Editing Message Definitions

The Message Definitions tab in Tracking Server Manager allows you to create, edit, delete, import, and export message definition files to format your incoming real-time data.

Edit an existing message definition to specify a different structure for the data message that the data link or server connection will use, thus allowing the tracking message server to parse the data into a recordlike object, with various fields containing attributes.

The field types and their order, which are defined in the message definition, must be the same as the field order of incoming messages. Otherwise, the real-time message server will not process the messages.

Tip:

The Message Definition Editor allows for on-the-fly projections in ArcMap.

Editing a Message Definition

Steps:

1. From the Start menu, start Tracking Server Manager.
2. Click the Message Definitions tab. The list of message definitions appears in the panel.
3. Click the message definition whose properties you want to edit.
4. Click Edit. The Message Definition Editor dialog box appears.
5. Click in the Name field and type a name for your message definition.
6. Click the Data Time Zone drop-down arrow to change the time zone designation for the incoming data.
7. Click Spatial Reference to choose a new or different coordinate system for the incoming data.
8. Check the check box beside the column you want to designate as the Event ID field.
9. Click the row of any field to highlight it.
10. Click in the Name column to edit the field name directly.
11. Click in the Type column to choose a new field type for this field of incoming data.
12. Click the up and down arrows to change the order of fields to match the order of the incoming data.
13. Click Add or Remove to create a new field or delete an existing one from the message definition.
14. Click OK to save your changes and close the Message Definition Editor dialog box.

Note:

If you are using a message definition to receive real-time data as observations, the definition must contain a field using the TimeStamp field type. The Tracking applications use the first column with a type of TimeStamp for the time of the observation.

Note:

If you have tracking services built on the message definition or definitions you have changed, you will need to disable and enable (checking off, then on) the service in the Tracking Server Connector data link and click Save for these changes to take effect.

Tip:

The Default MetaData Editor allows you to enter a text string that contains general information about the message definition such as where its source is, accuracy of data, latency, and purpose.