Example

This topic leads you through a series of steps to create Input Message definitions using the TL1 Message Builder tool. To start with, assume you want to create an RTRV-PM-T1 command in the performance module.

Step 1

Create a new Command Set file (say, CISCO-SONET-ADM.tcs) and load it using the Load button from the File menu or toolbar. The file will be loaded into the TL1 Message Tree in the left panel and a new node with the filename will be added to the root node of the tree.

Step 2

Create a new module to define the input message syntax. To create a new module, right-click on the command set file and select the Add New Module from the drop-down menu. An Input dialog is displayed where you need to specify the module name. In this example, specify the module name as Performance. Click the OK button and the new module gets added to the Message Tree as shown in the figure. The new module will have Request, Response, Notification, Templates, Bundles, Glossary as child nodes by default.

Step 3

Now, right-click the Request node element and select Add New from the drop-down menu. A New Input Message dialog is displayed where you must specify the input message name and command verb. In this case, the input message name is Retrieve Performance and command verb is RTRV. Click the OK button to commit the changes. The input message name is displayed as a node in the Request. This node will have all the input commands.

Alternatively, Input Message can also be created by simply specifying the BNF of that command in the BNF editor. To specify the BNF of that command, enable the BNF String option in the Input Message Dialog and specify the command syntax as shown below.

Click the OK button to create the input command.

Step 4

Select the input message RTRV. The right panel will display fields pertaining to each block in the Input Message as shown in the figure. You can modify the input message name, category, description, and other fields as needed. The prefix and suffix are additional fields that can be used if you would like to append any text before and after the message. You can also create the response format for a particular request under Response element and map them to the request by selecting from the Response list.

Step 5

Now, you can add definitions for each of the Input blocks. The table given below lists the parameter definitions for each of the Input Message blocks.

In this case, the command code has two modifiers (PM and T1). Click the Command Code button in the right panel. The panel adjacent to it will display the Modifier One and Modifier Two blocks. Click the Add button corresponding to the first modifier block. A Modifier pop up dialog is displayed where you must specify the modifier name (PM). The separator is '-' by default. If you would like to specify a filename which corresponds to a list of first level modifiers, then select the rr option and the file containing modifiers. Click the OK button to commit the changes. You can edit or remove the modifiers using the Edit and Remove buttons respectively.

Create the second modifier by clicking the Add button corresponding to the second modifier block. In the case of second modifier, you can set the prefix to '-' or '#'. In this case, the prefix is '-'.

Similarly create Target Identifier, Access Identifier, Correlation Tag, General Block, and Message Payload Block. Each of these blocks will have a Parameter Block table and a Parameter table that lists the names of each parameter in the command. The parameter block specifies the name of the block. For example, it can be AID, MPB, etc. The syntax details of each parameter should be given in the parameter table. Use the Add, Edit, and Remove buttons to add, modify and remove parameter blocks and parameters.

The parameter block is restricted to one in the case of Target Identifier, Access Identifier, Correlation Tag, and General Block. But the Message Payload Block can have any number of parameter blocks within it. In this case, the Message Payload Block also contains only one parameter block with many parameters. The parameter blocks are separated by colons while the individual parameters within the block are separated by commas.

Step 6

Click the Update button to update the corresponding block. Use the Save button to write the modified properties to the file.