Safe Area Directory Structure
Under the wtSafeArea directory shown in the previous diagram, notice that a similar directory structure is shown for the siteMod, ptcCurrent, and ptcOrig subdirectories. For example if the installed file <Windchill>/codebase/templates/abcx.html has been modified, then the following set of related files is located under the wtSafeArea directory:
wtSafeArea/siteMod/codebase/templates/abcx.html
wtSafeArea/ptcCurrent/codebase/templates/abcx.html
wtSafeArea/ptcOrig/codebase/templates/abcx.html
The following summary describes the purpose of each subdirectory:
siteMod -- contains the site version of each PTC file that you have modified and want to run in production.
ptcCurrent -- contains the current PTC version of the file. This is a version newer than the version in the ptcOrig directory and is copied to the directory by the Windchill Service Pack when the installer finds a corresponding file in the siteMod directory.
ptcOrig -- contains the original file from PTC. Put the version of the file in this directory before you modify it for the first time and place the customized version in the siteMod directory.
The following items describe the purpose and processing of the files under each of the subdirectories in more detail:
• siteMod
◦ Under this directory structure, store the site version of PTC files that you modify and want to run in production
◦ When running the
Windchill Service Pack installer, selecting the
Complete installation type option directs the installer to copy files from the siteMod directories to the selected installation directory. The files that are copied overwrite existing files in the installation directory. The actual file copying is done by the execution of the installSiteChanges target of the
<Windchill>/bin/swmaint.xml Ant script. For more information on this target, see
PTC Script for Working with Customized Files.
◦ You must place and update files in this directory yourself; the Windchill Service Pack installer does not modify the files in the directory.
◦ Although the previous diagram only shows a codebase subdirectory of siteMod, modified versions of files from other directories can also be deployed from the siteMod directory. For example, you can add a tasks directory under the siteMod directory and in that directory, store customized Windchill Info*Engine tasks.
• ptcCurrent
◦ This directory structure holds the most current PTC versions of files you have modified (as identified by the presence of those files under the siteMod directory).
◦ Windchill Service Pack installer automatically places files in this directory when the following things are true:
▪ The siteMod directory exists.
▪ There are files in the siteMod directory that are being updated by the service pack installer.
The files copied to the ptcCurrent directory are the files in the service pack that have the same name as files found in the siteMod directory. Instead of copying these files to your installation directory, the files are put in the ptcCurrent directory. This means that your customized files are not overwritten by the updated PTC files.
After running the service pack installer (using any of the installation types), this directory contains updated PTC versions of the set of files that have been modified at your site.
◦ A file appears in the ptcCurrent directory when PTC delivers an updated version in a maintenance release, but only after you initially create your customized version in the siteMod directory.
• ptcOrig
◦ Before making first-time modifications to a file, put a copy of the original PTC file in this directory. The original PTC file is the last version of the file that PTC delivered prior to making modifications. This file could be the file supplied in a major release or in one of the maintenance releases.
◦ You must place files in this directory yourself; the Windchill Service Pack installer does not modify the files in the directory.
◦ ptcOrig is a suggested directory name; there are no PTC tools that actually look for this name.
After setting up this directory structure and installing updated files, you can compare the most recent version of a file from PTC (located in the ptcCurrent directory) with the currently deployed file (located in the siteMod directory) and the original version of the file (located in the ptcOrig directory). From the comparisons, you can determine how the version in the siteMod directory should be updated to incorporate the latest changes from PTC. For additional information, see
Using the Safe Area Directory Structure When Installing the Windchill Service Pack.
Text Tailoring Directory Structure
Store your updates to PTC-supplied RBINFO files in the wtCustom directory shown in
Directory Structure Diagram for Customized Files and Text Tailoring. The details on which files can be updated and how to do the updates are in
Best Practices for Customizing Files Supplied by PTC.
Parent topic