IBM Business Automation Workflow V
19.0.0.1

Using transient variables in service flows

You can prevent large variables and sensitive or secret information from being written to the database by marking service flow variables as transient.

Transient variables are private service flow variables that are not persisted in the database as part of the execution context of a service flow. Use cases for transient variables include performance optimization and preventing persistent storage of sensitive information such as API keys. The value of a transient variable lives in memory for the time that its service flow is being executed on the same thread.

You can mark any variable that is created as a private variable on the service flow's Variables tab as transient by selecting Is transient in the Details section.

Such variables are not written to the database even if an activity specifies Save execution context on the General tab. Variables of a shared business object type cannot be transient. The concept of a transient variable contradicts the concept of a shared business object.

The transcience behavior of a variable is scoped to its service flow. To preserve the transience of the information, you should never assign the value of a transient variable to a non-transient variable, assign the value of a transient variable to a parameter in the data mapping of an activity, or use a transient variable for a tracking event.