File-AID for IMS Visualizer
To understand an IMS database, it can be helpful to study its structure visually. The File-AID for IMS Visualizer in File-AID/Eclipse presents the hierarchical structure and logical relationships of an IMS DBD as a collection of nodes representing one or more database segments connected in hierarchical order.
Visualization is available for all IMS database types supported by File-AID Data Editor, plus Logical and Fastpath Main Storage databases. Support for visualizing IMS data requires a license for File-AID for IMS.
Getting Started with File-AID for IMS Visualizer
This topic will help you get started using File-AID for IMS Visualizer.
To use File-AID for IMS Visualizer with mainframe IMS data, you must define an HCI host connection and connect Workbench for Eclipse or Eclipse/RDz to a mainframe system. To define your connection, click Window > Preferences, then expand BMC > Host Connections and add an HCI host connection before continuing.
A host connection between the mainframe host and the BMC Plug-ins should have already been defined during the installation and configuration of the BMC Plug-ins. If you do not have host connection information (typically a port number and a host name), contact your system administrator to obtain specific connection configurations for your site for establishing Host Connections. (For system administrators, see the BMC-AMI-DevX-Workbench-for-Eclipse-Installation-Guide for additional information on installing and deploying the Plug-ins.)
Visualizing IMS Data
The File-AID/Eclipse IMS DBD Visualization provides a graphical view of the hierarchical structure of an IMS database description (DBD) with a related Properties view including DBD, segment, and field information.
Invoking File-AID for IMS Visualizer
There are two ways to invoke File-AID for IMS Visualizer functionality:
- By right-clicking an IMS database from the Host Explorer view and selecting Visualize DBD.
- By clicking the Visualize DBD button from an IMS Data Editor session.
A visualization of the DBD is displayed with the root node selected.
Working with a DBD Visualization
The IMS DBD Visualization presents the DBD as a collection of one or more nodes, rounded rectangular boxes representing a root segment node, indicated by an IMS icon
, with a collection of child segment nodes, indicated by a segment icon 
. In addition to the icon, each node lists the name of the segment, the segment's key field (unless the segment is unkeyed), and an expandable list of other available fields with a numeric indicator.
If there is a related DBD icon 
next to the node name, you can click it to visualize the related DBD in the same window. Clicking it again will close the related part of the visualization. You can also right-click the node and choose either Visualize Related DBD In This View (equivalent to clicking the related DBD icon) or Visualize Related DBD In New View, which will visualize the related DBD in a new window. Right-click on a related DBD node and choose Hide DBD to remove the related DBD from the visualization.
Multiple nodes are connected by lines representing their hierarchical position within the DBD, with arrowheads pointing from parent to child nodes. Related DBD nodes are connected by solid, dashed, or dotted-and-dashed lines indicating the nature of the relationship, and virtual logical child nodes are displayed as grayed out. Hovering over a connecting line displays a tooltip detailing the relationship between the two nodes.
Unidirectional Logical Relationship | Bidirectional | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Physically Paired Logical Relationship | Virtually Paired Logical Relationship | ||
Real Logical Child | Virtual Logical Child | ||
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Visualization Actions
Hovering over a connecting line displays the name of the parent and child for that relationship, with DBD name and segment name listed for each. When viewing related DBDs, hovering over the dashed connecting line displays their logical relationship, with DBD name and segment name listed for each.
Right-clicking on an open area of the visualization displays a menu with choices for:
- Layout > Top Down
- Layout > Left to Right
- Layout > Bottom Up
- Export IMS DBD Visualization.
Right-clicking on a segment node displays a menu with the above choices, plus:
- Browse With File-AID
- Edit With File-AID
- Select > Children
- Select > Parents
- Select > Children and Parents
- Collapse
- Expand
- Expand All
- Expand Levels > Expand 3 Levels (or 5 or 7)
- Show Properties.
If you choose Browse With File-AID or Edit With File-AID, a File-AID/Data Editor IMS request is created for whatever segment was selected. Click Run to open the segment in a File-AID browse or edit session.
Properties View Tabs
The Properties view lists a wide variety of properties and their values for whatever node you select. If the Properties view is not visible, it can be conveniently opened by selecting Show Properties from the visualization's context menu. Only properties with available values are shown.
Three tabs are provided along the left edge of the Properties view.
