Managing Collaboration Links

Once OSLC Connect for Windchill is installed and configured, you will be able to create Collaboration Links. These links relate the Windchill artifact with ALM applications artifacts, notably CLM Application artifacts. The relationship type is set by the Collaboration Link type and the available ones depend on the remote artifacts types wanting to link.

All Collaboration Link types allow linking artifacts to remote existing artifacts, but only some of them allow the creation of remote artifacts while linking. Processes are basically the same, so both are described next:

  1. Locate and click the Plus button in the Collaboration Links tab.
  2. select the Link Type you want to create [1], [2], [3].
  3. The Project combo will be displayed with the available remote projects to select [2], [3].
  4. As soon as you select the project, a pop-up window will appear [4]. If you hadn't previously started a CLM Application session in the same browser, the new window will show you the CLM Application login page and you must continue with this step, otherwise please go to the next one [5]. The login page is here to complete the user authentication process, please provide valid user credentials, it is not necessary that such user has an admin role [5].
  5. What happens after the user authentication process (or if you had already started a session in other browser's tab) depends on whether Windchill consumer was configured as trusted or not on the CLM Application. If it was configured as trusted, the only thing you need to do is to ignore a blank page that will be displayed for a few milliseconds, and then you can go to the next step; otherwise, you will see the Authorize Application page which is the last confirmation to allow Windchill accessing the CLM Application information on behalf of the user you used to login [6]. Authorize the access and then close the pop-up window when indicated if it is not closed automatically.
  6. Back on the Link dialog, two new radio buttons may exist [7], [8]:Choose the radio button that better fits your needs [3].
  7. If several remote artifact types are available, choose the required remote artifact type to create the link to in the corresponding combo[9].
  8. A new dialog will be displayed with the CLM Application content to allow you either select or create an artifact to link to [10], [11]. Complete the remote form for the selection or creation and confirm this action by pressing the OK button.

If everything went as planned, the dialog will be closed and you will see the new link created on the Collaboration Links table. If, on the other hand, you see the CRRWC01015 Unable to save/delete Link in database message, please contact your administrator in order to check the communication with the CLM Application, or any other issue before continuing. At this point, the safest is to click on the Cancel button and wait for a resolution.

There is no way to update a Collaboration Link, if you chose the wrong artifact, you will have to remove the Collaboration Link and then create it again correctly. To remove a Collaboration Link:

  1. In the Collaboration Links table, choose the specific link you want to remove.
  2. Click on the Minus button above the table [12].

If everything went ok, the link is removed from the system and it will no longer appear in the Collaboration Links table. If, on the other hand, you see the CRRWC01015 Unable to save/delete Link in database message, please contact your administrator in order to check the communication with the CLM Application, or any other issue before continuing. At this point, the safest is to click on the Cancel button and wait for a resolution.

[1] You will see an error message here if the license is not configured properly or if there are no associations defined for the current product. [2] Available elements will depend on the associations defined for the product to which this artifact belongs to. [3] If only one element is available, it will be chosen automatically. [4] It may be the case that your browser prevented the opening of the pop-up window. Some browsers notify this with a message in a top bar, others are more discrete and just show a little red icon at the end of the addresses bar; in any case, all of them allow you to authorize pop-up windows, typically by clicking on the area where they showed you the blocking notification and choosing the option to allow pop-up windows. Please follow the corresponding procedure of your browser to allow them and then continue. [5] The available dialogs and artifacts to select/create on the next step will depend directly on the privileges of the logged CLM Application user. [6] This confirmation will be asked, only the first time a collaboration is needed for untrusted consumers, in each Windchill session. [7] The availability of these radio buttons depend on the chosen Link Type and the CLM Application behind the chosen Project. [8] If instead of seeing radios button you see an error message regarding Global Configurations, please refer to subsection ahead: Global Configurations Compatibility. [9] The artifact type combo will always be preselected with a default option as long as it contains at least one. [10] If you only got a blank page, contact your administrator. [11] If remote content is too large and you cannot see all options because they were shortened you can maximize this dialog by pressing the rectangle icon at the top-right corner. [12] If you are trying to remove a Collaboration Link without having started a session with the CLM Application, you will be prompted to perform the user authentication/authorization process.

Global Configurations Compatibility

Windchill Change Management artifacts

Collaboration Links cannot be created if the CLM Application has Configuration Management enabled and the Windchill Change Management artifact has not been configured to be compatible with Global Configurations (you will get an error during the step 8 in the above procedure). In order to be compatible, see how to Add a Global Configuration Association to a Windchill Change Management artifact.

Finally, you must know you that you can not use CLM remote projects with Configuration Management NOT enabled when the Windchill change object has been associated to a GC. In this case, the dialog will display that The selected remote project is not configuration enabled and you can just press cancel to exit the dialog.

Windchill Parts

If Global Configuration (GC) is enabled on the Windchill product, you can Select a Global Configuration to manage the Part links. You will see a different result in the links table depending on which case holds true for the current Part version and GC:

  1. The Part version is in the selected GC: you can create and delete links to versioned artifacts corresponding to the GC being used.
  2. The Part version is NOT in the selected GC, but there exists another version of the same Part in the GC: you cannot manage the links. You are suggested to either navigate to the valid Part version for the selected GC by following the provided link, or to select another GC that is valid for the current Part version.
  3. The Part version is NOT in the selected GC, and there is no other version of the same Part in the GC: you can create and delete links to versioned artifacts corresponding to the GC being used. However in this case, it means the Part does not participate to the selected GC and behaves as a Global Configuration compatible artifact. Remote artifacts will not be able to navigate to this Part.
  4. The selected GC does not contain a Windchill Local Configuration for the current product: you can create and delete links to versioned artifacts corresponding to the GC being used. However in this case, it means the Part does not participate to the selected GC and behaves as a Global Configuration compatible artifact. Remote artifacts will not be able to navigate to this Part.
  5. There is no selected GC: you can't manage the links and you are invited to select a GC.