Hot Topics - Messmer The Brain House

Figure 1 – HMC tree style interface
Tree style user interface
Because more and more applications
are Web-based, the use of a completely
HTML-based user interface provides a
more consistent operating paradigm for
you. Also, this shift in user interface
technologies positions the HMC to provide
common user interface technologies that
can be used across IBM products.
The tree style interface provides a
hierarchical view of system resources,
categorized views of HMC tasks, and both
‘at-a-glance’ and detailed visualizations
of overall system status. Because the tree
view lets you launch tasks in context after
drilling down to an area in which you are
interested, it can help you work using a
style you prefer rather than having to do
things a particular way.
Advanced display features within table
views include data selection, scrolling,
filtering, simple and multi-column sorting,
and column reordering and hiding.
Making the switch
To support your selection of user interface
styles, a new UI Style tab has been
added to the User Settings task. The
tab provides options that allow individual
users to select their preferred interface
style (classic or tree style) and allow the
user with Access Administrator authority
(the default ACSADMIN user ID has this
authority) to control whether users can
18 February 2006 z/OS HOT TOPICS Newsletter, Issue 14
change the interface style.
To allow users to change the interface
style, you can log on with Access
Administrator authority and launch
the User Settings task under Console
Actions. Selecting Allow user to change
UI style will permit users to select the
tree style user interface to begin taking
advantage of the new presentation and
visualization capabilities. Users will need
to log off and log on again for the changes
to take effect.
User interface layout
As shown in Figure 1, the tree style user
interface is comprised of several major
components:
• Banner (optional) appears across the
top of the tree-style user interface.
• Task Bar displays the names of tasks
that are running and the Help and
Logoff tasks.
• Navigation Area contains the primary
navigation links for managing system
resources and the HMC.
• Work Area displays information for
the current selection in the Navigation
Area.
• Tasks Pad (optional) displays only
those tasks that apply to the object
or group of objects currently selected
in the table in the Work Area or
Navigation Area.
• Status Bar provides visual cues of
current overall system status.
Virtual demonstration
The Navigation Area contains a list of
all system resources including Servers,
Directors/Timers, and Fiber Savers, if any.
Besides the two pre-defined groups—All
Images and All Objects—the HMC also
allows you to create your own customized
groups of objects.
In Figure 2, we have created several
customized groups that represent the
physical topology of our systems.
Suppose you would like to perform a
task on an image for one of your servers.
Selecting a particular server displays in
the Work Area a table of the images
associated with that server. For each image,
the name of the image, and its current
operating status and description are shown
by default.
As with other IBM Web-based
applications, the table display provides a
number of advanced sorting and filtering
capabilities. See Figure 3.
You can sort columns in ascending
or descending order, reorder them, or
Figure 2 - Customized groups