4.10. Conventions

To facilitate information transfer between agents, we follow several conventions when using groups and docks.

4.10.1. Triggers

The group triggers is used by any agent sending trigger information such as process completion. The dock for the groups triggers is open. The format of the messages is simply a dictionary with at least the key event. Other key value pairs can be added for more detail, such as an agent name or completion message.

{
   event: string
       key1: val1
       key2: val2
       ...
}

4.10.2. Data

The dock/tag data is used to specify collected data coming back from the nodes. Additional docks can be added for the actual data included (example: counters). The format of all data messages is a dictionary of node names. With each value being the actual formatted data.

Example:

{
  nodeX: data
  nodeY: data
}

This format allows for easy aggregation for data messages by combining messages from different nodes at routers. The aggregation can be done automatically by the underlying framework regardless of the data formats for each agent.