Custom Wire Formats

You can use Sybase WorkSpace to model and test custom wire format messages. In a Message Designer project, each custom wire format is modeled as a message definition (for example, PurchaseOrder). A message definition defines each data element in the message as a tree of containers (for example, BillToAddress) and fields (for example, PostalCode). Each container and field has properties you must configure to specify the nature and characteristics of each data element. Select any combination of containers and fields necessary to model the data elements in your message.

When creating message definitions, they can reside in a Message Designer Project folder or in a regular Sybase Project folder that has been updated with Message Designer resources (automatic upon creation).

When finished, a message definition is used to generate a set of objects that can be packaged, including an XSD, parser, and serializer. These objects can be used by other components, such as a Transformation service to parse and serialize custom wire format messages as part of a business process.

The following workflow guides you through the process of creating and testing a message definition project. You can also view these steps in a cheat sheet.

  1. Set up Message Defaults preferences to select default settings for all future message definitions and any containers and fields that you add to it (optional).

  2. Create a new Message Designer project.

  3. In the Message Designer project, create a new message definition using the New Message Definition wizard.

  4. Edit the message definition by modeling the custom wire format as a tree of containers and fields representing a sequence of data elements.

  5. Generate the message definition objects, which are required to test or deploy the message definition:

    • Parser

    • Serializer

    • XSD

  6. Test the message definition.

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