Rational Developer for System z

Contents of a flow

This topic describes the contents of a flow.
A flow consists of a sequence of nodes of various types:

In the flow editor, nodes are represented by icons, which are connected by black pointed lines (called connections) that specify the path of execution.

Figure 1 shows a flow that consists of a Receive node on the far left (i_CatalogOrder), representing the entry point to the flow, a Reply node on the far right (o_CatalogOrder) representing the normal exit point from the flow, and a number of nodes in between, including two Invoke nodes:
Figure 1. Example of a flow
Example of a flow

The function of the first Invoke node CheckItemAvailability is to invoke another flow. The function of the second Invoke node PlaceOrder is to Invoke an existing nonterminal CICS® application. The decoration at the lower right of the icon for each Invoke node indicates the type of Invoke node: Flow icon indicates an Invoke flow node, Nonterminal operation icon indicates an Invoke nonterminal application node. There are two other types of Invoke node, an Invoke screen operation node (with the decoration Screen operation icon at the lower right), which interacts with a terminal application screen, and an Invoke outbound Web service node (with the decoration Outbound Web service icon), which invokes another Web service (see Flow nodes).

In addition to nodes, there are three other types of intermediate-level storage artifacts referenced by a flow: interface operations, messages, and mappings:

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