VariableLookupList

Wed May 27 04:16:51 EDT 2009

This handler replaces the value of a named variable. It references a replacement mapping list you specify in the custom GUI. The list must be plain text, with the format value=replacment on separate lines.

If an associated replacement is not found, the original element remains unchanged.

See Other

The VariableLookupFile plug-in is similar. Both replace the parsed variable field with a value looked-up from a simple text mapping that may be modified without service interruption.

VariableLookupList has the advantage of storing the lookup data with the plug-in instance's configuration. This is especially useful if you have a networked cluster, since configuration changes are automatically distributed to all servers.

Since the VariableLookupFile's lookup map is a plain text file on your server, it is usually a better choice if you plan to automatically generate the lookup data periodically via a script.

Example

Some events contain parse variables that will be used in element names or alert summaries. Currently their cryptic values (parsed from the event) have little meaning to staff. For example, an event's element may be a circuit number. This handler could be used to replace the circuit number with a customer name. The lookup list would contain the list of circuit numbers and each associated customer.