Managed actions are used to reuse the same action instance for different components, for example a button and a menu item, and even for a keyboard shortcut. This not only saves action instances, but can be crucial for keeping action state consistent.

Unlike previous examples, a managed action is not added to a button or menu item directly. Instead, a managed action is registered by giving it an actionId and adding it to the actionList property of a to a container. To add a managed action to an existing container, use a Studio plugin rule and the AddArrayItemsPlugin with arrayProperty="actionList". Afterwards buttons that are located somewhere below this container may access the action using an ActionRef or execute them via a keyboard shortcut. The following example explains the implementation in detail.

<editor:StudioPlugin
        xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
        xmlns="exml:ext.config"
        xmlns:editor="exml:com.coremedia.cms.editor.sdk.config"
        xmlns:ui="exml:com.coremedia.ui.config">
  <fx:Script><![CDATA[
    public static const MY_GLOBAL_ACTION_ID:String = "myGlobalAction";
    //...
    ]]></fx:Script>
  <editor:rules>
    <editor:EditorMainView>
      <editor:plugins>
        <ui:AddArrayItemsPlugin arrayProperty="actionList">
          <ui:items>
            <local:MyGlobalAction actionId="{MY_GLOBAL_ACTION_ID}"/>
          </ui:items>
        </ui:AddArrayItemsPlugin>
      </editor:plugins>
    </editor:EditorMainView>
    ...
  </editor:rules>
</editor:StudioPlugin>

The example shows how MyGlobalAction is added to the action list of EditorMainView (which is the root component of Studio), using a locally defined constant as its actionId. The action is now available for all child components of Studio, except dialogs which render their own component hierarchy. Every button that wants to execute this action can now use an ActionRef with the same actionId:

<editor:StudioPlugin
        xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
        xmlns="exml:ext.config"
        xmlns:editor="exml:com.coremedia.cms.editor.sdk.config"
        xmlns:ui="exml:com.coremedia.ui.config">
  <fx:Script><![CDATA[
    public static const MY_GLOBAL_ACTION_ID:String = "myGlobalAction";
    public static const MY_BUTTON_ITEM_ID:String = "myButton";
    //...
    ]]></fx:Script>
  <editor:rules>
    <editor:EditorMainView>
      <editor:plugins>
        ...
        <ui:NestedRulesPlugin>
          <ui:rules>
            <editor:ActionsToolbar>
              <editor:plugins>
                <ui:AddItemsPlugin>
                  <ui:items>
                    <ui:IconButton itemId="{MY_BUTTON_ITEM_ID}">
                      <ui:baseAction>
                        <ActionRef actionId="{MY_GLOBAL_ACTION_ID}"/>
                      </ui:baseAction>
                    </ui:IconButton>
                  </ui:items>
                </ui:AddItemsPlugin>
              </editor:plugins>
            </editor:ActionsToolbar>
          </ui:rules>
        </ui:NestedRulesPlugin>
      </editor:plugins>
    </editor:EditorMainView>
    ...
  </editor:rules>
</editor:StudioPlugin>

Continuing for the previous code, the example above shows how MyGlobalAction is plugged into the ActionsToolbar of Studio. When the button is rendered, the ActionRef will look up the action with the corresponding actionId in the component hierarchy and replace itself with the actual action. To ensure that your new action is registered before this look up happens, you have to use NestedRulesPlugin as shown in the example code.

For any action with an actionId, a keyboard shortcut can be defined, which is described in the next section.