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Start step

The Start step is the main step that begins the process flow. It is automatically added to each new process and it cannot be removed. You use the Start step dialog to configure the Start step.

After you create a process, the Start step dialog opens.

The Start step dialog looks and behaves slightly differently, depending on whether you have the Services Enablement feature enabled in your account:

  • If Services Enablement is not enabled in your account,

    • After you configure the Start step dialog, you can click the Options link to open the Process Options dialog.

  • If Services Enablement is enabled in your account,

    • The process mode is set to General by default. You can click the text to open the Process Options dialog and change the process mode or other options.

  • If you set the process mode to General, multiple configuration options are available for the Start step. The option buttons at the top of the dialog allow you to define different start scenarios for your process. A different Start step icon corresponds to each option:

    • Connector icon Connector - Gets data into the process or sends data out of the process using one of the application or technology connectors.

      note

      For many application connectors, the step icon is specific to the application.

    • Trading Partner icon Trading Partner - Gets data into the process or sends data out of the process for a specific trading partner and handles common EDI document frameworks such as X12.

      note

      The Trading Partner step, EDI, and B2B solutions are in their own Integration edition. To enable these capabilities in your account, contact your Boomi account representative.

    • Data Passthrough icon Data Passthrough - Gets data into the process from another parent process or another external source.

    • No Data icon No Data - The process does not receive or retrieve data from any source. Instead, a single empty document is forwarded through the process flow.

    note

    When you set the process mode to General, you may see a message containing recommendations about how to set the Allow Simultaneous Executions and Capture Run Dates check boxes, which are process options.

  • If you set the process mode to Low Latency, the Start step dialog is set to use the Connector option, the Connector field is selectable to either JMS, Listener, MLLP Server, Salesforce Platform Events, or Web Services Server, the Action field is set to Listen, and the Runtime Web Server manages the connection settings. You can change only the Connector setting when the process mode is set to Low Latency. The process mode appears in the upper right corner of the dialog.

The Connector type

  1. By default, Connector type is selected.

    The Connector option is the most common option for a Start step. This setting allows you to define an inbound action to bring documents into a process. This option requires that you select a connector from our library.

    For some of the application connectors, a unique request message must be sent to the application to bring documents into the process. These cases require defining parameters within the Start step to build this initial request message.

    Review the topic links to learn about operation requirements for your integration scenario and to see descriptions of the different options available for start parameter values.

  2. In the General tab,

    • Enter the display name in the Display Name field
    • Select the connector from the Connector dropdown
    • Click the search bar to choose a connection or click the plus icon to create a new connection
    • Select the action from the Action dropdown
    • Click the search bar to choose an operation or click the plus icon to create a new operation

  3. In the Parameters tab, to use parameters specify a profile in your Connector Operation component

  4. In the Notes tab,

    • Enter the title of the note in the Title field
    • Enter the note in the Note field

  5. Click OK to save

The Trading Partner type

  1. Select Trading Partner option to receive data using one of the B2B-enabled protocols and process that data as appropriate for any corresponding B2B/EDI standard.

    The Trading Partner option is unique to B2B and EDI integration.

    For example, you might receive an AS2 message, extract the data, and process it as an X12 EDI transaction. You might also receive an HTTP message and process it through the RosettaNet connector.

    note

    • The Trading Partner step, EDI, and B2B solutions are in their own Integration edition. To enable these capabilities in your account, contact your Boomi account representative.

    • The types of processing done depends on the document standard being traded and configurations found in the trading partner components involved in the transaction. Common functionality includes automatically reconciling inbound acknowledgments with outbound transactions, performing profile-based validation, and generating outbound acknowledgments for the transactions.

    Review the Trading Partner components help topic to learn how to define your company and trading partners.

    Documents, Acknowledgments, and Error paths are attached to the Trading Partner Start step.

    • Attach steps to the Documents path to define the processing to perform on valid documents.
    • Attach steps to the Acknowledgments path to define the routing of generated acknowledgment messages.
    • Attach steps to the Errors path to define the processing to perform on invalid X12, EDIFACT, HL7, ODETTE, and RosettaNet documents. For EDIFACT, HL7, and ODETTE documents, the Errors path is used only if Invalid Inbound Document Routing is set to Errors path for the document type in the Trading Partner Document Types tab.

    An Archive path is attached to the Trading Partner Start step if the Archiving option is selected. You can define custom archiving logic by attaching steps to the Archive path.

