Code tables and error messages

Error messages are similar to code values in that their components are stored in database tables and can be created and modified through the Administration application.

InfoSphere® MDM provides you with default error messages, but you can create your own messages to match terminology that is specific to your users or to accompany such elements as new validation rules.

Besides customizing the text of new error messages, you can also decide when and how they are displayed to the user. When an application component encounters an error, InfoSphere MDM uses several configurable elements to determine which error message text the user sees. For each application component, you can define these elements, which include error severity, error type, and error reason. The error message settings that you define for an application component are known as an error message ID.

When you create an error message using the Administration application, it is added to the message type/text table, which serves as a generic repository for all error message strings used in InfoSphere MDM. Error messages contained in this table are not active until they are associated with application components through error message IDs or until they are linked with validation rules or Rules of Visibility. Because error messages are stored in a generic repository, they can have multiple associations and be reused by as many different components as necessary.

See the developer topics for information on configuring and using error handling and logging.

For code tables that exist in the system, you can view the values that they contain, along with the details of each value, such as the numeric codes and the text strings that describe them in the front-end interface.

Code values can be either system generated or user defined. Consequently, you can add your own code values to existing code tables, which is useful when the default values provided are not sufficient for your specific requirements.

Note: When adding a new custom code table entry, choose a type code identifier value that is 10000 or above. This is important in order to avoid conflicts if future versions of InfoSphere MDM include additional out-of-the-box entries in the same code table. For example, if you need to add three new entries to the Client Status code table (CDCLIENTSTTP), use values of 10000, 10001, and 10002 in the CLIENT_ST_TP_CD column.

You can edit the properties of existing code values in code tables, which is useful in cases where you want to customize the values to match your organization's environment and requirements. There are two main steps to activating error messages:

creating the error message
associating the message with an ID or a rule

When you create an error message, you are constructing a message text string. The error message description is a concise, meaningful comment that gives additional information about the error message. An error message is not active until it is either associated with application components through error message IDs, or it is linked with validation rules or Rules of Visibility. Error messages that you create are added to the CDERRMESSAGETP code table. You can edit the description of error messages that already exist in the system.

When you create an error message and label it with a message type code, you are only specifying the text that you want users to see when IBM® InfoSphere Master Data Management encounters an error. After you create the message, you must specify the application component that the error applies to, or how the error message should be assembled. To do this, you must create an error message ID.

You can query which error message IDs have been associated with a specific application component. The returned error message IDs indicate which error messages the user may see when an error is encountered in the specified component. The following is an example of an error message ID and a description of each of its sections:

115 - INSERR-10212      Insert extension Set failed     1001

Component Type ID (115): A numeric code that uniquely identifies the component in which the error occurred.
Error Type Code (INSERR): An alphabetic code that defines the general nature of the error. For example, INSERR = "Insert Exception".
Message Type Code (10212): A numeric code that is linked with the error message text.
Error Message Text (Insert extension Set failed): The text a user will see when the error is encountered.
Error Reason ID (1001): A numeric code that helps define why the error has occurred. InfoSphere MDMcombines the error reason ID and the error type code to uniquely map to an error message. Error reason IDs are stored in the ERRREASON database table.
For information on creating message type codes and error message text, see Creating an error message.

For more information on for information on creating component type IDs, error type codes, or error reason IDs, see the developer topics section on error handling and logging.

Last updated: 8 Jan 2016