Automatic reactions triggered by complex events have been
deployed with great success in particular domains, among
others, in algorithmic trading, the automatic reaction to realtime
analysis of marked data. However, to date, reactions
in complex event processing systems are often still limited
to mere modifications of internal databases or are realized
by means similar to remote procedure calls.
In this paper, we argue that expressive complex actions
with support for composite work
ows and integration of
so called external actions are desirable for a wide range
of real-world applications among other emergency management.
This article investigates the particularities of external
actions needed in emergency management, which are initiated
inside the event processing system but which are actually
executed by external actuators, and discuss the implications
of these particularities on composite actions. Based
on these observations, we propose versatile complex actions
with temporal dependencies and a seamless integration of
complex events and external actions. This article also investigates
how the proposed integrated approach towards
complex events and complex actions can be evaluated based
on simple reactive rules. Finally, it is shown how complex actions
can be deployed for a complex event processing system
devoted to emergency management