CLOUDFLOW uses the concept of data. Contrary to files,
data are not saved on a disk, but are stored in a container in the database. A container is
a location in the database where nodes store their resulting (temporary) data.
data are never overwritten, which means you can always use the created data in any further
step of the workflow.
Example
In the workflow underneath, the Create XML node is used. In general, this node creates XML data or file(s), depending on the content of the Output field:
If you leave this field blank, the data will be sent to a container in the database
and no physical file will be created.
If you define an absolute CLOUDFLOW URL (cloudflow://..., see
Server URL for more information), containing
a file name and an extension, a physical output file with the specified file name will be
created.
In the example, the output field is empty. Consequently, no physical XML file is created and the XML data are stored in a container in the database. These data are used in the consequent node (XML to JSON) as the input data.
