Report Manager - User Documentation

Details

Features

• Designs a vertical pattern PDF report.
• Can include free formatting of business data.
• Can include all types of media elements.
• Interface with Query Builder to include any data.
• Uses a object with a process objects as a source.
• Can export templates as Windchill Extensions.
• Can import templates in Windchill Extension format.

Overview

This guide is to assist the report manager in the use of the PDF report design tool. The designer is a GUI interface with drag and drop elements to create a PDF sheet that can be appended to an existing PDF within Windchill. It may also be downloaded separately.

When designing contextual data can be added by using keys that are defined here.

User Guide

Access

The manager can be accessed as follows:

Getting started

The extension comes with a demo report that is available.

Design principals

The manager uses a vertical design pattern; elements will stack and be automatically pushed to additional pages as require. It is not possible to place elements on horizontal access. The reason for this is it simplifies the UI and training required and also allows the design to scale on various page sizes.

Elements do have spacing and will appear with no gap. This is deliberate to allow a form structure to be built by combining elements to appear to the user as a single element. Thus a spacer is used when separation is required.

Creating and Updating Templates

On the report manager, a user can create a new template or preview, edit or delete an existing template.

NOTE: Only admin users will have access to the templates and permission to create new templates.

The template name is unique and can be used in a workflow template or in the Windchill UI to add this template to a representation of a document or a CAD Drawing. If the reporting framework is used then reports for other business objects such as Change Notices or Promotions may be added.

Design Elements

On the report template, the user can add and configure Text, Image, Properties, Tasks, Spacer and Queries.

Note on borders: When elements are stacked the bottom element will overlap the top one. This is deliberate to avoid double borders. The top element will control the border so will need a bottom border to ensure the following element has a top border.

Text Element

The text element is used for headings, sub heading and text blocks such as IP notices. It supports the data keys to inject data from the source object or business object.

Image Element

The image does not scale and will need to be adjusted to the page size.

Properties Element

This is a key value pair display to allow the design of a form. These elements can be stacked to design a complex form and can be displayed in multiple columns.

Embedded Url

The cell supports an embedded url using a business key as hyperlink. This key only works on the Properties and Table (Task, API, Query Builder) blocks.

Syntax

$[url("<display text>","<url>")] 

Example

$[url("${number}", "https://windchill-extensions.ptc.com")] 

Result

Both <display text> and <url> fields support Business Object Keys.

Example

$[url("${number}", "http://beauty.ptc.com/Windchill/app/#ptc1/tcomp/infoPage?oid=OR:${oid}")] 

Task Element

Task elements are used to display workflow task participants such as approvers and reviewer. It supports the business object process and in the case of a change that includes the notice and the task.

The task rows also support the height parameter to ensure cells are of sufficient size to support a hand written signature.

Embedded Images

The cell supports an embedded image that can exist on the file server that the Windchill server has access to.

Syntax

$[image("imagepath")] 

Example

$[image("W:/testimages/${number}/signature.png")] 

Result

You can also resize the image to make it smaller specifying a number after the image path, for example:

$[image("W:/testimages/${number}/signature.png", 0.5)]

This would make the image 2 times smaller.

Spacer Element

A spacer allows use to separate elements, note this is useful for also adding borders to elements that are below.

Also allows to set a page break.

Query Element

A query can be created in the Query Builder tool

The interface provides ways to group query result by a given column, starting at index 0.

The grouping is made according to the field of the columns.

Examples: Not grouped:

Grouped by 3rd column:

The report should be created using the Report Manager.

They should include the following parameters:

These ids are not the full oid but only the long number using in the db to identify an Windchill object (these are unique). It should be used as a foreign key in the query.

Adding Icons

Icon column can be added using the top entry in the query.

This will show as an icon (use column widths to adjust size).

There are some icons images predetermined however more can be added in the configuration.

Note: The images must exist in the windchill codebase, they can be deployed using an extension.

API Element

Example setttings

Class: com.wincomplm.wex.kernel.api.invoke.WexInvoker
Method: invoke
Arguments: com.wincomplm.wex-report-manager,test-methods.example,Doc Name ${name}
Headings: Head 1, Head 2, Head 3

This is the code that is providing the data

@WexComponent(uid = "test-methods", description = "Wex API Test Methods")
public class APIMethods extends ReportRestMethods {

    @WexMethod(name = "example", description = "API example report")
    public List<List<String>> example(String myargument) throws Exception {
        List<List<String>> rows = new ArrayList();

        List<String> rdataa = new ArrayList();
        rdataa.add("a 1 :" + myargument);
        rdataa.add("a 2");
        rdataa.add("a 3");
        rows.add(rdataa);
        List<String> rdatab = new ArrayList();
        rdatab.add("b 1");
        rdatab.add("b 2");
        rdatab.add("b 3");        
        rows.add(rdatab);
        
        return rows;
    }//example
}

The API element allows the use of calling methods, an example used above is creating a table using a test method API.

The API must be static and return

List<List<String>>

All rows must be equal length

The headings are optional, but must be a comma seperated list matching the return size of the API

General

Table properties

Two elements create tables Task and Query and these are configurable tables that may have 1 to n columns. These may have different sizes of data so it is useful to control the relative size and this is done with the Column widths.

These are percentages and if nothing is specified the table is equal width columns, if not the columns widths are used. In the case of more columns the remaining percentage is equally divided between them.

Template properties

Each template has a properties section that allows the designer to select the page size and orientation.

Note Auto means the page will match exactly the PDF page size it is being appended to. In preview mode A4 is used.

Preview

Once the user has set up the template, it can be previewed to see how the configuration looks like:

Testing

Associating test data

For testing the designer can also associate a template to a document and a change or promotion by entering the numbers. It will always use the latest version and iterations for these objects.

If no document is specified, the system will use the change or promotion also as the business object in addition to the same object being the primary business object.

Exporting and Importing Reports

To Do