Contents
MscView Help Index

How To ...

Show an Test Description File (.tds)

Show an Entity Trace Session File (.dbg)

Show an Stack Trace Session File (out.dbg)

Show an Abis/Gb Trace Session File (.txt)

Configure the Debug Viewer

Configure the Abis/Gb Trace Viewer

Configure an external Text Viewer

Change the MscView Configuration File

Select the current MscView Configuration File

Print extensive Trace Sessions

Commands

File menu

Edit menu

View menu

Filter menu

Help menu


MscView Help Index

How To ...

Show an Test Description File (.tds)

Show an Entity Trace Session File (.dbg)

Show an Stack Trace Session File (out.dbg)

Show an Abis/Gb Trace Session File (.txt)

Configure the Debug Viewer

Configure the Abis/Gb Trace Viewer

Configure an external Text Viewer

Change the MscView Configuration File

Select the current MscView Configuration File

Print extensive Trace Sessions

Commands

File menu

Edit menu

View menu

Filter menu

Help menu


Edit menu commands

The Edit menu offers the following commands:

Copy	Copies current shown application window to the clipboard.
Find	Opens the Find String Dialog
Repeat	Repeats the last find action.
Open Trace in Editor	Opens the input file in the configured editor.
Configure Trace Editor	Change the external editor used to view traces.


View menu command
View menu commands

The View menu offers the following commands:

Tool bar	Shows or hides the toolbar.
Status bar	Shows or hides the status bar.
Autosize Colums Width	Resize all colums to fit the width ot the contend.
Set Time Reference	Set the Timestamp of the current line as the reference. The Reference time and the delta to the current selected line is shown in the status bar. Only one timer overflow can be handled!
Clear Time Reference	Clears the reference and stops the delta calculation.
Use Two Lines for Prims	If parameter are attached to primitives, two lines are used to show this.
Use Big Fonts	Select font size.


How To Show an TDS
How to show an Test Description File

Filetype:	*[test entity].tds
Open a Test Description File using the File Open Dialog or drag the file into the application window. All included Test Description Files must be availabe in the same directory.

A Test Description will be displayed with three entity lines. The test entity is shown in the middel. The higher layers are shown left and the lower layers are shown on the right side.

For any included tds-file the name and a gray line will be shown. An additional primitive parameter is shown, if a named higher layer sdu is defined as part of the primitive.

The primitive members and their values as defined in the testcase are shown as primitives tooltips.

The SAP Hierarchies table must be defined in the configuration file to enable MscView know the supported entities and the primitive directions.


How To Show an DBG
How to show an Entity Debug Session file

Filetype:	*[test entity].dbg

Open an Entity Debug Session File using the File Open Dialog or drag the file into the application window.

An Entity Debug Session will be displayed with three entity lines. The test entity is shown in the middel. The higher layers are shown left and the lower layers are shown on the right side.

All traces - starting from a displayed primitive up to the next - are shown as primitives tooltips. The number of tooltip-lines are limited by the size of the computers display.

The SAP Hierarchies table must be defined in the configuration file to enable MscView know the supported entities and the primitive directions.


How To Show an Stack DBG
How to show an Stack Debug Session File

Filetype:	*out.dbg
Open an Stack Debug Session File using the File Open Dialog or drag the file into the application window.

An Stack Debug Session will be displayed with at least two entity lines. The name of the envolved entities are shown in the entity headers. The higher layers are shown left and the lower layers are shown on the right side.

If view traces is enabled, all traces of these trace-enabled-entities - starting from a displayed primitive up to the next - are shown as primitives tooltips. Note: The number of shown tooltip lines are limited.

The SAP Hierarchies table and the Primitive Routing Table must be defined in the configuration file to enable MscView know the supported entities and the primitive directions.


How to Show an Abis/Gb Trace
How to show an Abis/Gb Trace File

Filetype:	*.txt
Open an Abis/Gb-Trace File using the File Open Dialog or drag the file into the application window.

An Abis/Gb-Trace will be displayed with three entity lines. Every traced message will be parsed and if known parts are found (e.g. Session management data) this will be shown with colored flow lines. The time stamp lines - including the direction strings - are shown with three dots.

The original part of the Abis/Gb traces belonging to the entries are shown as tooltips. Note: The number of shown tooltip lines are limited.

The configured Abis Direction Strings are required to show the flow directions. Therefore the strings should read manually from the trace file and should be configured.


How to use an external text editor

Filetype:	*.txt       *.dbg
It is possible to configure an external text editor to view the current Abis/Gb text file or the current trace debug file.

Select Configure Trace Editor from the Edit menu and configure your prefered editor, including the pathname if necessary. A %s will be replaced by the filename; a %d will be replaced by the current line number if a line is selected in MscView while you call the editor. If no %s or %d is used in the Editor Name String the filename will be attached anytime while calling the editor.

In the example above the freeware Editor ConTEXT is called. If the file c:\pco_out.dbg is viewed and line 42 is selected, a call to the external editor will result in following command line:

  ConText c:\pco_out.dbg /g0:42 /r

If your editor does'nt open the same file a second time if you call him with the same file name and a different line number (like ConTEXT does), you can easily sync MscView and the editor by calling the external editor from MscView several times.


Debug Viewer Config
Debug Viewer Configuration

Use the Debug Viewer Configuration dialog to configure, what should be shown by the Stack Debug Session Viewer. On the left side the entities defined in the Hierarchies table is shown; on top the possible filters. Click on the table or use the buttons to change the configuration. The changes will apply immediately after pressing OK.

