General Commands for Managing Different Types of Objects

This document covers the following topics:

General Information

The commands described in this chapter work similarly with all types of objects. The descriptions below are not repeated in later sections of this documentation which deal with the different types of objects.

Editing an Object

You can edit datasets and members.

When you edit an object, an editor window appears in which you can modify the content of the object.

Start of instruction setTo edit an object

  1. In the Mainframe Navigation view, select the appropriate object.

  2. Invoke the context menu and choose Edit.

    Or:
    Press CTRL+E.

    Or:
    Double-click the appropriate object.

    Note:
    When you double-click an object in the Mainframe Navigation view, an editor window is invoked for that object. Whether the contents of the editor window can be modified depends on the commands that are available for the object. When the Edit command is available for the object, the regular editor window is invoked and the content of the object can be modified. When only the Browse command is available for the object (and no Edit command), the read-only editor window is invoked.

    The selected object appears in an editor window.

  3. Apply all required changes to the object.

  4. Save the object using the standard Eclipse functionality (for example, press CTRL+S).

Commands for Editing an Object

When you invoke the context menu in the editor window, you can see the available editor commands and the corresponding keyboard shortcuts. These include, for example, Undo (CTRL+Z), Save (CTRL+S), Cut (CTRL+X), Copy (CTRL+C) and Paste (CTRL+V).

It is also possible to save the current contents of the editor window to a new object. To do so, you use the Save As command from the File menu. A dialog will then appear in which you have to specify all required information.

You can also use standard Eclipse commands such as Select All or Find/Replace from the Edit menu.

Browsing an Object

You can display an object in read-only mode. The content of the object is then displayed a read-only editor window. You can copy the contents, but you cannot modify it.

You can browse all objects which can also be edited. In addition, it is also possible to browse sysout datasets, jobs and active jobs.

Browsing is limited to a record length of 2500 bytes. If a record is longer, it is truncated and only the first 2500 bytes are displayed.

Start of instruction setTo browse an object

  1. In the Mainframe Navigation view, select the appropriate object.

  2. Invoke the context menu and choose Browse.

    Or:
    Press CTRL+B.

    Note:
    When only the Browse command is available for the object (and no Edit command), you can also double-click the object in order to invoke the read-only editor window.

    The selected object appears in a read-only editor window.

Commands for Browsing an Object

When you invoke the context menu in a read-only editor window, you can see the available commands and the corresponding keyboard shortcuts. These include, for example, Copy (CTRL+C) and Refresh (F5).

You can also use standard Eclipse commands such as Select All or Find/Replace from the Edit menu (keep in mind, that the "replace" functionality is disabled in the read-only editor window).

Deleting an Object

You can delete datasets, members, jobs, and sysout datasets.

Start of instruction setTo delete an object

  1. In the Mainframe Navigation view, select the appropriate object.

  2. Invoke the context menu and choose Delete.

    Or:
    Press DEL.

    A dialog box appears, asking to confirm the delete function for the selected object.

  3. Choose the OK button to delete the object.

Displaying the Properties

When you select a node in the Mainframe Navigation view, the corresponding properties are automatically shown in the Properties view. The information that is shown in the Properties view depends on the type of node that is currently selected.

Brief information on the selected node is also shown in the status line of the Eclipse window. This includes the name of the node and the name of the environment.

You can also invoke a properties dialog box for a node using the Properties command from the context menu. In many cases, a properties dialog box provides more information than the Properties view. For detailed information on the information shown in a properties dialog box, see the appropriate section later in this documentation.

Refreshing the Display

You can refresh the contents of an expandable node in the Mainframe Navigation view. Or you can refresh text or code displayed in a read-only editor window (that is, in a window that has been invoked using the Browse command). The most current information from the server is then shown.

Start of instruction setTo refresh the display

  1. In the Mainframe Navigation view, select the node that is to be refreshed.

    Or:
    Activate the read-only editor window that is to be refreshed.

  2. Invoke the context menu and choose Refresh.

    Or:
    Press F5.

Using the Console View in Eclipse

When the Console output option has been selected on the Natural > Builder page of the Natural-specific preferences (see Setting the Preferences in Using NaturalONE), the Console view of Eclipse shows the requests that are sent to the server and the corresponding responses from the server. This is different from the information which is shown for the console and system log in the Mainframe Navigation view which only show the information from the server.

As soon as Mainframe Navigation starts writing output to the Console view, a Mainframe Navigation console is available in the list of selected consoles. See the "Display Selected Console" icon (Display selected console) which is shown in the local toolbar of the Console view.