Configuration file definitions

Regardless of its source, incoming data is treated as a set of consistently formatted lines, referred to as messages. Messages are broken into fields, which are then assigned data types.

Blank lines are ignored. To embed comments, precede text with a single quote (ASCII 39). For example:

Comment lines

'------------------------------------------------------------
' Get QUANTITY DETAILS
'------------------------------------------------------------

To continue a line, end it with an underscore (ASCII 95). For example:

Line continuation

Message1.filter = C1=="Line containing *" And _
C56=="DateTime*"

The maximum line length supported by the PI UFL interface is 5120 characters.

The configuration file is composed of the following sections:

• INTERFACE

  Specifies the plug-in to be used to process incoming data, according to the type of data (text file, serial port or POP3/POP3S server).

• PLUG-IN

  Specifies plug-in-specific settings.

• SETTING

  Configures logging settings, locale, and other operational settings.

• FIELD

  Defines and declares names and data types for the individual fields (variables) that receive data.

• MSG

  Defines the types of incoming messages, assigning a name that is used to define the section where the message is divided.

• Per-message sections

  For each message defined in the MSG section, these sections filter incoming messages, divide them into fields, process the fields and write results to PI tags. These sections can contain processing logic, such as redirecting to other sections and skipping lines from the input stream.