cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

We are happy to announce the new Windchill Customization board! Learn more.

Are there any best practices on creating links to items within Windchill?

PaulKinard
4-Participant

Are there any best practices on creating links to items within Windchill?

I'm interested in linking to files uploaded within Windchill for others to directly access (obtaining a URL to email or embed in a document).   I'm referring to things like secondary content, discussion threads, attachments within discussion comments or in a notebook, representations, etc.  I can create links to the primary content (documents only not CAD) and to the general details page but these others seem to be hard to do.  Any ideas?  I'm using Windchill 10.1...

4 REPLIES 4
bsindelar
6-Contributor
(To:PaulKinard)

Most WTObjects will have a specific URL for a specific object version.  Have you browsed to a few of the objects you have mentioned and looked at the URL to see how it changes?  What do you mean by "these others seem to be hard to do"?

PaulKinard
4-Participant
(To:bsindelar)

Yes, I have looked at the URL but have not been able to decipher the format for the items I mentioned.  Also, by hard I meant not straightforward.  FYI, the items I that I have been able to do was in one of two ways.  Either a direct link is provided somewhere that can be right clicked on in a browser and saved or I can browse to the object and simply copy the URL from the browser.  For the other things I mentioned however, particularly the secondary attachments and attached files in a Notebook or Discussion, the link produced is not persistent when saved.   Later if I try to use the link I get an apache tomcat error.

Just wondering if someone had seen some recommended practices for this kind of thing.  i.e.  Where are the best places to grab a link that will be persistent?  At least on our installation of Windchill it's NOT on the link that says "Download from the main site" that appears after selecting to open an attached file...

TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:PaulKinard)

I believe for security reasons the download links are intentionally built to only work once, and only for a short period of time.  I remember reading a discussion somewhere on this site where someone wanted a URL that would always take them directly to the latest version of an object (not secondary content).  I believe they had to build a custom application that would query the database (InfoEngine??) and then redirect them to the latest version.  I'm not sure you're going to find what you're looking for without manual customization...

PaulKinard
4-Participant
(To:TomU)

Certainly want to stay away from the "C" word (customization).  Here is a best practice I believe may be applicable to one of the items I was discussing.  The link produced was persistent since yesterday so I have hope that it will remain good.  Other "best practice" suggestions such as the one below would be helpful.

To get an indirect link to an file attachment within a discussion (do NOT try to save the direct "Download from the main site" link, it is not persistent)...

1)  Open the discussion thread and within browser hover over link to attachment. 

2)  Hold down shift key while right clicking on mouse.

3)  Select option "Copy Link Location".

NOTE:  You can also select the link to the attachment and then copy the resulting URL from the browser.

On my Windchill installation this provides a link that will open a window with one option "Download from the main site".  Clicking this link will access the attached file.

While this doesn't provide a direct download link for the file it does get close so, when needed for collaboration, others can more easily find the intended information to be shared.

Also,  I have found when saving link locations in general using the shift right click method, any link location produced that begins with "javaScript:" will not be usable.  This occurs for things like links to discussion topics.  However, it appears that if you select the link for the topic it will produce a window where you can directly save the location of the discussion topic from the URL bar.

Top Tags