Customizing summary pages with annotations

About this task

You can customize summary pages for any z/OS® asset that can be annotated to display annotations as an additional column on the page. Annotation text associated with any annotation type, predefined or user-defined, can be displayed. One column per annotation type is displayed, and the column heading can be any text you specify. The text that is associated with the annotation type is displayed in that column for each asset that is shown on the summary page.

You must have administrative authority to make these changes.

Procedure

To add an annotation text column to a summary page:

  1. Edit the Common.cfg file (wsaaConfigDir/Common.cfg), where wsaaConfigDir is your HFS configuration directory for Rational® Asset Analyzer. Locate the section marked with [AnnotationText] and read the instructions for the section.
  2. Type the numeric values for the annotation text types that you want to display after the displayTypes = entry. Separate multiple values with commas. Each value is the ID of a defined annotation type, either a predefined type or a type that you have defined. If you enter an invalid value, nothing is displayed. The order is relevant only in that it corresponds to the column names you enter in step 3.
  3. Type the name for the column for each of the types after the displayColNames = entry. Separate multiple strings with commas. The number of names must match the number of types that you entered for displayTypes = and be in a corresponding order.

    Tip: Make the names meaningful but short, because these names appear as the column headings in the results table of the summary page.

  4. Type the numeric asset IDs that correspond to the asset types for the summary pages after the displayCompTypes = entry. Separate multiple values with commas. The summary pages that you identify with this entry are those on which you want the annotation columns to display. The order is not relevant and has no correspondence to the number of annotation types that you enter for column headings. For example, the entry displayCompTypes = 1,2,5 identifies the following summary pages:
    1
    Program
    2
    Data element
    5
    Run unit
    If an asset that you identify is not supported for annotation, nothing is displayed.
    Note: For DB2® tables and DB2 views, which appear on the same summary page, you must specify the asset ID for the DB2 table, which is 39, and annotation text will be displayed for both tables and views on the summary page.
  5. Save your changes.
  6. Restart the Rational Asset Analyzer Web application wherever you have the runtime installed.

Results

  • The annotation columns are displayed after the asset name column in the result tables.
  • Refresh the summary page after you add an annotation for which there is a column.

Example

One possible use for such a customization would be to document and track ownership of programs. You could add this feature by doing the following steps:
  1. Associate owners with programs that are in the Rational Asset Analyzer inventory.
  2. Define an Owner annotation type.
  3. Add a step to your scanning of inventory to populate the annotation text values (the owners) for the Owner type.
  4. Add the ability to display the column for Owner on the "Program summary" page, as described above.
You will then see the owner of each program on the "Program summary" page.