The IBM® CICS Explorer

CICS Explorer® is a system management tool that provides a simple, easy to use way to manage one or more CICS® systems. It is based on an Eclipse platform and provides functions to view and manage CICS Transaction Server regions, and a platform for the integration of CICS Tools. CICS Explorer also provides an intuitive and secure way to view and edit z/OS® data sets and zFS files, submit JCL, and view output and job logs.

Eclipse is a platform for building and deploying client applications in which most data manipulation is done by the client application rather than the server. This platform is known as a Rich Client Platform (RCP). The platform provides the ability to deploy native graphical user interface (GUI) applications to various desktop operating systems. CICS Explorer is an Eclipse RCP-based GUI application that runs on the Windows, Linux® and OS X operating systems.

Without CICS Explorer, you must manage CICS regions with various graphical and non-graphical user interfaces, and with no common way to complete tasks. CICS Explorer provides a base set of CICSPlex® SM functions to manage CICS regions. It also provides a Event binding editor to define business events. In addition, CICS Explorer provides a platform on which CICS Tools that are integrated in the Eclipse RCP can perform tasks, and present the information in a common way.

Operation views

CICS Explorer connects to either a CICSPlex SM WUI server or a single CICS region. When connected to a CICSPlex SM WUI server, CICS Explorer operation views provide a single-system image of all the CICS resources in a CICSplex. When CICS Explorer is connected to a CICS TS for z/OS Version 4 or later CICS system, you can use the operations views for the following actions:
  • Enabling and disabling resources
  • Opening and closing resources
  • Acquiring and releasing resources
  • Placing resources in and out of service
  • Purging tasks associated with a resource
  • Discarding resource definitions from a CICS system where they are installed

When CICS Explorer is connected to a CICS TS for z/OS Version 3 system, you can only browse the resources.

Definition views

The CICS Explorer definition views display details of the CICS and CICSPlex SM resource definitions. When CICS Explorer is connected to a CICS TS for z/OS Version 4 or later CICS system, you can use the definition views and the resource editor for the following actions:
  • Displaying resource definitions
  • Creating and updating resource definitions
  • Installing or removing resource definitions

The CICS Explorer resource editor displays the resource definition attributes in two or more pages in the editor. The Attributes page displays the attributes in tabular form, grouped together in the same way as they appear in CEDA or the CPSM WUI, so that they are familiar to CICS users with experience of these systems. Other pages display the attributes logically grouped together, with additional detail provided for each attribute to simplify the update process for less-experienced CICS users. Every attribute benefits from field-level verification, where the entry is validated in real time. Errors are identified by the Error icon, which identifies the field in error and the page on which the field appears.

z/OS perspective

The CICS Explorer z/OS perspective provides an intuitive and secure way to view and edit z/OS data sets and zFS files, submit JCL, and view output and job logs. The default perspective contains three views that provide z/OS information:

  • The Data Sets view
  • The Jobs view
  • The z/OS UNIX Files view

You can use these views to view, edit, and submit JCL data sets and other text files. The Console view provides a history of the actions you have performed, such as submitting a job, or changing and saving a file.

CICS Cloud perspective

The CICS Explorer CICS Cloud perspective provides a way to work with platforms, applications, and policies in CICS. You can create, deploy, and administer platforms, applications, and policies in bundles.

Workload management views

The CICS Explorer workload management (WLM) views provide a simplified and consolidated view of the CICSPlex SM elements that control where, and how, the work is distributed in a workload. provide You can use the WLM operation views and editors to show details of active workloads, including target regions, transaction groups, and affinities. You can use the WLM specification view and editor to create and manage WLM specifications.

More information

For summary information about getting started in CICS Explorer, see The CICS Explorer.

For detailed help about using the CICS Explorer, the resource views, and help and the basic Eclipse functions, see CICS Explorer User Guide or the help that is included with the CICS Explorer product.

The user guides for CICS Explorer and the CICS Tools plug-ins are now included in the IBM Knowledge Center. However, some information in the user guides is generated only at run time in the CICS Explorer product, and therefore such content is not available in the IBM Knowledge Center. To see the complete content, refer to the relevant user guide in the help that is included with the CICS Explorer product.

For detailed help for CICS and CICSPlex SM, see this CICS Transaction Server for z/OS product documentation.

For detailed help for Eclipse, see the Eclipse website.