Message flows overview

A message flow is a sequence of processing steps that execute in the broker when an input message is received.

You define a message flow in the workbench by including a number of message flow nodes, each of which represents a set of actions that define a processing step. The connections in the flow determine which processing steps are carried out, in which order, and under which conditions. A message flow must include an input node that provides the source of the messages that are processed. You must then deploy the message flow to a broker for execution.

You can create a message flow using the built-in nodes or other message flows (known as subflows). When you want to invoke a message flow to process messages, you deploy it to a broker, where it is executed within an execution group.

The following topics describe the concepts that you need to understand to design, create, and configure a message flow and its associated resources:

For a basic introduction to developing message flows, see the WebSphere Message Broker Basics IBM Redbook.

Related concepts
Brokers
Execution groups
End-user application support
Properties
Related tasks
Developing message flows
Related reference
Message flows
Publish/subscribe