Release notes for CICS Explorer Version 5.1

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What's new in this release?

CICS Explorer® Version 5.1 adds further enhancements:
  • Composite update site provides a simple way to keep up to date with new versions of CICS Explorer and add new tools and plug ins to your CICS Explorer environment.
  • Ability to perform a system dump.
  • Ability to create an application definition.
  • Ability to create a platform definition.
  • Ability to create a policy definition.
  • Ability to add a CICS® bundle to a platform.
  • Ability to remove a CICS bundle from a platform.
  • Ability to define dependencies in a CICS bundle project.
  • Ability to define and edit resources in a CICS bundle project.
  • Ability to define static data when defining a event.
  • Ability to query the policy rules that have been deployed within a given scope.
  • Ability to define dependencies in a CICS bundle project.
  • System events now support the MESSAGE capture point.
  • Application events now support the Write-to-Operator capture point.
  • Support for combining EP Adapters into EP Adapter Sets.
  • Support in the Event Binding Editor for emitting static data on an event.
  • Ability to rebuild the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for a CICS region.
  • CICS Explorer can connect to CICS servers using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
  • A new perspective has been added: The CICS Cloud perspective which you can use to view all cloud resources in a CICSplex, in a platform or application-centric way.
  • Seven new Operation views are added: Applications view; Cloud Explorer view; Data Tables view, EP Adapter Sets view; Physical Data Sets view, Platforms view, and z/OS® Workload Management view.
  • Two new Definition views are added: Application Definitions view, and Platform Definitions view.
  • New fields have been added to the Task and Completed Tasks views.
  • CICS Explorer SDK support for CICS TS 5.1 JCICS.
  • CICS Explorer SDK support for Java™ 7.
  • CICS Explorer SDK field names in the Task view have been changed to be more meaningful.
  • The CICS Explorer SDK Active Workloads view has been renamed to the Workloads view.

The What's New topics in the CICS Explorer help documentation describes the new and changed items in more detail. To display the topics, click Help > Help Contents.

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System requirements and prerequisites

The CICS Explorer system requirements are listed on the CICS Explorer system requirements web page.

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Downloading the CICS Explorer

If you are developing a third-party application to run as a plug-in in CICS Explorer, you must download the CICS Explorer SDK and install it into an existing Eclipse environment. See the next section for details.

You must select the CICS Explorer files for your operating system:
For the Windows operating system
Download the .zip file.
For the Linux operating system
Download the .tar.gz file.
To download the CICS Explorer compressed file for Windows or Linux:
  • Click the download link for the relevant operating system.
  • In the dialog box that appears, select "Save" and save it in a temporary directory.
  • When the download is complete, extract the contents of the compressed file to any writable directory of your choice, for example;
    • C:\Program Files\Explorer on Windows
    • ~/Explorer on Linux.
    Ensure that the directory you choose does not contain any other files.

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Downloading the CICS Explorer SDK

The CICS Explorer SDK must be installed into an existing Eclipse environment.

To download the CICS Explorer SDK compressed file:
  • Click the CICS Explorer SDK download link.
  • Save the .zip file in a temporary directory on your workspace. for example, c:\temp on Windows, or your home directory on Linux. Do NOT unzip the file.
  • Install the CICS Explorer SDK into your Eclipse environment.
Note: If you get the message: Cannot complete the install because one or more required items could not be found, and you are installing the plug-in with Eclipse Version 3.5 or Version 3.6, select the Contact all update sites during install to find required software checkbox in the Install new software > Install dialog and retry the operation.

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Launching the CICS Explorer

To launch the CICS Explorer, double-click the file cicsexplorer.exe (cicsexplorer on Linux), located in a subdirectory called CICS_Explorer. The first time CICS Explorer starts, the welcome screen is displayed.

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Getting started

The CICS Explorer help documentation is integrated with the product and includes a basic tutorial and instructions on configuring a connection. To display the CICS Explorer basic tutorial perform one of the following actions:
  • From the welcome screen, click the Tutorials icon. The icon names are displayed when you hover over them.
  • From the main menu bar, click:Help > Help Contents > CICS Explorer User Guide > Getting Started > Basic tutorial

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Known issues and limitations

The following limitations exist in CICS Explorer Version 5.1:
  • Important: It is a limitation of Eclipse that before you can revert to a previous version of CICS Explorer you must have access to an update site containing the source code for the previous level. You can download the update site source code from the IBM Fix central Web site located at http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral.
  • The Eclipse software update function does not fully support Eclipse Update-Sites secured with HTTP Basic Authentication. If you are connecting to an Eclipse update site that prompts for a username and password, you should not select the option to save your password when prompted, because CICS Explorer does not provide a method for changing your password once set. If the password is not saved, then it must be entered each time the CICS Explorer connects to the update site. If a password is saved and subsequently needs changing, manual editing of configuration files would be required.
  • If you are running CICS Explorer SDK on Windows 7, with Java 7, and the windows firewall enabled, then you may experience the error java.net.SocketException: Connection reset. You can use one of the following workarounds:
    • Use Java 6
    • Add a firewall exception for the Java binary
    • Add the following vm arg to your eclipse.ini file:
      -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true
      .
  • If you are running CICS Explorer SDK on Eclipse 3.6.2 with Java 7, you may see an error message Comparison method violates its general contract and Eclipse fails to start. You can use one of the following workarounds:
    • Use Java 6
    • Add the following vm arg to your eclipse.ini file:
       -Djava.util.Arrays.useLegacyMergeSort=true
      .

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