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RFE45970 - IFS project support using RDi 9.5.1

Technical Blog Post


Abstract

RFE45970 - IFS project support using RDi 9.5.1

Body

In Rational Developer for i 9.5.1, IFS project support was added for RFE45970 (https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=viewRfe&CR_ID=45970).  The RFE was requested by users who worked with HTML/C/Java/etc. files on the IFS.  In Remote System Explorer, you can work directly with those files but RDi has richer support for them when organized in Eclipse projects (Web project, Java project, etc.).  With 9.5.1, now you can associate a IFS folder with all project types (except for IBM i Projects which are still strictly for QSYS).  When associated, you can push changes to the IFS from a project and also pull remote changes into your project.  These actions are done in the Remote Reconciler view.

As an example, I created a Java project ('myifsjavaproject') which has one Java class.

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In order to associate the project with an IFS folder, you have to open the Project Explorer view using Window->Show View->Other and then selecting Remote Reconciler->Enable Remote Support from the project's popup menu.

 

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For remote support, you have to specify a 'common remote root'.  This is the IFS folder where your project will get pushed to (this will also be referred to as the remote context).  Select Browse and in the dialog select the connection and folder under which the project will be placed on the IFS.

 

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After you click Finish, the project will be pushed to the IFS folder you specified.  In the Remote Reconciler view, you will see the project listed and the associated IFS folder.

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I made a change in my local Java source file and clicked Save.

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The Remote Reconciler view will briefly show a 'In Transit' message in the Status column.  This is because the Remote Reconciler will automatically push that change to the IFS since the Push on Save setting is selected by default.  You can change that if you want in the project properties.

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Going to the Remote Systems view, you can check what was put on the IFS.  I have enabled the Show hidden files preference on the Remote Systems > Files preference page to also see all the files that start with '.'.  Often, there will hidden files in a project than you normally do not see in RDi.

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I opened the IFS source file from the Remote Systems view and made a change.

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If you edit the source file on the IFS and save it, a refresh in the Remote Reconciler view will show 'Remote Change' in the Status column.

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You can bring remote changes into your project by selecting the Pull action on the popup menu.  From the popup menu, you can explicitly initiate Push actions and also configure automatic remote refresh.

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Since this is a Java project, the project already has been built by RDi and the built class files were also pushed to the IFS along with the source.  I can run the Java class from the Remote Shell view by going to the correct folder and running Java on the class.

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This was a quick example of using the new IFS project support in RDi 9.5.1.  It applies also to Web and other project types to enable you to work easily with the IFS. 

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UID

ibm11143742