The definitions Array

The definitions array holds single objects, which we will refer to as measurement definitions.

A measurement definition has a similar structure to a measurement specification. The measurement specification, as you might recall, is the collection of measurement settings that a probe needs to perform a measurement. There are some base attributes and some type-specific attributes in the specification.

A measurement definition is a sub-set of the measurement specification. There are some required fields, but most are optional. RIPE Atlas will fill out the missing fields with defaults for all non-required fields. Which fields are required differs per measurement type.

These are the required fields for all measurement types:

• description: An arbitrary string you will use to refer to this measurement.
• type: One of ping,traceroute,dns, sslcert or ntp
• af: The address family. It must be either 4 or 6.

The target field denotes the target of a measurement and is special because it is required for all measurement types except DNS measurements.