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Zowe V3 LTS: Office Hours

Zowe™, the Zowe™ logo, and the Open Mainframe Project™ are trademarks of The Linux® Foundation

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Zowe V3 Office Hours Series

Sept 6 - Oct 18, Join live or watch the replays

Hosted EVERY Friday morning at 8:00 am ET
AGENDA:

Overview - what’s new in v3
Installation & configuration changes
Upgrade considerations
Breaking changes & conformance considerations
User experience impact
New feature details
Resources & SME contact information

MEETING LINK: https://zoom-lfx.platform.linuxfoundation.org/meeting/92746535715?password=0d6d9c4d-acab-4979-9ac1-f0a99aaa75c2

Note: You do not need to establish a Linux Foundation account, simply join the meeting as a GUEST

Date (Fridays)	Component
Sep 6, 2024	Zowe API Mediation Layer
Sep 13, 2024	Zowe CLI & Zowe Client SDK
Sep 20, 2024	Zowe Web UI / Application Framework
Sep 27, 2024	Zowe Explorer (VS Code)
Oct 4, 2024	Zowe Explorer (IntelliJ)
Oct 11, 2024	Zowe Systems, Installation, & Packaging
Oct 18, 2024	Open for all Topics

Want a reminder email? Join our mailing list here: https://lists.openmainframeproject.org/g/zowe-user

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Zowe Support Timeline

Active, Maintenance, and End of Support implications

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

2024

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Zowe v1 (Maintenance) EOS 1.28.8 9/30

Zowe v2 (Active) 2.18 8/30

UNDER DEVELOPMENT

Zowe v3 (maintenance)

2025

2026

2027

Zowe v2 (Maintenance) 2.18.x 3/31

Zowe v3 (Active)

Zowe v4 (Active)

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The introduction of a new LTS release brings a change to the ACTIVE and MAINTENANCE designation of prior releases. As we can see here… Zowe V1 maintenance ends, Zowe v2 ACTIVE transitions to maintenance and Zowe v3 ACTIVE begins…

What does this mean to you as a consumer? You need to understand the support implications so that you can determine when you need to upgrade.

Zowe consumers on v1 have until end of Sept to upgrade to v2

Those of you on v2 have a decision to make…

Boils down to a few considerations:

Is your organization waiting on a feature slated for the v3 release? OR
Is your organization interested in obtaining the latest features & capabilities at some point over the full ACTIVE release term of v3
OR does your organization prefer to stay on a release that only receives fixes and security updates - this typically is perceived as being less-disruptive - Zowe v2 will remain supported until March of 2027

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Version Compatibility and Conformance

Zowe Extensions Compatibility Recommendations:

Verify your Vendor extensions have earned Zowe v3 Conformance (conformance assures interoperability)
Alternatively, (not recommended) verify interoperability with the Vendor

Vendor Support Offerings:

All Zowe v2 Support Providers must re-apply to re-affirm their conformance for Zowe v3. Comprehensive Support Providers MUST support ALL new Zowe Core components introduced with v3 (Zowe Extensions are excluded).

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Zowe Conformance Landscape: https://www.zowe.org/extend

Zowe Conformance Program: https://openmainframeproject.org/our-projects/zowe-conformance-program/

Zowe Support Provider Conformance Program: https://openmainframeproject.org/our-projects/zowe-conformant-support-provider-program/

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Zowe Explorer for VS Code V3 LTS��Zowe Explorer Squad Leads:� Billie Jean Simmons�Adam Wolfe

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Zowe Explorer for VS Code v3 Overview

Installation and Configuration
Support Changes
Enhancements
Breaking changes
Resources

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Installation & Configuration

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Zowe V3 Installation & Configuration

Installation:

If Zowe Explorer is already installed: The extension will either be updated automatically or can be manually updated in VS Code.
If Zowe Explorer is not installed: The extension can be found in the VS Code Marketplace or can be downloaded from the Zowe Explorer repository: (https://github.com/zowe/zowe-explorer-vscode/releases)

Configuration:

Zowe v1 profiles are no longer supported. Team configuration (zowe.config.json) is required in Zowe Explorer v3.

