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Flow nodes types

Flow nodes are the building blocks of flows. They are used to represent the different steps in a flow.

With flow nodes you can reference your services, events, commands and queries, external systems, users (actors) or even create your own custom nodes.

Flow node types​

  • default
    • A blank node type with just a title in your flow
  • actor
    • Represents a person in your flow diagram
  • externalSystem
    • Represents an external system in your flow diagram
  • message
    • Represents an event, command or query resource in EventCatalog
  • service
    • Represents an service resource in EventCatalog
  • custom
    • A custom node type, you can configure the title, summary, icon, properties and more.

default node type​

A blank node type with just a title in your flow

steps:
  - id: "step-1"
    title: "This value will be shown in the node on the flow diagram"

actor​

Actor represents a person in your flow diagram.

steps:
  - id: "step-1"
    title: "Example Step of a Actor"
    # here we define the actor type and the name
    actor:
      name: "Dave"

externalSystem​

Represents an external system in your flow diagram

steps:
  - id: "step-1"
    title: "Example Step of a externalSystem"
    # here we define the externalSystem, its summary and a url
    externalSystem:
      name: "Google"
      summary: "Search engine"
      href:"https://google.com"

message​

Represents and refers to an event, command or query resource in EventCatalog.

steps:
  - id: "step-1"
    title: "Example Step of a Event"
    # here we define the id and version of the event we want to use in the flow diagram
    message:
      id: "order-placed"
      version: 0.0.1

service​

Represents and refers to an service resource in EventCatalog.

steps:
  - id: "step-1"
    title: "Example Step of a Event"
    # here we define the id and version of the service we want to use in the flow diagram
    service:
      id: "order-service"
      version: 0.0.1

custom​

Added in eventcatalog@2.30.6

The custom node allows you to define any custom node you want in your flow diagram.

Use cases could include:

  • A custom node that represents a scheduled job
  • A custom node that represents a batch job
  • A custom node that represents a decision
  • A custom node that represents a process
  • A custom node that represents an aggregate

Custom nodes can be anything you want.

You can view a UI example of a custom nodes here.

UI Example

Custom Node

MDX Example

This example shows a custom node that represents a scheduler.

steps:
  - id: "renewal_timer_triggered"
    title: "Renewal Period Reached"
    custom:
      # the title shown on the node
      title: "Renewal Timer"
      # optional, the color of the node (see https://tailwindcss.com/docs/colors for the list of colors)
      color: "orange"
      # optional, the icon shown on the node (see https://heroicons.com/ for the list of icons)
      icon: "ClockIcon"
      # optional, the type of the node, this is shown on the sidebar of the node
      type: "Scheduler"
      # the summary of the node
      summary: "Automated timer triggers the subscription renewal process"
      # optional (default 5), the height of the node (careful going too high, the diagram does not calculate the graph based on the height of nodes)
      height: 8
      # optional, the properties shown in the node, urls will be shown as links
      properties:
        subscription_id: "sub_12345678"
        renewal_type: "Automatic"
        billing_cycle: "Monthly"
        next_billing_date: "2024-08-01"
      # optional, the "right click" menu items
      menu:
        - label: "View scheduler configuration"
          url: "https://docs.example.com/scheduler"
        - label: "Subscription timing documentation"
          url: "https://docs.example.com/subscription-timing"
      # optional, the next step to navigate to
    next_step:
      id: "check_subscription_status"
      label: "Verify subscription status"

You can find a full example on GitHub here.