Using the view editor

The CICSPlex® SM Web User Interface view editor is the tool for customizing your menus and views. There is a link to the view editor in the navigation frame of the Web User Interface display. However, note that, if your Web User Interface server is running with security active, the view editor is restricted to nominated users. You will not see the link to the view editor unless you have the required authority.

You should leave the view editor by returning to the CICSPlex SM Web User Interface Editor screen or by signing off.

Notes:
  1. If your browser session times out, because the INACTIVETIMOUT period is reached, any changes not saved prior to the session being timed out are lost. For information about the INACTIVETIMEOUT Web User Interface server initialization parameter, see CICS® Transaction Server for z/OS® Installation Guide.
  2. Throughout this topic, for the purpose of providing examples to show how the view editor can be used to edit views, supplied views have been used. However, you cannot save changes to the supplied views and menus. You must copy the required view set and edit your copy. See Example tasks.
  3. A view set or menu is locked whenever it is opened for edit. Changes are not committed until the view set or menu is finally saved or the edit is abandoned. While locked other users cannot edit the same view set or menu. Users may continue to use the view set or menu whilst it is being edited, in which case the original version of the view set or menu will be used until it is opened after the changes have been committed.

Accessing the view editor

To access the view editor, select View editor in the navigation frame. A view editor session is opened in a new window and you are presented with the CICSPlex SM Web User Interface Editor screen. You can have more than one view editor session running at any one time.

Start of changeWeb User Interface supplied views and menusEnd of change

The CICSPlex SM Web User Interface includes a set of views and menus that you can use either as supplied or as the basis from which to create your own customized views and menus. When you work with either menus or views, the supplied menus and view sets are listed in a selection box. You can select the one that you want to base your customized view on.

Note:
You cannot save changes to the supplied view sets and menus. View set and menu names beginning with EYU are reserved for IBM® use. You must copy the required supplied view set or menu then edit your copy.

All supplied views are named EYUSTARTobject, where object is a CICSPlex SM resource table name.

Editor Panels

The view editor is made up of a number of panels that lead you through the process of creating, editing, copying, and deleting view sets and menus, by asking questions and offering choices. The panels fall into different types, as can be seen in examples throughout the rest of this section.

Working with menus

To work with menus, select the Menus option from the CICSPlex SM Web User Interface Editor screen. You have the options of creating a new menu, editing an existing menu, copying an existing menu, or deleting a menu.

Working with view sets

To work with views, select the View sets option from the CICSPlex SM Web User Interface Editor screen. This opens the View Set Editor screen, as shown in Figure 26. You have the options of creating a new view set, editing an existing view set, copying an existing view set, or deleting a view set.

Figure 26. View Set Editor screen
 This figure shows the view set editor screen. It is explained in the surrounding text.

Each view set that you create is based on a single managed object, such as an operations view, or a resource type. When you have created a view set, you can create one or more views based on the selected object.

To edit an existing view click the Edit link on the View Set Editor screen. You are presented with the Open View Set screen as shown in Figure 27.

Figure 27. Open View Set screen
 This figure shows the open view set screen. It is explained in the surrounding text.

From the Open View Set screen you can select the view set that you want to edit to be presented with the View Set Contents screen similar to the screen shown in Figure 28. This screen shows that the selected view set EJBS contains a tabular view and a detail view.

Figure 28. View Set Contents screen
 This figure shows the view set contents screen. It is explained in the surrounding text.

From the View Set Contents screen, you can add a new view, edit, copy, or delete an existing view from the view set that you are working with.

Working with views

To edit an existing view you select the view from the View Set Contents screen by selecting the radio button against the view and clicking Edit. You can select one view to edit at a time. The View Set Contents screen is redisplayed after editing a view allowing you to select another view to edit, if required.

For example, by selecting the Tabular view from the View Set Contents screen, you will be presented with the Tabular View Components screen shown in Figure 29.

Figure 29. Tabular View Components screen
 This figure shows the tabular view components screen for the EJBS view. It is explained in the surrounding text.

Working with view components

From the Tabular View Components screen you select the component that you want to edit and a new screen is displayed. When you have finished editing your selection you are returned to the Tabular View Components screen, from where you can select another component to edit, click OK to return to the View Set Contents screen, or Cancel to lose all the changes that you have made to this view and return to the View Set Contents screen.

For example, to edit the columns and contents of the EJBS tabular view, select the Table contents component. This displays the Table Contents screen shown in Figure 30.

Figure 30. Table Contents screen
 This figure shows the table contents screen. It is explained in the surrounding text.

