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The Action Sequence document is the definition, the Runtime Context provides an execution environment and the Components are the business logic.  A Component performs a single function, a group of related functions or is a bridge between the Pentaho BI Platform and an external application.  The jFree Reports component is an example of a component that interfaces the platform to the jFree Reports reporting engine. 

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The text within the curly braces {} is replaced by an input parameter with the same name.  In this example, if the value of the action-input EMAIL is joe.pentaho then the value of the to parameter passed to the email component would be joe.pentaho@pentaho.org.

Prompting

Some components will generate a prompt for certain parameters that they require.  The prompt will be generated by the runtime if the calling mechanism permits it.  For example, the above mentioned Email Component requires a to parameter in order to know where to send the email.  If the to parameter is specified as an action-input but it has a null value, the Email Component will ask the runtime if prompting is allowed.  If the Action Sequence being executed has been launched from a web browser, the runtime will respond with true and the Email Component will ask the runtime to prompt the user for the to email address.  If the Action Sequence was running via a web service call, the runtime would reply with false and the Email Component would generate a parameter not found error and return.

Action-outputs

The action-outputs define what parameters will be saved in the Runtime Context and be made available to other Components when that component finishes executing.  Like an action-input, an action-output can be mapped to another variable name using the mapping attribute.

Component-definition

The component-definition node provides a place for any Component specific options or parameters. 

Explain
{PREPARE:xxx}
and the date parameter.

h2. Prompting

Some components will generate a prompt for certain parameters that they require.  The prompt will be generated by the runtime if the calling mechanism permits it.  For example, the above mentioned Email Component requires a *to* parameter in order to know where to send the email.  If the *to* parameter is specified as an action-input but it has a null value, the Email Component will ask the runtime if prompting is allowed.  If the Action Sequence being executed has been launched from a web browser, the runtime will respond with *true* and the Email Component will ask the runtime to prompt the user for the *to* email address.  If the Action Sequence was running via a web service call, the runtime would reply with *false* and the Email Component would generate a parameter not found error and return.

h2. Action-outputs

The *action-outputs* define what parameters will be saved in the Runtime Context and be made available to other Components when that component finishes executing.  Like an *action-input*, an *action-output* can be mapped to another variable name using the mapping attribute.

h2. Component-definition

The *component-definition* node provides a place for any Component specific options or parameters. 
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Add more about component-definition and action-outputs

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