Rational Developer for System z

Flow message editor: Basic tab

The Basic tab of the flow message editor provides a simplified user interface that is very useful for creating input messages, output messages, and fault messages.

General features

Undo and Redo are supported.

If a message element contains an error it is decorated with a warning icon and an error message is displayed at the top of the editor view.

Left pane: Hierarchy of messages and message elements

The flow editor displays in the left pane of the Basic tab a tree that contains all the messages in the opened message file together with their elements and subelements.
Note: References to XML entities in externally referenced XSDs are displayed as read-only. Complex elements are not expanded.
Right-clicking an element in the tree opens a pop-up menu (see Table 1).
Table 1. Pop-up menus for the Basic tab
Type of element selected: Menu items on the pop-up menu: Description:
Message file Add Message Adds a new, empty message to the message file and gives it a default name.
Message Add Element Adds a new local element to the end of the selected message.
Add Group Adds a new local element containing an empty group to the selected message.
Paste Adds the currently copied message element at the end of the selected message.
Delete Deletes the selected message.
Message element Copy Copies the selected message element.
Delete Deletes the selected message element.
Group Add Element Adds a new local element to the end of the selected group.
  Add Group Adds a new local element containing an empty group to the selected message.

Right pane: Properties

The right pane of the Basic tab displays the main properties of the item selected in the left pane and allows you to modify these properties quickly by typing or selecting a new value (see Table 2). The main properties for local elements are shown only for the following simple types: Float, Integer, String.

To view or modify other properties of the item use the Advanced tab (see Flow message editor: Advanced tab).

Table 2. Properties of elements on the Basic tab
Type of element: Properties available:
Message
  • Name
Complex local element
  • Name
  • Occurs
Simple local element Float
  • Name
  • Type
  • Occurs
  • Default
  • Signed
  • Total Digits
  • Fraction Digits
Integer
  • Name
  • Type
  • Occurs
  • Default
  • Signed
  • Total Digits
String
  • Name
  • Type
  • Occurs
  • Default
  • Maximum Length

Table 3 shows the default initial values for a new message element or for a message element whose type has just been changed:

Table 3. Default values for simple types
Type of message element: Properties: Default initial values:
Float Signed False
Total Digits 8
Fraction Digits 4
Integer Signed False
Total Digits 8
String Maximum Length The value specified for Default char max length, on the DFHWS2LS tab, on Windows > Preferences > Enterprise Service Tools > Web Services Assistant (WSBind)


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