What's new in Version 5.4.0

The new and enhanced capabilities available in IBM® CICS Explorer® Version 5.4.0 are described.

Table 1. New function
New Function Description
The policy definition editor is available You can now use the policy definition editor to work with task rules and system rules in policies, instead of manually editing an XML file. With the new editor, you can perform the following actions:
  • Define one or more rules in a policy
  • Edit the attributes of a policy
  • Duplicate a rule in a policy
  • Delete a rule from a policy

For more information, see The policy definition editor.

PERFORM SHUTDOWN Keywords Explorer is enhanced to support PERFORM SHUTDOWN keywords. For more information, see System Commands.
The transaction tracking search feature is enhanced When you use the transaction tracking search facility, a useful hierarchy of tasks is presented.
Support for users who want to connect to a remote system with a smart card Smart cards can now be used to authenticate connections. You can import certificates and use the Credentials dialog to store your user IDs with passwords.
A new filter is provided when you are installing a CICS® resource When you are installing a CICS resource, you can use a text box to filter the list of install targets (groups or systems) in the Perform Operation dialog.
A new enhancement supports the option to "multi-select" in the Perform Operation dialog When you are installing a CICS resource, you can select and add multiple targets (groups or systems) in the Perform Operation dialog.
Overriding a record count warning If a request for CICS resources or definitions reaches the CMCI record count warning, you can now use the Override button in the content description area to override the record count warning and issue the request regardless. The WUI server must be configured to allow record count warnings to be overridden. For more information, see Record count warnings in CMCI.
Loading all resource records The CICS resources and definitions views in CICS Explorer use lazy loading, so many available records are only loaded as you scroll down through the view. If you select data that is not already loaded (for instance by using CTRL+A to select all), a Load All button is added to the content description area, which loads all records available for that view. This facilitates performing bulk operations, for example, copying data externally or discarding many resources.
Version 5.4 is brought up to the level of function that is released in CICS Explorer 5.3.0.9 and 5.3.0.11 For new and changed functions in CICS Explorer 5.3.0.9, see Table 3 and 5.3.0.11, see Table 2.
Support for the WebSphere® MQ monitor You can now define and install WebSphere MQ monitors to manage WebSphere MQ trigger and bridge monitors. The MQMONITOR resource is the suggested method of managing the MQ trigger and bridge transactions with their associated initiation or input queues. The benefits of using this method are described here:
  • MQMONITOR provides the ability to automatically start monitors when the CICS-MQ connection is started and to automatically stop monitors when the CICS-MQ connection is stopped. This function removes the need to use the CKQC transaction to start and stop MQ monitors manually.
  • Any number of MQMONITOR resources can be defined and installed in the CICS region, and it means that you can set up multiple instances of CKTI to monitor an MQ initiation queue.
  • MQMONITOR provides better security controls. You can specify a transaction ID to be used by the monitor, the user ID under which a monitor task runs, and the user ID to be used by the monitor to start the application tasks if an alternative user ID is not provided by the application.

In addition, you can also use WebSphere MQ monitors to manage user-written transactions that use messages that arrive on an input queue that is not an initiation queue or a bridge queue.

A new MQ Monitors (MQMON) view is provided in SM Operations views, where you can view status information and statistics for MQ monitors defined in the CICS region and perform administration tasks such as starting or stopping MQ monitors, and enabling, disabling, or discarding installed MQMONITOR resources. A new MQ Monitors view icon MQ Monitors view icon is also provided to represent this view.

A new MQ Monitor Definitions (MQMONDEF) view is provided in SM Definition views, where you can view attributes of MQMONITOR resource definitions that are installed in the CICS region. A new MQ Monitor Definitions view icon MQ Monitor Definitions view icon is also provided to represent this view.

Support for the Transient data queue (TDQ) EP adapter When you create or configure an event processing (EP) adapter, you can now choose a TD Queue EP adapter to emit events to any consumer that can read events from a TD queue. The TD Queue EP adapter can be used for testing and debugging, and production.

For more information, see Specifying EP adapter and dispatcher information.

Enhancement to message capture in CICS event binding You can now specify the whole text of a message as an output field in a CICS event, instead of writing a custom EP adapter to capture and concatenate message inserts. The maximum number of inserts in a message is also increased from 22 to 30. For more information, see Information Sources tab.
Java™ Developer Guide The information that was in the Java Developer Guide is now included in CICS TS for z/OS® 5.4.0, see Developing Java applications for CICS.