I am blogging again on automation scripts to share my learning with the readers and the contents used in this blog are examples only. Hope this blog helps someone and suggestions/comments are always welcome. In Maximo 7.6, we have different launch points Object, Attribute and Action to associate to the automation scripts. We already know when to use what. Still, I want to emphasize a few points.
We have seen in object level java classes order of execution of the methods. The initValue() method is the first method executed after the constructor and is used to initialize attributes on new records and to set default values. The init() method is called after initValue() to set the related attributes as read-only and save() method is executed at the end. Now, coming back to automation scripts, for object launch points we have the events as shown in the image below:
I have a requirement to set the Internal checkbox on PO record creation if the logged in user belongs to some security group X and user should not be able to edit this value. I can use an object launch point on object PO with Object Event Condition as ":&USERNAME& in (select userid from groupuser where groupname='X')" and event as "Initialize Value" and in the script source code I can simply use the below lines:
Let us consider another example where we want to populate the values of PO.SHIPTO and PO.SHIPTOATTN fields based on the PO.PURCHASEAGENT and its related person record. We can use an automation script with object launch point on object PO and event would be Save. On add or update of a PO record, this will be triggered on save. Please see the below images for this example.
Please note that PURCHASEAGENTPSNREC is a relationship name from parent PO object to child PERSON object with where clause "personid=:purchaseagent". Also, please note that while setting the values I have not used any Mbo Constant. I will come back to this later.
Let us now consider field level java classes. The field validation or action gets invoked when tabbing out of a field, or when a field is being set from the back end. The typical order of execution of methods in a field level class is: initValue(), init(), validate(), action(), hasList(), getList(). The initValue() method is used for initializing fields for new records, init() method sets read-only fields, validate() method can be used to verify whether the new value for the attribute is valid, and action() method can be customized to contain the business logic or update any other object or attribute. Similar thing we can keep in mind while using Attribute launch points. Please see the below image.
We can use Initialize Value event for an Attribute launch point to achieve same result as we use initValue() method in a field level java class, Initialize Access Restriction event can be used on the same lines as init() method, Validate event for validate() method, Run action event for action() method, and Retrieve List event will work in similar lines as getList() method. It is easy to correlate the order of execution of these events with the methods of field level java customization. For example, when we add a new line record in PO Lines tab and select an item, we need to make fields X and Y read only, copy a few fields from related item master record if it is a KIT item. We have to do all this when we enter or select the value in ITEMNUM field. We wrote the logic to make fields X and Y read-only in an automation script with Attribute launch point on POLINE.ITEMNUM attribute using event Run Action and used another automation script to copy the values from related item master record to POLINE fields with Attribute launch point on POLINE.ITEMNUM attribute using Validate event.
Let me come back to MboConstants and draw your attention towards an error we got while we were changing the capitalized status of an item in Item Master application. We got an error as Inventory Object is read-only. When one item is changed to capitalized status, it tries to update all the related inventory records and save on INVENTORY object is called which in turn calls save method on child objects, INVBALANCES, INVCOST, etc. We have configured some access restriction in the fields of INVENTORY object and one automation script was running to set a few fields of INVENTORY record. This automation script was written on Object launch point with Save event. To resolve this we had to use MboConstants.NOACCESSCHECK in the setValue method used in that script. This was to make sure that those fields can be overwritten without having to rely on whether the fields are accessible on Mbo level.
Similar to the above example, we had not used any Mbo Constant in the setValue methods in our object launch point script with Save event. In this case, however, it is not going to loop through an array of records. It is setting the values of the same PO record on which purchaseagent field is not null. So, even if we do not use MboConstants.NOACCESSCHECK with the setValue method it is not going to throw any error in Purchase Order application. It is recommended to use with the setValue method so as to ensure that the PO record is accessible at any point of time when save on PO object is called from another application or external event. So, the modified script should be as below:
And, it is also a good practice to close a MboSet if it is not to be used anymore.
You can refer the following sites if you want to know about what Maximo constants we need to use while setting values of attributes.
Using field flags to set attribute content
Flags for setValue methods
Mbo Constants in Maximo
We have seen in object level java classes order of execution of the methods. The initValue() method is the first method executed after the constructor and is used to initialize attributes on new records and to set default values. The init() method is called after initValue() to set the related attributes as read-only and save() method is executed at the end. Now, coming back to automation scripts, for object launch points we have the events as shown in the image below:
I have a requirement to set the Internal checkbox on PO record creation if the logged in user belongs to some security group X and user should not be able to edit this value. I can use an object launch point on object PO with Object Event Condition as ":&USERNAME& in (select userid from groupuser where groupname='X')" and event as "Initialize Value" and in the script source code I can simply use the below lines:
Let us consider another example where we want to populate the values of PO.SHIPTO and PO.SHIPTOATTN fields based on the PO.PURCHASEAGENT and its related person record. We can use an automation script with object launch point on object PO and event would be Save. On add or update of a PO record, this will be triggered on save. Please see the below images for this example.
Let us now consider field level java classes. The field validation or action gets invoked when tabbing out of a field, or when a field is being set from the back end. The typical order of execution of methods in a field level class is: initValue(), init(), validate(), action(), hasList(), getList(). The initValue() method is used for initializing fields for new records, init() method sets read-only fields, validate() method can be used to verify whether the new value for the attribute is valid, and action() method can be customized to contain the business logic or update any other object or attribute. Similar thing we can keep in mind while using Attribute launch points. Please see the below image.
Let me come back to MboConstants and draw your attention towards an error we got while we were changing the capitalized status of an item in Item Master application. We got an error as Inventory Object is read-only. When one item is changed to capitalized status, it tries to update all the related inventory records and save on INVENTORY object is called which in turn calls save method on child objects, INVBALANCES, INVCOST, etc. We have configured some access restriction in the fields of INVENTORY object and one automation script was running to set a few fields of INVENTORY record. This automation script was written on Object launch point with Save event. To resolve this we had to use MboConstants.NOACCESSCHECK in the setValue method used in that script. This was to make sure that those fields can be overwritten without having to rely on whether the fields are accessible on Mbo level.
Similar to the above example, we had not used any Mbo Constant in the setValue methods in our object launch point script with Save event. In this case, however, it is not going to loop through an array of records. It is setting the values of the same PO record on which purchaseagent field is not null. So, even if we do not use MboConstants.NOACCESSCHECK with the setValue method it is not going to throw any error in Purchase Order application. It is recommended to use with the setValue method so as to ensure that the PO record is accessible at any point of time when save on PO object is called from another application or external event. So, the modified script should be as below:
You can refer the following sites if you want to know about what Maximo constants we need to use while setting values of attributes.
Using field flags to set attribute content
Flags for setValue methods
Mbo Constants in Maximo
