IBM® IMS™ Plug-in for Zowe CLI

The IBM IMS Plug-in for Zowe CLI lets you extend Zowe CLI to interact with IMS resources (programs and transactions). You can use the plug-in to create new IMS applications or update existing IMS applications. For more information about IMS, see IBM Information Management System (IMS).

• How the plug-in works
• Software rerequirements
• Installing
• Building from source
• Creating a user profile
• Running tests
• Uninstalling
• Contributing

How the plug-in works

As an application developer or DevOps administrator, you can use IBM IMS Plug-in for Zowe CLI to perform the following tasks:

• Refresh IMS transactions, programs, and dependent IMS regions.
• Deploy application code into IMS production or test systems.
• Write scripts to automate IMS actions that you traditionally perform using ISPF editors, TSO, and SPOC.

Software rerequirements

Before you install and use the plug-in:

• Install Zowe CLI on your computer.

  Note: For more information, see Installing Zowe CLI.

• Ensure that IBM® IMS™ v14.1.0 or later is installed and running in your mainframe environment.

• Configure IBM® IMS™ Connect. IMS Connect is required so that IBM IMS Command Services can function.

• Configure IBM® IMS™ Operations APIs. The APIs enable communication between the CLI and the IMS instance.

Installing

Use one of the following methods to install the plug-in:

• Install the plug-in from an online registry or a local package.

  Use the online registry/local package method when you simply want to install the plug-in to Zowe CLI and start using it.

  For more information, see Installing plug-ins on the Zowe Docs website.

• Build the plug-in from source and install it into your Zowe CLI implementation.

  Use the build from source method when you want to install the plug-in to Zowe CLI using the most current binaries and modify the behavior of the plug-in. For example, you want to create a new command and use the plug-in with the command that you created.

  For more information, see Building from source.

Building from source

Follow these steps:

1. The first time that you clone the IBM IMS Plug-in for Zowe CLI from the GitHub repository, issue the following command against the local directory:

   npm install
   

   The command installs the required dependencies and several development tools. You can run the task at any time to update the tools as needed.

2. To build your code changes, issue the following command:

   npm run build
   

   The first time you build your code changes, you will be prompted for the location of the Imperative CLI Framework package, which is located in the node_modules/@zowe folder in the Zowe CLI home directory.

   Note: When you update package.json to include new dependencies, or when you pull changes that affect package.json, issue the npm update command to download the dependencies.

3. Issue one of the following commands to install the plug-in:

   zowe plugins install <local path your cloned repo>
   

   Or:

   zowe plugins install .
   

Tip: After the installation process completes, it validates that the plug-in was installed correct and the names of its commands, options, and arguments do not conflict with that of the other plug-ins that you installed into your Zowe CLI implimentation.

When the validation process is successful, the following message displays:

Validation results for plugin 'ims':
Successfully validated.

When an unsuccessful message displays, you can troubleshoot the installation by addressing the issues that the message describes. You can also review the information that is contained in the log file that is located in the Zowe CLI home directory.

Creating a user profile

You can create an ims user profile to avoid typing your connection details on every command. An ims profile contains the host, port, username, and password for the IMS region or plex of your choice. You can create multiple profiles and switch between them as needed.

Follow these steps:

1. Create an ims profile:

   zowe profiles create ims-profile <profileName> --host <hostname> --port <portnumber> --ims-connect-host <hostname> --ims-connect-port <portnumber> --user <username> --password <password>
   

   The result of the command displays as a success or failure message. You can use your profile when you issue commands in the ims command group.

Tip: For more information about the syntax, actions, and options, for a profiles create command, open Zowe CLI and issue the following command:

zowe profiles create ims-profile -h

Running tests

You can perform the following types of tests on the IBM IMS plug-in:

• Unit
• Integration
• System

Note: For detailed information about conventions and best practices for running tests against Zowe CLI plug-ins, see Zowe CLI Plug-in Testing Guidelines.

Before running the system and integration tests, ensure that the required IBM IMS applications are installed and configured as required. For more information, see Software requirements.

Copy the file named .../__tests__/__resources__/properties/example_properties.yaml and create a file named .../__tests__/__resources__/properties/custom_properties.yaml. Customize the file named custom_properties.yaml as required for your environment.

Note: Information about how to customize the custom_properties.yaml file is provided in the yaml file itself.

Issue the following commands to run the tests:

1. npm run test:unit
2. npm run test:integration
3. npm run test:system

Any failures potentially indicate an issue with the set-up of the Rest API or configuration parameters that were passed in the custom_properties.yaml file.

Uninstalling

Follow these steps:

1. To uninstall the plug-in from a base application, issue the following command:

   zowe plugins uninstall @zowe/ims-for-zowe-cli
   

After the uninstallation process completes successfully, the product no longer contains the plug-in.

Contributing

For information about contributing to the plug-in, see the Zowe CLI Contribution Guidelines. The guidelines contain standards and conventions for developing plug-ins for Zowe CLI. This includes information about running, writing, maintaining automated tests, developing consistent syntax in your plug-in, and ensuring that your plug-in integrates properly with Zowe CLI.

Tutorials

To learn about building new commands or build a new plug-in for Zowe CLI, see Developing for Zowe CLI.

Imperative CLI Framework documentation

Imperative CLI Framework documentation is a key source of information to learn about the features of Imperative CLI Framework (the code framework that you use to build plug-ins for Zowe CLI). Refer to the documentation as you develop your plug-in.