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L
lury1-Visitor
1-Visitor
October 11, 2019
Question

Only a Windchill site administrator can edit a workflow template

  • October 11, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 2626 views

Windchill PDMLink 11.0 M030-CPS11

 

Only a Windchill site administrator can edit a workflow template.

Users who are members of the Administrators group at the site level cannot modify an existing workflow template.

 

Description

Editing a workflow template.

When checking the syntax of an existing block, the check is successful.

When creating any new block (for example, Conditional Router), when checking the syntax, an error message is displayed:

 

ERROR : WF_EXEC_EXPR <adminPLM> -    compile - OUT: D:\ptc\Windchill_11.0\Win

dchill\temp\WfExpression_<adminPLM>.java:17: error: '{' expected

public class WfExpression_<adminPLM>{

                             ^

1 error

 

where <adminPLM> is the login of a user who is a member of the Administrators group at the site level

 

File with name ”D:\ptc\Windchill_11.0\Windchill\temp\WfExpression_<adminPLM>.java”  

not in the specified directory.

 

If you add a new block under the password of the administrator of the Windchill site under which Windchill was installed, the syntax check is successful.

 

What can I do so that all users in the administrators group can change the workflow template?

 

I tried to add a user at the site level to the group:Workflowadministrators and WorkflowAuthors.

Did not help.

2 replies

D
DmitryC14-Alexandrite
14-Alexandrite
October 13, 2019

Hi Lury,

 

 

To be simple, editing workflow templates require 2 different levels of access:

  • Anything related to Java coding
  • Everything else (teams, deadlines, basic blocks, notifications, etc.)

 

All Java-related modifications (as, potentially, extremely harmful), including checking syntax, require Site admin. 

I would strongly recommend editing workflow templates in a test environment first for multiple reasons. You may also have slightly more relaxed rules about who can be a site admin on your test server.

Then a production site admin would just export/import the new _tested_ version of a workflow each time.

 

There MAY be a way to allow specific groups (not site admins) to edit java expressions, but I am not aware of it, you may ask the support about it. And, in my opinion, you definitely should have a good reason for doing this.

 

 

Kind regards,

Dmitry

Y
yadavankur12-Amethyst
12-Amethyst
October 15, 2019

I checked just now, orgadmin could not create expression robot. Added him to Workflow Author group and expression robot button was available, everything you describe not working worked for me. Maybe your user is missing some other permission?

L
lury1-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
October 16, 2019

I work as a user in the Site Administrators group.
Windchill allows me to create a new workflow template or to modify an existing one, modify and save it.
Windchill allows me to edit the contents of an existing process.
Allows editing Java code in existing blocks. The syntax check succeeds.

 

A syntax check error appears only when creating a new block!
The error is displayed even if the new block is empty and does not contain any Java code!

 

I added myself to the Workflowadministrators and WorkflowAuthors group.
Nothing changed.
What rights should I add?

 

This seems like a bug in Windchill
The error appeared after updating Windchill PDMLink 10.1 M040 to Windchill PDMLink 11.0 M030-CPS11
The update was successful.
On Windchill PDMLink 10.1 M040, everything worked correctly.

 

As DmitryC wrote, we are editing the process on a test server. Then we transfer the changes to the working server as a user, the administrator of the Windchill site.

 

But I wanted to fix the error so that other users in the Site Administrators group could edit the workflow template.

 

Maybe I need to enter additional settings in the system?
For example, Windchill has added advanced settings so that the user can access the help system.
By default only Windchill Administrators can access Windchill Help.
Here is a link to the help solution https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article?n=CS161210
It says here how to connect users to the help system or disable the check altogether.

D
DmitryC14-Alexandrite
14-Alexandrite
October 16, 2019
@lury wrote:

A syntax check error appears only when creating a new block!
The error is displayed even if the new block is empty and does not contain any Java code!

Can you try saving the workflow before you check syntax?

I can get similar behavior when the workflow does not physically exist yet. For example:

1. Create workflow

2. Create Execute Expression robot

3. Paste my code

4. Hit 'Check Syntax' button <- Error here

 

But if I save the workflow first - everything just works:

1. Create workflow

2. Create Execute Expression robot

3. Paste my code

4. Save the workflow

5. Hit 'Check Syntax' button <- everything works

 

Regards,

Dmitry.

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