This section contains information relating to the Microflow component.

The Microflow component is a dataflow component that processes one or more messages within one or more contexts. The component is used to provide the core processing for incomming messages in the ClientServer component.

The dataflow is dynamically constructed at runtime by assembling parts from a configuration file (xml).

The Microflow offers a high performance processing framework for messages with more design options than traditional request-response chains.

The screenshot below is from a proof-of-concept Microflow composition GUI.

Core classes:

ActionManager: manages all Actions, Processors, Containers etc.

Action: superclass for all defined actions that processes messages. Messages are accepted at the IN port and delivered after processing to one of multiple defined OUT ports or one Exception port.

Handler: Messages are transported between Actions by a handler. There are three basic handlers: Forward-simple forwarding to next action, Spawn-spawns a new Microflow and delivers the Invocation object to it, End- terminates the action processing call chain.

ActionFactory: factory for Actions

ActionContainer: container that contains and manages defined Actions.

ActionProcessor: processing environment for actions, usually a Thread.

ActionInvocation: containes all information nedded for one invocation of a microflow, It maintains a list of messages and contexts.

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