araslabs / mbom-export Goto Github PK

This would provide more styling/formatting options and eliminate the manual use of Microsoft Print to PDF in the browser.

Location is not a required field in MPP. Especially in companies where different production locations work with the same ProcessPlan, it´s likely that this property is empty.
The mbom-export expects this value to be set. But if no location is available, it´s a lot of clicking to close the dialog.

When an exported Excel file is opened in Excel, an error message occurs about an invalid format. This error doesn't prevent use of the project, but it isn't ideal. I think the XML content of the xls file is missing something for Excel to recognize the file as valid xls. Not 100% sure what it's missing though.

Labs: When we find this fix we should submit an Innovator bug fix, as the same error occurs when exporting anything from Aras to Excel.

Hi Eli,

this one is a real excellent project! It´s highly reusable and does many things just right! But I run into an conceptional issue. I am sorry for the following question, because it´s probably hard to answer. I acutally planned to ask about this since months, but didn´t know where to place the request.

I was forced to change the following in the code to get the project working:
labs_GetMBOMData - around line 27:

In my case, I use the item_number in the MBOM, but the Part keyed_name contains item_number and revision information. Of course using the item_number like I did above is not a solution, as the MBOM export will deliver wrong results when exporting MBOMs that use previous part revisions.
But from my POV, neither the item_number nor keyed_name are unique indentifiers. Both are not the best choice to select a destinctive part.

I noticed that Aras increasingly uses the keyed_name property as item selector instead of the id. But the increasing use of keyed_name instead of id is a real problem. I already had corrupted data caused by this one. I right now use many addtional code for handling the keyed_name on various events (copy item, version item, ...). This amount of work wasn´t necessary in the past. Previous concepts used standard ids in combination with keyed_name attribute as display value. I do not fully understand why Aras changed that proven approach.

Many of the newer Aras features solely rely on the keyed_name. This forces users to use more precise keyed_name for items. But guaranteeing uniqueness of an item is not the job of the keyed_name. Is this really how it´s intended to be?

To break down my long text to simple questions.

• How can we solve this on ein the project?
• What is Aras masterplan regarding the keyed_name?

Many thanks for the project! Sorry for this question!
Angela

Hi Eli,

on recommendation of Rolf (Laudenbach) I've installed the mbom-export solution. When trying to run the export I get the error CS0103. How can I fix this issue?
mbom_export_error_cs0103.pdf

Best regards,
Jochen

May or may not be possible. Depends on whether CUI was used to populate the toolbar.

Similar to the Elis idea to add MPP icons to the export, it would also be helpful to add thumbnail images.
If manufacturing prepares to build a product, someone have to pick the various components from the storage area. A pick list that contains images of the needed products helps to collect stuff faster.

This use case is probably better solved in an additional one level report which is mainly intended to be used as picklist. For this use case, a multilevel bom would be contraproductive.

The code that retrieves the MBOM content also gets the urls for the icons used in the grid. It would be possible to update the method and report XSLT to include the icons in the exported content.

PDF export includes the process plan number, location name, and part number used to resolve the MBOM. Not currently included in the Excel export XSLT, but likely an easy fix.

The current version uses an additional Action to trigger the MBOM Export.
But users are used to creating reports via the report menu. The action menu is inteded for other things.

Solution:
Use an additional report item to start the method to improve user experience: