With the Design Explorer view, you
can view and modify the design of your applications. You can work
on the instances which constitute these applications: create, modify,
import, or export instances, search for references, generate instances,
and so on.
Here is what the
Design Explorer view
looks like, if you select
Folders (entities)
as the
top-level elements in the tree.
Figure 1. Design Explorer view displaying the entities
as the top-level elements
The
Design Explorer view
contains trees.
- The first level of each tree is constituted of a location. A location
can be compared to a database. If the location is open, its name is
preceded by the
icon. If the location is closed, its name
is preceded by the
icon.
- If the location is open (to open it, right-click it and select Open),
you can expand it and see the entity level. The number of the instances
present in the location is displayed next to the location (total number)
and also next to each entity.
Note: If you select projects or packages as
the top-level elements, they constitute an additional level, higher
than the entity level. If you are maintaining a Pacbase application, the
notion of packages is irrelevant. When you import a file produced
by the Pacbase extraction
and migration procedures, the package is set to blank.
- The third level is constituted of the instances, if any. There
are various ways of loading instances into the view.
For explanations,
see Loading the local workspace.
Creating locations or instances
If you right-click
an open location, any entity or instance, you can:
- Create a location ().
- Create instances (, or for example, or any
other entity available).
From the creation wizard, you can also
create a derived instance of a Program, Screen, Data Structure, or
Dialog instance by selecting
Derive. This instance,
which points to a reference instance, does not contain any design.
According to the selected derivation type, you can:
- Generate the reference instance from another Library without duplicating
its design.
- Generate the complete source code (the generated code and the
specific code) of the reference instance. The complete source of the
reference instance then becomes the generated code in the derived
instance and this generated code is reconciled with the specific code
of the derived instance.
Viewing and modifying the design build path of the
location
This path is the hierarchy of the projects which
is explored in an upward direction in order to resolve the dynamic
links and references between the instances contained in the various
projects of the current location.
To view and modify this path,
right-click an open location and select Properties.
Importing and exporting, copying, and pasting instances
If
you right-click an open location, any entity, or instance, you can:
- Import/export a
set of instances, grouped in a file.
- Copy and paste instances,
or delete instances.
Sharing selected elements
You can populate
the Design Explorer view with the content of
a Rational Team Concert server. To limit the number of the loaded
artifacts, you can load only the artifacts required by one or more
artifacts that you select.
However the folder structure loaded
in this way does not have a "shared" status. If you create or generate
instances in projects loaded in this way, you must share them explicitly
here.
To do so, select the instances or the COBOL files to be
shared, right-click, and select . The
newly created files are ready to be uploaded to the Rational Team
Concert server.
For explanations,
see Loading the local workspace.
Rebuilding your workspace
If you right-click
an open location, any entity, or instance, you can:
- Rebuild your workspace, to make sure that
it is consistent. All the files and projects contained in your workspace
are opened. If the files contain instances, they are parsed and repaired.
The existence of the instances, their references, links to keywords...
are checked and updated if necessary.
- Rebuild the mapping between the designs and the generated
files.
Opening, renaming, moving, comparing an instance
If
you right-click an instance (whatever the entity), you can:
- Open it. The instance is then displayed
in its dedicated PDP editor.
- Open it with various
editors.
- The first editor is the design editor dedicated to the entity.
It is the default editor.
- Three other editors are also available by default: text editor,
system editor, and in-place editor. You can also add other editors
in your preferences, accessed from the Window menu, .
- Refactor the instance. You can:
- Rename the instance. The new name is automatically
propagated to all the instance links (references, keywords, instance
calls, lists for example). Renaming an instance this way avoids consistency
errors.
- Move one or more selected instances to
another existing project while keeping all their links (references,
keywords, and instance calls for example).
You can also open the comparison editor on
PDP instances by selecting
Compare in
the contextual menu. You can compare:
- Two or three instances with each other
- Two or three versions of the same instance. These versions can
be selected from the local history or from a version stored in the
remote repository.
Note: A three-way comparison is possible only if you declare
one of the instances or versions as the common ancestor.
In
the compare editor which is displayed in the editor area, you can
browse through the differences. To activate the buttons with which
you can copy these differences, double-click the differences in the
comparison editor.
Searching for instances or for their references
You
can search for:
- Instances by clicking
in the toolbar, selecting
the Search menu, and opening the Design
search tab.
- The instance references by right-clicking
the instance (whatever the entity) and selecting this choice. You
can search for its super references (the instances
in which it is called), or its subreferences (the
instances it calls). Selecting one of these choices makes you switch
to the References view, where the search results
are displayed.
You can also search for the subreferences of
a COBOL generated file (.cbl file nested under
a Program, Screen, or Server) or of a map description file for a Screen
(.map, .bms or .mfs).
