• What Format Modules Do
• Module Types
• Module Data
• Adding Custom Modules

Format Modules are used as part of the alert transmission mechanism. Data relevant for an alert is assembled and then passed to a Format Module, which converts it according to what the Module does (eg: making it suitable for a pager, or incorporating a help file). The resulting formatted alert data is then passed to a Transmit Module, which is responsible for the actual data transmission.

Like Check Modules, Format Modules may be either compiled or scripted, but unlike Check Modules, Format Modules only run on the scheduler host.

Format Modules take as input on stdin an XML document containing a SurvivorAlertData element.

Modules produce as output on stdout an XML document containing a SurvivorFormattedAlertData element.

Both of these elements are described in the Survivor DTD.

All Format Modules must conform to the Format Module Specification, otherwise they may not interact correctly with the scheduler.

Routines useful for building Format Modules in Perl are provided in Survivor.pm and Survivor::Format.pm. As a starting point, see the sample test module in src/modules/format/test.

For information on these modules, run

     % perldoc src/modules/common/Survivor.pm
     % perldoc src/modules/common/Survivor/Format.pm
 

For assistance in testing Format Modules, the XML Maker utility may be useful.

Important: Please see the license for this package to see if custom modules are subject to the same license.