Ever thought of a usecase where it would be great to have a clean, stable, fast and simple way to communicate with Windchill from any kind of other application?
The first approach for something like this would be to make use of the InfoEngine and its possibility to define tasks and webjects etc.
You can then communicate using XML over the network - you need to send and receive this XML and it's quite specific to the type of InfoEngine tasks you're using. Maybe not always the most generic way to tackle communications?!
We gave the thing some thought and defined a way to talk to Windchill PDMLink using a modern, state of the art web API. A very small and lightweight extension on the Windchill Server which communicates over plain HTTP - all within the authentication realm and permissions of Windchill!
Just send a simple request and get the results with the information you need. No additional hazzle with setting up any InfoEngine tasks or other configuration. Just send your request and get the results.
Requests can be of several types - they typically retrieve information. But you can also send some information to create, update or add any kind of information to objects managed in Windchill.
With this kind of API, it becomes possible to create powerful applications leveraging the latest developments in web-applications. Check out our other posts in the blog here or take a look at some of our videos on youtube:
Don't hesitate to contact us in case of any interest... we're here to get it done: simple access to complex information!
