getting started in rocketweb · this manual is intended to provide basic instruction in getting...
TRANSCRIPT
University of Toronto Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration
Getting Started in RocketWeb A.K.A. “New Rocketshuttle”
Written by David Lock, updated by EASI Client Services Version 1.2 Last updated 21 May 2020
1
Getting Started in RocketWeb
Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................ 2
Terminology ........................................................................................................................................................................ 2
What’s New in RocketWeb ................................................................................................................................................. 2
Browser Recommendation ................................................................................................................................................. 3
Connecting to the ROSI Production Environment .............................................................................................................. 3
Navigation Tips ........................................................................................................................................................................ 4
Working with Queries ............................................................................................................................................................. 6
Open A New Query Tab ...................................................................................................................................................... 6
… Using File Menu Commands ........................................................................................................................................ 6
… Using the “New Visual Query” Toolbar Icon ............................................................................................................... 6
Write Your Query ................................................................................................................................................................ 6
Create a DRAW Query ......................................................................................................................................................... 7
… From Repository Explorer ............................................................................................................................................ 7
… From the Toolbar ......................................................................................................................................................... 7
Change the Query Data Source ........................................................................................................................................... 8
Run Your Query ................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Retrieve All Query Rows ..................................................................................................................................................... 8
Return to SQL View from Query Results ............................................................................................................................. 9
Query Output: Saving & Exporting ........................................................................................................................................ 10
Export Query Results to Excel ........................................................................................................................................... 10
Save Query Results as a Database Table ........................................................................................................................... 10
Use Your Table in a Query ................................................................................................................................................. 10
Managing Your Library: Saving, Sharing, Importing .............................................................................................................. 11
Save Your Query ................................................................................................................................................................ 11
View Your Saved Queries .................................................................................................................................................. 12
… in the Repository Explorer Menu .............................................................................................................................. 12
… from the File Menu .................................................................................................................................................... 12
Open and Run Another User’s Query ............................................................................................................................... 13
Let Another User Query Your Table .................................................................................................................................. 13
Import an Excel Spreadsheet to Use as a Table ................................................................................................................ 14
For Further Assistance Using RocketWeb ............................................................................................................................. 15
User Community ............................................................................................................................................................... 15
2
Introduction
As part of the project to migrate ROSI and all associated systems from the mainframe environment to the Linux server
environment, EASI is implementing a new, web-based version of Rocketshuttle. The old version, last updated in 2005, is
no longer supported by the vendor and is not compatible with the new Linux database environments.
This manual is intended to provide basic instruction in getting started with the new version: connecting to the new
environments, carrying out basic tasks like creating/saving/sharing objects, exporting query results to Excel, and
migrating your personal database objects (queries, tables, procedures, etc.) from the old environments to the new.
For a more detailed manual published by the vendor, Click the “Rocket” button to the
right to open up the Rocket Software user manuals page. When the page loads, click Rocket Shuttle in the left-hand navigation panel, then v12.1.1, then Getting Started with Rocket Shuttle Version 12 Release 1 User’s Guide.
Note: The vendor manual is written specifically for the desktop client version of Rocketshuttle, and may include
functions that do not work in the web version. One such function is using a Procedure to export data from Rocketshuttle to a specific folder on your local drive; the “EXPORT DATA TO” command will invoke your browser’s
default file download function (e.g. saving the file directly to your “Downloads” folder, or prompting you to select a
folder location).
Terminology
1. This manual will use the following terms to clearly distinguish between the old & new versions of Rocketshuttle:
- Old, desktop client Rocketshuttle = Rocketshuttle
- New, web-based Rocketshuttle = RocketWeb
2. Because RocketWeb is accessed via a web browser, there may be some confusion when referring to menus, e.g., you
may be using a browser that has its own toolbars, or its own menu bar at the top of the screen. Please note that in
this manual the phrases “Menu
Bar” or “File Menu” refer to the
Rocketshuttle menu bar, and
“Toolbar” refers to the
RocketShuttle toolbar:
What’s New in RocketWeb
Key differences:
- Rocketshuttle was a single desktop client from which users could access the 4 different ROSI environments: PROD,
UAT, QA, DEV. RocketWeb is web-based, there is no software to install or maintain on your machine, and has two
Repositories, accessed via separate URLS:
o Production – with access only to the ROSI Production database environments:
https://rocketshuttle.rosi.utoronto.ca/
o Non-Production, with access to all of the ROSI non-PROD environments (UAT, QA, DEV)
https://rocket-np.easi.utoronto.ca/
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- RocketWeb introduces a personal Workspace, in which you can store objects (like queries or procedures) or shortcuts
to frequently used lists of objects, to help you navigate the application more quickly.
Q: What is a Repository? Is it a database like ROSI PROD or ROSI QA?