From the Table Contents screen you can:

A column is selected by selecting the radio button in the title box of the column.

When you have finished editing the Table Contents screen, click OK to return to the Tabular View Components screen from where you may decide to work with the action buttons available on the Journal Name view.

To edit the action buttons that are available on the EJBS view select the Action buttons component.. This displays the View Buttons screen shown in Figure 31.

Figure 31. View Buttons screen
 This figure shows the view buttons screen. It is described in the surrounding text.

From the View Buttons screen you may wish to add a new button. Click the Append button, as instructed on this screen, to display the New View Button screen shown in Figure 32.

Figure 32. NewView Button screen
 This figure shows the new view button screen. It is described in the surrounding text.

From the New View Button screen you can select the button action:

If you select the confirmation screen option you are presented with the View Button With Confirmation screen shown in Figure 33.

Figure 33. View Button With Confirmation screen
 This figure shows the view button with confirmation screen. It is described in the surrounding text.

From the View Button With Confirmation screen specify the name of the button, and either select an existing confirmation screen from the list of available views or enter a new confirmation screen name, as instructed on the View Button With Confirmation Panel. If the new confirmation panel does not exist it can be created later.

If your new button is to be used for the create action, you can set it to be used for the update action also by selecting the check box in the confirmation panel usage section of the screen.

Once you have edited the tabular view click the OK button on the Tabular View Components screen shown in Figure 29 and the View Set Contents screen shown in Figure 28 is redisplayed where you can save your changes to the tabular view or work with another view in the view set.

Note:
Some attribute fields are derived from CICS CMF performance class monitoring data. In order for these fields to function correctly, you need to ensure that the CICS monitoring facility is active by setting the CICS system initialization parameters MNPER and MNRES to YES.

Applying or rejecting updates

The view editor provides buttons that allow you to commit or cancel updates as follows:

Cancel
Cancel the operation represented by the screen and any changes made as part of the operation.
OK
Submit the changes and continue.
Finish
Return to the previous screen.
Save
Save the changes associated with a view set or menu in the Web User Interface server repository.
Abandon
Do not save the changes associated with a view set or menu in the Web User Interface server repository.

The Cancel and OK buttons appear together, as do the Save and Abandon buttons, on view editor panels.

Note:
If your browser session times out, because the INACTIVETIMOUT period is reached, any changes not saved prior to the session being timed out are lost. For information about the INACTIVETIMEOUT Web User Interface server initialization parameter, see CICS Transaction Server for z/OS Installation Guide.

Example tasks

This topic describes two typical tasks that illustrate some of the customization facilities offered by the Web User Interface view editor. In both cases, the starting point is a supplied view set. The view editor guides you with additional on-screen instructions.

Using view links and attribute filters

This sample task describes how to link from a tabular view of task resources to a detail view displaying terminal information, when the principal facility is a terminal. The task involves editing a copy of the supplied view to add a new column for the FACILITY attribute, setting up a conditional link and supplying an attribute filter.

The FACILITY attribute column will be defined to link to a view for the TERMNL resource when the attribute contains a terminal ID. This is achieved by making the link conditional on the value of the FACILITYTYPE attribute and using an attribute filter to specify that the TERMID of the target resource is equal to the FACILITY of the source.

For information on the attributes, see CICSPlex System Manager Resource Tables Reference.

