Automatically Determine Host User ID When Connecting to a Remote System via Certificate Authentication

In z/OS Explorer, all Remote System connection types (FTP, SSH, z/OS, etc.) are by default set to the user ID of the workstation that the client is installed on. To change the Default ID for various connections a user can navigate to Windows/Preferences/Remote Systems. There they can update the defaults for the Remote Systems connections if needed. So for each z/OS connection created the default ID is set to the workstation user ID. 

For users establishing a connection to a z/OS system and using userid/password authentication, they are prompted for a user ID and password which will overwrite the default User ID that is initially set when the connection was created. So they usually do not run into issues with this.

On the other hand with client certificate authentication methods such as a smart card device there is no userid/password needed. So the default ID for the connection is set to the workstation ID. This causes issues for the default filter 'My Data Sets' under the MVS Files subsystem. Instead of using the host user ID as the HLQ to search for those data sets, it uses the workstation ID which for most customers does not match their host user ID.

It is possible to update the default ID for a z/OS connection via Windows/Preferences/Remote Systems or by updating the default ID in the properties of an already created z/OS connection. This would add a manual step for shops looking to distribute a pre-configured software download of z/OS Explorer to their users. So that workaround would not be ideal.

The JES and z/OS USS subsystems are able to determine the correct user ID regardless of what is set as the default. It would be better if the MVS Files subsystem determined the correct user ID in a similar way.