Designer 10.7 | webMethods Service Development Help | Building Flow Services | The BRANCH Step | Building a BRANCH Step
 
Building a BRANCH Step
Use the following procedure to build a BRANCH step in a flow service.
*To build a BRANCH step
1. If you are inserting a BRANCH step into an existing flow service, display that service in the editor and highlight the step immediately above where you want the BRANCH step inserted.
2. Do one of the following:
*Click the button next to on the flow service editor toolbar and click .
*Click by the side of the flow service editor to open the Palette view. Click and drag it to the flow service editor.
3. Complete the following fields on the Properties view:
For this property...
Specify...
Comments
An optional descriptive comment for this step.
Scope
The name of a document (IData object) in the pipeline to which you want to restrict this step. If you want this step to have access to the entire pipeline, leave this property blank.
Timeout
Optional. Specifies the maximum number of seconds that this step should run. If this time elapses before the step completes, Integration Server issues a FlowTimeoutException and execution continues with the next step in the service.
If you want to use the value of a pipeline variable for this property, type the variable name between % symbols. For example, %expiration%. The variable you specify must be a String.
If you do not need to specify a time-out period, leave Timeout blank.
For more information about how Integration Server handles flow step timeouts, refer to the description of the watt.server.threadKill.timeout.enabled configuration parameter in webMethods Integration Server Administrator’s Guide.
Label
An optional name for this specific step, or a null, unmatched, or empty string ($null, $default, blank). For more information about branching on null or empty values, see Branching on Null and Empty Values.
If you use this step as a target for another BRANCH or an EXIT step, you must specify a value in the Label property. For more information about the EXIT step, see The EXIT Step.
Switch
The name of the String or constrained Object variable whose value will be used to determine which child step to execute at run time. Do not specify a switch variable if you set the Evaluate labels property to True.
Evaluate label
Whether or not you want to evaluate labels of child steps as conditional expressions. Select True to branch on expressions. Select False (the default) if you want to branch on the switch value.
4. Insert the conditional steps that belong to the BRANCH (that is, its children) using the following steps:
a. Insert a flow step by clicking the button next to on the flow service editor toolbar and clicking the required flow step.
b. Indent the flow step using on the flow service editor toolbar to make it a child of the BRANCH step.
c. In the Label property on the Properties view, specify the switch value that will cause this step to execute at run time.
To match...
Specify...
That exact string
A string
The String representation of the object’s value
Example for Boolean object true
Example for Integer object 123
A constrained object value
Any string fitting the criteria specified by the regular expression
Example /^REL/
A regular expression
An empty string
A blank field
A null value
$null
Any unmatched value (that is, execute the step if the value does not match any other label)
$default
d. Set other properties as needed.
Important:
If you are branching on expressions, make sure the expressions you assign to the target steps are mutually exclusive. In addition, do not use null or empty values as labels when branching on expressions. The BRANCH step ignores target steps with a $null label or blank label.
5. Click File > Save.