Subflows are resources that you can include in message flows. Message
flows define the functionality provided by an application, an integration
service, or an Integration project.
When you use subflows as part of your integration solution, you
must complete the following steps before you create a subflow:
- You must verify that your subflow follows the design guidelines
for a subflow created as a .subflow file. For
more information, see Designing a subflow created as a .subflow file.
- You must choose whether to create the subflow within a library, an application, an integration
service, or an Integration project.
For new IBM Integration Bus developments, you create applications or
integration services. You use libraries for sharing resources between applications and integration
services. Integration projects are maintained for compatibility with earlier versions. For more
information, see Developing message flows.
- You must decide which method to use to set the version of the
subflow based on where do you plan to check its value at run time.
For more information, see Versioning a subflow.
Note: IBM Integration Bus releases earlier than WebSphere® Message Broker version 8 only supported subflows created as a .msgflow file. However, if you plan to develop new integration solutions,
you should create subflows created as .subflow files.
After you create your subflow and include it in a message flow,
you must complete the following steps before deploying the message
flow into an
integration node:
- You must choose how to package your integration solution resources
into a BAR file. The BAR file contains your message flows and subflows.
For more information, see Creating a BAR file that includes a subflow created as a .subflow file.
Note: Building a BAR file for an application or service with the build
option Compile and in-line resources not selected
is the recommended approach to packaging integration solutions in IBM Integration
Bus Version 9.0 and later versions.
- You must understand how IBM Integration Bus handles threads at run time based on your subflow design, and how
you configure the overall message flow BAR file deployment properties
and the Input node deployment properties. For more information, see Configuring a message flow that includes subflows.
After your solution is running in an integration node, you may need to update a version of a subflow. For more information,
see Updating a subflow.