Configuring a message flow node

When you have included an instance of a node in your message flow, you can configure its properties to customize how it works.

Before you begin

Viewing the properties of a node

About this task

To view a node's properties:

Procedure

  1. In the Message Flow editor, open the message flow with which you want to work.
  2. To open the Properties view, right-click a node and click Properties.

    The selected node's properties are displayed. You can edit the properties.

Editing the properties of a node

About this task

Properties are organized into related groups and displayed on tabs. Each tab is listed on the left of the Properties view. Click each tab to view the properties that you can edit.

Procedure

  • Every node has at least one tab, Description, where you can change the name of the node and enter short and long descriptions. The description fields are optional because they are used only for documentation purposes.
  • If a property is mandatory (that is, one for which you must enter a value), the property name is marked with an asterisk, as shown in the following example: 
    Queue Name* ________________________________
  • Many nodes have properties that require XPath expressions, typically to identify the location of a particular resource.
    For example, for the MQInput node, you can specify the location of the security token and password by using either ESQL or XPath expressions. For help in constructing an XPath expression, you can open the XPath Expression Builder by clicking Edit next to each XPath property. For more information about using XPath expressions, see Using XPath.

What to do next

For detailed information about how to configure individual built-in nodes, see Configuring message flow nodes.

If you have included a user-defined node, refer to the documentation that came with the node to understand if, and how, you can configure its properties.

Editing complex properties

About this task

A complex property is a property to which you can assign multiple values. Complex properties are displayed in a table in the Properties view, where you can add, edit, and delete values, and change the order of the values in the table. This example shows the Query elements complex property of the DatabaseRoute node.
The Query elements property of the DatabaseRoute node is an example of a complex property

Procedure

  • To add a value to a complex property, click Add, enter the required fields in the dialog box that opens, then click OK.
    The values appear in the table. Repeat this step to enter as many values as are required.
  • To edit a value, click any element in a row, click Edit, edit any of the values in the dialog box, then click OK.
  • To delete a value, click any element in a row and click Delete.
    The entire row is deleted.
  • To change the order of values in the table, click any element in a row and click the up icon Click the up arrow to move the row up or down icon Click the down arrow to move the row down to move the row.

Promoting properties

About this task

You can promote node properties to their containing message flow; for more information, see Promoting a property. Use this technique to set some values at the message flow level, without having to change individual nodes. This can be useful, for example, when you embed a message flow in another flow, and want to override some property such as output queue or data source with a value that is correct in this context. You cannot promote complex properties. For a full list of properties that are unavailable for promotion, as well as instructions for how to promote properties, see Promoting a property.

Overriding properties at deployment time

About this task

You can override a small number of node property values when you deploy a message flow. These property values are known as configurable properties, and you can use them to modify some characteristics of a deployed message flow without changing the message flow definitions. For example, you can update queue manager and data source information.

Even though you can set values for configurable properties at deployment time, you must set values for these properties within the message flow if they are mandatory. Each built-in node reference topic contains a table of properties, which identifies the configurable and mandatory properties.

What to do next

Next: connect the nodes.