Defining Object Actions

Liferay 7.4 U60+/GA60+

Object actions define operations that you can run manually or automatically for object entry events.

To add an action,

Open the Global Menu ( ), go to the Control Panel tab, and click Objects.
Begin editing an object definition.

Note

For Liferay 7.4 U22+/GA22+, you can add actions to system objects.
Go to the Actions tab and click Add ( ).
In the Basic Info tab, enter a Name and Description for the action.
Go to the Action Builder tab to define the custom trigger, conditions, and action.
Specify a trigger event to determine when the action is performed.

Trigger	Description
On After Add	When an entry is added
On After Attachment Download	When an entry attachment is downloaded
On After Delete	When an entry is deleted
On After Update	When an entry is updated
DXP 2025.Q4+ On After Login	When a user logs in Only available for the User object
Standalone	Triggered manually

Important

All triggers besides standalone are automatic. Standalone triggers are for running any type of action manually. See Using Manual Actions for more information.
The event-based action triggers (e.g., On After Add or On After Login) provide low-code solutions for actions that used to require legacy extensions like model listeners or login action hooks.

Determine when the action is performed.

(Optional) Enable a condition for automatic triggers. Click Code ( ) to view available expressions.

On Liferay 7.4 U33+/GA33+, Liferay validates the condition’s syntax when you click Done. If the expression is invalid, Liferay displays an error message. See Expression Builder Validations Reference for more information on available fields, operators, and functions.

Select the type of action to perform and fill out all additional fields.

Type	Description
Notification	Send email or user notifications using a predefined template.
Add an Object Entry	Create entries in an active object.
Update an Object Entry	Update fields in the current object entry.
Webhook	Deliver a payload to a URL.
Groovy Script	Execute custom Groovy scripts.

Important

Groovy script actions are only available for Liferay PaaS and Liferay DXP Self-Hosted.
As of DXP 2024.Q3, scripting is disabled by default. You can enable it in System Settings → Script Management (under the Security category).

See Understanding Action Types for more information.

Click Save.

Once created, the action is active and triggered according to your configuration.

You can deactivate an action from its Basic Info tab. Toggle the Active switch and click Save.

Toggle the Active switch to deactivate the action.

Sending Translated Email Notifications to Guest Users

Liferay DXP 2024.Q3+/Portal 7.4 GA125+

By default, Liferay sends email notification templates’ backing object notification actions to guest users in the instance’s language. While configuring the object action, you can enable Send email notifications in the guest user’s preferred language to detect the user’s preferred language and send email notifications in that language instead. When enabled, the language used in the guest user’s object entry submission becomes the language used in email notification templates. If no translation is available, the instance language is used.

Send email notifications to guest users in their preferred language.