Hi Pnatara,
short answer: No. Wished by myself this feature would exist. Not sure if someone in the community already made the attempt to build something. Its maybe possible to reuse content generator Methods for building this kind of feature.
This question needs to be addressed. The ArasLabs and other Method examples detail how to add content after the Technical Document has been created, not during initial Item creation.
I wish to use a server method to:
These steps must be completed before the user first opens the Technical Document Item, so a ItemInfo approach is not applicable, as the data is defined at the time of Item creation, not at the first view or edit by a user.
What we need in Aras is some kind of XML editor than can build XML structures. Actually not just for TechDocs, I have other user cases were I also would need XML or JSON for export to other data sources.
I wonder if the task it actually hard to achieve?
Importing Excel or CSV is not a big deal.
We mainly need an overview of how Innovator structures technical documents.
E.g. this one is a title element:
<Title aras:id="9861eafb8c444c5b98ea3410a80cb4df">
<aras:emph>Table of content</aras:emph>
</Title>
I assume the id is generated on demand. We "just" have to rebuild this structure and this way you should be able to import existing documents.
Easy. :D
I'm curious what you're envisioning for the XML editor. XML has a lot of variations and I doubt there'd be a one-click converter from any source of technical documentation (what if it was kept as a word doc? or a pdf?) but exporting is at least easier than importing.
I might dig into the details of techdocs. No promises, but we have been on the lookout for new blog posts. . .
Hi Skyler,
good question! Of course in my vision I mainly had my very own company specific XML files in mind. In my case I wished to have more XML possibilities in these three scenarios:
Use case #1 (XML editing): XML editor for TechDoc translations. A small tool so users can translate a TechDoc inside Innovator without having to deal with the XML tags and structure.
Use case #2 (Simple 'classical' XML structure): This is something we actually use already. At the same time Aras presented the DTC application, we had developed something similar for managing license and product configuration files.
These are files that are programmed into our products and e.g. contain information like serial number, revision but also which features are unlocked in the product. It´s common that customers start with a basic version of the product and then upgrade by applying a new license (a little bit similar to the Aras license concept :) )
In our case the configuration and license files are XMLs generated and stored in Innovator. As mentioned before, it´s like DTC - but for software. Instead of storing lot and batch information of physical Parts, we generate these files directly on-demand. Also the actual xml and license key generation is mainly done by an external software. We right now use Innovator for providing the UI and storing the results.
It´s a pretty specific use case and I agree that there are tons of XML variations possible. And of course it´s already a working solution, so it´s nothing were I right now need a XML solution in Innovator.
Use case #3 (Let´s get tough): Export a filtered Part BOM structure in a way it fit´s the EU SCIP database XML database scheme.
Since this year electronic manufacturers have to provide information to a public EU database as soon as their products contains SVHCs (materials dangerous for health). Customers can collect this information manually, but also can use smart cloud databases like provided by the Aras CE application. With this data it´s pretty easy to filter your BOM to show your components that contain these kind of dangerous materials (e.g. Lead in diodes or connectors). When we now can convert this AML query result to the XML format required for the SCIP database, it´s much easier for customers to upload their data. Building the XML structure is the hardest part.
This one is pretty useful and money-safeing PLM use case. There are right now not much SCIP connectors available that can blend into Innovator. If of interest for anyone: There is one I can recommend for being used with Innovator. It can be used in a Method, can build the XML structure and can connect to the SCIP database. All you have to provide is the data.
But with some research and development, it wouldn´t be hard to build something similar directly in Innovator. Hardest Part is the XML structure as the REST connection is pretty standard. Would be a perfect community project.
--
So these were my example use cases from the 'real-world'. It´s of course not possible for Aras to provide a standard solution for everything. I think Use Case #1 is a useful addition to TechDoc, Use Case #2 is an interesting addition to DTC and Use Case #3 is a great addition for Aras CE.
All of them use different kind of XML, what a joy! [emoticon:44a8a53ad3364ea78a16c5a3229f75bb]
But thanks for mentioned TechDocs! Have forgotten that it also can export XML format. I mainly used TechDocs PDFs so far, but I assume with some custom DocumentTypes it should also be able to create custom xml structures.
Hope this very long post brought you some ideas for your next blog post. :) . If your mind is now completely blown up, just make a simple one, like an overview of the positions of CUI sections.
Thanks and best regards!
Angela
