Block Scope

Management Information Format (MIF) Files Reference › Lexical Conventions › Block Scope

Block Scope

The keywords "start" and "end" delimit the scope of a definition block. An associated keyword must follow both start and end. The keywords and their scope are listed in the following table:

Block	Within	Description
Component	.MIF file	Defines a component. All other blocks exist within this scope. There can be only one component definition per .MIF file.
Path	Component	Associates a symbolic string with operating system specific path names. Zero or more path definitions may exist in the MIF, usually at the top of the file before any groups.
Group	Component	Defines a collection of attributes, sometimes used as a template row for a table. At least one group is required per .MIF file (the ComponentID group, defined following).
Attribute	Group	Defines a unit of managed data. All attributes "exist" in the scope of a group definition. A group must contain at least one attribute.
Table	Component	Defines one or more instances of a group using a previously defined group. Optional.
Enum	Component or Attribute	Defines a list of integer-to-string mappings. Named enumerations can be defined at the component level, while unnamed enumerations can be defined in the scope of an attribute definition. Optional, but while many enum definitions can exist at the component level, only one can be defined per attribute.

Following is an example of a .MIF file structure. For readability, only one of each block is given. Each level is indented for readability:

start component

	start path

	end path

	start enum

	end enum

	start group

		start attribute

			start enum

			end enum

		end attribute

	end group

	start table

	end table

end component