How to: Promote Actions to the Ribbon on Pages
Actions in the ribbon are called promoted actions. Promoted actions are copies of existing actions in the command bar that are displayed in the ribbon and provide quick access to common tasks, because users do not have to look through a menu to find them. For example, on the Customer Card page, you can promote an action to create a new sales order to help the salespeople do their work, because creating sales orders is one of their most important daily tasks.
Promoted actions can be organized under different categories. For example, the categories can be New, Tasks, Reports, and Discounts. The order of actions under a category is determined by its order in the Action Designer. You define the caption for each category. For more information on defining the promoted categories, see How to: Define Promoted Action Categories Captions for the Ribbon.
When you promote an action to the ribbon, you can set up an image that displays with the action. If you do not set up an image yourself, then a default image is used. For more information about promoted action images, see How to: Set an Icon on an Action.
Note
If an action does not already appear in the command bar menu, then it cannot be promoted. Also, if there are no promoted actions, then the ribbon is hidden.
Adding a Promoted Action to a Page
To add a promoted action to a page
In the Development Environment, on the Tools menu, choose Object Designer.
In Object Designer, select a page that already has actions, and then choose Design to open the page in Page Designer. For example, select page 22, which is the Customer List page.
To open Action Designer, in the View menu, choose Page Actions.
In Action Designer, select the action to promote to the ribbon.
In the View menu, choose Properties.
In the Properties window, set the Promoted property value to Yes.
Set the PromotedCategory property to the category under which you want the promoted action to appear.
Unless you define your own caption, the category name that you select will be used as the category's captions on the page. For more information, see How to: Define Promoted Action Categories Captions for the Ribbon.
To assign an image to the action, set the Image property to the name of the image. For a list of images, see Action Icon Library.
Note
To associate a larger icon with your action, set the PromotedIsBig property.
Close the Properties window and exit Page Designer.
Save and compile the page.
To preview your promoted action, in Object Designer, select the page, and then choose Run.
Promoted Action Category Location in the Ribbon
The locations of promoted action categories in the ribbon are determined by their first instance in Action Designer. Starting from top of Action Designer and working down, the category of the first promoted action encountered is located on the far left of the ribbon; the next category encountered is located to the right of the first category, and so on.
Customizing the Ribbon
When customizing the ribbon from the Customize Ribbon window, some actions may not have the sizing button labeled Default Icon Size available. The Default Icon Size button has the options of displaying an action icon as default size, small, or large. The label of the button changes when small or large is selected. In some cases the action can be a promoted action with the property PromotedIsBig set to Yes in the Development Environment. If you set an action to PromotedIsBig, this overrules the choices in the Customize Ribbon window.
See Also
Tasks
How to: Add Actions to a Page
How to: Define Promoted Action Categories Captions for the Ribbon