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Viewing a doc from WC without an account?

bobg
1-Newbie

Viewing a doc from WC without an account?

Is it possible to open a document for viewing from within WC (8.0) without having to log into an account? The reason I ask is that we store all of our business processes and QA documentation in WC and we’d like everyone to be able to access them as and when needed. (At the moment, duplicate files are stored on a (rather bad) intranet). However, the number of employees exceeds our licence count.

Can anyone recommend a solution to this delimma?

Many thanks

16 REPLIES 16
ddemay
1-Newbie
(To:bobg)

Talk to sales???? I had posted a similar question a little over a month ago and no one answered me. Maybe I got too much into the technical aspect, but if all you are is a viewer, and not a full blown WC pdm/plm user I don't see why PTC doesn't have two tiers of licensing, no name licenses so they are not tied to a specific user, or easy defition of whether one single proxy license can be used to let a internal web application to download files to users by proxy.

What are the rules PTC? No answer so far. I think sales is the best to answer and license contracts are probably site / customer specific.


David DeMay




Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Not sure if they still have it, but PTC used to have a type of license that "reset" each month (in theory, it isn't actually enforced by Windchill). So, if you have 100 employees, but only 10 of them would typically open one of the documents each month, you would only need 10 licenses, not 100. This license was intended for external suppliers that might only interact with a company a couple of months each year. Not sure if it still exist or what the rules are for this type of license.

Michael Holifield
DKI Consulting



-----End Original Message-----

Also – see attached document – this is about the ONLY document I know that actually tells you what some of the different types of licenses are, restrictions, etc

Hi,

I found this in the PDF Kevin attached to a previous post in this thread.
Sounds like a fit for the original posters use case:

Windchill "View/Print License" means that the License is limited to the
following basic Windchill capabilities: (a) ability to perform full-text
searches using the Windchill search engine to locate Windchill managed
objects via matches against keywords found in metadata and content data,
(b) the ability to perform database searches to locate Windchill managed
objects via matches against metadata, (c) the ability to traverse
cabinet/folder information classification structures to find
Windchill-managed objects, (d) for any managed object found via any of the
foregoing methods, the ability to view a "Properties? page that outlines
metadata properties of the Windchill-managed object and provides the
ability to download file content should any content exist as part of the
object, and (e) the ability to print objects. Without limitation, the
following functionality is specifically excluded from View/Print Licenses:
(1) the ability to participate in workflows and lifecyle action items, (2)
the ability to traverse or navigate relationships other than
cabinet/folder classification relationships (e.g., product structure
relationships, change request/order relationships, etc.), (3) the ability
to upload content files or to modify metadata in any fashion, and (4) the
ability to create or modify data.



Best regards,
Jørn A. Hansen
--
Bang & Olufsen a/s
3700-1 AV R&D Method & Process Development
Peter Bangs Vej 15, DK-7600 Struer

Hi Robert,
We provide a solution that allows you to map windchill to network drive
using one service account and mapped drive can be shared among users using
various mechanisms without them having to directly interface with Windchill.


*You probably need to confirm with PTC to see if multiple users accessing
content residing in Windchill using a single service account is allowed as
per their license policy.*

There are several use case for this solution. The solution can be easily
used with integration projects such as integrating Windchill with share
point and other content management systems.

Here is the screenshot of the solution

[image: Naja Drive.gif]


You will be also use the solution to give users access to windchill using
FTP capability built in within IE browser. I have attached the screenshot of
the solution.


[image: Naja FTP Drive.gif]

*Thank you*
*Sudeep Bhattarai*
*Principal Solutions Architect*
*NajaNaja Ltd*
*847-220-7008*
*
ddemay
1-Newbie
(To:bobg)

Thank you to everyone who replied. I know I didn?t start his thread, but
started one similar earlier and this provided a long needed answer for me.
I usually shy away from the sales end so I?m not as knowledgeable in that
area.





From: Jørn Andersen Hansen [

Also You can use custom java programm whitch work as Windchill browser. That will use single license and not limited amount of user.

But all user will view windchill objects on whitch have acess user under which custom programm connected on server.

Search/view/print licenses are not available to all customers, fro
what I remember when I was in that world. I believe you need to have
a certain number of licenses before that is an option. Obviously your
PTC sales rep would be helpful with this

Steve D.



On Jun 8, 2010, at 10:17 PM, David DeMay <->
wrote:

> Thank you to everyone who replied. I know I didn’t start his thread,
> but started one similar earlier and this provided a long needed ans
> wer for me. I usually shy away from the sales end so I’m not as kno
> wledgeable in that area.
>
>
>
>
>
> From: Jørn Andersen Hansen [-]



How about creating servlet that automaticly authorizes under some kind of default account (example: defaultViewer), and creating custom UI for this?

bobg
1-Newbie
(To:bobg)

Thank you all for your responses to my question, they certainly provide me with some insight into possible solutions.

Maybe I'm being a somewhat naïve to think that forking out potentialy 000's of pounds to simply “view” our own documents is a little bit outrageous, but hey hoÂ


Many thanks,

Bob
ddemay
1-Newbie
(To:bobg)

I heard this is prohibited and only makes auditing users accessing data using this custom means is non compliant. If you were to write the servlet to not use any IP owned by PTC i.e. SQL directly to Oracle...you might be okay?

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
sscole1
1-Newbie
(To:bobg)

My suggestion is to talk to your PTC or VAR account manager about view/print licensing for "extended" internal users.

External licensing obviously doesn't apply to internal users (and, yes, this is auditable). I believe using a "virtual" account for access is in violation of the EULA and obviously does not support role/user-based access control nor the ability to track who has accessed information in the system. I think you will find more prevalence of view/print licensing since it is often sold inconjunction with the Windchill Web Parts for SharePoint module which is designed to proliferate data through the SharePoint environment (which is a terrific way to share valuable PLM data to "extended users" outside of core engineering).

There may be rules around heavy/light/qvp licensing ratios along with economies of scale considerations, so you really need to talk to your individual account manager...

Steve

mreece
1-Newbie
(To:bobg)

Thank You Robert. Thousands of pounds to view our own documents.... Sums up the issue.



I think PTC has really missed the boat with the high cost of view/print licensing. They had the opportunity to get us to manage a large portion of our intellectual property within their tool, driving demand for Winchill and Product View licenses plus potentially more authoring tools. Instead we are forced to store this data in alternate locations so the masses can have access in a cost effective manner.



Even in a down economy Adobe is making millions of dollars giving their acrobat reader away free!


We are being forced to move from INTRALINK 3.x to Windchill. PTC has the ability to make this a positive or negative experience. So far they seem more concerned with grabbing money now than investing in the future of our relationship.


jkent
3-Visitor
(To:bobg)

We have written a java app that queries the database to find the viewables for a particular epmdoc then copies from the vault to the local machine to open it.



Basically the user enters the epmdoc file name and the application goes out and finds what it needs then copies it the local machine.







I assume you could do this with other docs as well. Here is a screen shot of what the sql gives us. These are all the viewable files related to model_program_new.drw












WayneBeck
1-Newbie
(To:bobg)

Could you share the complete sql code? I have an excel file that will let users query windchill but the user must login. This is not ideal due to cost.

ejhlti
1-Newbie
(To:bobg)

may want to check out this thread:


http://portal.ptcuser.org/p/fo/st/topic=16&post=87264#p87264


Quite some time ago I played around with this and was able to retreive drawings published in windchill from a command line prompt. No windchill user interface needed.


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