Concepts

Settings

Setting Defaults for Characteristic Mapping

The characteristics functionality makes it possible to import object attributes from an external system (CMMS) and to map the characteristic values to the properties of APM objects. AWEIS can create characteristics as needed when adding assets, work requests, work orders, and solution packages to APM. APM uses characteristic map sets to update the corresponding properties of interop assets and work documents.

Outgoing asset change requests and requests for work can include characteristic values that are sent to the CMMS. For example, when APM creates a request for work, it refers to the appropiate characteristic map set to export information from the request that can then update characteristics in the corresponding object in the CMMS.

Setting up characteristics involves:

•	At the enterprise level, setting characteristic mapping defaults to allow AWEIS to create characteristic instances and to set the date format. The values are defaulted on Characteristic Mapping dialogs, where they can be changed

•	Setting up asset characteristic mapping. See Setting up Characteristic Mapping for Assets

•	Setting up characteristic mapping for asset change requests. See Setting up Characteristic Mapping for Asset Change Requests

•	Setting up characteristic mapping for interop work documents. See Setting up Characteristic Mapping for Interop Work Documents

This topic explains how to set default options at the enterprise level: creation of instances and format for date values.

When automatic creation of characteristic instances is enabled, AWEIS creates the instance when it cannot find a matching one. On SQL Server, the search for a match does not consider case. For example, “Material” matches “material”, so another characteristic is not created. On Oracle, the search is case-sensitive.

When a date format is not selected as a default, dates are accepted in several formats, although the accuracy of .NET parsing is not guaranteed. When specifying the date format, use .NET standard or custom date formats. For example:

Format specifier	Description	Examples
“d”	Short date	2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> 6/15/2009 (en-US)
“D”	Long date	2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> Monday, June 15, 2009 (en-US)
“F”	Full date/time	2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> Monday, June 15, 2009 1:45:30 PM (en-US)

For more information, see the Microsoft articles:

•	Standard date and time format strings

•	Custom date and time format strings

To Set Default Options for Characteristic Mapping

1.	From the Site window, click on the tool bar. The Enterprise window appears.

2.	Click the Administration menu and then Application Settings. The Application Settings dialog appears.

3.	Select the Characteristics tab and then the Options tab:

4.	Select the appropriate options:

Setting Name

Description

Creation of new instances

When this option is selected for the application, the Create new instances as required option is selected by default in the Characteristic Mapping dialog when the type of target property is Relationship and the relationship is to a class owned or scoped by Enterprise or Site.

Format of date values

When a format is specified for the application, it appears as the default in the Date format option of the Characteristic Mapping dialog when the target attribute uses a date/time operator.