Preference Macros
The wt.prefs.WTPreferences class defines the following types of Preference Context Macros:
• USER_CONTEXT - the context for individual users
• DEFAULT_CONTEXT - the context for the system default (shipping) values
• CONTAINER_CONTEXT - a context used in the container hierarchy
• CONTAINER_POLICY_CONTEXT - a container context that is enforced as a policy
• DIVISION_CONTEXT - the context used for any scopes defined in addition to the default, container, and user scopes
• DIVISION_POLICY_CONTEXT - a division context that is enforced as a policy
Setting the Hierarchy
The delegates.properties value wt.prefs.delegates.DelegateOrder controls the hierarchy in which delegates are called. For each level in the hierarchy there should be an entry in this property. The customized entries should appear as DIVISION_CONTEXT. For example, in the out-of-the-box hierarchy, there is a division scope called Windchill Enterprise, and the out-of-the-box wt.prefs.delegates.DelegateOrder property value is:
$DEFAULT,$CONTAINER,$DIVISION:WindchillEnterprise,$USER
In this value, there is no DIVISION_POLICY_CONTEXT defined since DIVISION_POLICY_CONTEXT and DIVISION_CONTEXT are related and are at the same level in the preference hierarchy. Similarly, the CONTAINER_POLICY_CONTEXT need not be included. Entries are designated differently only when storing and retrieving preferences internally. For more details on correctly naming delegates, see the delegates.properties file.
If wt.prefs.delegates.DelegateOrder has been removed from the delegates.properties file, Windchill uses the following:
$DEFAULT,$CONTAINER,$USERSetting Preferences
Edit the file Windchill/loadFiles/preferences.txt. This file is used to put the system values into the database. Note that you don’t put quotes around the strings unless you actually want quotes persisted as part of the preference.
Syntax:
PrefEntry~keyName~default value~fullyQualifiedNodePath
Example:
PrefEntry~fileOperationType~ASK~/wt/content
Getting Preferences
You can get a preference by first navigating the preferences tree to the proper node, then setting the context for that particular user, then getting the value for that key.
Example:
// returns an instance of the top node in the Windchill preference
"tree"
Preferences root = WTPreferences.root();
// returns the preference node at that path
Preferences myPrefs = root.node( "/wt/content" );
((WTPreferences)myPrefs).setContextMask
(PreferenceHelper.createContextMask() );
// get( ), gets the value for that
// preference key
String prefValue = myPrefs.get( "fileOperationType", "SAVE" );
Clearing a Preference
There is a big difference between "clear" and "remove". Assuming there are no division-level defaults or policies, if you "clear" a user preference by setting the value to be the empty string "", then the value returned will be ""; but if you "remove" the user-level preference, then the value returned would be system default value. In most cases you will want to remove the user-level preference and not clear it, giving the user the upper hierarchical preference as their default.
Example:
Preferences root = WTPreferences.root();
Preferences myPrefs = root.node( "/wt/content" );
((WTPreferences)myPrefs).setEditContext
(PreferenceHelper.createEditMask());
((WTPreferences)myPrefs).setContextMask
(PreferenceHelper.createContextMask());
String prevValue = myPrefs.remove("fileOperationType");