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Create a runtime

Creating a new NL Flow runtime means installing it somewhere—even on a laptop computer—but here is described the procedure to create a runtime item, which is a prerequisite to the installation of the actual runtime, represents the runtime in NL Flow and is a requisite for interacting with the runtime through the NL Flow Web application.

A runtime item is an informative record about an actual runtime that the runtime itself keeps updated and a medium through which NL Flow users interact with the runtime.
As described in the introduction, the communication between a runtime and the reference installation of NL Flow is mono-directional, it always originates at the runtime: the runtime periodically provides information about itself, and this information is stored in the corresponding runtime item. This is how NL Flow users know about the runtime, its status and its capabilities. When they want to interact with a runtime to publish, interactively test or unpublish workflows, they indeed "leave their orders" inside the runtime item, where the runtime picks them up the first time it connects to NL FLow again.

The above communication has nothing to do with programmatic use of workflows published in the runtime, which is achieved via the workflow APIs. A runtime may not connect to NL Flow, yet it may be possible to use published workflows via their API, because client programs connect directly to the runtime.

To create a runtime item, go to the Runtimes view of the dashboard and:

  1. Select Create: a dialog appears.
  2. Choose an identifying color, specify the name and, if you want, a description for the new runtime item.
  3. If your user belongs to the Owner role, choose between Public and Private. If your user belongs to another role, there will be no choice and the runtime item will be created as private.
    A private runtime item is initially visible and manageable only by its creator, who is also its initial owner, but the owner can share the item with others and even give away his ownership. If a user belongs to the Owner role he can edit the properties of a private runtime item and make it public or vice versa, that is make a public item private.
  4. Select Create: a dialog appears to confirm the creation of the runtime item and display the connection token.
    The connection token contains the information that allows the actual runtime to connect to its runtime item inside the complete installation of NL Flow. It must be put inside the configuration of the actual runtime when this is installed.
  5. Select Copy to clipboard to copy the connection token to the clipboard.
  6. Paste the content of the clipboard in a safe location like a password manager because the connection token is available only when the runtime is created and cannot be displayed in the NL Flow Web application anymore, even if it can be regenerated.
  7. Select Close.

Now you can give the connection token to the responsible for the installation of the actual runtime, which will put it inside the runtime configuration.
Once the runtime has been installed and started, it should automatically start connecting regularly to NL Flow. Browse the runtime items to check the connection status of the corresponding runtimes.