Using Member Filters in Remote Systems Explorer

July 14, 2004 Hey, Ted

Thanks for publishing my filtering tip in Four Hundred Guru. I hope it helps people who are learning to use the LPEX editor. WebSphere Development Studio client’s Remote Systems view includes yet more filtering capabilities that put PDM to shame.

You can press F17 from one of the WRKxxxPDM screens to get a panel that allows you to subset the list of libraries, objects, or members. You can key a simple name or a generic name, with a leading asterisk, a trailing asterisk, or both, to restrict the list of names. RSE includes a similar option, with one great improvement: that you can specify more than one selection condition. You can specify only one condition when you create a filter, but you can add other conditions once the filter has been created. I can illustrate this process by creating and changing a member filter.

To create a member filter, begin at the Remote Systems view. Open the system by clicking the plus sign to the left of its name. Right click iSeries Objects. Select New and Member Filter. Enter library name, file name, and member name. You can enter generic values in any of these entry fields. Click Next, enter a name for the filter, and click Finish.You now have a filter that lists only selected members from a physical file.

So far you are ahead of WRKMBRPDM because you were able to specify generic library and file names. But, as they say, wait! There’s more!

Right-click the filter name in the Remote Systems view and select Change. You’ll see the Change Member Filter dialog box. The values for the filter are shown in the appropriate boxes. Notice the top entry in the Filter strings box: New filter string. Click New filter string, fill in the library, file, and member entry fields, and click the Create button. Continue to add filter strings as needed. Members will be selected for the filter if they meet any of the filter strings.

I have found that I can set up a filter that includes all the source members I need for a project, even if they are in different source physical files or libraries. There’s no way I could do the same using PDM.

–Lynn