The instances involved in the file generation will be automatically
displayed in the References view.
- The Program, Screen, or Server instances that call a Macro. To
do so, right-click a Macro and select . . All the
instances that call the Macro in the local project are then displayed
in the Macro cross-references view, with the
list of the parameters and their values, in a read-only mode.
Possible generation types
You can generate
the following elements:
- The design of a selected Program, Screen, or Server by right-clicking
an instance and selecting . This generation produces a .cbl file,
nested under the instance in the Design Explorer view.
Right-click it and select to access the COBOL editor and views.
You can then work on the code and the design of the instance.
- The design of a selected Database Block. To do so, right-click
a Database Block and select . You
can then indicate where the generation result file (a .txt file)
is to be located.
- The error messages of your applications. You generate the:
- Batch error messages if you select from
a Data Structure (entity or instance level)
- Online error messages if you select from a selected Dialog or Screen
This generation produces a .txt file which
you must integrate into the error messages file used by the applications
- The COBOL descriptions of Data Structures in a file (Copybook)
if you select from a Data Structure (entity
or instance level).
This file is then available for a subsequent
insertion, through the use of the COPY statement.
A
single Data Structure can be used to generate several descriptions,
each one adapted to a particular need. (in the FILE SECTION or
the WORKING-STORAGE SECTION, taking the internal
and input formats into account). This generation produces a .cpy file.
To see its content, right-click this file and select .
- The files which are to contain the code lines of one or more Macros
if you select from a location, or on a Macro
(entity or instance level). You must select this choice if you want
to perform one of the following actions:
- Enter the code lines of a Macro and if they do not exist yet.
- Overwrite the existing code lines of a Macro. These code lines
were either entered in Pacbase and
imported with the dispatch function, or directly entered in Rational
Programming Patterns. If the code lines of the Macro exist, a message
warns you that the content of the .cblmsp file
is to be reinitialized.
This generation produces .cblmsp files.
To open one of these files, right-click it and select Open
with and the appropriate model. You access the .cblmsp editor
and the Macro tags tree view, in which you can
enter the Macro code lines.
Note: For the instances imported from Pacbase, the skeleton language
of the local generation is identical to the Pacbase skeleton language.
This piece of information is retrieved from the extraction of the Pacbase models and from
the import. It is stored on the Library and applies to all the generatable
entities of the Library (Program, Dialog, Screen, Server Dialog, Server,
Database Block, Data Structure).
Dispatching Macros
The dispatch
Macro choice is accessed by right-clicking anywhere in
a location.
You select it if Macros exist in Pacbase and if the file
produced by the Macro migration batch procedure contains the code
of more than one Macro.
When Macros are dispatched, one .cblmsp file
is automatically created for each Macro included in the Pacbase generated file.
You
can right-click one of these cblmsp files and
select . Then you access the Macro tags tree and
the Macro editor, in which you can view and modify
the Macro code.
If errors occurred during the dispatch, you
can consult the error file .pacdispatchmacro.log in
the .metadata folder of your workspace.
Using the migration help
The migration
help choice is available from the Program, Screen, or
Server instance level.
This function is useful when you migrate
the code generated in Pacbase to
Rational Programming Patterns. It sets warnings on the lines which
are generated from the design wherever it detects differences between
the code generated in Pacbase and
the locally generated code.
Locking an instance
The Lock choice
is accessed by right-clicking a generated COBOL instance (.cbl file),
and selecting . This choice is available only if the instance is on
the connected server.
The toolbar
The
Design Explorer view
has its own toolbar, from which you can perform the following actions:
- Collapse All (
icon). This command collapses all the tree nodes
in the Design Explorer view
- Refresh (
icon). This command
refreshes the workspace after updates.
- Link with Editor (
icon). This command links the active editor to
its corresponding design instance or COBOL file in the tree of the Design
Explorer view. If this option is selected, changing the
active editor updates the selection in the tree to the design instance
or to the COBOL file being edited. Changing the selection in the tree
also automatically selects the corresponding design or COBOL editor,
if it is active.
- Change the sort and display of instances in the Design
Explorer view. Click the white upside-down triangle icon
(View menu) and select:
- Top-level elements to indicate which element
type is to constitute the top of the hierarchy in each location tree:
folders (default value, represented by the entity types), projects,
or packages (irrelevant for the maintenance of a Pacbase application).
- Sort to specify a new sort criterion.
- Display to display additional information
for each instance line in the tree: To remove some of the selected
information from the line, select it again in the menu.
- Filters to reduce the amount of data displayed
in the view. If you select this choice, the Design Filters wizard opens up where you can specify
your parameters.
The active filter is displayed in the
menu, above the Filters choice, and it can
be disabled without changing its definition.
This new setting is then automatically saved and associated with
the Design Explorer view, until you change it
again.