An example workflow for using Integration with Flow

This example shows the typical steps involved in setting up a Flow Service in Integration so that it can connect to Flow using the Boomi Flow Services Server connector.

note

This example workflow is for illustration only; each Integration/Flow use case will most likely be different, depending on the integration scenario and requirements.

Step 1: Creating a 'listener' process with the Boomi Flow services server connector in integration

You need to create a process to perform the Integration tasks required in your scenario.

You should configure the Start step for the process to use the 'Boomi Flow Services Server' connector in the Connector field.

For example:

• The Action field is automatically set to 'Listen'.

• You need to select or create a Flow Service Operation in the Operation field. This defines what type of operation your Flow will perform (for example, whether the process supports a Message Action, a File Resource, or a Data Action). It also defines what JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) Request/Response profiles you should use for exchanging data.

  

• The operation Service Type will depend on what type of operation you wish to perform in Flow. For example, select 'Message Action' if you are going to use a Message Action step in your Flow. Select 'Data Action' if you are going to use the database Load, Save, or Delete steps in your Flow.

  Using the Flow Service component with Flow.

• The Request/Response Profile you select/create defines the structure of data processed between Integration and Flow. To exchange data with a Flow, the profile must be in JSON format.

  Integration Profiles and Flow Types.

• If you wish to send data back from the process, add a Return Documents step to the end of the process. Alternatively, you can use a Stop step if this is not required.

Step 2: Creating a Flow service in Integration

A Flow Service needs to be set up in Integration to build and manage the connection to Flow.

Refer to Using the Flow Service component with Flow.

For example:

• To create a Flow service, add a New component and select Flow Service as Type from the drop-down.

• Navigate to the File Resources tab and add the List files and Upload file processes.

  

• You will need to configure the Flow Service to match your operation/action requirements. For example, for a file upload process, you should configure the File Resources tab with processes created for listing and uploading files. Multiple Message Actions and Data Actions can be assigned to a single Flow Service.

  

• The Path to Service field on the General tab will be needed when setting up the Boomi Flow Integration Service in Flow.

  

Step 3: Deploying the Flow service and processes in Integration

Once you have set up your Flow Service and created/assigned any relevant processes, you will need to ensure that they are deployed to a basic runtime using Runtime Management. If your Flow Service and processes are not deployed correctly, Flow will be unable to communicate successfully with Integration.

For more information, refer to Deploying packaged components from deployments page.

For example:

• You can check that your processes are shown in Deployed Processes:

  

• You can check that your Flow Service and any processes configured to listen for events are shown in Listeners.

  

Step 4: Installing the Boomi Integration service connector in Flow

Once you have successfully created and deployed your Flow Service and processes, the Boomi Flow Integration Service needs to be installed into your Flow tenant.

The Boomi Integration Service connector allows you to connect your Flows to the Integration Flow Service component.

The connector URI is defined by the basic runtime URI that you select during connector installation, along with the Path to Service value.

For example:

• 'The Boomi USA East Integration Test Cloud' cloud Runtime Type is selected. The URI for this runtime cloud is 'https://c02-usa-east.integrate-test.boomi.com', which is used as the base URI for the connector endpoint.

• The Path to Service is entered as '/fs/upload', as specified in the Path to Service field in the Integration Flow Service component.

• This results in a connector URL of 'https://c02-usa-east.integrate-test.boomi.com/fs/upload'.

If you are using basic authentication for the connector, you will need to enter the Username and Token to use for connecting to the specified basic runtime. These can be found in the User Management tab in the Shared Web Server settings for your environment in Integration.

note

When this connector is installed, types may be automatically generated in Flow, using the Integration profiles that you have set up. Refer to Integration Profiles and Flow Types.

Step 5: Creating and configuring a Flow in Flow

Once you have installed the connector into your tenant, you can build your Flow and configure it to connect to Integration.

The following steps and components are typically used for integrating with Integration:

Message steps

A message step can be added to a Flow in order to send and receive message requests between Flow and the Integration Flow Service. A Flow uses message actions added to a message step to define the interface of inputs/outputs when calling against your Flow Service Message Actions. This allows you to map values in a Flow to the inputs and outputs specified by your Flow Service.

Refer to Using Flow Service component Message Actions with Flow.

Database steps

The three types of database step in Flow (Load, Save, and Delete) can be added to a Flow to integrate with your Flow Service Data Actions and their associated processes. Data actions added to a database step are used to handle all Create, Read, Update, Delete (CRUD) operations for a particular variety of record, using a single type in the Flow.

Refer to Using Flow Service component Data Actions with Flow.

Files and file upload components

Flow uses two file components for interacting with files. The File Upload component allows you to upload a file, which can then be consumed by a process. The Files component allows you to both upload a file, and list files for download from an outside system.

Refer to Using Flow Service component File Resources with Flow.

Page components

Table, Combobox and Radio page components can also be populated with data using the Boomi Integration Service connector. For example, data can be loaded directly from the Flow Service (or through a list value) into a Table component on a page in order to display data to Flow users.

Refer to Querying data from Integration in Flow for an example scenario of loading data into a table component.