Parts
Windchill ESI allows you to publish parts created and changed within Windchill PDMLink to a distribution target such as Oracle Applications. You can configure the Windchill PDMLink system to publish particular attributes of the parts. The Windchill PDMLink part information is used to create a part in the distribution target.
Windchill ESI passes the following part-associated attributes from Windchill PDMLink to the EAI software components:
• Number
• Whether the part is a phantom part or not
• Default Unit
• Control Characteristics
• Type
• Name
• Source
• Version
• Iteration
• Date Effectivity
• Last Changed By
• Distribution Targets
• Serial Effectivity
• Lot Effectivity
• Lifecycle State
• View
• Storage Location
• Previously Published Part Version
• Extended Data
• Department Data
Once the part data has been sent from Windchill PDMLink, the EAI software components map the Windchill PDMLink part attributes to Oracle Applications object attributes. The following table shows the mapping of Windchill PDMLink part attributes to Oracle Applications object attributes:
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Windchill Part Attribute
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Oracle Applications Object Attribute
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Number
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Item Number
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Default Unit
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Primary Unit of Measure
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Part Type
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User Item Type using Template
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Date Effectivity
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Item’s Revision Effectivity Date
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Name
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Item Description
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Version
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Revision Level
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Source
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General planning Make or Buy
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Distribution Target
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Organization
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The Windchill PDMLink part iteration is passed to the EAI software components; however, the attribute is not sent to the distribution target. If the distribution target is capable of handling Windchill PDMLink part iterations, the EAI software components can be extended to pass the information to the distribution target; however, the out-of-the-box Oracle Applications system does not currently have an attribute that can handle iteration information.
The attribute Distribution Targets (in the elements Destination and TargetID that appear in the ESI response) identifies the distribution target in which the part should be created or changed. The EAI software components use this information to communicate with the correct distribution target and pass organization information to it.
Some attributes that are passed from Windchill PDMLink are passed to the distribution target from the EAI software components without transformation; however, there are a few attributes that contain values that are either modified or cross referenced by the EAI software components.
Windchill PDMLink passes the Start Effectivity Date in the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS. Windchill ESI assumes that the time zone is configured across Windchill PDMLink, TIBCO, and Oracle Applications.
The attributes Default Unit, Part Type, and Source are cross referenced in the EAI software components. The following tables show the possible available Windchill PDMLink part values and the corresponding Oracle Applications item values that are passed from the EAI software components to Oracle Applications.
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Windchill Part Default Unit Value (Database Value)
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Oracle Applications Base Unit of Measure Value (Database Value)
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As Needed (as_needed)
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As Needed (AN)
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Each (ea)
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Each (Ea)
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Kilogram (kg)
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Kilogram (KG)
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Liter (l)
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Liter (L)
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Meter (m)
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Meter (M)
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Windchill PDMLink Part Type Value (Database Value)
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Oracle Applications Item Type Value (Database Value)
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Separable (separable)
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Subassembly (SA)This is the mapping for the API field ITEM_TYPE. The mapping for the API field TEMPLATE_ID is Subassembly (5), and the mapping for the API field TEMPLATE_NAME is Subassembly (@Subassembly).
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Inseparable (inseparable)
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Subassembly (SA)
This is the mapping for the API field ITEM_TYPE. The mapping for the API field TEMPLATE_ID is Subassembly (5), and the mapping for the API field TEMPLATE_NAME is Subassembly (@Subassembly).
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Component (component)
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Purchased Item (P)
This is the mapping for the API field ITEM_TYPE. The mapping for the API field TEMPLATE_ID is Purchased Item (2), and the mapping for the API field TEMPLATE_NAME is Purchased Item (@Purchased Item)
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Windchill PDMLink Part Source Value (Database Value)
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Oracle Applications General Planning Make or Buy Value
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Make (make)
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Make (1)
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Buy (buy)
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Buy (2)
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There are some attributes that Oracle Applications requires to create or change item records that are not provided by Windchill PDMLink. In these instances, Windchill ESI defaults the values in the EAI software components prior to passing the data to Oracle Applications. The following table lists the Oracle Applications item attributes that are defaulted in Windchill ESI and their default values.
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Oracle Applications Item Attribute
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Default Value
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Summary Flag
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No (N)
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Effectivity Control
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1 for Date or 2 for Unit
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Serial Number Generation Code
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2 for Predefined
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Starting Prefix
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X
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Starting Number
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1
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Windchill ESI also leverages Subassembly and Purchased Item templates in Oracle Applications, which automatically provide default data values for many other Item fields. See the Oracle Inventory User's Guide supplied with your Oracle Applications software for further details on Item templates.
Windchill PDMLink also supports publishing alternates related to parts; however, because the concept of alternate parts, as it exists in Windchill PDMLink, does not exist in Oracle Applications, the EAI software components portion of Windchill ESI does not support publishing alternate parts to Oracle Applications. If the Oracle Applications distribution target is capable of handling Windchill PDMLink alternates, the EAI software components portion of Windchill ESI can be extended to pass the information to Oracle Applications, however, by default, alternates are not supported.
