3.3 Creating flow hierarchies

A flow hierarchy is created when you define a flow within another flow. You can define a maximum of 25 hierarchical levels, with the top-level flow being level 1. If you deploy service components as steps, the hierarchical levels in the service components must also be counted for the total number of hierarchical levels. To check the number of hierarchical levels contained in a service component, see the release service template that the service component is based on.

You can create a flow hierarchy by deploying flow plug-ins, and repeat a unit of processing that consists of several steps by deploying repeated execution plug-ins.

Figure 3‒3: Creating flow hierarchies

Table 3‒1: Component roles and their relationship to steps
Dragged & dropped component	Type of step	Role
Flow plug-in	Hierarchical step	The system creates a flow hierarchy.
Repeated execution plug-in	Repeated step	The system repeats execution of the specified flow. To create a hierarchy under a repeated step, use a flow plug-in or a repeated step. Note that the maximum number of nested levels that can be specified for a repeated execution plug-in is three.
Service component	Service step	The system places a release service template as a component in a flow, and executes the processing.
Other components	Normal step	The system executes the component.

Tip: In the Flow Tree area on the right side of the Flow tab of the Service Builder Edit window, you can check the list of defined flows in tree format. In the Flow Tree area, the top-level flow is displayed with its service template name. Each subordinate hierarchy level is displayed with the name of the step that executes the flow plug-in, or repeated execution plug-in.