Getting started in the Remote System Explorer perspective

The Remote System Explorer perspective enables you to access, edit, run, compile, and debug all items on your system.

When you first open Remote System Explorer, you are not connected to any system except your local workstation. To connect to a remote System i®, you need to define a profile and a connection.

• A profile is used to group connections, share connections, or keep them private.
• A connection is a TCP/IP network connection to your System i, that enables you to access, edit, run, compile, and debug all items on the system. When you define a connection, you specify the name or IP address of the remote system and you also give the connection itself a unique name that acts as a label in your workspace so that you can easily connect and disconnect. When you connect to the System i, the workbench prompts you for your user ID and password on that system.

To start working in Remote System Explorer (RSE):

1. Start the workbench
2. When prompted, specify the workspace
3. Once the workbench opens, ensure that you are in the Remote System Explorer perspective. If the perspective is not open, you can open it by selecting Window > Open Perspective > Remote System Explorer

   Click the X to close the Welcome view.

   
4. In the Remote Systems view New Connection shows the various remote system types you can connect to through the Remote Systems view.
   
5. Create a connection:
   1. Expand System i under New Connection in the view, to open the Name personal profile page. Accept the default profile value to open the connection page.
   2. Leave the Parent profile default value
   3. Enter your host system name in the Host name field. The Connection name field is automatically filled with the host name.
   4. Leave the Verify host name check box selected.
   5. Click Finish to create your connection.

You can define multiple connections to the same System i, but in addition, you can include different configurations for the startup of your connection, such as saving different user IDs and passwords, initial library lists, for example. After you create a connection to a System i, you can easily connect and disconnect.

For more information see the topic Configuring a connection to a remote system in the online help in the client product. See also Configuring a connection to a System i and connecting to a System i in the tutorials.

Subsystems

After you configure a connection to a System i, you can easily connect and expand your new connection to show the subsystems. Subsystems are represented by containers which show the libraries, command sets, and jobs on your remote system. Subsystem in this context is not related to the subsystem on the System i.

System i connections have five different subsystems:

1. System i Objects: This can be used to access libraries, objects and members.
2. System i Commands : By default, this subsystem is populated with a set of predefined commands that you can use to run against remote objects. You can also define command sets, and commands of your own. The results are logged in the Commands Log view. (For more information about the Commands Log view see the topic Running programs and commands in the online help in the client product.)
3. System i Jobs: Use this subsystem to list jobs. You can subset by job attributes, and perform job operations, such as hold, resume, end.
4. IFS Files: Explore files and folder structures in the Integrated File System, and perform actions on them.
5. Qshells: Access the list of active running Qshells for the connection, and use this subsystem to start a Qshell. (For more information see the topic Running and viewing commands and shells using the Remote Shell view in the online help in the client product.)

The view that a connection is in is called the Remote Systems view. It works much like Windows File Explorer. You drill down by clicking the “plus" (+) to gain access to desired items. For example, expand the *LIBL filter to see all the libraries in the library list, then expand a file to see all its members (much like option 12 in PDM).

Filters

Expanding a subsystem results in a list of filters for that subsystem. Filters are names of lists of items that you can specify, reuse, and share. Filters filter out items that you are not currently interested in. When creating filters, you can use generic values, and have as many filters as you want or need. Filters can be created for each subsystem, so you can have filters for IFS files, local files, System i objects, for example.

Since filters are names which are stored with your connection in RSE, all filters persist between sessions.

Filter strings

When first created, a filter contains only one filter string. By modifying the properties of a filter, you can add additional filter strings. Filter strings provide the ability to generate more complex lists. By using multiple filter strings in a filter, you can list members in different files, and even in different libraries in a single named filter.

Searching

There are two ways to search in RSE:

1. From the Search menu option (then selecting System i)
2. From the Find String action in the Remote Systems view and System i Table view

RSE allows you to search filters, not just libraries, files, and members. This means that you can search with very flexible search patterns. For example, you could search all the members in the file QRPGLESRC in library MYLIB and the members A* in the files PRJA* in library PROJECT by invoking the Find string action on the filter that contained those filter strings.

Search results appear in the Remote Search view, and the view has a history of searches. You see the list of all the search results in one place, allowing you to open whichever member you want first, and using whichever match in the member you decide. The Remote Search view allows you to manage the resulting list, by letting you remove members and matches from the list through the pop-up menu.

Comparing RSE to PDM

The following table compares the RSE features described in this topic to equivalent or similar features in PDM.