Intro

Actions are the lightweight alternative to platform components (see IComponent).  Actions
participate in action sequences and can be provided inputs and resources by the typical means, as
defined in xaction solution files.  The

family of interfaces focuses on describing
the *minimal* contract between the Pentaho BI Platform and an Action in the same way that IComponent
describes a similar but more involved contract.

The Pentaho BI Platform expects Action objects to be Java bean API compliant with respect to setting
inputs, setting resources, and getting outputs.  In other words, if your action needs takes a string
input, the action definition in the xaction solution file will specify this string input, and the
Action framework will cause that value to be set via a setter method on the Action object.  You do not
see parameter Maps and such in the Action API for this reason.  All inputs, output, and resources IO
will involve Java bean reflection on your Action object to find the appropriate IO methods.