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Enabling and Disabling Message Analyzer Aliases

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You can enable or disable any Alias by toggling (selecting/unselecting) the appropriate check box in the Aliases drop-down list in the global Message Analyzer Tools menu or on the global toolbar. You can either enable each Alias one at a time, or you can enable one or more Categories that each contain multiple Aliases at once. When you enable one or more Aliases by selecting them, the current message set will be updated such that all data field values that are represented by the Alias configurations will be replaced by the Alias names. When you disable one or more Aliases by unselecting them, each Alias is removed from all previously set instances in the current message set that is displayed in the Analysis Grid and other viewers. However, each disabled Alias is still retained in the Aliases drop-down list until such time that you delete it.

Note

The scope of Alias application encompasses all data viewers and sessions displayed in the current running instance of Message Analyzer, which in this context is referred to as the current message set.

Whenever you enable or disable an existing Alias, you are prompted by an Aliases Changed information bar that contains the following advisory message:

“To avoid excessive CPU utilization when refreshing some data views, please wait until all alias changes are complete before you refresh.”

When this information bar displays, you have the option to refresh your data viewers at the appropriate time by clicking the Refresh Views button on the bar.

Note

If you enable an Alias that has a Value that matches that of another enabled Alias, Message Analyzer displays a Duplicated value message. When this occurs, you will be unable to apply the duplicate Alias.

Using the Built-In Alias Collection Items

Message Analyzer provides the following Aliases by default in the My Items category of your Aliases asset collection, which are accessible from the Aliases drop-down list in the previously specified locations. You can use these Aliases as is, for the convenience of friendly and quick identification of loopback traffic:

  • IPv4 Loopback — provides a friendly name for the IPv4 address 127.0.0.1, which is a special IP number that is designated for the software loopback interface on your machine.

  • IPv6 Loopback — provides a friendly name for the IPv6 address ::1, which is a special IP number that is designated for the software loopback interface on your machine.

Note

A loopback interface is not associated with any hardware, nor is it physically connected to a network. Rather, the interface is a conduit for local application traffic, for example, between a local web server and a SQL server.

You can also modify and save any of the default Alias collection items as necessary, as described in Modifying Message Analyzer Aliases. You can also share Aliases with others, including the default Aliases, by using the Manage Aliases dialog as described in Managing Message Analyzer Aliases as Shared Items.

Specifying a Default Alias List

If you want to specify a default set of Alias names to apply to all message data that you either capture in Live Trace Sessions or load into Message Analyzer through Data Retrieval Sessions, you can simply enable those Alias names that you want to automatically apply. You might consider creating a custom Category of Aliases that will serve as the default set, while manually enabling and applying other Aliases as needed. The default set of enabled Aliases will persist across Message Analyzer sessions, viewers, and restarts.

Note

For a given data field type that is associated with a particular Alias, for example, a port or address type, you cannot apply another Alias asset with the same Value to a message set, although multiple Alias assets with the same Value can exist in your Aliases collection. However, you can only enable and apply Aliases with duplicate Values one at a time.