Customizing and sharing resource views with the CICS View Configuration page

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With the View Configurations page, you can create, duplicate, delete, and customize a resource view, and then export it to be shared or as a backup. To customize a view quickly, for example, for troubleshooting purposes, it is recommended that you do it directly in the workbench. Use the page when you need to make permanent changes to views for reuse.

When you create, duplicate, or rename a CICS® resource table view, an option for the new view is available on the Operations or Definitions menu, as appropriate.

When you delete a CICS resource table view, the view is deleted from the workbench and the corresponding option is removed from the Operations or Definitions menu, as appropriate.

Table of contents
Opening the CICS View Configurations page Creating a view Customizing a view Renaming a view Exporting views to share with others Importing views shared by others Duplicating a view Deleting a view

Opening the CICS View Configurations page

You can open the CICS View Configurations page in two ways:

From the open view that you want to customize, click the View Menu arrow button, and select Open View Configurations.
Open the Preferences window from the workbench menu bar. Then select Explorer > CICS View Configurations from the pane:
- Windows or Linux® users: Click Window > Preferences to open the Preferences window.
- For macOS users: Click IBM Explorer for z/OS > Preferences to open the Preferences window.

The CICS View Configurations page looks like this:

Creating a view

To create a view, in the CICS View Configurations page, click New.
In the Create a new table view window, choose a resource table type based on which you want to create a view, and give it a unique view name. Then click Finish. This example uses the Local Transactions resource table as a base for the new view.
Click Apply and Close in the CICS View Configurations page.

An option for the new view is automatically added to the Operations or Definitions menu, as appropriate. In this case, you can find the new view from the menu by selecting Operations > Transactions. You can then customize the view at any time.

Customizing a view

You can customize how resource views present data by using the CICS View Configurations page. For example, you can control which resource attributes to show as columns, resize or reorder the columns, and filter, sort, or aggregate data in the view by one or more resource attributes. These changes are saved to the view configuration so that you can reuse a customized view at another time.

If you make customization directly in a view, the changes are retained when you reopen or refresh the view, but you cannot revert to a previously customized view if you have changed the view in between. For more information about customizing views, see Viewing CICS resources.

To customize a view, in the CICS View Configurations page, ensure that the view you want to customize is selected, in this case, Local Transactions - new. Click Edit. The Edit View Configuration window opens.

You can customize the views in the following aspects:

Columns: The Columns pane lists the resource attributes that are currently displayed in the view, in the same order.; You can hide, show, and reorder the attribute columns by clicking Add, Remove, and Up or Down. Press Shift or Ctrl keys (Shift or cmd keys on macOS) to select multiple attributes.; You can also change the aggregate function by which the resource data is aggregated for each attribute. For more information, see Aggregating data in a resource view
Filters: The Filters pane lists any attributes, together with the operator and value for each one, that are currently used to filter the resources in the view. This example uses several filters to show only local DFH transactions that are enabled and used:
Note: Some CICS system connections support only the Equal to (=) filter operator and do not support sorting by columns.; You can add or remove any filter that applies to the view. For more information about specifying filters, see Filtering data in a resource view.
Sorting: The Sorting pane lists the attributes that are currently used to sort the resources in the view, in the same order. You can add, remove, and reorder sorting attributes for the resources.; The arrow beside the sorting attribute indicates whether resources are sorted in ascending () or descending () order by that attribute. You can double-click the arrow to switch the order.
Aggregation: The Aggregation pane lists all the grouping attributes that are currently used to aggregate the resources in the view. You can add, remove, and reorder the grouping attributes. For more information, see Aggregating data in a resource view.

After you finish the customization, click OK in the Edit View Configuration window and then Apply and Close in the CICS View Configurations page.

Renaming a view

To rename a view, select the view in the CICS View Configurations page, in this case, Local Transactions - new, and click Rename.
In the Rename View dialog, type a new name and click OK. You can give a more descriptive name to the previously created view, for example, Local used DFH transactions.
Click OK. Then click Apply and Close in the CICS View Configurations page.

Exporting views to share with others

After customizing a view, you can export it into a file that you can share or import later. If you customize a lot of views, you can export all the views as a backup file in case you lose your Eclipse workspace.

Note: Quick filters are not included in the configuration so they don’t get exported.

To export views, in the CICS View Configurations page, click Export. This opens the Export Views window.
Tip: As a shortcut, you can also access the Export Views window from the menu by clicking File > Export and then selecting CICS Views > Export Views.
In the Export Views window, ensure that you select all the views you want to export. In this case, it's only the Local used DFH transactions view that was created. You can change the file location to save the exported file or rename it in the File Location field.
Click Finish. This exports your views as an xml file to the specified location.

Importing views shared by others

You can import views that are previously exported or shared with you through an xml file.

To import views from an xml file, click Import in the CICS View Configurations page. This opens the Import Views window.
Tip: As a shortcut, you can also access the Import Views dialog from the menu by clicking File > Import and then selecting CICS Views > Import Views. However, if you import views in this way, the views are imported immediately when you press Finish in the Import Views dialog in Step 3. You don’t get another chance to review and back out changes as you do in the CICS View Configurations page.
In the Import Views window, specify the xml file from which you want to import views and select views that you want to import from the view list.
Note: If an imported view has the same name as an existing view, it will be highlighted in the view list. Keep importing it will override your existing view with the same name. To avoid that, add a suffix to the name of the imported views in the Rename imported views by adding a suffix field.
Click Finish to close the Import Views window.
Review the imported views and click Apply and Close in the CICS View Configurations page. You can always back out of any changes by pressing Cancel before pressing Apply and Close.

Result: The views are imported into your CICS Explorer. You can open them from the Definition or Operation menu depending on the view type, or search for them in the Quick Access box.

Duplicating a view

If you want to make changes to a customized view while keeping both versions, you can duplicate the view and customize the duplicate one.

To duplicate a view, select the view in the CICS View Configurations page and click Copy.
In the Save as dialog, type a new view name and click OK.
In the CICS View Configurations page, click Apply and Close.

Deleting a view

If you don't need a view any more, you can delete it using the CICS View Configurations page.

To delete a view, select the view in the CICS View Configurations page and click Delete.
Click OK in the confirmation window and Apply and Close in the CICS View Configurations page.

The view is deleted from the perspective and its corresponding option is removed from the Operations or Definitions menu, as appropriate.