Using the editor

The editor displays all the attributes and their values for a selected resource. To help simplify the update process, the attributes are displayed in pages in the editor, identified by tabs at the bottom of the editor view.

To open an editor from a resource definition view, either right-click a resource and then click Open, or double-click a resource.

When the editor opens, the editor name tab displays the resource type and resource name. In the example below, the resource type being edited is a Pipeline Definition with a name PIPELIN1.

The Pipeline Definition editor has two pages, Overview and Attributes. A resource editor can have one or more pages depending on the resource being edited. The editor for a resource with many fields that can be updated has more pages than the editor for a resource with only a few fields that can be updated. To simplify the updating process, each page contains a collection of similar or related attributes.

The breadcrumb trail

When you open an editor a breadcrumb trail is shown at the top of the editor. In the example Pipeline editor, the breadcrumb trail The breadcrumb trail for the example shows that the resource (PIPELIN1) is located in the CICSplex CICSEXP2.

You can perform an action against the resource without closing the editor. Right-click on the resource name in the breadcrumb trail and selecting the action from the menu.

The Attributes page

When you select the Attributes tab, a list of all the attributes (Properties) for the resource, and the attribute values, is displayed. The attributes are grouped together in a similar way as they appear in CEDA or the CICSPlex® SM WUI.

Attributes you can edit are shown in normal text, while attributes that you can not edit are grayed out. You can hide the non-editable attributes by clicking the Show/hide non-editable attributes icon The Show/hide non-editable attributes icon. The hidden icons can be re-displayed by clicking the icon again.

When you click a value field, a number of things happen:
  • A short description of the attribute, and the attribute name, is displayed in the status field at the bottom left of the workbench.
  • If the attribute cannot be updated, the entire line is highlighted.
  • If the attribute can be updated, the Value field is highlighted and you can perform one of the following actions:
    • If the attribute value must be one from a predetermined list, a drop-down button is displayed at the right side of the Value field. Clicking the button displays a list of all the possible values. When you click a value, it is entered in the Value field.
    • If the attribute value is free-form text, you can type the new value in the field.
An image of the editor for a Pipeline resource definition with the Attributes tab selected. The attribute (property) names are in the left column and the values alongside them in the right column.

When you change an attribute in an editor, a right arrow (>) next to the attribute name indicates the attribute value has changed. The resource is not changed until you save your changes as described below.

Other pages

When you select a tab other than Attributes, the pages displayed contain the basic resource definition details such as Name, created and changed times and so on. In addition, the attributes that you can update are displayed, with more detail to assist you when updating the values. The following example shows the Overview page for the Pipeline editor.

An image of the editor for a Pipeline resource definition with the Details tab selected.

In the example, the page is divided into logical sections containing one or more attributes:
  • The Basic section includes the Name, Description, Created, Changed, Version, and Status attributes.
  • The Response Wait section includes only the Respwait attribute.
  • The HFS Details section includes the Configuration File, Shelf, and WSDBind attributes
Additional text has been included for the attributes to help simplify the update process. When you click an edit field, the name of the CICS® attribute that is edited is displayed in the status field at the bottom left of the workbench.

The content of the pages varies depending on the resource being edited. Descriptions of each page are provided in the help for the individual editor.

Field validation

When you update a value, your entry is validated against the criteria for the attribute. At the same time, other attributes that have an interdependency on the changed attribute are also checked. If the input is not valid, or the change has caused an interdependent attribute to become not valid, one of the following occurs:
  • The Error icon The error icon is displayed alongside the attribute that is not valid.
  • The Error icon is displayed alongside the tab name to identify the page that contains the error.
  • An error message is displayed in the status field at the bottom left of the workbench, providing further details about the error.
You cannot save the update until the error is corrected.

Undoing your changes

If you have made changes to one or more attributes in the editor, and want to reverse one or more of the changes before you save them, you can use the Undo function.

On the Workbench menu, click Edit -> Undo, or use the hotkey combination Ctrl+Z. Each undo reverses the previous edit change until you reach the point where there are no more changes to undo.

Saving your changes

When you make a change in the editor, an asterisk (*) is displayed in front of the resource name in the editor name tab A screen shot of the resource name in the editor name tab, showing an * in front of the name. At the same time, the Save icon The save icon is enabled, so that you can save the changes.

If you have unsaved changes and you attempt to close the editor or you try to change connections, a dialog is displayed asking you how to proceed. You can either save the changes, discard the changes, or cancel the close, or connection change request.

When your updates are complete, click Save ,or press Ctrl-S, to apply the changes to the definition. You can then close the editor. If you do not save the changes, when you attempt to close the editor a dialog is displayed asking if you want to save your changes or close without saving.