Business Admin: loadFromFiles

Jørn,

Thank you for providing this pointer to the example in the Windchill Help Center.  I'll take the action to look for additional examples and provide links.  Are you aware of gaps in the documentation in this regard?

Thanks,

Jane

Jane Zupfer
VP, Windchill Publications
T 763.957.8299   E -

Jane,

I'd say most is actually in there in that topic area. But findability could probably be improved on. As an example try finding the example about how to add <csvIBAValues> using the TOC. I just found it here more or less by accident under http://www.ptc.com/cs/help/windchill_hc/wc101_hc/index.jspx?id=WCDataLoad_LoadProdExampleCreateLibContainers&action=show That was not a big problem when I read that guide as a PDF document cover to cover. But since it's now available as single DITA chunks in the WHC you really start wondering why that example is in the CreateLibContainers chunk. It's not specific for loading into Libraries it could as well be a Product.

Another general observation would be to make those good examples stand more out in the related links in the top level TOC topics in that area. I think that loadFromFiles area is easiest to understand form the XML file examples. So let them stand out and be easy to find

Thanks for getting involved and looking into this - your effort with improving the documentation is appreciated!

Jorn

Jørn,

This is excellent feedback; thank you.  I found the example you pointed to fairly easily when I entered "csvIBAValues" as a search term in the Help Center, but I absolutely agree that making the loading guide more modular requires a new look at navigation.  For example, I really like the idea of more clearly labeling and linking to examples, separating them from other types of related information.  In case you are still looking for a PDF version of the document, we do make PDFs of the majority of our administrative documentation available on ptc.com.  You can find the most current (10.1) version of the data loading guide, in PDF format, here.

We're planning an initiative to significantly rework the loading guide for X-24, in order to make it more usable, increase the number of examples, and so on.  I'll continue monitoring this thread for ideas, and I'll welcome any additional feedback from you.

Regards,

Jane

Oh yes - the problem with search though is it's always easy to get the right hit when you know the exact phrase to search for. Try "loading IBA values" or "IBAvalue". Because the "csv" part of the phrase is something you only know when you loadFromFiles well. My point here is that search is great to have as a starter - for some cases -  but you it won't cover all cases.

I know about the PDF's. But I actually prefer the web version. It's much easier to link to specific topics for building my own knowledge base and for sharing. With the PDF's you can only link to pages and they are not stable across versions.

Looking forward to the X-24 docs 🙂

Jorn