Managing flows during development

Use the App Connect Design page to manage your flows as you develop them. Use the flow tile menus to edit, test, export, deploy, and delete your flows.

About this task

The Design page Icon that represents the Design page contains a tile for each event-driven and API flow that you create. The tile contains an options menu [⋮] that you can use to manage that flow. The options that are available on each tile depend on your plan and on the type and state of the flow. A flow can have the following states.
Draft (incomplete)
A draft flow isn't deployed so you can continue to develop or edit it. A flow can be incomplete for the following reasons:
  • The flow has validation errors.
  • One or more connectors aren't connected to your accounts.
  • One or more mandatory fields aren't completed.
  • A flow isn't implemented for an API operation.
Draft (ready to deploy)
A draft flow that is ready to deploy has no validation errors or missing fields and all connectors are connected to your accounts. You can either deploy it or continue to develop or edit it.
Active
An active flow is deployed, which means that it is running and ready to be triggered by an event. An active flow is one that is deployed and activated (started). You can't edit an active flow. To edit the flow, you must deactivate it first on the Manage page.
You can use the options menu on the flow tile to deploy, test, edit, export, and delete a flow.
Figure 1. Managing flows from the flow tiles
The tiles are shown for three flows on the Design page in different states. The menu for the draft API flow that is ready to deploy contains the options Deploy, Test API, Open, Export, and Delete. The menu for the active event-driven flow contains the options Undeploy, View, Export, and Delete. The Test using real data option is unavailable. The menu for the draft incomplete event-driven flow contains the options Edit, Export, and Delete. The Deploy and Test using real data options are unavailable.

Sorting, filtering, and searching for flows

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By default, flows on the Design page are sorted alphabetically in name order, but you can change the sort order to view flows in date order. To sort your flows, click Filter options Filter options icon, then choose the appropriate option.
  • Select Name to sort flows in alphabetical name order.
  • Select Date created to sort flows in the order in which they were created, with the most recent displayed first.
  • Select Date modified to sorts flows in the order in which they were last edited.
You can also use the filter options to show flows that are in certain states. You can filter flows based on whether they're running, being tested, incomplete, or ready to deploy.
Figure 2. Filtering flows
The filter options for flows include sorting flows by name, date created, or date modified. You can also filter flows based on whether they are running, being tested, incomplete, or ready to deploy.
You can also use the Search box to filter your flows by flow name or connector name.
Figure 3. Showing only flows that contain Salesforce connectors by searching for "salesforce"
Salesforce is typed into the search box and all the flows that contain Salesforce connectors are shown automatically

Deploying a flow

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To deploy an event-driven or API flow that has a state of Draft (ready to deploy), click Deploy in the flow tile menu. You can then either select an existing runtime to deploy the flow to, or create a runtime. After you deploy a flow to a runtime, the flow and the runtime are listed on the appropriate tab of the Manage page. The flow tile on the Design page also shows an active state. You can also deploy the flow from the flow editor by clicking Deploy flow. For more information, see Deploying integrations.

Testing a flow

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You can temporarily start an event-driven flow or API in App Connect Designer to test that it is working as you expect.

When you test a flow from the Design page, you test it by using real data. If you want to test your flow by using sample data, open the flow in the flow editor, then click Test flow > Using sample data.
Attention: Testing an API or event-driven flow completes actions on the target applications that you're connected to. Before testing, verify that the connected accounts for the actions are appropriate for testing. You can use one account for testing, then use a different account when you deploy the flow.
If the status of your flow is Draft (ready to deploy), you can test it.
The Test using real data option for an event-driven flow.

When you start testing, the status of the API or flow on the Design page changes to Preparing to test. When the API or flow is ready to be tested, the status changes to Testing.

When you finish testing, click Stop test in the flow tile menu.
The Stop test option for an API that has a status of Testing.

Editing a flow

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You can't edit a flow when it's active, so you must deactivate or undeploy it before you edit it.

You must undeploy the flow on the Design page or in the flow editor before you edit it.

You can edit a flow in Draft (incomplete) or Draft (ready to deploy) state by clicking the flow tile, or by opening the menu and clicking Edit for an event-driven flow or Open for an API flow.
The Edit option is shown for an event-driven flow and the Open option is shown for an API flow
Note: Editing the name of a flow doesn't create a copy of the flow with a different name.

Viewing an active flow

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You can see an active flow in read-only mode without undeploying the flow. Click View in the flow menu.
The View option is selected for an active event-driven flow

Exporting a flow

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You can share an event-driven or API flow with another user by exporting it as a YAML or BAR file. Users with access to the exported flow can then import it into their own environments. Click Export in the flow menu of an event-driven flow and select either YAML or BAR file.
The Export dialog box for an event-driven flow contains options to export a flow as a design-time flow asset (YAML) or runtime flow asset (BAR).

A YAML file is a design-time asset, which means that someone can import it into App Connect Designer and continue to develop the flow. For more information, see Exporting and importing flows.

A BAR file is a runtime flow asset, which means that someone can upload it to their instance and deploy it. For more information, see Deploying integrations.

You can also export API flows as OpenAPI documents. Click Export in the flow menu of an API flow and select the appropriate OpenAPI specification.
The Export dialog box for an API flow contains options to export a flow as a design-time flow asset (YAML), runtime flow asset (BAR), or OpenAPI V3.0 YAML and Runtime flow BAR assets (ZIP). You can also select from the following specifications: OpenAPI V3.0 (YAML), OpenAPI V3.0 (JSON), OpenAPI V2.0/Swagger document (YAML), or OpenAPI V2.0/Swagger document (JSON).

For more information, see Exporting your API flow as an OpenAPI document.