About User-Defined Completion

The PPR User Defined Completion command enables you to complete a PPR structure using custom scenarios and criteria.

Tip: The capabilities described below are also available through the Insert with user defined context option when you drag references from the Bookmark view to the Spreadsheet view.

This page discusses:

Principle of Use

You can execute User-Defined Completion on any type of PPR content: products (EBOM), manufactured items (MBOM), systems, operations, and resources.

User-Defined Completion automatically retrieves related objects according to the selected scenario. A scenario consists of:

  • A scenario title
  • A scenario decription
  • A sequence of steps, each consisting of:
    • A step title
    • A step description
    • A step ID, which must be unique and is used to plug the output of a step as input of the next step.
    • A step type, which is the type of completion to execute.

Sample scenarios are available in the User Defined Completion dialog box. Using XML files, you can create your own scenarios and make them available in the dialog box. For more information, see Customization below.

Customization

You can create custom User-Defined Completion scenarios using XML files, which must comply with the XSD file.

You need to create one XML file per custom scenario. XML files must be saved in ..\resources\xml\DNBPPRUserDefinedCompletion, which also contains the XML files of the sample procedures.

The XSD file is available in ..\resources\xsd.

If an XML file is not compliant with the XSD file, it cannot be selected in the User-Defined Completion dialog box. To make sure an XML file matches the XSD criteria, the XML file must begin with the following information, where ../../xsd/DNBPPRNavcompletion.xsd is the relative path of the XSD file with respect to the XML file directory:

<PPRNavUserCompletion xmlns="DS_DNBPPRNavCompletion" 
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
xsi:schemaLocation="DS_DNBPPRNavCompletion
../../xsd/DNBPPRNavCompletion.xsd"

The XML file contains the scenario steps you define using blocks. There is one XML file for each scenario. For more information, see Blocks and Options of the xsd/xml Files.

Tip: Each time you execute a User-Defined Completion, a log file is generated in the directory specified in the Cache location option in Me > Preferences> General > Cache. This file contains any issue encountered during the completion, such as empty Input Data, errors during link completion, open, and so on.

Blocks and Options of the xsd/xml Files

The blocks of the User-Defined Completion file allow a large number of user-defined scenarios.

Typical scenarios can be described by defining a sequence of steps, ending with either an Explore step or an Open step, depending on session preparation complexity. For example:

  • Manufacturing item-product completion: retrieve all implemented products.
  • Fastener completion: retrieve all the fasteners that fasten the retrieved products.
  • Fastener completion: retrieve all the products fastened by the retrieved fasteners.
  • Product-Manufacturing item completion: retrieve all the manufacturing items that implement the retrieved fasteners and fastened products.
  • Explore within the context of the explored root manufacturing item.

For more information on available block types, see Blocks for Custom User-Defined Completions.

Notes:
  • A completion defined in an xml file must end with at least one Explore or Open step. Otherwise, all the objects retrieved in other completion steps are not added in the session. If the User-Defined Completion is launched from search results, when an Explore step is performed, a tab is automatically opened showing the input objects of the step.
  • The Remove block allows objects to be removed either from the visible objects in the tab, or from the output set of objects resulting from a previous completion step.
  • In general, the completion facilities available for product objects are also available for EBOM objects.