Following filters are currently defined:

IN	Incoming Primitives   "--- IN:"
OUT	Outgoing Primitives   "---OUT:"
Para	Parameters of primitives send as Trace Events starting with "IPar:" or "OPar:"
Errors	Several Errors, found by keywords.
Infos	Trace Events starting with "Info:"
Trace	Traces of the Entity shown in tooltips
Info: 	should be used in start of any informative trace, which should be displayed in MscView.

IPar: 	should be used to trace additional parameters, which should be appended to the last (input-) primitive.

OPar: 	should be used to trace additional parameters, which should be appended to the next (output-) primitive.

Currently are following error keywords defined hardcoded:

"(ERROR)"	"ERROR:"
"TRACE ERROR"	"FATAL:"
" error"	"error:"
" SAVE"	" unexpected"
"rejected"	" illegal"
"oo short"	"Trc Abort:"


SAP Hierarchies Table

Select Control SAP Hierarchies Table to view the path and filename, where the current table it is loaded from.

See the Change Configuration File topic the to get an description of the table.


Abis Direction Strings
Abis/GB Direction Strings

The Abis/GB Directions strings are configurabel in the Abis or in the GB Tracer. To enable MscView to show the directions of primitives, the directions strings as used in a trace file must be configured. The last Direction String configuration is stored in the registry and read at program startup time.

Depending on the number of trace interfaces there are at least two direction strings defined. Search the two relevant direction strings in the trace file and enter them in the configuration dialog. If the shown direction of the relevant primitives seems to be wrong, swap the two strings. In following trace case 1:WARP is the complete direction String.

If the Direction String is also used as a (sub-)string in an other part of the timestamp line, an different string should be configured.


Change Configuration File
Change the MscView configuration file

File:	MscView.tbl

The configuration file describes the Entity/SAP hierarchie and the routing of primitives per SAP. The file parser is very simple and therefor not very tolerant. Use Notepad or similar to edit the ASCII-file.

Comments	Any line with an  /  or  *  or  !  at any place is ignored.
There are two Keywords defined. These words must be written in own lines with nothing! arround:

Hierachies Table:	Start of the hierarchies table
Routing Table:	Start of the Routing table

The Hierarchies Table

This table describes all entities whith their SAP on top. The order of the entities is relevant! The description has to start with the application level and end with the physical layer following the request direction. The SAPs on the bottom (indications are received through!) of an entity does'nt matter.

  ENTITY    TYPE    SAP  SAP  SAP  SAP  SAP  ...

There is currentliy a maximum of 10 SAP per entity supported. The order of the SAPs doesn't matter. The type is relelevant for the direction of the primitives in case of TDS- or single entity DBG-files.

TYPE_PRIM	For all internal primitives
TYPE_TAP	For additional special primitives from or to TAP

An example:

  MM 	TYPE_PRIM	MMCC	MMSS     MMSMS  MMGMM

  PPP 	TYPE_PRIM	PPP	DTI

  PL	TYPE_PRIM	PH	MPHC     MPHP    RA    MMPH

The Routing Table

Whith help of this table the originator of a primitive can be found.  All entities and SAPs should be defined in the hierarchies table above.  Do not include enties with more than one possible originator. Sequence doesn't matter.

The routing table is only uses, if the name of the receiver or originatior entity is not appended to the primitive trace. This table is only required for viewing of Stack Debug Session Files.

Any line describes a the SAP of an entity and the corresponding entity. Following syntax should be used:

  RECEIVER   SAP    DIR     ORIGINATOR

To get both directions, any SAP should be described from the view of all entities. E.g. for entity PPP:

  PPP     PPP   DIR_ANY                   MMI

  PPP     DTI     DIR_REQ_FROM   MMI

  PPP     DTI     DIR_IND_FROM     UART

The DIR-flag describes the type of the SAP:

DIR_ANY	Use if there is only one corresponding entity
DIR_REQ_FROM	Use for an SAP on top (REQ are coming in)
DIR_IND_FROM	Use for an SAP on bottom (IND are coming in)

Use DIR_ANY as long only one corresponding entity and only one SAP with this name exists for this entity.


Print Trace Sessions
Print extensive Trace Sessions

"Printing as usual"
Use File Print Setup to configure your Printer. Printing an any page size in both orientations are supported. Colours are used, if the printer supports them.

Note: If your MSC does not fit to the page or if you want to have a smaller printout, you should use a tool like FinePrint and select a larger paper size (e.g. A3 or A2). FinePrint automaticaly reduces the printout size to fit to the supported page size (e.g. A4) of the printer.


Select Configuration File
Select current used MscView configuration file

The configuration file to be used is searched at application startup time in the following directories in the following sequence:

1. The directory from which the application loaded.

2. The current directory.

3. Windows 95: The Windows system directory.

   Windows NT: The 32-bit Windows system directory.

4. Windows NT: The 16-bit Windows system directory.

5. The Windows directory.

6. The directories that are listed in the PATH environment variable.


Filter menu commands

The Filter menu offers the following commands:

Abis/Gb Direction Strings	Allows viewer configuration for Abis/Gb trace files.
Debug Viewer Config	Allows manual viewer configuration for stack debug sessions files.
Auto Config To Show All Prims	Enable automatic viewer configuration for stack debug sessions.
SAP Hierarchies Table	Shows the SAP Hierarchies tables.