Using the Import Tool on Released and Managed Items

[Anonymous]

I'm having trouble using the Import Tool to change fields of revision-controlled items.  Any changes I was trying to upload would only be applied to the working version of the item, not the latest revision.  I think I may have just found my answer in the "Validation of Item Revisioning Data" document, but I'm unclear on where to find the last two of these "affected item revisioning properties":

• Lifecycle State
• Revision Number
• Release Date

What is Revision Number?  Is that the Release Letter, or if not available the Version Number?

Where do I find the Release Date?

It seems I have to match exactly on all three of these for changes to be applied, so I guess I have to export them first in a report.

Also, will this allow me to make changes to items under CM?  I was getting  an error for any items currently being managed by a revisioning workspace.  Even with ignore validations turned on and the override permissions assigned to me I couldn't make changes to these items and had to delete the rows before the import could proceed.

Thanks for the help.

[bastien.mazeran]

Hi J.,

In order to be able to import into released items, you will need to have the special permission override revision control locks. Please create a separate role for this, so that you can fully control who has access to it. As for determining the released date and revision number, the easiest is to rely on exports. Another rule to be aware of is that once you have mapped one of the lifecycle properties in your import, then it is mandatory to have 'Released Date', 'Lifecycle State' and 'Revision Number' mapped with it.

I hope you will find this useful.

Regards,

[Anonymous]

By "exports" you mean a report? I'm in the Create Report screen now and I don't see any fields called "Revision Number" or "Released Date"?

[bastien.mazeran]

I meant the BOM export function found in the BOM tab of any top-level item. The online help has more information here.

Regards,

[Anonymous]

Okay, thanks, I see how that would work. Unfortunately I'm looking for a solution to do a mass change to multiple items and it looks like the BOM export would only get me the revision information one item at a time. I think I can cobble together the three required fields from the release/version/lifecycle state information that's available via reports.

I'll keep trying. Documentation (and naming conventions) could definitely be more clear on this subject. It seems such a basic detail of any PLM system but it's really confusing how the terms revision, version, and release are mixed about and not all available in all views/reports/exports.

Thanks again for the help.

[bastien.mazeran]

Hi J.

If you are not looking at changing any BOM data (i.e. only mass changing Item Details properties), then you could easily rely on a new workspace report and use the report output to re-import data using the Item Details import style.

Regards,

[bastien.mazeran]

I have also reported the issue with naming conventions for fields found in reports and BOM exports.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Regards,