Understanding Connections

Think of connections as wires in an electrical circuit. To activate a node, you must connect it's input to another node's output. When a node gets activated, it will automatically activate it's output nodes.

In order to connect nodes, the output should be connected to another node's input. Or, the OutputX (External output) should be connected to another node's InputX (External Input)

1. Normal Connections

Look at this image above. The nodes are connected to each other via a white line. These are connections. They are executed from left -> right. In this example, the start nodes activates the input node. Once the input node is executed (i.e, user enters in the input) the input nodes calls the next node, i.e the print node.

2. X-Connections

X-Connections, or external connections are connections that help nodes perform extra actions. For example, in order to access the data that user input, we can use the "Input Value" output-X point, which returns the user input. The user input can be stored in another variable, or be used in another node like shown above.

You can right click on a node to delete it, or disconnect it's disconnections

Take this Add node for another example. For it's InputX connection point, we have "Integers", where we connect other integers (number values). You can connect n number of Integer nodes in here, and the Add node will add all the integer nodes that are connected to InputX

Now let's look at the OutputX connection point. It returns the sum of all numbers. You can connect this value into another Integer node to store the sum in that Integer. OR you could also connect this into a Print node to display the sum.

The white connection line represents the normal connection line. In this case, it simply calls the print function. But in order to feed the "Sum" value into the print node, we must connect the Add node's OutputX to Print Node's inputX like shown above (The orange line)

Not all nodes will have InputX or OutputX connection points. For example, the print node does not have an OutputX point, as it would technically serve no purpose

Here is the complete picture. You can see we connected two integer nodes to the Add node's InputX. Then it adds those values and stores it in "Sum". We then feed the "Sum" value into the print node via X-connection and print the sum to the Console.

3. Multiple Connections

As shown in the image, it is possible to connect multiple nodes (whether normal connections or X-connections). And it isn't just limited to one type. The order of the execution depends on which node you connect first. After that even if you re-position the nodes, the order of execution remains the same.