Interpreting the output of the AdminConfig attributes command using scripting

Before starting this task, the wsadmin tool must be running. See the Starting the wsadmin scripting client article for more information.

The attributes command is a wsadmin tool on-line help feature. When you issue the attributes command, the information that displays does not represent a particular configuration object. It represents information about configuration object types, or object metadata. This article discusses how to interpret the attribute type display.

(dependent on configuration)

• Simple attributes

  Using Jacl:

  $AdminConfig attributes ExampleType1
  "attr1 String"

  Types do not display as fully qualified names. For example, String is used for java.lang.String. There are no ambiguous type names in the model. For example, x.y.ztype and a.b.ztype. Using only the final portion of the name is possible, and it makes the output easier to read.

• Multiple attributes

  Using Jacl:

  $AdminConfig attributes ExampleType2
  "attr1 String" "attr2 Boolean" "attr3 Integer"

  All input and output for the scripting client takes place with strings, but attr2 Boolean indicates that true or false are appropriate values. The attr3 Integer indicates that string representations of integers ("42") are needed. Some attributes have string values that can take only one of a small number of predefined values. The wsadmin tool distinguishes these values in the output by the special type name ENUM, for example:

  Using Jacl:

  $AdminConfig attributes ExampleType3
  "attr4 ENUM(ALL, SOME, NONE)"

  where: attr4 is an ENUM type. When you query or set the attribute, one of the values is ALL, SOME, or NONE. The value A_FEW results in an error.

• Nested attributes

  Using Jacl:

  $AdminConfig attributes ExampleType4
  "attr5 String" "ex5 ExampleType5"

  The ExampleType4 object has two attributes: a string, and an ExampleType5 object. If you do not know what is contained in the ExampleType5 object, you can use another attributes command to find out. The attributes command displays only the attributes that the type contains directly. It does not recursively display the attributes of nested types.

• Attributes that represent lists

  The values of these attributes are object lists of different types. The * character distinguishes these attributes, for example:

  Using Jacl:

  $AdminConfig attributes ExampleType5
  "ex6 ExampleType6*"

  In this example, objects of the ExampleType5 type contain a single attribute, ex6. The value of this attribute is a list of ExampleType6 type objects.

• Reference attributes

  An attribute value that references another object. You cannot change these references using modify commands, but these references display because they are part of the complete representation of the type. Distinguish reference attributes using the @ sign, for example:

  Using Jacl:

  $AdminConfig attributes ExampleType6
  "attr7 Boolean" "ex7 ExampleType7@"

  ExampleType6 objects contain references to ExampleType7 type objects.

• Generic attributes

  These attributes have generic types. The values of these attributes are not necessarily this generic type. These attributes can take values of several different specific types. When you use the AdminConfig attributes command to display the attributes of this object, the various possibilities for specific types are shown in parentheses, for example: Using Jacl:

  $AdminConfig attributes ExampleType8
  "name String" "beast AnimalType(HorseType, FishType, ButterflyType)"

  In this example, the beast attribute represents an object of the generic AnimalType. This generic type is associated with three specific subtypes. The wsadmin tool gives these subtypes in parentheses after the name of the base type. In any particular instance of ExampleType8, the beast attribute can have a value of HorseType, FishType, or ButterflyType. When you specify an attribute in this way, using a modify or create command, specify the type of AnimalType. If you do not specify the AnimalType, a generic AnimalType object is assumed (specifying the generic type is possible and legitimate). This is done by specifying beast:HorseType instead of beast.

Related concepts
AdminConfig object for scripted administration

Related reference
Commands for the AdminConfig object