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A system action is simply an action sequence that is configured to run either at system start time (i.e. when the application server starts) or session start time (i.e. when the user logs in). The output of a system action is available to other action sequences as input parameters. System actions are configured by adding the appropriate child elements to the <system-action> element in the pentaho.xml file.

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Next, in the action sequence editor, add an input called name to the Process Inputs tree control. Configure it to be of type string, and define its scope to be session.

When the user logs into the BI Platform, the platform places a parameter called name into the session scope. name is the user name that was used to log into the platform. We can get access to this parameter by defining it as an input to our action sequence.
The DEPARTMENT_MANAGERS table of the SampleData database has the columns MANAGER_NAME, REGION, and EMAIL. MANAGER_NAME is the full name of the manager. We need a mechanism for mapping the user's login name to their fullname. We can then use a SQL query in an action sequence to discover the user's region.
We'll do this by adding a JavaScript action to our action sequence. Using the Process Actions tree control in the action sequence editor, click on the Add control (blue + sign with a triangle next to it), and select Generate Data From -> JavaScript. In the JavaScript editor, add this JavaScript code:

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(TODO: add note about NOT declaring as var)
This will get the region string out of the result set and place it in a JavaScript variable called strRegion.  

We want to make the variable strRegion available to action sequences that the user may execute later in their session. So we need to place strRegion into the user's session. To do this, add the variable strRegion to the Script Outputs, and identify its type as string. Once we've done this, you'll notice that in the Process Actions tree control, the script output shows up under our JavaScript action. This identifies strRegion as an ouput of the JavaScript action, but we need it to be an output of our action sequence. 
To make strRegion an output of our action sequence, in the Process Actions tree control, drag and drop strRegion onto the outputs in the Process Outputs tree control. You'll notice that this will open the Process Output editor in the right pane. In the Process Output editor, click in the first cell of the table, this will display a combo box with a list of scopes (e.g. request, sesion, global, etc.) We want to place strRegion into the session scope, so select session from the combo box. At the conclusion of the action sequence, strRegion will be in the user's session, available to any action sequence executed by the user.

Adding strRegion to the user's session isn't terribly useful unless we do something with it. Earlier I talked about using the user's region information to control access to filter the data the user sees in a financial report. Let's create an action sequence that will filter the data returned by a relational database query and display it in a simple HTML report. 
Create a new action sequence in Eclipse using the action sequence editor. Call it getActualsForRegion.xaction, and place it in the samples/filters folder of the repository. 
Next, in the action sequence editor, add an input called strRegion to the Process Inputs tree control. Configure it to be of type string, and define its scope to be session. This is what will give us access to the output parameter strRegion of our userNameToRegion.xaction action sequence.

In the Process Actions tree control, click on the Add control and select Get Data From -> Relational. Make sure the JNDI radio button is selected, and that the JNDI name is SampleData. 
In the SampleData database, there is a table called QUADRANT_ACTUALS containing financial information. The table has a variety of columns with financial data, and one column identifying the region that the data is associated with. We will use the strRegion parameter from our Process Inputs to filter the SQL query using a SQL where clause. Add this query to the Query editor:

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Specify the Result Set Name as REGION_ACTUALS. And make sure Keep Connection Open is unchecked. 
In order place the information in the result set into the output for our HTML page, expand the Relational node in the Process Actions tree control, and drag and drop REGION_ACTUALS onto the outputs node of the Process Outputs tree control. 

This will display open the Process Output editor in the right pane. Click in the first cell of the table, and select response from the combo box. This will place the text of the REGION_ACTUALS result set input the HTTP response stream. This is similar to writing HTML text to the HttpResponse in a Servlet/jsp. 

Configuring Our System Action

In order for our getActualsForRegion action sequence to run successfully, we need to configure the userNameToRegion action sequence to run when the user logs in. To do this we need to modify the pentaho.xml file. The pentaho.xml file is located in the system folder of the pentaho-solutions folder of the Pentaho Preconfigured Install. You should recall that in the section Configuring System Actions I indicated that you need to add discussed adding this xml element:

<org.pentaho.ui.portlet.PentahoPortletSession scope="session">
   samples/filters/usernameToRegion.xaction
</org.pentaho.ui.portlet.PentahoPortletSession>to the <system-actions>

elementto the pentaho.xml file.

h2: Running our action sequence
In order for this example to run, we need to start the Hypersonic database (Todo: link to starting the Hypersonic DB) and start the JBoss server that is hosting the Pentaho BI Platform ( TODO:link to starting the JBoss server). 
Next, in a browser access http://localhost:8080/portal/portal/Pentaho/%5B01%5DHome. This is the home page for the portal in the Pentaho Preconfigured Install. Click on the link in the bottom left "Standard Login".

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