MaxTECH Technical Training Presentation from MaximoWorld 2018

MaxTECH Technical Training
Cool Reporting Technique
Non-BIRT Reports Integrated into Maximo
Stephen Hume – Senior Maximo Consultant

Agenda
2
The Background
The Method
The Steps to Implement
The Results

Background
As part of Health and Safety Review, a group of managers reviewed all completed Incident Records to see if the
information was up to date, and records be closed or not.
This was a tedious process, clicking on the various tabs in the Incident application to check out the information.
A detailed BIRT report was created which pulled together all of the Incident details, but it was taking too long
to run the report for each incident, scroll through the report, close the report, and then workflow the Incident
record to CLOSED or Needing further Action status.
Enter a blog posting by Bruno Portaluri where he talked about using an automation script to generate a
summary.
BPD Zenith UK | Canada | USA | Australia | New Zealand 3

The Method
This reporting technique uses Automation Scripts, Actions, Application Designer and HTML
to make the Summary look great.
When building the
automation script, try
different font sizes, table
spacing, underlines and
other features to spice up
the summary presentation

The Steps to Implement
1. Use Database Configuration to add a NON-PERSISTENT attribute to the main table of the application.
2. Write the automation script to populate the new attribute when an action is triggered
3. Add the new tab to the application where the summary will be displayed
4. Give security access to the action so that users can generate the summary

Database Configuration
• In the example being shown the non-persistent attribute has been added to the work order table.

Automation Script
An automation script needs to be created to populate the summary attribute with data from
which ever table is linked to the application where the summary is being implemented.
Give the Launch Point
Action and Script
the Same Name
Identify the main
Object as the same
Object where you
added the summary
attribute

Automation Script continued…
The SCRIPT breakdown
At the very top of the script is the list of “functions”
that need to be imported into the script for the script
to work properly.
They are “StringBuilder”, “MboConstants” and “HTML”
The next part of the script builds a
string of characters to dynamically
construct an HTML document.

This part of the script builds the title area for the summary report. It establishes the width of the table,
and the widths of each column in the table.
The TR section if the building of a ROW in the table and places data (TD) into three columns in that row.
The effect of this HTML is to generate a row of the Summary that looks like the following
WO Number SITE STATUS

Then a second table is added to the HTML which has the exact same dimensions as the first and this table
gets the actual data from the workorder database table to retrieve the WONUM, SITEID and STATUS

Continuing down the script the next section adds a line to the report by appending an <HR> tag
and then prepares a section to get the related records information for the workorder.
It created a title (RELATED RECORDS), connects to the RELATEDWO data (This is a relationship on the
work order object), then lays out a table to display the RELATEDWO data

This next bit of code moves through all of the related records and for each one it outputs into an HTML table for
display in the Summary Report

In the next section of the script, where the worklog entries are pulled into the summary, this demonstrated
that you can use an orderby statement to sort that section in whichever order you require.

Once all of the sections and data from related records that you require have been brought into the summary
The final line of the script populates the non persistent summary field with the contents of the string field
which has been built by the script.

Learn Basic HTML
When we first started building these summary objects and automation scripts we just
built the string, and the end result was a very flat, not nicely laid out summary.
Key areas to improve the look of the summary.
Learn about HTML Tables,
Table Rows, Table data
Learn the various attributes of the font command
Learn how to make a field bold
If you are going to display a Long Description in the summary report, recommendation is that you
convert it to plain text using the following command in your script.
HTML.toPlainText(currMbo.getString("DESCRIPTION_LONGDESCRIPTION")
The reason for this is that certain characters in a long description can actually cause the script to fail.

Configuring the Application
The next step in the process is to add a new TAB to the application where you want the summary to appear.
NOTE: AT THE CURRENT TIME DO NOT USE APPLICATION DESIGNER TO
ADD A NEW TAB TO AN APPLICATION.
The reason for this is that doing so corrupts the application XML such
that the contents of the new tab appear at the bottom of the list tab
when you display the application.
Before you manually edit the XML and import it back into Maximo
create a new signature option for the application with the same name
as your automation script (and it is CASE Sensitive).

Here are the steps to manually add the tab to the application.
1. Open the application in the application designer.
2. Export the application XML and save the exported file to your
desktop.
3. Edit the exported XML using Notepad ++ or your favorite text editor
4. Paste in the new tab information after the very last tab of the
application and before he </tabgroup> tag
5. Save the changes and import the modified XML into the application
designer in Maximo

A note about what you are pasting into the new tab.
You are adding a section and at the top of the section will be a pushbutton to trigger the automation script
Under that button will be the field to display the summary attribute.
NOTE Once this is manually added through editing the XML, you can modify the size and position of things
using application designer.

Security Settings
To test the new push button go to the
Security Groups application and bring up
the security record for the MAXADMIN
security group.
Then go to the work order management application
And filter the options until you see
Work Order Summary, make sure this security option
is checked on.
Log out of Maximo, Log Back in and then go test the
button.

Give it a Whirl
Go to the Work Order Tracking application, open any work order, click on the WO Summary Tab
Then click the Generate Summary button. If it all works your summary should appear in the area below
immediately.
If you get an error read what it says, and check the automation script for errors.

Adding to The Summary
Once the summary is working, you can always add more data to it, but going to the
automation script and adding new tables, get new data from other relationships,
or add additional fields to the tables you have already created.
Once it is working you can add comments to the automation script by placing a hash-tag # at the start
of the line.
If you want specific information for the summary and a relationship does not exist, you can create the relationship
In the database configuration tool for the workorder database table and then use that relationship to
get the data for your summary. (example, get the name of the LEAD for the work order).

Other Potential Uses in Maximo
The example given is for a Work Order Summary, but you can
build summaries for any application/database table you wish.
Examples:
Asset Summary – including ownership information, asset move
history, where used information.
SR Summary - including worklogs, related records
MOC Summary (for Maximo HSE or Oil and Gas) showing all
approval records, action items, related records
Inventory Summary – showing vendor data, and transaction data

What You Have Learned
• Non-BIRT solution for various summaries
• Uses Automation Script
• Runs lightening fast
• Users Love it where ever it has been
implemented
This concept can be applied to almost any
application in Maximo.

Thank You
Stephen Hume
Senior Maximo Consultant
BPD Zenith
stephen.hume@bpdzenith.com
About the Instructor:
Stephen has been working with Maximo for over fifteen years in a variety of industries (Oil and Gas, Utilities)
He has taught Maximo courses to end users for both Technical and Functional audiences. He created an 8 week
Maximo University course which has been used to teach Maximo Support to new team members.
As a recent member of the Canadian Maximo User Group Steering Committee Stephen is very active in the
Maximo community, preparing and delivery presentations at Maximo User Group meetings and IBM Conferences
throughout North America.

MaxTECH Technical Training Presentation from MaximoWorld 2018

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MaxTECH Technical Training Presentation from MaximoWorld 2018