Actions used to be static and hard-coded. A community request was that they could be added/removed/customized.

This is now possible.

By default, to keep existing installation safe, all actions are added as they used to be.

Default is equivalent to:

# config/initializers/rails_admin.rb
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
  config.actions do
    # root actions
    dashboard                     # mandatory
    # collection actions 
    index                         # mandatory
    new
    export
    history_index
    bulk_delete
    # member actions
    show
    edit
    delete
    history_show
    show_in_app
  end
end

Simply list them and pass an optional block, like so:

config.actions do
  dashboard do
    i18n_key :dash
  end
  index
  new
end

Please note that dashboard and index are mandatory for the moment, but this may change in the future.

• root defines root level actions (Dashboard, etc.)
• collection defines collection level actions (Index, New, etc.)
• member defines member level actions (Show, Edit, etc.)

First argument is the key of the action. It will be the i18n_key, the route_fragment, the action_name, the authorization_key, etc. You can override each of these individually. See the respective class and the Base Action class to get the list of these options.

Second (optional) argument is the key of the parent class. It can be any existing Action class. If none given, it will be Base.

Then you can pass the configuration block.

Then add app/views/rails_admin/main/my_action.html.<erb|haml> in your application, where you will be able to access:

• @abstract_model (except for root actions, give the RailsAdmin representation of the model. Use .model to have your ActiveRecord original model)
• @model_config (except for root actions, give the RailsAdmin configuration of the model)
• @objects = list_entries (for collection actions, list the entries as specified in params, see the :index action and template)
• @object (member actions only, ActiveRecord object)

config.actions do
  root :my_dashboard, :dashboard          # subclass Dashboard. Accessible at /admin/my_dashboard
  collection :my_collection_action do     # subclass Base. Accessible at /admin/<model_name>/my_collection_action
    ...
  end
  member :my_member_action do             # subclass Base. Accessible at /admin/<model_name>/<id>/my_member_action
    i18n_key :edit                        # will have the same menu/title labels as the Edit action.
  end
end

# somewhere in your lib/ directory:

require 'rails_admin/config/actions'
require 'rails_admin/config/actions/base'

module RailsAdmin
  module Config
    module Actions
      class MyAction < RailsAdmin::Config::Actions::Base
         RailsAdmin::Config::Actions.register(self)
         register_instance_option :my_option do
           :default_value
         end
      end
    end
  end
end

# use it like this:

config.actions do
  my_action do
    my_option :another_value
  end
end

If you want to share it as a gem, see custom action

Default I18n key is action name underscored. You can change it like so:

config.actions do
  dashboard do
    i18n_key :customized
  end
  ...
end

Then head for your config/locales/rails_admin.xx.yml file:

xx:
  admin:
    actions:
      <customized>: 
        title: "..."
        menu: "..."
        breadcrumb: "..."
        link: "..."

See rails_admin.en.yml to get an idea.

Actions can provide specific option configuration, check their respective wiki page.

Authorization is done automatically before any link is displayed, any page accessed, etc. Check CanCanCan for the list of key used by RailsAdmin default actions.

You can change the authorization key with:

config.actions do
  dashboard do
    authorization_key :customized
  end
  ...
end

config.actions do
  edit do
    only ['Player']
  end
  delete do
    except ['Team', 'Ball']
  end
end

You can use these 3 bindings to decide whereas the action should be visible or not:

• bindings[:controller] is current controller instance
• bindings[:abstract_model] is checked abstract model (except root actions)
• bindings[:object] is checked instance object (member actions only)

For instance, if you want to allow editing of games, but only if they haven't yet started:

config.actions do
  edit do
    visible do
      object = bindings[:object]
      case object
      when Game then !object.started? # only allow editing games if they haven't started
      when Player then true           # allow editing of Players any time
      else false                      # don't allow editing anything else
      end
    end
  end
end

Have a look at Show in App implementation for a better idea of how you can take advantage of this.

Important: at some point of the application lifecycle, bindings can be nil:

• when RailsAdmin creates the route
• when RailsAdmin defines the action in its controller

These bindings are available in all options.