Explorers

You can access the Explorer View from the Console Automation configuration pane. Explorer View lets the administrators to create, modify, and delete explorer configurations for use in viewers.

Field	Description
Name	(Required) Enter the name of the new explorer.
Description	Enter a description for the new explorer.

To delete an Explorer view

Click on the kebab menu icon and then select Delete. The Explorer view will be permanently deleted and removed from all BMC AMI Ops Console Automation viewers that use it.

To copy an Explorer view

Click and then select Copy.
Fill in the dialog box as follows
Field
Description
Name
(Required) Enter the name of the new explorer.
Description
Enter a description for the new explorer.
Click Create to save the details.

Field	Description
Name	(Required) Enter the name of the new explorer.
Description	Enter a description for the new explorer.

To edit an Explorer view

Click next to an existing Explorer View and then select Edit. You can also edit an Explorer View after creating a new view or after copying an existing view as these actions display a page where you can modify an existing Explorer view.

When you edit an Explorer View, all changes are immediately saved on the server. The edit page allows you to add nodes, edit nodes, and assign actions to nodes in the tree. Clicking the buttons will operate on the selected nodes in the tree. A context, or right-click menu is also available when you right-click on a node.

When you click on a node that node is selected and the previously selected node is de-selected.

You can select multiple nodes by ticking the node checkbox. The Actions option operates on all the selected nodes at once.

The following table describes the Explorers fields:

Field

Description

Add

The Add option displays a dialog box for a new node that is placed under the selected node. Once the node has been created and added, the Edit node dialog box is displayed.

Edit

The Edit option lets you edit an existing node. The dialog box contains fields for the name, description, session information, and an icon to be displayed in the tree. The session information is optional, but required for certain actions that require a session.

Actions

BMC AMI Ops Console Automation maintains a list of actions that can be used by all Explorer Views. Clicking the Actions option displays the Actions dialog box, and creates actions assigned to the selected nodes.

Several actions accept parameters. The following variables can be used as parameters:

Variable	Description
%Server%	Name of the automation server
%Session%	Session name
%Label%	Text of the tree node

These variables allow you to create a single action and use the variable instead of the hard-coded text. This reduces the number of actions when you want several nodes in the explorer tree to have the same action.

The New Action option displays the new action dialog box.

The dialog box has the following fields:

Field	Description
Name	The name of the actions that will be displayed in the context menu for the node.
Description	A description of the node.
Show Confirmation Dialog/Confirmation Text	When the checkbox is selected, the confirmation text is displayed to the operator before invoking the action, allowing the operator to cancel the operation. The variables %Server% , %Session%, and %Label% can be used in the confirmation message. If the action type requires parameters, the replaceable parameters %1%, %2%, etc. can also be used.
Type	Selects from the available action types.

The check boxes next to the action names indicate whether or not the action should appear on the context menu for the selected nodes. In the BMC AMI Ops Console Automation Viewer, actions appear in the order as they appear in the Actions dialog box. The order may be modified by dragging and dropping the individual actions. As with the Explorer View editing page, all changes are saved immediately.

There are several Action Types available within BMC AMI Ops Console Automation for operators to use. The Action Types are as follows:

Action Types	Description
Display a session viewer	When invoked by the operator, opens the session viewer for the session associated with the node.
Filter messages based on selection	Sets the message filter to display messages only from the session associated with the node. The node must be associated with a session for this action.
Run a desktop application	Runs a command on the operator’s desktop. Microsoft Windows allows documents or URLs to be opened using the start command from the Windows command line. For example, if the command is cmd.exe /c start http://www.bmc.com/, the BMC AMI Ops Console Automation Viewer will use the user’s default browser to connect to www.bmc.com. Warning Important This action is only available when you are using a legacy viewer. When you create this action, it does not appear when you are using the browser-based viewer.
Send a command to the session	Sends a command to the session. For example, an action could be called Start TCP/IP and send a s tcpip command to the console, which might start the TCP/IP services on the LPAR.
Run an RDL function	Runs an RDL function similar to do rdl2function command in the input field.
Run an RDL function with parameters	Prompts the operator for parameters and then runs the function, passing the parameters as entered by the operator. Parameter prompts and default values may be specified by clicking the Add Parameter button.
Start a terminal session	Starts a terminal emulator. TN3270, Telnet, and SSH sessions are supported. Warning Important This action is only available when you are using a legacy viewer. When you create this action, it does not appear when you are using the browser-based viewer.
Start a Web Browser	Opens a new browser window to the URL provided. You must provide a URL like https://www.bmc.com.
IPL/Shutdown	Starts the IPL/Shutdown process with the given name. The %Session% token may be used in the configuration name. If you have sessions named LPAR1, LPAR2, and LPAR3, and IPL configurations named IPL_LPAR1, IPL_LPAR2, and IPL_LPAR3, you could define a single action with an IPL configuration name like IPL_%Session%. Enabling the Show Confirmation Dialog allows an operator to cancel the operation before it starts if the operator invoked the action by mistake.

Delete

The Delete option deletes the selected nodes.

Build from Session

Lets you build an Explorer from sessions defined in your Console Automation Servers

When you select this action, you will be prompted to chose the sessions that you want to include in the Explorer.

Build from CPC

Lets you build an Explorer based on CPCs and LPARs discovered from HMC sessions

Build from Sysplex

Lets you build an Explorer based on LPARs discovered from HMC sessions

The LPARs are organized into groups based on Sysplex membership.

To export Explorer actions

On the Explorers page, click an explorer name or select Edit from the Actions menu.
Click on any node.
The details of this node are displayed on the right.

On the Action tab, select an action from the Action Name list.
Click Export.
A JSON file, Actions.json is downloaded to your device. This file contains all the defined actions, whether they are assigned to an explorer tree node or not.

To import Explorer actions

On the Explorers page, click an explorer name or select Edit from the Actions menu.
Click on any node.
The details of this node is displayed on the right.
On the Action tab, select an action from the Action Name list.
Click Import.
In the Upload Action, select the JSON file that you want to import by attaching it or dragging and dropping it.
The JSON file is uploaded and displayed under the Action Name list.
If the Replace Existing Action button is on when importing a file, the existing imported file with the same action name is replaced with the current file being imported.