Message Instance Validation Against an MWB Profile
Message instance validation is now available from the message capture page. To perfor a message validation first load an existing profile (or build a new one) in the usual way. Click on the message capture tab, and navigate to a message instance file (or cut and past into the Message Text window.
Fig 1. Message Capture tab cut-away
As with the usual message capture procedure, click on the Parse button to parse the message an fill the parse tree. At this point, click on the Validate to Spec button. Unlike the Derive Specification button which replaces any profile that might be loaded on the Message Definition tab, the Validation button leaves the existing profile in place, and compares the message instance to the existing profile.
A report is generated just as with the reverse the reverse engineering procedure invoked by the Derive Specification button, which can be viewed by clicking on the Discrepancy Log button on the Message Definition tab. There is however an additional report as depicted below, that facilitates validation analysis.
Fig 2. Display of new Validation Analysis report
The Validation Report is activated by Right Clicking on the Discrepancy Log button. The new report displays a list of discrepancies between the message instance and the message profile. Each line item has a checkbox associated to help the analyst keep track of the elements reviewed. Double-clicking on an element in the list automatically highlights the corresponding Profile element in the Message Tree, facilitating visualization of the discrepancy.
Note too, that the list may be sorted by error. It may also be filtered to exclude certain errors. Finally the analyst may opt to incorporate the displayed list of discrepancies into the profiles review notes. As with other MWB note types, these validation notes are attributed to the review notes for a specific element.