Action definition JSON schema for App Actions on Windows

This article describes the format of the action definition JSON file format for App Actions on Windows. This file must be included in your project with the Build Action set to "Content" and Copy to Output Directory set to “Copy if newer”. Specify the package-relative path to the JSON file in your package manifest XML file. For more information, see Action provider package manifest XML format.

Example action definition JSON file

"version": 3, 
  "actions": [ 
    { 
      "id": "Contoso.SampleGreeting", 
      "description": "Send greeting with Contoso", 
      "icon": "ms-resource//...", 
      "usesGenerativeAI": false,
      "isAvailable": false,
      "allowedAppInvokers": ["*"],
      "inputs": [ 
        { 
          "name": "UserFriendlyName", 
          "kind": "Text" 
        }, 
        { 
          "name": "PetName", 
          "kind": "Text", 
          "required": false 
        } 
      ], 
      "inputCombinations": [ 
        { 
          "inputs": ["UserFriendlyName"], 
          "description": "Greet ${UserFriendlyName.Text}" 
        }, 
        { 
          "inputs": ["UserFriendlyName", "PetName"], 
          "description": "Greet ${UserFriendlyName.Text} and their pet ${PetName.Text}" 
        } 
      ], 
      "contentAgeRating": "child",  
      "invocation": 
      {
        { 
          "type": "Uri", 
          "uri": "contoso://greetUser?userName=${UserFriendlyName.Text}&petName=${PetName.Text}", 
        }, 
        "where": [ 
          "${UserFriendlyName.Length > 3}" 
        ] 
      } 
    }, 
    { 
      "id": "Contoso.SampleGetText", 
      "description": "Summarize file with Contoso", 
      "icon": "ms-resource://...", 
      "inputs": [ 
        { 
          "name": "FileToSummarize", 
          "kind": "File" 
        } 
      ], 
      "inputCombinations": [ 
        { 
          "inputs": ["FileToSummarize"], 
          "description": "Summarize ${FileToSummarize.Path}" 
        }, 
      ], 
      "outputs": [ 
        { 
          "name": "Summary", 
          "kind": "Text" 
        } 
      ],
      "contentAgeRating": "child", 
      "invocation": { 
        "type": "COM", 
        "clsid": "{...}" 
      } 
    } 
  ] 
} 

Action definition JSON properties

The tables below describe the properties of the action definition JSON file.

The Version field indicates the schema version in which the property was introduced.

The PWA field indicates support for action providers that are implemented as a Progressive Web App (PWA). For more information on app actions with PWAs, see Enable App Actions on Windows for a PWA.

Document root

Action

Output

The schema version and PWA support vary for the different values of the kind property. See the entry for each entity type for details.

InputCombination

Invocation

ActionEntityKind enumeration

The ActionEntityKind enumeration specifies the types of entities that are supported by App Actions on Windows. In the context of a JSON action definition, the entity kinds are string literals that are case-sensitive.

Entity properties

Each entity type supports one or more properties that provide instance data for the entity. Entity property names are case sensitive.

The following example illustrates how entities are referenced in the query string for actions that are launched via URI activation:

...?param1=${entityName.property1}&param2=${entityName.property2}

For information on using entity properties to create conditional sections in the action definition JSON, see Where clauses.

File entity properties

Document entity properties

The Document entity supports the same properties as File.

Photo entity properties

The Photo entity supports all of the properties of File in addition to the following properties.

Text entity properties

StreamingText entity properties

RemoteFile entity properties

RemoteFileKind enumeration

The RemoteFileKind enumeration specifies the types of files that are supported for the RemoteFile entity.

Table entity properties

Contact entity properties

Where clauses

The action definition JSON format supports where clauses that can be used to implement conditional logic, such as specifying that an action should be invoked only when an entity property has a specified value.

The following operators can be used with where clauses.

Where clauses use the following format:

"where": [ 
    "${<property_accessor>} <operator> <value>" 
] 

The following example shows a where clause that evaluates to true if a File entity has the file extension ".txt".

"where": [ 
    "${File.Extension} ~= \".txt\"" 
] 

Multiple where clauses can be combined using the logical AND and logical OR operators.

"where": [ 
  "${File.Extension} ~= \".txt\" || ${File.Extension} ~= \".md\"" 
] 

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