Most of the messaging conventions for the toolkit consist of descriptions of the standard ToolTalk message sets. This section describes conventions not related to any particular standard message set.
Table A-2 Messaging Toolkit Conventions
Field |
Description |
---|---|
fileAttrib |
Indicates whether the file attribute of the message can or needs to be set. The ToolTalk service allows each message to refer to a file, and has a mechanism (called "file-scoping") for delivering messages to clients that are "interested in" the named file. |
opName |
The name of the operation or event (also called "op"). It is important that different tools use the same opName to mean the same thing. Unless a message is a standard one, its opName must be unique; for example, prefix the opName with Company_Product (such as Acme_HoarkTool_Hoark_My_Frammistat). |
requiredArgs |
Arguments that must always be included in the message. |
optionalArgs |
Extra arguments that may be included in a message. Any optional arguments in a message must be in the specified order and must follow the required arguments. |
vtype argumentName |
A description of a particular argument. A vtype is a programmer-defined string that describes what kind of data a message argument contains. The ToolTalk service uses vtypes only for matching sent message instances with registered message patterns. Every vtype should by convention map to a single, well-known data type. |