Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Table of Contents
•
•
•
•
•
Table of Contents
•
•
•
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Table of Contents
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Table of Contents
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-26
External Labor Control Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-26
Resource Codes Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-26
Resource Codes Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-27
Updating the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-27
Update Database Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-27
Update Your Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-29
Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-30
Managing Currency Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-30
Managing Exchange Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-30
Managing GL Account Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-31
Financial Periods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-31
GL Component Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-31
Application-Specific Accounts and Resource Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-31
Updating the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-32
•
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 •
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Table of Contents
•
•
• ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Table of Contents
•
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 •
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Table of Contents
•
•
• ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Table of Contents
•
•
• ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Table of Contents
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 •
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Table of Contents
•
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 •
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Table of Contents
•
•
• ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Table of Contents
Adding Libraries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 -1
Developing Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 -2
Deployment Report In Maximo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 -3
•
•
• ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 1: IBM Maximo File Structure
This chapter contains the following topics.
•
•
• 1-1
•
•
Chapter 1: IBM Maximo File Structure
Chapter Overview
Understanding the Maximo file structure (file types and locations) is essential to anyone
that is performing an implementation of Maximo and the application customizations that
go along with an implementation.
Chapter Focus
The focus of this chapter is to discuss the location, types, and importance of specific files
as they relate to the Maximo applications.
Learning Objectives
When you have completed this chapter, you should be able to:
• Locate the HTML CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) that Maximo uses to define the
look and appearance of the application
For the purposes of this course, the discussion will focus on the following directories:
Applications, Appserver, Deployment, PowerUpdateClient, Resources, and Tools.
•
•
1-2 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 1: IBM Maximo File Structure
Maximo Directory
Deployment Directory
Significant Files
The default directory within the deployment directory contains the .ear and .war files that
are built when the user runs the buildmaximoear.bat, buildacwebear.bat, and
buildhelpear.bat files in the deployment directory.
Building Files
Whenever the user makes changes to an existing Maximo JSP file, an Actuate report, or a
Maximo Help file, he or she must rebuild those specific .ear and .war files. Only when the
MXServer is restarted will the new file or the changes be recognized by the system.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 1-3
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 1: IBM Maximo File Structure
Three files are used to create the .ear and .war files: buildmaximoear.bat,
buildhelpear.bat, and buildacwebear.bat.
Applications Directory
Folder Structure
The Applications folder is arranged into a predefined directory structure. This structure is
important, as it is used as the basis for some of the features built into the framework.
This folder is a container folder for roots of the J2EE applications that Maximo uses. This
directory contains the following subdirectories:
Contains files and folders that are use to access, view, run,
Activeportal
and print reports in Actuate.
The Java classes used in applications are the Maximo
Maximo Business Objects (or components), commonly referred to
as MBOs (or MBCs).
Contains images and HTML help files used in most
Maximohelp
applications in Maximo.
Do not change this structure or add depth to this structure, as this will result in program
failures.
All folder names and page names should be in lower case, as this will avoid any case-
sensitive issues when running on UNIX platforms.
•
•
1-4 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 1: IBM Maximo File Structure
Activeportal Folder
The activeportal folder contains the analytics, channels, and dtd subfolders. This folder
contains files that are used to provide a foundation for channels and seamless integration
with other web sites. It is also used to access, view, run, and print stored reports in Actuate,
and to work with information objects in Actuate Query.
The Active Portal is a collection of tools that let you use Internet Explorer to access reports
stored in your Encyclopedia volume on the Actuate iServer. The Actuate Active Portal for
JSP is a collection of industry standard tools, such as JavaScript and JavaServer Page tags,
that lets Maximo users access reports through a Web browser. An Actuate Active Portal
application is packaged as acweb.war. The web.xml file, located in the <Maximo Root>
\applications \activeportal\WEB-INF folder, has configuration details about the Actuate
iServer. The context for this file is /acweb.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 1-5
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 1: IBM Maximo File Structure
Maximo Folder
This folder contains the maximo business objects and helper/utility Java classes. Java
classes are located in this directory:
C:\Maximo\applications\maximo\businessobjects\classes\psdi\app
Each Java class is located in its respective applications folder. The properties folder
contains the maximo.properties file that is used to configure Maximo.
•
•
1-6 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 1: IBM Maximo File Structure
Maximohelp Folder
Contains images and HTML help files used in most applications in Maximo. A help file
named Maximo.html can also be viewed in the directory
C:\maximo\applications\maximohelp\helpweb\webmodule\en folder. This file can be
used to help users understand Maximo better.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 1-7
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 1: IBM Maximo File Structure
Properties Directory
Properties Folder
The properties folder contains files such as maximo.properties, logging.properties, and
doclink.properties.
maximo.properties
This file sets properties specific to the Maximo Application Server. This file provides many
of the properties used by the Maximo Application Server to start up.
Opening Folders
Open the maximo.properties file to start learning about it.
Depending on your training environment’s configuration, the code that you see on your
screen in this section may not exactly match these pages.
Any changes to any of your *.properties files will not take effect until you rebuild
and redeploy your maximo.ear file.
If an Open With dialog box displays, select Notepad to open the file.
3. Using the scroll bar, take a moment to look at the contents of the file while your
instructor briefly describes them.
Do not close the file; leave it open as your instructor covers the sections of the
maximo.properties file.
•
•
1-8 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 1: IBM Maximo File Structure
File Commenting
The maximo.properties file is commented to provide brief descriptions of its properties
and examples of how some of these properties are used. A comment line has a double
forward slash (//) at the beginning of the line.
• With hyphens to separate sections within the file for easier reading
• To disable properties
Section Breaks
New sections and their titles are comment lines surrounded above and below by two sets of
comment lines with a series of hyphens (--------).
A section header is often separated from its content by a single comment line with a series
of hyphens (--------).
mxe.db.url
One property that is of particular interest in this section is the mxe.db.url property, which
tells the Maximo Application Server which database to connect to. Both the Oracle and
SQLServer syntaxes are provided in the commented content section above the mxe.db.url
property.
As with the mxe.db.url property, the other properties in this section are identified using
comments above the properties listed in the file.
SMTP Section
The SMTP section provides the identity of the outgoing mail server (SMTP).
•
•
1-10 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 1: IBM Maximo File Structure
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 1-11
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 1: IBM Maximo File Structure
MEA Properties
The MEA Properties section provides parameters that configure some of the functionality
of Maximo when it is e-commerce-enabled or integrated with other ERP applications that
perform related functions.
Any changes to any of the *.properties files will not take effect until the user rebuilds and
redeploys the maximo.ear file.
•
•
1-12 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 1: IBM Maximo File Structure
doclink.properties
The doclink.properties file provides just a few settings, which are used to configure the
Attached documents functionality in Maximo.
C:\maximo\applications\maximo\properties
Opening Folders
Open the doclink.properties file.
Depending on your training environment’s configuration, the code that you see on your
screen in this section might not exactly match these pages.
If an Open With dialog box displays, select Notepad to open the file.
3. Using the scroll bar, take a moment to look at the contents of the file while your
instructor briefly describes them.
Do not close the file; leave it open as your instructor covers the sections of the
doclink.properties file.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 1-13
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 1: IBM Maximo File Structure
File Commenting
The doclink.properties file is commented to provide brief descriptions of its properties and
examples of how some of these properties are used.
A comment line is identified by the number symbol (#) at the beginning of the line.
Comment lines are used:
• To disable properties
• With hyphens to separate sections within the file for easier reading
•
•
1-14 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 1: IBM Maximo File Structure
Default Path
Use the mxe.doclink.doctypes.defpath property to set the default path. The default path is
used when you add new files to the Attached Documents Library.
Tools Directory
Tools Folder
The Tools folder contains the subfolders ANT, JAVA, and Maximo. The Maximo
directory is where the database can be reinstalled by running the maxinst file.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 1-15
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 1: IBM Maximo File Structure
Other Directories
Resources Folder
The resources folder contains two subfolders: messages and presentations. The messages
folder contains the messages.xml file. This file is used to prompt the user with messages
according to his or her course of actions.
The user can edit this file with any standard text editor. It is good practice to create a new
text file when you generate or clone a custom application.
Appserver Folder
The appserver folder contains files and utilities specific to the application server
environment (WebLogic or WebSphere) that Maximo is running in. Currently, the folder
contains WebLogic-specific cluster Web application data, which can be used to set up a
cluster environment. The folder can be moved to anywhere and pointed to by WebLogic.
PowerUpdateClient Folder
The PowerUpdateClient folder contains the update application that is used to check
updates for Maximo.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 1-16
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 1: IBM Maximo File Structure
Chapter Summary
Maximo Directory
The Maximo directory is the repository for all files and subfolders associated with Maximo
and its corresponding applications.
Applications Directory
The root of all files used in Maximo is located in the Applications directory. This directory
contains the activeportal folder, which supports reports in Actuate; the maximo folder,
containing the Java classes and MBOs; and the maximohelp folder, containing HTML help
files and images.
Active Portal
Active Portal lets the user use the Web to access reports in your Encyclopedia through
Microsoft Internet Explorer.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 1-17
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 1: IBM Maximo File Structure
•
•
1-18 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 2: Overview of System Files
This chapter contains the following topics.
•
•
• 2-1
•
•
Chapter 2: Overview of System Files
Chapter Overview
System files affect the way Maximo runs. Most of the parameters in these files are set
during installation. However, you can manually change one or more parameters in system
files to set or modify the operation of aspects of the system.
Purpose
A system administrator must have a thorough understanding of system configuration
settings. In this chapter you will review some of the key system files in which these settings
are set or modified.
Chapter Focus
In this chapter, we familiarize you with the locations and the contents of the key system
files that you can modify after Maximo installation.
Learning Objectives
After you have completed this chapter, you should be able to:
• Locate and open the maximo.properties file to identify properties that the
Maximo Application Server uses to deliver services
• Locate and open the logging.properties file to identify properties that the
Maximo Application Server uses to log various operations
• Locate and open the doclink.properties file to identify properties that the
Maximo Application Server uses for attached documents
IBM Software suggests that you modify error messages for foreign language translation
purposes only!
•
•
2-2 • Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 2: Overview of System Files
System Files
This table lists the key system files and briefly describes their use.
\\[Maximo_root]\applications\maximo\maximouiweb\webmodule\WEB-INF
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 2-3
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 2: Overview of System Files
\\[Maximo_root]\applications\maximo\maximouiweb\webmodule\WEB-INF
If Notepad does not appear as a menu selection, then select Choose Program…
and select Notepad from the resulting list in the Open With dialog box.
Do not check the Always use this program to open these files box.
3. Scroll down in the file until you see the timeout setting:
<session-timeout>30</session-timeout>
Your new setting will not take effect until you rebuild and redeploy your maximo.ear
reference file. You will learn about *.ear files later in this chapter.
•
•
2-4 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 2: Overview of System Files
This section highlights only some of the key parameters and sections in the
maximo.properties file. Check your technical documentation for more details regarding
the maximo.properties file.
File Location
The maximo.properties file is located in the following directory path:
\\[Maximo_root]\applications\maximo\properties
Opening Files
In this exercise you will open the maximo.properties file to start learning about it.
Depending on your training environment’s configuration, the code that you see on your
screen in this section might not exactly match these pages.
Any changes to any of your *.properties files will not take effect until you rebuild
and redeploy your maximo.ear file. You will learn about *.ear files later in this
chapter.
If an Open With dialog box opens, select Notepad to open the file.
3. Using the scroll bar, take a moment to look at the contents of the file while your
instructor briefly describes them.
Do not close the file; leave it open as your instructor covers the sections of the
maximo.properties file.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 2-5
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 2: Overview of System Files
File Commenting
The maximo.properties file is commented to provide brief descriptions of its properties
and examples of how some of these properties are used. A comment line has a double
forward slash (//) at the beginning of the line.
• With hyphens to separate sections within the file for easier reading
• To disable properties
Section Breaks
New sections and their titles are comment lines preceded and followed by two sets of
comment lines with a series of hyphens (--------). A section header is often separated from
its content by a single comment line with a series of hyphens. Certain key sections of the
maximo.properties file are described next.
•
•
2-6 • Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 2: Overview of System Files
Of particular interest in this section is the mxe.db.url property, which tells the Maximo
Application Server which database to connect to. Both the Oracle and SQL Server
syntaxes are provided in the commented content section above the mxe.db.url property. As
with the mxe.db.url property, the other properties in this section are identified using
comments above the properties listed in the file.
SMTP Section
The SMTP section provides the identity of the outgoing mail server (SMTP).
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 2-7
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 2: Overview of System Files
•
•
2-8 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 2: Overview of System Files
Any changes to any of your *.properties files will not take effect until you rebuild and
redeploy your maximo.ear file. You will learn about *.ear files later in this chapter.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 2-9
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 2: Overview of System Files
This section highlights only some of the key parameters and sections in the
doclink.properties file. Check your technical documentation for more details regarding
the many properties in the doclink.properties file.
File Location
The doclink.properties file is located in the following default directory path:
\\[Maximo_root]\applications\maximo\properties.
Opening Files
In this exercise you will open the doclink.properties file to start learning about it.
Depending on your training environment’s configuration, the code that you see on your
screen in this section may not exactly match these pages.
If an Open With dialog box opens, select Notepad to open the file.
3. Using the scroll bar, take a moment to look at the contents of the file while your
instructor briefly describes them.
Do not close the file; leave it open as your instructor covers the sections of the
doclink.properties file.
•
•
2-10 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 2: Overview of System Files
File Commenting
The doclink.properties file is commented to provide brief descriptions of its properties and
examples of how some of these properties are used. A comment line has the number symbol
(#) at the beginning of the line.
• With hyphens to separate sections within the file for easier reading
• To disable properties
Section Breaks
New sections and their titles are comment lines preceded and followed by two sets of
comment lines with a series of hyphens (--------).
A section header is often separated from its content by a single comment line with a series
of hyphens.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 2-11
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 2: Overview of System Files
•
•
2-12 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 2: Overview of System Files
Default Path
Use the mxe.doclink.doctypes.defpath property to set the default path. The default path is
used when you add new files to the Attached Documents Library. You will learn about
the management of Attached Documents later in this course.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 2-13
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 2: Overview of System Files
• The remaining two are the Companies object and the Item object.
Error Messages
Error messages reside in the MAXMESSAGES object and are imported from the
messages.xml file. The messages.xml file resides in the following directory:
\[Maximo_root]\resources\messages
•
•
2-14 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 2: Overview of System Files
Multi-Language Utilities
There are four utilities (Windows command BATch files) Maximo uses in conjunction with
multilanguage support.
Utility Explanation
The .ear files are the ones to which the application server actually refers when deploying
Maximo. The following chart depicts the steps you must take to rebuild and redeploy .ear
files.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 2-15
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 2: Overview of System Files
The contents of your default directory will look similar to the following graphic, depending
on the installed applications:
The BEA WebLogic Server refers directly to .ear files. The IBM WebSphere Server uses
.ear files as the basis for creating deployed application files in another location.
An IBM Software standard training environment for Maximo uses BEA WebLogic 8.1.
You should speak with your Maximo server administrator for details regarding the setup at
your company.
It is strongly suggested that you delete the specific .ear file(s) that you want to rebuild
before rebuilding, thus rebuilding them from scratch. This ensures that the files created
during the rebuilding process are new and updated with your changes.
•
•
2-16 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 2: Overview of System Files
The following table describes the *.cmd files. The files are located in the
\\[Maximo_root]\deployment directory.
You call the buildmaximoear.cmd file to rebuild the maximo.ear file for Maximo
applications. You can call it from the command prompt or by double-clicking the file
directly from Windows Explorer.
This graphic displays sample output from when the buildmaximoear.cmd file is
running.
You should run the build*ear.cmd files from the command prompt.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 2-17
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 2: Overview of System Files
1. If you have not already done so, use Windows Explorer to navigate to your
\\[Maximo_root]\deployment\default directory and then delete your current
maximo.ear file.
2. Use your Windows Start button to open a Windows Command Prompt session.
Result: The buildmaximoear.cmd file runs and displays results as it builds a new
maximo.ear file.
At the Windows command prompt, type exit and then press Enter.
After rebuilding your .ear file(s), you must redeploy.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 2-18
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 2: Overview of System Files
Chapter Summary
The file is broken up into sections that relate to the types of properties in each section.
Sections are denoted by a series of hyphens (-----).
Some properties can be turned on and off by commenting them using a double slash
(//). Other properties use a binary 1 or 0 to turn them on and off, with 1 being on and 0
being off.
These reference files are the ones to which the Web server actually refers when deploying
Maximo. They are located in the DEPLOYMENT directory in the Maximo application
directory.
•
•
2-19 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
This chapter contains the following topics.
•
•
• 3-1
•
•
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Chapter Overview
The primary purpose of the Signature Security application is to establish and maintain
Maximo Users and Security Groups. This chapter also touches on person records and
person groups.
• Each Maximo User is associated with one or more security groups, each of which
can have different levels of access to Maximo.
• A system administrator can add or delete Security Group users at any time.
Learning Objectives
When you have completed this chapter, you should be able to:
•
•
3-2 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Security Overview
The following three applications are key to security in Maximo:
• Labor
• Users
• Asset custodians
• Asset owners
• Single step to update settings for multiple users (Groups, Default Site, Default
Storeroom)
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 3-3
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
• Sites
• Application authorizations
• Purchasing limits
• Invoice tolerances
• Start Centers
• GL component authorizations
• Labor authorizations
• Storeroom authorizations
• Group restrictions
• A system administrator can add users to, or delete users from, a security group at
any time.
Default Values
There are no default Start Centers for new groups. The Start Center field is not a required
field. With out-of-the-box Maximo, create at least one new group that includes a Start
Center Template.
Use this user only to sign in to Maximo for the first time; then create new users and new
groups, and thereafter use one of the new users to sign in.
• Read
• Insert
• Save
• Delete
In addition, the user’s access to options (Actions) will be checked. Access always has a site
component, as follows:
• All sites
• Specified sites
• No sites specified
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 200 • 3-5
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
• User authenticates (provides user name and password) once and is granted access
to all applications (OS, e-mail, Maximo) without providing credentials to an
additional sign-in screen.
• The U.S. Government has set up an infrastructure for issuing public digital
certificates to authenticate the identity of people and providers.
– Simple: One site and group per user, sites, applications, all in one group.
– Moderate: Multiple sites in a single organization can have multiple groups
per user and site administration.
– Complex: Multiple organizations or groups, functionality divided among
groups, multiple levels of administration, multiple asset classes managed.
•
•
3-6 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Person Records
A person record is a record in the People application of an individual who might appear
somewhere on a Maximo record—for example, in a Reported By or Affected Person field
on a service request, as a Supervisor on a labor record, or as the value in a Ship To or Bill
To Attention fields on a purchasing record.
Purpose
Person records are at the system level, so more than one labor or user can be associated with
each person record, as long as the Labor and Users are in different organizations.
• Each person record might or might not be a Maximo User or Labor in Maximo.
• A Labor record and a Maximo User can have the same person record.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 3-7
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Result: The People application displays a blank record, ready for editing.
The Person field and the Notice of E-commerce Exceptions are the only
required fields.
Field Value
Person [Your FI & Your Last Name]
Ex.: Jane Doe = JDoe
First Name [Your First Name]
Last Name [Your Last Name]
Display Name [Any desired Display Name]
You can fill in any other optional information, such as Address, and so on.
Person Groups
Use the Person Groups application to create, view, and modify person groups. A person
group consists of people, who might or may not be workers. After you have created these
groups, you can designate a person group as a work group or as an owner on a work order
or on a ticket.
A person group can also be the recipient of a document routed by the Workflow
application. If a document such as a purchase order or a work order is routed to a person
group, everyone in the group can receive the document unless Workflow is configured to
send it only to someone in the group whose calendar indicates that they are available.
Security Groups
Security Groups are a key component in the Maximo security architecture. They provide
system administrators with a flexible, robust way to manage user authorization and access.
A security group allows you to set up access rights to sites, applications, menus,
storerooms, labor, and GL components.
Each Maximo user can belong to one or more security groups, with each security group
having different levels of access. By combining security groups, you have the ability to
create a virtual profile that is flexible enough to meet the security needs of almost any
organization.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 3-9
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Information
The following statements refer to security groups:
• You can have multiple security groups assigned to each Maximo user.
Database Objects
When you create a new security group, Maximo creates a record in the MAXGROUP
object. The following table lists the database objects where various kinds of security group
information are stored.
•
•
3-10 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 20073 • 3-11
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
•
•
3-12 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 3-13
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Tabs
The following table describes each tab of the Security Groups application. See the IBM
Maximo System Administrator’s Guide for more information.
•
•
3-14 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
1. Open the Security Groups application and select the Maintenance security
group using the List tab to display the Maintenance security group.
Result: The Sites tab displays no sites available to the Maintenance security
group.
Question: Why are there no sites associated with this security group?
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 3-15
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Result: The Applications tab displays each application for which the security
group has access, the level of access for each application, and the actions for each
application.
2. Discuss the available applications for the Maintenance security group with your
instructor.
Question: Of those applications to which the Maintenance security group has any
type of access (Read, Insert, Save, or Delete), which applications does the
Maintenance security group not have access to all of the Options for
[Application]?
•
•
3-16 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Result: The Labor tab displays the labor authorizations for the Maintenance
security group.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 3-17
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Setting Description
•
•
3-18 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Result: The Limits and Tolerances tab displays the limits and tolerances
allocated to the Maintenance security group.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 3-19
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Result: The Users tab displays all of the Maximo users assigned to the
Maintenance security group.
•
•
3-20 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Remember, beyond training, you can always refer to the “How Do I…” section of Maximo
Help.
Field Value
Group [YourLastName]
Description [YourLastName] Group
Start Center Template 2 (Maintenance)
Independent of Other
[Selected]
Groups?
Normally, the Group and the Description fields should be descriptive of the
group’s role. You are using your last name here solely for the training
environment.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 3-21
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Result: Your new security group should look similar to the following graphic.
6. Click the New Row button, enter the following value, and then save your record:
Field Value
Site Texas
Result: Your new security group should look similar to the following graphic.
8. In the Applications section, click the Read All button and then save your record.
Result: All appropriate check boxes in the Read column are selected.
Then, in the Options for Actions [Application] section, click to select the Grant
Access? check boxes for:
•
•
3-22 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Result: Your new security group should look similar to the following graphic.
11. You will not be adding any information for this new security group right now.
Next you will look at Maximo users, and then add a new user to our new security group.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 3-23
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
When you create new Maximo users, they are automatically added to a default security
group (DEFLTREG) with limited authorizations and privileges.
Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance
Requirement: Auditing—exactly who has accessed what data. Implemented in Maximo
through:
• Login tracking
• No shared logins
• E-audit
• E-signature
• Authentication is done within Maximo or via the application server (no database
users by default)
Managing Users
When creating a new Maximo user, you can create the people record for the new user at the
same time by populating the fields in the Personal section of the Users application.
The Login ID for a new user, which defaults to the newly created User ID, is the login name
the user will use when signing in to Maximo. A user’s Login ID can be their employee
number, their e-mail address, or some other identification according to your business
practices.
When adding a new user, you can also specify the user’s default insert site and storeroom.
Moreover, and most important from a security standpoint, when adding or updating users
you can assign each user to one or more security groups.
•
•
3-24 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
User Actions
The following table briefly describes some of the user actions available to system
administrators.
Refer to the IBM Maximo System Administrator’s Guide for more information.
Action Description
Change Status Allows you to change status for one or more users at one time.
Status History displays a date and a time stamp whenever an
View Status History
administrative user changes the status of a user.
Allows you to create or delete a native database user ID. You
Database Access can also change the database password for an existing user with
a database user ID.
Allows you to change a user’s Maximo and/or database
passwords.
Change Passwords You typically need to change a user’s password when the user
becomes blocked (for example, by entering an incorrect
password too many times).
Allows an administrative user to force a user to verify their
Set Password Hint
identity before resetting their password.
Allows an administrative user to update/change the security
Set Security Profile
profile settings for a group of users.
Authorize Group Allows you to give a selected user the authority to assign users
Reassignment to one or more security groups.
Allows you to specify system-wide defaults:
• Default security group for new users
Security Controls • Default user status for self-registered users
• Tracking of user sign-in attempts
• Specification of password configuration settings.
Allows you to select a different people record to associate with
Change Person
a selected user.
Duplicate User Allows you to create a new user quickly.
Delete User Allows you to delete a Maximo user from the system.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 3-25
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
• PHONE – Optional
• EMAIL – Optional
• USERPURGL – Optional
• GRPREASSIGNAUTH – Optional
•
•
3-26 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
• List
• User
• Groups
• Security Profile
You will look at these tabs as you do the following exercises in creating a new user.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 3-27
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
3. Click the Detail Menu button of the Person field and choose Select Value.
•
•
3-28 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Result: The personal information from your people record is entered into your
new user record.
Field Value
User [Your Last Name & Your FI]
Field Value
User Name [Your Choice]
Notice that the User Name field (case-sensitive) defaults to an all-
lowercase version of the User field’s value.
Password Passw0rd
Confirm Password Passw0rd
We will discuss password requirements later in this chapter. Passwords
are case-sensitive and the default setting requires a minimum of six
characters.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 3-29
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
7. Write down your user name and your password information here:
User Name:
Password:
Field Value
Default Insert Site Bedford
Storeroom Site Bedford
Default Storeroom Central
Storerooms are unique only in combination with their site.
However, in this exercise you will add your new user to an existing security group.
1. If you are not already in the Users application, open it to the new user you created
in an earlier exercise.
•
•
3-30 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
4. Click the Detail Menu button of the Group field and choose Select Value.
Result: Your new user is now added to the BEDFORDSITE security group.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 3-31
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
1. If you are not already in the Users application, open it to the new user you created
in an earlier exercise.
3. Take some time to explore the security profile for your new user.
4. When you are finished exploring the security profile for your new user, return to
the Start Center.
•
•
3-32 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 3-33
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Security Settings
The following table briefly describes each setting.
Username: wilson
Password: wilson
•
•
3-34 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
3. From the List tab, find and select the user WILSON (or as directed by instructor).
6. Click the Detail Menu button of the Group field and choose Select Value.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 3-35
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
7. Click to select the group that you created earlier in this course.
Result: The Select Value dialog box closes, with your selection populating the
appropriate Group fields in the Authorize Group Reassignment dialog box.
8. Click OK.
Result: The Authorize Group Reassignment dialog box closes, and your
selected user is now authorized to add users to your new security group.
Challenge Exercise
Authorize the new user you created earlier to authorize group reassignment for your new
security group.
•
•
3-36 • Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Username: wilson
Password: wilson
3. From the List tab, find and select the user WILSON (or as otherwise directed by
your instructor).
6. Click the Detail Menu button of the Group field and choose Select Value.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 3-37
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
7. Click to select the group that you created earlier in this course.
Result: The Select Value dialog box closes with user WILSON now added to your
new security group.
Challenge Exercise
Add the new user you created earlier to your new security group.
•
•
3-38 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
3. From the List tab, find and select your new user.
5. Enter the following information into the Change Passwords dialog box:
Field Value
New Password [Your Choice]
Confirm Password [Your Choice]
Write it here:
7. Sign out of Maximo, and then sign back in to Maximo using your new user’s User
Name and new Password.
8. After a successful sign-in with your new user, sign back out of Maximo.
3. From the List tab, find and select your new user.
5. Click the Select Value button in the Password Hint Question field.
•
•
3-40 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
You will add more values to the Password Hint Question field when you learn
about domains later in this course.
7. Enter the following information into the Set Password Hint dialog box:
Field Value
Answer [Your Choice]
Write it here:
8. Click OK.
Security Controls
Security controls, unlike the remainder of the items on the Select Action menu, are system-
wide (versus user-specific). Follow these steps to change some of the security controls.
3. From the List tab, find and select your new user.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 3-41
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Field Value
Login Attempts Allowed 3
6. Click OK.
Result: The number of sign-in attempts is changed to 3 and the Security Controls
dialog box closes.
8. Using your new user’s initial password Passw0rd, sign back in to Maximo with
your new user’s user name.
Result: You should get an error message similar to the following graphic.
•
•
3-42 • Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
9. Click OK, and then repeat the previous step two more times, for a total of three
attempts.
Result: After the third attempt, you should get an error message similar to the
following graphic.
3. From the List tab, find and select your new user.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 3-43
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
6. Click OK.
8. Now sign out of Maximo and try to sign back in with your new user, using the
new user’s correct password.
3. From the List tab, find and select your new user.
5. When you are finished viewing the history for your new user, click OK to close
the View History dialog box.
•
•
3-44 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Specific (Oracle) SQL commands need to be run against your Oracle Maximo user in order
for this exercise to work. This exercise should work correctly in a standard IBM Software
training environment. The necessary commands are listed at the end of this exercise.
3. From the List tab, find and select your new user.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 3-45
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Field Value
Database User ID [Your Choice]
Write your DB User ID here:
Password [Your Choice]
Confirm Password [Same as above]
Write your DB Password here:
Warning: You may get an error message. If you do, this means that your database
is not set up to allow Maximo to create database users. This topic is addressed
later in this course.
Click OK.
6. Click OK (in the Database Access dialog box) to create your database user.
•
•
3-46 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
Chapter Summary
Security Overview
The following three applications are key to security in Maximo:
Person Records
A person record is a record in the People application of an individual who may appear
somewhere on a Maximo record. Person records are at the system level, so more than one
labor or user can be associated with each person record as long as the Labor and Users are
in different organizations.
Security Groups
Security groups are a key component in the Maximo security architecture. They provide
system administrators with a flexible, robust way to manage user authorization and access.
A security group allows you to set up access rights to sites, applications, menus,
storerooms, labor, and GL components.
Each Maximo user can belong to one or more security groups, with each security group
having different levels of access. By combining security groups, you have the ability to
create a virtual profile that is flexible enough to meet the security needs of almost any
organization.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 3-47
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 3: Signature Security
When you create new Maximo users, they are automatically added to a default security
group (DEFLTREG) with limited authorizations and privileges.
You can change the default group for new users and for self-registered users.
•
•
3-48 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System
Configuration
•
•
• 4-1
•
•
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
Chapter Overview
This chapter covers Financial Management topics and will give you hands-on experience
in adding specific financial data.
Chapter Focus
The intent of this chapter is to provide a high-level overview of key application elements
and functionality.
Learning Objectives
When you have completed this chapter you should be able to perform some key functions
of the Financial applications, including:
•
•
4-2 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
The Currency Codes application contains all the currency codes used by Maximo.
Maximo stores currency codes at the system level. All organizations can view and use the
defined currency codes and add new ones as needed.
After you establish an active currency code, you can use that currency code wherever a
Currency field appears, such as in Purchase Requisitions, Purchase Orders, Invoices,
and Companies.
Though you use the Currency Codes application to define currencies, you use the
following applications to perform other currency administration tasks:
• Exchange Rates to set up exchange rates between currencies for defined periods
Maximo stores currency codes at the system level; all organizations can use them.
To define exchange rates between currencies, use the Exchange Rates application. To
establish a base currency, use the Organizations application.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 4-3
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
Result: Your new currency code is added to the database, and your display should
look similar to the following graphic.
•
•
4-4 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
When a user enters an amount in a foreign currency (for example, on a purchase requisition,
purchase order, or invoice) Maximo finds the active exchange rate for that currency to
calculate the cost in the organization’s base currency. If Maximo does not find the exchange
rate between two currencies explicitly defined, it will use specific rules and logic to
calculate the exchange rate from other exchange rates, if they exist.
Maximo stores exchange rates at the organization level. Therefore, each organization
defines and maintains its own exchange rates. Currency codes are stored at the system level
and are available to all organizations.
Though you use Exchange Rates to define exchange rates between currencies, you use the
following applications to perform other aspects of currency administration:
The main table window lists all the exchange rates that have been entered for a selected
organization (EAGLENA in this example).
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 4-5
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
• You can define multiple exchange rates between the same two currencies (A to B,
for example), but the specified dates cannot overlap.
• On any one given date, you can define only one exchange rate between two
currencies (the Active Date and the Expiration Date fields do not include time of
day).
• If there is a gap between specified exchange rate periods for a currency pair, for
example, a month when no rate is specified, then Maximo does not default to any
existing rate. It finds no exchange rate.
• There is no time stamp on records for both the effective date and the expiration
date. The effective date and the expiration date become effective when the actual
date on the server changes, essentially behaving as if a 12:00 a.m. time stamp
were on the record.
In the Exchange Rates application, defining an exchange rate from one currency to another
implies an inverse relationship. If Maximo does not find a particular currency exchange rate
for a given date, it will look to see if the inverse relationship is defined and automatically
use the inverse relationship to calculate the currency conversion.
Example: If the exchange rate from currency A to B is 4.0, then the exchange rate from
currency B to A is 0.25 (if 1 A = 4 B, then 1 B = 0.25 A). If you specified only an A to B
exchange rate, and the cost of a PO item is in currency B, a user can specify currency A on
a PO and Maximo automatically makes the conversion to currency B.
•
•
4-6 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
Example: If you define exchange rates from A to C and from B and C, then Maximo can
still calculate A to B or B to A. If 1 A = 2 C and 1 B = 4 C, then B is twice the value of A.
Therefore, 1 B = 2 A and 1 A = .5 B. In terms of exchange rates for this example, the
following relationships exist:
A to C is 2.0
B to C is 4.0
A to B is 0.50
B to A is 2.0
For Maximo to use the three-currency logic, one of the three currencies must be the Base 1
currency.
Result: The Exchange Rates for… section displays all the defined exchange rates
for the selected organization (EAGLENA).
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 4-7
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
4. In the Convert from Currency field, click the Select Value button.
Result: SFR is selected and the Select Value dialog box closes.
Result: USD is selected and the Select Value dialog box closes.
The exchange rate is the multiplier Maximo uses to calculate the conversion, as
shown in the following equation:
– The exchange rate can have up to seven digits (the default) to the right of the
decimal point.
– You can use the Database Configuration application (discussed later in this
course) to change this.
10. In the Expiration Date field, enter: [One month from today]
Result: Maximo inserts the new row in the table, grouping it with other currency
pairs of the same kind, if present.
•
•
4-8 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
GL Account Configuration
The objective of GL accounts is to collect financial data that corresponds in scope and
format with an outside accounting system.
Before using GL account codes in Maximo, you will need to configure the format of your
codes in the Database Configuration application.
After formatting codes, you can set up and manage specific account codes using the Chart
of Accounts application.
GL Account Components
Each general ledger account code consists of a number of distinct components (also called
segments). In Database Configuration, you define the account code format using the GL
Account Configuration dialog box. In Chart of Accounts, you specify which components
are valid for use in Maximo.
Individual components are not GL account codes. GL account codes are defined as a
specific set of combined components. Therefore, not all combinations of components are
necessarily GL account codes.
For easy identification, you can use delimiters to separate components when they are
displayed on the screen. For example, you might use hyphens to separate components:
6100-400-SAF.
This needs to be decided before any accounts are entered in the database.
Warning: Changing this setting with existing accounts in the database will cause existing
accounts to become invalid.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 4-9
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
• Define up to 20 components
Note that components are not fixed length; they are only defined as a maximum
length.
• Component 2 = Activity
• Component 3 = Resource
• Component 4 = Element
The fourth component in MAXDEMO is optional and no accounts have been assigned to
it. Because account components are concatenated, with the highest-level component at the
left, the MAXDEMO database account 6100-350-SAF can be represented as follows:
The fourth component does not appear as part of the GL Account because it is an optional
component and no values have been assigned to it in Chart of Accounts for the
MAXDEMO database.
Your general ledger system has rules regarding whether an account is acceptable when
partially defined, or whether it must be fully defined:
• A fully defined (or fully specified) account has no unknown values (placeholders)
in required components.
•
•
4-10 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
In the previous example, the account 6100-350-SAF is fully defined. The fourth component
is optional and does not require any characters.
The account 6100-???-SAF is partially defined; the required Activity component is not
specified and therefore contains placeholder characters.
Use this dialog box to name each component segment and specify its characteristics.
Configuration and setup of account code formats is generally done during initial
implementation. Therefore, you should not have to do this as a system administrator.
• If a component is required, the code is validated when data is entered into the
component.
• If a component is optional, the presence of valid data is still required, but the user
can omit it.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 4-11
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
Required components must appear in order before optional codes. For example:
1234-ABC-BB1-DEF567
Recall that individual components are not GL account codes. GL account codes
are a specific set of combined components. Therefore, not all combinations of
components are necessarily GL account codes.
• Reconfigure the database. This step ensures that several objects that use the data
are reconfigured properly.
Clearing Accounts
You may recall that we learned earlier that a clearing account is required when you create
a new organization. A clearing account is an accounting term. The actual clearing account
is determined by your financial system.
A clearing (or holding) account is used for transfers between organizations. Suppose that
you need a forklift transferred from one organization to another organization. While it is in
transit, the associated cost needs to be put in a clearing account because it is not being used
by either organization. In Maximo a clearing account is required for all organizations, thus
it is needed in order to activate a new organization.
•
•
4-12 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
In this section you will look closely at the variety of screens and options in the Chart of
Accounts application.
The GL Accounts tab displays a list of all the accounts for the selected organization.
You define the format of the account code in Maximo in the following ways:
• To define the number, length, and data type of components; whether the
components are required; and the delimiter (if any), use the GL Account
Configuration action in the Database Configuration application.
Maximo users enter GL account codes in GL Account fields using the Select GL Account
dialog box. You, the administrator, specify the validation rules for what users can enter by
using the Validation Option dialog box in Chart of Accounts. Among other things, the
rules determine whether users can enter any combination of component values or whether
they are restricted to GL account codes stored in Chart of Accounts.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 4-13
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
Usage
Use the Chart of Accounts application to:
• Create, view, and modify general ledger account codes and components
Maximo stores GL accounts at the organization level. Therefore, each organization must
have its own chart of accounts system, and GL accounts cannot be shared across
organizations.
An organization must have a GL clearing account before you can make it active. Therefore,
after you create an organization you must at minimum use Chart of Accounts to create a
clearing account for the organization. You can create or download other accounts as well.
Using this methodology, accounting systems can then maintain accurate records in history.
•
•
4-14 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
GL Account Maintenance
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 4-15
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
Result: The Select GL Account dialog box opens. The first component is
highlighted; in your example, it is COST CENTER.
Result: 6100 – Administration is selected and the Select GL Account dialog box
displays a list of available second components. In our example, it is ACTIVITY.
Result: 199 – Production Training is selected and the Select GL Account dialog
box displays a list of available third components. In our example, it is
RESOURCE.
Result: 000 – General is selected and the Select GL Account dialog box displays
a list of available fourth components. In your example, it is ELEMENTS.
8. Click OK.
Result: The Select GL Account dialog box closes and your new GL account code
(6100-199-000) is created.
•
•
4-16 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
Production Training+Admin+General
Result: Your new GL account should look similar to the following graphic.
You will have to scroll through several pages or use the Filter functionality to find
your new GL account.
1. Access the GL Component Maintenance dialog box from the Select Action
menu in the Chart of Accounts application.
2. Create the following individual components for your PAPER organization, and
save your record:
3. In the GL Accounts for PAPER section, click New Row, create the following
GL account, and save your record:
6000-100-000 Overhead+General+Clearing
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 4-17
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
In the Clearing Account field, click Select Value and select your new clearing
account (6000-100-000).
Result: Your PAPER organization should look similar to the following graphic.
Merging GL Accounts
There are instances when a GL account field may not be uniquely specified. For example,
there might be a GL account for a location and a GL account for a piece of equipment.
Generating work orders and other kinds of transactions often requires choosing from
among account component values, and Maximo invokes a set of rules on how to handle
them.
When GL accounts are merged, they are merged component by component, and a defined
component always supersedes an undefined component. For example, if the first
component of one account code is 6000 and the other is ???? (a placeholder), the resulting
merged first component will be 6000.
For many transactions, the merge must choose between defined components. Refer to the
Finance Manager’s Guide for detailed information on how GL accounts merge during
transactions.
•
•
4-18 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
Refer to the General Ledger Accounts chapter of the IBM Maximo Finance Manager’s
Guide for more information on using these accounts.
Listed are the dialog boxes you use to define financial periods, set up default GL accounts,
and define resource codes. When you update the database, the account codes defined with
these dialog boxes are also updated, depending on which of the three update choices you
select.
• Financial Periods
• Resource Codes
You will be learning about these dialog boxes in the following sections.
Financial Periods
Purpose
The administrator or person responsible for maintaining financial accounting must define
financial accounting periods in the database.
Operating Principle
All Maximo transactions can be set up to have a financial period stamp when they are
generated. This means they must occur during an open, valid financial period. Maximo
allows you to define these periods.
The format of the financial period is determined by the requirements of the accounting
system used with Maximo.
You can turn off financial period validation by using the Validation Options dialog box.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 4-19
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
If you want Maximo to validate the data against financial periods, make sure the Validate
Financial Periods box is selected in the Validation Options dialog box.
The requirements of the accounting system you use with Maximo will determine the format
of the financial period.
Maximo ensures that you insert rows sequentially and does not allow time gaps or overlaps
between periods.
Notes
By default, the time is set to 12:00 a.m. for each date.
Maximo prevents time gaps and overlaps between contiguous periods. If you change the
date of an existing period, Maximo resets surrounding dates. You can, however, enter a new
financial period that starts later than the To date field of the most recent period.
In the Accounting Close Date field, you can, but do not have to, enter a closing date. This
is the date after which no further transactions can be charged to the accounting period.
Example: An accounting period X is from 2/1/05 to 3/1/05, with an Accounting Close Date
of 3/15/05. A transaction can be charged to the period X even though the transaction is
reported as late as 3/14/05. After that date, no further transactions can be charged to this
period.
•
•
4-20 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
Result: The Financial Periods dialog box displays all the financial periods for the
selected organization: EAGLENA.
Financial periods are ordered sequentially by date, with the most recent period at
the top.
Field Value
Period 200701
From 1/1/07
To 1/31/07
Make sure you use the next period based on your data. Check with your instructor,
as the data entry values in this exercise might be different from those in your
training environment.
5. Click OK.
Result: Your new financial period is added to the database and the Financial
Periods dialog box closes.
6. To view your new Financial period, again, from the Select Action menu, select
Financial Periods.
You might have to click on the Period heading (twice) to reorder the financial
periods to view your new period.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 4-21
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
GL Component Maintenance
Use the GL Component Maintenance dialog box in the Chart of Accounts application
to define valid component values for GL account codes. These values are the ones you
choose from when you use the Select GL Account dialog box.
Creating a GL Component
Use the following steps to create a GL component.
Field Value
GL Component Value 500
Description Administration
Active [Leave Selected]
6. Click OK.
Result: Your new component is saved to the database and the GL Component
Maintenance dialog box closes.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 4-23
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
• Company-Related Accounts
• Resource Codes
These accounts are not downloaded from the accounting system. They are used only
internally and only as a convenience for users.
•
•
4-24 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
• Global Ticket Account: You typically use this as the default account when a
ticket for a service request is created and no other account is available.
• Tool Control Account: You typically use this as the default account when a
transaction involves a tool and no other account is available.
Company-Related Accounts
Use the Company-Related Accounts dialog box to set up default company GL accounts.
The accounts are based on Company Type as specified in the Companies application. You
can define the following three accounts:
• AP Control Account
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 4-25
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
Notes
Company Type is a domain (value list). In the Domains application, you can add new
values by adding rows to the COMPTYPE domain. You will learn about Domains in a later
chapter. Refer to the General Ledger Accounts chapter in the IBM Maximo Finance
Manager’s Guide for more information on company-related accounts.
•
•
4-26 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
• Tool Resource Codes: Use these to define GL account code components to track
whether a tool used in a transaction belongs to the company (internal) or to an
outside vendor (external).
A resource code typically consists of just one component of the account code. When you
use the Select GL Account dialog box to define a code, you leave the other components
filled with placeholder characters.
You update the database for one organization at a time. As described next, you have a
choice of three ways to handle existing accounts when you update.
Overwrite Blank Choose this option if If you created a new account code for
Accounts Only? you want the updated an existing item type’s GL account
Chart of Accounts field, choosing this option would
data to overwrite only overwrite only the item’s GL account
those affected GL field where it is blank, but not where a
account fields that are GL account has already been entered.
currently blank.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 4-27
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Financial System Configuration
•
•
4-28 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
Caution: Make sure that no one is using Maximo when you update the database.
1. Open the Chart of Accounts application, and in the Organizations section, select
EAGLENA.
4. Click OK.
Result: Your specified GL account types are updated and the Update Database
dialog box closes.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 4-29
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
Chapter Summary
The Currency Codes application contains all the currency codes used by Maximo.
Maximo stores currency codes at the system level. All organizations can view and use the
defined currency codes and add new ones as needed.
When a user enters an amount in a foreign currency (for example, on a purchase requisition,
purchase order, or invoice) Maximo finds the active exchange rate for that currency to
calculate the cost in the organization’s base currency. If Maximo does not find the exchange
rate between two currencies explicitly defined, it will use specific rules and logic to
calculate the exchange rate from other exchange rates, if they exist.
