Introducing the Zowe Explorer Squad
Note: since the time of publication of this blog, the squad name was changed from IDE squad to Zowe Explorer squad in response to community feedback.
{Core} The Zowe Leadership Committee (ZLC) recently announced the launch of a new squad in The Open Mainframe Project’s Zowe focused on the popular Zowe Explorer extension for Visual Studio Code.
The Zowe Explorer extension has been incubated under the Zowe CLI squad since August of 2018. During this time Zowe Explorer has grown in popularity and has undergone sustained codebase growth from a variety of contributors.
The hard dependency on Zowe CLI as a prerequisite for Zowe Explorer has been removed, while retaining synergy by ensuring that profiles created for z/OS connectivity are shared between the CLI and Zowe Explorer.
These are the reasons that led to Zowe Explorer’s graduation from incubation to active status within Zowe. Details of the squad formation and how to begin contributing can be found here.
Zowe Explorer Squad Mission
To take ownership of all IDE extension topics within Zowe, including (but not limited):
- maintain and grow the Zowe Explorer extension for VS Code
- deliver Zowe Explorer as part of Zowe Core including an offline package delivered on Zowe.org similar to the offline package for Zowe CLI
- formalize extensions to Zowe Explorer by means of well documented extension points and, if applicable, also define conformance rules
- work with other squads in Zowe to ensure re-use, and synergy across Zowe components
History — Pre Zowe
Zowe Explorer started out at Broadcom’s Pittsburgh office as a project for some talented summer interns in 2018 — Charlotte Deiss (Carnegie Mellon University), Mike Heuzey (Penn State University), Ashley Hong (Carnegie Mellon University), Jon Norris (University of Pittsburgh) and Michael Norris (Penn State University).
A few of us working on Zowe CLI — Dan Kelosky, Michael Bauer, coyote time and Jason Tucker — were already using VS Code and we liked the simplicity of the text editor. Dan Kelosky had built a prototype VS Code extension to access datasets on z/OS. It came up as a potential project for the interns that could be self-contained and also re-use some of the technology that was a part of Zowe CLI. Jason Tucker took it upon himself to mentor and assist the interns in using Dan’s prototype to build out the alpha version of the Zowe Explorer.
The interns completed their project in the summer and Broadcom decided to open source the code for the extension on Zowe GitHub under the EPL 2.0 license. Following this, the very first version (v 0.5) of Zowe Explorer was published on the VS Code marketplace.
Current State
Zowe Explorer is now one of the most popular components of Zowe with almost 8000 unique installs.
It is a shining example of the power of open source. Users have contributed plenty of ideas to make improvements. Since Zowe Explorer was open sourced, the repository has 1800 commits from 30 committers. Kudos to all the contributors!
The squad is one of the most diverse in Zowe reflected by the fact that Colin Stone from IBM is one of the leading committers.
The popularity of the project with users has been helped by community-built how-to content on the Zowe Explorer:
- William Pereira from the Zowe Onboarding Squad has authored this video playlist on how he uses it
- Jessielaine Punongbayan from the Zowe Explorer squad has published various blogs and exercises on using the Zowe Explorer
- The Zowe Explorer is now included in the new OMP COBOL programming course
Users
So who exactly is using Zowe Explorer?
It’s used by anyone who interacts with z/OS — system admins, operators, developers, storage, performance, and network admins — and has a preference for VS Code.
It is common for users of z/OS to interact with code or logs. For admins it might be JCL, REXX and JES job logs. For developers it might be COBOL, HLASM and JES job logs. Regardless of the type of data you’re accessing, they’re most likely stored in z/OS datasets or USS files. To run some of these programs, you’ll have to submit jobs and look at the output.
This basic function is what Zowe Explorer brings to the VS Code platform for all z/OS users.
Extensions
VS Code allows extensions to modify the behavior of existing extensions. A few extensions that extend Zowe Explorer already exist on the VS Code marketplace:
Broadcom’s Data Set Viewer — View mainframe data sets, including VSAM data sets, in CSV format, using layouts and selection criteria using CA File Master Plus.
HCL Z Tools — Run REXX, terse, transmit for archival, XMIT, SVC list, System Variables and more.
Other VS Code extensions and packages also promote the use of Zowe Explorer in conjunction with their extension, though aren’t directly dependent on it:
IBM Z Open Editor — provides language support for the IBM® Enterprise COBOL, PL/I, and JCL languages.
Broadcom’s Code4z — Developers can now find the code they need to work on in Explorer for Endevor and Zowe Explorer, edit code assisted by COBOL or HLASM Language Support, and test the resulting code with the Debugger, all in one z/OS application development VS Code extension pack.
Future
On the horizon are improving the user experience of Zowe Explorer by simplifying access to services on z/OS through SSO (single sign on) by integrating with the Zowe API Mediation Layer and sharing security context with Zowe CLI.
It’ll also be critical for the Zowe Explorer squad to establish formal extension points and offer Zowe conformance criteria for those extending Zowe Explorer with other stand-alone extensions.
PS: With great power comes great responsibility (the Peter Parker principle). While the Zowe Explorer Squad’s near-term goal is to maintain and grow Zowe Explorer, I’m excited to see what other extensions they might build in the future. Congratulations and good luck!
Click the links to learn more about Zowe and more Zowe blogs.
