Custom Actions are user-defined buttons which can be added to the Quest List View (qListView) and the Quest List Form (qListForm) web parts.

Pressing the button invokes a "Custom Action Item" which itself comprises one or more "Custom Actions".  So from the single press of a button, several Actions could be executed sequentially.  The types of Action which can be executed, depending on the context, are:

• Save the current record (relevant to the qFormView when creating or editing a record);

• Delete one or more records;

• Move records to another list;

• Copy records to another list;

• Go to a specified URL;

• Go back to the specified "Source" URL;

• Start a WFF workflow;

• Invoke a custom method in a custom DLL.

So, since Actions can be bundled, you could "Save" the current record, execute a piece of custom code to add data to the record, then Go off to a specified URL to complete the process.

If you wanted this to happen on pressing "Save & Close" at the point of adding or editing a record then you could use the qListForm for creating or editing instead of the standard Microsoft List Form, and in there you could substitute the standard "Save & Close" button with your custom button. 

To the user, the form would look the same, but the workflow executed would be tailored to achieve the required behaviour.

Custom DLLs are generated in C# using a standard Quest interface. Codes interact  directly with SharePoint via the object model APIs.  The process for creating custom codes is very quick and easy for programmers, consisting of writing one or more methods within a defined framework using Visual Studio, compiling to a DLL and then depositing the DLL in the web site source or in the global assembly cache.

If you would like a copy of our free paper: Introduction to the Quest Web Parts for SharePoint, complete our Request Form and check the Info box for the Quest Web Parts.