Maximo stores exchange rates at the organization level. Therefore, each organization
defines and maintains its own exchange rates. Currency codes are stored at the system level
and are available to all organizations.
Though you use Exchange Rates to define exchange rates between currencies, you use the
following applications to perform other aspects of currency administration:
•
•
4-30 • opyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
Before using GL account codes in Maximo, you will need to configure the format of your
codes in the Database Configuration application.
After formatting codes, you can use the Chart of Accounts application to set up and
manage specific account codes.
Financial Periods
All Maximo transactions can be set up to have a financial period stamp when they are
generated. This means they must occur during an open, valid financial period. Maximo
allows you to define these periods. The format of the financial period is determined by the
requirements of the accounting system used with Maximo.
GL Component Maintenance
Use the GL Component Maintenance dialog box of the Chart of Accounts application
to define valid component values for GL account codes. These values are the ones you
choose from when you use the Select GL Account dialog box.
• Company-Related Accounts
• Resource Codes
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 4-31
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 4: Financial System Configuration
You update the database for one organization at a time. As discussed, you have a choice of
three ways to handle existing accounts when you update:
•
•
4-32 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative
Applications
•
•
• 5-1
•
•
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
Chapter Overview
This chapter covers several applications that set up different types of data for use in other
applications that depend on the data set up in this chapter.
Chapter Focus
The intent of this chapter is to provide a high-level overview of key application elements
and functionality.
Learning Objectives
When you have completed this chapter, you should be able to:
•
•
5-2 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
Managing Calendars
Use the Calendars application to indicate working time for equipment, craft, and labor
records for the displayed organization and its associated sites. A start date, an end date, and
the shift to be worked all define a calendar record.
You can apply one or more shifts to a calendar. You can also designate non-working time
such as weekends, holidays, and vacations.
You can also define shifts with complex repeating patterns in the Define Shift Pattern
dialog box.
In calculating downtime for a piece of equipment, the Calendars application checks the
equipment’s calendar to see when the equipment is supposed to be operational.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 5-3
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
Shift Patterns
A shift is a general definition of working time; it is not specific to any dates. You choose
the days of the week to be considered working days, then designate the start and end times
for work. For example, you can create a shift called First with these properties:
You can schedule explicit breaks by entering multiple start and end times for each working
day. You can also create shift definitions that do not reflect the usual working time at your
company but would be useful to have in case a special work situation comes up. For
example, you can define a Saturday shift.
Typically most shift patterns that you create in the Define Shift Patterns dialog box would
use a 7-day pattern with a Sunday start day, or a pattern that uses multiples of 7s, such as a
14 or 21 days, with a Monday start day. In some companies, there are unique circumstances
where a 5-day or other pattern might be used.
The number of days in the pattern specifies the block of days that will repeat. If you are
using a number that is not a multiple of 7, the pattern will not repeat on the same days of
the week. For example, with a 15-day pattern of 10 days on and 5 days off, the second
instance of the shift will start on a different day than the first.
For all of these cases, you would use the same procedure in the Define Shift Patterns
dialog box. After you define a shift, you can apply it to a calendar. Then, after you have
created a calendar, you can use it on labor, craft, locations, and/or equipment records to
specify working time.
•
•
5-4 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
Creating a Calendar
Use the following steps to create a new calendar.
If you were to create a new calendar record for a different organization, then you
would clear the Organization field of the List tab before you create a new
calendar.
Field Value
Calendar [Your Last Name]
Description Calendar for [Your Last Name]
Start Date [01 Jan, this year]
End Date [31 Dec, this year]
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 5-5
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
Use the Define/Apply Shifts dialog box to define and/or apply shifts.
5. Click to select the DAY shift; then click the Apply Shift(s) button.
Result: The Apply Shifts with Range dialog box closes and you are returned to
the Define/Apply Shifts dialog box.
•
•
5-6 • Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
Result: The Define/Apply Shifts dialog box closes and Maximo displays the
current month with the selected shift(s) applied to your calendar.
Use the Define/Apply Non-Working Time dialog box to define and/or apply
non-working time.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 5-7
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
Field Value
Description President’s Day (USA)
Start Date 2/21/05
End Date 2/21/05
Type Holiday
11. Click to select your new entry, President’s Day (USA). Click Apply, and then
click OK.
Maximo might display a dialog box informing you that the Non-Working Time
has been applied. If so, click OK.
Result: The Define/Apply Non-Working Time dialog box closes, and Maximo
again redisplays the current month.
12. If necessary, use the Month navigation arrows to display the month of February to
display the new Holiday you just created.
Result: Your newly defined non-working time is displayed on your new calendar.
•
•
5-8 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
Report Aministration
Use the Report Administration application to register Maximo reports created with
Actuate e.Report Designer Professional and to create request pages for those reports.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 5-9
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
• Maximo Help
Overview
Use the Report Administration application to create request pages for newly registered
reports or to modify (create new) request pages for existing reports.
When you modify an existing request page, you are actually creating a new request page
for the report.
•
•
5-10 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
Result: The Report tab opens for the Asset Availability report.
You can repeatedly modify and preview the request page until it looks the way
you want it to.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 5-11
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
Use the Labels tab in the Report Administration application to change report titles and
field labels in your report. After you (or your report developer) publish a report through the
Management Console, you can use the Labels tab to customize titles and field labels.
Report Tab
The following table provides an overview of the functions performed by each section of the
Report tab.
Section Description
Report Details pane This indicates the report for which the request page is
being generated.
The Generate XML on the Report Tab button
generates the actual request page (XML) as a
functioning page in Maximo.
The Preview button allows a preview of the generated
request page to determine if the setup is correct.
Report Lookups pane This indicates report parameters to be included on the
request page.
You can indicate parameters as Required on the
request page for report generation.
You can indicate labels and display sequences for
parameters on the request page.
When adding a parameter in a new row, the Attribute
Name field in Details provides a list of parameters for
the indicated report. This prevents accidental
indication of an incorrect parameter.
•
•
5-12 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
You will modify an existing request page because you want to add a new parameter for the
generation of the respective report.
2. In the Report Details pane, verify the following existing information, changing
the Description field:
3. In the Report Lookups pane, click on View Details for the status parameter, and
verify the following existing information.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 5-13
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
4. In the Report Lookups pane, click New Row and add a new parameter with the
following information:
Field Value
Parameter Name Work Location
Attribute Name WORKLOCATION
Lookup Name LOCATIONS
Display Sequence 2
Override Label Labor Work Location
Default Value [blank]
Required? [Unselected]
Hidden? [Unselected]
6. Click the Generate XML on the Report Tab button to generate the request page.
7. Click Close.
Result: Maximo displays a new preview of the request page. Notice that your new
parameter displays on the new request page.
9. Click Cancel when you are done previewing the new request page.
•
•
5-14 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
Result: The Business Analysis and Reporting dialog box displays a list of the
available request pages for the available reports.
3. From the Run Report subtab, click to select and run your request page for the
Labor Listing report.
Field Value
Status ACTIVE
5. When you are finished viewing your report, click Close Report (upper right
corner).
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 5-15
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
• Class name
• Access level
• Description
•
•
5-16 • Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
You can create multiple cron task instances for each cron task definition, and each instance
will have an entry in the CRONTASKINSTANCE table. The attributes of an instance
include:
• A set schedule string that defines the schedule of this cron task instance
• A description
• A date/time field indicating the date and time when the load/reload of the cron
task is requested (this field will not be displayed to the user)
• A Run as User ID
Cron task instances share the same set of parameters, but each can have its own set of values
and its own schedule. For example, the reorder cron task definition contains the parameter
storeroom and you can change the frequency in the following instances:
For more information, refer to the IBM Maximo System Administrator’s Guide.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 5-17
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
•
•
5-18 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
Access Levels
The following access levels are available when creating new cron task definitions:
All cron tasks supplied with Maximo are initially set to FULL access level, with the
exception of ESCALATIONS and LSNRCRON, which are set to READONLY.
Use Case
The ReorderCronTask definition determines the rules or parameters for reordering direct
issue and inventory items. You may want reorders to occur every Friday for the CENTRAL
storeroom, and require workers to use agreements and send e-mail notifications to
purchasing@company.com.
You might also determine that reorders for other storerooms should occur once a month on
the first Sunday. They are not required to use agreements, and the e-mails for notification
should go to the supervisors in charge of each storeroom.
You can copy the rules for the CENTRAL storeroom and make the necessary modifications
to the schedule to create additional ReorderCronTask instances for the other storerooms.
1. Open the Cron Task Setup application from the Configuration module.
Result: The Cron Task Setup application opens to the List tab.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 5-19
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
Result: The Cron Task tab opens and displays the definition and the available
instances (if any) for the selected cron task.
Result: A new row opens in the Cron Task Instances section for data entry.
Field Value
Cron Task Instance Name BedfordCentral
Description Reorder Bedford Central, every Friday
Active? [Checked]
•
•
5-20 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
9. Click OK.
Do not close the application. You will continue the next exercise from this point.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 5-21
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
With Maximo open to the ReorderCronTask instance (BedfordCentral) that you just
created, follow these steps:
1. With your (BedfordCentral) Reorder cron task instance selected, go to the Cron
Task Parameters section.
3. Type: BEDFORD,CENTRAL.
Do not close the application. You will continue the next exercise from this point.
1. With your (BedfordCentral) Reorder cron task instance selected, click the
Duplicate button.
Field Value
Cron Task Instance Name NashuaPkg
Description Reorder Nashua – Pkg, every Mo on Monday
Active [Selected]
•
•
5-22 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
NASHUA,PKG
Do not close the application. You will continue the next exercise from this point.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 5-23
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
1. With Maximo open to the ReorderCronTask cron task, choose Reload Request
from the Select Action menu.
2. Click the check boxes to select both of the new instances that you created:
BedfordCentral and NashuaPkg.
3. Click OK.
Result: Both of your new instances are now reloaded and ready to run at their
scheduled times.
•
•
5-24 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
Chapter Summary
Managing Calendars
Use the Calendars application to indicate working time for equipment, craft, and labor
records for the displayed organization and its associated sites. A start date, an end date, and
the shift to be worked all define a calendar record.
You can apply one or more shifts to a calendar. You can also designate non-working time
such as weekends, holidays, and vacations.
Report Administration
Use the Report Administration application to “register” Maximo reports created with
Actuate e.Report Designer Professional.
You can also use the Report Administration application to create request pages for newly
registered reports or to create new request pages for existing reports.
Use the Cron Task Setup application to add cron tasks or cron task instances, to remove
cron tasks or their instances, and to modify cron task parameters.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 5-25
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 5: Administrative Applications
•
•
5-26 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
This chapter contains the following topics.
•
•
• 6-1
•
•
Chapter 6: Application Setup
Chapter Overview
This chapter covers several applications that you use to set up system processes. You will
look at each application and set up related data and processes.
Chapter Focus
The intent of this chapter is to provide a high-level overview of key application elements
and functionality.
Learning Objectives
When you have completed this chapter, you should be able to:
• Describe actions
• Describe escalations
• Create an action
• Create an escalation
•
•
6-2 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
Bulletin Board messages can be viewed from the Start Center and from any Maximo
application.
Creating and posting messages on the Bulletin Board minimizes the creation and
duplication of tickets. Only users granted access to the Bulletin Board application can
create and post messages.
You can specify the date and time you want the message to appear on the Bulletin Board.
You can also define a date and time when you want the message to be automatically
removed from the Bulletin Board.
2. Click the New Message button to insert a new Bulletin Board record.
Result: The Bulletin Board application displays a blank record, ready for editing.
Field Value
Subject Maximo Shut-down
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 6-3
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
5. Click the Select All Records check box (circled in step 4) to select all
organizations, and then click OK.
2. Click the New Message button to insert a new Bulletin Board record.
Result: The Bulletin Board application displays a blank record, ready for editing.
•
•
6-4 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
Field Value
Subject New MSDS
Message Note that there are new Material Safety Data
Sheets available in the Maximo Attached
Document Library.
Expiration Date [One year from today]
5. Click on the Person Groups subtab, and then click Select Groups.
Result: Maximo users in the selected groups will see this new Bulletin Board
message.
Result: Because you assigned this user (wilson) to the Maintenance group earlier
in this course, Wilson can see both new Bulletin Board messages.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 6-5
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
Communication Templates
Use the Communication Templates application to create and manage generic
communication templates that Maximo users can leverage to standardize frequently used
e-mail communications (also known as notifications). Typically, this functionality is used
in the service desk industry.
In Maximo, service desk agents can manually create and send e-mail communications from
the Ticket applications (Service Requests, Incidents, and Problems) using standardized
information from predefined communication templates. The recipients of these
communications can respond, and agents can view the two-way dialog from the
Communication Log in the Ticket applications. You can also use communication
templates to create e-mail notifications for use with the automated workflow and escalation
processes.
You can associate specific file attachments with a communication template, and you can
associate document folders with the template, which Maximo will search when a service
desk user applies the template to a ticket. When a communication is actually sent, Maximo
attaches to the communication any files that exist in the associated document folders, along
with those hard-coded in the template itself.
Example: You have created a Workflow process for purchase requisitions. When a Maximo
user submits a request for a laptop, the purchase request (PR) enters Workflow and waits
for approval from an immediate supervisor. From there, if the supervisor approves the PR,
Maximo routes the PR to the next level for approval, Finance. When approved, Maximo
sets the status to Approved and sends an e-mail notification of the Approved status to the
user who submitted the request. You can create a communication template for PR approvals
or rejections, which Maximo can send automatically as the request goes through the
Workflow process.
A notification includes a template ID, the role or recipient name, the subject of the
notification, and the message. If you have information that is sent out repeatedly, you can
create a communication template for it and attach it as a notification on a node in a
Workflow process.
•
•
6-6 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
A notification includes a template ID, the role or recipient name, the subject of the
notification, and the message. If you have information that is sent out repeatedly, you can
create a communication template for it and attach it as a notification on an escalation.
Substitution Variables
When you create a communication template in the Communication Templates
application, you can leverage substitution variables in the Subject and Message fields in
the e-mail notification. Maximo filters these substitution variables based on the Maximo
business object that you select in the Applies To field.
If the communication template applies to the object ASSET, the list of variables that
Maximo displays for you to choose from are the field and column names from the database
tables associated with the ASSET object.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 6-7
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
When a Maximo user applies the communication template and creates a notification,
Maximo replaces the substitution variables from the template with the corresponding
values from the record that is generating the notification.
then :TICKETID is replaced by the actual ticket number obtained from the incident record.
Example: The following example illustrates the use of substitution variables in the
Message field:
Phone: :AFFECTEDPHONE
– Inline attachments (for example, a screen capture within the body of the
message)
– Standard attachments
• Three mail protocols: POP3, IMAP, and MAPI. (A client program uses these
standard mail access protocols when it retrieves e-mail messages from a mail
server.)
The E-mail Listener checks each account at periodic intervals that you establish. Based
on the subject line of the e-mail message, the E-mail Listener can determine whether the
e-mail is a new Service Request (SR) for help or is a follow-up to an SR record.
•
•
6-8 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
The E-mail Listener submits the contents of the e-mail message to a predefined Maximo
workflow process. This workflow process creates and updates service requests. You can
customize this workflow process or create new ones to suit your needs. Maximo captures
all communications from the originators of the e-mail messages in the service desk
Communication Log. For more information about communication logs, see the online help
for Service Requests.
Terminology
Before proceeding, you may want to review the following terms and definitions.
Term Definition
Attached Docs You can use the Attached Documents application in Maximo
to attach Word documents, PDF files, Web page URLs,
diagrams, pictures, and other types of documents to individual
Maximo records.
Communication Log If an incoming e-mail generates an SR, e-mail details are also
stored as the initial entry in the SR’s Communication Log.
Additional dialog is also stored, based on the SR ID. Graphics,
whether embedded within the e-mail or attached, are also
visible from within the Communication Log.
Delimiters A delimiter is one or more characters chosen for use in an
incoming e-mail subject line. E-mail Listener uses delimiters
to distinguish new requests from existing requests. The default
delimiter is ##. You can change the default by editing the value
in the Object Key Delimiter field. The delimiter must be
placed before and after the Service Request ID.
Error Handling Processing errors are written into a log file. You must specify
the Maximo log file on the server and adjust settings in the
logging.properties file. If the administrator has specified a
valid administrator e-mail address, then errors are written to
the log file and error notification is sent to that e-mail address.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 6-9
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
Term Definition
E-mail Attachments
Incoming e-mail can contain attachments, which are stored on the hard disk of the Maximo
server. You can view attachments using the Communication Log tab, which is a subtab of
the Log tab of the Service Request application.
• Normal attachments are those that include any file extensions you set up the mail
server to allow.
• Embedded or inline attachments are files that are copied and pasted directly into
the body portion of an e-mail.
You can set up the mail server to prohibit certain file types from being used in attachments.
The size of a single attachment and the size of all attachments in a single
e-mail can be controlled in the mail server. Before implementing E-mail Listener, contact
your mail server administrator for information on how to set these controls.
Warning: You should communicate limitations on file types and sizes to people who use
E-mail Listener to send in service requests.
•
•
6-10 • Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
For detailed information about the three main E-mail Listener components (the
configuration, the cron task, and the predefined workflow process), as well as related
system administrative tasks that are performed outside of this application, see the IBM
Maximo System Administrator’s Guide.
When you activate an E-mail Listener configuration, the following sequence of events
occurs:
1. The mail server polls for incoming e-mails to the e-mail account at the frequency
you specify.
4. Maximo uses a predefined workflow process to process and parse the e-mail.
By default, neither the E-mail Listener nor the predefined Workflow process for this
application generates any response e-mails to new requests for help or updates to existing
service requests. If you want to automate a response to incoming e-mails, you can revise
the provided Workflow process or define a new Workflow process and customize it to
trigger an e-mail response when Maximo creates a new service request or updates an
existing one.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 6-11
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
Help Topics
In addition to the IBM Maximo System Administrator’s Guide, refer to the following help
topics:
1. From the E-mail Listener Configuration application, click Help and choose
E-mail Listener Configuration Help.
4. When you are done reviewing each of the topics, close the E-mail Listener
Configuration Help browser window.
•
•
6-12 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
Some mail servers are case-sensitive. Maximo will preserve the case of the address you
specify in the E-mail Address field. If you try to create a new E-mail Listener
configuration using an e-mail address that is identical in name and case to one that already
exists on the same mail server, Maximo prevents you from saving the configuration.
However, you can use the same e-mail address in a different case on the same mail server.
Frank, a service desk agent, is assigned SR #123. From within the SR, he sees Sally’s
problem description as well as the attached screenshot. Frank searches the knowledge base
and finds a solution. He opens the Communication Log, which contains Sally’s initial
e-mail submission, then creates a new communication with the solution and sends it to
Sally. All details of the interaction between Frank and Sally are stored in the
Communication Log for SR #123.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 6-13
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
The data for this exercise might not be valid in all training environments. This exercise
depends on:
• Available e-mail server with an account set up specifically for this exercise
• Internet access with port(s) configured open to access a POP3 mail server
The data in this exercise is valid (at the time this course was developed) for a standard IBM
Software open school training environment with Internet access.
Field Value
E-mail Address MROTraining@hotpop.com
Description E-Mail account setup for processing SRs
E-mail password mr0mr0
Mail Server pop.hotpop.com
Administrator E-mail [YourEMail@YourCO.com]
•
•
6-14 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
Active? [Selected]
Protocol pop3
Port 110 [default]
Workflow Process BEP [default]
E-mail Deleted [Selected]
Age Threshold 7 [default]
Age Unit of Measure DAYS [default]
• The exercises require external Internet access to a specific external mail server
(pop.hotpop.com, port 110).
• The exercises require access to a mail server for the e-mail client.
Given these conditions, the following e-mail dependent exercises will work in an IBM
Software open school environment with appropriate Internet access. They may not work in
any other training environment.
The data entered through these e-mail dependent exercises is not required. You can skip the
following Optional exercises if your environment does not support them.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 6-15
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
Your specific actions will vary, depending on the available e-mail client and your
training environment.
The actual field names might vary, depending on your e-mail client.
Field Value
To mrotrng@hotpop.com
Subject My hard drive xx is making a noise.
I turned on my laptop xx and my hard drive
Text/Message
started making an atypical noise.
Use the following steps to check for the SR submitted via e-mail.
3. Search for and select the SR that you submitted via e-mail from the previous
exercise.
•
•
6-16 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
Hint: Filter by typing hard drive in the Summary field and new in the Status
field.
Result: The Service Request tab opens with your selected SR ready for editing.
4. You have checked your work. Your E-mail Listener is working properly. Return
to the Start Center.
Managing Actions
Use the Actions application to manage the administrative functions of creating actions and
action groups within Workflow, Escalations, and Service Level Agreements (SLA)
processes. You manage actions in a central administrative application because they are
used in multiple applications.
Actions are scheduled events that occur from within Workflow or as a result of an
escalation. An action can cause a Maximo status change, execute a defined program, set a
field value, or execute a custom class action. Use the Actions application to build
individual actions or action groups.
In an exercise in the next section (Managing Escalations, you will use the Actions
application to create and use new actions.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 6-17
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
• True or False
• Accepted or Rejected
Available Actions
Six categories of actions are available:
• CUSTOM
• EXECUTABLE
• SETVALUE
• CHANGESTATUS
• GROUP
• APPACTION
– ApplySLA
– CreateChange
– CreateIncident
– CreateProblem
– CreateRelease
– CreateSR
– CreateWO
•
•
6-18 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
– WFACCEPT
– WFESCALATE
– WFINITIATE
– WFREJECT
How Do I …
Refer to the Application Help for information on how to accomplish the following tasks:
In an exercise in the next section (Managing Escalations), you will use the Actions
application to create and use new actions.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 6-19
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
Managing Escalations
The primary goal of escalation management is to ensure that critical tasks are completed on
time, such as those defined in Service Level Agreements. You can also use escalations for
events such as notifying you before contracts expire, changing the status of a Maximo
object (such as for invoices or contracts), or changing the owner of a Maximo object (such
as for service requests, incidents, or problems).
You can use escalations with any Maximo application. However, you are most likely to use
them with the Service Desk applications, IT Asset Management applications, and
Workflow processes. For example:
• Workflow Processes: You can use escalations to escalate assignments before they
time out in a recipient’s Inbox. When you assign specific steps in a Workflow
process to employees, those assignments display in their Inbox. If the assignments
are not completed promptly, they time out in the recipients’ Inboxes. When this
happens, you can use escalations to assign the tasks to other people. This helps
ensure that tasks are completed on time and helps to prevent work backlogs.
