Mscgen is a small program that parses Message Sequence Chart descriptions and produces PNG, SVG, EPS or server side image maps (ismaps) as the output. Message Sequence Charts (MSCs) are a way of representing entities and interactions over some time period and are often used in combination with SDL. MSCs are popular in Telecoms to specify how protocols operate although MSCs need not be complicated to create or use. Mscgen aims to provide a simple text language that is clear to create, edit and understand, which can also be transformed into common image formats for display or printing.
As we all know, diagrams are an invaluable addition to any documentation produced. They communicate a lot of information quickly, in an easy to understand form. This is especially important in
The MSCGen add-on from Addteq comes to the rescue and brings the simplicity and usefulness of Message Sequence Charts right to your Confluence Server. The amount of time and effort it saves you is apparent as soon as you start using it.
Here is an example of an MSC depicting a simple call flow between two entities during the exchange of some standard Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) messages. The simple and self-explanatory MSCGen code used to generate this MSC is shown on the left side.