    Paths attached to the Trading Partner Start step are executed in the following order:

    • Documents

    • Acknowledgments

    • Errors

    • Archive

  2. Enter the Display Name (Optional) to describe the step. If you do not enter a name, Trading Partner appears on the step. The selected standard, company, and communication method also appear on the label.

  3. Select the Communication Method to select a communication protocol:AS2DiskFTPMLLP when HL7 is the standard SFTPHTTP. When used in the Start step, this selects the communication protocol for inbound data. You can configure one inbound method only per process.

  4. Select the Archiving option, to attach the steps to the Archive path and define the processing performed to archive the raw document data.

  5. Select trading partners from the My Standards list for document standards used in the process for inbound data, when used in the Start step, or for outbound data, when used in the Trading Partner step.

  6. Click Add a Standard for My Company to add the “My Company” trading partners for any document standards that are needed in the process.

    If you select the star icon for a “My Company” trading partner, that trading partner’s settings for the selected Communication Method are the defaults for that communication method. The interchange with each trading partner uses the default communication settings when configuring the default settings. To select a different “My Company” trading partner to provide default communication settings, click its star icon.

    Suppose, in the Start step, there are multiple Custom-standard trading partners and "My Company" trading partners. Suppose both types of trading partners use the same communication settings. In that case, you cannot determine a Custom-standard document's intended sending trading partner and receiving "My Company" trading partner. The platform processes the Custom-standard documents but does not report the From Trading Partner and To Trading Partner metadata values in Process Reporting. Reporting of the values occurs if one Custom-standard trading partner and "My Company" trading partner only use different communication settings from other Custom-standard and "My Company" trading partners in the step.

    Suppose the selected Communication Method is AS2 in a Start step. If multiple "My Company" trading partners use the same standard, and two or more trading partners use the same AS2 ID, a duplicate route error occurs when the listener starts when the step runs.

  7. Select Trading Partners either individually or in a Processing Group component, with which your company conducts the interchange.

    • Select Add an individual trading partners to the list to get the Trading Partner List below.

    • Select Use a Processing Group component to get the Processing Group below.

  8. Click the Trading Partner List to get the trading partner component(s) with which your company conducts the interchange

  • Click Add a Trading Partner to add trading partner components to the list.

  1. Select the Processing Group component consisting of trading partner components with which your company conducts the interchange

  2. Click Create to create a Processing Group

    When you set up multiple trading partners in a Start step, all of the trading partners must use the same Communication Method as MyCompany.

  3. Select the Error Handling Option to determine how the process behaves if there is an error in one of the trading partner connections.

    • Select Stop Process on Error (Default) to stop executing if one trading partner connection has an error.

    • Select Continue Process on Error to continue executing even if one of the trading partner connections has an error.

The Data Passthrough type

  1. Select the Data Passthrough option if the process is intended to receive data from another parent process or another external source.

  2. In the General tab, enter the Display Name to describe the step. If one is not entered, "Data Passthrough" appears on the step.

    A Process Call or Process Route step in a parent process can pass through documents to the child process to perform another series of processing steps. The Return Documents step can then be used, if preferred, to return the document results to the parent.

    • If Data Passthrough is enabled in the child process, the parent process sends any documents that reach the Process Call or Process Route step in one batch and starts one execution of the child process, versus generating a new execution of the child process for each document.

    • When the process(es) are deployed and executed, the child process does not display an execution record on the Manage menu if there is a Return Documents step in the process. The return is simply displayed in the parent process as a single execution of the parent.

    • If this process is enabled with scheduling without a data source, it runs as a No Data Start step.

  3. In the Notes tab,

    • Enter the title of the note in the Title field
    • Enter the note in the Note field

  4. Click OK to save

The No Data type

  1. Select the No Data option if the process should not receive or retrieve data from any source.

  2. Enter the Display Name to describe the step. If one is not entered, "No Data" appears on the step.

  3. In the Notes tab,

    • Enter the title of the note in the Title field
    • Enter the note in the Note field

  4. Click OK to save

    The process can be scheduled and run similar to CRON or any other job scheduler to perform a series of steps or commands.

The process can also be triggered by a schedule, Process Call or Process Route step in a parent process, or the Execute Process API.

Executing the process generates a single empty document that is forwarded through the process flow. The process should be designed to expect an empty document and either perform commands or retrieve documents from other sources.

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