Message format (-FORMAT)
Use the Message Format adapter command (-FORMAT) for data targets to specify the format of the application data in the message. Either pre-existing (defined by IBM® MQ) or custom (user-defined) message formats can be used.
-FORMAT message_format
- Option
- Description
- message_format
- A message format, either pre-existing (predefined by IBM® MQ) or custom (user-defined). The format can contain up to eight (8) characters. If less than eight, it will be padded with spaces.
For example, to specify MQFMT_STRING as the format of the message, the following adapter command should be used:
-FORMAT MQSTR
where MQSTR is the value of the MQFMT_STRING message format. For information about other built-in message formats, see your IBM® MQ documentation.
You must always specify a value when using the -FORMAT adapter command. Failure to do so will result in map failure and a corresponding error message is generated.
If you use a user-defined format, you must also provide the corresponding data-conversion exit so that receiving applications can read the message using the MQGMO_CONVERT option. For Link applications, this means using the -CVT adapter command for the IBM® MQ inputs.
If the message format is not provided (either with the usage of the -FORMAT adapter command or through the message descriptor schema with the -HDR/-DH adapter command), the MQFMT_STRING message format is used as a default value.
To specify a format value that has spaces interleaved with text (or all spaces), use double quotes.
For example:
-FORMAT "ab cd"
or
to specify a blank format (all spaces), you can insert eight (8) spaces in double quotes:
-FORMAT " "
Note that the value of the -FORMAT adapter command is the value of the predefined format constant, not the name of the constant.
For example, use:
-FORMAT MQSTR
or:
-FORMAT "MQSTR "
and not:
-FORMAT MQFMT_STRING
MQFMT_STRING is the name of the predefined IBM® MQ message format constant, and its value is "MQSTR "