Input node

This topic contains the following sections:

Purpose

The Input node provides an in terminal for an embedded message flow (a subflow). You can use a subflow for a common task that can be represented by a sequence of message flow nodes. For example, you can create a subflow to increment or decrement a loop counter, or to provide error processing that is common to a number of message flows.

You must use an Input node to provide the in terminal to a subflow; you cannot use a standard input node (a built-in input node such as MQInput, or a user-defined input node).

When you have started your subflow with an Input node, you can connect it to any in terminal on any message flow node, including an Output node.

You can include one or more Input nodes in a subflow. Each one that you include provides a terminal through which you can introduce messages to the subflow. If you include more than one, the order in which the messages are processed through the subflow cannot be predicted.

The Input node is represented in the workbench by the following icon:

Input node icon

When you select and include a subflow in a message flow, it is represented by the icon:

Subflow node icon

When you include the subflow in a message flow, this icon exhibits a terminal for each Input node that you include in the subflow, and the name of the terminal (which you can see when you hover over it) matches the name of that instance of the Input node. Give your Input nodes meaningful names that you can easily recognize when you use their corresponding terminal on the subflow node in your message flow.

Using this node in a message flow

Look at the following sample to see how you can use this node:

Configuring the Input node

When you have put an instance of the Input node into a message flow, you can configure it by giving it a name.

Right-click the node in the editor view and select Properties. The Description properties of the node are displayed.

Enter a short description, a long description, or both.

Click Apply to make the changes to the Input node without closing the properties dialog, or click OK to apply the changes and close the properties dialog.

Click Cancel to close the dialog and discard all the changes that you have made to the properties.

Terminals and properties

The Input node terminals are described in the following table.

Terminal Description
Out The input terminal that delivers a message to the subflow.

The following table describes the node properties; the column headed M indicates whether the property is mandatory (marked with an asterisk on the properties dialog if you must enter a value when no default is defined), the column headed C indicates whether the property is configurable (you can change the value when you add the message flow to the bar file to deploy it).

The Input node Description properties are described in the following table.

Property M C Default Description
Short Description No No   A brief description of the node.
Long Description No No   Text that describes the purpose of the node in the message flow.
Related concepts
Message flows overview
Related reference
MQInput node
Output node