Internal Formats
uses internal formats to represent data entities that it can process. All processing agents (for instance, Analysis and Aggregation) work with these internal formats.
A syntax for the internal format is declared as follows:
internal <name> [: (<class specifications> | <format inheritance>) ] {
<field_type> <field_name> [:optional] ;
...
};
The field types may be any of the following:
Field Type | Description |
---|---|
| Any type. |
| Big integer. |
bigdec | Big decimal. |
| Boolean. |
| Byte array. |
| Integer type (8-bit signed). |
| Integer type (16-bit unsigned). |
| Integer type (16-bit signed). |
| Integer type (32-bit signed). |
| Integer type (64-bit signed). |
| Float type (32-bit). |
| Float type (64-bit). |
| Date type, with capability to hold date parts, time parts, or both. |
| A set of bits. |
| An IP address. |
| An instance of any other internal (all internal are drudr instances). |
| String. |
The field_type
 can also be any other internal or list type that is defined in either the same ultra file or in another. See the example below.
Example - Internal formats
Case 1:
internal I1 {
I2 f1;
};
internal I2 {
list<int> f1;
};
Case 2:
In file A
internal I1 {
<foldername>.<filename>.I2 f1;
//When referring an internal from another file
that is in the same folder, the folder name can be omitted.
};
In file B
internal I2 {
list<int> f1;
};
List types are declared as follows:
Where ElementType
 can be any of the previous, including an internal format identifier, or another list type.
Example - List type
It is also possible to specify a field as optional:
Example - Specifying a field as optional
Similarly, you declare a map
 field type this way:
Internal formats can also be automatically generated from in_map
 definitions. For further information, see target_internal specification in In-maps.
Class Specifications
All internal formats are compiled into Java classes. It is possible to specify additional interfaces for the class to implement:
However, this requires that Interface1
 and Interface2
 only declare methods that are later generated by Ultra when it creates the Java class. For further information about methods and types for UDR type methods, see the Development Toolkit user's guide.
Format Inheritance
It is possible to use alternative base UDR definitions for the generated Ultra classes by use of the extends_class
 or extends
option.
extends_class
is used by some agents (for instance, the HTTP agent) for better processing support.
The extends
option lets a format inherit fields defined in an ancestor.
Multiple inheritances is not supported. That is, you can only use the extends
 or extends_class
option once in the definition of an internal format.Â
Event Types
It is possible to declare user-defined event types in Ultra by using the event
 keyword instead of internal
. Such an event is a special type of internal format with added event processing support.