Working with the Message element

The Message element in Boomi Flow lets you send requests to third-party service providers like Box or Twilio. It can be used to configure both incoming and outgoing messages.

A message contains message actions; that define the interface of inputs/outputs for calling against each service message. Before a service can be used in a message action, it needs to be added to the tenant, and imported to the flow.

The message automatically populates a list of possible message actions, based on the service that is used to create it. For example, these are the available options for the PDF service:

If we were using the Box service, our action options would be:

You can select and configure the message action you want to use.

Let’s see how to use the messages now:

  1. Drag a Message element from the sidebar, to the canvas.
  2. In the Configuration Panel, enter a name for the Message in the Name text field. This name is visible only to you, and is used by the API to identify the element.
  3. Click New Message Action.

    This lets you select the service that will be used in the message action.
  4. Select a service from the drop-down menu. Remember, a service needs to be installed in the tenant, and imported in a flow, before it is available for use in a message action.
  5. The actual actions available, will depend on the service you are using. Let’s say we are using Twilio. This is what the message actions look like:
  6. Once you have configured the message action, click Apply Message Action.
  7. Click Save Message.

This is how the Message element looks like on the canvas:

You may want to check out these tutorials that show in greater detail how message actions work: