Flow Editor

The flow editor contains the following main parts:

Toolbar

Provides options to manipulate the flow.

Palette

Located on the right side of the tool, the palette provides a list of activities that can be used as the building blocks for your flow. To add any of the activities to your flow, drop them onto the editor canvas.

Editor canvas

The main area of the tool that displays the graphical view of your flow. Activities can be dropped here from the palette and then linked together. See Basic tasks used in creating a flow for more information.

Source view

At the bottom left of the editor canvas, is the Source tab. Clicking it displays the source view of your flow. (Clicking the Editor tab beside the Source tab displays the graphical view of your flow.)

Property dialog

Click the Property on the toolbar to display the properties of the activity you selected in the canvas.

The following graphic shows the flow editor.

Working with flows

A number of tasks can be performed using the flow editor to create and edit your flow. These basic tasks are described in the following sections.

Adding an activity to the flow

To add an activity to your flow, drop the activity from the palette onto the editor canvas.

Adding an activity into a While activity

The While activity allows other activities to be added to it. When added to the canvas, a While activity displays a link with the instruction Edit activities inside. Click this link,the While activity's editing area will be shown in a new tab.Now, you can drag and drop to edit the activities inside While activity. After finished the editing of sub-activities,click the Editor tab to edit the main flow.

Editing the name and attribute of an activity in the canvas

After adding an activity to your flow, you can edit the name by clicking the title of the activity frame. Then, click Enter to confirm your input. The required attributes of the activity are also available to edit in the canvas.

Editing the properties of an activity in the property dialog

An activity have properties such as attributes, inputs and controls you might want to edit. Click the Property on the toolbar, the property dialog will pop up. All properties of selected activity are shown in the property dialog.

Removing an activity from the flow

To remove an activity from your flow, click the button at the right of the title bar for the activity.

Adding a control link between activities

In the tooling, you can express a control link between activities by wiring the activities together. To do this, use the following steps:

1. Click the icon at the bottom of an activity.
2. Drag the icon to the activity to which you want to create a link. A line is drawn on the canvas. There is an icon at the top left of the activity. Drop the line onto this icon and release. A link is shown between the two activities.
3. To edit the control link's properties, see to the Controls section in the property view. You can edit the condition and the error attributes of the control link.

See the Activity Links information about links between activities.

Adding a data link between activities

In the tooling, the output of one activity can be received by another as input. You can define this relationship by connecting the activities together, as described in the following steps:

1. Click the icon at the bottom of an activity.
2. Drag the icon to the activity to which you want to create the link. A line is drawn on the canvas. Drop the line onto the icon at the top right of the activity. A link is shown between the two activities.
3. You can edit the attributes of the link (such as the name, content type and error) in the input list of the property view on the right side.

See the Activity Data information for details.

Removing a link

Use the following steps to remove a link:

1. Click the link. The line turns red and the scissors icon is displayed.
2. Click the scissors icon to remove the link and the related input. The control attributes in the property view are also deleted.

Adding and editing the inputs of an activity

Some of the activities have an input list for the activity to get a variable or receive input from another activity. To create an input, use the following steps:

1. Click the Add an input link on the input list in the property dialog, or add a data link to this activity.
2. click Edit to show the edit box and edit or delete the input. To delete it, click Delete.