Finding empty workspaces

[BenLoosli]

I have a report that will list all workspaces with files in them. What I would also like is either a report or where to look in the Oracle tables, using an SQL command or SQLdeveloper, to find any empty workspaces.

We are doing an upgrade from Windchill 11.0 to Windchill 12.0 this week and I need to be sure that all workspaces are deleted before I start. I will be doing an 11.1 to 12.0 upgrade on my other system in a few weeks, so something that works for that would be nice, too.

[avillanueva]

Correct me field if I am wrong. Workspaces are not the problem. Local workspace caches would be a problem. The problem is made worse if the user has locally modified files in those local caches so ensuring that the users check in all work or ensure that there are no "plus" icons in workspace is key so they do not lose work. Deleting the workspace is a way to ensure this but an empty workspace should be of no concern at all.

[BenLoosli]

Even an empty workspace leaves a workspace cache behind, this is what I want to eliminate.

The users have been good at checking in files and removing workspaces. I am down to 5K files in workspaces from almost 30K a few days ago. I have a report that will list files in a workspace. What it does not list is an empty workspace.

The local structure of the workspace cache changes between versions of Windchill, so I want to delete them to prevent issues when the users start to use Windchill 12/Creo 7. They have been running Windchill 11.0/Creo 4 on this system.

[Marco_Tosin]

If the problems are as Antonio suggested, below are a couple of reports that might help.

The second is what I use every time we do a version upgrade of Creo or Windchill

How to get the new object list that are uploaded but not checked-in from Workspace in Windchill PDMLink

Query Builder report to fetch checked out objects in user's workspace in Windchill PDMLink

[ScottMorris]

When we did our 11.1 to 12.0 upgrade, I ran all the workspace reports and presented the data back to the user community. My front runner had over 150 workspaces. I did not remove user workspaces, just continually warned them about the pending upgrade and the need to simplify their workspaces and check in their new/modified data.

We upgraded from Creo 5.0 to Creo 8.0 one month before we upgraded from WC11.1 to WC12.0. Doing the Creo upgrade early was a big help because the Creo users were really good about data cleanup prior to the upgrade. We had 0 reports of corrupt workspaces or lost files in the transition.

The workspace report I run the most maintenance on is "deleted users". When people leave the company, they typically leave all their data behind. Once a quarter I run this report and remove as many workspaces as possible that belong to folks who have left the company.

[TomU]

I'll chime in as well and say there should be no need to check things in or delete workspaces prior to an upgrade.  It is best practice to create a new local cache for each user (on their local computer).  For this reason, anything not uploaded will be lost (left in the old cache).  Anything that has been uploaded, even if not checked in, will already be on the server and will be fine during the upgrade.

Windchill Upgrade Guide  (page 47)

[joe_morton]

Hi Ben,

To answer your original question, you can make a modified version of your current workspaces-with-files report. I'm assuming your using the report builder.

First level is a report of all workspaces. Then add a criteria that the workspaces are Not In a subselect.

In the subselect, report on all workspaces that have files in them. 

The report will now return all workspaces that don't have files. 

This is not the right linking for what you need, but should give a good idea of the linking you can use:

[BenLoosli · Accepted solution]

What I ended up doping was the brute force approach.

Using SQLdeveloper, I used table EPMworkspace to get the workspace names and the user id in IDA3M5.

Then using WTuser table, I found the usernames by referencing the id number

In Windchill as admin, I can look in other user workspaces. Since I knew from the report that they were empty, I just deleted them.

[TomU]

If this is something someone wanted to do automatically, or even on a schedule, I bet @d_graham could built a small utility to do this pretty easily...

[rhart]

There's a utility:

windchill com.ptc.cust.wsdelete.DeleteWorkspaces <user>

I think this deletes all the user workspaces including empty

[TomU]

@rhart,

I'm not seeing any mention of this from PTC, only from another community member back in 2010.  I also checked my Windchill server and it does not contain anything in the codebase called 'DeleteWorkspaces.'.  Are you sure this utility is supplied by PTC and included in Windchill?

[rhart]

CS26108 "contact Technical Support to request the DeleteWorkspaces utility"

I've used it on 11.1 M020 as instructed by PTC

[BenLoosli]

That utility is outdated! From the CS article:

• Note: The Utility is supported only for Windchill PDMLink 9.1. For New Windchill Releases, the Workspaces can be deleted from UI.

[RandyJones]

We have used that utility for years for the cadworker workspaces that refuse to be deleted from the UI. We always have a bazillion or so that give an error when attempting to delete from the UI:

Workspace publish4067939517793691481tmp has new objects.

Just updated from 12.0.2.9 to 12.1.2.0 and this utility still works. It does delete all workspaces for a user.