XBOM Manager - Administration Guide

Baselines are created from the review functions’ toolbars. A baseline can be created from scratch or as a copy of a previous baseline. The new baseline will get the same number as original part, but the revision will follow a format of AA, AB, AC…​ZZ. The different Baselines (of the same kind) are all revisions of each other. This also goes for baselines of different revisions of the main part.

The Engineering and Manufacturing Baselines are viewed from via two functions that typically are found in the Part types menu. The baselines are listed in (configurable) tables providing the pertinent information about them.

When a baseline is accessed via one of the links on the main review page, its structure is revealed, and in the case of an unreleased Manufacturing Baseline, this can be edited. At the time of creation, it is a copy of the EBOM. The structure can be edited in the same way as any structure in the TVC Structure Browser – Build Structure and Disconnect, by in-cell editing (NOTE: Object attributes edited in this way will update the original structure objects as well, relationship attributes are only updated in the XBOM structure). In addition, there are special, XBOM specific functions accessible from this menu.

Once baselines are created, it is possible to compare them against each other or against the source structure that is the basis for them. The comparison is based on a configurable index or key, typically the find number and name for EBOM structures, and any or all attributes are compared, and differences are presented in a table form.

When the compare function is launched, a dialog is presented where the user must select a structure to compare against. Moreover, the user can define whether or not to compare one or multiple levels, and also select a particular type of comparison configuration. There might exist several types of comparison configurations, which performs the comparison differently (different set of attributes, or the structure might be expanded differently).

From the comparison result, there is functionality available to synchronize the structure. As an example: removing items being added or adding items missing in the structure.

To configure the comparison behavior, please take a look into this chapter.

Query string parameters appended to a URL consist of name-value pairs separated by an ampersand (&) while the entire query string is separated from the rest of the URL using a question mark (?). The following example is a relative URL to the JSP page /url/to/some/page where the query string parameters param1 and param2 have been appended. The value of param1 and param2 is value1 and value2 respectively.

Standard ENOVIA settings will of course operate on these commands as any others. Some of the most common ones are listed below.

The launch functions for Engineering and Manufacturing Baselines are simple TVC tables with preset inquiries.

(For more information on configuring this type of TVC table, please refer to the Structure Browser Administration Guide).

This section will detail the input parameters and the default configuration that is done in the installation.

Table with URL parameters for configuring the XBOM Engineering Baselines command:

Table with URL parameters for configuring the XBOM Manufacturing Baselines command

Table with URL parameters for configuring the XBOM Doc/Part Used In commands

The Engineering and Manufacturing Baselines are navigated in similar ways; their construction is identical. The distinguishing difference between the two is the number of actions that are possible to run – the manufacturing baseline can be modified after creation, the engineering cannot. The call is all but identical to both commands; the page configuration is the distinguishing item.

Table with URL parameters for configuring the Engineering Baseline Structure command

Table with URL parameters for configuring the Manufacturing Baseline Structure command

The main actions are run from the Structure page as defined above. These actions are designed to update the structure, test different configurations, add placeholder items before the actual ones are available, and to run comparison functions. See XBOM User Guide for more information. All these functions except Build Structure require a selection in the table to be active.

The commands for creating, copying and deleting baselines are found on the page where the existing baselines are created.

Edit Details is called from the main properties page of the baseline. It uses the standard Matrix forms page and a customized form object. The same form also defines the view page – the same attributes that are shown in the properties page can be edited. The URL for the properties page is defined as the link on the menus for Engineering and Manufacturing Baselines.

Table with URL Parameters for XBOM View and Edit Details command

The page configurations make it possible to define which views, buttons, headers, and toolbars will appear on a list or structure page. The page configurations used in for XBOM Manager functions work the same way as those for the Structure Browser, with the exception that the structure pages in the XBOM pages are called with a specific URL:

Table below shows the Page configurations for the XBOM Manager functions

Search configurations contain a page configuration for the search result, and for definitions for the search panels. A normal search function will be called with the URL:

Table below shows the Search configurations for the XBOM Manager functions

Build structure configurations define (among other things) the search panel, the relationships involved and the display of source and target side functions of a build structure operation. The appearance of these is defined by separate page configuration items also included in the URL:

Table below shows the Build structure configurations from the XBOM Manager functions

Two TVC number generators are provided but it is only relevant to configure the one controlling the place holders (the other, for the baseline objects, controls objects that will not be seen by the end user).

Please note that TVC Number Generator objects are used, not standard eService Number Generators.

Table below shows the Number Generators for the XBOM Manager functions

The comparison configuration is as mentioned above stored in a page object called "XBOM Compare Configuration". This object contains XML data that defines one or more configuration. Each configuration defines how the comparison should be done.

When the user performs the comparison, the user can select (if multiple configurations exists) the desired configuration. In order to make the decision easier, each configuration should be given a human understandable name.

Below are some descriptions for how a configuration can be defined.

First of all, the basic layout of the XML looks like:

E.g. the top level element is "Configurations" and each configuration is placed within the "Configuration" element below this top level element.

Looking into a Configuration, the first thing to consider is for what type of objects this configuration applies to. This is configured via the "ForTypes" element as shown below:

The next thing to specify is how the data in the structure should be expanded. Below is an example:

This section defines how the structure is expanded. Note that you must both specify how the XBOM baseline structure is expanded and how the real structure should be expanded. This is differentiated by using the "XBOM" prefix on the elements.

