MPMLink Explorer Customization Overview

Windchill MPMLink is an add-on module to Windchill PDMLink and all Windchill MPMLink explorers are built using the Product Structure Explorer (PSE) infrastructure. Many of the customizations that can be done to Windchill PDMLink, in particular customizations affecting the PSE, are propagated to Windchill MPMLink. For more information on customizing Windchill PDMLink and the PSE, refer to the relevant sections in this guide.

Additionally, many aspects of the way Windchill MPMLink appears and behaves can be customized by using the Preference Management utility. Windchill MPMLink preferences are located in the Product Structure Explorer section of the Preference Management utility.

Any changes made to the XML configuration changes are applied when the Method Server is restarted. To avoid having to restart the method server after each configuration change, activate the following property using the Windchill Shell:

This property will automatically rebuild the jar that contains all XML configurations. However you will need to restart your applet, and clear your client Java cache.

Any error in an XML file will prevent the jar from being built properly. To enable logging in the Method Server console add the following line to the file_codebase\WEB-INF\log4jMethodServer.properties.

When moving to new versions of Windchill, changes in the XML files are not automatically migrated. Changes in these files should be clearly documented. For more information, see Setting Up a Directory Structure for Managing Customized Files and Text Tailoring.

The following table lists the main Windchill MPMLink Explorer configuration files. Additional configuration files pertaining to more specific customizations are listed in various sections in this chapter.

File	Description
<explorer>Main.xml	Defines the general application layout (tree, tabs)
<explorer>Structures.xml	Defines the navigation model for the application (tree hierarchy, selection to tabs)
<explorer>Action*.xml	Defines the actions
<explorer>TablesAndPanels.xml	Defines what are the visible attributes in the tree, tables and on panels (wizards)
<explorer>ForSearch.xml	Defines the attributes that appear in your search criteria as well as the ones to display in your search results
<explorer>MenuItems.xml	Defines the different menu items and their associated action.
<explorer>Menus/MenusFor*.xml	Defines the menus and toolbars
<explorer>Validators.xml	Defines the different validators. A validator is used to enable/disable (grayed/not grayed) an action or user interface element.

The following files are the default files recommended for customizing Windchill MPMLink. New customization files can be created provided these files use the same application ID:

codebase\config\logicrepository\xml\explorer\customization

• CustAssociativeBOMExplorerMain.xml: The default file for Manufacturing Product Structure Explorer customizations. You can use other files, but the application ID for all XML segments must be: ptc.cust.ProductStructureExplorer

• CustManufacturingStandardExplorerMain.xml: The default file for Manufacturing Standards Explorer customizations. You can use other files but the application ID for all XML segments must be: ptc.cust.StandardExplorer

• CustMfgResourceExplorerMain.xml: The default file for Manufacturing Resource Explorer customizations. You can use other files but the application ID for all XML segments must be: ptc.cust.ResourceExplorer

• CustProcessPlanExplorerMain.xml: The default file for Process Plan Explorer customizations. You can use other files but the application ID for all XML segments must be: ptc.cust.ProcessPlanExplorer