For more detailed information about how escalations work, see the IBM Maximo System
Administrator’s Guide.
Escalation Levels
You can create escalations at the site, organization, or system level. If you specify an
organization or site, the escalation is restricted to that site or organization. If you leave both
the Organization and Site fields empty, the escalation is available to all sites and
organizations (system-wide).
When you select an object for a new escalation, the Escalations application automatically
determines, if it can, whether that object is system level, organization level, or site level,
and enables or defines those fields.
•
•
6-20 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
Predefined Escalations
The Maximo product ships with numerous predefined escalations. You must activate the
predefined escalations before they will work. You can tailor them to suit your business
needs, or create new ones. You can also build and validate escalations incrementally while
they are inactive, and activate them after validation.
• Escalations for the Maximo database, which you can modify to suit your business
needs. Do not delete the predefined Maximo escalations; they are required for the
escalations functionality to work.
• Escalations for the MAXDEMO database, which you can modify or delete as
needed. You can use the MAXDEMO escalations in your test environment to gain
practical experience with adding and managing escalations.
To review a full list and detailed descriptions of all predefined Maximo and MAXDEMO
escalations, consult the IBM Maximo System Administrator’s Guide.
You can use escalations with any Maximo application. However, you are most likely to use
them with the Service Desk applications, IT Asset Management applications, and
Workflow processes.
Ideally, before you use the Escalations application you should be familiar with Maximo
objects, SQL, and the object attributes that can be included in SQL statements. You should
also understand both the Actions and the Communication Templates applications.
• Header attributes, which identify the set of records that the escalation targets
(the global search criteria).
• Escalation points, which define thresholds that must be met before Maximo
triggers an escalation.
– Thresholds are most often based on time; time that has already elapsed or time
that is going to elapse sometime in the future. From one angle, escalations are
nothing but periodic time measurements.
– However, you do not restrict escalation points to time only. You can define
their own thresholds based on expressions they create.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 6-21
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
• Actions, which are events you want triggered when the escalation point(s) are
reached.
• Notifications, which are e-mails you want sent when the escalation points are
reached.
You must define at least one escalation point and at least one action/notification to associate
with the escalation point before you can activate the escalation. You can define multiple
escalation points, and each can be associated with one or more actions and/or notifications.
Online Help Example Escalation Scenario: A service provider has a service level
agreement (SLA) stating that all network-related incidents with a low or medium priority
are to be assigned within 1 hour of ticket creation and resolved within 4 hours. In this case,
incidents set to a priority of 8–10 are low, 5–7 are medium, 3–4 are high, and 1–2 are very
high.
By default, the network support group is responsible for resolving these incidents.
However, if the problem has not been resolved within 3 hours, the priority is escalated to
very high and the ticket’s ownership is passed to a supervisor. At the same time, an e-mail
notification is sent to various people within the organization, informing them that there is
a risk of becoming non-compliant with the SLA.
2. Click to open the Maximo Help menu from the Maximo menu bar, as shown in
the following graphic.
•
•
6-22 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
Result: Maximo displays the Help menu for the Escalations application.
4. In the left pane, click the plus sign for Escalations Overview.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 6-23
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
6. Follow all the steps from the Escalations Help example to create a sample
escalation.
Warning: At the time of this writing, two mistakes are in the Maximo Help steps.
In both Tasks 5 and 8, you must change the status of the Communication
Template to ACTIVE before you Return with Value.
Result: When you complete all of the steps, your sample escalation should look
similar to the following graphic.
•
•
6-24 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
Chapter Summary
Bulletin Board messages can be viewed from the Start Center and from any Maximo
application.
Creating and posting messages on the Bulletin Board minimizes the creation and
duplication of tickets. Only users granted access to the Bulletin Board application can
create and post messages.
You can specify the date and time you want the message to appear on the Bulletin Board.
You can also define a date and time when you want the message to be automatically
removed from the Bulletin Board.
Communication Templates
Use the Communication Templates application to create and manage generic
communication templates that Maximo users can leverage to standardize frequently used
e-mail communications (also known as notifications). Typically, this functionality is used
in the service desk industry.
In Maximo, service desk agents can manually create and send e-mail communications from
the Ticket applications (Service Requests, Incidents, and Problems) using standardized
information from predefined communication templates. The recipients of these
communications can respond, and agents can view the two-way dialog from the
Communication Log in the Ticket applications. You can also use communication
templates to create e-mail notifications for use with the automated workflow and escalation
processes.
You can associate specific file attachments with a communication template, and you can
associate document folders with the template, which Maximo will search when a service
desk user applies the template to a ticket. When a communication is actually sent, Maximo
attaches to the communication any files that exist in the associated document folders, along
with those hard-coded in the template itself.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 6-25
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
– Inline attachments (for example, a screen capture within the body of the
message)
– Standard attachments
• Three mail protocols: POP3, IMAP, and MAPI. (A client program uses these
standard mail access protocols when it retrieves e-mail messages from a mail
server.)
The E-mail Listener checks each account at periodic intervals that you establish. Based on
the subject line of the e-mail message, the listener can determine whether the e-mail is a
new SR for help or is a follow-up to an SR record.
Managing Actions
Use the Actions application to manage the administrative functions of creating actions and
action groups within Workflow, Escalations, and Service Level Agreements (SLA)
processes. You manage actions in a central administrative application because they are
used in multiple applications.
Actions are scheduled events that occur from within Workflow or as a result of an
escalation. An action can cause a Maximo status change, execute a defined program, set a
field value, or execute a custom class action. Use the Actions application to build
individual actions or action groups.
•
•
6-26 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
Managing Escalations
The primary goal of escalation management is to ensure that critical tasks are completed on
time, such as those defined in Service Level Agreements. You can also use escalations for
events such as notifying you before contracts expire, changing the status of a Maximo
object (such as for invoices or contracts), or changing the owner of a Maximo object (such
as for service requests, incidents, or problems).
You can use escalations with any Maximo application. However, you are most likely to use
them with the Service Desk applications, IT Asset Management applications, and
Workflow processes.
You can create escalations at the site, organization, or system level. If you specify an
organization or site, the escalation is restricted to that site or organization. If you leave both
the Organization and Site fields empty, the escalation is available to all sites and
organizations (system-wide).
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 6-27
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 6: Application Setup
•
•
6-28 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture
and Configuration
•
•
• 7-1
•
•
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Chapter Overview
This chapter will show you the possible database configurations using the Database
Configuration application in the Configuration module, and specific command lines that
are run to configure the changes made on the attributes of business objects using the
Database Configuration application. Use Database Configuration to customize the
database and perform related functions.
Chapter Focus
This chapter provides a Maximo implementer with comprehensive knowledge regarding
use of the Database Configuration application. You will obtain maximum benefit if you:
Learning Objectives
When you have completed this chapter, you should be able to:
• Describe objects
• Describe attributes
• Enable e-signature
• Enable e-audit
•
•
7-2 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
The Database Configuration application provides a wide range of capabilities and options
to make configuration changes to the Maximo database.
Notes
Warning: You can make changes to the database using the Database Configuration
application. However, you should use extreme caution when making any changes to the
database to avoid losing data.
Certain database objects are part of the Maximo data dictionary and therefore should not be
changed. By default, these objects are not accessible through the Database Configuration
application.
After the database reconfiguration is completed, the data in the backed-up database table is
copied to the newly reconfigured table.
The backup database table remains and you can retain the backup table or delete it.
However, if you perform another configuration on the same database object, the current
table becomes the new backup table and the old backup table is dropped.
Warning: Before proceeding with any database changes, create a backup of your entire
database.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-3
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Before proceeding to the main topics in this chapter, you may want to review the following
terms and definitions; or return to them later as needed. Because the number of terms is few,
related terms are listed next to each other rather than alphabetically.
Attribute
Each database record has multiple attributes, such as name, address, and telephone number.
Object
Objects can be tables or views. Each object has different business rules, but the data is
stored in a single database table. For example, Incident, Problem, and Ticket are three
different business objects defined on a ticket table.
Data Dictionary
The database stores metadata in an area called the data dictionary, which describes the
objects, attributes, tables, columns, indexes, and other items that make up a database.
Metadata
Metadata is the data that describes the structure of the data within the database. If you know
how your data is structured, then you can retrieve it.
Record
A record is a representation of some physical or conceptual object. For example, that you
want to keep track of a business’s workers. You assign a record for each worker.
•
•
7-4 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Relationship
Database relationships are associations between objects.
View
You can create a view to eliminate data that is not relevant to your current needs. It can
contain parts of one or more tables.
Data Dictionary
A database consists of both data and metadata. Metadata is the data that describes the
structure of the data within the database. The structure of a relational database is stored in
the database’s data dictionary. The Maximo data dictionary contains tables full of data, and
can be corrupted by user error. The only way to recover is to restore from a backup, so
remember to back up your data often.
Database structure makes possible the interpretation of seemingly meaningless data. The
structure brings to the surface patterns, trends, and tendencies in the data. If you know how
your data is structured, then you can retrieve it.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-5
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
– The business object can span multiple tables. Tables must have the same
primary key information.
– Business objects can extend each other. Tables must have a one-to-one
relationship.
– A simple business object whose data is stored and retrieved from a single
database table
– A business object that is inherited from an existing business object (whose
data is stored and retrieved from a table), and that uses the same attributes as
the base and is just a special type (Inheritance without extra attributes) whose
data is stored and retrieved from one table using a view
– A business object that is inherited from an existing business object (whose
data is stored and retrieved from a table), and that has additional attributes
(Inheritance with extra attributes) whose data is stored and retrieved from two
tables using a view
– A business object inherited from an already inherited business object whose
data is stored and retrieved from two or more tables using a view
– Business object whose data is retrieved from a database from a single table,
used for lookup or for data validation (read-only business object)
– Business object whose data is retrieved from a database from more than one
table using a view, used for lookup or for data validation (read-only business
object)
•
•
7-6 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
• MAXOBJECT
– classname
– extends
– entityname
– isview
– servicename
• MAXTABLE
• MAXVIEW
• MAXATTRIBUTE
– classname
– domainid
– entityname
– columnname
• MAXVIEWCOLUMN
– sameastorage
• MAXRELATIONSHIP
• MAXSERVICE
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-7
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Data Types
One of the changes you can make to the database is the modification of the data type of
some (but not all) database attributes.
The data type is the form of data that an attribute can accept. Some of the allowed data types
are shown in the following graphic.
Example
The issue of data types becomes especially important when adding attributes to objects.
Give thought to how the data will be used in the new attributes and, based on this, what the
data type should be. It is advisable that you do not change data types after data is included
in the attributes and begins to be used. After a new attribute is loaded with data and used
by Maximo, changing the data type becomes a major issue.
•
•
7-8 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Data Types
Some of the allowed data types are listed in the following table.
Type Description
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-9
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
The MAXTYPE attribute of the MAXATTRIBUTE object shows all of the various
available data types.
•
•
7-10 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
When the MUSTBE attribute has a value of Y, the configuration of the attribute’s data type,
length, or scale must remain as is, and cannot be changed.
This is not limited to attributes defined by IBM Software, but also applies to user-defined
attributes if they must be set.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-11
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Purpose
Database Configuration application is used to create or modify the objects and attributes
used by applications in Maximo, to customize the database and perform the following
functions:
Note: The display of date/time fields and numeric data, including some aspects of amount
fields (such as currency settings), is specified using the Windows Control Panel Regional
Settings application.
In practice, you should make a backup of the entire database before you reconfigure it.
•
•
7-12 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-13
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Object Tab
The Object tab is used to view the general characteristics and values of a selected object.
• Details
• View
• Audit
Field Description
•
•
7-14 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Attributes Tab
The Attributes tab is used to view existing attributes for a selected object or to add new
attributes to a selected object.
• Status
• Description
• Type
• Length
• Scale
• Required?
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-15
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Indexes Tab
The Indexes tab is used to view existing indexes for a selected object or to add new indexes
to a selected object.
The Indexes table indicates the existing indexes and basic index parameters for the object.
Beneath the Indexes table is the Columns table, which indicates the columns used in the
index highlighted in the Indexes table. Existing indexes cannot be redefined. Indexes must
be dropped and re-created with a new definition. Indexes will automatically be created for
attributes flagged as primary key columns.
•
•
7-16 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Relationships Tab
The Relationships tab provides a user interface for the creation of joins.
Action Menu
The Database Configuration Actions menu includes the items listed in the following
graphic. The Database Configuration Help system describes how to use these menu items
and their associated dialog boxes.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-17
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Delete Object This marks the object for deletion. Objects are not
actually deleted until you apply configuration changes.
Apply Configuration Changes are written to a secondary table until you
Changes apply them. To do this, you must shut down the
application server and run configdb from the
command line.
Discard Configuration Discards any changes that have not yet been applied.
Changes The content of the Configuration objects, which holds
the changes until they are applied, will be cleared and
reloaded with active metadata values.
Delete Backup Tables If applicable, the dialog will present a list of current
backed up objects. You can select from the list which
backup objects to drop, but cannot configure the
database again until all have been dropped.
Update Statistics Improves database performance by reorganizing
indexes.
Refresh Index Tables Checks the database indexes and reloads into the
Maximo index metadata.
Field Length and Format Used to view or change the amount field format,
(length and decimal precision) as well as the Integer
and Smallint fields.
GL Account Configuration Used to specify the GL account code format, including
component field lengths and types, and delimiters.
Manage eSig Actions Used to enable eSignature on actions within an
application. Lists applications and associated actions.
Add to Bookmarks You can bookmark the current record to quickly access
the record later from the List tab.
Run Reports Lists the available reports. You select a report title and
set parameters, and then click Submit.
•
•
7-18 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Doing a process against the native database checks attributes whose input values need to be
verified as not a reserved word. If the native database throws an error during this check,
Maximo concludes that it is a reserved word.
The list of reserved words does change, so check the Oracle Web site for the latest
information.
•
•
7-20 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Multiple objects can be defined on a single table. When this occurs, each object has
different business rules, but the data is stored in a single database table. For example,
Incident, Problem, and Ticket are three different business objects, yet they are all defined
on a Ticket table.
Behind the scenes, the business object fetches the columns of the corresponding table and
presents it to the user as attributes of the business object. In addition, a business object can
span more than one database table. You use views to represent objects that span over
multiple tables.
With the business object layer, the system tables that should not be changed are hidden
from UI (you can look at them however). Some system tables contain modifiable columns,
which display the appropriate attributes to correspond to those columns.
You can add a new object from any tab of the Database Configuration application.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-21
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Field Description
Internal Objects
Certain objects are internal; part of the Maximo data dictionary. Internal objects cannot be
modified or deleted. You can, however, view internal objects by using a filter in the
Advanced Search functionality.
•
•
7-22 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Result: The More Search Fields dialog box closes and the List tab displays all of
the Internal objects.
5. When you are done reviewing the Internal objects, repeat steps 2 through 4, this
time replacing the Y with an N.
Warning: Do not forget this step, or you will not be able to continue with these
exercises.
Challenge Question
How would you view both normal objects and internal objects?
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-23
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Displaying an Object
Follow these steps as we look at the Object tab for the ASSET object.
3. With your instructor, spend some time reviewing the Maximo Help for the
Database Configuration application.
2. If you want to make this a main object for Workflow purposes, select the Main
Object? checkbox.
•
•
7-24 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
3. If applicable to your database, click the Detail button in the Database Storage
Partition field and select a storage partition for the object.
The Database Storage Partition field allows you to specify a specific storage
area for an object. A database storage partition (tablespace in Oracle) is the
physical location where a database object (for example, object) is located on a
disk.
4. The User Defined field tells you whether the object is a regular Maximo object
(User Defined = 0) or was created by an administrator (User Defined = 1).
If the User Defined checkbox is selected, the Imported field tells you whether
the object was defined using the Database Configuration application (Imported
= 0) or by some other means (Imported = 1).
5. If you want to enable electronic audit records, select the check box in the Audit
Enabled field.
6. If you want to enable text search on the object, select Text Search Enabled? This
can be used together with text search on attributes.
Result: The status field displays To Be Changed and the object is not actually
modified until you configure the database.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-25
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Use an abbreviation of your organization as a prefix to any new object or attribute name,
for example TAGG_EXTRATABLE or TAGG_MEMOFIELD. This prevents accidentally
choosing a database reserved word and prevents any conflict with new standard names in a
future upgrade. To create a new object, complete the following steps.
2. Enter a name in the Object field, and provide a description for the new object.
3. If you want to use Views, click the lookup and select a value in the Extends
Object field. If you enter a value for Extends Object, then when you tab out,
View? becomes selected. Then if the view joins two tables, the user can enter the
name for the second one under Join To Object.
5. If you want to make this a main object for Workflow purposes, select the Main
Object? checkbox.
•
•
7-26 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
7. If applicable to your database, click the Detail button in the Database Storage
Partition field and select a storage partition for the object.
8. In the Unique Column field, use the following information to guide you.
– This is the name of the attribute that will be created as a unique identifier on a
persistent object.
– It is used in indexing.
9. If you want to enable this object for multiple languages, specify a value for the
Language Table. The convention is L_<tablename>.
10. If you want to enable text search on the object, select Text Search Enabled?.
11. (Optional) In the View section, click View. You can now edit the fields Where
clause, Join to Object, Select Clause, Auto Select, and From Clause.
12. (Optional) In the Audit section, click Audit Enabled. You can now edit the
default Audit Table name and the E-audit filter field.
You can enter the E-signature filter field regardless of the Audit setting.
Result: The status field displays To Be Added, and the table or view is not
actually created until you configure the database.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-27
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Result: Maximo displays a message saying that any data in the object will be
deleted and asking you if you want to continue. The message in the Status field
reads To Be Deleted.
If the user-defined object is imported, only the Maximo metadata is deleted. The
base table is not deleted. The metadata exists in both Maximo (maxattribute, and
so on) and the DBMS (Oracle metadata, for example).
Saving saves your changes in temporary database configuration objects but does not
actually implement them in the database. If you save changes without configuring the
database and close the Database Configuration application, you can later reopen it and
resume your editing session without losing the prior changes.
•
•
7-28 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
The pending changes are stored in a secondary table and listed in the Status field, as shown
in the following graphic. You cannot query on Status.
Attributes Tab
Each database record has multiple attributes. For example, the ASSET object contains
attributes such as ASSETID, DESCRIPTION, and GLACCOUNT. The user can use the
Attributes tab to modify existing attributes or add new attributes to the database record.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-29
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Modifying Attributes
Before the user modifies an attribute, check to see whether IBM Software created it or if
someone at your site created it, which is indicated by the User Defined? box being selected.
The user cannot delete attributes created by IBM Software, but the attributes can be
changed.
The attributes created by IBM Software are more restrictive regarding what can be
changed; while the user-defined attributes generally allow you to make more changes.
Some restrictions are based on whether text search is enabled for the object, or on the data
type itself. For example, certain data types have a set value for the length, scale, dates, or
integers. On the other hand, the memo field is alphanumeric (ALN), and you can make it
anything you want.
The rules governing what you can modify are complex and vary according to the individual
attribute.
• Status
• Description
• Type
• Length
• Scale
• Required?
•
•
7-30 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
The Attributes tab is divided into two sections. The Details section contains common
characteristics that apply to most users. The Advanced section (not shown) contains
characteristics less commonly used, and only in special cases will users have a need to view
or modify these values. You can edit some fields in a selected object or click New Row to
add a new attribute.
1. If you have not already done so, open the Database Configuration application,
and then find and select the ASSET object.
Result: Maximo displays the Attributes tab for the ASSET object.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-31
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Modifying an Attribute
Use the following steps to modify an attribute for the ASSET object.
3. Change the value of the Length field to 17, then save your record.
You will apply the changes to the database (configure the database) later.
•
•
7-32 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Some columns are restricted to specific definitions and cannot be changed; they are read-
only. If you are planning to install Maximo Navigator, do not exceed the field lengths for
the following columns. Otherwise, data synchronization could fail.
Item.itemnum 60
Item.description 250
Item.stocktype 20
asset.eqnum 15
asset.description 50
asset.location 40
inventory.modelnum 60
Inventory.manufacturer 40
1. If the Database Configuration application is not already open, open it now, then
find and select the ASSET object.
3. Open the Database Configuration Help and review the How Do I … Add
Attributes topic.
4. When you are done reviewing the Maximo Help, close it.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-33
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Field Value
Attribute CNTRYORIGIN
Description Country of Origin
Title Country of Origin
Some of the fields on this form are beyond the scope of this course. Other field
information, like Domains, is discussed later in this course.
Result: Notice that your new attribute is now listed with a status of Add.
Result: Notice that the changes you made to the ASSET object are waiting to be
configured.
Before users delete a user-defined attribute (from a user-defined or Maximo object), use the
Indexes tab to see if the attribute is used by an index. If the attribute is used by an index,
delete the index. If the user still wants the index, then re-create it without the attribute that
users are going to delete.
To delete user-defined attributes from the database, complete the following steps.
3. In the Attributes table window, click the row for the attribute you want to delete.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-35
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Creating Views
Views
Tables can contain many columns and rows. Sometimes all that data interests the user and
sometimes it does not. Only some of the columns of a table might interest a user, or only
rows that satisfy a certain condition. Some columns of one table and some columns of a
related table might interest a user. To eliminate data that is not relevant to the user’s current
needs, the user can create a view. A view is a subset of a database that an application can
process. It can contain parts of one or more tables.
A view does not contain data. Instead, it is a definition that sits in the data dictionary along
with a database query that will retrieve its data. Thus, a view can contain data from more
than one object, row, or attribute. When the user fetches the data out of a view, the database
pulls the necessary records based on the WHERE clause and returns the data to the user.
Attributes are loaded automatically when the user create a view object.
Automatically Select (shown in figure above) applies the choose all columns of the table
clause to all the columns of the single object. In the figure above, the view is a subset of a
table and the Automatically Select field is selected. By default, the View Select and View
From fields are grayed out.
•
•
7-36 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
The figure above does not contain a WHERE clause and the Automatically Select feature
is off. Therefore the view is created from all the columns specified in the View Select field
using the FROM clause in the View From field. View Select is optional, and when it is not
specified then all the columns in both your tables will be included.
The view in the above figure is created from the three objects listed in the View From field:
DEPLOYEDASSET, DPRCOMPUTER, and DPAMMANUVARIANT.
In this example, the Extends Object is the name of the primary table connected to the view.
Space can become an issue, because the length of a database query is limited to 4000
characters.
Users cannot redefine existing indexes. Users must drop the index and re-create it with a
new definition. The Database Storage Partition field lets users select a storage partition
for an index.
