Using the While Step

The While step repeatedly executes the operations you specify while the conditions defined in the rule are true, or until the conditions are false. The rule is an expression, as described in About the Expression Editor.

When you click a While step, the General and Options tabs appear in the Property Editor. The General tab provides a name and an optional description for the step. The Options tab defines the rule for the step.

Procedure Summary

1. Select an orchestration workflow to display it in the orchestration workflow editor.

2. In the New Items section of the Step Palette, drag and drop a While step onto the line between the Start and End steps.

3. On the General tab of the Property Editor, you can change the name of the While step and you can also enter a description.

4. On the Options tab, in the Rule section, enter an expression that represents the rule that must hold true for the While step actions to repeat. You can use any of the functions, logical operators, or arithmetic operators available on the Functions, Logical, and Operator menus, respectively.

   For more information about expressions, see About the Expression Editor.

5. Add other steps from the Step Palette to the repeating section (the top loop) to define the actions that should be taken or calculations that should be performed while the While step is true.

6. Add other steps from the Step Palette to the nonrepeating section (the bottom loop) to define the actions that should be taken or calculations that should be performed if the While step is false.

   Tip: To duplicate or delete the While step, right-click the step, and then select the appropriate options on the menu. To hide the loops as you work on another part of the orchestration workflow, click the minus sign to the left of the While step.