Defining alias files

To view Teamcenter-managed data in a publishing page, you have to create an asset, bind it, and populate it. When you bind the asset, the Bind dialog box contains a list of transfer modes and a number of choices, called aliases, from which you can select. The choice you make for each asset defines how Publish finds the data that is displayed in the asset when you populate it.

When you select an object in Teamcenter, and then populate an asset, a number of things happen.

1. If the selected object is a BOM line, Publish creates a structure context object in the database to persist the selection.

2. Publish creates a PLM XML file that contains information about the selected persistent object and about related objects. This additional content about the related objects is determined by the definition of the transfer mode that was assigned to the asset in the Bind dialog box.

3. Publish searches through the PLM XML file’s content to find the exact data to expose in the asset. To do this, it retrieves the alias definition for the alias that was bound to the asset. The definition contains a list of paths. Publish attempts to follow each path from the root object in the PLM XML file until it finds some valid data. This data can consist of anything from a string, such as a form attribute value, to a file containing an image.

4. Teamcenter creates a snapshot of the data in the asset on the Visio pane.

5. Teamcenter stores the ID of the selected persistent object in the Visio file, associating it with the asset, for later retrieval during an update operation.

The transfer modes and aliases that are available in the Bind dialog box are all defined in the alias file. Each transfer mode functions as a recipe for what is included in the PLM XML file. The definition of each alias functions as a recipe that tells Teamcenter which parts of the exported PLM XML information to expose in an asset.

The snapshot of Teamcenter’s data is visible whenever you open the page file for viewing. You can also update an asset so that it displays changes that were made in Teamcenter since the asset was first populated. When the asset is updated, new PLM XML is generated from the same selected object using the same transfer mode, and the same alias is then used to find the exact data from that PLM XML to be displayed in the asset.

A sample set of alias definitions is provided with the default installation, but you should create alias definitions and transfer modes to support other situations. To do this, you should:

• Ensure that the information appears in the PLM XML file. If it does not, create or modify a transfer mode so that the information is visible.

• Ensure that an alias definition correctly extracts this information from the PLM XML file. If not, modify existing aliases or create new aliases. The default alias definition file contains instructions and examples of aliases.

Teamcenter includes a default alias file (TcPublishSystemAlias.xml) that you can use as the basis for your own mapping files and its location is defined in the TCPublishing_Default_Alias_File preference. The comments within this file contain detailed notes on the structure and usage of the alias file. Read these before beginning with customization.

Caution

Do not edit this file directly. Create your own alias dataset and work in this file.