Action event patterns and log

Learn about action event patterns and the action events log in Sage People.

Action event patterns are groups of related events. For example, you can define a pattern for emails that a single process uses, or that a policy uses. Action event patterns link to policies. You can link a pattern to multiple policies, or have a pattern serving the needs of a policy. The linking makes all action events in the pattern available to users you associate to the policy.

An action event pattern lets you set up a standard, automated set of responses to recurring events. You can usually use an action event pattern instead of a Salesforce Flow. An action event pattern is easier to set up and tailor to your Sage People content.

Using inheritance

An action event pattern can inherit actions from another action event pattern. Inheritance is useful if you need action events common to all employees, and events that only apply to a specific group. Inheritance reduces the need to add conditions to action events, and simplifies the maintenance of action events and patterns.

How inheritance works in the parent and child patterns: 

  • The child pattern inherits all action events you relate to the parent pattern

  • Inherited events act as a starting set of events for the child pattern. Action events in the child pattern are in addition to inherited events

  • Child patterns inherit any future changes to the parent pattern

  • An action event pattern can have multiple child patterns

  • The system supports a single level of inheritance

  • The details of an action event in the child pattern that also exists in the parent pattern override the parent pattern

  • If a child pattern contains no action events, Sage People defaults to the parent pattern

For example, an organization with employees in two countries has action events relevant to both countries. It also has country-specific action events. You can create a global action event pattern for the common action events, and country-specific patterns. This way, the child patterns inherit all the events from the global pattern and add any country-specific ones. For example: 

  • Global pattern: 20 common events

    • Country A pattern: inherits from the global pattern. Adds five country-specific events

    • Country B pattern: inherits from the global pattern. Adds three country-specific events

If you can't see the Inherits From field on the New Action Event Pattern page, you can add it to the page layout.

  1. Go to Setup , and select the Action Event Pattern object.

  2. From the sidebar, select Page Layouts.

  3. Select Action Email Pattern Layout.

  4. Select the field Inherits From in the fields list and drag and drop it on the layout.

    Screenshot: Dragging and dropping the Inherits From field to the layout

  5. Select Save.

View the action events log

You have a custom object in Sage People, the action event log, to store the log entries. This makes it easier for administrators to test action events when setting them up and to troubleshoot issues.

You can view the records on a related list on the action event patterns page. New settings on the HCM package Configure page control the retention period for log entries. It also controls the timing of the daily run to remove older entries. You can set the retention period to 1 - 28 days. By default, the system removes log entries after 14 days.

Note To use this feature, you'll need to assign the appropriate Permission sets. For fully updated lists, see Sage People HR Administrator HCM and Sage People HR Manager HCM.

They system will run the Events Log if you set the Purge Action Event Batch Time. The system defaults to Not Active.

The system records every Action Event triggered - by batch or non-batch. Each log entry captures:

  • Action event name

  • Associated event

  • Description

  • Triggering user (user ID)

  • Recipient (email ID)

  • Timestamp

  • Delivery status (success/failure)

  • Any relevant error message (if applicable)

  • Missing recipients

  • Invalid email addresses

  • Template parsing issues

  • Any other email-sending errors reported by the email service provider

New Feature details

  • New section for Action Events in installed packages for HCM, including:

  • Action Email batch size (existing field)

  • Action Emails send batch time (existing field)

  • Purge Action Event batch time (Not Active/Run Now/Purge Log)

  • Action Events log data retention (14)

  • Don't log Action Event if Action Event batch time = Not Active

  • Run Now runs the batch immediately. It deletes logs older than "number of days maintained" in the Action Event Log Data Retention field

  • Admin can configure variables for Action Event Log retention. Retention values default to 14, ranging from 1 - 14, but can't be negative

  • Log Action Events sent from batch and not from batch. the Log is shown under a new Related tab on the Action Events page

  • All logged entries are displayed in descending date order

  • Related tab shows a log for all Action Events under Action Event Pattern, including:

  • Action Event Name

  • Event

  • Description

  • Triggered By (Sender)

  • Recipient

  • Date and TimesheetsAreaSuccess/failure

  • Error Message (if there was failure)

If you don't need logging, you can turn it off by setting the retention period to 0.

For more information, see the following topics: