Integration Development perspective

Use the Application Development view to navigate and browse your resources, and to select resources for editing.

If no files are open in the editor view, the Quick Starts wizards are displayed there.

The following Quick Starts links are shown:

Quick Starts

When you create resources, they are grouped by file type in logical categories within the hierarchy, and placed in virtual folders. These virtual folders are described in Resources.

You can hide the categories (virtual folders) by clicking Hide Categories on the Application Development view toolbar. You can use the Hide Categories menu item or button to toggle between category mode and non-category mode.

You can also toggle between showing and hiding broker schema (in an integration project) and namespaces (in a message set project), by selecting Hide Namespaces from the view menu (shown by a down arrow) in the Application Development view toolbar. By default, broker schema and namespaces are shown. This option is available only in category mode.

You can toggle between showing and hiding file extensions for files that are under virtual folders, broker schema (or namespaces) and messageSet.mset. To toggle between hiding and showing the file extensions, select Hide Categorized File Extensions from view menu (shown by the down arrow) in the Application Development view toolbar. By default, file extensions are shown. Other files and folders that are directly under the project are not affected by this option.

By default, the hierarchy view contains the resource files for all of your projects. However, you can limit the number of resources that are displayed in the Application Development view by organizing and displaying them in working sets. A working set is a logical collection of projects, which makes it easier to manage and work with your application projects. When you create a pattern instance project by using the Patterns Explorer view, the pattern instance project is placed into a working set of the same name. For more information about working sets, see Working sets.

You use specialized editors to open and edit all the resources in the Application Development view, except project files.

Double-click a resource in the Application Development view to open the associated editor in the Editor view.

The IBM Integration Toolkit shows the Message Flow editor by default for working with the content of message flow files.

The IBM Integration Toolkit provides specialized editors by default for working with the content of message flow and message set files. See Editors in the IBM Integration Toolkit for more information.

The Outline view provides a summary of the content of the resource that is currently open in the Editor view.

Click the Overview Mode icon to switch to the Overview view, which provides a useful summary for large, complex message flows because it shows a small-scale version of the flow. Click the Overview Mode icon again to return to the Outline view.

Use the Integration Nodes view to create and work with integration nodes (brokers) in the IBM Integration Toolkit. Integration nodes that are created on the local system are automatically displayed in the Integration Nodes view. Remote integration nodes can be added to the Integration Nodes view. When you open or switch to the Integration Nodes view, the IBM Integration Toolkit attempts to connect to integration nodes on the local system and to any remote integration nodes that have been defined; see Integration Nodes view.

The Properties view displays the properties for the node that is selected in the Editor view. The Properties are grouped and displayed on tabs, which are listed on the left of the Properties view.

The Problems view displays any messages (information and error) that are associated with the resource that is currently open in the Editor view. For example, if you save a message flow that has an error (such as a mandatory property not set), you can check the content of the Problems view to determine any corrections that you must make. When you double-click a Problems view entry, the appropriate editor opens the resource that contains an error, and positions the cursor at the point of the error (where possible).

The Deployment Log view shows the result of deploying integration nodes that are in the IBM Integration Toolkit; see Deployment Log view.

The Data Project Explorer view displays Data design and Data development projects. You can use the Data Project explorer to work with these projects and other data objects.

The Data Source Explorer view displays database connections. You can use the Data Source Explorer view to create database connections.

The Patterns Explorer view displays patterns that you can use in the IBM Integration Toolkit. You can use the Patterns Explorer view to configure and apply patterns for use in your environment. Select a pattern in the Patterns Explorer view to see more information about the pattern; see Choosing a pattern.

The Tasks view displays outstanding tasks to be completed. You can create tasks within the Tasks view by selecting Add Task. For example, if you would like to record reminders to follow up on something later, add it to the Tasks view. When you add a task, you have the option of associating it with a resource so that you can use the Tasks view to quickly open that resource for editing.

You can add icons to the toolbar for the actions that you might want to complete in the perspective. To add icons to the toolbar, complete the following steps.

1. Click Window > Customize Perspective. The Customize Perspective dialog box is displayed.
2. Click the Command Groups Availability tab. This tab displays the available command groups and their corresponding menu bar details and toolbar details.
3. Click a command group name to display its toolbar details. The available command groups and toolbar details for the icons that you might want to use in the perspective are shown in the Available command groups table.
4. Select the command groups that you want to add, and click OK. The toolbar displays the icons from the selected command groups.