NDT-DEV email list created

[Sebastian Kostuch <>]

Hi
according to last discussion about changing messages to JSON I have 
created appropriated
ticket related to it. I would like to propose little more detailed 
information about format of
such message.

I think that it would be good idea to change all possible messages to 
use JSON (not
only the ones we expect will change in future).
While watching currently sent messages I have observed that they could be
divided into three sections:
1. Empty or containing only one value messages (such as the ones sent 
along with finalize
message or these with port numbers/error values)
2. Messages formatted with pairs <variable name>: <variable value> used 
mainly when
sending single Web100/10g variable
3. Messages containing more than one variables formatted as above or 
containing only
number values separated by specific character

My idea is to format these messages using JSON as follows:
1. Empty message will contain empty object ("{}") and these with only 
one value will look
like this: "{ msg : value }" and clients will obtain it using "msg" key. 
This way it would be easy
to add another values to such message in future if necessary.
2. Something similar as to { msg : value } map but keys will be named 
the same as
<variable name> and "value" will contain only actual variable's value.
3. Here I think it would be good idea to separate each variable value 
and contain it
within JSON as separated key/value pair (simply divide it to look like 
this presented in point 2).
With messages containing variables names it is easy but what about when 
message looks like
this (in middlebox test it is used such way): value1;value2;value3 ? 
Then we don't have variable's
names so it isn't obvious how to store such value in map (which key to 
use?). So what about naming
such values with appropriated keys which will be documented in our wiki? 
I dislike idea of formatting
such messages as they are currently as it would bring troubles in future 
similar to the one I was
facing when trying to add next value to such string.

What do you think about such transition? Is it proper way to encode our 
current messages within JSON
or do you see it another way? Looking forward to your feedback and feel 
free to ask if anything isn't
clear :).

Regards
Sebastian