Creating a message definition file

Before you start:

To complete this task, you must have completed the following tasks:

You must create a message definition file before you can create the message model objects. The message definition file contains the logical and physical model definitions of the objects in XML schema form.

To create an empty message definition file to contain your message model objects:

  1. Switch to the Broker Application Development perspective.
  2. Right-click in the Resource Navigator then click New > Message Definition File on the pop-up menu. This opens the New Message Definition File wizard.
    Tip: If you select the message set to which you are adding a message definition file before you open the New Message Definition File wizard, the message set is preselected when the wizard opens.

    The wizard displays the following options, which allow you to select whether you want to create an empty message definition file, or import message definitions from a source file:

    Create a new message definition file
    This option allows you to create an empty message definition file, as described in the remaining steps of this task. You can then create the content yourself using the Message Definition editor.
    XML Schema file
    This option allows you to create a message definition file and associated message definitions from an XML schema file. For further information on this task see Importing from XML schema.
    XML DTD file
    This option allows you to create a message definition file and associated message definitions from an XML DTD file. For further information on this task see Importing from XML DTD.
    C header file
    This option allows you to create a message definition file and associated message definitions from a C header file. For further information on this task see Importing from C.
    COBOL file
    This option allows you to create a message definition file and associated message definitions from a COBOL file. For further information on this task see Importing from COBOL copybooks.
  3. To create an empty message definition file, click Create a new message definition file. This displays the Message Definition File page.
  4. In the top pane, select the message set to which you are adding a new message definition file.
  5. Type the File Name that you want to use for your new message definition file.
  6. Optional: If you do not want to add any further configuration information for the message definition file at this point, click Finish to close the wizard.
  7. If you want to continue with adding configuration information for your message definition file, click Next. This displays the "Message definition namespace" page, which allows you to specify the namespace for the new message definition contents.
  8. In the Schema for Schema settings pane, either keep the default selections shown in the Prefix and Namespace fields or change the information in the fields according to your requirements.
  9. If you want to use a target namespace for this message definition file, select the Use target namespace check box. (This enables the Target namespace pane.) You can only choose a target namespace if namespaces are enabled for the message set as described in Creating a message set.
  10. Either keep the default selections shown in the Prefix and Namespace fields or change the information in the fields according to your requirements.
  11. Click Finish.
The new empty message definition file with the name that you have specified and a file extension of *.mxsd opens in the Message Definition Editor so that you can use the editor to create your own message definitions. If you have selected to use a target namespace, a directory structure based on the URI that you have supplied is created. The new message definition file is placed within this directory structure, which appears in the Resource Navigator, Outline view and Overview editor.

Related concepts
Message modeling concepts
Message definition files
Message model objects

Related tasks
Configuring message model objects
Working with message model objects
Importing
Importing file systems into the workbench
Configuring physical properties

Related reference
Message definition file properties
Message model object properties