ILE RPG Programmer's Guide
The Remote System Explorer perspective enables you
to access, edit, run, compile, and debug all items on your system.
When you first open Remote System Explorer, you are not connected
to any system except your local workstation. To connect to a remote System i®, you need to define a profile and a connection.
- A profile is used to group connections, share connections, or
keep them private.
- A connection is a TCP/IP network connection to your System
i, that enables you to access, edit, run, compile, and debug
all items on the system. When you define a connection, you specify
the name or IP address of the remote system and you also give the
connection itself a unique name that acts as a label in your workspace
so that you can easily connect and disconnect. When you connect to
the System i, the workbench prompts you for your user
ID and password on that system.
To start working in Remote System Explorer (RSE):
- Start the workbench
- When prompted, specify the workspace
- Once the workbench opens, ensure that you are in the Remote System
Explorer perspective. If the perspective is not open, you can open
it by selecting Window > Open Perspective
> Remote System Explorer
Click the X to
close the Welcome view.
- In the Remote Systems view New Connection shows
the various remote system types you can connect to through the Remote
Systems view.
- Create a connection:
- Expand System i under New
Connection in the view, to open the Name personal profile page.
Accept the default profile value to open the connection page.
- Leave the Parent profile default
value
- Enter your host system name in the Host
name field. The Connection name field
is automatically filled with the host name.
- Leave the Verify host name check
box selected.
- Click Finish to create your connection.
You can define multiple connections to the same System
i, but in addition, you can include different configurations
for the startup of your connection, such as saving different user
IDs and passwords, initial library lists, for example. After you create
a connection to a System i, you can easily connect and
disconnect.
For more information see the topic Configuring
a connection to a remote system in the online help in the client
product. See also Configuring a connection
to a System i and connecting to a System i in
the tutorials.
Tips:
- When creating a connection, use the default profile name. The
default profile can be used to share connections with others, and
to use filter pools. (For more information about filter pools, see
the topic Remote System Explorer filters,
filter pools, and filter pool references in the online help in
the client product.)
- When specifying Host name, you
can either specify the IP address, or the fully qualified name (if
necessary).
- The Verify host name check box
ensures that you can actually connect to the System i you
have specified. To ensure that you have all necessary PTFs installed
on your System i, right-click the connection (after it
has been created) and select Verify connection.
This ensures that all necessary ports are open, callbacks can be performed,
and that the required host PTFs are applied.
- To define the startup properties for a connection, right-click
on a connection and select Properties.
Subsystems
After you configure a connection to a System
i, you can easily connect and expand your new connection to show
the subsystems. Subsystems are represented by containers which show
the libraries, command sets, and jobs on your remote system. Subsystem
in this context is not related to the subsystem on the System
i.
System i connections have five different subsystems:
- System i Objects: This can be used to access libraries,
objects and members.
- System i Commands : By default, this subsystem
is populated with a set of predefined commands that you can use to
run against remote objects. You can also define command sets, and
commands of your own. The results are logged in the Commands Log view.
(For more information about the Commands Log view see the topic Running programs and commands in the online
help in the client product.)
- System i Jobs: Use this subsystem to list jobs.
You can subset by job attributes, and perform job operations, such
as hold, resume, end.
- IFS Files: Explore files and folder structures in the Integrated
File System, and perform actions on them.
- Qshells: Access the list of active running Qshells for the connection,
and use this subsystem to start a Qshell. (For more information see
the topic Running and viewing commands and
shells using the Remote Shell view in the online help in the
client product.)
The view that a connection is in is called the Remote Systems view.
It works much like Windows® File
Explorer. You drill down by clicking the “plus" (+) to gain access to desired items. For
example, expand the *LIBL filter to
see all the libraries in the library list, then expand a file to see
all its members (much like option 12 in PDM).
Filters
Expanding a subsystem results in a list of filters for that subsystem.
Filters are names of lists of items that you can specify, reuse, and
share. Filters filter out items that you are
not currently interested in. When creating filters, you can use generic
values, and have as many filters as you want or need. Filters can
be created for each subsystem, so you can have filters for IFS files,
local files, System i objects, for example.
Tips:
- You can always drill down within a filter if the item is a container
(a library and a file are examples of containers)
- You can specify multiple levels of generic values, for example
you could specify library BOB, file QRPG* member A*,
when you create your filter.
- Pay close attention to the page where you specify the filter name.
On this page you choose whether or not you want the filter to be only
for the specified connection, or to appear in all connections. You
can also specify a profile, if you want to share your filters with
others.
Since filters are names which are stored with your connection in
RSE, all filters persist between sessions.
Filter strings
When first created, a filter contains only one filter string. By
modifying the properties of a filter, you can add additional filter
strings. Filter strings provide the ability to generate more complex
lists. By using multiple filter strings in a filter, you can list
members in different files, and even in different libraries in a single
named filter.
Tips:
- Filters must contain the same types of items. For example, it
is not possible to list objects and members in the same filter.
- Group items into a filter by project or application. For example,
add filter strings so that you can see the DDS members in the same
list as your RPG and COBOL files.
- For more information about filters, see the topic Filtering members in the online help in the
client product. See also Introducing filters in
the tutorials.
Searching
There are two ways to search in RSE:
- From the Search menu option (then
selecting System i)
- From the Find String action in the Remote Systems view and System
i Table view
RSE allows you to search filters, not just libraries, files, and
members. This means that you can search with very flexible search
patterns. For example, you could search all the members in the file QRPGLESRC in
library MYLIB and the members A* in the files PRJA* in
library PROJECT by invoking the Find string action on the
filter that contained those filter strings.
Search results appear in the Remote Search view, and the view has
a history of searches. You see the list of all the search results
in one place, allowing you to open whichever member you want first,
and using whichever match in the member you decide. The Remote Search
view allows you to manage the resulting list, by letting you remove
members and matches from the list through the pop-up menu.
Tips:
- Double-click the member name in the Remote Search view to open
a member in the Remote Systems LPEX Editor for editing and to be positioned
to the match selected.
- The pop-up in the Remote Search view has a list of options similar
to the System i Table view.
- Double-click on the Remote Search tab to maximize the view to
the full workbench window. This will allow you to see more matches
at one time.
- Expand or collapse matched members to quickly zero in on the matches
that are important to you.
- See the topic Searching for text strings
on the System i in the online help in the client
product. See also Searching multiple files in
the tutorials.
Comparing RSE to PDM
The following table compares the RSE features described in this
topic to equivalent or similar features in PDM.
Table 21.
| In RSE |
In PDM |
| Create a connection |
Start an emulator session |
| Create filters with generic values |
Create filters with generic values |
| Expand a container to view additional items |
Option 12 |
| Specify multiple levels of generic items |
Not available |
| Filters persist between sessions |
Previous parameters for the WRKxxxPDM command
are remembered |
| Create complex lists by defining multiple filter
strings in a filter to list members in different files |
List members in one source physical file in
a single library |
| Flexible search patterns permit searching of
filters |
Single search pattern with option 25 or with FNDSTRPDM |
| All search results are available in the Remote
Search view |
Search results and members are available one
at a time in the order that the matches are found |
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