element {http://www.xml-cml.org/schema/stmml}action

An action which might occur in scientific data or narrative. The definition is deliberately vague, intending to collect examples of possible usage. Thus an action could be addition of materials, measurement, application of heat or radiation. The content model is unrestricted. action iself is normally a child of actionList

The start, end and duration attributes should be interpreted as

• XSD dateTimes and XSD durations. This allows precise recording of time of day, etc, or duration after start of actionList. A convention="xsd" attribute should be used to enforce XSD.
• a numerical value, with a units attribute linked to a dictionary.
• a human-readable string (unlikely to be machine processable)

startCondition and endCondition values are not constrained, which allows XSL-like test attribute values. The semantics of the conditions are yet to be defined and at present are simply human readable.

The order of the action elements in the document may, but will not always, define the order that they actually occur in.

A delay can be shown by an action with no content. Repeated actions or actionLists are indicated through the count attribute.

<actionList
 xmlns="http://www.xml-cml.org/schema/stmml"
  title="boiling two eggs for breakfast">
  <!-- start cooking at 9am -->
  <action title="turn on heat" start="T09:00:00" convention="xsd"/>
  <!-- human readable description of time to start action -->
  <action title="put egg into pan" startCondition="water is boiling" count="2"/>
  <!-- the duration is expressed in ISO8601 format -->
  <action title="boil eggs for 4 minutes" duration="04:00"/>
  <!-- action immediately follows last action -->
  <action title="remove egg from pan" count="1"/>
  <action title="boil second egg for a bit longer" duration="about half a minute"/>
  <!-- action immediately follows last action -->
  <action title="remove egg from pan" count="1"/>
</actionList>
         

<actionList title="preparation of silanols">
  <p>This is a conversion of a chemical synthesis to STMML. We
  have deliberately not marked up the chemistry in this example!</p>
  <action title="step2">
    <p>Take 1 mmol of the diol and dissolve in dioxan in
      <object title="flask">
        <scalar title="volume" units="units:ml">25</scalar>
      </object>
    </p>
  </action>
  <action title="step2">
    <p>Place flask in water bath with magnetic stirrer</p>
  </action>
  <!-- wait until certain condition -->
  <actionList endCondition="bath temperature stabilised"/>
  <action title="step3">
    <p>Add 0.5 ml 1 M H2SO4</p>
  </action>
  <!-- carry out reaction -->
  <actionList endCondition="reaction complete; no diol spot remains on TLC">
    <actionList title="check tlc">
      <!-- wait for half an hour -->
      <action duration="half an hour"/>
      <action title="tlc">
        <p>extract solution and check diol spot on TLC</p>
      </action>
    </actionList>
  </actionList>
  <!-- work up reaction -->
  <action title="step5">
    <p>Add 10 ml water to flask</p>
  </action>
  <action title="step6">
    <p>Neutralize acid with 10% NaHCO3</p>
  </action>
  <action title="step7" count="3">
    <p>Extract with 10ml ether</p>
  </action>
  <action title="step8">
    <p>Combine ether layers</p>
  </action>
  <action title="step9" count="2">
    <p>Wash ether with 10 ml water</p>
  </action>
  <action title="step10">
    <p>Wash ether with 10 ml saturated NaCl</p>
  </action>
  <action title="step11">
    <p>Dry over anhydrous Na2SO4 and remove solvent on rotary evaporator</p>
  </action>
</actionList>