CICS Explorer - CPSM WLM Admin Enhance Navigation and Help Information

Declining the RFE at the customer's request. The RFE will be split into multiple RFEs and resubmitted.

Thanks for the update.

Focussing on a couple of points
2) I'll have a look at linking the help topics so that it's easier to compare and contrast new/new from - thanks :-)
3) I think attribute help like you are suggesting should be available. After the "Use the resource editor to change CICSPlex SM or CICS resources...." paragraph, there's an instruction "To display help for the resources attributes, select an attribute and press F1" - I'm not sure if that sentence is not displaying or not working correctly when you select an attribute and hit F1? It should automatically take you to the appropriate attribute's help.
4) That makes sense. You've mentioned CSYSDEF in particular. If we were to try and attack a clump of a few base tables in this WLM-ish area, which would be the ones you most often end up drilling into?

Due to processing by IBM, this request was reassigned to have the following updated attributes:
Brand - Servers and Systems Software
Product family - Transaction Processing
Product - CICS Transaction Server

For recording keeping, the previous attributes were:
Brand - WebSphere
Product family - Transaction Processing
Product - CICS Transaction Server

Email responses received from customer:


1. WLMGROUP Location
a. That’s not always the case. We will often have a WLMGROUP that is tied to more than one WLMSPEC
b. I’m ok with that as long as we can easily Attach/Remove a WLMGROUP to/from more than one WLMSPEC

2. New vs New From
a. As a user I saw both options and wanted to know what the difference was. I went to the CICS Explorer internal help and used search criteria New
From. When you do that it takes you to “Creating a new resource from an existing definition” and details what New From does, but doesn’t tell me
how it differs from New. There are Details on New, but they are in “Creating Resources”. Maybe another Topic New vs New From? Then if a user
entered New From as the search criteria it would come up. Also there could be a “for more information” link in both sections pointing to the New
vs New From bit.
b. I think that it is confusing, unless you understand the difference. I don’t know if New From would be more clear if it followed something more
familiar like CEDA where you would do a Copy As. In that context the concept would be Define (or maybe Define New) for New. Note: For the WUI
New is expressed as Create
c. See Above
d. Makes sense when you understand the distinction.
e. I think that the issue is more that existing WUI users know what information is typically pre-filled for them. I think that CICS Explorer
should be consistent in this respect.
f. Besides differing from what current WUI users see, any required and also recommended attributes should be carried over. As a user I Copy As
(RDO) so that the primary attributes are carried over. I also think that the concept of New From implies I’ll get a full copy that I can tweak.

3. Screen Help information is not built for all the screens
a. I rely a lot in seeing the complete field descriptions by category. In a trouble shooting situation it’s easier to see them in the resource Help rather
than going to a manual to get them. I have to agree that the current default help is not helpful. Currently when I select a specific System definition
and click the Help Icon this is what I get “Use the resource editor to change CICSPlex SM or CICS resources. You can edit only resources for CICS
TS V4.1 or later. For earlier CICS versions, the resource editor opens in read-only mode. To display help for the resource attributes, select an
attribute and press F1 (Ctrl-F1 on Linux )”. When I click F1 I get this “This view allows the user to view help pages, view the help table of contents or
search the help system.” When I do the same thing in the WUI (Select a resource and click the green help Icon) I see Complete Attribute help:
Title
Attribute

CICS system definition name
NAME
The 1- to 8-character name for the CICS system to be associated with the CICSplex identified as the context.
Format: Advanced

Description
DESC
A 1 to 58-character description of the CICS system definition.
Format: Advanced


General information

Primary CMAS name
PRICMAS
The name of the CMAS that is assigned the task of monitoring the availability of this CICS system. When the CICS system is part of a CICSplex that is managed by a single CMAS, specify the name of that CMAS. When multiple CMASs participate in managing the CICSplex, identify the CMAS to which the CICS system normally connects. Naming a CMAS does not prevent the CICS system from connecting to another CMAS when, for example, the primary CMAS is not available.
Format: Advanced

Period definition name
ACTVTIME
The name of the period definition that identifies the hours during which this CICS system is to be running.
Format: Advanced

Application ID
APPLID
The application ID of a CICS system is the name by which it is known in the intercommunication network; that is, its netname.
Format: Advanced

System ID
SYSID
The 4-character system ID of the CICS system. The value specified must match the CICS SYSIDNT SIT operand or override.
Format: Advanced

Host name
HOST
The 116-character host name of the system decimal IPv4 address (for example, 9.20.181.3), or its colon hexadecimal IPv6 address (for example ABCD:EF01::2345:6789). If an IPv4 address is entered as an IPv4 compatible IPv6 address (deprecated) or an IPv4 mapped IPv6 address (for example ::FFFF:1.2.3.4) it is converted to a standard IPv4 dotted decimal address. IPv6 addresses should not be used for CICS Transaction Server for z/OS, Version 3 Release 2 and earlier releases. This is used for IPIC SYSLINK connections.
Format: Advanced

To save space I didn’t include it all, but you get the idea

4. Categorization of Resource Detail information (as in the WUI, would be helpful)
a. For Example: The CICS WUI CICSSYSDEF Has the General Attributes together, the WLM Attributes together, The RTA attributes together,
etc.
Time zone

Time zone
Inherit

Time zone offset
Inherit

Daylight saving time in effect
Inherit


Workload Management (WLM)

Routing region active at startup
No

WLM optimization enablement
Disabled
ENABLED or DISABLED

Task load health threshold
60
1 - 100

Task load queue mode
All
ALL or MAXTASK

Target region active at startup
Yes

RS server read interval
Inherit
0 - 2000 or Inherit

RS server update frequency
Inherit
0 - 25 or Inherit

RS server top tier
Inherit
1 - 25 or Inherit

RS server bottom tier
Inherit
1 - 25 or Inherit

In CICS Explorer Same criteria (CICSSYSDEF) the attributes are in alphabetical order, all under Basic

b. I am fine with raising a separate RFE for this. Before I do, I’m going to let you look through the responses I’ve added this one.

1.a) The anticipation is that you work on WLMGROUPs through the WLMSPECs they are part of
1.b) Maybe we could show the WLMGROUPs by default, but retain the option to make them hideable?

2.a) https://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSGMCP_5.2.0/com.ibm.cics.core.help/topics/tasks/task_create_resource_from_existing.html?lang=en How do you think we should go about improving this? Changing the title maybe?
2.b,c) Yes, you need a context resource to create a new resource from - is the name for this misleading?
2.d) If you are creating a new resource without basing it on an existing resource, you'll have to specify all of the fields
2.e) this has been the approach we've taken to all of our resource definitions in CICS Explorer - we solicit the minimal amount on information up front so we can take advantage of the experience we provide in our editors. Do you think there's any mileage in changing our wizard experience?
2.f) We tried to restrict the number of attributes we show on our wizards to uncomplicate them. Maybe we should consider adding some additional attributes...

3.a) I think this is likely a usability issue. If you've not selected an attribute in the editor, you'll ge thte default (useless?) help. Maybe we should just be showing the attributes help by default?

4.a) Which attributes are we not categorising properly? Is this in our of our standard resource editors, or one of the fancier WLM ones?
4.b) This is a good requirement! Can you raise it as a separate RFE? I think some way to toggle showing the field descriptions in the editor would be great.