If you want to write some code that makes the Pentaho BI Platform talk to an external system, this may be what you are looking for, so read on...

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What is an Action?

Actions are the lightweight alternative to Pentaho BI Components.  For an understanding of how and why they are different, let's take a step back and examine what a BI Component is and how it is used.  A BI Component is historically a Java class that does some work, yielding some output, when it is provided certain inputs and resources.  The work done as well as the inputs and resources required are entirely up to the component developer.  It's purpose is to perform some work in a sequential success-based workflow (action sequence).  A saavy BI Platform user with a bit of inclination for Java coding can implement his or her own custom component to do just about anything.  However, this is not an easy endeavour since developing your own BI Component requires intimate knowledge of internal Pentaho APIs.  When you are done writing your custom component, the code you have written will be tightly coupled to the Pentaho BI Platform, so much so, that it will be difficult to unit test and may be difficult to maintain.

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