This section describes the components of the Web User Interface menus and views that you can customize to create your working environment. You use the CICSPlex® SM Web User Interface view editor to customize the menus and views. How to use the view editor is described in Using the view editor.
The CICSPlex SM Web User Interface includes a set of views and menus (see Web User Interface supplied views and menus) that you can use either as supplied or as the basis from which to create your own customized WUI. For example, you might want to create views that apply to a specific task or set of data.
You can create your own version using a supplied menu or view as a model, or you can start from an empty menu or view.
A view set is a number of related views that are used together to manage the same managed object, that is, a CICS® or a CICSPlex SM resource represented by a resource table. You can create as many view sets for a particular managed object as you like.
A view is a display that is used to interact in a particular way with the managed object. Each view is contained within a view set, and is always displayed in the work frame of the Web User Interface display. There are three types of view:
For general use, view sets and views are identified by names of up to 16 alphanumeric characters. View set names must be unique within the server repository. View names are unique within a view set. It is recommended that you adopt a naming convention for the naming of view sets and views.
The Web User Interface includes a set of view sets that you can use either as supplied or as the basis from which to create your own customized views.
You use a tabular view to display:
When you create a tabular display, you first select the managed object and then the attributes you want to display. The view editor offers you the choice of all the attributes available for that managed object. You can create one or more tabular views for each managed object, each tabular view containing attributes that are relevant to a specific task.
Fields in a tabular display can be defined
as text or graphical representations. They are display only and cannot
be modified. You can specify whether the data for that attribute
can be sorted in ascending and descending order, and whether the attribute
can be used as the basis for a summarized view. Depending on the type
of data in the column, you can also indicate how this attribute should
be summarized on a summarized view when another attribute in the same
view is used as the basis of a summary view.
You can link from a tabular view to one or more tabular and detail views, depending on the task you want the user to perform. For example, from a tabular view of task resources, you could link to detail views showing clock settings, terminal details, and so on. See Components of a view for details of how you might do this.
You can add buttons to a tabular view that perform an action immediately, or you can choose to display a confirmation panel. See Confirmation panels for details.
You can control the display options available to each tabular view. These display options allow you to:
The summarized view is a special case of the tabular view. When you create a tabular view, you specify which of the attributes in the view may be used as the basis of the summary view. You can select as many attributes as you like, or none at all. When a tabular view is summarized, the same view is used to display the summarized data.
You use a detailed view to display a selection of attribute
information for a particular instance of a resource and also to allow
the user to change attribute values. You can opt to display the information
in one or two columns. Two-column detailed views increase the amount
of data that can be displayed on your screen and reduce the need for
screen scrolling. Each column includes the attribute name, the attribute
value, and an optional annotation. See Creating a two-column detailed view for
guidance on creating a two-column view.
You can define an attribute value field to be:
The optional annotation text appears to the right of the attribute value and can be used to provide additional information, such as names, valid values, and warnings.
It is advisable to keep the annotation text short, otherwise the contents of the detail view may become less clear.
You can include white space (blank lines) in a detail view to separate groups of attributes. You may also include static text that can be used to provide titles for groups of related attribute fields, or to form explicitly labeled links to other views.
A detail view can be used simply to provide information for the user, but you can also use a detail view to implement a SET action, allowing the user to change one or more attributes for the selected instance of the managed object.
You can link from a detail view to one or more detail or tabular views, depending on the task you want the user to perform. For example, from a detail view of a task resource, you could link to other detail views showing clock settings, terminal details, and so on. See Components of a view for details of how you might do this.
You can add buttons to a detail view that perform an action immediately, or you can choose to display a confirmation panel. See Confirmation panels for details.
You can control the display options available to each detail view. These display options allow you to:
Confirmation panels have a similar appearance to detail views and are used to:
The No to all, Yes, and No action buttons are added automatically by the view editor, and you can add a Yes to all button if you wish. You can also include a list of parameters for an action on a confirmation panel.
For example, since shutting down a CICS region may have a significant impact on users of the system, you may decide to have a tabular view from which the user can select a CICS region for shutdown. Also on the tabular view you could have an action button labeled Shutdown that links to a confirmation panel. On the confirmation panel you could list the parameters, such as IMMEDIATE and NORMAL, for the shutdown action.
Confirmation panels that invoke the definitional actions create and update are somewhat different from those associated with other actions. When you use the view editor to design a confirmation panel for the create action, you can also use the same panel for the update action. The action button, which launches the panel, determines which action it is used for. This avoids any potential problems involved in keeping separate but identical create and update screens in step during the design process.
