Queue

The Queue piece in ZBrain Flow allows you to push items into a queue and pull them out in the same order they were added, following a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) structure. It’s useful for throttling requests, managing load, or ensuring data is processed sequentially across steps in a workflow. By pushing and pulling items at different stages, you can control timing, batch processing, and flow pacing. This makes the Queue piece especially helpful in scenarios where multiple items need to be collected and processed one by one or in controlled batches.

How to use the queue piece in ZBrain Flow

Add the Queue to your Flow

• Click the '+' button in the Flow and search for Queue.

• Select Queue and the action you want to perform. The Queue piece provides the following actions:

  • Push to queue – Store a single item or a list of items into the queue. Use this when you want to hold data for processing later.

  • Pull items from the queue – Retrieve one or more items from the queue. You can configure how many items you want to pull.

  • Clear queue – Remove all items from the queue. Use this to reset the queue at any point in the workflow.

How to use the 'push to queue' action in ZBrain Flow

Configuration steps:

• In the ‘Queue Name’ field, enter a unique name for your queue.

• In the ‘Items’ field, define the data you want to push. You can add one or multiple items. Use the ‘Add Item’ button to include more entries. Each item should be properly formatted and mapped from a previous step or entered manually.

Note:

• Items are processed in a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) order.

• Queues can be shared across flows if the name is consistent.

• When testing, pushed items are isolated and won’t affect the live queue.

How to use the 'pull items from queue' action in ZBrain Flow

Configuration steps:

• In the ‘Queue Name’ field, enter the name of the queue you want to pull items from.

• In the ‘Number of items’ field, specify how many items you want to pull from the queue. The queue will return items in the order they were added (FIFO).

Note:

• You can pull from queues created in other flows by using the same queue name.

• The testing environment works in isolation and won’t affect the actual queue state after publishing.

How to use the 'clear queue' action in ZBrain Flow

Configuration steps:

• In the ‘Queue Name’ field, enter the name of the queue you want to clear. This should match the queue used earlier in the flow or across flows.

This action permanently deletes all items from the specified queue. Note that the testing does not impact the actual queue after the flow is published.