Additional Capabilities > Service Information Management > About Service Structures > Managing Service Structures > Manage Applicability
  
Manage Applicability
You can use the Manage Applicability menu option to assign two types of applicability information to the components of a structure:
• Expressions—Selections based on the option set defined for the product. To set this applicability, select the Assigned Item Expressions and Assigned Usage Expressions options in the Manage Applicability dialog box.
See Options and Choices for information about options and choices.
• Service Effectivity—Information such as date and serial number ranges to identify product configurations that remain serviceable. To set this applicability, select All or Usage as Assignment in the Add Service Effectivity dialog box.
If you are creating content that is intended for use in Arbortext Content Delivery, PTC recommends that you set the applicability option for either parts list items or their usage, but not for both. For example, if the Assigned Item Expressions applicability is set for a parts list item, use All, not Usage, in Assignment when adding service effectivity for that item.
The reason is that by default, Arbortext Content Delivery is configured to filter applicability using the intersection logic. The filtered result includes items that met intersection requirements of all the specified service effectivities and options and choices. In Windchill, information is filtered using the union logic. The filtered result contains items with any of the specified service effectivities and options and choices. In addition to using the intersection logic, Arbortext Content Delivery rolls down effectivity to all the members of a group or section. It rolls up information element applicability to groups or sections to access the information element while navigating through the structure. The rolling mechanism may not perform correctly if the applicability option is set for both parts list item and its usage.
Based on business requirement, you can configure Arbortext Content Delivery to apply union logic when filtering using the applicability option. To set union logic as the default behavior, perform the following action:
In Arbortext Content Delivery, click Deployment Configurator > general setting > Parts Service Effectivity Merging > Parts Service Effectivity Merging Logic > Union prior to loading the content. This configuration setting is applicable on parts lists and parts only.
For more information on effectivity in Arbortext Content Delivery, see the topics Context Effectivity for Information Elements and Editing Properties of the Configurator Entities in the Arbortext Content Delivery Help Center.
You can manage applicability of multiple items of an information structure or publication structure. In case of multiple selections, you can manage only the service effectivity information.
Selected Items
This field lists the items in the structure to which the applicability settings will be assigned. This field is enabled when you select multiple items (of the same type) in a structure and choose the Manage Applicability option.
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You can assign service effectivity settings to multiple items. It is not possible to assign applicability based on options and choices to multiple items.
The Manage Applicability window displays the flag Multiple Items Selected when you have selected more than one item in the structure.
Expressions
In this field you can use expressions to specify the option choices that apply to a component:
• Assigned Item Expressions — for the global use of an object
• Assigned Usage Expressions — for the object in a specific context
You can specify the choices by either selecting them from the option set assigned to the product (basic expression) or by using AND, OR, and NOT statements (advanced expression).
See Assigning Choices to Service Structure Objects, Assigning Applicability to a Parts List, Assigning Choices to Part Usages, and Assigning Applicability to Objects in a Folder for information on assigning choices to structure components.
Service Effectivity
In this field you can create , edit , and delete service effectivity objects and associate them to an object in a structure.
Use to associate product hierarchies to a service structure. For more information on associating a product hierarchy to a service structure, see Associating Product Hierarchy to a Service Structure.
See Managing Service Effectivity for further information.
You can define service effectivity with the following information:
Field
Description
Type
The type of service effectivity information — the default choices are:
• Serial Number
• Date
• Serial Number and Date
Context
The item with which service effectivity is associated.
Enter details of the object (e.g. Number) in the field or use the Advanced search option to locate it.
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When creating a service effectivity filter for a structure, this field details the context of an item/usage within its parent.
You must specify a context to activate the value entry fields.
Serial Number
The values for a Serial Number effectivity — the available fields are:
• Range — a finite range of values
Enter start and end values in the From and To fields.
• Single value — one single value
• Open start — all values up to a certain serial number
Enter the end number in the To field.
• Open end — all values from a certain serial number upwards
Enter the start number in the From field.
To specify a value of All, do not make any selections or add any values in this field. This option is available when you have specified a context in the Context field.
Date
The values for a Date effectivity — the available fields are:
• Range — a finite date range
Enter start and end dates in the From and To fields.
• Single value — one single date
• Open start — all dates up to a certain date
Enter the end date in the To field.
• Open end — all dates from a certain date onwards
Enter the start date in the From field.
To specify a value of All, do not make any selections or add any values in this field. This option is available when you have specified a context in the Context field.
Serial Number and Date
Values for both Serial Number and Date effectivity.
Assignment
The object use for which service effectivity applies:
• All — object (global use)
• Usage — object as used within the specified context
Summary
The service effectivity information that has been configured.