A filter confirmation screen allows you to specify filter
criteria before the WUI retrieves the data for a view in a similar
way to the TSO EUI. When designing views in the view editor you have
the option to specify that a filter confirmation screen should be
displayed before the data retrieval is executed. There are no filter
confirmation screens associated with supplied views. A typical filter
confirmation screen is shown in Figure 25.
See Creating a filter confirmation screen for guidance on setting up filter confirmation.
A default view is a view that is displayed when a view set is opened and no specific view has been named on the link. You can nominate one view within a view set to be the default view.
The default view is normally a tabular view, but can be a detail view, if you wish. When you build a link from menus to view sets, or from one view set to another, you can specify that the default view is displayed. If you do not name an explicit view on the link, because you have chosen to display the default view set, you could change or replace the default view without having to amend all of the links to the view set.
The default view set is used for external requests that specify an object name but do not specify a view set name. The default view set is named on the Web User Interface server initialization operation options parameter, that represents the specified object. See CICS Transaction Server for z/OS® Installation Guide for information about the operation options parameters, and Access to the Web User Interface for information about constructing URLs to access default views and view sets.
You can define some or all of the following components of a view:
You can also specify any attributes or parameters that will always be available to the user as filters.
For an example of setting up a conditional link, see Using view links and attribute filters.
A menu is a list of related topics from which the user can select one or more items.
Menus are identified by names of up to 16 alphanumeric characters (but see note below). Menu names must be unique within the server repository, but a menu may have the same name as a view set. It is recommended that you adopt a naming convention for the naming of menus.
You can define the following components for a work frame menu, but some components are not used when the menu is a navigation frame:
In addition to the type and destination of a link, you can define context and scope settings for each menu choice, so that you can build, for example:
You can define other selection criteria for each menu choice, so that you can display, for example:
Usually menus are displayed in the work frame, but you can select one menu to be displayed in the navigation frame. This menu is the same for all users so you can group the menu choices to reflect different user roles or tasks. You can group the menu choices by providing a group title for each group. The groups are automatically displayed as expandable and collapsible groups. The menu to be displayed in the navigation frame is named on the DEFAULTNAVIGATE Web User Interface server initialization environment options parameter. For information about the Web User Interface server initialization parameters, see CICS Transaction Server for z/OS Installation Guide.
In many cases, you can control the way that data is presented, changed, and selected on views.
For example, you could indicate the severity of system availability monitoring events in your CICS regions by using flashing red for Very High Severe (VHS) and High Severe (HS), orange for High Warning (HW) and Low Warning (LW) , and yellow for the lowest levels of severity, Low Severe (LS) and Very Low Severe (VLS). For an example of how to do this, see Using warning lights.
You specify values for the upper and lower limits of the range, which may be either a specified fixed value or the value of the numeric attribute in the same managed object (resource table). For example, you can display the load in a CICS region as a bar gauge, by comparing current task with maximum tasks.
Within the limits, you can specify threshold values and allocate display colors in the same manner as for warning lights.
An attributes data type may be determined by consulting the CICSPlex System Manager Resource Tables Reference.
The resource tables reference data types shown in the following table are considered numeric and are displayed as a decimal value to one or three decimal places, using the decimal separator configured for the server:
1-decimal names | 3-decimal names | Description |
---|---|---|
AVG | AVG3 | Average |
PCT | PCT3 | Percentage |
RATE | RATE3 | Consumption rate |
SUM | SUM3 | Sum of values |
The following resource tables reference data types are considered numeric and are displayed as a decimal integer value:
The following resource tables reference data types are considered numeric and are maintained internally as a packed decimal value:
The attributes available for each managed object are listed in the CICSPlex SM Resource Tables Reference.
When you create a view, you can:
For some types of attribute, there may be different display formats available. For example, for a time field you may be able to choose between:
When you add an attribute to a view, attributes with multiple display formats available appear multiple times in the list of available attributes. You can, therefore, select the attribute and format.
The parameters available for each managed object are listed in the CICSPlex SM Resource Tables Reference.
Action buttons allow you to operate on resources and are available on tabular views and detail views. All action buttons except the create action button operate on those objects on a view selected by the user. For example, on a CICS region tabular view, selecting one or more CICS regions for shutdown and selecting the Shutdown action button would shut down all of the selected regions. On a detail view, the action affects only the managed object displayed in the view. For example, to allow a user to enable or disable a file resource, you could create a detail view with the file attribute FILESTATUS, and the attribute CVDA values of ENABLED and DISABLED displayed in a selection list. The user could select the value required, and select a SET action button. The action button is labeled Set, by default, but you can customize the label to display any text, possibly in your national language.
The create action is not related to objects selected on a view. When present on a view, the create action is always available, and functions even on views that present no data.
Action buttons can either: