Main application window

The Data Interchange Services client main application window is used to manage all functions that can be performed in Data Interchange Services client. It contains a navigation bar and a menu.

The navigator bar consists of a series of buttons that each open a functional area. A button is provided to open the help for Data Interchange Services client. A database selector is also provided. You select the database you want to work with before opening any functional area. The functional areas include:

Functional area icon Functional area name
Mapping
XML
EDI
Record Oriented Data

Use the menus to access all functions with Data Interchange Services client. The menus that appear, and the contents of each menu, vary depending on whether a list window or editor is active. The following table describes the menu options.

Menu options

Menu option Description
File Used to open editors and functional areas, work with queries, import, close windows, and close the application
Actions Used to perform actions on an object, such as export, copy and delete
Edit Used only in editors to perform the common cut, copy, and paste functions
Navigate Used only in editors when an editor is opened with more than a single item
View Used to indicate whether toolbars and other elements of a window should be displayed, refresh list windows, or access other functions such as database definitions, preferences, or the message log
Window Used to navigate or arrange the open windows
Help Used to access help and obtain information about the application

Most work done within the application is done in list windows and editors. A list window displays members of a single component. List windows can be displayed by themselves or in a functional area window. A functional area window contains several list windows, each listing members from related components. The members selected for display in a list window are governed by the current query for that component. Most components in a functional area use a default query that results in all members of the component being selected and displayed in the list window. The default query displays only the most commonly referenced columns in the list window to improve performance.

List windows can also be opened individually without the involvement of a functional area. This occurs by selecting the Open Query List function on the File menu or by pressing buttons within various dialog or editors within the application. The Open Query List function displays the Query list window. Within this list window, you can select the component you want to work with along with the query to use to select members of the component to be displayed.

You may select alternate queries once the list window is displayed. One or two other queries are provided for each component type by default. One of these allows you to specify selection criteria while the other, if provided, lists most columns for each item within a component. You may create and use your own queries. Use of selection criteria is a useful way to create queries that will list only a subset of the members of a component. It is recommended that you include only the columns that are really needed in a query. This will improve performance, especially when listing a large number of members, or the database is not local, or if network performance is not optimal when accessing the database.

Use list windows by themselves or within a functional area to maintain the individual items of an object type. Items can be added, edited, renamed, deleted, and so on, using the list window.

You can have several functional area windows opened simultaneously. Also, the same functional area list window can be opened more than one time. This allows you to open several list windows on the same component.

Data Interchange Services client can view multiple databases at the same time. This allows you to work with development, test, and production database simultaneously. When opening a functional area, it will open using the database selected on the navigator bar.

Editors are used to view and update items in components. In most cases, they are also used to create the items in a component. Another way of creating items in a component is to import them into a database. There are a few item types that use a wizard dialog to collect the needed information and then create the item.

Copyright IBM Corp. 2003, 2005