The tutorial introduces the CICS Explorer® and
outlines the basic functions to help you start using it. You can find
additional information in the Tasks section in this help.
Starting CICS Explorer for the first time
CICS Explorer uses a local workspace to save its data and
configuration files. When you start the CICS Explorer you must first
confirm the location for the CICS Explorer workspace. CICS Explorer
then starts, and the workbench opens and displays the Welcome view.
The workbench
The workbench is a single window that consists of views and perspectives.
Configuring a CICS system connection
Before you can view any information, you must establish
a connection between CICS Explorer and
your CICS® systems by providing
details about the system connection, its location, and its authentication
requirements. By default, CICS Explorer attempts to connect
using the SSL protocol. If the SSL connection is not successful, the
connection is reattempted without SSL.
Perspectives
A perspective is a layout of one or more views in the workbench.
You can decide how you want to lay out the views in the CICS Explorer and save the layout as
a new perspective. CICS
Explorer provides four default perspectives: CICS SM, Resource, SM Administration, and z/OS®. These tasks describe the
perspectives and explain how to work with perspectives to meet your
operational requirements.
Views
A view is a visual component in the workbench. The CICS Explorer displays
resource information in views. You can decide on the size and position
of the views, and what information to show in them. These tasks explain
how to work with the views to meet your operational requirements.
Editors
An editor is a visual component in the Workbench that is
used to edit or browse CICSPlex® SM
or CICS resources or resource
definitions. The editor shares many functions with the other views
but also has some limitations that are identified in the following
topics.
Getting help
Use the online help system to browse, search, and print
system documentation. The help system also provides a context-sensitive
help that gives an overview of the resource with which you are working,
and a text search capability for finding the information you need
by keyword. You can also broaden the search scope to include external
sources of information. The help is displayed either in a Help
view in the workbench, in a separate Help Contents window, or in an
external browser window.