Adding capabilities to the workbench

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IBM® Developer for z/OS® is configured to enable a set of capabilities that support traditional mainframe development in Assembler, COBOL, and PL/I languages. The Eclipse workbench includes additional capabilities that support development in other languages such as C/C++ and Java™. Use the General > Capabilities preference page to enable other capabilities that are not exposed in the default Developer for z/OS client configuration.

Before you begin

The default Developer for z/OS capabilities are an enhancement added in Developer for z/OS version 15.0 to filter out preferences, perspectives, views, or wizards that are not relevant to traditional mainframe development in Assembler, COBOL, and PL/I languages. If you open Developer for z/OS version 15.0 on a workspace that was created in an earlier version, and you notice the absence of preferences, perspectives, views, or wizards that you are accustomed to seeing, follow the instructions to enable the default Eclipse capabilities.

About this task

When you start Developer for z/OS the first time using a new workspace, the following Capabilities are enabled in Preferences > General > Capabilities:
  • CICS Application Development > CICS Application Development
  • Db2 for z/OS Development
  • Development > Debug Support
  • IBM Debug Tool Plugins
  • Team > Core Team Support
Note:
  • To create plug-ins or work with Java source, XML files, or JSON files, enable the appropriate capabilities.
  • To list all perspectives and wizards, including those from disabled capabilities, select the Show All option on the Window > Open Perspective > Other Open Perspective window or the Show All Wizards option on the File > New > Other Select a wizard window.
Limitations:

When the Java Development capability is disabled, the following limitations apply:

  • In the Resource perspective double-clicking on a file or selecting a file and pressing F3 does not open the file in an editor. In addition, there is no Open or Open With menu action. To enable these functions, enable the Java Development capability.
  • Some Java wizards such as those for creating a new Java Class or Java Interface continue to show in the File > New > Other Select a wizard window.

Procedure

  • To add capabilities to the workbench:
    1. Open the Capabilities preference page.
    2. Select the capabilities you want to add.
    3. Click Apply and Close.
  • To enable the default Eclipse capabilities, rather than the default Developer for z/OS capabilities, click Restore Defaults and then click Apply and Close.
    The following capabilities are the Eclipse defaults:
    • Development > Debug Support
      • Ant Development
      • Debug Support
      • Java Development
      • Plug-in Development
    • Team
      • Core Team Support
      • CVS Support