Route

The Route tab contains the most important part of the Flow Designer: the canvas. Each new flow starts with a blank canvas where you design and develop your integration.

Error Route

The Error Route tab also contains a canvas where you design and develop the error handling for your flows.

mini map

The canvas includes a mini map to help you navigate large flows easily. You can adjust mini map settings in User Settings - Preferences.

Designing your flow

To start designing your flow, drag components from the Component Library onto the canvas and connect them. Then, configure the components as needed, resolve all Validations issues if there are any and start the flow from the Versions sidebar when it's ready.

Configuring components

Most components have configuration options that define their functionality, sometimes they are optional or already have default values defined.

To access configuration options:

• Double-click on a component.
• Hover over a component and click on the icon.

basic & advanced tabs

Some components have tabs with Basic and Advanced configuration options.

If an option is invalid, the input field turns red and an error message appears. If the error applies only to the Test or Production environment, this is indicated. Several visual cues highlight validation issues in your flow, read more about that on the Validations page.

help and guidance

• All configuration options include help text for additional guidance.
• Click the icon behind the component name to go to it's full documentation.

Quick insert of variables

The (Message Header), (Flow Property) and (Tenant Variable) buttons indicate which variables you can use in configuration fields of components. Click the respective variable icons to insert them easily. You can either select them from the list or just define the name of the variable that you want to add and the quick insert tool will add the syntax for you.

tip

Read more about using variables in Dovetail on this reference page.

Connecting components

Drag from one connector to another to link components together. Connectors are the blue semi-circles on a component's edge. A line with an arrow will appear, indicating a successful connection and the direction of data flow.

Components are:

• Consumers: They receive data, with a connector on the right side.
• Producers: They send data, with a connector on the left side.
• Consumer and Producer: They receive and send data, with a connector on both sides.

In the example above, when you drag from the right side connector of the Inbound HTTPS component to the left side connector of the SetBody component it allows messages to flow from the output of the Inbound HTTPS component to the input of the SetBody component.

only input or output

Depending on their characteristics, some components cannot be used as the first or last component in a flow. The related connectors will be ommitted from the component.

multiple connections or connectors

Some components:

• Allow multiple lines from a single connector: i.e. the ContentRouter component has an output line for each specified rule.
• Have extra connectors: i.e. the Split component has a bottom edge connector to route splitted messages.

Adding notes to components

Flows can become complex quickly. To document them effectively, you can add notes to components. Hover over a component and click the icon to open the note window.

If a component has a note, a preview appears when you hover over it. Click the again to view the full note.

tip

Click the button in the Canvas menu to toggle all component notes at once. This helps you "read" your flow without diving into each component’s configuration.

Removing components

Hover over a component and click on the icon to remove it from the flow. Or select one or multiple components and press Backspace/Delete The lines between connectors are removed automatically.

Using the canvas

The canvas offers multiple mouse actions, menus and keyboard shortcuts to streamline flow development.

Mouse actions

The following actions can be performed using your mouse:

• Pan: Right Click + Drag Mouse
• Scroll vertical: Mouse Scroll
• Scroll horizontal: Shift + Mouse Scroll
• Zoom: Spacebar + Drag Left Mouse
• Open Actions menu: Right Click
• Selecting components:
  • Select one: Left Click
  • Add/Remove one: Shift + Left Click
  • Select multiple: Left Click + Drag Mouse
  • Deselect: Left Click Canvas

Mouse Scroll to Zoom

In the User Settings - Preferences you can override Mouse Scroll to become Zoom instead of Scroll vertical.

Canvas menu

The Canvas menu is located at the bottom left of the canvas.

Use it to:

• Zoom in
• Zoom out
• Fit flow to screen
• Fullscreen mode
• Go to flow start
• Open/Close all notes

Actions menu

Open the Actions menu with Right-click. Among often used actions, it displays the corresponding keyboard shortcuts.

Use it to:

• Undo: Cmd/Ctrl + Z
• Redo: Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + Z
• Cut: Cmd/Ctrl + X
• Copy: Cmd/Ctrl + C
• Paste: Cmd/Ctrl + V
• Select all: Cmd/Ctrl + A
• Duplicate: Cmd/Ctrl + D
• Remove: Backspace/Delete
• Save: Cmd/Ctrl + S
• Create Template

Last update on Feb 29, 2025