Defining self-defined tags and attributes for data elements

You can define self-defined tags and attributes for your data elements in the CHA Editor configuration file, the .chae file. After you define the new tags and attributes, you can use them with your data elements.

To edit the .chae file, start the CHA Editor and click the Configuration tab in the Editor view of the CHA Editor. You can then go on editing the contents of the .chae file.

You can also use any text editor to edit the .chae file.

Examples of defining new tags:

<descriptor name="FloatDescriptor" javaClass="java.lang.Float">
	<compatibleImplClass name="com.ibm.btt.base.DataField" />
	<compatibleConverter name="FloatConverter" />
	<compatibleValidator name="FloatValidator" />
	<compatibleConverter name="DoubleConverter" />
	<compatibleValidator name="DoubleValidator" />
</descriptor>
Note: CHA Editor does not support descriptors with tag <Descriptor>. All descriptor's tag needs to designate the descriptor type in the tag, such as <DateDescriptor>, <DateDescriptor>, <DoubleDescriptor>, <FloatDescriptor>, <IntegerDescriptor>, <StringDescriptor>, <KCollDescriptor>, or <ICollDescriptor>. If the descriptor is not defined in *.chae, the CHA Editor will come up with an error message: The typeDefault Descriptor doesn't exist when you start the CHA Editor.
<converter name="FloatConverter" implClass="com.ibm.btt.base.types.ext.FloatConverter">
	<attribute name="convTypes" type="mandatory" defaultValue="default">
		<allowValue value="default"/>
		<allowValue value="serialization"/>
		<allowValue value="output"/>
		<allowValue value="xml"/>
		<allowValue value="host"/>
	</attribute>
		<attribute name="implClass" type="mandatory"/>
		<attribute name="binaryConversion" type="optional"/>
		<attribute name="size" type="optional">
			<allowValue value="4"/>
			<allowValue value="8"/>
		</attribute>
		<attribute name="byteOrdering" type="optional">
			<allowValue value="0"/>
			<allowValue value="1"/>
		</attribute>
</converter>
<validator name="FloatValidator" implClass="com.ibm.btt.base.types.ext.FloatValidator">
	<attribute name="implClass" type="mandatory"/>
	<attribute name="lowerLimit"/>
	<attribute name="upperLimit"/>
</validator>
Related tasks
Creating data elements