Flows
A flow is a sequence of interconnected nodes that are orchestrated to achieve a specific goal or outcome within an organization or system. It represents a systematic and repeatable process that guides the execution of work, typically involving the coordination of people, resources, and information.
Main settings
Name
Refers to the unique identifier or label assigned to a flow.
| Type | Restrictions |
|---|---|
input Text |
|
Initialize variables
This attribute declares the way the output and local variables will be initialized.
Possible values:
True value means that output and local variables are initialized with default values.
False value indicates that output and local variables are null. Use the initialize or initializeDeep functions to manually initialize variables.
Channel
This attribute determines how the flow will be used.
Possible values:
Subflow is a type of flow that encapsulates a sequence of activities or tasks within a larger flow. It represents a modular and reusable unit of work that can be invoked and integrated into other flows. Subflows are commonly used to modularize complex flows, promote reusability, and simplify flow design and maintenance.
REST is a type of flow that implements a Representational State Transfer (RESTful) web service endpoint. It defines a set of HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.) and corresponding request and response mappings to enable communication between client applications and the system. REST flows adhere to REST principles, such as statelessness, uniform interface, and resource-based interactions, and are commonly used for building web APIs and integrating with external systems.
SOAP is a type of flow that implements a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) web service endpoint. It defines a standardized XML-based messaging protocol for exchanging structured information between client applications and the system over the Internet. SOAP flows involve the definition of a WSDL (Web Services Description Language) contract specifying the service interface, operations, message formats, and communication protocols. SOAP flows are widely used for building interoperable and platform-independent web services.
Scheduled is a type of flow that is triggered and executed at predefined intervals or time-based schedules. It allows for the automation of recurring tasks, periodic data processing, and scheduled maintenance activities within the system. Scheduled flows are configured to run at specific times or intervals, such as hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly, and can perform a variety of operations, such as data synchronization, report generation, or system backups, according to the defined schedule.
Description
This attribute provides a textual description or additional information about a flow. Unlike the name property, which serves as a unique identifier or label for the flow, the description property offers supplementary details that help to clarify the purpose, functionality, or behavior of the flow.
| Type | Restrictions |
|---|---|
Input Text |
|
Channel settings
Subflow
Inputs - define the data that are provided to the subflow when it is invoked or executed. These properties represent the input values required by the subflow to perform its tasks. Inputs properties may include various data types such as strings, numbers, booleans, objects, arrays, etc.
Output - specify the result generated by the subflow upon completion of its execution. These property represents the output value produced by the subflow, which may be used by other components or nodes within the larger workflow.
REST
HTTP Method - specifies the HTTP method used by the REST flow to handle incoming requests. Common methods include GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.
Binding URL - defines the URL endpoint at which the REST flow is exposed and can be accessed by client applications. It typically consists of the base URL followed by a path that identifies the resource or operation.
| Type | Restrictions |
|---|---|
input Text |
|
Query parameters - represents data parameters included in the request URL's query string sent to the REST flow. These parameters provide additional information to the flow for processing the request, such as filtering criteria or pagination settings.
Path parameters - refers to dynamic segments of the URL path that are extracted and processed by the REST flow. Path parameters allow for parameterization of the URL and enable routing to different resources or operations based on the provided values.
Parameters types and restrictions:
| Type | Restrictions |
|---|---|
|
HTTP Request - describes the structure and content of the request sent to the REST flow.
HTTP Response - specifies the structure and content of the response generated by the REST flow in response to client requests.
SOAP
SOAP Request - describes the structure and content of the request sent to the SOAP flow.
SOAP Response - specifies the structure and content of the response generated by the SOAP flow in response to client requests.
Scheduled
Schedule - a cron expression is a string of five to six fields separated by whitespace, which represents a set of times or dates when a job or task should be executed. Each field represents a specific unit of time, such as minutes, hours, days, and so on.
The general format of a cron expression is: * * * * * *
The fields, in order from left to right, represent:
Seconds (0-59)
Minutes (0-59)
Hours (0-23)
Day of the month (1-31)
Month (1-12 or Jan-Dec)
Day of the week (0-6 or Sun-Sat)
Asterisks (`*`) can be used to represent all values within a field, and commas (`,`) can be used to separate multiple values. Hyphens (`-`) can be used to specify a range of values within a field, and forward slashes (`/`) can be used to specify step values.
For example, the following cron expression will execute a task at 12:30 PM every day: 0 30 12 * * ?
And this cron expression will execute a task every 15 minutes: 0 0/15 * * * ?
Last updated
