Concepts

Tasks

Reference

Customization Glossary

This section provides definitions of words that are used in this guide. For more glossary definitions, see the Glossary topic in Help.

Term	Definition
Accessories	Accessories include labels, lines, graphics, and group boxes. Accessories are available in the APM Forms Editor and are used when formatting customized views, panel or reports.
Administrator Privilege	This privilege is used by APM administrators and personnel who need to customize the software, create custom reports, activate CMMS integration, or set up and assign security profiles. Users with this privilege can perform Customer-level customizations, create shareable table configurations, work with purging rules, and use the Security Setup mode.
Attribute	An attribute is a piece of information that resides in a class. Attributes can also be referred to as properties or data members of the class. Using attributes, you can collect a variety of information about an object. Some examples of class attributes are: • Asset Number (Asset class) • Date Completed (Work Order class) • Total Cost in Base Currency (Purchase Order class)
Banner	The banner appears in APM views above the tabs. The banner shows information about the open object, such as the object’s name, number, and status. On a Site window, the banner also displays the APM employee name with which you logged on.
Base class	The APM class on which a custom class is based. Can also refer to the relationship between APM classes in the inheritance hierarchy in the object model.
Class	Classes are the main building-blocks of the object model. A class is like a template for system objects that all have the same basic characteristics. The design of each class and how the classes relate to each other provide the basic structure of the application. All objects in APM are based on classes. Objects that behave the same way belong to the same class. For example, each asset in the system is based on the Asset class.
Degradation Minimum Value Calculation	A degradation minimum value calculation determines the smallest allowable measurement for an asset, for example, the minimum wall thickness of a tank that falls within acceptable parameters. The formulas that are used to create calculations are provided by industry standards organizations, such as API (American Petroleum Industry), BSI (British Standards Institution), and EEMUA (European Equipment and Materials Users Association).
Distributor Privilege	This privilege is used by partners and APM distributors to perform Distributor-level customizations.
End-user Privilege	This is the basic privilege for all users. Users can do everything in APM except customize the software, create custom reports, create customer-level table configurations, create purging rules, and use the Security Setup mode.
Forms Editor	The APM Forms Editor is the designer utility that is used when creating or customizing the user interface and reports. To access the Forms Editor, you must launch APM with the administrator privilege.
Join path	A “path” through the object model that gives access to an object’s attributes or relationships. Join paths may be used in report authoring, setting up security, or customization. For example, to get to the telephone number of the employee who created a work request, you may use this join path: [WorkRequest]Requestor/BusinessPhone1/TelephoneNumber.
Method	A method is any action that you can perform against an instance (object) of a particular class. For example, Change Status is a method that can be performed on asset objects.
Notebook	For some objects, additional information is pre-sented in a second set of tabs on individual pages. For example, the Details, Description, Manufacturer, Purchase, and Defaults tabs comprise a notebook in the Asset’s Properties view.
Object	An object is an individual unit of data storage; it is the basic building block of the APM system. In APM, each object is an instance of a particular class and inherits all of the properties of that class. For example, any one asset is an instance of the Asset class.
Object model	The object model is the collection of related classes that make up the APM system. This collection defines the types of business objects in the system (such as assets and work orders), the properties that each object has, and how the objects are related to each other.
ObjectQuest	The name of the system in which the APM object model is constructed.
Panel	A reusable component of the user interface comprised of two or more controls. An example of a basic panel is the work order task number field and work order task label.
Prime class	A custom class created from an APM base class. For example, if you customize the Asset class you have created an Asset “prime class”. The prime class is additive, so whatever you enter in this class will be added to all of the data included in the base class.
Primary locking object	A setting on standalone custom classes. Primary Locking Objects (PLO) are independently lockable. Only Persistent classes are eligible to be Primary Locking Objects. If a class is not primary, it is said to be secondary. The PLO designation drives object behavior in the UI: primary objects can be represented either by primary views or by dialog boxes; however, secondary objects can only be depicted in dialog boxes. Standalone custom classes should have the Primary Locking Object option enabled.
Quick search bar	Using the quick search bar, you can quickly filter a list of items based on a text string contained in one or more columns in a configuration. For example, in a list of assets you could search for the word “pump” in the Asset Name and Type columns.
Relationship	A relationship defines the way one class is linked to another class in the object model. When objects are created from classes, they relate to each other based on the relationships set up between the classes in the object model. For example, the Asset class has an “owns many” relationship to the Functional Failure class. This means that when asset objects are created, they can own one or more functional failure objects.
Splitter	Splitters are added to the user interface to allow users to quickly resize layout items by clicking the splitter and dragging it to a new position. There can be multiple splitters on a view.
Standalone class	A custom class that is not based on an APM base class (that is, created from scratch).
State	States are used to determine how attributes, relationships, and views are displayed in the user interface. For example, a custom state could be used to make an attribute read-only.
Subtype	A subtype is a set of object extensions and a view that is used to collect additional information. Subtypes are useful whenever you have different types of items within one class and you need to collect information based on the type of item. For example, you could add a subtype called “AC Motors - Synchronous” to the Asset class. The subtype would include fields that let you capture information about the size and type of motor. You would then associate the subtype with the Motor - AC asset type. Then, whenever you create a new asset of type Motor - AC, all of the fields in the subtype appear in a separate tab in the Asset window. By creating similar subtypes, you can customize APM to handle all of the data for each type of maintainable, system, and subsystem asset in your organization.
Table configuration	A table configuration controls what information is listed in a table and how it is displayed. A table configuration is a combination of columns, filtering criteria, sorting criteria, and format choices that display specific data, such as all RCM2 analyses with a status of “New”. Every table in the system includes one or more table configurations. Each configuration can display different data. You can define table configurations to show the data you want to see.
User key	A user key is a unique name or number used to identify each instance of an object class. For example, the user key for a Purchase Order might be the Purchase Order Number.
Validation	You can set rules that determine how lists are filtered and to enforce validation on attributes and relationships. For example, you could set up a validation rule to ensure that the hierarchy code for maintainable assets begins with a specific text string.
Value list	Value lists contain information that can be used by other objects in the system (such as assets or work orders). Site types and asset statuses are examples of value lists. Users can open a value list object in its own dialog to view or edit the settings. Most value lists are entered during implementation, although you can add to them at any time. Like other site settings, value lists can be accessed through the site’s Administration menu or from the Settings tab on the appropriate view.
View	A view is a screen or set of screens in the user interface. Each class usually has one or more views. View objects include class views (for example, the site’s Assets view) and dialogs (for example, the Work Management Settings dialog).