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Support Changes

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Zowe Explorer for VS Code v3 support changes

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WHAT:

- Updated supported VS Code engine to 1.79.0

- Dropped support for Theia IDE

WHY: VS Code engine 1.79.0 allows newer APIs that can be used to enhance the extension, ie. VS Code tree view APIs allowing drag and drop functionality.

IMPACT: Theia IDE users and VS Code users with version below 1.79.0 may experience breakages with Zowe Explorer with support dropped.�

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Persistent settings moved to local storage

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WHAT: Added support for storing persistent settings in local storage

WHY: To improve support of the Explorer for VS Code in cloud-based IDEs like Codespaces

IMPACT: The users shouldn’t lose the settings when reloading browser.

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Extracted Data Set Template setting from persistent history settings

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WHAT: Data set templates has new VS Code setting ‘zowe.ds.templates’

WHY: To not add to local storage with other persistent settings moved

IMPACT: Allows users to share data set templates across the team with a workspace setting.

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Removal of V1 profiles

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WHAT: Functionality related to creating and modifying V1 profiles will be removed from Zowe Explorer in V3.

WHY: V1 profiles were deprecated in V2 in favor of the more flexible and portable Team Config.

IMPACT (Users): To use Zowe Explorer V3, users will have to implement team configs or convert existing profiles to a team configuration file.

IMPACT (Extenders): Extenders will have to update to the new Zowe Explorer APIs to continue using team configs for loading user profiles.

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Enhancements

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Auto detect and offer to convert v1 profiles

WHAT: Automatically detect if v1 profiles are in use and offer the user an option to convert existing profiles into a team configuration file or create a new team config file.

WHY: Help users migrate from v1 profiles to team configuration files.

IMPACT (Users): A prompt with choice on start up of Zowe Explorer v3 for first time.

IMPACT (Extenders): Zowe Explorer API created for use by extenders to have this capability also.

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Compare files

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WHAT: Compare Files in MVS view, the Unix Systems Services view, and across the two views.

WHY: To simplify understanding the difference e.g. in configuration

IMPACT: Spend less time when verifying the configurations and getting changes form one file to another.

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Issue UNIX commands

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WHAT: Issue UNIX command capability added.

WHY: To allow users the option to issue UNIX commands from Zowe Explorer for VS Code.

IMPACT: Spend less time changing environments or using a cli terminal to issue UNIX commands.

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Jobs Tabular View

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WHAT: "Show as Table" option for profile nodes in the Jobs tree.

WHY: To allow users to display lists of jobs in a tabular view. Jobs can be filtered and sorted within this view, and users can select jobs to cancel, delete or download.

IMPACT: Allowing users a more streamline way to view and manipulate z/OS Jobs.

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Additional enhancements for Users

Added support for consoleName property in service (ie. zosmf) profiles when issuing MVS commands.
Added PEM certificate support as an authentication method for logging into the API ML.
Added support for logging in to multiple API ML instances per team config file.
Added remote lookup functionality for Data Sets and USS, allowing Zowe Explorer to locate and resolve mainframe resources on demand.
Added change detection in the Data Sets and USS filesystems, so that changes on the mainframe will be reflected in opened editors for Data Sets and USS files.
Updated default base profile naming scheme in newly generated configuration files to prevent name and property conflicts between Global and Project profiles.

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Breaking Changes

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Removal of deprecated items

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WHAT: Removal of deprecated constants, options, and methods.

Full list of changes affecting extenders

zowe.org/vnext

WHY: These items were deprecated in V2 and are either redundant or no longer useful.

IMPACT (Extenders): Extenders using previously deprecated items will have to be modified to use alternatives.

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Resources

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Zowe V3 Resources

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Zowe V3 Contacts

#zowe-explorer-vsce OMP slack channel

Billie Jean Simmons

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/billiejeansimmons/
OMP Slack - @bsimmons
Email – BillieJean.Simmons@ibm.com

Adam Wolfe

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-b-wolfe/
OMP Slack - @Adam Wolfe
Email - adam.wolfe@broadcom.com

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Thank you!��Questions?