A: No – it may be helpful to think of a repository as a folder which is one level “higher” than the database
connections; it is the environment in which database connections are housed.
Browser Recommendation
RocketWeb should work reasonably well in a current version of any major browser, but certain functions do perform
better in Microsoft Internet Explorer. For example, SQL query text elements in IE are displayed in colour (the same way
they were in RocketShuttle); other browsers just show black text:
Some minor user-experience issues have also been observed in other browsers. For example, when scrolling through a
large number of query result rows, some “jumpy” behaviour has been observed in Chrome (and reported to the vendor);
this does not seem to happen in IE.
Connecting to the ROSI Production Environment
1. To access any of the RocketWeb environments, you must have your eToken plugged in and be signed into the Cisco
AnyConnect VPN.
2. Open the URL below in a browser (e.g., Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari) and enter your eToken password at the usual
UofT sign-in page:
https://rocketshuttle.rosi.utoronto.ca/
3. When you get through to the Rocket Shuttle for WebSphere
window, you may be prompted to select a Repository in a
“Switch Repository” pop-up. Click on ROCKETDB and then
Connect. You will then be prompted for a user name and
password; enter your UTORid and password, and click OK.
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Q: Why do I have to sign in with my eToken and then my Utorid?
A: Because you are essentially navigating through a series of security checkpoints. When you enter your
eToken password on the UofT sign-in page, the system is first making sure that you are who you say you
are (you wouldn’t know your eToken password if you weren’t), then checking to see if you have access to
the RocketWeb application at all. After entering your Utorid and password in the “Switch Repository” pop-
up, the system checks to confirm that you are authorized to connect to the repository you selected.
4. To view the available database connections in the Repository Explorer panel
on the left-hand side of the screen, click on the arrow next to ROCKETDB,
then on the arrow next to Relational Data Sources. You should see only two
options:
- DSNP PROD, the mainframe PROD database
- ROSIPRD, the Linux PROD database
5. If you prefer to create queries by writing SQL code instead of a “Query Builder” tool, one step you might as well take
now is to set the default query creation format to “SQL”. In the Menu Bar, click View Preferences, and select
“SQL” in the Default Tab for the Query Editor section in the middle of the pop-up window. Click OK to save this
setting.
Navigation Tips
After logging in, the application should generally behave as you’d expect, with the mouse as your primary method of
accessing on-screen commands. However, there are a few navigation quirks that may take some getting used to (#4 in
particular):
1. In most programs, if you click into the File menu, you can usually click anywhere on the screen to dismiss it.
Depending on the browser you use, this may not be the case in RocketWeb, and you’ll need to click somewhere in
the File menu or in a blank part of the Toolbar area to close it (at time of writing this behaviour was observed only in
Chrome; in Firefox and IE the menu is dismissed as you’d expect, by clicking anywhere on the screen).
2. Some of the commands in the RocketWeb
Menu Bar appear to have Keyboard
Shortcuts assigned. These will not work, as
they are superseded by the corresponding
browser keyboard shortcuts. For example
Ctrl+N is shown in RocketWeb as a way of
opening up the New Other menu, but
pressing Ctrl+N will instead open a new
window of whatever browser you are using. Similarly, Ctrl+W is shown as a way to close
the active RocketWeb object, but it will probably close your browser window entirely.
3. Rocketshuttle functions that you may have accessed using either keyboard shortcuts (e.g., Ctrl+B to export query
results to Excel) or F-keys (e.g., F2 to execute your query) will not work in RocketWeb; you will need to use the Menu
bar commands to access these functions.
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4. Some menu commands are context-specific, and you may find that certain commands are
greyed out unexpectedly. For example, you may be working on a query and wish to save it to the server using File Save At QMF Catalog…
If the query tab you wish to save is active (i.e., highlighted in blue), the Save At QMF Catalog… option will be available.
If for whatever reason you have activated a different area of the screen (such as the
“Repository Explorer” section on the left-hand side), you will find the Save At QMF Catalog… option greyed out in the File menu.
In this case you will need to click on the Query tab to re-activate it; the Save At QMF Catalog… option will become available again.
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Working with Queries
Like Rocketshuttle, RocketWeb is primarily intended as a tool for writing your own queries to create custom datasets with
data from ROSI and associated systems. The same basic Rocketshuttle functions are available in RocketWeb, although
they may have different names or be accessed via different menus.
Open A New Query Tab
Follow the steps below to open a query tab (RocketWeb calls it a “Visual Query” even if you are just writing SQL code) in
one of two ways; either using File Menu commands or by clicking the “New Visual Query” icon in the toolbar.
… Using File Menu Commands
One possible advantage of using the File Menu command to open your new Visual Query tab is that you have the chance
to specify the data source for your query (e.g., ROSIPRD or DSNP PROD); in this way you can be sure you’ve selected the
correct one.
