IBM Cloud Pak for Integration only: Creating and reusing assets in an Automation assets instance

From the App Connect Designer dashboard, you can add any of your flows to the Automation assets catalog for reuse. If you'd like to share YAML files for flows that were exported from other App Connect Designer instances, you can also directly add these files to the Automation assets catalog. When you add a flow as an asset, all its configuration settings, other than your connection details for the integrating applications, are preserved in the asset definition.

To add a flow as an asset, complete either of the following steps:

• From the App Connect Designer dashboard, add an asset as follows:
  1. Open the options menu for the flow that you want to add to the Automation assets catalog and then click the Share as asset option.
     This option is visible only if you have access to an Automation assets instance.

     
  2. Complete the Share to automation assets panel as follows:
     1. In the Asset name field, specify a name for the asset. By default, the flow name is used.

        The asset type is automatically shown as Designer Event-driven Flow for an event-driven flow, or Designer API Implementation for an API flow.

     2. In the Tags field, select or create one or more tags that can be used to categorize the asset within the catalog. To create a tag, type the text within the field and press Enter.
     3. In the Description field, specify the purpose of the flow. Asset names in the catalog are not required to be unique, so a meaningful description might help other users determine whether an asset could be used to build their solution.
     4. Click Share.

     

     A confirmation message is displayed after the asset is saved. All users with access to the selected Automation assets instance are able to view the asset's definition and metadata in the catalog when accessed from the Platform UI, and can reuse this asset if required.

     

     Tip: If you want to delete this asset from Automation assets at a later date, you must open the instance from the Platform UI and then use the Delete option to permanently remove the asset.
• From Automation assets, add a flow definition YAML file an asset as follows:
  1. If not already open, click the navigation menu while within your App Connect Designer instance, and click Administration > Instances (or Administration > Integration instances). Then, select the Automation assets instance that you want to open.
  2. From the Browse Assets tab on the Automation assets page, click Add assets.
     
  3. From the Add asset window, drag and drop the YAML file from its location in an open file browser into the boxed area, or click within the area to open a file browser and locate the file. The file details are displayed with default values for the asset name (that is, the flow name) and type (that is, Designer Event-driven Flow for an event-driven flow, or Designer API Implementation for an API flow).
  4. Add a description that summarizes the purpose of the flow, and specify tags, if required. Then, click Add assets.
     

     The asset is displayed in the Browse Assets tab. All users with access to this Automation assets instance are able to view the asset's definition and metadata, and can reuse the asset if required. From the table where the assets are listed, you can also use the Download asset icon to download the flow definition as a YAML file, which you can import into an App Connect Designer instance.

You can create a flow in App Connect Designer by importing an asset of type Designer Event-driven Flow or Designer API Implementation, which contains a flow definition, from the Automation assets catalog.

To create a flow from an asset, complete the following steps:

1. From the App Connect Designer dashboard, click Create > Create from asset (or New > Create from asset in earlier versions) to open the Select an asset panel. (The Create from asset option is visible only if you have access to an Automation assets instance.)

   From the App Connect Designer Home page, you can also click the Create from an asset tile to open the Select an asset panel. This tile is dynamically generated and displayed only if you have access to an Automation assets instance.

   In the Select an asset panel, only those assets of a type that can be added to the App Connect Designer dashboard are shown.

2. Locate the asset in the table. If you need to narrow down the search for the asset, you can specify search criteria in the Search Assets field to search for the asset name, type, owner, or tags.
   Within the table, you can also click values in the Owner or Tags columns to filter by those values.
   
3. Click the name of the asset that you want, and then review the flow definition and metadata. Then click Create from asset to add the asset as a flow.
   Tip: If you decide that this is not the asset you require after reviewing it, you can click Back to return to the previous view to choose another asset.
   

   The flow opens within the flow editor for an event-driven flow, or the Define tab of the API editor for an API flow. The flow name is inherited from the flow definition. If you already have an existing flow with an identical name on your dashboard (for example, Customer API), the imported flow is renamed by appending _n to its name, where n is a number starting from 1 (for example, Customer API_1).

   You must now validate the flow; for example, to ensure that you are connected to the appropriate accounts and to review the details of nodes in the flow. Validation errors are typically highlighted with a warning icon on any application or toolbox nodes that require your attention.

   • To validate an event-driven flow, go to step 4.
   • To validate an API flow, go to step 5.
4. Event-driven flow: Validate the flow definition, and then optionally customize it to suit your requirements:
   1. Resolve any validation errors as described in Validating your flow is ready to run.
   2. If required, customize the flow by adding or removing nodes, or changing the field values.
      Tip: You can use auto-generated or custom sample data to try out (or test) any configured action and verify its effect. To verify that the configured nodes in a flow collectively produce the expected results, you can also try out the flow before you start it. For more information, see Testing a non-running flow with sample data.
   3. To start the flow, click the Start flow button, or select Start flow from the flow menu () if you are using an older Designer version.
5. API flow: Validate the settings for each model and its operations, and then optionally customize it to suit your requirements:
   1. From the Designer tab, click the Operations tab for a model.
   2. For each operation, edit the flow as follows to review its configuration and resolve any validation errors:
      1. Click Edit flow. A warning icon is displayed on any nodes that require your attention.
      2. Ensure that the preferred accounts are selected for each action.
      3. Resolve any validation errors as described in Validating your flow is ready to run.
      4. After updating the operation, click Done.
   3. If required, customize the flow by adding, updating, or removing models, or by adding, updating, or removing operations.
      Tip: You can use auto-generated or custom sample data to try out (or test) any configured action and verify its effect. To verify that the configured nodes in a flow collectively produce the expected results, you can also try out the flow before you start it. For more information, see Testing a non-running flow with sample data.
   4. To start the API, set the Stopped switch to on (or Started), or select Start API from the flow menu () if you are using an older Designer version.
6. Test the running flow as follows:
   • Event-driven flow: Complete the event activity that triggers the flow and then verify that you can see the expected results in the target applications. For more information, see Testing a running event-driven flow.
   • API flow: Test each operation by using the built-in test facility, and review the responses to verify the behavior of the flow. You can optionally check for the expected results in the target applications. For more information, see Testing a running API flow.