Using the QMF interface
Use Perspectives, Views and Editors to set up and work in the user and administrator environments.
Perspectives
QMF uses and employs the Eclipse-based concept of Perspectives, Views , and Editors.
The sections that follow explain Perspectives, Views , and Editors as used by QMF. For information about the Eclipse concept of Perspectives, Views and Editors consult the Eclipse documentation.
A Perspective is a way to organize and view the files and artifacts used with QMF.
The Perspectives that come with QMF are configured with set of default views, that are docked to specific areas in the application interface.
Administrators and users can select the Perspectives, Views, and Editors that suit their roles. For example, if your primary role is to design and develop visual dashboards, you will likely perform much of your work in the Visual Designer perspective.
Additionally, administrators and users can customize the interface so that whenever they launch QMF, it opens to a specific perspective and set of views.
To see the Perspectives available for use with QMF, perform from the menu bar.
QMF for Workstation and QMF for WebSphere® provide the following perspectives:
- Administrator which provides the views, menus, and wizards that enable a user with administrative privileges to create and maintain repositories. Not all instances of QMF are installed with the Administrator perspective as a selected feature.
- QMF Classic which provides QMF TSO users with the capability to switch to QMF for Workstation without any difficulties as its interface is similar to QMF TSO.
- QMF which provides the views, menus, and wizards that are most appropriate for working with QMF catalogs.
- Scene Script which provides the interface from which you can create and work with visual dashboards by using JavaScript dynamically.
- User which provides the views, menus, and wizards that you will use to query data sources and work with query results.
- Visual Designer which provides the views, menus, and wizards that you will use to create visual reports and dashboards.
Views
A View is typically used to navigate a hierarchy of information, open an editor, or display properties for the active editor.
QMF views support editors and provide alternative presentations as well as ways to navigate the information in your window. In Eclipse, the layout of views within a page is controlled by the active perspective. This means that each of the perspectives (User, Visual Designer, QMF,QMF (default), QMF Classic, and Administrator) have a designated or predetermined set of Views. Each view displays as a pane in the main workstation window. Each perspective of QMF initially displays the views that are most commonly used to perform specific functions.
| View Name | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Analyzer | The Analyzer view displays the weight count of each object lying on a scene. |
| Bookmarks | The Bookmarks view manages bookmarks for drill-down paths. |
| Cheat Sheets | The Cheat Sheets view displays a series of tutorials that outline the steps required to implement several basic user and administrator functions. |
| Data Source Connections | The Data Source Connections view displays a list of all connections that are currently active or were created to a data source. |
| Help | The Help view launches the Help for the application. |
| Outline | The Outline view displays the structural elements of the object that is currently open in the editor area. |
| Output | The Output view displays informational and error messages generated while running the application interface. |
| Personal | The Personal view maintains and displays objects in the Recently Used, Favorites, and Startup folders. |
| Profiler | The Profiler view displays the data on query running, the amount of created objects, and the time spent on creating them and calculating expressions on the visual project. |
| Progress | The Progress view displays all progress, percentage of work completed, and cancellation messages. |
| Properties | The Properties view displays the properties of the object that is selected or active in the editor area or another view. |
| Query Profiler | The Query Profiler view displays the time spent on running a query and fetching its results. |
| Repository Connections | The Repository Connections view displays the list of repository connections that you have available. |
| Repository Explorer | The Repository Explorer view displays the contents of the repositories to which you have connected. It also displays information about the references one object has on other objects. |
| Results Navigator | The Results Navigator view allows switching between results of a query or drill-down path. |
| REXX console | The REXX console view supports
work with REXX procedures. Restriction: This feature is not available in the 64-bit application.
|
| Search | The Search view displays the results of a search. |
| Workspaces | The Workspaces view lists the workspaces that are available to your user ID. All of the data sources that you can access are contained in the workspaces that are presented. From the Workspaces view you can perform the majority of query and reporting functions. |
| View | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Repositories | The Repositories view displays the repositories that you created. This view is only available if you have the Administrator component. |
| Users and Groups | The Users and Groups view displays the users and groups created for your internal security provider. |
| View | Purpose |
|---|---|
| QMF Commands | The QMF Commands view displays a list
of function keys for a variety of supported command operations. The following function keys are listed:
|
| View | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Events | The Events view displays navigation elements that you can apply to layout objects within a visual project. |
| Expressions | The Expressions view is used for debugging visual dashboards. |
| Layers | The Layers view displays the groups of layers. |
| Palette | The Palette view displays the objects that you can insert in a visual project. |
| Project Explorer | The Project Explorer view displays each element in a visual report and dashboard. |
| Properties | The Properties view displays the properties of the object that is selected or active in the editor or another view. |
| QMF Calculator | The QMF Calculator is used for calculating expressions in visual projects. |
| View Name | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Entities Explorer | The Entities Explorer view displays the tree structure of the entities which are specified in the knowledge base. |
| Source Explorer | The Source Explorer view displays the tree structure of the files, belonging to the projects. |
| Text Analytics Explorer | The Text Analytics Explorer view displays the list of projects that can be analyzed. |
| Word Map | The Word Map view displays the text analysis results in the form of a word cloud. |
Editors
Depending on the type of file that is being edited, the appropriate editor is displayed in the editor area.
- There is generally only one instance of a given view per workbench page, but there can be several instances of the same type of editor.
- Editors can appear in only one region of the page, whereas views can be moved to any part of the page and minimized as fast views.
- Editors can be in a dirty state, meaning that their contents are unsaved and will be lost if the editor is closed without saving.
- Views have a local toolbar, whereas editors contribute buttons to the global toolbar.
- Editors can be associated with a file name or an extension, and this association can be changed by users.
Each of the QMF perspectives includes a single editor area. By default, the editor area opens in the center of the workstation window.
There are many editors in QMF that will open in the editor area based on what type of object you open or what type of function you perform. You will use many of these editors when you are writing queries, formatting query results, creating reports or creating visual dashboards.