Adding a Custom Action to the "Quick Links" > "Help" Dropdown Menu

[BenPerry]

I thought it would be a good idea to source our company training documents in the Quick Links section of Windchill so that they were "just a click away" for the users.  In doing so, I thought it would be a good idea to document the process and share it with others.

I hope you find this information useful.  You can use this information to add the link shown.  But you can also use this information as a general guide for Windchill's Action Model architecture, if you generalize the steps.

Customization Goal:

Custom company-specific training documents have been created.  Add a hyperlink to these training documents in the “Quick Links” drop down menu in Windchill.  I am attempting to paste a screenshot below.  I hope it works.  I can only add a URL to an image hosted on another site.

screenshot.png

[MikeLockwood]

In 10.2 (I think only in M020), you can now finally very easily add your own topic / documents (HTML and/or PDFs) to the WIndchill Help System.  I played with this quite a lot - very nice.  Eliminates the need for above for the most part.

[BenPerry]

Mike,

Thank you for your input.  Indeed I have explored your suggested option of adding my content to the WHC.  However, that method lost both my vote, and the users vote.  A separate training document was preferred over adding it to the WHC.

[MikeLockwood]

There is a lot to be said for having the documents separate.  At Alcon we considered this carefully many times and made a few major changes in approach over 15 years.

It may be possible to somehow get the best of all but I don't know what this is yet::

- Documents should have a simple management approach but still allow for Revisions; ideally keep them in a Windchill Library.  Users should somehow easily be able to tell if there is a new Rev / be notified thatt there is a new Rev.

- Documents should be searchable, by both title and internal content.

- Should be able to link to these documents, from workflow task instructions, on wizard pages, from Documents Actions, etc.  These links should go to latest Rev automatically.

- A rehosted (e.g. training) system should have the same Documents available via the same methods as production.

Probably many more could be added to this list.  Might be good to have a discussion on this and see what people are using now.  Can maybe all steal each others' best ideas and come up with something better for all.

In the past at Alcon, we discussed this wish list with PTC many times and always decided not to supplement the WHC help system at all.  I'm encouraged by what is now available in 10.2, but it only meets a very few of the needs listed above.