How can I link to an object in Windchill from an external source? Similar to the link in the email in a Review Board Disposition...

[ewilson-2]

I've had no luck establishing a link from an external program to an object (or even an object's page) in Windchill.  I know there are system-generated links, and user-generated links (which get classified as objects themselves).  And in MyNotebook - I can create "General links" and "Hot links".  What I would like to be able to create is something similar to the link generated in the Review Board Disposition emails, meaning the URL takes you into Windchill and accesses the page of the object in question.  Help?

[BineshKumar1]

You can write a custom JSP with the code from here - https://support.ptc.com/appserver/cs/view/solution.jsp?n=CS143441

com.ptc.netmarkets.util.misc.NmAction infoPageAction = com.ptc.netmarkets.util.misc.NmActionServiceHelper.service.getAction( com.ptc.netmarkets.util.misc.NmAction.Type.OBJECT, "view");

Regards

Binesh Kumar

Medtronic

[ewilson-2]

Thanks for your reply, Binesh.

I looked through various link types in Windchill - System-generated, User Generated - both General, and Hot Links.  What I'm wanting to do seems very fundamental to me.  I didn't expect I'd have to approach it from a custom script.

Where do I go to learn the basics of programming customizations with Info*Engine and JSP?

Eli

[mwaite]

Start with Windchill help.  There are several manuals just for InfoEngine. Customization Guide, User Guide, Admin Guide.  We fought with it for a while and then took a class from FELCO Solutions. That gave us a big running start.

[RandyJones]

Eli Wilson wrote:

I've had no luck establishing a link from an external program to an object (or even an object's page) in Windchill.  I know there are system-generated links, and user-generated links (which get classified as objects themselves).  And in MyNotebook - I can create "General links" and "Hot links".  What I would like to be able to create is something similar to the link generated in the Review Board Disposition emails, meaning the URL takes you into Windchill and accesses the page of the object in question.  Help?

If you know the objects OR you can create a link like this:

http://windchill.mydomain.com/Windchill/servlet/TypeBasedIncludeServlet?oid=OR:wt.epm.EPMDocument:1289575&u8=1

The tricky part is figuring out what the OR is. However is is simply the ida2a2 of the object from the object's database table with format of OR:objectType:ida2a2

[ewilson-2]

Thanks Randy,

What I'm looking for specifically is a way to link to an Attachment.  Since posting this thread, I've had success extracting a hyperlink for Primary Content - but I'm not able to find any information to build a link to the Attachments.

I'm not familiar with the OR or ida2a2 information you referenced above.  I'm client-side on this - not playing with the server directly.  Do I need to be?

Thanks,

Eli

[RandyJones]

Eli Wilson wrote:

Thanks Randy,

What I'm looking for specifically is a way to link to an Attachment.  Since posting this thread, I've had success extracting a hyperlink for Primary Content - but I'm not able to find any information to build a link to the Attachments.

Attempting to do this with attachments makes a difference because as far as I know attachments do not have a "page" to link to. The only are only included in the pages of objects that support attachments. Probably the best you are going to be able to do is provide a link that downloads the attachment or displays it in your browser. You could probably build a custom jsp page that would act as a page for the attachment.

I'm not familiar with the OR or ida2a2 information you referenced above.  I'm client-side on this - not playing with the server directly.  Do I need to be?

Not necessarily however it is good to know what is going on behind the scenes with the java api's and the database tables. Knowing this will give you a big advantage when attempting to do something like this. Like Michael mentioned above Felco Solutions offers some invaluable courses. I have taken 2 of them and can vouch for them.

David Graham gave a presentation several years ago on how the database is working in Windchill. See this post:

Re: Dynamically build a url link to a CAD object and the thumbnail representation in Windchill