Visualizing Collaboration Links

When a Collaboration Link is created, you can visualize it in the Collaboration Links tab. They will be grouped by Collaboration Link type and they will include an icon and a title. If you are entering Windchill and you have not started a session with the ELM Application yet, you won't be able to see the actual icon nor the small preview of the remote artifact. The small preview is a shortened view of the artifact (just the most important properties are included) that is displayed when you pass the mouse over the artifact link for a second [1] (and you have started a session with the ELM Application). What you get hovering the mouse on the artifact link without a session is a way to start it: you will see the message: Log-in to see the preview content. In this scenario, you only need to click on the Log-in link embedded in the message to start the authentication/authorization process and get the small preview along with the actual icon and title [2]. If, on the other hand, the message that you get is No preview available., means that there is no friend application registered for this link and therefore, there is no way to get a small preview, please contact an administrator to see whether is possible to register such a friend application and get small previews. Finally, if don't get a message at all, means something else is wrong, please contact an administrator to inform her/him of the problem.

Global Configurations Compatibility

Windchill Change Management artifacts

There are no differences between having a Global Configuration (GC) compatibility configured or not in your Windchill change objects regarding the above functionality. It will behave the same whether you are using a GC or not, you just need to remember that in case you are using a GC, the small preview will display the versioned artifact corresponding to the GC being used.

Windchill Parts

If Global Configuration (GC) is enabled on the Windchill product or library, you can Select a Global Configuration to display 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 visualize the links. Each link will display the versioned artifact 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 visualize 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 visualize the links. Each link will display the versioned artifact 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 or library: you can visualize the links. Each link will display the versioned artifact 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 visualize the links and you are invited to select a GC.

[1] And disappears when the mouse is moved out the small preview area. [2] The title can also be updated after starting a session. This happens if, after creating the Collaboration Link, remote users change the remote artifact title (OSLC Connect for Windchill stores the title the artifact had at the moment of the link creation).