Windchill ESI services provide:

a. a GetResource Info*Engine task to support the RPC request for creating resource information from Windchill manufacturing resource data.

b. Java classes that extract the Windchill data and format the RPC response.

c. access to the major features of the GetResource RPC support classes via the Windchill Adapter.

A resource (such as a Plant, Tooling, Process Material, Work Center, Resource Group or a Skill) may be published in any of the following modes:

a) Object-centric – here, the resource or a resource structure may be published as a standalone object, or as an object associated to a process plan (via an operation or process plan to part association); in the latter case, publishing the process plan causes the resource or resource structure to be published.

b) CN-centric – here, the resource or a resource structure may be associated to a Change Notice, or to a process plan (via an operation) which in turn is associated to a Change Notice as a resulting object. Publishing the Change Notice causes the resource or resource structure to be published.

The Java classes mentioned above are usable, and in many cases, extendable by customizers. Javadoc descriptions of the supported classes are provided.

Windchill ESI services render resources using certain renderers, all of which extend the abstract base class BasicESIRenderer. In turn, this class implements the only renderer interface provided by ESI services, viz., ESIRenderer. The relevant classes are described in the Resource Classes section of this document.