Setting up views
This section explains how to set up views for an installation. For general information about using views, see Using views.
A view is essentially a list of history files, that are all displayed together using the Fault Analyzer ISPF interface.
If not using the XFACILIT class to provide access to individual history file fault entries (see Managing history file fault entry access), then there might be special considerations required in order to decide on the kind of views an installation want to create. These are outlined in View considerations if not using XFACILIT resource class.
The list of history file data set names to make up a view are simply placed into a member in another PDS that was created specifically to hold the view definitions. This member is generally an installation-wide data set to which all users have read access. It is pointed to by the IDIVIEWS data sets in the DataSets option. The names of the members are used as the view names. The users are given a list of the view names when using the ISPF options pull down to change the history file and pressing F4 to list views. The first line of these members can be an optional comment starting with an asterisk in column one. If this comment line exists in a view member it is displayed next to the view name in the selection screen. The comment line can provide a description of the view to assist the users choice.
* Department P024 history files ❶
P024.&SYSNAME..CICS.HIST ❷
P024.IMS.HIST ❸
* Include the installation-wide dehistory file ❹
IDI.HIST ❺
- ❶
- This line is a comment (asterisk in column 1). Because this comment is on the first line of the view member, it is also used as the view description when displaying the list of views using the Fault Analyzer ISPF interface.
- ❷, ❸ and ❺
- These are the fully qualified history file names that are displayed simultaneously through the
Fault Analyzer ISPF interface when selecting this view.
Each data set name must be specified on a single line, starting in column 1. Surrounding the data
set names in single quotes is optional. There is no limit on the total number of data set names that
can be specified in a single view.
The symbol substitution rules that apply to the data set names that are specified in a view member are the same as those that apply to the data set names that are specified in the IDIVIEWS suboption of the DataSets option. See DataSets option data set name substitution symbols for more information.
- ❹
- This line is a comment that is ignored by the Fault Analyzer ISPF interface.
No specific view data set attributes are required, except that it must be a PDS or PDSE. The logical record length must be large enough to contain the longest data set name and the longest -HistCols (see Specifying a default column layout) or -Match (see Specifying initial fault entry selection criteria) specification. As an example, use record format VB with a logical record length of 32,756 bytes. The view member must not contain sequence numbers.
For easier reference to fault IDs across multiple history files, the ability to set up to three alphabetic fault prefix characters for individual history files is available. Using different prefix characters between different groups helps users recognize the owning group when viewing faults in a composite view display. The fault prefix characters can be set or changed using the IDIUTIL batch utility SETFAULTPREFIX command.