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Toolbar Actions

Overview

Toolbar actions are a key part of action placement. They control functions of a container and its content. Actions in toolbars are represented by action icons or icon-only buttons. If a toolbar contains too many actions, they are grouped into a "more" action with an overflow menu.

Toolbars appear across multiple organisms like headers, boardlets, ghost boardlets, cards, dialogs, and table rows. Each placement follows specific rules that fit its use case.

Anatomy

Header Toolbar

The header toolbar contains actions that effect the entire application or the entire user environment. There is a distinction between primary and secondary actions. Primary actions are always be available, while secondary actions might not be present in some dashboards.

Navigation items like the burger menu or breadcrumbs are placed on the left. Form more can be found in Navigation. If the inline datepicker in the header is active, it is also placed in the left toolbar at the farmost right position.

Possible actions for the right action toolbar include:

The header toolbar contains actions that affect the entire application or the entire user environment. A distinction exists between primary and secondary actions. Primary actions are always available, while secondary actions may be absent on some dashboards.

Navigation items such as the burger menu or breadcrumbs are placed on the left. More information is available in Navigation. If the inline datepicker is active in the header, it is also placed in the left toolbar at the far-right position.

Possible actions for the right action toolbar include:

This toolbar cannot be edited in the App Composer.

Boardlet Toolbar

The boardlet toolbar is always positioned at the top-right of the boardlet header. It controls actions for the boardlet and its content.

The toolbar has two parts:

• Predefined actions cannot be edited, but can be activated or deactivated. They are consistent across boardlets.
• Custom actions can be activated or created and can vary between boardlets.

Predefined Actions

Predefined actions are the two default actions of any boardlet in the App Composer: Full screen and More. Additional predefined actions cannot be created.

Predefined actions can be activated or deactivated within a boardlet. Deactivating a predefined action makes it invisible. Some boardlets may prohibit activation of these actions by default.

A dividing line separates predefined actions from custom actions.

Custom Actions

Custom actions are boardlet-specific and can be activated or created. They appear to the left of predefined actions and are separated by a dividing line.

Custom actions have three states:

• Primary icon-only button.
• Secondary icon-only button.
• Action icon.

The action icon is the default state. The state can be changed manually to a primary or secondary icon-only button if the action hierarchy of the page requires it.

Icon-only buttons should be placed on the far-right side of the custom action area.

Primary actions should appear to the right of secondary actions. If possible, a single toolbar should avoid multiple buttons.

A toolbar should include a maximum of three action icons and a maximum total of four actions. Additional actions should be placed inside the More action.

Ghost Boardlet Toolbar

The ghost boardlet toolbar follows the boardlet rules for alignment and grouping. The only difference is the predefined actions: the ghost boardlet includes only the More action with a dropdown menu.

Card Toolbar

Action placement and rules within cards depend on the type of card:

Dialog Toolbar

As a child of the boardlet toolbar, the dialog toolbar follows the same rules. The Dialog with Sidebar variant is an exception.

If a dialog includes a sidebar, predefined actions must be placed in the outer right area of the sidebar. This makes the difference between dialog-level functions and content-level functions more noticeable.

Best Practices

Placement and Alignment

Toolbars are generally right-aligned, with the most important actions placed at the far right.

Every toolbar action, except the application name and the Edge.One wordmark in the header toolbar, is represented by an action icon or an icon-only button. Each action has a title shown in a tooltip on hover.

Using an Overflow Menu

Keep the number of visible actions small to preserve clarity. A custom toolbar should not include more than four custom actions, with no more than three action icons.

If an organism includes many actions, less important actions should be placed in an overflow menu using the More icon. Avoid more than eight actions in a single overflow menu to maintain clarity.

Extension of Action Hierarchy

Primary Actions

A page should not include more than one primary action. If the primary action is placed in a toolbar, no other button on the dashboard should be primary. If another button on the dashboard is already primary, no action in the toolbar should be primary.

The primary action of a page should drive the user forward in the current user flow. For more information, consult action placement.

Secondary Actions

Reserve secondary actions for secondary user flows on the current dashboard. If unsure, set the action to tertiary rather than secondary.

A toolbar can include only one secondary icon-only button.

Ghost Actions

Reduce visible actions to the most important to avoid overwhelming the user with choices. Less important or less common actions should be placed inside the More action.

If an action is difficult to represent with an icon, placing it in the More menu can help, since the action can be described in text there.