  1. Prepare the view set
    1. Copy the supplied view set EYUSTARTTASK with the new name TASKVIEWSET (This name is an example only).
    2. On the View Set Editor screen, click Edit and, from the Open View Set screen, select TASKVIEWSET from the list.
    3. On the View Set Contents screen, select the view called TABULAR and click the Edit button.
  2. Add a column
    1. On the Tabular View Components screen, select Table contents. The table layout is displayed.
    2. Select the User ID column by selecting the radio button in the column heading. Click the Insert button. This inserts the new column before the User ID column.
    3. On the New Table Column Attribute screen, select FACILITY from the attribute list and click OK.
  3. Create a conditional link
    1. On the Table Column Components screen, click View links.
    2. On the View Links screen, click Append.
    3. On the New View Link Type screen, select the View set radio button to link to a view within another view set and click OK.
    4. On the View Link Condition screen, the View link conditional on Attribute check box is selected by default. Select FACILITYTYPE and click OK.
    5. On the View Link Components screen, select Condition test.
    6. On the View Link Condition screen, select the condition attribute test radio button Is valid and equal to and select TERM in the selection list. Click OK.
  4. Specify the target view set and view
    1. On the View Link Components screen, select Target.
    2. On the Local Target Link screen, the Target view set selected from list radio button is selected by default. Select the name of the supplied view EYUSTARTTERMNL from the selection list and click OK.
    3. On the Confirm Object for View Set screen, confirm that the object type TERMNL is already highlighted and click OK.
    4. From the Target View screen, select the Target view selected from list radio button, select the view called DETAILED and click OK.
  5. Specify target selection criteria
    1. On the View Link Components screen, select Context and Scope.
    2. On the View Link Context and Scope Settings screen, retain the context and CMAS context defaults. Change the scope setting by selecting the Set to value of attribute radio button. Select EYU_CICSNAME and click OK.
    3. On the View Link Components screen, select Filter attributes and parameters.
    4. On the View Link Filters screen, click the Append button. On the View Link Filter Type screen, the Attribute filter radio button is selected by default. Click OK.
    5. On the View Link Filter screen, select the TERMID filter attribute and click OK.
    6. On the View Link Filter Settings screen, the equals operator is selected by default. If the FACILITYTYPE field contains the value TERM, the FACILITY field contains a terminal ID. Select the Value of attribute radio button and select filter value FACILITY from the selection list. (The FACILITY field contains a terminal ID if the FACILITYTYPE field contains TERM.) Click OK.
  6. Save your changes
    1. Return to the View Set Contents screen by selecting the appropriate buttons on the screens to save your changes. The buttons have different names depending on the function, and may be labeled OK or Finish.
    2. On the View Set Contents screen, you have the choice of saving or abandoning your changes.

You can test your view by creating a link from a menu, or see Access to the Web User Interface for information on how to display your view directly.

Using warning lights

This sample task describes how you can replace the textual representation of event severity data in a tabular view with warning lights. Figure 34 shows the view as supplied, which is used as the basis for this sample. This sample task sets a flashing red warning light for the Very High Severity level. You can make your own choice for the other event severity levels.

Figure 34. View with text representation of event severity levels
 Real time analysis outstanding events screen showing 6 outstanding events. Event severity levels are shown as text: VHS for very high severity, LS for low severity, and so on.
Figure 35. View with warning light representation of event severity levels
 This shows the same Real time analysis outstanding events screen as the previous figure except that event severity levels are shown both as text and with warning lights.
  1. Prepare the view set
    1. Copy the supplied view set EYUSTARTEVENT with the new name EVENTVIEWSET.
    2. On the View Set Editor screen, click Edit, and on the Open View Set screen, select EVENTVIEWSET from the view set list.
    3. On the View Set Contents screen, select the view called TABULAR and click Edit. On the Tabular View Components screen, select Table contents. The table layout is displayed.
  2. Add warning lights to the Event Severity column
    1. Select the Event Severity column by selecting the radio button in the column heading. Click Edit.
    2. On the Table Column Components screen, select Presentation options.
    3. On the Presentation type screen, select the Warning lights radio button and click OK.
    4. On the Presentation Options screen, select the Show value radio button. It is good practice to have the value displayed as well as the colored lights. Click OK.
  3. Set the color thresholds
    1. On the Presentation thresholds screen, click the Append button, and on the Presentation Threshold Components screen, select Threshold range.
    2. On the Presentation Threshold Range screen, the Equal to field is selected by default. In the entry field, type the attribute value VHS. This is the value that will cause this color. Click OK.
    3. On the Presentation Thresholds Components screen, select Threshold color.
    4. On the Presentation Threshold Color screen, select the color RED. Select the Flashing check box and click OK.
    5. On the Presentation Thresholds Components screen, click Finish to return to the Presentation Thresholds screen.
    6. Repeat these steps for each value that you wish to define a color for, selecting the color required. When you have created all your presentation thresholds, click the OK button on the Presentation Thresholds screen.

      When no color is specified for a particular value, the color on the display will be grey.

  4. Save your changes
    1. Return to the View Set Contents screen by selecting on the appropriate buttons on the screens to save your changes. The buttons have different names depending on the function, and are either labeled OK or Finish.
    2. On the View Set Contents screen, you have the choice of saving or abandoning your changes.

You can test your view by creating a link from a menu, or see Access to the Web User Interface for information on how to display your view directly. Your view might look like the example in Figure 35.

Start of change

Creating a two-column detailed view

This section explains how to create a two-column detailed views using the WUI view editor.

