## AtkAction

AtkAction — The ATK interface provided by UI components which the user can activate/interact with,

## Synopsis

                        AtkAction;
    gboolean            atk_action_do_action                (AtkAction *action,
                                                             gint i);
    gint                atk_action_get_n_actions            (AtkAction *action);
    const gchar*        atk_action_get_description          (AtkAction *action,
                                                             gint i);
    const gchar*        atk_action_get_name                 (AtkAction *action,
                                                             gint i);
    const gchar*        atk_action_get_localized_name       (AtkAction *action,
                                                             gint i);
    const gchar*        atk_action_get_keybinding           (AtkAction *action,
                                                             gint i);
    gboolean            atk_action_set_description          (AtkAction *action,
                                                             gint i,
                                                             const gchar *desc);

## Object Hierarchy

      GInterface
       +----AtkAction

## Known Implementations

AtkAction is implemented by AtkHyperlink and AtkNoOpObject.

## Description

AtkAction should be implemented by instances of AtkObject classes with which the user can interact directly, i.e. buttons, checkboxes, scrollbars, e.g. components which are not "passive" providers of UI information.

Exceptions: when the user interaction is already covered by another appropriate interface such as AtkEditableText (insert/delete test, etc.) or AtkValue (set value) then these actions should not be exposed by AtkAction as well.

Also note that the AtkAction API is limited in that parameters may not be passed to the object being activated; thus the action must be self-contained and specifiable via only a single "verb". Concrete examples include "press", "release", "click" for buttons, "drag" (meaning initiate drag) and "drop" for drag sources and drop targets, etc.

Though most UI interactions on components should be invocable via keyboard as well as mouse, there will generally be a close mapping between "mouse actions" that are possible on a component and the AtkActions. Where mouse and keyboard actions are redundant in effect, AtkAction should expose only one action rather than exposing redundant actions if possible. By convention we have been using "mouse centric" terminology for AtkAction names.

## Details

### AtkAction

    typedef struct _AtkAction AtkAction;

The AtkAction structure does not contain any fields.

### atk_action_do_action ()

    gboolean            atk_action_do_action                (AtkAction *action,
                                                             gint i);

Perform the specified action on the object.

`action` : | a GObject instance that implements AtkActionIface
`i` : | the action index corresponding to the action to be performed
Returns : | `TRUE` if success, `FALSE` otherwise

### atk_action_get_n_actions ()

    gint                atk_action_get_n_actions            (AtkAction *action);

Gets the number of accessible actions available on the object. If there are more than one, the first one is considered the "default" action of the object.

`action` : | a GObject instance that implements AtkActionIface
Returns : | a the number of actions, or 0 if `action` does not implement this interface.

### atk_action_get_description ()

    const gchar*        atk_action_get_description          (AtkAction *action,
                                                             gint i);

Returns a description of the specified action of the object.

`action` : | a GObject instance that implements AtkActionIface
`i` : | the action index corresponding to the action to be performed
Returns : | a description string, or `NULL` if `action` does not implement this interface.

### atk_action_get_name ()

    const gchar*        atk_action_get_name                 (AtkAction *action,
                                                             gint i);

Returns a non-localized string naming the specified action of the object. This name is generally not descriptive of the end result of the action, but instead names the 'interaction type' which the object supports. By convention, the above strings should be used to represent the actions which correspond to the common point-and-click interaction techniques of the same name: i.e. "click", "press", "release", "drag", "drop", "popup", etc. The "popup" action should be used to pop up a context menu for the object, if one exists.

For technical reasons, some toolkits cannot guarantee that the reported action is actually 'bound' to a nontrivial user event; i.e. the result of some actions via `atk_action_do_action()` may be NIL.

`action` : | a GObject instance that implements AtkActionIface
`i` : | the action index corresponding to the action to be performed
Returns : | a name string, or `NULL` if `action` does not implement this interface.

### atk_action_get_localized_name ()

    const gchar*        atk_action_get_localized_name       (AtkAction *action,
                                                             gint i);

Returns the localized name of the specified action of the object.

`action` : | a GObject instance that implements AtkActionIface
`i` : | the action index corresponding to the action to be performed
Returns : | a name string, or `NULL` if `action` does not implement this interface.

### atk_action_get_keybinding ()

    const gchar*        atk_action_get_keybinding           (AtkAction *action,
                                                             gint i);

Returns a keybinding associated with this action, if one exists. The returned string is in the format "<a>;<b>;<c>" (i.e. semicolon-delimited), where <a> is the keybinding which activates the object if it is presently enabled onscreen, <b> corresponds to the keybinding or sequence of keys which invokes the action even if the relevant element is not currently posted on screen (for instance, for a menu item it posts the parent menus before invoking). The last token in the above string, if non-empty, represents a keyboard shortcut which invokes the same action without posting the component or its enclosing menus or dialogs.

`action` : | a GObject instance that implements AtkActionIface
`i` : | the action index corresponding to the action to be performed
Returns : | a string representing the available keybindings, or `NULL` if there is no keybinding for this action.

### atk_action_set_description ()

    gboolean            atk_action_set_description          (AtkAction *action,
                                                             gint i,
                                                             const gchar *desc);

Sets a description of the specified action of the object.

`action` : | a GObject instance that implements AtkActionIface
`i` : | the action index corresponding to the action to be performed
`desc` : | the description to be assigned to this action
Returns : | a gboolean representing if the description was successfully set;