Command Flow view

You can find out if command flow information is collected about a transaction from any view where a Transaction resource is displayed in the CICS® IA plug-in.

What to do next

To view the Command Flow of a transaction, right-click the chosen transaction and select Show Command Flow runs from the menu.

Screen capture of the menu displayed when you right-click a transaction. The options are Show Command Flow runs, Show Tasks, Used By Programs, Used By Transactions, Uses Resources, Show View, Asset details

The results are displayed in the Resources view. The Command Flow ID is shown with the region, the time of the first command issued for a each particular run for each Task ID, and the Task ID.

Screen Capture of the results of the Command Flow runs options that shows the Command Flow ID, Region, date and time of the first command issued and the Task ID for a transaction.

To analyze the Task ID information further, right-click a Task ID and click the Show Execution option from the menu.

Screen shot of the menu displayed when you right-click a Task ID. Options in the menu are Show View, Show Execution, Used By Programs and Used By Transactions.

The results, that show the execution of that task, are displayed in the Command Flow view.

Screen Capture of the Command Flow View showing all three sections, TCB Modes Used, TCB Mode Switches and the Command Flow information.

The information in the Command Flow view is broken down into three sections, TCB Modes Used and TCB Mode Switches in the upper section of the view, and the lower section of the view that displays the Command Flow information.

The Command Flows are ordered by time under the Program that ran the command. TCB Mode and Previous TCB Mode are shown for each command.

Screen capture of the results displayed in the Command Flow view.

If a command caused a TCB Mode switch to occur the icon for the command has a TCB mode switch icon attached to it. If the command has a non zero RESP or RESP2 code the icon for the command has a warning icon attached to it. If you click a command with the warning icon the RESP codes are displayed in the lower bar of the Command Flow view.

Screen capture showing RESP=00000024 RESP1=00000000 in the lower bar of the Command Flow view

Column customizing

You can use the Column Menu to customize the columns and the Command Flow information displayed in the lower section of the Command Flow view. The default is four columns, an expanding tree under the Transaction name, Task Control Block (TCB), Previous Task Control Block (TCB), and Command Time Local. Click the Column Menu icon downward arrow to display the options.
Screen capture of the Column menu with the options Reset Columns, Equalize Column Widths, and Customize Columns.
  • Click Reset Columns to reset the view to the four default columns.
  • Click Equalize Column Widths to set the column widths to the same size as each other.
  • Click Customize Columns to display the Customize Columns window, you can add or remove other columns and information to the Command Flow information.
    Screen Capture of the Customize Columns window showing available columns on the left that you can add to the view and current columns in the view on the right.

TCB Modes Used

You can maximize and minimize the command flow tree using the plus and minus icons. The total commands issued is displayed in the top right of the view.

The TCB Modes Used view displays a summary of the TCB modes that were used during the execution of the task.

Commands and Resources are grouped and displayed by the mode that they operated under. If you select a command the command flow tree highlights the command in the lower section of the Command Flow view.

Screen capture of the Command flow view showing a selected command in the TCB Modes Used and the corresponding information highlighted, in the lower section of the view.

TCB Mode Switches

The TCB Mode Switches section of the Command Flow view displays a summary of any TCB mode switches that occurred during the running of the task.

Screen capture of the TCB Mode Switches section.

Commands and Resources are grouped and displayed by the mode that they switched from and to. If you select a command the command flow tree highlights the command in the lower section of the Command Flow view.