The Segment tab includes the following Property items for the selected segment, each with its corresponding Value:
- Segment Name
- Segment Number
- Parent Name
- Segment Length
- Key Length
- Key Starting Position
- SDEP Segment
- Concatenated Segment
- Dataset Group DDNAME
- Description.
The Field tab includes the following Property/Value entries for each of the fields within the selected segment:
- Field: <field name> (or *Key: <field name> for key fields)
- Length
- Offset
- Type.
The DBD tab provides overall information about the DBD visualization, including entries for:
- DBD Name
- Access Method
- Type
- DBD Version
- DBD Host
- DBD Resource URI.
Tailoring the Visualization
The completed DBD visualization can be adjusted for easier viewing. Each node can be moved to a new location by dragging it with the left mouse button pressed. The contents of the entire visualization can also be moved either by using the scroll bars or by placing the cursor on an open area then dragging with the left mouse button pressed.
Nodes can be arranged top to bottom (the default), left to right, or bottom to top by right-clicking anywhere in the visualization and selecting Layout > Top Down, Layout > Left to Right, or Layout > Bottom Up.
A variety of actions are available by right-clicking on nodes in the DBD visualization. To collapse all of a node's children, right-click it and select Collapse. An indicator in the lower right corner of the node displays the number of direct children nodes collapsed into that node. A collapsed node can be expanded by right-clicking it and selecting Expand (to reveal direct children), Expand All, (to reveal all descendants), or Expand Levels (to reveal 3, 5, or 7 levels of descendants). For easier viewing after the desired nodes have been collapsed, the visualization can be redrawn without the hidden nodes by right-clicking anywhere in the visualization and selecting the desired Layout > option.
Visualizations can be printed and exported to various formats. For more information, see Printing and Exporting DBD Visualizations.
Zooming and Spacing
Visualizations can be zoomed in and out individually, and the spacing between nodes can be increased and decreased, independent of the zoom level. The zoom percentage drop-down in the Workbench for Eclipse toolbar includes a number of preset zooms from 5% to 400%, along with the choices Page to fit the chart fully within the view, Height to fit the chart to the height of the view, and Width to fit the chart to the width of the view. A chart can also be zoomed in small increments by Alt-clicking for larger or Shift-Alt-clicking for smaller. The default is 100%.
To view the segment name of an individual node while zoomed out smaller than 100%, simply hover over the desired node. A tooltip is temporarily displayed showing the name of the node.
The numeric spinner next to the zoom level controls the spacing between nodes, with higher numbers providing more space. Available spacing values are 0 through 50. The default is 0.
Printing and Exporting DBD Visualizations
The DBD visualization can be printed for later offline viewing, and can also be exported to the following formats:
- Portable Document Format (.pdf) file for later viewing and printing.
- Visio® Drawing (.vsdx) file for later use in Microsoft Visio®.
- Data Visualizer XML format (XML).
- Portable Network Graphic format (.png) or JPEG format (.jpg) for later viewing.
To print the DBD Visualization
- Use File-AID for IMS Visualizer functions described in Visualizing IMS Data to tailor the content of the DBD visualization before printing.
- With the desired visualization selected, click File>Print or the toolbar printer button. The Print dialog box appears.
- Select the desired printer from the Select Printer list.
- Click Print. The visualization will be rendered by the selected printer. Large views will be rendered on multiple pages as required.
To export the DBD Visualization
- Use File-AID for IMS Visualizer functions described in Visualizing IMS Data to tailor the content of the DBD visualization before exporting.
- With the desired visualization selected, right-click anywhere in the view and select Export IMS DBD Visualization. The Export Visualization dialog box appears.
- Select the desired output file format from the Format list.
- Click Browse and browse to the desired location for the exported visualization.
- If Export Image (PNG, JPEG) was chosen from the Format list, select *.png or *.jpg from the Save as type drop-down list.
- Enter a file name for the exported visualization and click Save.
- To open the saved file automatically after export, select the View document after export check box.
- To optionally include the current date, select the Include date check box.
- To optionally include a watermark, select the Include watermark check box.
- To optionally include a title for the exported DBD visualization, type the desired title in the Title field. The name of the data source is the default.
- Click Finish. If a file with the specified name already exists, a prompt will appear to confirm overwriting the existing file. The file is generated and -- if the View document after export check box was selected -- opened in your system's default viewing application for the exported file type.