We recommend to create commands to make your maps more interactive and to enable direct actions on M-Files objects:
Enable Command Icons
button if it is active. In this way, mouseover effects will not disturb you when editing the elements.Commands
area on the right-hand side of the Properties menu. Click on the icon next to the section header. The Add New Command
window opens.
In this window, commands can be created in four simple steps:
Sometimes it can be very helpful to reverse the steps (first Target, then Action to Item), e.g. when you are considering which M-Files object or target you want to perform an action on.
Click on Add
to add the new command. You will notice that your item now has an additional grey button or mouseover effect (you may need to re-enable the Enable Command Icons
button to see and test the command).
symbol
(similar to clicking on a button) or if a gray command icon
is displayed next to the symbol or element.Please note that the icon is displayed at the top of the command name. Some actions within the commands (such as Navigate, Metacard, etc.) have their own pre-defined icons to maintain consistency with automatically generated command icons. It is therefore possible that the icon changes as soon as you select an action.
More icons…
you will be offered even more icons to choose from; so that you can point out special actions (e.g. calls to external URLs) with a descriptive icon.
Since version 2.0 it is possible to execute multiple commands with one click. This makes sense whenever multiple actions are to be executed simultaneously (e.g. injection of a view path into multiple smart nodes for dashboarding). To use the function, Symbol
must be selected in the Item area.
In the third step, you can select an action to be executed after the trigger is called. You can choose between:
New objects can be created directly from a template (see Create New Objects with a Reference Object).
This function is very useful e.g. to create documents or articles for an organizational unit because the metadata is inherited and relationships are created automatically.
Please note that the action changes automatically when you call a specific target. For example, it changes to Jump when you want to jump to a specific anchor location. When you call M-Files Views or URLs, the action automatically changes to Show, and so on.
The Target area is the most complex area of the Add New Command window. It displays functions for various target specifications:
Contains
, Starts With
, or Matches Pattern
of your input.If you select Object as the target type, you can perform the actions described above on M-Files objects. Select an object type to customize the list of available objects or use the search bar to find the object you need.
If you select Anchor as target, you can create commands that jump to target areas within the same or a different process maps using Jump commands. For more information see Anchors and Viewports.
If you select View as a target, you can use this command to jump to a selected M-Files view. You can also choose if the view (list in M-Files Client) is displayed in the same window or in a new one.
However, if you select Same Tab
you can inject the selected view into a Smart Node for M-Files Views or Smart Node for Charting on the map. The detailed procedure is discussed below.
If you select URL as a target, you can jump to a selected static or dynamic URL, e.g. to call a link in another application or an API call. You can choose:
mailto:
): The command calls a URL that is stored on the M-Files object and can be changed there.As described before, views can be injected into a Smart Node for M-Files Views or Smart Node for Charting. To do this, another element must be provided with the appropriate command and triggered. This is especially useful if you want to cover a large number of different views on your map and work as performance efficiently as possible.
To get started, for the sake of clarity you should give the selected Smart Nodes a name first. How to do this can be seen here.
Now we get to the creation of the actual command:
Injection Target
.Path
in the list next to it. Add
.And this is what the just created command could look like in action:
After generating (also automatically generated commands) you can edit or delete them. To do this, select the element and open the Commands area on the Properties tab page:
Edit Command
, which is structured analog to Add New Command
. Here you can change the settings of the respective command.The commands are preset with automatic texts for their title and tooltip when they are created. If these contents are inappropriate, they can be easily changed.
The interactions are accessible in the Map Preview for users who have the necessary rights (M-Files user rights are taken into account). For more information see The Process Map Preview Tab.