1. In the File menu, click New Other. In the “New” pop-up, scroll down, select Visual Query, and click Next.
2. In the “Create New Visual Query” pop-up, ensure that the correct data source is
selected.
The “Name” field doesn’t matter much here – it just names the new tab you’re about to
open, not the name of the query you may want to save later. Click Finish.
… Using the “New Visual Query” Toolbar Icon
To save a few mouseclicks, you can also open a new
Visual Query tab using a button in the toolbar. In this
case RocketWeb will use whichever data source you are
currently connected to, and won’t prompt you to select
one.
Write Your Query
Once your new query tab is open you can begin writing your SQL statement. You will notice slight differences in the user
interface (e.g., RocketWeb does not use different colors for particular query text elements the way RocketShuttle did) but
it should otherwise behave normally.
When writing queries you may find your browser’s spell-checker function a
bit intrusive:
In most browsers you can disable spell checking if you wish by right-
clicking in the text editor and locating the option. The screenshot to the
right is from Firefox; similar options should exist in the right-click menu in
other browsers.
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Create a DRAW Query
In Rocketshuttle, you may have used the
Draw command to automatically create a
query on a particular table; some users
find that this is a useful way to simply view
all of the data fields in that table. There
are two ways to create this type of query
in RocketWeb.
… From Repository Explorer
To do so from within the Repository
Explorer menu, navigate into the list of
database tables to find the table you need,
right-click on the table name, and select
Open With Visual Query Editor.
… From the Toolbar
There is also a Draw Query button in the toolbar; click on the button to
open up the “Draw Query Wizard” window.
If you are looking for a ROSI table in the Linux PROD environment, the
Data Source should be ROSIPRD and the Owner should be SIS. If you
know the name of the table, type it into the Name field. If you need to search the list of tables, leave the Name field
blank and click Add from list…
In the “Object List” pop-up window, scroll down to find the
table you need and double-click the table name to select it.
You will return to the “Draw Query Wizard” window, where the Name field should now be filled in with the table name.
Click Add, and then click Finish. This will open up a
new tab with a query that should look very similar to
a Draw query in Rocketshuttle.
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Change the Query Data Source
To change the data source for your query, click Query Set Data Source in the menu bar, and select a new Relational
Data Source in the pop-up that appears. If you are changing from a mainframe data source (like DSNP PROD) to a Linux
data source (like ROSIPRD) or vice versa, you will likely need to enter the user name and password for to the
environment you are connecting to. This is certainly an inconvenience but it should be temporary – when the mainframe
is shut down there will no longer any “switching” between the old and new environments, and you should be able to store
the same password to connect to all ROSI environments.
Run Your Query
Once you have a query ready to run, click the
“Run Query” icon in the toolbar to run it.
While RocketWeb processes the query you
will see an “Operation in Progress” pop-up,
and either the query will be executed
successfully or an error message will be
returned.
Retrieve All Query Rows
As with RocketShuttle, RocketWeb will at first return only part of the query results if the dataset is large. There are a few
indicators to let you know if your query has finished running completely (with all rows retrieved) or if only part of the
results have been displayed.
When your query is actively running, you will see a “Cancel Query” icon in the toolbar, next to the “Run Query” icon.
Click on it if you wish to cancel the query execution before all rows have been retrieved:
When only part of your query results have been retrieved, you will see a
message in the lower left corner of the RocketWeb window, indicating
the number of rows that have been fetched so far.
To retrieve all rows, click Results Retrieve All in the
Menu bar.
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When the query is finished running and all rows have been retrieved,
the “Cancel Query” button will be greyed out in the toolbar, and you
will see a message in the lower left corner of the window indicating
that all of the results have been fetched.
Return to SQL View from Query Results
To return to the SQL pane from the Query Results pane, click
SQL in the row of options at the bottom of the query tab.
You can navigate back and forth between SQL and Results
using these buttons.
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Query Output: Saving & Exporting
Export Query Results to Excel
When your query has finished running and all rows have been fetched, you can export the results to Excel using a
command from the menu bar: Results Export to Excel Excel 2007. Please note that the Rocketshuttle keyboard
shortcut Ctrl+B does not work in RocketWeb.
Depending on your browser’s download settings you will either be prompted to choose between saving/opening the Excel
spreadsheet, or the Excel window will open immediately.
Save Query Results as a Database Table
To save your query results as a database table, begin
by clicking Results Export…
In the “Export Query Results” pop-up, select
Database as the Export Destination, confirm the
Database and Table owner (your Utorid), and enter a
Table name.
This is all you need to do if you wish to create an
entirely new table with your query results, and you
can click Finish to complete the process.
Additional settings are available by clicking the Next
button; one on the second page of options that you
may find particularly useful is the option to either
Replace existing data in the table or Add the query
output to existing data. If you elect to use the Add
option, the data from your query results must be in
the same format as the existing data in your table.
