The Message Manager controls the display, retrieval and disposition of Message event and Message with Reply event responses.
The Message Manager is started automatically either when messages are generated, or when the Broker process starts and finds messages in the Message Manager queue. The Message Manager can also be started explicitly from the Launch/Status Manager dialog.
A Message Manager is started for each X display for which a message response is generated. As messages are generated the Message Manager window is raised and the newest message response is displayed within the window. Messages will continue to be displayed until you click Reply, Remove or until you click NO on the Pop Up Messages control.
Message Manager Dialog with Message
The Event String Detected control is divided into two sections. The upper section, titled Local Messages, contains Message events that are either local to the Vantage host or messages that have been forwarded from another host. These are messages for which the local Vantage host has control and responsibility. The lower section of the control labeled Forwarded Messages, contains messages that have been forwarded to another host. A Message event in the lower section cannot be displayed or acted upon.
Typing a command in the Command to Send control of a Message with Reply then clicking Reply sends the command back to the resource that generated the event and removes the message from the Message Manager queue.
When dealing with message event responses clicking Remove acknowledges that the message has been viewed and removes the message from the queue. Clicking Retain returns messages to the queue for disposition at a later time. The retained message will either be re-displayed in five minutes or the next new message response will be displayed as soon as it is generated, whichever occurs first.
Clicking a message in the Event String Detected control displays information about the highlighted message.
Message Origin is LOCAL, REMOTE or FORWARDED .
Vantage Node is the Local Vantage host, the Vantage host forwarding the message or the Vantage host to which the message has been forwarded.
Vantage Display is the X display to which the message is destined.
Resource name is the name of the resource generating the message.
Message Status is either New (the message has not been viewed), or Pending (the message has been viewed and Retained).
Event Detected at is the date and time the event was detected.
Type of Message is either Message event or Message with Reply.
Foreground and Background Color is the colors of the message.
Event String Detected is the event that was detected.
The Pop Up Messages button control allows an operator to stop the display of messages to prevent interruptions while dealing with messages in the queue. Clicking NO stops the display of messages and clicking Yes resumes the display of messages. To re-display messages in the queue first Retain the message(s) being displayed, click No on the Pop Up Messages control, click the desired message in the Event String Detected control and click the Get Message button.
The message will be displayed to enable you to Reply, Remove, or Retain it. Messages in the queue can be acted upon in any order desired. If messages are generated while reviewing messages, the new messages are added to the queue and given a Message Status of New. The Pop Up Messages control changes to Yes automatically in five minutes at which time the newest message in the queue will be displayed.
If the Message Manager window is minimized with messages in the queue, the window will be raised automatically every five minutes and the newest message displayed. However, if another message response is generated while the window is minimized the Message Manager is raised immediately and the new message is displayed.
When the transfer_control program is executed the Message Manager automatically creates a Vantage generated message to notify the remote site that transfer of control is in effect. The message is yellow in color and identifys the Vantage host from which the transfer was executed. The following figure is an example of this message.
When transfer of control is in effect the Vantage workstation maintains communication with the remote Vantage host(s) in order to detect if the network connection is interrupted. If the RPC link drops Vantage generates a red message on the remote site that notifies the operator of a problem. Operators will be unable to interact with messages forwarded from a Vantage host for which the RPC link is down until the link is re-established.
The Message Manager periodically attempts to re-establish the RPC link to the remote site. Once the link is established a green message is created to notify the operator that the workstations are back in communication and that messages are being reconciled.
When the reconciliation is complete the operator will see another yellow message advising that the transfer of control has been re-established.
See also Vantage-to-Vantage Operation and The Launch/Status Manager .
