Is it possible to declaratively determine if an action runs, or a template unfolds?

 

I would like to be able to use a boolean argument (populated from a wizard) to decide if a common action is run or not, without resorting to code.
Is this possible?

 

Thanks

We don't have such an attribute on any action, but you could fairly easily create your own "ConditionalAction" base class with this capability. The steps would be:

1 - Create an abstract IAction-implementing action, like "ConditionalAction".
2 - Implemement IConfigurable interface
3 - Receive and store an attribute of your choice with the condition, such as "Condition"
4 - Implementations of Execute and Undo should: a) evaluate the condition, and if true, b) call an OnExecute or OnUndo abstract method, to be implemented by derived classes.
5 - Evaluation of the condition can be achieved through a service implementation provided by the framework. The code would look like the following:

private bool ShouldExecute(string expression)
{
      ExpressionEvaluationService evaluator = new ExpressionEvaluationService();
      IDictionaryService dictservice = (IDictionaryService)
            ServiceHelper.GetService(this, typeof(IDictionaryService));
      return (bool) evaluator.Evaluate(expression, new ServiceAdapterDictionary(dictservice));
}

The evaluation service is the same one used by the ExpressionEvaluatorValueProvider, which is similar to the syntax of MSBuild properties: $(ArgumentName.APropertyMaybeOfTheArgumentValue)

If the argument is a boolean, the first segment of the expression is all you need: "$(BoolArgument)".

HTH

Apols for not being clear.

For example: I have a boolean argument. It is populated by a wizard with a UI label like 'Would you like a help page generated?'.  I use common actions to generate the help page. Could i turn off my 'GenerateHelpPage' action without using code? ie is there a 'RunThisAction' parameter that takes a boolean arguement?

Thanks

We don't have such an attribute on any action, but you could fairly easily create your own "ConditionalAction" base class with this capability. The steps would be:

1 - Create an abstract IAction-implementing action, like "ConditionalAction".
2 - Implemement IConfigurable interface
3 - Receive and store an attribute of your choice with the condition, such as "Condition"
4 - Implementations of Execute and Undo should: a) evaluate the condition, and if true, b) call an OnExecute or OnUndo abstract method, to be implemented by derived classes.
5 - Evaluation of the condition can be achieved through a service implementation provided by the framework. The code would look like the following:

private bool ShouldExecute(string expression)
{
      ExpressionEvaluationService evaluator = new ExpressionEvaluationService();
      IDictionaryService dictservice = (IDictionaryService)
            ServiceHelper.GetService(this, typeof(IDictionaryService));
      return (bool) evaluator.Evaluate(expression, new ServiceAdapterDictionary(dictservice));
}

The evaluation service is the same one used by the ExpressionEvaluatorValueProvider, which is similar to the syntax of MSBuild properties: $(ArgumentName.APropertyMaybeOfTheArgumentValue)

If the argument is a boolean, the first segment of the expression is all you need: "$(BoolArgument)".

HTH

I couldn't resolve the interface IConfigurable to any library in the GAT/X, .NET, but would these two bases be an alternative?

• Microsoft.Practices.Common.IAttributesConfigurable

• Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.ConfigurableAction