# Configuring Control Nodes

This section describes how to finalize the design of Control nodes in your business process.

After you add a Control node specific for the type of interaction you want to design—Control Send, Control Receive, or Control Send with Return—the Control node you selected is displayed in your business process in the Design View:

As with other nodes in your business process, you can design the properties and behavior of Control nodes by invoking their node builders. This section describes how to complete the design of the interaction with resources via your Control nodes.

To Invoke the Control Node Builders

Double-click the appropriate Control node in your business process to invoke its node builder.

Each Control node builder provides a task-driven interface through which you can design the communication between the Control node and a control. The tasks are displayed on tabs on Control node builders: General Settings, Send Data, and Receive Data.

The following sections describe how to specify your control settings on the tabs in the node builders:

- General Settings (Select a Control Instance and a Target Method)
- Send Data/Receive Data (Map Variables to the Control Send (or Control Callback) Method Parameters)

General Settings (Select a Control Instance and a Target Method)

1. In the node builder, click the arrow beside the Control field to display a drop-down list of the instances of controls that are available in your project. (See Adding Instances of Controls to Your Business Process Project.)
2. Select a control from the list.
3. The Method panel is populated with the methods available on the control you selected.

Note: Asynchronous send and return methods, as well as synchronous send and receive methods can be defined for a given control. Only the methods appropriate for the kind of control node you are designing (Control Send, Control Receive, or Control Send with Return) are displayed in the list.

4. Select the method you want to specify at this point in your business process.
5. To close the node builder, click the X in the top right-hand corner.

Send Data/Receive Data
(Map Variables to the Control Send (or Control Callback) Method Parameters)

If your Control node is expecting data or sending data, in other words it is a Control Send, a Control Receive, or a Control Send with Return, the node builders display either Send Data or Receive Data tabs in addition to the General Settings tab. Tasks on these tabs allow you to define one or more variables to map to method parameters. At run time, input data sent by your business process to controls, or data returned by controls is assigned to these variables.

1. Click the Send Data or Receive Data tab (depending on the type of Control node you are designing).

This tab allows you to define one or more variables to hold the data that your business process receives from clients.

2. If the data types of your method parameters and the data type of the variables you are going to use match, you can map your variables to the corresponding methods directly.

1. If not already selected, select the Variable Assignment option.

The Control Expects field is populated with the parameter(s) you specified on the General Settings tab.

2. If you want to assign a variable that you already created in your project to the method parameters, select it from the drop-down menu.
3. If you want to create a new variable and assign it to the method parameter, select Create new variable..., then follow the instructions in the To Create a New Variable in the Node Builder section.
4. If the data types of your method parameters and your variables match, click X to close the node builder.

3. If the data types of your method parameters and your variables are different, you can use the data mapping tool included in WebLogic Workshop to map between heterogeneous data types. The data transformations you create using the tool are stored in Data Transformation Format (DTF) files. When DTF files containing your data transformations are built, they are built as controls. The controls expose transformation methods, which business processes invoke to map disparate data types.

1. To create a transformation map, select the Transformation option.

The node builder transformation screen is displayed with the data types expected by your method displayed in the Control Expects pane.

2. In Step 1 of the Transformation option window, click Select Variable to select one or more variables to be used.

Note: To remove a variable from the node builder pane, select the variable in the list and then click Remove. This action removes the variable from the node builder, not from your business process. The variable is still included in your business process; it is visible in the Variables pane in the Data Palette.

When designing a business process, you use a Transformation to create maps between disparate data types. Your project must contain an instance of a Transformation control (defined by a DTF file) for you to create the map.

3. If an appropriate instance of a Transformation control is not available in your project, you can create a new one by clicking Create Transformation to invoke the Transformation Mapping tool window. This automatically applies changes to the builder and opens a transformation editor in a new window.

The mapping tool displays a representation of the source schema and target schema in Source and Target panes. You can create a map between the data type of the method parameter and the data type of the variable, or variables, to which you assign the data. To learn how to create and test a map using the mapping tool, see Guide to Data Transformation.

Note: To return to node builder, in the Application pane, double-click the JPD file.

4. If the appropriate instance of a Transformation control is available in your project, click Advanced.... The Advanced Option window opens. In this window, select the Control and Method. If the method arguments and return type matches those as selected in the Transformation pane, click OK.

4. To close the node builder, click the X in the top right-hand corner.

In the Design View, the icon indicates that you completed the configuration and design of this node and is replaced with an icon that represents the resource with which this node communicates. That is, a new control-specific icon replaces the former placeholder icon.

5. To save your work, select File —> Save.

Related Topics

Create Control Nodes in Your Business Process

Designing Your Control Nodes

Adding Instances of Controls to Your Business Process Project

Setting Control Properties

Client Operations and Control Communication Methods

Guide to Data Transformation

Grouping Nodes in Your Business Process

Handling Exceptions

About Editing Node Configurations