With inherited objects, users can never use the Indexes tab.
Definition: Index
An index is a database object used internally by the system to speed up queries on a table.
It consists of an ordered set of pointers stored separately from the table, and it points to
frequently used columns.
Purpose
An index improves system performance by speeding up access to data.
• Reports drawn from large databases will compile faster if an index has been
created on the column(s) they reference.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-37
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Most of these predefined indexes define the unique identifier for records in each table.
Modifying Indexes
You cannot modify indexes; you can only create or delete them. To modify an index you
must delete and then re-create it.
Example
ASSET_NDX1 is a predefined index on the ASSET object.
• It creates pointers to the SITEID and the ASSET attributes in ascending order.
Use the List tab to select the object for which you want to create or drop an index, and then
click the Indexes tab. The Indexes table window shows the indexes associated with the
object. The Columns table window shows the columns in the selected index.
To view an existing index definition, select the index from the Indexes table window.
Database Configuration displays the columns included in the index in the Columns table
window.
•
•
7-38 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Index Details
Using the following steps, review various aspects of the Indexes tab with your instructor.
1. If the Database Configuration application is not already open, open it now, then
find and select the ASSET object.
Creating an Index
Note the currently existing indexes for the ASSET object.
Assume that users at your company will create a grouped report and frequently query the
ASSET object on its ORGID, SITEID, and TOTALCOST attributes.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-39
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
3. Click the New Row button of the Indexes section, as shown in the following
graphic.
Field Value
Index ASSET_NDX8
•
•
7-40 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
5. Click the New Row button of the Columns for ASSET_NDX8 section.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-41
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Result: You can see that your new index ASSET_NDX8 is ready to be configured.
For the index to take effect, you will need to reconfigure the database. You will reconfigure
the database later in this chapter.
Challenge Question
Notice that at least one attribute of each index is on a required field.
Dropping Indexes
You can drop an index by simply removing the data row the same way you remove any data
row throughout Maximo; by clicking the Trash icon.
Result: The pending index to be dropped receives a status of Delete, as shown in the
following graphic.
The change will be identified and take effect pending reconfiguration of the database. You
will learn how to reconfigure the database in the next section.
•
•
7-42 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Refreshing Indexes
Database administrators can define indexes via the back end. This allows them to test for
improved performance before defining indexes as Maximo metadata, rather than defining
Maximo metadata first. In these situations, users should follow up by refreshing the index
tables.
The Refresh Index Tables Select Action menu option looks at the indexes as defined on
the native database, and loads the Maximo metadata to reflect the actual native indexes
found.
To test for improved performance before defining indexes as Maximo metadata, database
administrators may define indexes through the back end, rather than going the other way
and defining Maximo metadata first (using the UI).
In addition, SQL Server can automatically add indexes to a table depending on usage or
other factors. After those have been built, you might want to update the Maximo metadata
accordingly.
To refresh your database indexes that may have been added through the back end, simply
select Refresh Index Tables from the Select Action menu.
Refer to the Maximo Help or the IBM Maximo System Administrator’s Guide for more
information.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-43
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
In this section you will learn how to configure the database. You will also learn about the
implications of configuring the database.
WARNING
Changes to data (type, length, scale, and so forth) can cause data to be dropped from the
database tables when they are configured.
Although data is automatically backed up from individual tables that have been
reconfigured, as a safety measure you should always have a full backup of your database
before you make any changes to it.
• You can discard configuration changes before running the ConfigDB batch file.
• Apply the configuration changes to the database using the ConfigDB batch file,
which must be executed from the command line with the application server down.
• When you run the ConfigDB batch file from the command line, you apply the
pending changes to the database. When you run configdb, it configures and
restores the data in one step.
•
•
7-44 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Discarding Changes
Follow the steps below to see how you would discard your pending changes to the database.
Warning: You will be looking at discarding your pending changes, but you will not be
actually discarding them. If you do not proceed with caution, you may actually discard
them, in which case you would lose all of your work thus far in this chapter. Proceed with
caution.
If you were to click OK, all of your pending changes would have been discarded.
Use the following steps to configure any changes you have made to the database.
Be sure to save any changes you want made to the database by saving your records before
you configure them.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-45
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
The ConfigDB file must be run from the command line, and the application server
must be shut down.
2. Click OK.
3. With your instructor, review the How Do I … Configure the Database section of
Maximo Help.
You can print any of the Maximo Help topics by following the How Do I …
Print a Help Topic instructions in the Maximo Help Overview section.
– If you started your Maximo Application Server from a command line, use the
Ctrl+C key combination to stop it.
– If you started your Maximo Application Server as a service, use your
Windows Services Administration to stop it.
Warning: Make sure that the Actuate server and all third-party tools that might be
in use to access the database are also disconnected from the database before you
attempt to reconfigure the database.
Examples: Some examples include, but are not limited to, SQL*Plus, Microsoft
Excel, and Microsoft Access.
6. Wait 60 seconds to make sure that all user sessions are actually terminated.
•
•
7-46 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
\\…\<Maximo Root>\tools\maximo
9. Type configdb to configure the database and automatically restore backup tables.
In the next section you will learn about various options for configuring the
database.
10. When you get the command prompt back, you will see this message:
Result: Your database is reconfigured and the Command Prompt window closes.
12. Close the log file, restart your application server, sign back in to Maximo, and
verify that your database changes are now in effect.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-47
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Challenge Exercise
At your instructor’s discretion: Drop the ASSET_NDX8 index from the ASSET object and
reconfigure your database.
•
•
7-48 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
• The following graphic shows the parameters available for the configdb.bat file.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-49
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Refer to the Maximo Help or the IBM Maximo System Administrator’s Guide for more
information.
•
•
7-50 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Errors
You can check for errors by consulting the log files. You can also use the log files to help
you troubleshoot any problems. They are located at:
\\…\<Maximo Root>\tools\maximo\log
If the database reconfiguration causes such errors that the application server cannot restart,
then consult the log files as well.
After the database reconfiguration is complete, the data in the backed-up database table is
copied to the newly reconfigured table. The backup database table remains and you can
retain the backup table or delete it.
However, if you perform another configuration on the same database object, the current
table becomes the new backup table, and the old backup table is dropped.
This will configure the database without restoring the data (from the backup tables).
You use the restorefrombackup.bat batch file to then restore the data from the backup
tables.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-51
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
However, if you removed the -r parameter from the ConfigDB.bat file before configuring
the database, you need to restore backup tables with this procedure.
2. Run restorefrombackup.
•
•
7-52 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
• Update Statistics
• GL Account Configuration
Update Statistics
Updating statistics improves database performance by reorganizing the database indexes
based on current data. It is useful to do this after entering or deleting a large number of
records. It does no harm to update statistics daily.
You can use any tab of the Database Configuration application to update statistics.
Warning: The updating of statistics can take an unusually long time to complete. During
this time there should be no users adding or modifying records in the database.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-53
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Perform the following steps only upon the direction of your instructor, especially if you are
not in a standard IBM Software training environment.
2. Click OK.
•
•
7-54 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
You can use any tab of the Database Configuration application to specify the field length
and format.
You would use the following steps to specify the currency amount field format.
1. From the Select Action menu, choose Field Length and Format.
You cannot shorten a field if Maximo has data in that field longer than the length
you are specifying.
The default is 2.
If you only want to increase the scale by 1, you also have to increase the length
by 1.
5. Specify the number of small integers in the Small Integer Length field.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-55
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Changing the amount field format changes the definition for all columns of the AMOUNT
data type. SQL Server implements the changes directly; you do not have to configure the
database. Oracle alters the tables; you must configure the database for the changes to take
effect.
Use the Windows Control Panel’s Regional Settings application to specify some aspects
of amount fields, such as currency symbols.
See the IBM Maximo System Administrator’s Guide for more information.
GL Account Configuration
For information on the GL Account Configuration option, please refer to Chapter 7,
Financial System Configuration of this course.
• Record and audit changes to records and keep copies of those changes to produce
an audit trail
You can enable electronic signature and electronic audit records independently of each
other. Typically, however, they are used together.
• You can enable both E-signature and E-audit for Maximo objects.
Electronic Signatures
An electronic signature consists of a user ID and a password known only to the user. It
confirms that the person changing a record is the person who signed in to the system.
•
•
7-56 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
If someone subsequently deletes the database record, you still have a copy of the change in
the electronic audit record.
Required Components
The administration of E-signature and E-audit requires the following three components:
• Login Tracking
• Electronic Signature
• Electronic Audit
Login Tracking is available through the Users application. Electronic Signature and
Electronic Audit are available through the Database Configuration application. The
remainder of this section will show you how these components work together to increase
application security and provide an audit trail of selected actions and field changes.
Login Tracking
For E-signature to function, Login Tracking must be enabled. Set Login Tracking through
the Users application.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-57
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Managing E-signature
The E-signature option causes Maximo to request the user to enter a password when
changing particular field values or carrying out designated actions in specified applications.
The following table describes the fields in the Electronic Signature Authentication dialog
box.
User Name This field autofills with the name of the current Maximo user.
Password The user must enter his or her password into the field.
The user must enter the reason for the change.
Reason For Change
In standard Maximo, this is a required field.
•
•
7-58 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Hint: Use Security Controls from the Select Action menu in the Users
application or the Security Groups application.
3. In the Applications section, find and select the Work Order Tracking
application.
4. In the Options for Work Order Tracking section, find and select the Approve
Work Order description.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-59
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
5. For Approve Work Order, click to select the E-signature Enabled? checkbox.
6. In the Options for Work Order Tracking section, find and select the Change
Status description.
8. Click OK.
Checking E-signature
Use the following steps to view the results for enabling E-signature from the previous
exercise.
Result: After you click OK in the Change Status dialog box, the Electronic
Signature Authentication dialog box opens.
•
•
7-60 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
In a standard IBM Software training environment with User Name wilson, the
Password is wilson.
6. Click OK.
Results:
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-61
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Managing E-audit
Electronic Audit Record functionality (E-audit) enables you to maintain a history of
changes made to records in Maximo applications.
When you enable E-audit for an object, Maximo creates an audit table for that object. The
Audit Table field contains the name of the audit table and defaults to the name of the
selected database table preceded by A_.
Example: A_ASSET
• The Maximo user name of the user who made the change
• A rowstamp
• The key value columns for the record, even if those attributes (or columns) are not
E-audit enabled (for example, the key value work order number is recorded in the
record even when another attribute in the WORKORDER object triggers the
electronic audit)
•
•
7-62 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
1. Open the Database Configuration application; then find and select the ASSET
object.
3. Click to select the Audit Enabled? check box if it is not already selected.
Result: E-audit will be enabled for this object when the database is reconfigured,
but you must specify for which attribute(s).
Hint: You may have to re-sort and navigate to view the status.
When you enable the Description field for e-audit, the long description field is
also audited.
Result: E-audit will be enabled for this attribute when the database is
reconfigured.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-63
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
9. Verify E-audit by opening the Asset application and changing the description of a
record.
Optional Exercise
Open SQL*Plus and query for your new E-audit table (A_ASSET) that should have been
created for the ASSET object during database reconfiguration.
Additional Information
Though it is beyond the scope of this course, you could create an SQL query (or an Actuate
report) with a table join between the E-audit table and the Login Tracking table. Thus, you
would have a detailed report for auditing of who changed what and why.
•
•
7-64 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Text Search
If an object is enabled for text search, Maximo provides full text search on its attributes. An
attribute can be an exact match, a wildcard search, or a full text search. Exact search
requires = (the equals sign), wildcard requires % (for example, %value%), and full text
searches a field for any combination of the words in the search text.
The following graphic shows the text search dialog box, which is accessible from the
Search Type field on the Attribute tab.
Note
Text search is allowed only for an ALN field, and is really designed to search long
descriptions or fields that are long data types.
If you select full text search for an attribute, keep in mind this is a language-specific text
search and not string search. Maximo indexes words, not parts of words. What this means
is that you will not get part if you search for par.
Maximo also performs stem search. For example, searching for service will also return
servicing and serviced.
You have to flag text search on the object and whatever attributes you want it for. For
example, look at the ASSET table. Both the description and long description fields are text
search enabled.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-65
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Security is applied to all SITEORG types. For certain SITEORG types you automatically
restrict the result set by appending a condition to the WHERE clause. For example, site type
could be:
"siteid=..."
Definitions
All the SITEORGTYPES listed in the following table are followed by a brief description.
SITEORGTYPE Description
•
•
7-66 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
SITEORGTYPE Description
This will be used for users and groups. These apps will be
treated like system-level applications, but can ask the Profile
EMAPPFILTER for a list of Sites and Orgs in the context of an application so
that the app can filter the data. This filtering will be required
for site-level administration of users and groups.
The object/object is an organization level. The framework
ORG applies security for this kind of object.
orgid = ...
These applications will be treated like Org-level applications
but can ask the Profile for Sites.
ORGSITE
(siteid is null or siteid = ...) and
orgid = ...
This will be used for Contracts so that the Contract
application can filter on its special object rather than use
standard security. This and other apps developed as this type
ORGAPPFILTER
will be treated as system level but can ask the Profile for a list
of Sites in the context of an application so that the app can
filter data.
Site-level object.
SITE
siteid = ...
Site-level object with an application filtering. Currently we do
SITEAPPFILTER
not have any objects of this type.
For item sets, the framework adds the required security
ITEMSET
restriction. Itemsetid must exist in the user’s insert org.
Company set, framework adds the required security restriction.
COMPANYSET
Companysetid must exist in the user’s insert org.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 200 • 7-67
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
Chapter Summary
Database Configuration
You use the Database Configuration application to create or modify the objects and
attributes used by applications in Maximo.
Creating Views
A view does not contain data. Instead, it is a definition that sits in the data dictionary along
with a database query that will retrieve its data. Thus, a view can contain data from more
than one object, row, or attribute.
Indexes Tab
Use the Indexes tab to create new indexes for the selected object, and to display or drop
existing indexes.
•
•
7-68 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
• Record and audit changes to records and keep copies of those changes to produce
an audit trail
You can enable electronic signature and electronic audit records independently of each
other. Typically, however, they are used together.
• You can enable both E-signature and E-audit for Maximo objects.
Text Search
If an object is enabled for text search, Maximo provides full text search on its attributes. An
attribute can be an exact match, a wildcard search, or a full text search. Exact search
requires the equals sign (=), wildcard requires a percentage sign (%) (for example,
%value%), and full text searches a field for any combination of the words in the search
text.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 7-69
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 7: Database Architecture and Configuration
•
•
7-70 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security
Group Setup
•
•
• 8-1
•
•
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
Chapter Overview
The Start Center is the first screen a user sees after signing in to Maximo. To customize a
Start Center, you need to understand the Start Center.
Chapter Focus
This chapter presents an overview of the Start Center and its relationship to Security
Groups.
Learning Objectives
When you have completed this chapter, you should be able to:
•
•
8-2 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
Security Groups
Security groups are a key component in the Maximo security architecture. The Security
Group applications provides a flexible, robust way to manage user authorizations and
access to information that can span sites and organizations. Inherently, a security group lets
you set up access rights to sites, applications, storerooms, labor, GL components, Start
Center Template and other aspects of your organization. And, when you add a user to a
security group, the user acquires the configured attributes of that group. For simple
implementations, you can create one security group that provides the rights and privileges
needed for each type of user within the company. For more complex implementations, you
will need an easy-to-maintain strategy for creating security groups and assigning users that
reflect the security requirements and business rules of your organization.
Each user can belong to one or more security group, which can have differing levels of
access. Also, depending on how you configure and combine security groups, a user can
view all the data within a company independent of their site and organization. By
combining security groups, you have the ability to create a virtual profile for each user that
is flexible enough to meet the security requirements of almost any organization.
System administrators can grant users access to the Security Groups application and a
specific site or sites. These users can manage all security groups and users that have that
site specified as a group attribute.
By default, a new Maximo database contains three groups: MAXADMIN, MAXREG, and
DEFLTREG. Members of MAXADMIN, including the default users MAXADMIN and
MXINTADM, have enough access to the system to let you create your own set of users and
groups. MAXREG has one default user called MAXREG that is used for self-registration
of new users. MAXREG functions behind the scene to give the self-registered user enough
access to complete a self-registration form. If the system places all new users into a default
security group called DEFLTREG, an administrative user is responsible for approving or
denying a user’s request for a user ID and password.
The primary purpose of the Security Groups application is to establish and maintain user
groups and identify users within the system.
Groups
A group defines levels of access to Maximo applications and data. Users are assigned
membership to groups in order to access Maximo applications and data.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-3
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
• List
• Group
• Sites
• Applications
• Storerooms
• Labor
• GL Components
• Restrictions
• Users
List Tab
The List tab displays a list of security groups created for your system.
•
•
8-4 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
Groups Tab
You use the Groups tab to insert new group records and to set the following group
properties:
• Specify whether the group’s rights are independent of other groups, a property
that affects users’ rights when they belong to multiple groups.
You use other tabs to define most group rights and restrictions.
If your company or facility has multiple sites, you should create groups to reflect those
sites. You can then combine those site groups with functional groups to create fine-grained
sets of security privileges. For example, if you have sites in Canada and Mexico, you may
name two groups CANADA and MEXICO and then add other groups to reflect functional
units, such as finance, administration, maintenance, electrical, and so forth.
Sites Tab
You use the Sites tab in the Security Groups application to specify the sites to which a
group has access.
With the multisite implementation of Maximo, you typically define a group for each site
and another group that has access to all sites. For example, you might have sites named
TORONTOSITE, LONDONSITE, BERLINSITE, and ALLSITES. Having groups defined
by site allows you flexibility in combining group rights.
If you have a single site implementation of Maximo, you do not need to define a group for
any site.
The Sites tab contains the Sites table window, which lists the sites to which a group has
access.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-5
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
Applications Tab
You use the Applications tab in the Security Groups application to specify the
applications and options a group can access.
The Applications table window lists all the applications in Maximo, and for each
application provides checkboxes to specify levels of security. There are four levels of
application security:
• Read: Users can only view records. This is the minimal access required for users
to access an application. You must select the Read? checkbox before you can
select any others.
• Insert: Users can insert new records. If you select the Insert? checkbox, the
Save? checkbox is automatically selected. (If users can insert new records, then
they must be able to save them as well.)
• Save: Users can save changes to records. You may want some users to be able to
save changes to existing records (Change Status, for example), but not insert new
records. To do this, you select the Read? and Save? checkboxes.
• Delete: Users can delete records. This does not mean that users can automatically
delete any record they want; Maximo has a range of internal checks to prevent
deletion of records containing information required by other records.
•
•
8-6 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
At the bottom of the Application table window there are Read All, Insert All, Save All,
and Delete All buttons. Use these buttons if you want to grant a group the corresponding
rights to all applications; for example, you might want a group to have Read rights to all
applications, but you want to individualize the other application rights. (These are not
toggle buttons, so be careful in using them.
Tip: If you have not saved the record, you can click the List tab and reply No when asked
if you want to save your changes.)
The Options table window displays the options for the application selected in the
Applications table window. These options primarily include Select Action menu items.
You grant access to an option by selecting the associated check box. You must grant Read
access to the application before you can grant option access. Click Grant All if you want
to select all the checkboxes at once.
Storerooms Tab
You use the Storerooms tab in the Security Groups application to authorize group access
to one or multiple storerooms.
Storeroom access is important for inventory processing functions. Maximo uses this
information in transactions that affect inventory items and balances, such as reordering
items, issuing items, transferring items, making balance and cost adjustments, and adding
items to a location.
The Storerooms tab contains the Storeroom Authorization table window, which lists the
storerooms to which a group has access.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-7
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
Labor Tab
You use the Labor tab in the Security Groups application to authorize group access to
labor information. This includes labor records themselves, as well as the labor on other
records, such as work orders. If a group does not have access to labor information, then
labor entries on records such as work orders will be grayed out.
Because labor information can be sensitive or confidential, you may want to restrict a group
to viewing a subset of labor information. For example, you can authorize supervisors to
view and report actual labor hours for only the employees they supervise. The Labor tab
contains the following sections:
• Labor Authorization: Define by categories what labor records the group can
access.
GL Components Tab
You use the GL Components tab in the Security Groups application to specify which GL
components, if any, a group can insert or edit in a GL account field. You can specify full
privileges or specify them separately for each component of the account code.
The GL Components tab contains the GL Components table window to authorize a group
to insert and edit individual GL components. The table window lists all the components in
your company’s GL account code.
In Maximo, GL account code formats, including the names and number of components, are
specified in the Database Configuration application.
•
•
8-8 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
• Organization: To specify the organization for which you want to set limits and
tolerances.
• Limits: To set group approval limits on how large the monetary amount can be on
a purchase request, purchase order, material requisition, invoice, and contract.
• Invoice Tolerance: To specify how large a variance the group can accept on an
invoice amount.
• Tax Tolerance: To specify how large a variance the group can accept on a tax
amount.
• Service Tolerance: To specify how large a variance the group can accept on a
service amount.
Restrictions Tabs
You use the Restrictions tab in the Security Groups application to set restrictions on
exactly what records a group can access within the larger set specified by the privileges you
grant on the Applications tab.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-9
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
The Maximo database contains a GROUPRESTRICTION table, which lets you set these
limits by using an SQL statement. The Restrictions tab provides an SQL Expression
Builder with which you can enter the restrictions.
For example, you might want to restrict a maintenance group so that they have access only
to their own person information, or only to the labor in their same craft.
The Restrictions tab contains the Entity Restrictions table window to enter a SQL
statement affecting a Maximo entity, generally a Maximo database table or view.
Users Tab
You use the Users tab in the Security Groups application to add users to groups.
In the Users application you associate groups with users. The result is the same: a user’s
security profile is determined by the groups to which the user belongs. If you add a user to
a group in the Security Groups application, the group will appear on the Groups tab for
that user in the Users application.
The Users tab contains the Users table window to view existing users and add users to a
group.
•
•
8-10 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-11
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
Duplicating Groups
The Duplicate Group action opens a new record under the Group tab that copies the
header information from the duplicated group. You can specify a new group name,
description and whether the group is to be independent. Maximo populates the following
information from the group that you are duplicating:
• Sites
• Application authorizations
• Storeroom authorizations
• Labor authorizations
• GL component authorization
• Group restrictions
When duplicating a group, the users are not copied into the new group. Additionally, if you
duplicate a group, you are not automatically authorized to add members to that group. You
must specifically give yourself group reassignment authority (Users > Select Action >
Authorize Group Reassignment) to add members to the duplicated group.
•
•
8-12 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
Deleting Groups
The Delete Group action lets you delete a selected group. You can delete any group unless
one of the following conditions exists:
• The group is specified as the default group for self-registered users in the
MAXVAR table (NEWUSERGROUP).
