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Forest’s real power comes from the business logic you add on top of your data. This step covers the two most common building blocks: actions and computed fields.

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Create your first action

Actions are custom operations your team can trigger from the UI, refunding an order, sending an email, flagging a record for review. You define them in your back-end code, so they can call external APIs, update multiple tables, or trigger any side effect you need. Add an action to a collection in your back-end: 
agent.customizeCollection('orders', collection =>
  collection.addAction('Mark as reviewed', {
    scope: 'Single',
    execute: async (context, resultBuilder) => {
      await context.collection.update(context.filter, { status: 'reviewed' });
      return resultBuilder.success('Order marked as reviewed');
    },
  }),
);
Restart your back-end and the action appears in the collection’s Actions menu.
Actions can have forms with dynamic fields, approval workflows, and granular permissions. See Code-based actions for the full reference.

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Create a computed field

Computed fields let you display values that don’t exist directly in your database, a full name from first and last name, a status derived from multiple columns, a formatted price. Add a computed field the same way: 
agent.customizeCollection('customers', collection =>
  collection.addField('fullName', {
    columnType: 'String',
    dependencies: ['firstName', 'lastName'],
    getValues: records => records.map(r => `${r.firstName} ${r.lastName}`),
  }),
);
Restart your back-end and the field appears in your back-office like any other field.
Computed fields can also be made writable, filterable, and sortable. See Fields.

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What’s next

With actions and computed fields in place, you’re ready to build higher-level operational tools: workspaces, workflows, and inboxes.

Next: Set up operations →

Build workspaces, workflows, and inboxes for your team