  1. Open the view editor and navigate to the Add View screen.
    1. From the main menu navigation screen, click View editor > View sets > Edit. This opens the Open View Set screen.
    2. Select the view set to which your new detailed view will belong and click OK to open the View Set Contents screen.
    3. Click Add. This opens the Add View screen, which is used to create a new view for the selected view set.
  2. Name the new view and define its display type.
    1. Type in a name for your new view in the View name field.
    2. Select Two column detail form from the list of view types.
    3. Select Key attributes from the list of pre-fill options and click OK. This opens the Detailed Form Components screen.
  3. Add an attribute to the left column.

    When you choose to add an item to a two-column detail view, the new element is placed in the left column. In order to maintain left right alignment a white space element is automatically placed in the right column opposite the new item.

    1. Select Form contents. This opens a Form Contents screen like the one shown in Figure 36. Notice it contains a Space element type, which is necessary in the creation of two column screens in order to balance the right and left columns.
    2. Click Append. This opens the Form Item Type screen.
    3. Select Attribute field and click OK to open the Form Attribute Field screen. This screen contains a list of attributes including the attribute name, data format, and a short description.

      The data formats correspond to the datatypes as listed in CICSPlex System Manager Resource Tables Reference. For example, time and count formats correspond to the SCLOCK datatype.

    4. Select an attribute from the list and click OK to open the Form Item Components screen.
    5. Check the radio button of the attribute and complete the definition of the new attribute by:
      • Typing in the attribute title and any annotation
      • Selecting the display options; either normal or graphical
      • Adding any view links.
    6. Click Finish to add the new attribute to your new view. This takes you back to the Form Contents screen.
  4. Add an attribute to the right hand column of the view.

    In order to add an element to the right hand column, you need to select a white space element and then edit it to change it to the type of element required:

    1. Select the white space element created in step 3 and click Edit. This opens the Form Item Type screen.
    2. Select the type of element you want to add to the right hand column and follow the procedure outlined in step 3 to define it.
    3. Click Finish to add the right hand element to the view
    You can repeat steps 3 and 4 as many times as necessary to add more elements to the left and right columns.

    If you want to remove an item from the right hand column, select it and click Delete item. This converts the item back to a white space element.

    Note:
    You cannot delete an individual white space element but you can remove adjacent elements in both columns by clicking Delete row.
  5. Complete the view definition.
Figure 37

shows an example of a two-column detail view.

Figure 37. Example of a two-column detail view
Two-column detail view including example data
End of changeStart of change

Creating a filter confirmation screen

This section explains how to set up filter confirmation for an existing (user designed) view.

  1. Start the view editor and click on Menus to open the Menu Editor.
  2. Click Edit and select the menu containing the hyperlink to the intended view from the list. This opens the Menu Components screen.
  3. Click Menu Contents, then scroll to the bottom of the Menu Contents screen and click Append. This opens the New Menu Item screen.
  4. Select the Menu choice radio button and click OK. This opens the Menu Choice Components screen.
  5. Click Destination to open the Menu Choice Type screen then select the View link radio button. This opens the Target View Set screen similar to the one shown in Figure 38.
  6. Select the view set that includes the target view and click OK. This opens the Confirm Object for View Set screen.
  7. Just for confirmation, select the object associated with your selected view set and click OK. This opens a Target View screen similar to Figure 39.
  8. To create a filter confirmation screen associated with the selected view, scroll to the bottom of the screen and select the box labelled Use filter confirmation prior to get. Click OK to confirm.

Now, before opening the target view, a filter confirmation screen is displayed allowing users to specify filter criteria before data retrieval takes place.

End of changeStart of change

Enabling the map function on a customized view

You can add a map button to any tabular or detail view that relates to a definitional object.

The following assumes that you have already created a tabular view as a target for this operation. There are minor differences if you wish to add a map button to a detail view.

  1. Open the view editor, click View sets > Edit and select the view set containing your target view from the list. Click OK to continue. This opens the View Set Contents screen, which lists all of the views in your selected view set.
  2. Select the target view from the list and click Edit. This opens the Tabular View Components screen.
  3. Click Tabular View display options. This opens the View display options screen. There are a number of headings on this screen.
  4. Scroll to the Map button section and select Map button available. Click OK to return to the Tabular View Components screen.
  5. Assuming you are not making any more changes to the view, click OK to return to the View Set Contents screen and then Save to confirm the operation.

Your view now includes a map button. If the selected resource type can generate more than one type of map, for example Monitoring and RTA in the case of a time period definition, the screen also contains a drop-down box next to the map button listing the available choices.

When you click Map on your newly customized view, a map of associated definitions is generated.

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