2. From the Start Center, open the Security Groups application from the Security
module.
Field Value
Group NEWGROUP
Description NEW GROUP
Start Center Template 13 Service Desk Manager
Independent of Other
Groups [ Selected ]
Normally, the Group and Description fields should be descriptive of the group’s
role. You are using the New Group name here solely for the training environment.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-13
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
5. Save your record, and write your new group as shown in the following graphic.
Result: Your new security group should look similar to the following graphic.
By default, Maximo merges rights when groups that include different sites are
combined. If you do not want rights combined, select the Independent of Other
Groups? checkbox. Refer to the IBM Maximo System Administrator's Guide for a
discussion of combining group rights.
7. Click New Row, enter the following value, and then save your record:
Field Value
Site Bedford
Result: Your new security group should look similar to this one. Notice that the
other fields (Description, Organization, Active, and Authorized) have been
populated.
•
•
8-14 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
9. In the Applications section, click Read All, and then save your record.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-15
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
10. Ensure that the Options for Actions section in the Applications section is
selected.
Then, in the Options for Actions section, click to select the following Grant
Access? checkboxes:
Result: Your new security group should look similar to the following graphic.
11. Save your record. For this new security group, we will not be adding any more
information for now. You can close the Security Groups application by returning
to the Start Center.
You grant users security rights by assigning them membership in one or multiple groups.
You assign users to groups through the Security Groups and Users applications:
•
•
8-16 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
The combination of groups to which a user belongs determines an individual user’s security
privileges. A user can view the security privileges granted to him or her by using the
Security Profile tab in the Users application.
In addition to granting rights to individual users, you can also add, delete, and replace group
privileges for multiple users at one time. You can also manage user status for multiple
users. The security groups also define what Start Center template will be used by the
group.
Field Value
User NEWUSER
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-17
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
Result: Maximo displays a message indicating that this person does not exist in
the Maximo database.
4. Click Yes.
Result: The corresponding person record is created and the Person field is
populated. The Login ID field is populated with the name of your new record.
The Login ID field can be manually changed. However, you will accept the
default for this exercise.
If there was a person in the system, but the name of that person record did not
correspond to your new user, then you would click No and enter the record name
from the People application into the Person field that you wanted to correspond
with your new user.
5. Enter the Password and Confirm Password for your new user.
Password:
•
•
8-18 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
6. In the First Name and Last Name fields, enter your own first and last name.
Result: The Display Name field concatenates these two values by default.
– This is the name that will come up on your Start Center when you sign in. It
can be used in other places as well.
– The Display Name field can be manually changed to a value other than the
default. However, you will accept the default for this exercise.
Field Value
Supervisor WILSON
Workflow Delegate WILSON
Address 123 Information Way
City Techno Park
State/Province WA
ZIP/Postal Code 64789
Memo New User For Training
Default Insert Site Bedford
Language EN
Locale en US
Timezone America_Los Angeles
Result: Your user application should look similar to the following graphic.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-19
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
9. Now you want to associate the new user with a group to provide access to
applications and actions. Start by accessing the Groups tab.
The DEFLTREG group is automatically added to new user records so that the new
user can sign in to Maximo to access the designated Start Center. However, once
at the Start Center, the user will have limited capability to access functions in
Maximo until another group is associated.
10. In the Groups pane, click New Row to add a line containing the security group
that you created.
Hint: If you followed the instructions, the name should be NEWGROUP. Click
Detail Menu on the Groups field; then click Select Value to locate the group you
created earlier.
Result: Your user now has the basic functionality provided by the DEFLTREG
group and the rights defined in the NEWGROUP security group.
•
•
8-20 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
12. Access the Security Profile tab and drill down in the various locations.
Result: The tab and drilldown give you a graphical overview of the rights given to
the user, similar to the following graphic.
If you check the rights for the Work Order Tracking application, you will see
that the new user has read access to records, Save Current Query, and View/
Manage Queries actions—rights that you added to your new Security Group.
There will also be a number of other default rights.
13. We have associated the user with a security group. Now we will sign in to
Maximo using the NEWUSER and see the Start Center template we assigned to
the security group that was created in the previous part of this chapter.
Field Value
Username newuser
Password [Your Password]
Result: Maximo displays the Start Center template (13) Service Desk Manager.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-21
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
3. From the List tab, select the user you want to authorize. To narrow your search,
use the filter. For this exercise you will be using Wilson.
•
•
8-22 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
6. In the Group field, enter a group or click Detail Menu to select an option and
retrieve a group.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-23
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
8. Click OK.
Result: The user can now reassign other users to the groups you entered in the
Group table window. You can change these authorizations later by opening the
dialog box and adding or deleting rows
When you create a new security group, you must authorize yourself and/or the
appropriate users to add users to the group. Your user ID does not automatically
have this privilege.
When you create a new security group there is an Independent of Other Groups?
checkbox, which lets you flag a group as independent or non-independent. If you do not
flag a group as independent, the access rights and grants in that group are combined with
those in other groups that are also not independent. Having two types of security groups
provides flexibility when you construct the security infrastructure for your organization.
Simple organizations might use only one or two security groups. However, larger
organizations with many users and a complex infrastructure might want to build a number
of security groups that reflect varying levels of application and storeroom access and
approval limits.
The system can generate a security profile by combining the settings/sites of non-
independent groups to the settings/sites of other non-independent groups. You can exclude
a group from combining its settings/sites with other groups by making it an independent
group. The settings for an independent group apply only to sites specified for that group.
The system can generate a security profile by merging the settings/sites for all independent
groups. And, finally, the system can generate a security profile by merging all independent
groups with the settings/sites results set derived by combining all non-independent groups.
•
•
8-24 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
Security settings in the Users and Security Groups applications are at the system level,
except for Approval Limits and Tolerances, which are organization-level settings.
Administration Configuration
• Users
• Security Groups
Contracts
• Master Contracts
• Purchase Contracts
• Lease/Rental Contracts
• Labor Rate Contracts
• Warranty
• Terms and Conditions
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-25
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
Planning
• Ticket Templates
Reporting
• KPI Manager
• Report Administration
Resources
• People
• Person Groups
Service Desk
• Service Request
• Incidents
• Problems
• Activities
• Solutions
Inventory Service Management
•
•
8-26 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
Administration
• Calendars
Financial
• Chart of Accounts
• Exchange Rates
Assets
• Failure Codes
• Meters
• Meter Groups
Preventive Maintenance
• Master PM
Resources
• Labor
• Crafts
• Qualifications
Safety
• Hazards
Work Order
• Labor Reporting
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-27
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
Administration Purchasing
• Assets • Changes
• Locations • Releases
• Condition Monitoring
Deployed Assets Work Order
•
•
8-28 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
• Applications
• Approval Limits
• GL Components
• Labor
• Restrictions
• Storerooms
• Tolerances
By default, new users do not have built-in access rights to the Maximo applications and
database. System administrators or administrative users, those who have access to the
Users and Security Groups applications, can create security groups and assign users to
those groups. Security groups have attributes or settings that let you define sites,
applications, menu options, and various other privileges that a user can acquire through
membership in the group. You assign users to one or many groups, which can have
differing levels of access, to build a security profile. The business rules of your organization
determine how you combine the various security groups to build an individual user’s
security profile. For example, the member of a maintenance crew may have a very
different-looking security profile compared to the purchasing manager of your company.
You build a security profile by assigning users to groups in the Security Groups
application. The security profile represents the totality of a user’s access rights and
privileges based on the aggregation of all the groups assigned to the user.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-29
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
Depending on your organization’s strategy for creating security groups, you can configure
a group to specify one or more of the following types of settings:
• Site Access
• Application Authorizations
• Purchasing Limits
• Invoice Tolerances
• Start Centers
• GL Component Authorizations
• Labor Authorizations
• Storeroom Authorizations
• Group Restrictions
The system grants or restricts a user’s application access by checking the user’s security
profile (the combination of all groups) to determine the user’s maximum level of access. If
a user does not have access to the Purchasing application, for example, he or she will not
see that application when using the system. Furthermore, you can restrict the Select Action
options that a user can see within an application. You may, for example, give an
administrative user access to the Users application so that they can set up and manage a
group of users, but not give that administrator the ability to grant database access.
In practice, when you combine non-independent groups, the resulting security profile gives
members the greatest amount of access that results from combining the groups. However,
if you specify Group Restrictions using the SQL editor, those restrictions are appended to
a user’s security profile and can reduce the access rights that were otherwise granted by the
combined groups.
•
•
8-30 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
The Security Groups application is the building block for the security infrastructure. You
configure security groups, either independent or non-independent, to provide narrow or
broad access to Maximo applications, sites, labor, and other system settings, such as GL
components and approval limits and tolerances.
You assign users to one or more security groups to control their level of access and
privileges within the system. Maximo generates a user’s security profile from all the groups
of which a user is a member by using business rules to determine how the various security
groups combine to build a virtual security profile. The security profile is like a fingerprint
in that it uniquely defines a user’s access rights and privileges. You can view a hierarchical
representation of a user’s security profile from the Users application.
The size and complexity of your organization is an important factor in how you plan for and
set up your security infrastructure using groups and profiles. A simple implementation, for
example, might only require you to build a few security groups for all the users at your
company. A more complex implementation might require you to mix and match a number
of security groups to create customized security profiles tailored to the specific needs of
your organization. A multinational global enterprise, for example, would probably require
you to create an implementation team and a strategic plan for building security profiles that
would meet the needs of users in multiple organizations located in different parts of the
world.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-31
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
•
•
8-32 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-33
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
•
•
8-34 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
The drop-down menu appears when you click on the Go To menu. Use drop-down menus
to select an application from one of the modules. You can modify these menus to suit your
business needs, as you will learn later in this chapter.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-35
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
Start Center Templates are used by security groups to determine the startup view of
Maximo for the members of that group. These members inherit a specific set of rights
defined by the security group administrator independent of the access provided by a Start
Center Template. A Start Center Template does not determine or limit the access
initially available to a member of a security group.
•
•
8-36 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
Standard Centers
The following table lists the 16 Start Center Templates and the Maximo applications
associated with them. If you would like a Start Center that looks different from what is
provided, you can modify or create a new Start Center Template more to your liking.
Customizing your Start Center is covered later in this chapter.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-37
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
•
•
8-38 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
10
11
12
13
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-39
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
14
15
16
36
•
•
8-40 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
Portlets
If the administrator has granted you permission, you can configure the page. The next time
you sign in to Maximo, you will see the Start Center the way you customized it. The
administrator controls which portlets you see and can configure. The Start Center can
contain the following portlets:
• Bulletin Board
• Favorite Applications
• Inbox/Assignments
• KPI Graph
• KPI List
• Quick Insert
• Result Set
A portlet is a configurable window that allows quick access to Maximo applications and
actions, and an at-a-glance view into Maximo data specific to an individual’s job function.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-41
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
•
•
8-42 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
3. From the Layout field’s drop-down list, select the layout you want to use.
The layout is displayed with column and narrow column. You can select either
wide-narrow or narrow-wide. For the purpose of this exercise we will select
narrow-wide.
4. Click the Select Content button for the column to which you are adding the
content.
5. In the Available Portlets dialog box, select the check box beside the portlets you
want to add.
Although you can add any content to either side, you should pay attention to the
Suggested Format of the content and add it to the applicable column.
6. For the purpose of this exercise, select the checkbox for Favorite Applications.
Click OK.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-43
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
When the Start Center page opens, the portlets are shown in the appropriate
column but with no content. A second step of adding content is required to
configure the portlet when you return to the Start Center.
Result: Maximo displays the New Start Center Template, ready for portlet
editing.
10. To add content to the Start Center Template, click the Select Applications
button. From the list of applications, select the checkboxes for Asset, Calendars,
and Bulletin Board.
Result: Your favorite applications should contain the assets, calendars, and
bulletin board.
•
•
8-44 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
1. Enter a sequential number in the Order column for any portlets that you want to
display in order. Any portlets that you do not order will be listed after the ones you
do order.
2. Click Finished.
3. You are returned to the Start Center template. Click Save Template.
Use the Security Groups application to use the Start Center template you
created.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-45
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
2. From the Modify a Template dialog box, select the template you want to modify.
For this exercise, select (37) MY START CENTER, which you created previously
in this chapter.
3. When the Start Center page opens, select Change Content Layout.
Result: The Layout and Configuration application opens, ready for editing.
•
•
8-46 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
The following graphic shows the new modules as they are accessed from the Go To menu
in the Start Center.
In practice, you will see only the modules to which you have been given access by your
system administrator.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-47
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
The following graphic shows an example section of a Start Center that provides direct
access to four applications.
Single-Page Applications
Most Maximo applications contain a number of tabs and subtabs. However, you will
encounter some simpler applications that contain only a single page.
•
•
8-48 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
Login Controls
Login controls are established for a group and affect all users in the group. The login
controls are accessed via the Actions menu.
Login tracking enhances user security in Maximo. If you enable login tracking, you can:
If you enable login tracking, you can specify the maximum number of unsuccessful logins
allowed by using the Set Security Controls dialog box.
When login tracking is enabled, Maximo keeps track of all login attempts—successful and
unsuccessful. After each successful login, the maximum allowed number of chances to log
in is restored. If the failures for a particular user reach the maximum number allowed,
Maximo automatically changes that user’s status to BLOCKED. That user is prevented
from signing in until an administrator uses the Change Status dialog box to unblock him
or her.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-49
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
Login tracking is required if you use electronic signature and electronic audit. Refer to the
IBM Maximo System Administrator's Guide for information on how to use these options.
User Status
When login tracking is enabled, a status is associated with a user. A user is either ACTIVE
or BLOCKED. A user is considered ACTIVE if that user logs in successfully. Each time
a user signs in successfully, the number of login attempts is reset to zero. A BLOCKED
status is the result of reaching the allowed maximum number of unsuccessful login attempts
for a user. After a user is blocked, only the administrator can change the status back to
ACTIVE. From the Actions menu, use Change User Status to return the user back to the
ACTIVE state.
The administrator can also manually change the status of a user from ACTIVE to
BLOCKED if the administrator feels the user name and password have been compromised
or if there is a need to restrict access for a specific user.
Security Group
When you create a group, you establish a profile that encompasses all members of the
group. The profile is a set of authorities and access privileges assigned to the group.
The user can create a signature group in the Security Groups application.
•
•
8-50 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
Review Questions
1. How many different Start Center templates are available to you with out-of-the-
box Maximo? ____________
a. Change Content/Layout
b. Security Group
c. Application Setup
d. Multisite Setup
4. A user signed in as __________ can add security groups, set login controls, and
change the status of a user.
a. MAXIMO
b. ADMIN
c. SMITH
d. SYSADM
5. What type of status is associated with a user? (Choose all that apply.)
a. ACTIVE
b. INACTIVE
c. BLOCKED
d. BUSY
e. UNRESTRICTED
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 8-51
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 8: Start Center and Security Group Setup
Chapter Summary
Security Groups
The Security Groups application allows you to create a new group. Associate with that
user a password, group, labor group, site, and Start Center template.
Groups
Maximo users are assigned to a group or groups. When setting up a group, access
capabilities of that group to applications and menus are defined. Any user assigned to that
group inherits those access capabilities for as long as that user is a member of the group, or
until the access capabilities are changed for that group.
•
•
8-52 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application
Designer
•
•
• 9-1
•
•
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
Chapter Overview
Application Designer is a WYSIWYG editing environment for managing, editing, and
creating applications and user interfaces of Maximo by leveraging a component-based
approach to building user interfaces as introduced in Maximo.
Chapter Focus
In this chapter, you will learn about the functionality of Application Designer.
Learning Objectives
When you have completed this chapter, you should be able to:
• Create entirely new applications by defining the user interface, and binding the
user interface components to new and existing data objects.
The ease of use of the Application Designer enables both technical and non-technical users
to configure Maximo applications without editing a line of code. The drag-and-drop feature
in the Application Designer further simplifies the process of editing applications.
Some of the common modifications the user can make with the Application Designer are
moving fields and sections, and creating new fields, tables, and tabs. Other advanced
capabilities are creating or duplicating applications, defining signature options, and editing
the Toolbar or the Select Action menu.
•
•
9-2 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
• Applications tab
• Workspace tab
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 9-3
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
Use the Workspace tab to configure the selected Maximo application. When you select an
application on the Applications tab, the selected application opens in the Workspace tab.
• For best results, set the resolution of the machine that you use to access the
Application Designer to 1280x1024. This, however, is not a requirement. Setting
the resolution to 1280x1024 gives you more screen space. This avoids cluttering
of the application area and makes configuration easier as the floating dialog
boxes, used for configurations, can reside outside of the application area.
The development environment is your individual dedicated system where you make the
necessary configurations. The staging environment is the server machine where all the
configurations are merged and tested to verify the configurations. After you have finished
configuring and testing, you can migrate all the changes to the production environment.
This approach ensures that no configurations are made to the Maximo applications directly
on the production environment. The development and staging environments serve as a test
bed to make your configurations and to verify them before going into the production
environment.
•
•
9-4 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
Workspace Tab
The Workspace tab of the Application Designer is the work area for configuring the
Maximo applications.
When an application is opened on the Workspace tab, a container indicating the boundaries
of the application surrounds it. Above the application, at the top of the screen, resides the
Application Designer’s Navigation Bar, followed by the Toolbar and the Tab bar.
The Application Designer’s Select Action menu, accessible from the Workspace tab,
allows you to configure toolbar buttons, signature options, the search menu, and menu
items in the Select Action menu for a Maximo application. It also provides you with a
feature to view and hide certain controls of an application.
The drag-and-drop functionality allows you to easily configure your application. You can
drag controls (such as fields, checkboxes, or sections) within the application as well as from
the Controls dialog box.
You can use the Control Palette and the Control Properties floating dialog boxes for
configuring your application. These dialog boxes can be moved anywhere in the work area.
The Control Palette lets you add controls to an application and the Control Properties lets
you modify properties of controls.
Controls can be dragged from the Control Palette and dropped onto the application. The
Control Properties dialog box displays the attributes and values of the highlighted control.
Any control that you drag needs to be dropped on top of another control. When a control is
dragged within an application or from the Control Palette, the exact location where the
control will be dropped is highlighted. If a control cannot be placed inside another control,
a message box appears informing you that the action is not allowed.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 9-5
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
To view the labels of the following control, select the Show option.
Any control that you drag needs to be dropped on top of another control. When a control is
dragged from the Controls dialog box, the exact location where the control will be dropped
in the work area is highlighted. If a control cannot be placed inside another control, a
message box appears informing you that the action is not allowed.
•
•
9-6 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
The following table shows the controls that appear in the Controls dialog box, along with
a description of what each control does.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 9-7
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
•
•
9-8 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 9-9
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
Control Properties
You use the Properties dialog box to modify properties of controls.
The Properties dialog box displays all the attributes and assigned values of the highlighted
control along with the name of the control at the top of the dialog box. You can move the
Properties dialog box anywhere in the work area.
Once a value is modified in the Properties dialog box, the change takes effect when you
move the focus to another field in the Properties dialog box or highlight another control in
the application work area.
1. From the Start Center, click Go to > Configuration > Application Designer.
•
•
9-10 • Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
4. Highlight the control whose properties you want to modify. For this exercise, you
will highlight the Type field.
Result: The Properties dialog box opens, displaying the attributes and values of
the highlighted control. The name of the Properties dialog box differs, depending
on the control that is highlighted. As an example, if you highlight a text box and
click Control Properties, the Properties dialog box is titled Textbox Properties.
7. Click X at the top of the dialog box to close it or click Save if you want to save the
changes.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 9-11
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
2. In the Application field, enter a unique name for the new application.
4. In the Main Object field, enter the name of the main object for the application.
Before you enter the name of the main object in this field, make sure the main
object already exists in the Maximo database.
5. In the Module Name field, enter the name of the module you want this
application to belong to, or click Select Value.
6. Depending on the type of application you want to create, click the Power App,
Self Service App, or Single Page App button.
•
•
9-12 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
7. You can use the Control Palette and the Control Properties floating dialog
boxes to add controls (such as tabs, buttons, and table windows) and to change
properties of controls, respectively, for the new application.
Saving an application does not overwrite the XML file; it only updates the table in
the database. To save to a file, use the Export function.
Duplicating an Application
You can duplicate an existing Maximo application. Upon duplication, a clone of the
existing application is created and Maximo copies all the information from the existing
application to the duplicated application.
You can modify the values in this duplicate application and save it as a new application.
1. In the Application Designer, open the application you want to duplicate (on the
Workspace tab). In this exercise, the Work Order Tracking application will be
duplicated.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 9-13
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
3. In the Application field, enter a unique name for the duplicate application and a
short description of the new application in the Description field.
4. Click OK.
•
•
9-14 • Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
Result: The duplicated application is displayed under the Work Order module.
1. In the Application Designer, open the application for which you want to add
signature options (on the Workspace tab). In this exercise, the COPYWO—
Duplicate Copy of Work Order Tracking application, which you created in the
previous exercise, is selected.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 9-15
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
4. In the Option field, enter an identifier for the signature option. Enter a short
description for the new signature option in the Description field.
5. In the Option Also Grants field, you can enter additional signature options that
will automatically be granted access with this signature option.
6. In the Option Also Revokes field, you can enter additional signature options that
will be automatically revoked when this signature option is revoked.
The values entered in the Option Also Grants and Option Also Revokes fields
must be separated by a comma.
8. Click OK.
•
•
9-16 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
1. In the Application Designer, open the application for which you want to modify
signature options (on the Workspace tab). In this exercise, the COPYWO—
Duplicate Copy of Work Order Tracking application, which you created in the
previous exercise, is selected.
5. Click OK.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 9-17
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
1. In the Application Designer, open the application for which you want to delete
signature options (on the Workspace tab). In this exercise, the COPYWO—
Duplicate Copy of Work Order Tracking application, which you created in the
previous exercise, is selected.
3. In the Add/Modify Signature Options dialog box, click the Mark Row for
Delete button for the signature option ID you want to delete. For this exercise, the
BOOKMARK option will be deleted in the Work Order Tracking application.
4. Click OK.
•
•
9-18 • Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
Result: The next time you select Add/Modify Signature Options from the Work
Order Tracking application, the BOOKMARK option will no longer be
available, as shown in the following graphic.
The Maximo Toolbar contains buttons that are common to most Maximo applications, as
well as application-specific actions.