Department Attributes for Parts
Department attributes for a part can be published using the plant specific capabilities of Windchill MPMLink. To publish department attributes:
• Ensure that the Publish Plant Data Information preference from the > > category is set to Yes.
• Define a specific view corresponding to each of your plants in Windchill MPMLink.
• Define your department attributes in the corresponding view attributes tab.
• Use Windchill ESI to publish your part.
Windchill ESI then retrieves the department attributes for the part from Windchill MPMLink and sends that information to the relevant organization in the distribution target.
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• These attributes must have their mappings defined in the ESI response meta information file. Also, the EAI software components should be extended to map these attributes to Oracle Applications as appropriate.
• While publishing department or plant data for parts or resources using Send To Distribution Target action, Send Material To Distribution Target action, Change Notice, Promotion Request, or Set State, Saved Filter is used from:
◦ BOM Settings on distribution target when publishing part or BOM.
◦ Resource Settings on distribution target when publishing resource or resource structure.
◦ Process Plan Settings on distribution target when publishing process plan structure.
◦ Change Notice Settings on distribution target when publishing using change notice.
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Plant Specific Attributes for Parts
Plant-specific attributes for a part can be published using the view-specific capabilities of Windchill MPMLink. To publish plant-specific attributes:
• Ensure that the Publish Plant Data Information preference from the > > category is set to Yes.
• Define a specific view corresponding to each of your plants in Windchill MPMLink.
• Define your plant-specific attributes in the corresponding view attributes tab.
• Use Windchill ESI to publish your part.
Windchill ESI then retrieves the plant-specific attributes for the part from Windchill MPMLink and sends that information to the relevant plant in the distribution target.
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• These attributes must have their mapping defined in the ESI response meta information file. Also, the EAI software components should be extended to map these attributes to SAP as appropriate.
• While publishing department data or plant data for parts or resources using Send to Distribution Target action, Send Material to Distribution Target action, Change Notice, Promotion Request, Set State, or Saved Filter is used from:
◦ BOM Settings on distribution target when publishing part or BOM.
◦ Resource Settings on distribution target when publishing resource or resource structure.
◦ Process Plan Settings on distribution target when publishing process plan structure.
◦ Change Notice Settings on distribution target when publishing using change notice.
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Publish Extended Data
Extended data is a versioned, workable object in Windchill that is used to store data that needs to be published to an ERP system. The extended data can be published in the ESI response to a distribution target using the ERP connector.
To publish the extended data, enable the preference Publish Enterprise Data Information by setting it to Yes.
To know more about extended data, see the topic Extended Data.
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• If you want to publish the version information from the part or extended data, set the property com.ptc.windchill.esi.useVersionInfofromPartOrED in the esi.properties file. For example, <Property default="PART" name="com.ptc.windchill.esi.useVersionInfofromPartOrED">. Other values can be PART or COMMON_ENTERPRISE_DATA
Otherwise OOTB, the enterprise data will be published by default.
• The attribute Distribution Targets (in the elements Destination and TargetID that appear in the ESI response) identifies the distribution target in which the part should be created or changed.
• Windchill PDMLink passes the Part Date Effectivity in the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.
• When using the object-centric mode of publishing a part, with the distribution target attribute Publish Related Documents when Publishing a Part set to Yes, documents associated to the part are published as well.
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Department Data
The department data attributes are published along with the part or resource attributes in the ESI response from all the relevant department data objects associated with the plant data.
For more information, see the topic Department Data Overview.
Ensure that the Publish Plant Data Information preference from the > > category is set to Yes.
For more information about the department data, refer to Department Data Overview.
Configuring Data to Publish Automatically with Life Cycle State Change
The extended data or department data can be configured to get published automatically in the ESI response if the life cycle state of the plant data is changed. You can configure this by enabling the preference Extended Data Life Cycle States To Trigger Part Publication Automatically from > > . You can specify multiple life cycle states in a comma-separated list. The default value of the preference is empty. If the preference value is empty, the Part (material) will not be published automatically when life cycle state of enterprise data or plant data is changed.
After enabling this preference, when enterprise data or plant data life cycle state is changed as specified in the preference, ESI will render the relevant part iteration and the department data as per the configuration specification or filter associated with the distribution target to publish the part in the ESI response.
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• The publishing of a part is enabled only if the preference Launch ESI Workflow Automatically is set to Yes.
• If the plant data is released, the plant data and the enterprise data will get published. Whereas, if the enterprise data is released, then the relevant plant data is published.
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The extended data and department data can be published in separate buckets in the ESI response. This can be done by customizing the ESI response. Refer the ERP Connector Customizer's Guide on PTC.com to know more about customizing the buckets in the ESI response.