Flow Definition

A flow definition is made up of flow blueprints. A flow blueprint specifies the services to be called to process a data object. Each flow blueprint defines a logically irreducible processing scenario such as:

• Back-end inbound initial load

• Outbound client with confirmation

The illustration below shows the first of the default flow definition for the data object category Standard. A flow definition can contain a dozen or more flow blueprints.

The flow controller tool provides the means to review a data object's flow definition and to extend it, if required, by adding custom services to one or more of its flow blueprints.

In the runtime, the data object processing specified by the flow definition is implemented by the processing methods contained in the flow class. The processing methods call the services in the service class. The illustration shows this relationship.