Rational Developer for System z

4C. Identify the steps of the flow

If you selected the Naming the steps and implementing later radio button on the third page of the New Service Flow Project wizard, then the fourth page of the wizard is the Identify the steps of the flow page, which allows you to create a flow containing a sequence of Invoke nodes, each of which you can later associate with an operation (thereby creating an Invoke nonterminal node) or a flow (thereby creating an Invoke flow node).
To create a flow containing a sequence of Invoke nodes:
  1. On the Identify the steps of the flow page:
    1. For each Invoke node that you want to add to the flow:
      1. Click Add.
      2. The wizard adds a flow step to the Flow Steps list box, such as Step0.
      3. To use a different name for the flow step:
        1. Click the existing name (such as Step0).
        2. Type in the new name (such as queryAccount).
  2. To change the order in which the Invoke node corresponding to the flow step will be displayed in the flow:
    1. Select the name of the flow step in the Flow Steps list box.
    2. Use the up arrow button or the down arrow button at the right of the Flow Steps list box to change the order of the flow step.
  3. Set or clear the check box Connect nodes in specified order.
    • Set the check box if you want the wizard to connect the sequence of Invoke nodes in the flow. This feature is a convenience that saves you the work of connecting the nodes manually in the flow editor.
    • Clear the check box if you do not want the wizard to connect the Invoke nodes.
  4. Click Next to go to the next page of the wizard if there is one (see 5. COBOL import settings and 6. PL/I import settings) or click Finish to terminate the wizard and create the new service flow project.
  5. When the wizard creates the flow for the new service flow project, then for each Invoke node that you created:
    1. The wizard adds to the flow an Invoke node invoking the name that you specified for the flow step:
      Invoke node
      The blank area at the lower right corner of the Invoke icon (not occupied by the symbol for the invocation of a nonterminal Nonterminal or a flow Flow) indicates that the Invoke node is a plain Invoke node that does not yet invoke anything.
    2. If you specified a service interface on page 2 of the wizard, then the wizard also performs the following steps:
      • It creates an input message file and an output message file containing messages defined according to the patterns that you specified on page 2 of the wizard.
      • It creates an interface operation file that contains:
        • A default port type of programs.
        • The name of the operation that you specified on page 2 of the wizard.
        • References to the new input message file and the new output message file.
      • It creates a variable message file.
  6. When the wizard terminates, it opens the new flow with the flow editor.

After the new flow is created, you can associate an operation or a screen operation with each Invoke node, thereby converting it to an Invoke nonterminal node or to an Invoke flow node (see Associating an operation with a plain Invoke node and Associating a flow with a plain Invoke node).


Feedback