Table of Contents

Ziggo Arris Alarm Central Simulator

This connector is used to simulate specific use case scenarios, on Ziggo systems, and test if functionalities work as expected.

About

The Ziggo Arris Alarm Central Simulator connector sends custom events, as HTTP posts, to a predefined destination.

A list of events can be orderly saved as a Scenario, so, multiple events can be sent automatically in one go.

AlarmId placeholders are available that, when used, generate a random GUID ending with "aacsim" to be easily tracked. These placeholders can be used by setting '[' and ']' in the beginning and end of the <AlarmId> tag value. This means that, within the same scenario run, alarm IDs with the same placeholder will have the same value.

Version Info

Range Description DCF Integration Cassandra Compliant
1.0.0.x [SLC Main] Initial Version No Yes

Installation and configuration

Creation

HTTP Main Connection

This connector requires a HTTP connection to send events, and, by default, asks for an IP address/host upon element creation. This parameter is mandatory but irrelevant, because all the addresses are set on the Scenario table in the element. Therefore, "localhost" is enough.

Usage

General

This page displays a tree view with all stored scenarios and associated events. Clicking on a scenario of the tree view shows a table with all events associated to it, and all relevant information regarding that scenario:

  • Name: Name of the scenario.

  • Description: Description of the scenario.

  • Destination: The IP address and port the events should be forwarded to.

  • Delay: Time delay, in milliseconds, between each event of a scenario.

  • State

    • Idle: Scenario is not sending any events at the time.

    • Running: Events of the scenario are scheduled to be forwarded.

  • Current step: The position, in the scenario, of the last event to be sent.

    • For example, "1/5" means the first event of the scenario (with 5 events) was sent.

    • On the tree view, the last event sent has an arrow icon.

Every scenario has 5 buttons/actions available:

  • Next: Send next event in line

    • For example, if the Current Step is "1/5", by clicking on Next, the second event will be sent immediately, and the cell becomes "2/5".

    • Next actions do not take Delay values into account.

  • Reset: Resets scenario to default values and restarts Current Steps back to default (Not started).

  • Run: Initiates a scenario run. All events of the scenario will automatically, and sequentially, be forwarded with a predefined delay between each others. The run starts on the position displayed in Current Step.

    • For example, if scenario's delay is set to 500 ms and the Current Step is "2/5", by clicking on Run, all the last 3 events are scheduled to be sent with 500 ms apart.

  • Stop: Stops a running scenario. The Current Step is not reset, it remains on the same step when the action Stop was performed.

    • Analogously, Run/Stop can be used as Resume/Pause.

  • Delete: Deletes the scenario.

The table listing all events of the scenario contains useful information for tracking and debugging:

  • Event Idx: Name of the event.

  • Order: Order of the event in the scenario.

  • Breakpoint: The user can set an event with a breakpoint. If so, when the scenario is running, it will automatically stop before the specified event is sent.

    • In the tree view, the breakpoint event that stopped the run of the scenario has a special "i" icon.

  • Alarm ID: The <AlarmId> tag value of the event that was forwarded.

    • Useful when using placeholders.

The New Scenario page allows the user to configure scenarios. This page will be explained on the Scenarios section below.

Scenarios

This page displays all the scenarios stored in the element, in the Scenarios Table. This table contains all the information and actions available in the tree view of the General page, except the list events. The Scenarios table allows the use of context menu, where the user can delete and duplicate scenarios.

By clicking the New Scenario page button the user can create and edit scenarios.

Creating a new scenario:

  1. On the Scenario Settings section, fill scenario's general information:

    • Name
    • Description
    • Destination
    • Delay

  2. Select an event from the Scenario Event Name drop down box and click Add Event;

    • The event is added to the bottom of the CreateScenarios table.

  3. The CreateScenarios table lists the events and allows the user to order them within the scenario, via Order column.

  4. When the scenario is configured, click Add on the Scenario Settings section.

Editing an existing scenario:

  1. On the Load Scenario section, select the scenario from the Scenario List drop down box and click Load;

    • The general information is filled and the sequence of events of that specific scenario is imported to the CreateScenarios table

  2. Edit any information or the list of events

    • Do not change the Name of the scenario, otherwise the scenario is interpreted as a new one

  3. Click Replace on the Scenario Settings section

The Import/Export page allows the user to export/import scenarios into/from a file.

  • Exporting a scenario saves all scenarios and events information, meaning that, when importing, all the event files need to be available at the same location, otherwise the import operation is canceled.

    • The user is notified of the names and locations of the missing files.

Events

This page shows a list of all events that can be sent, in the Events Table.

To import an event:

  1. Set the location of the .xml file(s) on the Import Event Filepath parameter.

  2. Select one of the files in the drop down box Import Event Filename parameter.

  3. Click on the Import XML button

    • A new event is added to the Events table

    • The name of the event will be the name of the file, and it is unchangeable.

The content of the xml file is not loaded into the element, only the file location is stored. When an event is ready to be sent, the connector reads the xml content using the filepath value set on the Events Table upon "event import".

  • Therefore, the user can change the content of the event without the need to import it again.

However, the xml file needs to be available, so the event can be sent. To change the file location of an event, import the event again, with the same name, and the Filepath will be updated.

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