Message text in a message skeleton must conform to certain format
standards. The standards are as follows:
- Message text can be up to 255 bytes long including the message
identifier, line number, and other fields.
- Message text can be upper-, lower-, or mixed case.
- Message text can be all single-byte character set (SBCS), all
double-byte character set (DBCS), or a combination of both. Blanks
are valid characters, and are acceptable as any part of the message
text. Message text can contain substitution tokens.
A substitution token is a "place marker," identifying substitution
data to MMS. MMS does not translate substitution tokens in the target
language skeleton, but rather replaces them with actual substitution
data.
Both &DSN1 and &FILE in the following examples are substitution
tokens.
IACT0012W 001 DATASET &DSN1. NOT FOUND
IACT0012W 002 COULD NOT FIND DATASET &FILE;
Substitution tokens indicate substitution, or variable, data, such
as a data set name or a date in the message text. Substitution tokens
must start with a token start trigger character, an ampersand (&),
and end with a token end trigger character, a period (.). These characters
are part of the token and are not included in the message text display.
You may include an ampersand (&) in the text as long as it does
not have a period following it in the format of a substitution token.
Substitution tokens must be SBCS characters and follow the form
&name[=format] where:
- name
- is the name of the substitution token. This name is an alphanumeric
SBCS string. The name must not contain imbedded blanks or DBCS characters.
- format
- is an optional format descriptor for the substitution token.
Format descriptors are:
- TEXT for tokens other than dates and times (default format)
- DATExxxxxx for dates
- TIMExxxxxx for times
- DAY for the day of the week
If you use these format descriptors, you must also define
them in the CNLcccxx parmlib member for the language. See z/OS MVS Initialization and Tuning Reference for more information on format descriptors.
The total length of name and =format must not be greater than 16 bytes.
If you do not include a format descriptor for a particular substitution
token, the MVS™ message service treats the token as TEXT.
The date and time tokens are formatted according to the language.
There are no defaults. You must supply your own formats in the CNLcccxx
member.
Examples of substitution tokens are:
&1.
&USERID.
&1=DATE1.
&5=TIMESHORT.