Configuring a message flow node

When you have included an instance of a node in your message flow, you can configure it to customize its function. The node can be a built-in node, a user-defined node, or a subflow node.

Before you start:

To configure a node:

  1. Switch to the Broker Application Development perspective.
  2. Open the message flow that you want to work with.
  3. Click Selection above the palette of nodes.
  4. Right-click the node in the editor view, and click Properties. The node's properties dialog is displayed.
  5. You can select each group, displayed on the left as a tree navigation, in turn to view and modify the properties of the node. Every node has at least one group, Description. This contains two text entry fields, in which you can enter a short description, or a long description, or both. These are used only for documentation purposes, and are optional.

    If the node only has Description properties (for example, the FlowOrder node), these are initially displayed when you open the properties dialog.

    For most other nodes, the Basic properties are initially displayed. A few nodes do not have Basic properties; for these, the first group is displayed.

  6. On the right are the properties of the currently-selected group. There can be one or more properties in this display. If the property is required, that is, one for which you must enter a value, the property name is marked with an asterisk.

    For example, the Basic properties of the MQInput node include just one property, Queue Name. This identifies the queue from which input messages are retrieved by the node, and is a required property. On the properties dialog, it appears like this:

    Queue Name* ________________________________
    1. Make the changes that you want to make to the properties. In most cases, you cannot click OK to dismiss the properties dialog unless you have completed all mandatory properties.
  7. When you have updated the properties of the node, click OK to save the changes, or Cancel to leave the dialog without saving your changes.

For details of how to configure each individual built-in node, see the node description. You can find a list of the nodes, with links to the individual topics, in Built-in nodes.

If you have included a user-defined node, refer to the documentation that came with the node to understand if, and how, you can configure its properties.

In the Message flow editor you can display node and connection metadata by hovering the mouse over a node or subflow in a message flow. To view metadata information for a node, subflow or connection:
  1. Open the Broker Application Development Perspective
  2. Open a message flow
  3. In the Editor view, hover the mouse over a node, a subflow, or a node connection in the open message flow by placing the mouse over the element.

Promoted properties

You can promote node properties to their containing message flow. Use this technique to set some values at the message flow level, without having to change individual nodes. This can be useful, for example, when you embed a message flow in another flow, and want to override some property such as output queue or data source with a value that is correct in this context.

Overriding properties at deploy time

A small number of node property values can be overridden when a message flow is deployed. These are known as configurable properties, and you can use these to modify some characteristics of a deployed message flow without changing the message flow definitions. For example, you can update queue manager and data source information.

Even though you can set values for configurable properties at deploy time, you must set values for these properties within the message flow if they are mandatory.

Related reference
Built-in nodes