Mule Subflow vs Processor-Chain

Question

What is the difference between Subflow and Processor-Chain in Mule?

As far as I have used both are re-usable. Both makes the config more readable. Both execute synchronously. Both inherit the processing strategy and exception-strategy from the triggering flow.

Processor-chain can be defined inside the flow as well as a global message processor.

Apart from this how are they different in terms of behaviour and usage.

Update: Example config with Named Processor Chain

<flow name="man-flow" >
        <http:inbound-endpoint exchange-pattern="request-response" host="localhost" port="8081" path="myapp/collection-processor" doc:name="HTTP">
            <byte-array-to-string-transformer></byte-array-to-string-transformer>
        </http:inbound-endpoint>
        <expression-component doc:name="Expression"><![CDATA[java.util.ArrayList list = new java.util.ArrayList();
            list.add("First String");
            list.add("Second String");
            list.add("Third String");
            payload = list;]]>          
        </expression-component>
        <request-reply>
            <vm:outbound-endpoint path="split"/>
            <vm:inbound-endpoint path="processed"/> 
        </request-reply>   
        <set-payload  value="#[payload.toString()]"/>
    </flow> 

    <processor-chain name="sample-processor-chain">
        <append-string-transformer message=" in splitter" />
        <append-string-transformer message=" in processor-chain" />
    </processor-chain> 

    <flow name="splitter-flow">
        <vm:inbound-endpoint  path="split"/>
        <collection-splitter enableCorrelation="IF_NOT_SET"/>
        <processor ref="sample-processor-chain"></processor> 
        <vm:outbound-endpoint  path="aggregate"/>       
    </flow>

    <flow name="aggregator-flow">
        <vm:inbound-endpoint  path="aggregate"/>
        <collection-aggregator  timeout="30000"/>           
        <vm:outbound-endpoint path="processed"/>
    </flow>

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 05 '15 at 19:03

processor-chain was created to address the problem of some message processors not allowing more than one nested processor. The idea behind sub-flow is a macro expansion of a series of message processors. If you use the latests Mule versions you shouldn't use processor-chain very much, except for some really old constructions. Using sub-flows allows you to have a much more readable code, for example, to include repetitive stuff.

Mule Subflow vs Processor-Chain

1 Answers1