ChangeMan ZMF manages various types of datasets, likes staging libraries, promotion-, production- and baseline liraries, etc. Wouldn't it be great to have some type of browser to just browse (or view) any of these datasets from within a single ISPF panel? Maybe also some related datasets like Xnode DSNs, CMN100 reports, etc.?

True, you can view most (but not all ...) of these DSNs via available ChangeMan ZMF dialog functions, but the issues related to using those are:

• It takes quite a lot of jumping around in the CMN/ZMF dialog, eg to browse:
  • a package component you have to use S2.
  • a baseline or promotion component you have to use browse baseline.
  • a compressed listing you must use browse listing (and not browse baseline).
• Browsing a component in some ChangeMan ZMF library requires quite a few panels to be navigated, and they are not always obvious for new or occasional ChangeMan ZMF users, operations control, etc.

Not to speak about these variations of browsing ChangeMan ZMF managed components (which you just can't do via any ChangeMan ZMF function):

• Browse a staging output (like a LOAD, DBRM, etc), aka an ILOD component.
• Browse a promotion library that physically resides on a remote LPAR (join the XML training for ChangeMan ZMF to learn about using some great XML service to ask ChangeMan ZMF to go 'download' such component, which is one of the examples used in the Exploring the XML universe lesson).
• Browse a production library (either from a DP site, or on the P site itself).

To further illustrate this issue (pain?), how about viewing stacked reverse deltas outside CMN/ZMF, or browse of a compressed listings outside CMN/ZMF?

Enough illustrations of the need for a fully functional, easy to use ISPF dialog consisting of just a single ISPF panel (with some selection lists to select from), via which you can browse ANY ChangeMan ZMF managed dataset? Of course, such dialog should NOT expect the user to enter (know) any of the DSNs to be browsed (otherwise you could just use ISPF option 1 or 3.4). Here are a few partial alternatives to consider:

• Browsing a component located in some ChangeMan ZMF library is possible for most (not all) libraries, like staging libraries, shadow libraries and baseline libraries. To actually browse such component you can often (not always) use ChangeMan ZMF features such as "browse baseline" (which also facilitates browsing shadow libraries, but not production libraries or really remote promotion libraries).
• Use ISPF's native browse function, assuming you know the ChangeMan ZMF DSN to be browsed (use "query package" to look up that DSN if you don't know it).

If you want to really simplify all this (and/or prevent a ChangeMan ZMF helpdesk question to find the DSN to be browsed ...), consider the approach to address this issue as documented in the Z-Clues (login required).