The Agent Selection dialog contains all the available agents, represented as icons. Different icons are available, depending on which kind of workflow type that you have selected. There will be different agents for Batch, Realtime or Task workflow types.

You open the Agent Selection dialog from a workflow configuration. To open the Agent Selection dialog, click Build → New Configuration. Select Workflow from the Configurations dialog. When prompted to select workflow type, select either Batch, Realtime Or Task. Click Add Agent to open the Agent Selection dialog.

Real-time and batch workflow configurations contain three types of agents, sorted under three different tabs, depending on the type of data an agent expects and delivers. The tabs are labelled Collection, Processing, and Forwarding.

Task Workflows configurations have only one agent type and always contain a single agent. 

Batch and Real-Time Workflow Agents

Collection Agents

A collection agent is responsible for the gathering of data from external systems or devices, such as, by opening a file and reading it byte-by-byte and then passing it on into the workflow.

A collection agent must produce one or several data types. The workflow configuration validates that the data types between the collection agent and the connected agents are compatible.

Processing Agents

A processing agent expects to be fed with data and to deliver data on one or several outgoing routes. Inside a workflow, data propagates between agents as streams, that is, as a flow of bytes or UDRs. A simple processing agent could for example be a counter counting the throughput. There are also more complex types, for instance, agents that depending on the processed result, deliver data on different routes. The processing agent decodes (translates) an incoming byte stream into a UDR object and the encoding agent does right the opposite.

Forwarding Agents

A forwarding agent is responsible for distributing the data from the workflow to other systems or devices. An example of an activity for a forwarding agent is to create a file from a data stream and transfer it to another system using FTP.

Different agents act differently on the Begin Batch and End Batch messages. The forwarding agents, for instance, need a set of boundaries in order to close a file or commit a database transaction.

A forwarding agents must receive one or several data types. The workflow configuration validates that the data types between the forwarding agent and the connected agents are compatible.

For detailed information about specific collection-, processing-, and forwarding agents, see Appendix 2 - Batch and Real-Time Workflow Agents.

Task Workflow Agents

Task workflows agents are used to execute system housekeeping task such as removing files or cleaning up database tables. These agents do not receive nor publish any data from other agents.

For detailed information about specific task agents, see Appendix 3 - Task Workflow Agents.