User Guide > Designing and Executing Processes > Process Steps and Associated Components
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Process Steps and Associated Components
Steps are the building blocks in a process. A simple process may contain only a linked Start and Stop step with a script in either. A process will typically be more complex and include multiple step types, including Decision steps with true and false paths, Process steps that call other processes, Queue steps that call message queue sessions and others.
Start and Stop steps are already on the canvas in newly created processes. You may add scripts to the Start and Stop steps and connect the them to make the process complete. More typically, you will add multiple steps in order to complete the desired workflow. For information on adding steps to a process, see Building Processes.
This table provides a brief description for each step type. Click the step name to view more detailed information and the basic step properties, associated components, actions, parameters, and action properties.
Step Name
Description
Aggregator Step
Assembles a complex data object from smaller message objects.
Application Step
Calls and executes an external application executable.
Decision Step
Dictates the process flow based on the expression (EZscript) contained inside the Decision step. The expression must evaluate to either true or false. The process follows the corresponding true or false paths linked after the Decision step.
Invoker Step
Provide the ability to use a service provided by an external system or application. The service is invoked by passing a source message object to the Execute Action.
Iterator Step
Breaks a complex data object into smaller objects.
Process Step
Calls another process and executes it within the workflow.
Queue Step
Sends or receives messages using message queuing semantics. Entities supported by queue components include message queues, file systems, external applications and others.
Script Step
Build a script (expression) using EZscript, the same language used to build scripts in the Map Designer. Scripts written in Process Designer are often used to set values in global variables that can be used by Decision expressions to make logical choices between workflow paths.
SQL Step
Executes a SQL statement against a database. Primarily used to execute SQL statements that do not return data such as DDL statements.
Start Step
Acts as the starting point for the process. Automatically added to the canvas when a new process is created. You may add an expression to be executed to this step.
Stop Step
Acts as the last step of the process. Automatically added to the canvas when a new process is created. You may add an expression to be executed to this step.
Transformation Step
Create or edit transformations by launching Map Editor, or specify previously created transformations. This step runs the map.
Alt-Transformation Step
Associate a DI9 map to a process, or a transformation step to a DI9 process.
Transformer Step
Allows you to choose a Transformer for a process. Transformer components provide the ability to transform a source data format into a target data format.
Validator Step (for DataConnect v11.2.1 onwards)
Doc Validator Step (for DataIntegrator v9 format)
Calls and validates a document against a schema.
XSLT Step
Specify an XSLT style sheet that can be applied when transforming an XML source file to an XML target file.
You can add annotations for the steps. For more information, see Adding Annotations.
Invalid Step
When you open an existing process, if there are any invalid steps, a pop-up window is displayed with the list of invalid steps. Also, on the canvas, the invalid step is displayed with icon as shown. It means unsupported step and is no longer available in this release.
If you double-click on the invalid step, it displays the step property view. However, you can continue to run the process.
Last modified date: 08/02/2023