get the most recent major gift for this contact
var gifts = queryService.createQuery(
    "select po from PurchaseOrder po where po.contact = :contact " +
    "and po.status = 'ACTIVE' and po.amount >= 1000 " +
    "order by po.orderReceived desc"
).setParameter('contact', this)
 .setMaxResults(1)
 .getResultList();

if (gifts.size() > 0) {
    var gift = gifts.get(0);
    mailer.sendEmail(
        this.email,
        'Thank you for your generous gift',
        'Dear ' + this.firstName + ', thank you for your gift of $' + gift.amount + '.'
    );
    log.info('Sent acknowledgment to ' + this.email);
} else {
    log.warn('No major gift found for contact ' + this.id);
}

Example: Export Contact to External CRM

Entity Type: Contact
Rendered Rule: contact.get('ExternalCrmId') == null or contact.get('ExternalCrmId').value == ''
Confirmation Prompt: 'Export ' + contact.firstName + ' ' + contact.lastName + ' to external CRM?'

Dialog Action

Opens a Bootstrap modal dialog with custom HTML content. The dialog can contain forms, buttons that trigger server-side actions, and EL expressions evaluated at render time.

The dialog content is specified as XHTML stored in the action configuration. The current entity is available as this in EL expressions within the dialog content.

Example dialog content:

<h:panelGroup>
  <h3>Custom Action for #{entityAction.name}</h3>
  <p>Contact: #{contact.firstName} #{contact.lastName}</p>
  <h:commandButton value="Perform Action"
    action="#{myCustomBean.performAction(contact)}"
    update="dialogContent" />
</h:panelGroup>

Link Fragment Action

Renders a custom XHTML fragment directly in the sidebar area instead of a button. Use this for displaying read-only information alongside the standard sidebar links, or for complex custom UI that needs more than a simple button.

Entity Actions vs. Campaign Template Actions

Entity Actions are configured per account and apply to specific entity types globally — every Contact, every Campaign, etc.

Campaign Template Actions are configured per Campaign Template and appear in the sidebar of campaigns created from that template. Use Campaign Template Actions for campaign-specific operations; use Entity Actions for operations that apply across all records of a type.

See Campaign Templates for Template Actions.

Common Use Cases