[SNMP4J] notify method in NotificationOriginatorImpl

[Muralidharan Narayanan]

Hello All,

Can someone help me understand the notify method of
NotificationOriginatorImpl a little more better. The method signature says:
public org.snmp4j.event.ResponseEvent[] notify(org.snmp4j.smi.OctetString
context,
                                               org.snmp4j.smi.OID
notificationID,
                                               org.snmp4j.smi.VariableBindin
g[] vbs)

I understand that this method essentially sends notification to the targets
registered with targetMIB and notificationMIB (using methods
addTargetAddress, addTargetParams and addNotifyEntry).

The question is about parameters in the method.

1) I understand that the notificationID can be from any of the 6 generic
types or can it be some vendor specific trap type defined in vendor's MIB
file. What should be the format of vendor specific trap type? Is it a simple
OID in usual notation such as 1.3.6.1.4.1.8716.2....?

2)  I am not sure what this vbs array is used for. What "payload of the
notification" does it mean? Does someone have an example of this parameter's
usage? Also I am wondering how the array returned is used etc.


Thanks
Murali