Branch Entry

A branch entry describes a tree branch (or node) containing other branches and signals.

A branch entry example is given below:

Trunk:
  type: branch
  description: All signals related to the rear trunk
  aggregate: false

The following elements are defined:

Body.Trunk The list element name defines the dot-notated signal name to the signal. Please note that all parental branches included in the name must be defined as well.

type The value branch specifies that this is a branch entry (as opposed to a signal entry). This is the default, in case type is omitted.

description Describes the meaning and content of the branch. Recommended to start with a capital letter and end with a dot (.).

comment [optional] since version 3.0 A comment can be used to provide additional informal information on a branch. This could include background information on the rationale for the branch, references to related branches, standards and similar. Recommended to start with a capital letter and end with a dot (.).

instances [optional] For specifying that multiple instances of this branch exist, for more information see documentation on instances.

aggregate [optional] Defines whether or not this branch is an aggregate. If not defined, this defaults to false. An aggregate is a collection of signals that make sense to handle together in a system. A typical example could be GNSS location, where latitude and longitude make sense to read and write together. This is supposed to be deployment and tool specific, and for that reason no branches are aggregates by default in VSS. For branches that both have instances defined and aggregate: true, then aggregate refers to the signals for individual instances, i.e. signals for different instances can be handled separately.