Rational Developer for System z, Version 7.5

The 'Design explorer' view

The 'Design explorer' view, which is part of the 'Design' perspective, enables you to view and modify the design of your applications. It shows the locations that you have added to your workbench. Expanding a location reveals the entities. You can further expand the entities to reveal their instances, already created or imported.

Here is what the 'Design explorer' view looks like:

Design view

The 'Design explorer' view displays a tree structure.
If you click on an opened location, an entity or an instance and right-click, you can see a popup menu which enables you to:
  • Create a location (New > Location...).
  • Create instances (New > Data Element..., or New > Program..., ... or any other entity available).
  • Copy and paste instances, or delete instances or locations.
  • Import/export a set of instances, grouped in a file.
  • Refresh the display after updates.
  • Rebuild your environment, to make sure that your Design perspective is consistent. All the files and projects contained in your workspace are opened and if the files contain instances, they are parsed and repaired (the existence of the instances, their references, links to keywords... are checked and updated if necessary).
More choices are available, from the instance level only:
  • Open the selected instance.
  • Open the selected instance with... various editors.
    • The first editor is the flat editor, which displays the instance in an xml format. You can modify the instance in this editor but it is not recommended. It is much better to modify it in its dedicated formatted editor.
    • Three other editors are also available; text editor, system editor and in-place editor. You can also add other editors via your preferences specified via Window > Preferences > General > Editors > File Associations.
  • Refactor the selected instance. You can:
    • Rename the selected instance. The new name is automatically propagated to all the instance's links (references, keywords, instance calls, lists...). Renaming an instance this way avoids consistency errors.
    • Move one or more selected instances (you can select multiple instances in the 'Design explorer' list) to another existing project and/or package, while keeping all their links (references, keywords, instance calls...).
  • Search for the selected instance's References. You can search for its super references, i.e the instances in which it is called, or its sub-references, i.e. the instances it calls. Selecting one of these choices makes you switch to the References view, where the search results are displayed.

One choice is available only if you click on a Data Structure. This choice is Generate > Error messages generation. It enables you to generate the error messages of the Data Structure and constituting Segments into a text file, which will have to be integrated into the error messages file used by the applications.

Like other views in the Workbench, the 'Design explorer' view has its own toolbar, which enables you to:
  • Go back (back icon). This command navigates to the most recently-displayed state of the view with a different element at the top level. This button becomes available once you double-click on an entity line and consequently see its instances alone in the Design explorer view. Clicking this button then returns the view to the same hierarchy from which you double-clicked on the entity line. The hover help for this button tells you where it will take you.
  • Go forward (forward icon). This command navigates to the state of the view with a different element at the top level that was displayed immediately after the current state. For example, if you have just selected the back command, then selecting the forward command in the resulting display returns the view to the same hierarchy from which you activated the back command. The hover help for this button tells you where it will take you. This command is similar to the 'Forward' button in a web browser
  • Go up (up to icon). This command navigates to the location level. The hover help for this button tells you where it will take you.
  • Expand all (Expand all icon). This command expands all the tree nodes in the 'Design explorer' view
  • Collapse All (Collapse all icon). This command collapses all the tree nodes in the 'Design explorer' view
  • Link with Editor (Link with editor icon). This command links the active editor to its corresponding instance in the 'Design explorer' view list (if this button is not clicked, changing the active editor will not update the selection, in the Design view list, to the instance being edited).
  • Change the sort and display of instances in the Design view list. Click the white upside-down triangle icon and select:
    • Sort to specify a new sort criterion: by name, package or project.
    • Display to specify a new display criterion: by package, project or label.
    This new setting will then automatically be saved and associated with the 'Design explorer' view, until you change it again.
Related tasks
Creating/Opening a location
Exporting instances (Export wizard)
Importing instances
Opening an instance
Searching for the references to an instance
Searching for instances ('Design Search' tab)

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