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Version: Windchill 12.0
Goal: Append permanent CreoView links to an Excel file so that a user can bypass needing to open windchill to view a windchill item listed in an excel table.
Description:
I wrote this VBA script to retrieve a creoView link:
Function getCreoViewLink(PN As String) As String
Dim Value As Variant
Dim response As Object
Dim CreoViewRepresentations As Object
Dim creoViewLink As String
On Error Resume Next
' get response from helper function
' Get Response from Endpoint: https://" & server & ":443/Windchill/servlet/odata/v4/CADDocumentMgmt/CADDocuments?$select=Representations&$filter=Number eq '" & partNumber & "'&$count=false&$expand=Representations
Set response = GetCADDocumentData(PN, CONST_PTC_SERVER_DOMAIN, CONST_UNAME, CONST_PASS)
' navigate Json to "CreoViewURL"
Set CreoViewRepresentations = JsonConverter.ParseJson(response.responseText)("value")(1)("Representations") ' (1)("CreoViewURL")
' Exit early if cannot API request failed, return empty string
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
Err.Clear
getCreoViewLink = ""
Exit Function
End If
On Error GoTo 0
' Find the latest Representation
For Each Representation In CreoViewRepresentations
If UCase(Representation("CreoViewURL")("Label")) = "LATEST" Then
creoViewLink = Representation("CreoViewURL")("URL")
Exit For 'Exit early once found
End If
Next Representation
' Return CreoView link
getCreoViewLink = creoViewLink
End Function
The links returned are similar to this:
'creoview://?wcparams=eyJhdHRyaWJ1dGVzIjp7InVybGJhc2UiOiJodHRwczovL1NFUlZFUi9XaW5kY2hpbGwiLCJzZXNzaW9uaWQiOiJhMUpYZG1kTzc1ZFE0RUpRREZnd1Q1OXEwSU0uYjBiOTkiLCJ1c2VyaWQiOiJtbWFyYWlzIn0sImlkIjoiY3YifQ==`
After doing a Base64 Decode on the link I find the actual arguments being passed to creoview:
`creoview://?wcparams={"attributes":{"urlbase":"https://SERVER/Windchill","sessionid":"a1JXdmdO75dQ4EJQDFgwT59q0IM.b0b99","userid":"mmarais"},"id":"cv"}`
Printed pretty:
{
"attributes":
{
"urlbase":"https://SERVER/Windchill",
"sessionid":"a1JXdmdO75dQ4EJQDFgwT59q0IM.b0b99",
"userid":"mmarais"
},
"id":"cv"
}
Session IDs appear to be a 1 time use thing, they expire immediately after use and I get this error if I try to use the link a 2nd time:
How can I get the linkurl parameter? Currently from the Base64 Decoding it seems I'm passing a session ID argument...
I also would like to automate opening and merging a bunch of links at once, are there any parameters to bypass this window? Such as to merge a bunch of creoViews into a single session or to open them all separately.
Article - "Using the app View and Measure in 3D fails with "Must specify a session ID or linkurl parameter"": https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS275729
Not helpful, the reason I get the "Must specify a session ID or linkurl parameter" error is because the session ID expires after use.
As soon as someone uses the generated link it expires. I want to make the link permanent IE I someone can click on the link more than once.
I want information on what a linkurl looks like.
I decoded the wc params to this:
{
"attributes":
{
"urlbase":"https://SERVER/Windchill",
"sessionid":"a1JXdmdO75dQ4EJQDFgwT59q0IM.b0b99",
"userid":"mmarais"
},
"id":"cv"
}
if I replace sessionid with linkurl, what value does it take?
{
"attributes":
{
"urlbase":"https://SERVER/Windchill",
"linkurl":"????????????????",
"userid":"mmarais"
},
"id":"cv"
}