Actions: Transforming Data When Conditions Are Met

Created by Alexandru Sirbu, Modified on Tue, 17 Mar at 3:46 PM by Alexandru Sirbu

Actions execute when a Business Rule's conditions are satisfied. They modify Domain values directly - correcting, standardizing, enriching, or constructing new values in the processed output. Actions are optional: a rule without Actions is a pure validation check.

How Actions Work

Actions are listed in the Actions section of the Business Rule form and execute in the order they are listed, top to bottom. Crucially, each action's output is immediately available as input to the next action in the list. This means you can build up complex results through a sequence of simple steps - for example, Set a Domain to an initial value, then Append additional parts to it.

Any action value field accepts the @ reference prefix to select another Domain or a Data Link column instead of a literal string. This means actions can move values between Domains, pull in reference data from a Data Link, or combine multiple source columns into a single output field.

Adding Actions

In the Business Rule form, scroll to the Actions section at the bottom
Click Add Action on the right side. A new action row appears
Select the target Domain from the first dropdown - this is the Domain whose value will be modified
Select the Action Type from the second dropdown
If the action type requires a value (Set, Append, Prepend, Substring, Replace, Regex Replace), the value field appears on the right. Enter a literal value or type @ to reference a Domain or Data Link column
Add further actions by clicking Add Action again. Reorder them by dragging if needed

Actions only execute when the rule's conditions are met. If the rule fails (conditions are not satisfied), no actions fire and the row's values are unchanged by this rule.

Action Types

Action Type	Description
Set	Replaces the current value of the target Domain entirely with the specified value.
Append	Adds the specified value to the end of the current Domain value.
Prepend	Inserts the specified value at the beginning of the current Domain value.
Trim	Removes leading and trailing whitespace from the Domain value. No value input required.
Trim Left	Removes leading whitespace only.
Trim Right	Removes trailing whitespace only.
To Lower	Converts the Domain value to lowercase. No value input required.
To Upper	Converts the Domain value to uppercase. No value input required.
Replace	Replaces all occurrences of a specified substring within the Domain value with a new value.
Substring	Extracts a portion of the Domain value. Specify a zero-based start position and an optional length.
Regex Replace	Applies a regular expression substitution to the Domain value.

Chaining Actions for Concatenation

HEDDA.IO does not have a dedicated Concatenate action, but the same result is achieved by sequencing Append and Prepend actions. Because each action's output feeds the next, you can build up any string result in steps.

Example: Goal: combine First Name and Middle Name into the First Name Domain, separated by a space, but only when Middle Name is not null. Condition: Middle Name is not null. Action 1 - Append: target First Name, value is ' ' (a single space). Action 2 - Append: target First Name, value is @MiddleName. For a row with First Name 'Anna' and Middle Name 'Maria', the result is 'Anna Maria'.

When chaining multiple Prepend actions, list them in reverse order. Each Prepend inserts its value in front of whatever is currently in the Domain, so the last Prepend listed ends up at the front of the final result. To produce 'PREFIX-CODE-SUFFIX': Set the Domain to 'SUFFIX', Prepend 'CODE-', then Prepend 'PREFIX-'.

Setting Values from Data Links

One of the most powerful uses of Actions is substituting a value in the source data with a value from a reference table, using a Data Link. Type @ in the action value field and select the Data Link column that contains the replacement value.

Example: A Business Rule matches rows where client = 'CustomerX' and product_name matches the old name in a Data Link table. The Action: Set product_name to @DataLink.new_product_name. Every matching row has its product name replaced with the current value from the reference table - automatically, on every execution, without any Knowledge Base change required when the reference table is updated.

Writing to Variable Domains

Actions can target Variable Domains as well as regular source Domains. Variable Domains are not read from the source dataset and do not appear in Mappings - they exist purely as named slots for computed or intermediate values. Use them when you want to store a result in one rule and reference it in a later rule in the same Rulebook sequence.

Example: Action: Set @VAR_RiskCategory to 'HIGH'. A downstream Business Rule then checks 'VAR_RiskCategory is equal to HIGH' in its Condition, routing the row to a different set of validation rules. The source dataset is never touched - the classification exists only within HEDDA.IO's processing context.

Prefix Variable Domain names with VAR_ so they are immediately distinguishable from source Domains in the action dropdowns and @ reference picker.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to Contact Us.

You can also refer to the HEDDA.IO End User Documentation.