Release notes for CICS Explorer version 1.1.1.1

Copyright statement

(C) Copyright IBM® Corporation 2008, 2012. All rights reserved. For legal information, see http://www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml

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What's new in this release?

Version 1.1.1 adds further enhancements to the CICS Explorer®:
  • A new infrastructure to manage system connections
  • Support for CICS® TS for VSE/ESA
  • Support of the z/OS® Management Facility (z/OSMF)
  • Ability to copy and paste resource data to a spreadsheet
  • Ability to export a file or folder to a z/OS Unix file system
  • Ability to create a z/OS Unix file
  • Ability to create a data set
  • Ability to create a resource from an existing definition
  • Ability to see the contents resource definition group
  • Support for multiple selection job submission from the z/OS Data Sets view
  • Support for deleting or purging multiple files in the z/OS Explorer
  • Ability to create a Job Submission project and JCL files, in the Project Explorer view in the resource perspective, while working offline
  • You can now use Installation Manager to install the CICS Explorer SDK. However if you do use this method to install CICS Explorer, you must install all future updates by using Installation Manager.

The What's New topics in the CICS Explorer help documentation describes the new and changed items in more detail. To display the topics, click Help > Help Contents on the CICS Explorer menu.

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System requirements and prerequisites

The CICS Explorer system requirements are listed on the CICS Explorer system requirements web page.

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Updating an existing version of CICS Explorer

If you already have the CICS Explorer installed on your workstation you can use the Software Updates function to update the code to the latest level, without having to reinstall the product. Instructions are in the task Checking for and installing software updates in the CICS Explorer help documentation. To access the task from the main CICS Explorer menu:

Help > Help Contents > CICS Explorer User Guide > Tasks > Updating and installing software > Checking for and installing software updates

Note: When the CICS Explorer update is complete you must follow the same procedure to update any CICS tools plug-ins that are installed in the CICS Explorer. If you do not, the tools might not work with the latest version of CICS Explorer.

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Downloading the CICS Explorer

Note: If you are developing a third-party application to run as a plug-in in CICS Explorer, you must download the CICS Explorer SDK and install it into an existing Eclipse environment. For more information, see Downloading the CICS Explorer SDK.
You must select the CICS Explorer files for your operating system.
For the Windows operating system
Download the .zip file.
For the Linux operating system
Download the .tar.gz file
To download the CICS Explorer compressed file for Windows or Linux:
  • Click the download link for the relevant operating system.
  • In the dialog box that opens, select "Save" and save it in a temporary directory.
  • When the download is complete, extract the contents of the compressed file to any writable directory of your choice, for example;
    • C:\Program Files\Explorer on Windows
    • ~/Explorer on Linux.
    Ensure that the directory you choose does not contain any other files.

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Downloading the CICS Explorer SDK

The CICS Explorer SDK must be installed into an existing Eclipse environment or an Eclipse-based product, such as Rational® Application Developer and the IMS™ Explorer. You can install CICS Explorer SDK by using the Eclipse Software Install wizard. Alternatively, if you installed the Eclipse product by using Installation manager, you might decide to install CICS Explorer by using the Installation Manager offering.
Note: If you choose to use the Installation Manager offering you must install all future CICS Explorer updates by using Installation manager from the CICS Explorer Installation Manager update site.
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Downloading and installing the CICS Explorer SDK compressed file by using the Eclipse Install wizard:
  • Click the CICS Explorer SDK download link.
  • Save the zip file in a temporary directory on your workspace. For example, c:\temp on Windows, or your home directory on Linux. Do NOT unpack the file.
  • Install the CICS Explorer SDK into your Eclipse environment by using the Eclipse Install wizard.
Note: If you get the message: Cannot complete the install because one or more required items could not be found, select the Contact all update sites during install to find required software check box in the Install new software > Install dialog and try the operation again.

If you want to use the Eclipse Software Updates function to receive future updates, you must first add the address of the update site in Eclipse. The address of the update site for the CICS Explorer SDK, is http://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/htp/cics/updates/explorer/1.1/1.1.1/. For more information, see Help > Help Contents > CICS Explorer user Guide > Tasks > Updating and installing software > Adding a new software update site in the CICS Explorer help.

Downloading and installing the CICS Explorer SDK by using the Installation Manager offering:
  • Click the CICS Explorer SDK Installation Manager offering download link.
  • Save the zip file in a temporary directory on your workspace. For example, c:\temp on Windows, or your home directory on Linux. Do NOT unpack the file.
  • Use Installation Manager to install the CICS Explorer SDK into your Eclipse environment.

If you choose to use the Installation Manager offering you must install all future CICS Explorer updates by using Installation Manager. The address of the Installation Manager repository for the CICS Explorer SDK is http://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/htp/cics/updates/im/explorer/1.1/1.1.1/.

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Starting the CICS Explorer

To start the CICS Explorer, double-click the file cicsexplorer.exe (cicsexplorer on Linux), in a subdirectory called CICS_Explorer. CICS Explorer uses a local workspace to save its data and configuration files. When CICS Explorer starts you can choose the location of the workspace in the Workspace Launcher dialog.

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Getting started

The CICS Explorer help documentation is integrated with the product and includes a basic tutorial and instructions on configuring a connection. To display the CICS Explorer basic tutorial perform one of the following actions:
  • From the welcome screen, click the Tutorials icon. The icon names are displayed when you hover over them.
  • From the main menu bar, click:Help > Help Contents > CICS Explorer User Guide > Getting Started > Basic tutorial

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Known issues and limitations

The following limitations exist in CICS Explorer version 1.1.1.1:
  • If you are running on a Linux platform and you have problems loading CICS Explorer, you must check that you have a compatible version of Mozilla, XULRunner and libgtk for Eclipse 3.6.2. Eclipse version 3.6.2, which is a component or dependency of CICS Explorer, requires a compatible browser to function correctly. Newer versions of Mozilla Firefox are not compatible with Eclipse version 3.6.2. To get round this problem you must install version 1.9.2 of the xulrunner library using your package manager, or by downloading from https://developer.mozilla.org/en/XULRunner. If you have not used your package manager to install xulrunner, you must append the following line to the end of your cicsexplorer.ini file, which is located in the CICS_Explorer directory: 
    -Dorg.eclipse.swt.browser.XULRunnerPath=<path_to_unzipped_xulrunner_install>/xulrunner
  • Important: It is a limitation of Eclipse that before you can revert to a previous version of CICS Explorer you must have access to an update site containing the source code for the previous level. You can download the update site source code from the IBM Fix central website at http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral.
  • The Eclipse software update function does not fully support Eclipse Update-Sites secured with HTTP Basic Authentication. If you are connecting to an Eclipse update site that prompts for a username and password, you must not select the option to save your password when prompted, because CICS Explorer does not provide a method for changing your password once set. If the password is not saved, then it must be entered each time the CICS Explorer connects to the update site. If a password is saved and later needs changing, manual editing of configuration files would be required.
  • If you installed the CICS Explorer SDK by using the Installation Manager offering, you must install future updates by using Installation manager. Future updates will be available on the CICS Explorer Installation Manager update site.

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