A flow is a route the control flow takes between objects (potentially with the exchange of data). The routing of the control flow is made using guard conditions defined on flows. If the condition is true, the control is passed to the next object.
In the following example the flow links Process Order to Ship US Postal Ground:
In all languages that support message formats, except orchestration languages, you can associate a message format with a flow in order to define the format of information exchanged between objects. In orchestration languages, the message format is used to specify the format of the message associated with an operation .
A flow can link shortcuts. A flow accepts shortcuts on both extremities to prevent it from being automatically moved when a process is to be moved. In this case, the process is moved and leaves a shortcut, but contrary to the other links, the flow is not moved. Shortcuts of flows do not exist, and flows remain in place in all cases.
The following rules apply:
When flows are compared and merged by the Merge Model feature, they are matched by trigger event first, and then by their calculated name. When two flows match, the trigger actions automatically match because there cannot be more than one trigger action.