Application States

States are basic building blocks that you can link sequentially to model application-process flows.

Application states are either:

Standalone – implemented natively.
Service – proxy to a Web service or aggregated Web services that are exposed through the service-oriented architecture (SOA) layer.

You can meet customer requirements by developing custom states using the State SDK. You can add custom states dynamically using the plug-in mechanism that is enabled by the OSGi services registry.

Create applications using the Application Composer Web tool. Application types include:

Interactive – provide a user-interactive mobile service; typically invoked when mobile consumers send a keyword to a preassigned short code.
Event – designed for batch processing; invoked by events, such as scheduled times, system triggers, or external triggers.

Most states can be used in either application type. However, there are a few states that are available only to a specific application type. For example, you can use the Process Subscriber state only in event applications, because it relies on the callback mechanism provided by the processing engine. You can use Application Call and Application Call Return states only in interactive applications, because these states do not support the callback mechanism. The Application Composer prevents you from adding invalid states to an application.

Base States
Base states provide standalone functionality, without dependency on or interaction with external services. You commonly use base states to construct process flows.
Subscriber States
Applications that contain subscriber states have access to subscriber storage, which stores attributes that are useful in push campaigns.
USSD States
SMS Builder delivers Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) states via Java Messaging Service (JMS) to external USSD channels.
Custom States
You can develop Java custom application states to extend the functionality of SMS Builder, and to meet client-specific requirements.
Input and Output Parameters
Application states can have input and output parameters. Input parameters allow states to receive input from consumers, other states, and applications. Output parameters allow states to save values in session variables that can be used by other states or applications.
State Machine
A state machine defines an application process flow at runtime. During development, you can compose an application task flow visually using the Application Composer. When you activate the application, the process flow is converted to a state machine.

Parent topic: Developing Applications