Importing / Exporting Variants
- Kelli Higdon
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Signaling Variants can be both imported to and exported from the IMG 2020. Exporting a variant allows other IMG 2020's, that do not have the variant, the ability to then import the variant. When exporting a Variant, the variant is first created and downloaded to the system. Once downloaded, it can then be exported to a local drive. The file exported is a text file and a .cfg file which can then be imported by other IMG 2020's. Importing and Exporting a variant is achieved through the Web GUI. The information below describes how to import or export a variant and is not specific to the protocol described in the procedure. The steps described below can be used when importing any protocol.
Importing a Variant to a node
The procedure below describes importing a variant table using the SS7 protocol. The procedure describes importing the British Telecom variant but can be used to import any variant configured as long as the appropriate files are initially created. Verify that the IMG 1010 - Basic Configuration and SS7 Configuration have been configured before proceeding.
Create a directory on your local PC and copy and paste the Signaling Variant file (.cfg) and text file to the directory created. The directory should be created on the same PC that will be running the browser connecting the Web GUI to the IMG 2020.
Right click on the Dialogic object in the Web GUI and select New Files. The Files object is a parent or container object and no configuration is needed here. Refer to the Files topic for more information on this object.
Right click on the Files object just created and select New File. In the File object click on the browse icon. This will allow the user to browse the local PC. Navigate to the directory created above and select the .cfg file. In this example, the British Telecom variant is being imported and the BT_IAMmct.cfg file was selected.
Once the Files object is committed, it will be displayed in the configuration tree and display the file that was imported. See screen capture below.
Right click on the Dialogic object and select New Signaling Variants. The Signaling Variants object is a container object and no configuration is needed here. Refer to the Signaling Variants topic for more information.
Right click on the Signaling Variants object and select New Variant Table. In the Variant Name field enter the exact name of the variant without the extension. If the exact name is not entered, the variant will import but will not function. In this example, the variant was entered as BritishTelecom.
Select the Variant Type from the drop down menu. If you do not know the variant type, it can be accessed by viewing the text file that was copied to the directory on your local PC.
Select the Variant Base from the drop down menu. If you do not know the variant base, it can be accessed by viewing the text file that was copied to the directory on your local PC. The text file imported is displayed in highlighted gray below.
Below is screen capture of a few lines from the file imported. All the information needed to configure the fields in the Variant Table above are displayed in this file. Pay attention to the "PplBase" property value.
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<Import_Table swVer="2.1.0-116">
<object classname="VariantEntry">
<property name="Comments" value=""/>
<property name="PplBase" value="SS7- ETSI V3"/>
<property name="PplComponent" value="0xFF Generic File"/>
<property name="PplEntityFile" value="BT_IAMmct.cfg"/>
<property name="PplEntityId" value="Not Used"/>
<property name="PplEntityType" value="Stack"/>
<property name="PplEntityValue" value="Not Used"/>
<property name="PplTimerType" value="0x1 Generic Protocol Timer"/>
<property name="PplTimerValue" value="0"/>
<property name="VariantName" value="BritishTelecom"/>
<property name="VariantPPLs" value="SS7Stack"/>
</object>
<object classname="VariantEntry">
<property name="Comments" value=""/>
<property name="PplBase" value="SS7- ETSI V3"/>
<property name="PplComponent" value="0x61 L4 CH"/>
<property name="PplEntityFile" value="Not Used"/>
<property name="PplEntityId" value="27"/>
<property name="PplEntityType" value="PPL Config Bytes"/>
<property name="PplEntityValue" value="1"/>
<property name="PplTimerType" value="0x1 Generic Protocol Timer"/>
<property name="PplTimerValue" value="0"/>
<property name="VariantName" value="BritishTelecom"/>
<property name="VariantPPLs" value="SS7CICGroup"/>
</object>Â
The file that is imported is using the html format as shown in example text above.
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Right click on the Variant Table object just created and select Import. An Upload File dialog box will appear. Click on the Browse button again and browse to the text file that was copied  into the directory on your local PC. Select the file and it will appear into the Upload File dialog box.
Click on the Upload button from the Upload dialog box and the new variant will get configured on the IMG 2020. The New imported variant will now be displayed  under the Variant Table object created earlier. See screen capture below.
Creating a Variant using Web GUI
The procedure below describes exporting a variant table from the IMG 2020.
To be able to export a variant from the IMG 2020, there must first be a variant to export created. The first few steps will describe creating the variant and saving it. Once that is accomplished, the variant will then be exported.
Right click on the Dialogic object and select New Signaling Variants. A Signaling Variants object will appear. Nothing needs to be configured in this object. The Signaling Variants object is a parent object to multiple signaling variants to be created under it. For more information on this object, refer to the Signaling Variants topic.
Right click on the Signaling Variants object created and select New Variant Table. In this procedure the variant will be named New_Variant. Enter a Variant Name, Variant Type, Base Variant and Variant ID in this object. Refer to the Signaling Variant Table topic for more information.
Right click on the New_Variant created and select New Variant Entry. Refer to Signaling Variant Element topic for more information on configuring this object. Continue to create Variant Entries until the new variant being created is complete.
Exporting a Variant from node
Exporting a Variant procedure takes a previously created variant which has been sent and stored on the IMG 2020 and exports it through http so that it can be saved. Follow the steps below
Right click on the Variant Table object that is going to be exported and select Export from the drop down list. An Export dialog box will appear confirming that the Variant Table is going to be exported. Select OK.
The file is will then be displayed in the web browser. Select File > Save As from the browser menu bar. Browse to the directory to download the file and select the Save button. The file will be saved as a .txt file using the html format.
The exported file can now be opened and modified as required. The file can then be re-imported into the node it was exported from or imported to a separate node as required.
Deleting a Variant from node
Deleting a variant can be a very tedious operation if procedure below is not followed. Variants typically have many PPL entity objects configured below them and can take quite a while to delete all the child objects before deleting the actual signaling variant. Follow the procedure below to delete a variant without having to first delete all the child objects first.
Click on the Variant Table. In the object page is a button labeled Delete All Variant Elements. Click on this button and all Variant Elements below the Variant Table are deleted.
At this point, the Variant Table can be deleted.