You want to load reporting objects into a Windchill Business Reporting (WBR) system.

The Windchill Business Reporting (WBR) solution uses Windchill and Cognos objects in the system. Often times these objects are developed in another system such as a development system and then moved to another system where they are used in production. This document describes how these Reporting objects are loaded into a system.

For Windchill business objects, the standard Windchill Data Loading mechanism is used. These tools are based on describing objects and their attributes in XML files. The loading is accomplished by instantiating the business objects, populating the attributes specified in the XML files, and using standard Windchill create APIs.

For Cognos report objects, standard Cognos SOAP APIs are used. Cognos report attributes are specified in a Java properties file and the report’s definition is specified in an associated XML file. These files are processed and the data is passed to a Cognos SOAP API for creating reports.

This documentation assumes that the Windchill Business Reporting (WBR) solution (i.e. Cognos) has been successfully installed and configured. The Windchill instance name is referred to as <WindchillInstanceName>. The Cognos root URL is referred to as <WBRHomeURL>. Typically, if the WBR solution is installed on <WBRHost>, then the <WBRHomeURL> would be http://<WBRHost>/Cognos/cgi-bin/cognos.cgi. It is assumed that you can login to <WBRHomeURL> and you have sufficient Cognos privileges to view Windchill Data Source objects and create reports.

Assume you have access to the Windchill server tasks directory, <WindchillHome>/tasks, to create an Info*Engine task <MyTask> in its associated sub-directory <MyTaskPackage>. Assume that this task has already been developed and tested on another source system, <WindchillSourceHome>.

Assume you have access to the Windchill UI and the ReportTemplate, <MyReportTemplate> in the Site context of another source system, <WindchillSourceHome>.

Assume you will load a new Windchill Report object, <MyReport>, and it will use the <MyReportTemplate> to retrieve data from Windchill. It is also assumed that you will be able to create a Report object in Windchill in the Site context.

For WBR integration, you must also have access rights to update the reporting meta model.

Construct and execute load files for Reporting objects.

In the primary procedure, Procedure — Loading an Info*Engine Task Data Source above, a single Info*Engine Task is loaded. To load multiple tasks, repeat step 1 for each task.

Each step in the remainder of the procedure only needs to be executed once. In the last step, verify that all Data Sources were loaded.

In the primary procedure, Procedure — Loading a ReportTemplate Data Source above, a single ReportTemplate is loaded. To load multiple ReportTemplates, in step 2, specify a separate “csvReportTemplate” element for each ReportTemplate.

Each step in the remainder of the procedure only needs to be executed once. In the last step, verify that all Data Sources were loaded.

In the primary procedure, Procedure — Loading a Windchill Report Object above, a single Windchill Report object is loaded. To load multiple Windchill Report objects, in step 2, specify a separate “csvReport” element for each object.

Each step in the remainder of the procedure only needs to be executed once. In the last step, verify that all Windchill Report objects were loaded.

In the primary procedure, Procedure — Loading a Windchill Report Object above, only the basic Windchill Report Object attributes are specified. The following are the additional attributes that can be specified. For additional information see the Report javadoc.

In the primary procedure above, Procedure — Loading a Cognos Report, a single Cognos Report is loaded.

To load multiple Cognos Reports, repeat steps 3 and 4, for each Cognos Report. Each step in the remainder of the procedure only needs to be executed once. In the last step, verify that all Cognos Reports were loaded.

In the primary procedure — Loading a Cognos Report above, only the basic Cognos Report attributes are specified. The following are the additional attributes that can be specified.

For Cognos Report loading, there are load file directories that are used for Windchill out-of-the-box reports. These directories should not be used for custom load files. The reserved directories are <WindchillHome>/loadFiles/cognosReports and <WindchillHome>/loadFiles/cognosReports/<assemblyId> where <assemblyId> is a standard Windchill assembly ID such as wnc, pdml, pjl, etc.

There are several out-of-the-box reports that use the load files described in this document. These are located in the <WindchillHome>/loadFiles, <WindchillHome>/loadFiles/reports, and <WindchillHome>/loadFiles/cognosReports directories.

A demo load file for Windchill ReportTemplate and Report objects is available in <WindchillHome>/loadXMLFiles/DemoReports.xml.