Meeting Unique Business Needs
Within the Oracle Agile PLM community are thousands of satisfied and successful users. Still, I find that many of these users would love the chance to ‘tailor’ at least one of Agile’s functions to better fit a particular business requirement. Within the Oracle Agile PLM community are thousands of satisfied and successful users who have experienced the benefits of seamless Agile PLM integration. However, despite its robust features, many users seek customization to align Agile functions more closely with their specific business needs.
Custom Process Extensions
Specialized Oracle partners (such as Domain Systems) have the ability to help Agile users meet this need through custom process extensions (or PXs). Finding the “right” PX can pose challenges, especially in meeting diverse business requirements, like determining supported document types or printable formats like PDF. This complexity underscores the importance of selecting the most suitable PX for your needs..
Introducing DomainPX™- PDM Generator
One such process extension is the DomainPX™- PDM Generator tool, which facilitates Agile PLM integration by streamlining the generation of PDF documents during the Agile Change Management process or product releases within Agile.
Benefits Include:
- End-user access to products documentation in PDF Format.
- PDF files can be viewed by anyone on your Supply Chain- CAD or no CAD.
- Remote/Mobile viewing of product documentation.
- Real time access to documents
- Cost-effective
Benefits of PDF Integration
Integrating a PDF tool with Agile instantly grants end-users access to product documentation in PDF format during the Agile Change Management process. This integration enhances efficiency and accessibility for users across the board.. Along the supply chain, your suppliers, contract-manufacturers, etc. (who may not have CAD or other document viewing tool) will now be able to view product documentation and specifications in a clean PDF file format. Users can remotely access product documentation in near real-time, regardless of their immediate access to Agile.
Key Features
Features Include:
- All features of the PRINT2PDF Tool are configurable in a configuration properties file
- Available Option to select which Affected Items/BOM Items’ documents to print to PDF. And this applies to recent Item revisions as well as old Item revisions
- The “File Types” option allows users to specify which Document Types to print to PDF.
- Check out and Check in functionality.
- WaterMark and foot/header features included.
- And several more…
Maximizing Value with AutoVue
AutoVue software supports more file formats than other commercial PDF Tools available in the market. Most vendors overprice their commercial process extensions unnecessarily.. Additionally, PDF tools, especially, lack support for various formats or may lack the API integration toolkit. Vendors often develop the toolkit, if included, in a programming language not supported by Agile, such as Java. This limits compatibility with Agile’s environment.
For companies that have AutoVue installed and fully integrated with Agile, we highly recommend they take advantage of the AutoVue API Integration capability, leveraging it as a PDF Generator within Agile to enhance Agile PLM integration.
Running the Print2PDF Tool
Here’s how to run the Print2PDF Tool:
- After installing and configuring the PDF Generator Tool (Print2PDF PX), users can activate it through the Item’s Actions Menu or ECO’s Actions Menu. It seamlessly integrates into ECO workflow/lifecycle processes for enhanced usability..
- PDF Action and Folder fields are enabled and added on the Item’s Attachments Tab. Both fields are optional, if Generated PDF files only need to be downloaded into the Output DESTINATION folder. However, if Generated PDF files also need to be uploaded back to the Item’s Attachments Tab, both fields would need to be set up in Agile™.
- Option values for the PDF Action field are: No PDF, PDF Only and PDF and Push.
- The Folder field contains the names of the folders (i.e. Documentation, Engineering, …..) that will be created on the fly, within the main output DESTINATION folder, into which Generated PDF files will be downloaded.
- Option values for the Folder field can be as many as required. These values denote the folder names mentioned earlier, triggering automatic folder creation upon PDF file download.
If you have questions about the DomainPX- Print2PDF tool, our existing catalog of DomainPX’s, or would like to speak with a representative about customizing your Agile functionality, call (801) 447-3777 or visit us at www.domainsi.com.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Domain Systems. The author takes full responsibility for the views expressed here.