Specifying the Contents of Export Files

50.6.2 Specifying the Contents of Export Files

On clicking the Setup button, a dialog appears whose contents partly depend on the format chosen.

50.6.2.1. Selecting Information Elements to Export

The Information Elements tab is common to many of the formats. Here you select which information elements to include in the export:

You choose each individual element separately. From information elements with arguments you pick one component at a time. By default a chosen item is exported from all devices that report it.

To export an element, select it in the Available IEs list and click the ">" button to move it to the Selected IEs list. If the element has arguments, you do not get the whole element at once, but only the component with the lowest argument. To select the component with the next higher argument, click ">" again. Repeat for all components you want to export.

By default the items selected are picked from all devices. To export the item only from specified devices, you must edit the item; see "Editing the Selected Items" below.

To export an information element from a different category (e.g. the Data category), choose that category in the combo box in the Available IEs section. Elements from different categories can be freely mixed in export files.

To remove an item from the Selected IEs box, select the item and click "<". To clear the entire Selected IEs box, click "<<".

Editing the Selected Items

To edit an information element:

In the Selected IEs box, select the desired item and click the Edit button above the box. The Edit IE dialog appears.

For all export formats, you can restrict the export of a selected IE to a single device, or change the IE argument (where one exists).

For all export formats except tab-delimited text, you can also edit the following settings:

NAME field: This is the IE column heading in the export file. By default, the column heading string consists of the IE name. (You might want to make this string shorter.)

NODATA field: If you enter a string here, it will be written in the export file whenever the IE does not have a valid value. For Planet, any string is accepted, whereas for the remaining formats the string must be numeric (e.g. "999", "-1").

As long as these settings have not been edited, the IE name is preceded by an asterisk (*) in the Selected IEs box. Note also that the NAME and NODATA settings are not saved along with other logfile export settings, but in different files. See section "Saving and Loading Export Setups".

Arranging Items in the Export Files

The order of the items in the Selected IEs list will also be the order in which they come in the export files. You can rearrange the items by selecting them and moving them using the Up and Dn buttons.

50.6.2.2. Text File Specific Settings

Besides your chosen information elements, the text export file always contains data on events, including user-inserted filemarks. There are no user settings relating to the event data.

By default the text export file also contains message information.

Optionally, the export can be reduced in order to decrease the duplication of data and the number of lines in the export file. The choice is made on the Options tab:

Full message information...	All messages are kept. The following columns are optional: Message Type, Message ID, and Hexadecimal String. Check a column to include it. All other standard columns are always included; see the Technical Reference, chapter "Text Export Format for Logfiles". In addition there will be one column for each selected IE or IE component. If you check Show changed IE values only, IE values are written out only if they have changed since the previous message. This makes for a considerable reduction of the export file size. If the box is not checked, all IE values are written for every message.
Events and filemarks only...	The export file is reduced in two ways: The columns Frame Number, Message ID, and Hexadecimal String are excluded from the export file. (The Event column is kept, as is the Event Info column provided that the Event information checkbox below is checked.) Messages not triggering an event and containing no changed IE values are wholly excluded.
Event information	Governs whether the Event Info column is included in the export.
Message options	Check the relevant boxes in order to have Layer 2 messages, Layer 3 messages, and devices' mode reports exported as unabridged plain text to a common separate file whose name ends in `_textexp.txt`.

50.6.2.3. MapInfo Specific Settings

For MapInfo export (whether to Interchange or Tab format), the Options tab looks like this:

Reports to export data from	This setting governs what types of report from the device are included in the export files: all reports only Layer 3 reports only mode reports. By default all reports are exported.
Export message information...	Check this to include information on Layer 3 and Layer 2 messages in the export files. The following data is added (one column for each item): Message direction (internal, uplink, downlink) Message name Hexadecimal string Extension (containing cause values)
Events	This setting governs the export of events. Do not export events: No event information is exported. Export events but do not plot...: Events are exported, but no event-specific symbol is used in MapInfo when plotting on a map. Export events and plot...: Events are exported, and a unique symbol is used when plotting in MapInfo to distinguish events from other data. Note, however, that there is no differentiation of event types, and that the symbol used is not one of the default TEMS Investigation event symbols.
Include file name in file	Check this to include the file name in the export files.

For details on MapInfo output, see the Technical Reference, section "Export to MapInfo".

50.6.2.4. ArcView Specific Settings

Export message information...

Check this to include information on Layer 3 and Layer 2 messages in the export files. The following data is added (one column for each item):

Message direction (internal, uplink, downlink)

Message name

Hexadecimal string

For details on ArcView output, see the Technical Reference, section "Export to ArcView".

50.6.2.5. Pcap Specific Settings

The export encompasses all IP protocol data in the logfile.

For details on Pcap output, see the Technical Reference, section "Export to Pcap".

50.6.2.6. MDM Specific Settings

MDM export is intended for logfiles recorded with Qualcomm chipset based devices.

The export encompasses all Qualcomm-specific air interface messages in the logfile. The Export message information checkbox must be checked, otherwise the output files will be empty.

For details on MDM output, see the Technical Reference, section "Export to MDM".

50.6.2.7. Saving and Loading Export Setups

When you are done specifying the export, you may want to save the setup for future use.

In the Setup dialog, click Save and store the file where appropriate. The file extension will depend on the format (for example, .tex for a text-format export setup).

To load a previously saved setup in the Setup dialog, click Load and locate the setup file.

However, the NAME and NODATA settings for information elements (see the introduction of section "Specifying the Contents of Export Files") are not saved in the above-mentioned files. They are instead written to DBF files that are found in the Settings directory beneath the TEMS Investigation installation directory.