The next thing to consider is how the comparison tool should be able to identify one row in one structure with the matching row in the other structure. This is accomplished by defining so called "Keys".

The key is defined within the KeySpecs element, and each key is defined under the KeySpec element. An example is shown below:

The above configuration snippet defines that for EBOM connections, the "Find Number" attribute is the only part of the key.

For Part Specifications however, the key consists of "type" and "name" of the object.

The key is used to identify rows that has been added or removed from one structure.

Further on, in order to be able to detect modifications, in addition to finding removed/added rows, one need to define one or more fields that is being used for the comparison.

A field is defined within the Fields element, example is shown below:

The field should be given a "Label" and an "Expression". The expression is a standard ENOVIA selectable expression.

Moreover, the field could be used for display purpose only, and not being a part of the Comparison. In that case, add the "comparable" attribute on the Field and set it to false.

In addition, a field could be defined to be comparable only for certain relationship-types. This is accomplished by using the "CompareIf" or "CompareUnless" elements.

Finally, the configuration should be given a friendly name. This is done by:

The display name can be specified for multiple languages, like:

Note that you should always specify a display name without a locale, as this will be used for any user that uses a language that hasn’t a corresponding display name.

Some additional settings exist in order to allow doing more advanced configurations.

When column data is fetched from Enovia database, to avoid performance overheads, table column data is lazy loaded by default. Real time data from Enovia database is fetched as user navigates through pages for visible rows only. If it is desired that data for all rows should be fetched in one go, evaluation of current page only can be disabled by setting evalCurrentPage parameter to false in pageConfig.

When baseline is opened via table link navigation, it can be set with parameter gothere:evalCurrentPage as shown below on baselines table pageConfig -

A command is added to the database called "TVC XBL Show Baselines". This command can be attached to the category tree menu for any type. Once attached, it will allow the user to list the baselines that have been created for the object, as well as allowing the user to create a new baseline.

The MQL code below illustrates how to add this command to the Part category menu.

You can add the command to the category menu for any type; however, you must ensure that the types you enable the XBL support for, should have at least one configuration allowing the user to create an XBL for the specific type of object in question.

Once the user clicks on the command, the baselines page is shown in the content frame as illustrated below.

The URL that is used to show the list of baselines is:

Baselines are created from the top object of the structure that is supposed to be "baselined".

By default, the created baseline will get the same number as the top object with the addition of a prefix that is based upon an auto-number generator. The revision will follow the format of A, B, C…​Z. The different Baselines (of the same kind) are all revisions of each other.

Below is a screenshot showing the "create baseline dialog" in the side panel.

Once the baseline is created, the new baseline will appear in the table among the other baselines.

Viewing a baseline can be achieved in a couple of different ways. These are shown below.

The differences between these are described below:

If the baseline is opened in the same window (using the blue "go-there" button), this will look like:

If the baseline is opened in a popup window, this will be shown as:

If the name of the baseline is clicked, the baseline object is shown and inserter in the category tree to the left.

The navigate view is where the user can view the "baselined" structure information.

When viewing a Baseline that was set to support edit upon creation, some additional functions in the user interface will appear (the exact functions that will appear depends on the configuration).

Examples of those are:

See this chapter for details how to configure and add commands that enables build structure-, quick connect- and disconnect operations.

Baselines can be compared in a few different ways:

Baselines compared against each other are restricted to be compared to other baseline created using the same source object, and using the same definition.

Comparing a baseline to a source object will make the comparison to use the same definition that was used to create the baseline.

Important to note here is that the "Result Table" selected will determine which data is actually compared. The columns in this table define what will be compared.

Any data that is not part of the selected table will not be compared. Added or removed rows will always be detected.

The comparison result indicates any added or removed row and possibly any modifications that have been done to a field in the table.

When you show a traditional list of object, or a structure, there is a new column type defined that allows the user to directly get access to the baseline(s) related to the object in the table (if any). If the object has a baseline, an icon will be shown that, upon click, will load the related baselines into the side panel.

From the side panel, the user can start the comparison tool, open the baseline or simply delete it.

The column type is called: "xbl-baselines".

The screenshot below illustrates how this might look like:

The actions available on a baseline shown in the side panel are:

To include recent changes in a baseline there is a renew command that deletes previous baseline definition and replaces it with a new one based on the same settings and input values.

The renew command is disabled by default and can be activated by copying the file WEB-INF/tvc/xbom/xbl/menu/BaselinesToolbar.xml into WEB-INF/tvc-ext/xbom/xbl/menu/BaselinesToolbar.xml and then uncomment the line with RenewBaseline.xml.

When the XBL configurations are defined in the page object, the following format is used (note that this is required as the page object holds multiple configurations).

When storing the XBL configuration as a resource (file in the application), the format looks like:

The difference is that the root element is the "Configuration" element and you should not assign the Configuration an ID, as the id will be calculated from the name of the file.

This chapter explains and describes the format of the Configuration.

Below is a sample configuration were the important sections are highlighted and numbered. The section is described in details later on in this chapter. (Note that this particular example is not usable, it’s for explanation use only).

The configuration is built up of 12 major sections; they are explained in the sub chapters below.

The table below lists the available TVC init parameters, which typically are set in the web.xml file within the TVC servlet definition. These are added like the example below: