- Switch to the Broker Application Development
perspective.
- Open the message flow for which you want to promote properties
by double-clicking the message flow in the Navigator view. You
can also open the message flow by right-clicking it in the Navigator view
and clicking Open The message flow
contents are displayed in the editor view.
If this is the first message
flow that you have opened, the message flow control window and the list of
available built-in message flow nodes are also displayed, to the left of the
editor view.
- In the editor view, right-click the symbol of the
message flow node whose properties you want to promote.
- Select Promote Property.
The Promote Property dialog is displayed.
The left side of the dialog lists all available
properties for all the nodes within the message flow. The properties for the
node that you highlighted are expanded. You can access the properties for
all the nodes in the open message flow from this dialog, regardless of the
node that you selected when you first opened the dialog, by expanding the
properties for all the other nodes in the flow (these are initially collapsed).
The
right side of the dialog lists the name of the open message flow and all the
properties that are currently promoted to the message flow. If you have not
yet promoted any properties, only the message flow name as the root of the
promoted property tree is displayed on the right. In the image shown the message
flow contains no promoted properties so only the name of the message flow
is displayed.
The majority of message flow node
properties are available for promotion, but you cannot promote the following
properties:
- A property group, but you can promote an individual property.
- A property that you cannot edit (for example, the Fix property
in the Validate group of properties for the MQInput node).
- The description properties (Short Description and Long Description).
- Select the property that you want to promote to
the message flow. The list on the left initially shows the expanded
list of all available properties for the selected node. If you have already
promoted properties from this node, they do not appear on the left, but on
the right.
The list on the left also includes the other nodes in the open
message flow. You can expand the properties listed under each node and work
with all these properties at the same time. You do not have to close the dialog
and select another node from the editor view to continue promoting properties.
You
can select multiple properties to promote by selecting a property, holding
down Ctrl, and selecting one or more other properties.
If
you have you selected multiple properties to promote, all the properties you
have selected must be available for promotion. If one or more of the selected
properties is not available for promotion, the entire selection becomes unavailable
for promotion, and the Promote button in the right-hand
pane is grayed out.
- Click the Promote button
to promote the property or properties
Clicking the Promote
button invokes the Target Selection dialog:

The Target Selection dialog
displays only the valid targets for the promotion of the previously selected
property or properties and allows you to create a new target for the promotion,
such as to a new group or to a new property.
- In the Target Selection dialog, select the destination
group or property for the property or properties you want to promote. You
can group together related properties from the same or different nodes in
the message flow by dropping the selected property or properties onto a group
or property that already exists. Alternatively, you can click New
Group or New Property to create a new target
for the promotion. You can rename groups and properties by selecting
them and clicking Rename, or by double-clicking on
the group or property.
- Click OK to confirm your
selections.
Note: If you create a new group or property using the
Target Selection dialog, the changes persist even if you select Cancel in
the dialog. When the dialog closes, groups or properties that you have created
using the Target Selection dialog will appear in the Promote properties dialog.
- When you have selected the properties that you
want to promote to the message flow, click OK Your updates are committed, and the Promoted Property dialog is closed.
If you click Apply, this commits the changes but leaves
the dialog open.
When you have promoted a property, you can no longer make
any changes to that property through the node properties dialog. You can only
update its value at the message flow level.
Note: You can also promote properties from the Promote
property dialog by dragging the selected property or properties from the left-hand
pane of the Promote Property dialog to the right-hand pane:
- Select the property you want to promote. You can select multiple properties
to promote by selecting a property, holding down Ctrl, and selecting one or
more other properties.
- You can drop the selected property or properties into the right-hand pane
using the following methods:
- Drop the selected property or properties in an empty space.
A new group
is automatically created for the message flow, and the property is placed
within it, with the original name of the property and the name of the message
flow node from which it came displayed beneath the property entry.
The
name of the first group created defaults to Group1. If a group called Group1
already exists, the group is given the name Group2, and so on. You can rename
the group by double-clicking it and entering new text or by selecting the
group in the Promoted properties pane and clicking
Rename.
Note: When
you create a new promoted property, the name that you enter is the name by
which the property is known within the system, and must meet certain Java
and XML naming restrictions. These are enforced by the dialog, and a message
is displayed if you enter a name that includes a non-valid character. For
example, you cannot include a space or the double quote symbol.
- Drop the selected property or properties onto a group that already exists,
to group together related properties from the same or different nodes in the
message flow.
For example, you might want to group all promoted properties
that relate to database interactions. You can change the groups that promoted
properties belong to at any time, by selecting a property in the Promoted
properties pane and dragging it onto a different group.
- Drop the selected property or properties onto a property that already
exists, to converge related properties from the same or different nodes in
the message flow.
For example, you might want to create a single promoted
property that overrides the property on each node that defines a data source.
For
more information on converging properties, see Converging multiple properties.
The message flow node properties are now promoted to the message
flow. To confirm this, right-click the message flow in the Navigator view,
or right-click the editor view, and select Properties.
The
Properties dialog of the message flow is displayed, showing the message flow
node properties that you have promoted, organized in the groups that you have
created. If you now set a value for one of these properties, that value appears
as the default value for the property whenever the message flow is itself
included in other message flows.
When you have promoted
a property, you can no longer make any changes to that property through the
node properties dialog. You can only update its value at the message flow
level.
When you select an embedded message flow within another message
flow (a subflow) and view its properties, you see the promoted property values.
If you look inside the embedded flow (that is, if you select Open
Subflow), you see the original values for the properties. The
value of a promoted property does not replace the original property, but it
takes precedence when you deploy the message flow.