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New users: when you have considered the various factors involved in designing a message flow, you are ready to create one. Use the links in this topic to find out how to construct message flows and work with related resources.
A message flow project is a specialized container in which you create and maintain all the resources associated with one or more message flows. You can group together related message flows and resources in a single message flow project to provide an organizational structure to your message flow resources. You must create a project before you can create a message flow. Use this link to find out how to create a message flow project.
If you want to organize your message flow project resources, and to define the scope of resource names to ensure uniqueness, you can create broker schemas. When you first create a message flow project, a default broker schema is created within the project. Use this link to find out how to create a broker schema.
You create a message flow to specify how to process messages in the broker. You can create any number of message flows and deploy them to one or more brokers. Use this link to find out how to create a message flow.
When you create a new message flow, the first action to take to define its function is to add nodes. A message flow node is a processing step in a message flow. A message flow node can be a built-in node, a user-defined node, or a subflow node. Select the nodes to add to your message flow from the message flow node palette.
To make your message flows easier to understand and to maintain, you can change the name of any type of node that you have added to your message flow. For example, you might change the name of an MQInput node to match the input queue name defined in the node.
When you have included an instance of a node in your message flow, you can configure it to customize its function. Each node has a set of properties that are specific to that node's function. Built-in nodes lists the nodes that are provided with WebSphere Message Broker, arranged by category. Select the required node from this list to view details of the terminals, and properties, and how to configure the node. How do I program message flows? contains more information about creating and configuring resources for nodes that can be programmed, such as the JavaCompute, Compute, and Mapping nodes.
You must connect the nodes in your message flow to indicate how the flow of control passes from input to output, and the route that messages can take through the message flow. A message flow node has a fixed number of input and output points known as terminals. You can connect the failure or catch terminals of nodes to add error handling to your message flows.
You can change the way that the nodes in your message flow are displayed and arranged, to make them easier to read. You can add a bend point to make the flow of control easier to follow where node connections cross each other.
After you have created message flows, you can embed them in other message flows as subflows. You can use subflows to reuse function across message flow projects, reduce development time, and increase the maintainability of your message flows.
Find out how to remove a node from your message flow.
Find out how to remove a node connection between nodes in your message flow.
Find out how to delete your message flow.
Find out how to move your message flow between broker schemas or message flow projects.
Find out how to rename your message flow.
Find out how to delete your message flow project.
Your message flow projects and other resources are stored in the Message Broker Toolkit workspace and other locations in your file system. You can use the Export function in Eclipse, or take copies of the directories on your file system, to back up your resources. Alternatively, you can set up the Message Broker Toolkit to work with a Development repository.