Use Your Table in a Query
Once your table is saved to the database you can use
it in a subsequent query, the same as you would have
done in Rocketshuttle. When referring to your own
table you do not need to specify a prefix, but if you
want to do so for the sake of clarity, remember: in the
Linux environments the prefix for personal tables will
be the owner’s Utorid; in the mainframe environments
the prefix is the owner’s ROSI ID.
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Managing Your Library: Saving, Sharing, Importing
Save Your Query
To save a query to your library, make sure that your query tab is
active (i.e., highlighted in blue) and click File Save At QMF
Catalog…
In the “Save to QMF Catalog” pop-up, ensure that the Data Source is correct and the
Owner is your Utorid, and enter a name for your query. It’s not necessary to select
a Folder, and the Type should be “Visual Query”. To allow other users to run (but
not edit) your query, leave the “Share the object with other users” box checked.
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View Your Saved Queries
You can view your list of saved queries in a database environment in one of two ways: either by navigating into the
Repository Explorer menu, or by using a command in the File menu.
… in the Repository Explorer Menu
Click into the Repository Explorer panel and follow the trail from whichever
Relational Data Source you need to QMF Catalog Queries Your Utorid. Click
the arrow next to your Utorid to see your list of saved queries.
If you have more than 200 queries saved, you’ll see a Next button at the bottom
of your list – double-click it to move to the next section of the list. To return to
the previous section, double-click the Previous button.
You can double-click on a query in the list to open it in a new query tab.
… from the File Menu
To view your list of queries in a window that more closely
resembles Rocketshuttle’s “Open from Server” function,
begin by clicking File Open From QMF Catalog… in the
File menu.
In the “Open from QMF Catalog” pop-up, make sure that the Data Source is
correct and your Utorid is shown as the Owner, leave Name blank, and click the
From List… button.
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An “Object List” window will pop-up with all of your saved objects (Queries, Procedures, Tables, etc.). You can filter the
list of objects using the settings at the top; leave only “Queries” checked if you wish to exclude all other types of objects
from the list. Click Refresh List to update the list with the filters you have added.
Double click on an object in the list to open it.
Open and Run Another User’s Query
To open and run another user’s query, follow the same steps provided in the previous section, but enter their Utorid
instead of your own. If the user has enabled the “Share with other users” option, you will be able to open up their query
and run it. When saving you will not be able to overwrite the query in their library; you’ll need to save a new version of it
to your own library.
Let Another User Query Your Table
You can execute a brief SQL statement to allow a specific user to query a table you have saved. You’ll need to know their
Utorid:
GRANT SELECT ON yourUtorid.T_MY_TABLE TO USER theirUtorid
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Import an Excel Spreadsheet to Use as a Table
RocketWeb will allow you to import data from an Excel spreadsheet, save it as a table in the database, and then use that
data in a query the way you would with any other of your personal tables. It’s quite a bit easier in RocketWeb than in
Rocketshuttle, and no longer requires installing separate software or converting the data to .dbf format.
Have your spreadsheet saved somewhere on your computer, and either click
File Open From File…, or click the “Open from file” button in the toolbar.
In the “Open file” pop-up, click Browse, locate and double-click on the file you
wish to import, and click OK.
You will need to confirm certain settings before completing the import:
The first screen applies only in cases where your Excel workbook contains multiple
worksheets. If your workbook has only one worksheet, you can click Next to
proceed. If your workbook does contain multiple worksheets, select the one you
need and click Next.
On the next screen you can specify where your data begins
within the worksheet (the First Row and First Column numbers
– in most cases you can leave this unchanged), and indicate if
the first row of your spreadsheet contains column names.
On the last screen you may select which columns from your worksheet will be imported, and the data formats for each
included column. To exclude a column from the import, un-check the box in the Field Definitions section; you will see
that column disappear from the Preview section below. To change a data type for one of the columns, click onto the
existing data type and then select a new type from the dropdown. The importer will make assumptions about field
length, precision (number of decimal places), and scale for each of your data columns; you can also modify these if
necessary.
Click Finish to complete the import, and you should see the data from your spreadsheet displayed as query results.
Note: As with other queries, RocketWeb may initially display only partial results. You can fetch all rows
from the spreadsheet by clicking Results Retrieve All in the Menu bar.
You can now save this dataset as a table by following the steps in the Save Query Results as a Database Table section
above.
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For Further Assistance Using RocketWeb
If you need further assistance using RocketWeb, please contact EASI Client Services submitting a ticket through the IT
Servce Centre at https://uthrprod.service-now.com/sp.
User Community
EASI has created a “RocketWeb User Group” team in Microsoft Teams. This will be a way for the user community to ask
questions and share tips, documents, SQL techniques, etc. If you would like to be added to this team please contact Rod
Branch at [email protected].