Abstract: For use in an integrated development environment, such as Eclipse, a common connection registry of connections to remote iSeries systems is presented. The connection registry comprises subsystem objects that contain information specific to a particular tool and connection. These subsystem objects include iSeries Objects, iSeries Jobs, iSeries Commands, IFS Files, and IFS Commands. The framework further presents a common user interface called the remote systems explorer by which tools can be registered within a connection to an iSeries resource, or by which a new connection to an iSeries resource can be created. Each subsystem object type has a factory that has a plurality of application program interfaces by which connection objects and subsystem objects can be created, retrieved, maintained, updated, modified, stored in the registry, and/or deleted, etc. for that type of resource.