In computing, Flow is middleware software which allows data-integration specialists to connect disparate systems (whether on-premises, hosted or in the cloud); transforming and restructuring data as required between environments. Flow functionality can be utilised for data integration projects, for EDI and for data-conversion activities. Developed by Flow Software Ltd in New Zealand, Flow is available through a variety of partner companies or directly from Flow Software in New Zealand and Australia. Integration software allows organisations to continue using existing applications, overcoming the need to customize or upgrade as their requirements change. By using integration software, many

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...

es benefit from reduced dependence on manual keying of data and the avoidance of costs and delays caused by keying errors.

Features

Flow enables data management: * Transformation of data, within and between sets * Generation and consumption of data, accessioning from specified sets within structures * Transportation of data files, using various transport formats, including secure * Specification of task work-flows * Notification of transactions and formats via reports

Data Generation

Flow accesses and generates data in structured formats, from files or databases. Flow can access and read from, or write to databases using either the SQL89 or SQL92 specification. Informix provides support for extended SQL use. * Microsoft SQL Server 2000 & above * Microsoft Access 97 97 above * MySQL 4.x * Oracle 8i * InterBase 5.6 * Informix *

IBM DB2 Db2 is a family of data management products, including database servers, developed by IBM. It initially supported the relational model, but was extended to support object–relational features and non-relational structures like JSON a ...

* MYOB * Any

ODBC In computing, Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is a standard application programming interface (API) for accessing database management systems (DBMS). The designers of ODBC aimed to make it independent of database systems and operating systems. An ...

compliant database as pe
the Microsoft ODBC specification
* Any ADO compliant data source as per the Microsoft ADO specification Flow can access and read from, or write to various file types. * Any ASCII format file * Any EDI type file based on either

UN/EDIFACT United Nations/Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport (UN/EDIFACT) is an international standard for electronic data interchange (EDI) developed for the United Nations and approved and published by UNECE, the UN Econ ...

or ANSI X12 standards * Any XML file based on XML standards such as SOAP, XHTML or ebXML

Data Transformation

A visual mapping engine is used to configure data transformation between data sets. Data can be restructured as it is transformed, thus allowing for dissimilar data structures between source and destination. Flow data access operates independently of the mapping layer. The applied mapping logic uses events containing Object Pascal code.

Data Transportation

Flow transports generated data and files using the following formats: * Local file access *

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* FTP * HTTP/S POST * HTTP/S GET * SMTP *

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* ebMS * SOAP

User Interface

The Flow user interface allows users to create and processes, activate processes and view activity logs. Email notifications of Flow process activity can also be configured.

Actions

Flow uses predefined processing of events that can be executed either on schedule, or event driven. Actions and their results are logged and available via the user interface. Actions include: * Transformation of data or files * Generation of specific reports * Windows-based shell commands * Outward-bound transports of data or files * Selected SQL statements * Custom plugin actions

Reports

Flow includes a report writer based on the software Report Builder. The report writer can create custom notification reports providing users with details related to their transactions. Reports can be created in XML,

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

JPEG JPEG ( ) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and imag ...

and XLS. Reports can be embedded into email messages if required.

References

External links

Flow Software ComputerWorld article

EDI Basics