Introduction to stages

The palette on the Flow Editor page, adjacent to the canvas, shows the stages you can apply to your flows.

Note: The stages and sinks displayed in the Stages palette are grouped and color-coded by type.
Sources
Define the input for a flow. A source is the first stage in a flow, and defines the input data to process.
Sinks
Define the output from a flow. A sink is the last stage in a flow, and defines what to do with the output from the flow. A sink can also perform other actions at the end of a flow, such as executing a program.
Control stages
Move data along different paths in a flow, to split or group records, and to perform basic data transforms and mathematical operations. Custom transforms, a type of control stage, are supported in this preview release of Flow Designer. You also have the option of configuring custom transforms through Enterprise Designer for use in your Flow Designer jobs.
Module-specific stages
Provide functions that are available through the modules you have installed on the Spectrum Technology Platform.
Note: We will add module-specific stages in a future release.
User-defined stages
Provide a means to develop custom operation stages for your flows.