Before adding a toolbar button, you need to create a signature option to associate it with the
application. For information on creating signature options, refer to Adding Signature
Options on page 16-15 and Modifying Signature Options on page 16-17. To add a toolbar
button, complete the following steps:
1. In the Application Designer, open the application for which you want to add a
toolbar button (on the Workspace tab). In this exercise, the COPYWO—
Duplicate Work Order Tracking application, which you created in the previous
exercise, is selected.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 9-19
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
4. In the Key Value field, enter the signature option ID associated with this toolbar
button.
5. In the Element Type field, enter the type of element that this toolbar button
belongs to, or click Select Value.
If the element type is a header, you need to enter the label of this header that is
displayed in the application in the Header Description field.
•
•
9-20 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
6. In the Position field, enter a numerical value to indicate the position of the toolbar
button in the Maximo Toolbar.
7. If you want the button to appear under a header, enter a numerical value in the
Subposition field to indicate its position within the header.
9. Click OK.
1. In the Application Designer, open the application (on the Workspace tab) for
which you want to modify a toolbar button. In this exercise, select the COPYWO
—Duplicate Work Order Tracking application that you created in the previous
exercise.
Result: The Row Details open. In this example, the CLEAR toolbar is selected.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 9-21
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
5. Click OK.
1. In the Application Designer, open the application (in the Workspace tab) for
which you want to delete a toolbar button. In this exercise, select the
COPYWO—Duplicate Copy of Work Order Tracking application.
3. In the Add/Modify Toolbar Menu dialog box, click the Mark Row for Delete
button for the signature option ID associated with the toolbar button you want to
delete. In this example, the NEWBUTTON toolbar will be removed.
•
•
9-22 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
4. Click OK.
Result: The next time you select Add/Modify Toolbar Menu from the
COPYWO—Duplicate Copy of Work Order Tracking application,
NEWBUTTON will no longer be available, as shown in the following graphic.
Before adding a menu item to the Search menu, you need to create a signature option to
associate it with the application. For information on creating signature options, refer to
Adding Signature Options on page 16-15 and Modifying Signature Options on page
16-17.
1. In the Application Designer, open the application (in the Workspace tab) for
which you want to add menu items to the Search menu. In this exercise, select the
COPYWO—Duplicate Copy of Work Order Tracking application.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 9-23
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
4. In the Key Value field, enter the signature option ID associated with this menu
item.
•
•
9-24 • Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
5. In the Element Type field, enter the type of element that this menu item belongs
to, or click Select Value.
If the element type is a header, you need to enter the label of this header that is
displayed in the application in the Header Description field.
6. In the Position field, enter a numerical value to indicate the position of the menu
item in the Search menu.
7. If you want the menu item to appear under a header menu, enter a numerical value
in the Subposition field, to indicate its position within the header menu.
9. Click OK.
1. In the Application Designer, open the application (on the Workspace tab) for
which you want to modify items on the Search menu. In this exercise, select the
COPYWO—Duplicate Copy of Work Order Tracking application.
5. Click OK.
•
•
9-26 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
1. In the Application Designer, open the application (in the Workspace tab) for
which you want to delete items on the Search menu. In this exercise, select
COPYWO—Duplicate Copy of Work Order Tracking.
2. In the Add/Modify Search Menu dialog box, click the Mark Row for Delete
button for the search ID associated with the menu you want to delete.
3. Click OK.
To add a menu item to a Select Action menu, complete the following steps:
1. In the Application Designer, open the application (in the Workspace tab) for
which you want to add items to the Select Action menu. In this exercise, select the
COPYWO—Duplicate Copy of Work Order Tracking application.
2. From the Select Action menu, select Add/Modify Select Action Menu.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 9-27
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
4. In the Key Value field, enter the signature option ID associated with this menu
item.
5. In the Element Type field, enter the type of element that this menu item belongs
to, or click Select Value.
If the element type is a header, you need to enter the label of this header that is
displayed in the application in the Header Description field.
6. In the Position field, enter a numerical value to indicate the position of the menu
item in the application menu.
7. If you want the menu item to appear under a header menu, enter a numerical value
in the Subposition field to indicate its position within the header menu.
8. Click OK.
To modify a menu item on a Select Action menu, complete the following steps:
1. In the Application Designer, open the application (on the Workspace tab) for
which you want to modify menu items on the Select Action menu. In this
exercise, select COPYWO—Duplicate Copy of Work Order Tracking.
2. From the Select Action menu, select Add/Modify Select Action Menu.
•
•
9-28 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
5. Click OK.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 9-29
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
To delete a menu item on a Select Action menu, complete the following steps:
1. In the Application Designer, open the application (on the Workspace tab) for
which you want to delete menu items on the Select Action menu. In this exercise,
select COPYWO—Duplicate Copy of Work Order Tracking.
2. In the Add/Modify Select Action Menu dialog box, click the Mark Row for
Delete button for the signature option ID associated with the menu you want to
delete.
3. Click OK.
Importing an Application
You use the Import function in the Application Designer to import the exported XML file
into any environment and configure the application, corresponding to that XML file,
according to your needs. This enables you to easily move the Maximo applications between
multiple environments while the applications are being configured and tested by various
people in the organization.
Use this functionality to import those Maximo applications into the production
environment that have been configured and tested in the staging environment and are ready
for production.
The Import functionality imports the XML file and loads the application, corresponding to
that file, in an environment. If the XML file contains more than one application, the import
process automatically reads the beginning and the end points of the code of each application
and loads the code in the appropriate applications.
•
•
9-30 • Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
2. Click Browse to look for the XML file associated with the application you want to
import.
3. Click OK.
Result: A message appears in the Maximo Navigation bar informing you that the
application has been successfully imported.
Exporting an Application
You use the Export function in the Application Designer to export the code of Maximo
applications into an XML file that is saved in a location you specify. This XML file can
then be imported into any environment and used for configuring Maximo Export either a
single application or multiple applications simultaneously.
1. In the Application Designer, open the application (on the Workspace tab) you
want to export in the Workspace tab. In this exercise, select the COPYWO—
Duplicate Copy of Work Order Tracking application.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 9-31
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
Result: The browser window opens, displaying the code of the application in an
XML file.
1. In the Application Designer on the Application tab, select the check boxes for
the applications you want to export.
Result: The browser window displays the code of all the selected applications in
one single XML file.
Recall that you created a Crossover domain for the supervisor of the requester (Entered By)
using MRLA4 and MRLA5.
1. Using the Application Designer, find and select the CREATEDR application.
2. Open the Control Palette and add a text box above the Priority field.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 9-33
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
3. Open the Properties dialog box for your new text box; then enter the following
values:
Field Value
Label Display Name
Attribute MRLA5
4. Close the Textbox Properties dialog box and save the record.
•
•
9-34 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
6. Open the Properties dialog box for your new text box, then enter the following
values:
Field Value
Label Supervisor
Attribute MRLA4
Lookup PERSON
7. Close the Textbox Properties dialog box and save the record.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 9-35
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
Result: Your display should look similar to the following graphic. Notice your two
new fields, correctly filled in.
•
•
9-36 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
Chapter Summary
Application Designer
Application Designer is a WYSIWYG editing environment for managing, editing, and
creating applications and user interfaces of Maximo by leveraging a component-based
approach to building user interfaces as introduced in Maximo.
• Applications tab
Use the Applications tab to search for Maximo applications. You can use the
filter fields in the table window to enter basic search criteria.
• Workspace tab
When you select an application on the Applications tab, the selected application opens in
the Workspace tab.
Control Palette
The Controls floating dialog box contains the controls that you use to configure a Maximo
application. These controls are dragged from the Controls dialog box and dropped onto the
application work area. The Controls dialog box can be moved anywhere in the work area.
Control Properties
You use the Properties dialog box to modify properties of controls.
The Properties dialog box displays all the attributes and assigned values of the highlighted
control along with the name of the control at the top of dialog box. You can move the
Properties dialog box anywhere in the work area.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 9-37
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 9: Using the Application Designer
•
•
9-38 • Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
This chapter contains the following topics.
•
•
• 10-1
•
•
Chapter 10: Workflow
Chapter Overview
Chapter Focus
In this chapter, we will discuss the nature of a Workflow solution. We will also discuss the
process you will use to design, build, test, and deploy a new workflow.
Learning Objectives
When you have completed this chapter, you should be able to:
What Is Workflow?
In this section we define and explore the tools used to create, modify, and complete a
Workflow process.
•
•
10-2 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Workflow Goals
The goals of Workflow are to:
• Workflow Administration
• Workflow Designer
• Actions
• Roles
• Communication Templates
• Escalations
You use several other applications when designing Workflow processes and related
components:
• People
• People Groups
• Security
• Security Groups
• Labor
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-3
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Each of these components will be introduced as they are first used in the course.
Pushing Information
Workflow gets information to the right people at the right time. Therefore, Workflow
provides you with all of your work assignments in one place.
You do not need to search through long lists of information to find what you need to do.
No
No No
Stop Stop
(cancel) (cancel)
Financial
Approval
Level 1 Yes
No
•
•
10-4 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Workflow Capabilities
The Workflow components provide a variety of features that you can include in your
Workflow design to streamline your approval processes:
• Use of an SQL Expression Builder to more easily build detailed criteria for
process points
Example: Route a corrective work order for cost approval, safety approval,
scheduling, labor assignments, and supervisory signoff on completion.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-5
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Where a menu of action choices is presented to the user based on the current
record’s data properties, scripting the user’s interaction with the application.
Example: When a help desk technician enters an SR and presses Route, properties
such as ticket type and status conditionally present the available next steps—for
example, close or create incident. Close could go to the Start Center; Incident
could take you to the newly inserted Incident in its application.
• Hybrids
Example: Detect at the time of a work order’s completion that a failure report
should have been entered, and take the user to the Failure Reporting tab with
instructions to that effect.
Notifications
Workflow allows you to send a configurable e-mail message (called a notification) when
events occur during the process.
These notifications are created in Communication Templates that are linked to the
process using the Workflow Designer and that specify recipients of the notifications.
• A Maximo person or a person group as defined in the People and Person Groups
applications, respectively
With Communication Templates, you can create templates used to notify the right people
at the right time about what is happening in the process. Communication Templates are
reusable many times within a process or within a number of processes.
You can configure the system to generate e-mail messages whenever the process moves
from one node to the next.
•
•
10-6 • Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Workflow Components
Overview
In the previous section, we mentioned the Workflow-related components and how to access
them. In this section, we will briefly describe each component.
You will be given more detailed information on these components as they are used in
exercises.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-7
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
View/Modify Active
Assignments
Stop Process
• Stop Process
•
•
10-8 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
A Workflow process can be thought of as a map that guides a record, or a user’s interaction
with that record through a set of steps.
The graphical interface of the Workflow Designer illustrates the possible paths the record
can follow.
You can use Workflow to create a set of paths as simple or as complex as your business
process demands.
A process might be able to handle all of the routing necessary for one type of record.
However, more complex process flows (or processes that involve a number of record types)
may require a series of processes.
For that reason, Workflow processes might appear quite simple or complex, depending on
the business need.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-9
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Actions Application
Actions are scheduled events that occur when a record leaves a Workflow node. For
example, an action can cause a Maximo status change, execute a defined program, set a
field value, or execute a custom class action.
You use the Actions application to manage the administrative functions of creating actions
and action groups within Workflow, Escalation, and Service Level Agreements (SLA)
processes.
Select Members
Button
Members Table
You manage actions in a central administrative application because they are used in
multiple applications. Use the Actions application to build individual actions or action
groups.
When creating an action group, you can add members (that is, other actions) to the group
by clicking the Select Members button. The members are displayed in the Members table.
The Sequence column in the Members table is used to determine the order in which the
member actions occur.
•
•
10-10 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Roles Application
You use the Roles application to create and manage roles in Maximo.
You manage roles in a central administrative application because they are used in multiple
applications.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-11
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
•
•
10-12 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
When the Recipients tab first opens, all the sections are collapsed. They must be manually
opened.
Escalations Application
You use the Escalations application to automatically monitor critical processes across your
enterprise.
The primary goal of Escalation Management is to ensure that critical tasks are completed
on time, such as those defined in Workflow processes and service level agreements.
Escalations can be used for other purposes, such as notifying someone before contracts
expire, changing the status of a Maximo object (such as for invoices or contracts), or
changing the owner of a Maximo object (such as for service requests, incidents, or
problems).
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-13
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Workflow Inbox/Assignments
When added to your Start Center, the Workflow Inbox/Assignments table performs a
number of functions:
• It allows you to click on the assignment description to see the underlying record.
• It allows you to route assignments to the next point in the Workflow process.
Workflow Options
Workflow options are accessed from the Select Action menu of the Organizations
application. An example of the Workflow Options dialog box is shown in the following
graphic. Workflow options are organization- and site-specific.
•
•
10-14 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Workflow options allow you to choose a site and indicate a process that is to be auto-
initiated for any of four non-manual activities that may occur in the site. The four activities
are shown in the previous graphic.
Review
Work with your instructor and the others in your class to answer and discuss the following
questions.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-15
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Workflow Stages
To better acquaint you with the Workflow solution, a high-level overview of Workflow
stages will be explored throughout the remainder of this chapter.
Creating
Starting
Completing
In the first stage – Creating – after extensive design discussions, a Workflow process is
created or modified and then enabled and activated using the Workflow Designer
application.
You can also use this application to modify and manage Workflow processes.
• Use the Select Action menu in Workflow Designer to indicate that certain flows
automatically enter a Workflow process when the record is saved or submitted.
• Use the Workflow options to indicate that certain automatic processes should
auto-initiate when specific actions occur.
•
•
10-16 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
In the third stage – Completing – you use Inbox/Assignments in your Start Center to
perform Workflow assignments.
Completing
To get acquainted with the application, let’s access it and take a brief look.
The Workflow Designer application uses standard Maximo navigation, so we will describe
only the functionality and navigation that is specific to Workflow Designer.
1. Sign in to Maximo with the user name and password provided by your instructor.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-17
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Result: The List tab for the Workflow Designer application opens.
•
•
10-18 • Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
3. Click the Filter Table button (binoculars) on the Processes table to view a list of
the available processes.
Either zoom in or use the scroll bars to move up and down or left and right to view
the entire process.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-19
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
The Workflow Designer canvas has a series of eight node tools on a toolbar, or palette, that
you use to create the Workflow processes.
You drag the necessary nodes onto the canvas, or work area.
•
•
10-20 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-21
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
You use a Wait node to create a certain reaction to an action. You can
define any action to trigger a specified reaction in a Wait node.
When Workflow encounters a Wait node in an active process, the
process pauses at that node indefinitely until any of the specified events
occur.
When the specified event does occur, it informs the node, and the
process resumes by exiting the node at the single exit point.
• You can cause a message to pop up on the screen in a dialog box. This message
could inform the user about something they need to know or do during the
process.
• If a new record type is created from another record type using an action, the new
record could be displayed in its application for the user without the user’s having
to access the new record manually.
• The application for the new record and the specific tab could be indicated in the
Application and Tab Name fields.
• A choice from the Select Action list of the indicated application could be
indicated in the Action field.
• Another valuable way that an Interaction node can be used is to indicate another
Workflow process to be started. The process would be indicated in the Launch
Process field.
•
•
10-22 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Tool
Description
Image
You use the Move/Add Nodes tool to drag and drop the nodes from the
tool bar for placement on the canvas.
You also use this tool to position nodes on the canvas.
You use the Connect Nodes tool, the yellow pencil icon, to create positive
connections from one node to another.
Positive connection lines also contain properties that allow you to enable
an action between nodes when the process runs along its path.
You use Connect Nodes with a Negative Action, the red pencil icon, to
create negative connections from one node to another.
Negative positive connection lines also contain properties that allow you
to enable an action between nodes when the process runs along its path.
You use the Properties tool to enter a node’s Properties dialog box to
review and edit the attributes associated with that node.
You use the Zoom tool to increase or decrease the size of the canvas as a
percentage of the default (the size that you see when you first enter the
canvas).
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-23
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Process Tab
While on the INVOICE process, access the Process tab from the Workflow Designer
application. Your screen will look similar to the following graphic.
The Process tab provides a tabular representation of the nodes on the Canvas tab.
You can edit properties for process nodes by clicking the Edit Properties button located to
the right of the node.
The Actions table shows the contents of any connection/action lines associated with a
selected node. You can also edit Actions by clicking the relevant Edit Properties button.
•
•
10-24 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Action Buttons
From both the Canvas and Process tabs you can access a number of buttons that perform
a variety of actions on the selected process.
Button Description
The Create Process Revision button inserts a new copy of the selected
process onto the Canvas for update and editing. The number in the
Revision field will be incremented by one. You can then edit your new
process.
You use the Validate Process button to check your process to determine
that all elements are set up and working properly.
The Enable Process button enables your process so that other processes
can use it as a subprocess. When you enable a process, it is first
validated just as if you had clicked the Validate Process button.
If validation is not positive, then the process cannot be enabled.
When the process is enabled, Maximo creates the relationships and other
needed technical setups to run the process against the designated object.
The Activate Process button activates a process to be used as a top-level
process that can use enabled subprocesses in the flows. A process must
be both enabled and active to be a top-level process.
Review Questions
1. To use a Workflow process as a main process, what two things have to be done?
a.
b.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-25
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
This will allow us to put records through a Workflow process and then to access the
Workflow task in the sections that follow.
1. For this exercise, sign in to Maximo as Fred Stanley with the following
information:
In this chapter’s exercises, Fred is our Workflow administrator and will enable
and activate several Workflow processes.
Result: Maximo displays a message indicating that the process has been validated
and enabled.
•
•
10-26 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Result: Maximo checks the process to ensure that it contains valid nodes and
accompanying parameters. The Enabled? field is selected.
Result: The Add Workflow Support to Applications dialog box displays a list of
the applications associated with the Object to which the process is associated.
The Object field in both the dialog box above and on the Workflow Designer
screen indicates which MBO is being associated with the process.
Many objects are associated with specific Maximo applications. In this example,
the SOLUTION object is associated with the Search Solution (SEARCHSOL)
and Solution (SOLUTION) applications.
6. Keep the Add Support? check box selected for both applications and click OK.
You will allow Maximo to add support for both the Search Solutions and the
Solution applications.
Result: Maximo adds all necessary code to allow the selected applications to be
supported by Workflow. The Active? field is now selected.
Because there is quite a bit going on behind the scenes, the activation process may
take several minutes to complete.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-27
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
• You can enable and activate processes by using the Select Action menu.
The following graphic shows the selections available from the Select Action menu for the
Workflow Designer application.
Exercise 2
Enable and activate the Purchase Order Status Cycle (POSTATUS) Workflow process,
if it is not already enabled and activated.
Apply Workflow support to all applications that are associated with the PO object used by
this process.
•
•
10-28 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
In this section, our discussion centers on the different methods used to start a record in a
Workflow process routine.
Creating
In the second stage, a record is
1
automatically or manually started
through a Workflow process.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-29
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Workflow Actions
Once an application is Workflow-supported, a Workflow action is added to the Select
Action menu of the application. From the Workflow selection in Select Actions of a
supported application, there are a number of subactions available, as shown in the
following graphic.
• Manual
• Escalation initiated
• Auto-initiate
•
•
10-30 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
• The Route Workflow button also appears on assigned records in the Inbox/
Assignments table on the Start Center.
Escalation Initiated
You create an escalation using the Escalation application with an action created with the
Action application to poll the system on time and data criteria.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-31
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
When conditions are met, the escalation will trigger an action to start those records meeting
the criteria conditions into a Workflow process.
Auto-initiation
You learned previously how a record, through the use of an escalation being created, polls
the system and automatically starts those records in a Workflow process. You also
demonstrated manual Workflow initiation by clicking the Route Workflow button to start
the process.
Another method to set up the process to start a Workflow process upon the saving of a
record is to select Set Process to Auto-Initiate from the Select Action menu in the
Workflow Designer application.
•
•
10-32 • Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
One limitation with this method is that you can have only one auto-initiated process per
object.
When you choose Stop Workflow, Maximo displays a dialog box similar to the following
graphic, which allows you to send e-mails indicating that you are stopping the process.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-33
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
You also can add a note in the Transaction Memo field to indicate why the process was
stopped.
You can also stop processes for selected records by using the Workflow Administration
application.
This information is accessed from the View Workflow History subaction of the Workflow
action from Select Action.
You can access the Workflow assignments and map from this dialog box by clicking the
respective buttons in the lower right corner of the dialog box.
You can access the Workflow history and map from this dialog box by clicking the
respective buttons in the lower right corner of the dialog box.
•
•
10-34 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
You can access a Workflow Map for the current record by selecting the View Workflow
Map subaction of the Workflow action from Select Action.
In the process above, the record is at the MANAGER node, as indicated by a gray square
around the node in the map.
You can access the Workflow assignments and history from this dialog box by clicking the
respective buttons in the lower right corner of the dialog box.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-35
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
The Show this help when launching records from the inbox? checkbox controls whether
you see this help dialog box when you click the Route Workflow button in the Inbox/
Assignments table on your Start Center.
•
•
10-36 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
The following procedure explains how records can be processed through this Workflow
process.
1. The new solution record is started in Workflow [START] and goes to the solution
administrator [SOLADMIN], who can either activate it or send it back to the
originator.
3. If the record is sent back to the originator [RETURNED], the originator can
either send it back to the supervisor [SOLADMIN] or cancel it. If it is canceled,
the record’s status is changed to CANCEL and it goes to the end of the process
[STOP].
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-37
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Because the SOLUTION process has not been set to auto-initiate, you will start the record
in Workflow by clicking on the Route Workflow button.
Field Value
Description How do I connect to the network printer?
Classification 3 \ 302
a. Go to: http://printers.corporate.com
In this example, the record did not enter the workflow because the underlying
process is not set to auto-initiate (that is, start on the saving of a record).
•
•
10-38 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Result: The record is placed into the Workflow process. The Route Workflow
button changes to indicate that the record is now in a Workflow process.
You may also see a message that briefly flashes just above the toolbar, indicating
that the record has been placed into a process.
Look on the next page to see where the record is in the process.
The record has been manually entered into the process. The first stage of the process is the
SOLADMIN, where the record now resides.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-39
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
The following table explains how records can be processed through this Workflow process.
If the PO is not greater than $500, it is approved and goes to the end
5
of the process (STOP).
If the PO > $500 is not approved, the PO is canceled and moves to the
8
end of the process (STOP).
•
•
10-40 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
• The connecting lines in a process (called actions) can be used to generate system
actions, such as canceling or approving records. These actions can be viewed in
the Properties of the connecting line.
In many cases, these connecting lines do the processing work and you may not see
the action in the nodes themselves.
You can more easily see where actions exist by taking a look at the Process tab of
the Workflow Designer.
