Collection Objects

This section describes how to define collection objects for XML, SOAP, and XSLT Dynamic Applications.

This section describes only the fields specific to Defining a Collection Object for a XML, SOAP, and XSLT Dynamic Application. All the remaining fields, for both performance and configuration archetypes, are described in detail in the general section on Dynamic Application Development. All other elements of XML, SOAP, and XSLT Collection Objects, such as presentation objects and alerts, behave in the same manner as other Dynamic Application types.

For details on other parts of XML, SOAP, and XSLT Dynamic Applications, see the general section on Dynamic Application Development.

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Protocol-Specific Fields for Collection Objects

Similar to other Dynamic Application types, XML, SOAP, and XSLT Dynamic Applications contain collection objects. Collection objects for XML, SOAP, and XSLT Dynamic Applications have characteristics common to collection objects for other Dynamic Application types, such as naming, data typing, and grouping. This section describes the collection object fields that are specific to XML, SOAP, and XSLT Dynamic Applications.

XML Dynamic Applications

Collection objects for XML Dynamic Applications have the following unique fields:

XML Tags. Specifies how Skylar One should parse the collection object from the XML document that is requested for this Dynamic Application. For a full description of this field, see the Specifying XML Tags and SOAP Tags section of this chapter.
XML Document. Appears only for Dynamic Applications that have Consume cached results selected in the Caching drop-down list in the Dynamic Applications Properties Editor page. This field specifies the Dynamic Application that retrieves the XML document that this collection object will be collected from. The list of Dynamic Applications in this field is limited to XML Dynamic Applications that have Cache results selected in the Caching drop-down list in the Dynamic Applications Properties Editor page.

SOAP Dynamic Applications

Collection objects for SOAP Dynamic Applications have the following unique fields:

SOAP Request. Select the SOAP request that returns a value for this collection object.

For Dynamic Applications that have No Caching or Cache Results selected in the Caching drop-down list in the Dynamic Applications Properties Editor page, this drop-down list contains all SOAP requests defined in the same Dynamic Application.
For Dynamic Applications that have Consume cached results selected in the Caching drop-down list in the Dynamic Applications Properties Editor, this drop-down list contains requests defined in SOAP Dynamic Applications that have Cache results selected in the Caching drop-down list in the Dynamic Applications Properties Editor page.

SOAP Tags. Specifies how Skylar One should parse the collection object from the XML document that is collected using the request specified in the SOAP Request field. For a full description of this field, see the Specifying XML Tags and SOAP Tags section.

XSLT Dynamic Applications

Collection objects for XSLT Dynamic Applications have the following unique elements:

XSLT Request. Select the XSLT request that returns a value for this collection object.

For Dynamic Applications that have No Caching or Cache Results selected in the Caching drop-down list in the Dynamic Applications Properties Editor page, this drop-down list contains all XSLT requests defined in the same Dynamic Application.
For Dynamic Applications that have Consume cached results selected in the Caching drop-down list in the Dynamic Applications Properties Editor, this drop-down list contains requests defined in XSLT Dynamic Applications that have Cache results selected in the Caching drop-down list in the Dynamic Applications Properties Editor page.

XSLT Tags. Specifies how Skylar One should parse the collection object from the XML document that is returned by the request specified in the XSLT Request field. For a full description of this field, see the Specifying XSLT Tags section.

Specifying XML Tags and SOAP Tags

In the XML Tags field (for XML Dynamic Applications) or SOAP Tags field (for SOAP Dynamic Applications), you must specify how Skylar One should parse a value (or values) from the returned XML document.

In this field, you must specify a series of XML tags that specify an element or attribute in the XML document.

Parsing an XML Element

To specify that Skylar One should parse the value of an element (that is, a value that is inside an opening and closing XML tag), specify the series of opening XML tags that lead to that element. For example, suppose the XML document looks like this:

</CustomerID>

</LoginMonitor>

If you wanted to parse the value of the <AuthFailures> element (in this example, the value "10"), you would enter the following in the XML Tags field or SOAP Tags field:

To specify that Skylar One should parse the value of an XML tag attribute, specify the series of opening XML tags that lead to the XML tag that contains the attribute. In the XML tag that contains the attribute, specify the attribute in the XML tag with the substitution character %V as the attribute value. For example, suppose the XML document looks like this:

</CustomerID>

</LoginMonitor>

If you wanted to parse the value of the "type" attribute from the <AuthFailures> tag (in this example, the value "1"), you would enter the following in the XML Tags field or SOAP Tags field:

A collection object in an XML or SOAP Dynamic Application will return a list of values if the XML Tags or SOAP Tags specify an element or attribute that appears multiple times in the XML document. For example, if the XML document looks like this:

</CustomerID>

</CustomerID>

</LoginMonitor>

The example collection objects in this section will both collect a list of two values.

Specifying XSLT Tags

Unlike XML documents in XML and SOAP Dynamic Applications, the XML document returned by an XSLT request is in a specific format. To specify how Skylar One should parse a value (or values) from the XML document returned by an XSLT request, enter the element tag name for the value you want to collect in the XSLT Tags field.

For example, suppose the result of the XSLT Parser transformation is:

<row>

</row>

</response>

If you wanted to parse the value of the <cpupercent> element (in this example, the value "90"), you would enter "cpupercent" in the XSLT Tags field.

Do not include the less-than (<) or greater-than (>) characters in the XSLT Tags field.

Session ID Objects

For SOAP and XSLT Dynamic Applications, an additional option is available in the Class Type field for collection objects: [109] SOAP/XSLT Session ID.

Some SOAP servers require that a management system like Skylar One use a unique, persistent session ID every time the management system authenticates. This means that when Skylar One monitors such a SOAP server, the same session ID value must be used for every poll period.

You can tell Skylar One to use the same session ID for every poll period by using the [109] SOAP/XSLT Session ID class type. When a collection object uses this class type:

The request that returns this collection object will be considered a "login" request to the SOAP server. Usually, this request will be performed before all other requests in the Dynamic Application. This SOAP or XSLT request must not return collection objects that do not use the [109] SOAP/XSLT Session ID class type.
At the start of each poll period, Skylar One checks to see if a value has previously been collected and stored for this collection object:

If a value has been previously collected and stored, Skylar One does not perform the SOAP or XSLT request the collection object is associated with. The previously collected value is used when this collection object is substituted in to the other requests (for SOAP Dynamic Applications) or when this collection object appears in the XML document that contains all collected values (for XSLT Dynamic Applications).
If a value has not been previously collected and stored, Skylar One performs the SOAP or XSLT request the collection object is associated with as normal. The collected value is stored for use in future polling periods.

If a previously collected value is used to populate the collection object and one of the subsequent requests returns a SOAP fault, Skylar One will:

Perform the SOAP request that retrieves the SOAP/XSLT Session ID collection object, storing the new value for use in future polling periods.
Resume collection by retrying the request that returned the SOAP fault.

The request that returns a SOAP/XSLT Session ID collection object will be performed only once per poll period. After the request that returns a SOAP/XSLT Session ID collection object is performed, subsequent request that return SOAP faults will not be retried.