Message Flow editor

The Message Flow editor is the default editor provided by the Broker Application Development perspective for defining a graphical representation of a message flow in the workbench, and for setting properties for individual message flow nodes.

The editor is launched in the editor area of the workbench window when you open a message flow (.msgflow) file in the Resource Navigator view. The editor area is where you select built-in and user-defined nodes, and the connections between them, to define a message flow.

For information about changing the palette preferences in Message Brokers Toolkit Version 6.0, see Changing palette preferences.

Message Flow editor views

The Message Flow editor has the following views:

Resource Navigator view

The navigator view shows all the resources in your workspace, that is all message set resources and all message flow resources.

Editor view

The editor view shows the contents of the resource that is currently open. It also shows tabs for each of the resources that you have open so that you can quickly switch between them.

When the resource that is open is a message flow, at the bottom left of the editor view, there are two tabs, Graph and User Defined Properties.

When Graph is selected (this is the default), a graphical display of the message flow is shown in the editor view.

To the left of the editor view, there is a palette bar that contains all the available nodes that you can include in the message flow. By default, the palette bar is shown in collapsed mode when you open a message flow.

To open the palette, use one of the following methods:

  • Hover the mouse over the palette bar while it is in collapsed mode. The palette bar expands. When you move the mouse away from the palette bar, it collapses again.
  • Click the Show Palette icon at the top of the palette bar. The palette bar expands and it remains expanded when the mouse is moved away from the palette bar. To collapse the palette bar again, click the Hide Palette icon at the top of the palette bar while it is in expanded mode.

By default, the palette bar is docked to the left-side of the editor view. You can move it to the right-side of the editor view by clicking on the Palette bar while it is in collapsed mode, and dragging the bar to the right-side of the editor view.

When the User Defined Properties tab is selected, a User Defined Properties editor is opened that allows you to change the User Defined Properties of the message flow. The User Defined Properties editor comprises a User Property Hierarchy view and a Details view.

The User Property Hierarchy view provides three icons, Add Property Group, Add Property, and Delete that can be used to update the property hierarchy. When you add a property, a Details view is opened. In the Details view you can define the property Type and Default Value.

Outline view

The Outline view enables you to navigate to a particular node in a message flow and edit its properties.

Palette view

The Palette view lists the available nodes that you can select and include in the message flow. When the Palette view is not open the palette is available in the Message Flow editor as a pinnable and dockable element.

Overview view

The Overview tab provides a useful summary for large, complex message flows because it shows a small-scale version of the flow. Click the tab to show or hide the outline view.

Tasks view

The tasks view displays the warning and error messages that are generated by the editor's validation when you save the message flow file. If you double click an error, the editor indicates where it is located (for example, if you have not set a mandatory property in a node, it opens the properties dialog for that node on the right page).

Message Flow editor toolbar

The icons in the toolbar and their actions are shown in the table below.

Icon Label Action

Show grid icon
Manhattan Displays all node connections as a series of horizontal and vertical lines

Show grid icon
Show grid Displays a grid of horizontal and vertical dotted lines in the background of the editor area.

Grid properties icon
Grid properties Defines the horizontal and vertical spacing of the grid markers, and the gap between the borders of the editor area and the start of the grid markers.

Align left
Align left Lines up the left edge of the currently selected nodes. Enabled only when more than one node is selected.

Align center
Align center Lines up the horizontal center point (between left and right) of the currently selected nodes. Enabled only when more than one node is selected.

Align right
Align right Lines up the right edge of all the currently selected nodes. Enabled only when more than one node is selected.

Align top
Align top Lines up the top edge of the currently selected nodes. Enabled only when more than one node is selected.

Align middle
Align middle Lines up the vertical center point (between top and bottom) of the currently selected nodes. Enabled only when more than one node is selected.

Align bottom
Align bottom Lines up the bottom edge of the currently selected nodes. Enabled only when more than one node is selected.

Show distribute box icon
Show distribute box Displays a rectangular box around the currently selected nodes.

Distribute horizontally icon
Distribute horizontally Aligns the currently selected nodes with the nearest right or left edge within the distribute box.

Distribute vertically icon
Distribute vertically Aligns the currently selected nodes with the nearest top or bottom edge within the distribute box.