• Processes need to be set to auto-initiate, if this is the desired state. This is not a
default. There are several ways to do this, but you will use the Select Action menu
in Workflow Designer to do this in the next example.
This process should be enabled and active from a previous exercise. If it is not,
enable and activate it now.
Result: The process will now automatically initiate when a new PO record is
saved. The Interactive Initiate? checkbox is now selected.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-41
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Then, based on the Workflow process setup from the previous exercise, after a PO record
is created and saved it will automatically start in the Workflow approval process journey.
1. For this exercise, you will sign in to Maximo as the user Frank Jones (jones/
jones22).
Field Value
Description Office Supplies
Company OFFRUS
The status on the new record is WAPPR. You will leave that status as it is.
•
•
10-42 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Line 1:
Field Value
Line Type MATERIAL
Description CDs
Quantity 8
Order Unit BOX
Unit Cost 53.00
GL Debit Account 6000-300-200
Line 2:
Field Value
Line Type MATERIAL
Description Storage container
Quantity 10
Order Unit EACH
Unit Cost 14.73
GL Debit Account 6000-300-200
Result: A note indicating that the POSTATUS process has been started flashes
briefly above the toolbar. The record goes into the process.
Some companies do not use the self-registration method. Check with your Maximo
administrator to see how your company handles this process.
Self-registered users are automatically assigned to a default group, which controls the
initial basic privileges provided to the user.
When a new user self-registers, the registration activity can trigger a Workflow process
(SELFREG) during which the Maximo administrator is assigned to review the registration.
Upon receiving the user review assignment, the Maximo administrator checks the new user
record and provides privileges appropriate for the new user.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-43
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
• Enabling
• Activating
• Auto-initiating
Result: The SELFREG process nodes look like the following graphic.
Result: The process is now ready to be used. The Enabled? and Active?
checkboxes are selected.
Depending on your classroom setup, this process might already be enabled and
activated.
Result: The process will now automatically start when a relevant record is saved.
The Interactive Initiate? checkbox is selected.
•
•
10-44 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
In the spaces provided, write down the values in the User ID and Password
fields. This information will come in handy for a later optional exercise.
User ID:
Password:
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-45
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Supervisor WINSTON
Default Insert Site BEDFORD
Default Storeroom CENTRAL
Language EN
Additional Information I am a new Maximo user.
5. Click Submit.
The Maximo administrator must access the new registration record and determine
whether the registration will be accepted. Until the registration is accepted, you
cannot access Maximo.
Overview
Maximo enables you to view the present state in the workflow of a currently selected
record.
You learned these previously, but now that we actually have records in the Workflow
processes, you will look at some of their states.
•
•
10-46 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Result: Your Workflow Map should look similar to the following graphic.
Because the new PO is more than $500, it is now in the APPROVE node, just as it should
be.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-47
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
•
•
10-48 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Creating
Starting
Inbox/Assignments Table
The Inbox/Assignments table provides a handy place from which to review and route tasks
that have been assigned to you.
In the following exercises, you will be using this table to complete the processes we started
in the previous exercises.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-49
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
You can also use the Route Workflow button to move selected records. However, you will
focus on the use of the Inbox/Assignments table.
When a record leaves the control of a Workflow process, it becomes a regular Maximo
record that retains whatever status it had at the time it left the Workflow.
You can specify that a record will leave Workflow control at any point along the approval
process. You do this by:
• Choosing Workflow > Stop Workflow from the Select Action menu of the
selected record; or
1. If you have not already done so, sign in to Maximo as Frank Jones.
Result: You are taken to Frank’s Start Center, similar to the following graphic.
Frank actually has two Start Center pages: Maintenance and Purchasing. The
Inbox on both pages reflects the current assignment for the PO record of Move
from WAPPR to APPR.
•
•
10-50 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Result: The underlying record opens in the Purchase Order application with
Workflow Help displayed.
You can clear the Show this help when launching records from the inbox?
checkbox if you do not want help to show each time that you view an underlying
record from the Inbox.
3. Clear the Show this help when launching records from the inbox? checkbox;
then click OK in the Workflow Help dialog box.
The automatic Workflow Help will no longer display when viewing a record
from the Inbox. However, application help is still available.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-51
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
The last two steps show you how you can access the underlying record from the
Inbox. It is not necessary to view the underlying record, as you have done here.
However, you will learn how this can be done from the Inbox.
4. To route the record to the next point in the Workflow process, click the Route
Workflow button on the displayed record.
Result: The Complete Workflow Assignment dialog box opens on top of the
underlying record, asking whether the record should be approved.
The process scenario discussed previously indicates that, if the PO is greater than
$500, it must be approved or canceled at this point (APPROVE). This is where
we are in the process.
While reviewing the record in the previous steps, you actually could have clicked
the Route Workflow button on the record itself. But, for this example, you will
learn how the routing can be done from the Inbox.
5. Ensure that the Approve this purchase order option is selected; then click OK.
Result: The process goes to the next step, which is the Stop node.
•
•
10-52 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Question: Why does Maximo not display the Workflow Map for this record?
When a record leaves the control of a Workflow process, it becomes a regular Maximo
record that retains whatever status it had at the time it left the Workflow.
You can specify that a record will leave Workflow control at any point along the approval
process. You do this by:
• Choosing Workflow > Stop Workflow from the Select Action menu of the
selected record
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-53
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Result: You are taken to the Start Center for the Maximo administrator. The new
registration is in the administrator’s Inbox.
The user maxadmin has been assigned the task of reviewing the new registration,
so you are signing in as that user to check the Inbox.
2. Click on the Review and approve/reject the self-registered user text in the
Description field of the Inbox.
If you did not disallow the Workflow Help from automatically displaying, it will
display on top of the user record. Click OK to close the help window.
The Route Workflow button shows that the record is already in a workflow. This
is because the SELFREG process is auto-initiated.
•
•
10-54 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Result: A task displays for the Maximo administrator with two choices, as shown
in the following graphic.
Result: The new user is now registered in Maximo. The SELFREG process stops.
The administrator needs to put the new user into a Security Group for the new user
to actually access Maximo. You will do this in the next exercise.
1. Sign in to Maximo as Mike Wilson (wilson/wilson) and access your new user
from the Users application in the Security module.
The user record would be the value in the User ID field during self-registration.
Hopefully you wrote it down.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-55
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Self-registered users are automatically put into the DEFLTREG group. However,
this group only allows you to enter a new password on first registration. There is
no access to applications or a Start Center.
This group will give your new user access to just about everything in Maximo.
Normally you would give access to a security group with fewer privileges.
Result: Now your user is fully registered in Maximo and has access to
applications and a Start Center.
6. Sign out of Maximo and sign back in with the user name and password that you
wrote down in a previous exercise.
Depending on your system setup, you may be asked to enter a new password on
first sign-in. Follow the steps and sign in.
Result: Your user now has access to Maximo with a Start Center and rights to use
all applications.
•
•
10-56 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Chapter Summary
Components of Workflow
Workflow is comprised of a number of applications used to create workflow processes,
applications used to create records used by these processes, the Inbox, and Workflow
Options.
Workflow Categories
There are several general categories of workflows:
• Process workflow
• Context-based instructions
Workflow Applications
The main applications involved with Workflow processes are:
• Workflow Administration
• Workflow Designer
• Actions
• Roles
• Communication Templates
• Escalations
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-57
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Workflow Options
Workflow options are accessed from the Select Action menu of the Organizations
application.
1. Creating
2. Starting
3. Completing
Canvas Nodes
The nodes on the Workflow Designer Canvas tab are:
• Start
• Stop
• Task
• Condition
• Manual Input
• Subprocess
• Interaction
• Wait
•
•
10-58 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 10: Workflow
Canvas Tools
The additional tools found on the Canvas tab are:
• Move/Add Nodes
• Connect Nodes
• Delete
• Properties
• Zoom
Action Buttons
The action buttons on both the Canvas and the Process tabs are:
• Validate Process
• Enable Process
• Activate Process
• Route Workflow
• Stop Workflow
• Workflow Help
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 10-59
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
This chapter contains the following topics.
•
•
• 11-1
•
•
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
Chapter Overview
This chapter covers domains, some of which were previously known as value lists.
Chapter Focus
The intent of this chapter is to provide a high-level overview of key application elements
and functionality.
Learning Objectives
When you have completed this chapter, you should be able to:
• Describe a domain
• Modify a domain
• Create a domain
•
•
11-2 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
Managing Domains
When you create a new table, add a new column, or modify an existing column, if the data
being inserted in this column is being used from another table, this data will need to be
validated before it can be inserted into the table. Some of these fields in Maximo have drop-
down lists from which users choose an appropriate value. These lists of defined values are
known as domains (sometimes referred to as value lists). Maximo uses many domains in its
applications. As an administrator, you will use the Domains application to add new
domains or modify existing ones to fit with your business practices.
DOMAINID
A DOMAINID in Maximo identifies a set of data. By assigning a DOMAINID to a column
(or columns) in a table, you are grouping that data as a set, and making it easier to validate
that set of data.
Types
Maximo uses the following kinds of domains, each of which is explained in more detail in
its associated How Do I… topics in the online help.
Type Description
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 11-3
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
• To modify existing domains, you can edit a domain in the table window, or click
Edit Details to edit in a Domain dialog box.
You can edit only the Description and Length fields in the table window. If you
click Edit Detail, you can edit Description, Length (depending on type), and
Add/Modify Values.
• To add a domain, you click Add New Domain at the bottom of the table window.
Beyond Domains
Adding a domain in the Domains application is only part of the process of adding a
working domain to Maximo. After you add a domain, you still have several tasks to
perform, depending on the domain and how you want to display it in Maximo:
• Associate the new domain with an attribute. You perform this task in the
Database Configuration application.
• Use the Screen Designer to modify the UI as needed. For example, if you added
an ALN domain, you add the drop-down list button using the Screen Designer.
New crossover fields may require new fields in the receiving application.
•
•
11-4 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
Modifying Domains
Synonym Domains
SYNONYM domains are restricted. You cannot add new SYNONYM domains. You can
add new synonym values.
Each work order status has an internal value, used by Maximo in its business rules, and a
value that users see and choose from. You cannot add a new internal value. You can add a
synonym, the value presented to the user. For example, suppose your company procedures
require two people to approve a work order. You could add synonym values for the internal
WAPPR value. You could then present two different values to the user (for example,
WAPPRMAN and WAPPRVP) to represent approvals at the manager and vice-president
level.
2. Open the Domains application (Configuration module) and search for the
WOSTATUS domain.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 11-5
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
3. Click the Edit Detail button to open this domain for editing.
In the Synonym Domain table window, you see the set of current values. The
Internal Value is used by Maximo and must be unique. The Value and its
Description are what users see.
Field Value
Internal Value WAPPR
Value PENDING
Description Pending Approval
6. Click OK.
•
•
11-6 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
Notes
Default? checkbox: Select this checkbox if you want Maximo to use the new synonym
value by default. Each internal value can have only one default synonym value. Example:
Maximo inserts WAPPR as the status when you create a new work order. You add a
synonym value, PENDING. If you want Maximo to insert PENDING instead of WAPPR,
then make PENDING the default.
Organization or Site: Maximo by default applies domains at the system level. If you want
a domain value to apply to a specific organization or site, enter the relevant values in the
Organization and Site fields.
Warning: After you have implemented Maximo and inserted records, do not add a synonym
value with a site or organization specified. This can invalidate existing data.
2. Open the Work Order Tracking application, then search for and select work
order 1000.
Result: Your new synonym displays as part of the Value List for Work Order
Status.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 11-7
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
2. Open the Domains application (Configuration module) and search for the
PWHINTQUESTION domain.
3. Click the Edit Detail button to open this domain for editing.
•
•
11-8 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
Field Value
Value FAVCOLOR
Description Your favorite color?
Organization [ Leave blank ]
Site [ Leave blank ]
Field Value
Value [ Your choice ]
Description [ Your choice ]
Organization [ Leave blank ]
Site [ Leave blank ]
7. Click OK.
Result: The ALN Domain dialog box closes, saving your new domain values.
8. To view your results, click the Edit Detail button for the PWHINTQUESTION
domain.
Result: Your Domain values should look similar to the following graphic.
9. Close the ALN Domain dialog box, and return to the Start Center.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 11-9
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
2. Open the Users application, then search for and select user WILSON.
4. Click the Select Value button of the Password Hint Question field.
Result: The Select Value dialog box opens, displaying your newly created domain
values.
•
•
11-10 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
Result: The Select Value dialog box closes and your choice is displayed in the Set
Password Hint dialog box.
Result: The Set Password Hint dialog box closes, saving your values.
Creating Domains
In the last section we modified an existing ALN domain. In this section you will create a
new domain. And remember, after you create a new domain, there are some additional
required actions:
• Associate the new domain with an attribute. You perform this task in the
Database Configuration application.
• Use the Screen Designer to modify the UI as needed. For example, if you added
an ALN domain, you add the drop-down list button using the Screen Designer.
New crossover fields may require new fields in the receiving application.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 11-11
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
1. Open the Domains application and click the Add New Domain button.
Field Value
Domain WORKPRIORITY
Description Work Order Priority
Data Type INTEGER (Use Select Value button.)
•
•
11-12 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
Field Value
Value 01
This will display as 1.00
Description Routine
Organization EAGLENA (or use the Select Value button)
Site [ Leave blank ]
Result: The NUMERIC Domain dialog box closes, saving your values.
You cannot change the Length field. It defaults to the length of its type, in this
case as type INTEGER.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 11-13
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
8. To view your results, click the Edit Detail button for the WORKPRIORITY
domain.
Result: Your Domain values should look similar to the following graphic.
•
•
11-14 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
2. From the Attributes tab, open the details for the WOPRIORITY attribute.
Result: The Select Value dialog box for the Domain field opens.
The Select Value dialog box will show only the domains where the data type
matches, but does include crossover and table domains.
Result: The Select Value dialog box closes, saving your values.
You can make changes, such as in step 4, using one of the following methods:
– Using the Application Designer, open the application WOTRACK. For the
attribute WOPRIORITY, open the Control Palette.
– Use the following steps to make the changes by manually editing the files.
4. Use the following steps to set up a lookup for your new domain.
\\<maximo-root>\resources/presentation
c. Find:
<textbox id="main_grid3_6"
dataattribute=”wopriority” />
<textbox id="main_grid3_6"
dataattribute=”wopriority” lookup=”valuelist” />
e. Restart your Maximo server, open to the Maximo sign-in screen, and then
change the Internet Explorer browser path as follows:
g. Click Import.
•
•
11-16 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
5. When the import is finished, your display should look similar to the following
graphic.
6. Sign in to Maximo, go to the Work Order Tracking application, and insert a new
record.
7. Tab to the Priority field, and use the Select Value button to choose a value from
your new domain.
If you were to change your default insert site (My Profile) to CHILEHDQ, insert a
new work order, and try to use the lookup, there would be no values listed because
the domain values that you entered are specific to EAGLENA and the record for
CHILEHDQ is in EAGLESA.
8. You have verified your new domain. Return to the Start Center.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 11-17
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
2. At the bottom of the Domains table window, click Add New Domain and select
Add New TABLE Domain.
•
•
11-18 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
6. In the Object field, enter the name of the object or click Select Value. The object
you want is the object containing the attribute from which you want to create a
domain.
For example, to obtain values from the ASSET object, you would enter: ASSET.
7. In the List Where Clause field, enter the part of the clause that specifies the
specific values you want to select based on the validation WHERE clause. For
example, to select asset records that begin with the numbers 114, you would enter:
assetnum like ‘114%’.
Caution: Maximo does not validate your entry for syntax or any other errors. Be
very sure you have entered a correct WHERE clause. If you make errors, they will
not become apparent until you configure the database.
8. In the Validation Where Clause field, enter the part of the clause that, when
queried against the Object field, should return at least one record if the value to be
validated by this domain is considered valid. Usually, the clause involves a bind
variable for the field that uses this domain for validation. For example, if you want
a field named Z (attribute Z) to contain values from the assetnum field in the
Assets application, you would enter: :z=assetnum
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 11-19
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
9. In the Error Message Group field, enter the group name of the message you
want to be displayed when domain validation fails. A group and key value pair in
the MAXMESSAGES table identifies a Maximo message.
10. In the Error Message Key field, enter the key of the message you want Maximo
to display when domain validation fails.
11. Maximo by default applies domains at the system level. If you want a domain
value to apply to a specific organization or site, enter the relevant values in the
Organization and Site fields.
Either leave the Organization and/or Site fields empty for all values (users in all
organizations and sites can access them) or specify organization and site for all
values (users in the specified organizations and/or sites can access them).
12. Click New Row again to add more rows, or click Close Details.
Result: You have now added a new domain to the Maximo database. However,
you must still attach the domain to the object/attribute with which you want the
domain to be used, as well as other tasks.
If you use a domain in any other context in Maximo, adding a domain involves additional
tasks, as outlined:
• Associate the new domain with an attribute. You perform this task in the
Database Configuration application.
• Use the Application Designer to modify the user interface as needed. For
example, if you added an ALN domain for a field, you would add the Select
Value button using the Application Designer. New crossover domains might
require new fields in the destination application.
Deleting a Domain
You can never delete a SYNONYM domain. You can delete other types of domains, but
not if the domain is assigned to a Maximo attribute.
2. In the Domains table window, find the domain you want to delete and click Mark
Row for Delete.
Result: Maximo displays a warning message and asks if you want to continue.
3. Click Yes.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 11-21
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
Result: Maximo removes the domain from the Domains table window.
Deleting a domain does not affect values that have already been inserted in Maximo
records. For example, if a user inserts a value in a field using a domain select value list, the
value remains on the record even if the domain is subsequently disassociated from the
attribute and deleted.
You can take an existing Maximo field, or create a new one, and design the field to be
populated with data from another field in another application. To do this, you add a new
CROSSOVER domain.
Scenario: You will be using a CROSSOVER domain to add the supervisor of a requester
on an MR.
2. At the bottom of the Domains table window, click Add New Domain and select
Add New CROSSOVER Domain.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 11-23
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
Result: Your display should look similar to the following example (sorted by
Domain Type).
3. On the Attributes tab, find and open the details for the ENTERBY attribute.
•
•
11-24 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
4. Use the Select Value List for the Domain field and select your new domain:
SUPNAME.
Result: The ENTERBY object is set to be changed when you reconfigure the
database.
6. While still in the Database Configuration application, find and select the MR
object.
In the next chapter, we will continue this exercise by using the Application
Designer to add the appropriate Crossover field to the MR application.
•
•
©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 • 11-25
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Chapter 11: Managing Domains
Chapter Summary
Managing Domains
Some fields in Maximo have drop-down lists from which users choose an appropriate
value. These lists of defined values are known as domains (sometimes referred to as value
lists). Maximo uses many domains in its applications.
As an administrator, you will use the Domains application to add new domains or modify
existing ones to fit with your business practices.
Modifying Domains
In this section you learned how to modify an ALN domain.
Creating Domains
In this section you created a new numeric domain. Whenever you create a new domain, you
must also perform some additional required actions:
• Associate the new domain with an attribute. You perform this task in the
Database Configuration application.
You could use the Maximo Screen Designer (beyond the scope of this course) to modify
the UI as needed.
For example, if you added an ALN domain, you could add the drop-down list button using
the Screen Designer.
New crossover fields (for crossover domains) may require new fields in the receiving
application.
•
•
11-26 • ©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
•
•
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Working with Actuate Basic Report
& Report Deployment in Maximo
1
Adding Libraries
Step 01
Open option
A dialogue box will appear click on global search path and add the following files ….
c:\programefiles\actuate8\source\custom\config
c:\programe…………………………………….\libraries
c:\programe…………………………………….\oracle
c:\programe…………………………………….\Templates
2
Step 02
Click on add button to add following libraries from the following paths
c:\programefiles\actuate8\source\custom\config\libraries\MroBaseControl
c:\programe…………………………………….\libraries\MroControls
c:\programe………………………………………………\MroReportsPage
c:\programe………………………………………………\MroReportsFrames
c:\programefiles\actuate8\source\custom\config\oracle\MroDataComponent
3
Step 03
Select General tab and Click Refresh Button click on add button to add following
libraries
c:\programefiles\actuate8\source\custom\config\mroConfig.xml
Click OK
4
GOTO > Tool menu and Click > Database Connections
5
Build a New Connection
Click Finish
6
Developing Report
7
In reports Structure Tab
Delete Connection
Delete DataStream
Delete Content –Group Section
8
On toolbar click on Data
Username maximo
Password maximo
Click OK.
9
drag table from database browser and drop on SqlQuerySouce-Query Editor
10
Drag fields from table on column name
11
Formatting the report
Click ok
12
Report will run
13
HOW TO DEPLOY REPORT IN MAXIMO
14
Click on rpt
15
Click on reports
16
Click browse and select appropriate file having an extension of rox
17
Click ok
Click logout
login to Maximo
18
Go to report administration application
19
Click on NEW Button > Add new Report
Report file name demo.rox
Application Asset
20
Click on Generate XML on the Report Tab
21
Working with Actuate Basic Report
& Report Deployment in Maximo
1
Adding Libraries
Step 01
Open option
A dialogue box will appear click on global search path and add the following files ….
c:\programefiles\actuate8\source\custom\config
c:\programe…………………………………….\libraries
c:\programe…………………………………….\oracle
c:\programe…………………………………….\Templates
2
Step 02
Click on add button to add following libraries from the following paths
c:\programefiles\actuate8\source\custom\config\libraries\MroBaseControl
c:\programe…………………………………….\libraries\MroControls
c:\programe………………………………………………\MroReportsPage
c:\programe………………………………………………\MroReportsFrames
c:\programefiles\actuate8\source\custom\config\oracle\MroDataComponent
3
Step 03
Select General tab and Click Refresh Button click on add button to add following
libraries
c:\programefiles\actuate8\source\custom\config\mroConfig.xml
Click OK
4
GOTO > Tool menu and Click > Database Connections
5
Build a New Connection
Click Finish
6
Developing Report
7
In reports Structure Tab
Delete Connection
Delete DataStream
Delete Content –Group Section
8
On toolbar click on Data
Username maximo
Password maximo
Click OK.
9
drag table from database browser and drop on SqlQuerySouce-Query Editor
10
Drag fields from table on column name
11
Formatting the report
Click ok
12
Report will run
13
HOW TO DEPLOY REPORT IN MAXIMO
14
Click on rpt
15
Click on reports
16
Click browse and select appropriate file having an extension of rox
17
Click ok
Click logout
login to Maximo
18
Go to report administration application
19
Click on NEW Button > Add new Report
Report file name demo.rox
Application Asset
20
Click on Generate XML on the Report Tab
21