Duplicate Problem Report

[Ben_A]

I have a requirement to provide a method of cloning/duplicating an existing problem report for purposes of dividing the original listed problems into separate problem reports. Ideally, we would clone the Problem Report (maybe multiple times) and update the problem descriptions accordingly.

I've seen the ability to clone CAD objects (Save As) within Windchill but no such capability for any other object types.

Does someone have suggestions on how I could meet this requirement?

We are using Release 12.0.2.12 with PLMlink 12.0.2.7.

[avillanueva]

Templates would have been my suggestion except they are only for change notices. I think you might have to create your own action and custom code to implement this. 

[d_graham]

Several ways to make this happen.

How about detailing the use case so we can narrow down the best way to go.

[Ben_A]

It's pretty simple. A problem could contain fixes to several objects/documents. Because some take longer then others, We need to separate and track them individually. Sure we could just start new problem reports and manually copy the data from one to the other, but we really need a faster way. Some problem reports have over a dozen items and there are about 10 attributes per report. I'm pretty sure this can be done with code but I'm not sure how or where to do it.

[avillanueva]

Rephrasing just to make sure we understand. If you had a common issue with multiple objects, you want to be able to create a problem report for each object (1 per) and just change the object so all attributes of that problem report are same except the affected objects. Reason is that closure of those problems might be done at different times (cr/cns) and you want complete tracking.

Issue stems from the fact that if you link a CR to the problem report and it is resolved, it would mark the problem report as resolve however some of the items on the Problem report may remain unresolved if not part of the CR. Got it. This is complex to keep track of.

My suggestion would not be to immediately run to the other extreme. It might cut down on your need to customize a copy/clone action to where manual copy/paste of value would work. Some items on that problem report might be groupable and fixed in a single CR/CN. Instead of break 12 items into 12 PRs, perhaps its only 2 or 3 PR groups. There is some human decisions at play here. 

When the first CR is created and linked to the PR, you would know which items would need to be added. Any items remaining, could be moved to another PR as left overs. It would be done at that time. Another solution would be not to close the PR unless all items are addressed. This could be some custom logic to keep the PR in Accepted state if all the items on the affected items table were not addressed in some closed CR. You would only move to resolved state when all items are addressed. You can have multiple CRs associated to a single PR in that model.

[d_graham]

@Ben_A ,that’s not really what I meant by use case. I’m looking for details on how you would like to run the code that creates the duplicates.

For example:

A Problem Report exists that you need to make duplicates of. Do you go the that reports info page and select a custom action “Duplicate Problem Report” and then make one or several duplicates.

In short, how do you see the UI that creates the duplicate. I imagine somewhere a user needs to do something to trigger duplication. And when they trigger duplication should they be specifying the number of duplicates?

Making duplicates is not difficult but it needs to be triggered somehow. How do you see it being triggered?

David

[Ben_A]

Hi d_Graham,

Ideally we could execute the duplication via a right click menu option or by selecting Duplicate from the Actions menu. This would open the New Problem Report window and have the attributes pre-filled in. We could then modify the section where requests are listed, narrowing down to one, and click on Create.

Repeat as many times as needed.

Thanks

[d_graham · Accepted solution]

@Ben_A , what you described to very doable but it’s a customization for sure and I guess you know this.

What kind of help are you looking for?

If you’re not a coder you’re going to need one.

David