Create Action

This tutorial will guide you through the process of creating a Gelato piece with an action that fetches random icecream flavor and trigger that fetches new icecream flavor created. It assumes that you are familiar with the following:

• Activepieces Repo Structure
• Activepieces Local development Or Github Codespaces.
• TypeScript syntax.

Piece Definition

To get started, let’s generate a new piece for Gelato

npm run cli pieces create

You will be asked three questions to define your new piece:

1. Piece Name: Specify a name for your piece. This name uniquely identifies your piece within the ActivePieces ecosystem.
2. Package Name: Optionally, you can enter a name for the npm package associated with your piece. If left blank, the default name will be used.
3. Piece Type: Choose the piece type based on your intention. It can be either “custom” if it’s a tailored solution for your needs, or “community” if it’s designed to be shared and used by the broader community.

Example:

npm run cli pieces create

? Enter the piece name: gelato
? Enter the package name: @activepieces/piece-gelato
? Select the piece type: community

The piece will be generated at packages/pieces/community/gelato/, the src/index.ts file should contain the following code

import { PieceAuth, createPiece } from '@activepieces/pieces-framework';

export const gelato = createPiece({
  displayName: 'Gelato',
  logoUrl: 'https://cdn.activepieces.com/pieces/gelato.png',
  auth: PieceAuth.None(),
  authors: [],
  actions: [],
  triggers: [],
});

Piece Authentication

Now, let’s establish authentication for this piece, which necessitates the inclusion of an API Key in the headers.

Modify src/index.ts file to add authentication,

import { PieceAuth, createPiece } from '@activepieces/pieces-framework';

export const gelatoAuth = PieceAuth.SecretText({
  displayName: 'API Key',
  required: true,
  description: 'Please use **test-key** as value for API Key',
});

export const gelato = createPiece({
  displayName: 'Gelato',
  logoUrl: 'https://cdn.activepieces.com/pieces/gelato.png',
  auth: gelatoAuth,
  authors: [],
  actions: [],
  triggers: [],
});

Use the value test-key as the API key when testing actions or triggers for Gelato.

Action Definition

Now let’s create first action which fetch random ice-cream flavor.

npm run cli actions create

You will be asked three questions to define your new piece:

1. Piece Folder Name: This is the name associated with the folder where the action resides. It helps organize and categorize actions within the piece.
2. Action Display Name: The name users see in the interface, conveying the action’s purpose clearly.
3. Action Description: A brief, informative text in the UI, guiding users about the action’s function and purpose. Next, Let’s create the action file:

Example:

npm run cli actions create

? Enter the piece folder name : gelato
? Enter the action display name : get icecream flavor
? Enter the action description : fetches random icecream flavor.

This will create a new TypeScript file named get-icecream-flavor.ts in the packages/pieces/community/gelato/src/lib/actions directory.

Inside this file, paste the following code:

import {
  createAction,
  Property,
  PieceAuth,
} from '@activepieces/pieces-framework';
import { httpClient, HttpMethod } from '@activepieces/pieces-common';
import { gelatoAuth } from '../..';

export const getIcecreamFlavor = createAction({
  name: 'get_icecream_flavor', // Must be a unique across the piece, this shouldn't be changed.
  auth: gelatoAuth,
  displayName: 'Get Icecream Flavor',
  description: 'Fetches random icecream flavor',
  props: {},
  async run(context) {
    const res = await httpClient.sendRequest<string[]>({
      method: HttpMethod.GET,
      url: 'https://cloud.activepieces.com/api/v1/webhooks/RGjv57ex3RAHOgs0YK6Ja/sync',
      headers: {
        Authorization: context.auth, // Pass API key in headers
      },
    });
    return res.body;
  },
});

The createAction function takes an object with several properties, including the name, displayName, description, props, and run function of the action.

The name property is a unique identifier for the action. The displayName and description properties are used to provide a human-readable name and description for the action.

The props property is an object that defines the properties that the action requires from the user. In this case, the action doesn’t require any properties.

The run function is the function that is called when the action is executed. It takes a single argument, context, which contains the values of the action’s properties.

The run function utilizes the httpClient.sendRequest function to make a GET request, fetching a random ice cream flavor. It incorporates API key authentication in the request headers. Finally, it returns the response body.

Expose The Definition

To make the action readable by Activepieces, add it to the array of actions in the piece definition.

import { createPiece } from '@activepieces/pieces-framework';
// Don't forget to add the following import.
import { getIcecreamFlavor } from './lib/actions/get-icecream-flavor';

export const gelato = createPiece({
  displayName: 'Gelato',
  logoUrl: 'https://cdn.activepieces.com/pieces/gelato.png',
  authors: [],
  auth: gelatoAuth,
  // Add the action here.
  actions: [getIcecreamFlavor], // <--------
  triggers: [],
});

Testing

By default, the development setup only builds specific components. Open the file packages/server/api/.env and include “gelato” in the AP_DEV_PIECES.

For more details, check out the Piece Development section.

Once you edit the environment variable, restart the backend. The piece will be rebuilt. After this process, you’ll need to refresh the frontend to see the changes.

To test the action, use the flow builder in Activepieces. It should function as shown in the screenshot.