About Actions, Packs and Plug-ins

Packs contain Actions or Plug-ins that allow you to enhance the functionality of your system and to integrate third-party products. You can create your own Actions or download Packs and Action Packs from our marketplace. You can do so either from the Automic Web Interface or using a Command Line Interface (CLI).

This page includes the following:

Prerequisites to Work with Packs and Plug-ins

To install, upgrade or remove Packs using the Automic Web Interface you have to install and configure the Plugin Manager. Otherwise, the Packs page is not displayed in the Administration perspective. For more information, see Configuring the Plugin Manager.

To install, upgrade or remove Packs using the Command Line Interface (CLI) you have to install and configure the Package Manager. For more information, see Installing and Configuring the Package Manager.

To create Actions you have to install and configure the Action Builder. For more information, see Configuring the Action Builder.

More information:

Marketplace

We build, test and continuously release new Action Packs that you can access with a valid CA/Broadcom account through our marketplace.

Our marketplace is also a platform for our user and business-partner community to share Action Packs that they have created for specific needs. You can take advantage of their experiences and efforts, as well as contribute with your own Action Pack solutions.

Check our marketplace regularly, also between releases, to see what new Action Packs we or our community have uploaded. See https://marketplace.automic.com/.

Packs and Action Packs

Packs are placeholder structures that serve to contain either Actions or plugins to enhance the functionality of your system. Packs have a predefined folder structure.

A Pack that contains Actions is an Action Pack. An Action Pack can contain one or more Actions. You can create your own Action Packs (custom Action packs) or you can download Packs from our marketplace, provided you have a valid CA/Broadcom account.

Folder Structure - Packs

A Pack consists of the following folders:

  • <PACKAGE_NAME>

    Top-level folder containing all Action Pack content

  • ACTIONS

    Actions contained in the Pack.

  • CONFIG

    Static VARA objects, PromptSet objects and any other objects that are used to store the configuration

  • DOCUMENTATION

    Documentation objects containing license and pack documentation

  • RESOURCES

    Pack resources that are used across multiple Actions.

  • INTERPRETERS

    Storage object containing binaries of external interpreters

  • LIBS

    Storage object containing binaries such as Java JAR files or compiled libraries

  • SCRIPTS

    Script objects where external, interpreted scripts are stored

  • SOURCE

    Internals for each Action such as sub-workflows, Jobs, Script objects, VARA objects, and so on.

  • TEMPLATES

    Template Workflows, which are registered in the UC_OBJECT_TEMPLATE. Actions from other Packs on which the current Pack depends can also be incorporated into this Folder.

Packs can be imported and exported in two different formats:

  • .xml and
  • .json.

You can define which format to use either in the PACKS_COMPATIBILITY_MODE parameter of the UC_CLIENT_SETTINGS or by adding the corresponding option in the apm download command (Package Manager).

More information:

Types of Packs

Packs and Action Packs are classified in categories to help you identify their purpose. You use the Category field to filter for Packs in the marketplace. You see the category of a Pack in the Packs view of the Administration perspective.

Packs and Action Packs may have, among others, the following categories: Network, Download, SCM, Versioning and so on.

When you create your own Pack (custom Packs), you can assign it a category in its METADATA VARA object.

The following pages provide further information about Packs and working with Packs:

Actions

An Action is a preconfigured main Workflow and all the objects that contribute to the configuration of that Workflow. These objects are Jobs, Includes, PromptSets, Variables and, optionally, other Workflows. An Action has a predefined folder structure where the objects are stored.

For technical reasons, Actions reside in Action Packs. This implies the following:

  • To create an Action, you must start by creating the Action Pack to which you add the Action
  • The marketplace contains Actions Packs (and not Actions) that you can download and install.

Actions simplify the creation of Workflows because they provide out-of-the-box reusable and already tested building blocks for frequently needed operations.

Folder Structure - Actions

An Action consists of the following folders:

  • <ACTION_NAME>

    The main Workflow is stored here. This is the Workflow that contains the targeted functionality that you want to execute in your system. The name of the Action is the same as the name of this Workflow.

    Naming Conventions

    When you create an action, you must give it a title. The name of the Action is automatically defined based on this title. The name consists of the following:

    Prefix + name of the Action Pack + title

    The prefix is predefined and it can be one of the following:

    • PCK.AUTOMIC for Actions in Actions Packs provided by CA Automic in the marketplace
    • PCK.CUSTOM for Actions in Action Packs that you create

  • INCLUDES

    Include objects that are used in the main Workflow or, if available, in any of the other Workflows in the Action.

  • JOBS

    Job objects that are used in the main Workflow or, if available, in any of the other Workflows in the Action.

    Depending on the type of Action that you are creating, this folder is either empty (REST and Composite Actions) or it contains two Jobs (CLI Actions)

  • PROMPTSETS

    PromptSet objects that are used in the main Workflow. If you open the main Workflow and go to its Variables & Prompts > PromptSets page, you can see that the PromptSets are applied there.

  • ROLLBACK

    Workflow that provides custom backup and rollback. If the main Workflow fails, this Workflow is executed.

  • VARIABLES

    VARA objects used by the main Workflow. Typically, these VARA objects contain lookup values for the PromptSet.

Types of Actions

You can create the following types of Actions in an Action Pack:

  • CLI Actions
  • REST Actions
  • Composite Actions

The Working with Shared and Proxy Components following pages provide further information about Actions and working with Actions:

This section includes the following pages: