http://bugs.wireshark.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=2412
--- Comment #1 from Jim Young <jyoung@xxxxxxx> 2008-04-08 05:04:03 GMT ---
Some notes regarding enhancing Wireshark's "Expert Info"...
"Expert info" is added to Wireshark source by using the function
"expert_add_info_format()". This function is defined within ./epan/expert.c
expert_add_info_format() is a variable args printf() style function that allows
the programmer to indicate (among other things) a severity level as well as a
single line text message (the "Summary" line) that will be displayed when
either (or both) of the two "Expert Infos" dialogs is open.
As of SVN 24794 there are 64 modules with one or more references to the
expert_add_info_format() function.
There are currently about 435 references to the expert_add_info_format()
function. While some of these references are enclosed within lines of code
that are commented out, most are not. 116 references of the
expert_add_info_format() references are across 6 ./plugin/*/*.c modules. There
are 316 references to expert_add_info_format() across 56 ./epan/dissector/*.c
modules. And there are 3 references to expert_add_info_format() across 2
./epan/wslua/*.c modules. (Note that 4 of the./epan/dissectors based modules
are initially created in various ./asn1 subfolders.)
Unfortunatly there is no global method to access ALL of the approximately 435
possible info item details in one place. Currently the user is relegated to
greping the source files to locate the possible expert info messages.
For the past few days I've been looking at various ways that one might go about
devising an expert info framework to facilitate a run-time global view of all
of the currently defined expert info messages.
An "Expert Info Messages" dialog would give the user one place to review all of
the possible expert info messages.
Having a dialog to review ALL of the possible expert info messages and their
configured severity levels could prove very helpful to help users understand
what types of expert events Wireshark can and will illustrate.
This same "Expert Info Messages" dialog could be used to give the user the
option to "tune" the severity of the various expert info messages to what best
matches their environment.
The proposed expert info framework could also benefit by the addition of
"Advice" data. This "Advice" data would be used to augment the current one
line "Summary" that is displayed within the Expert Infos dialogs. The "Advice"
data could be used to give an expanded explanation (multiple lines of text)
about the reasoning/meaning/logic behind any particular expert info item.
This "Advice" data might be displayed as a new pane within the Expert Infos
dialogs or perhaps as a separate pop-up that is triggered with a right-mouse
click (or key-stroke) when any particular expert item is selected.
While I have yet to fully conceive the desired expert info framework, I have
done some preliminary testing of functions (expert_get_severity() and
expert_set_severity()) that could be used as a intermediate technique to allow
for run-time modification of the expert info messages. I will attach these
experimental patches shortly.
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