Blog
Search for specific workflow actions
Sometime you have a complex workflow with many nodes. In these situations is not always easy to troubleshoot an issue or to modify the workflow for a changing business need. For example we may have several nodes in the workflow setting the work order status to CANC. We know that we use the WO CANC action in many places in the workflow but we want to be sure to update all the references to this action.
October 8, 2019
Understanding People, User, Labor, Craft, etc.
Maximo has several interrelated objects People, Person Group, Users, Labor, Craft, Qualifications, etc. Sometimes is difficult to understand the real differences between them. In this post I will provide a quick overview of these concepts. For more details you can refer to this excellent Maximo Secrets application Map. People A person record contains basic information about an individual: name, address, email, phone, and other generic information. Persons are tied to Calendar and can have planned absences.
October 6, 2019
Implement a Refresh List button
We all know IBM Maximo is not a monitoring console and has no auto-refresh feature in the start center or in the applications. However, in some situations, we may need a Refresh button to reload the content of a table in a Maximo application. In this example I have added a button to refresh the Asset History tab in the Locations application. This little customization does not require Java or automation scripts. It is just the button definition in the application with a small trick.
October 5, 2019
Personal email signature in Communication Template
A very useful feature of Maximo is the ability to send emails to recipients from many applications like Work Order Tracking or Service Requests. The Create Communication action can be used to fill the email data (To, CC, BCC, Subject, Message , attachments). In this context it is very useful to have define Communication Templates that will automatically fill out the elements of the email. A common requirement is to automatically add a personal signature to the bottom of the mail so that people receiving the email can clearly understand who is sending the email.
October 1, 2019
Lookup not working in Advanced Search dialog
Today I faced an interesting problem. My customer asked to be able to search work orders with specific values in one of the custom fields I have added few weeks ago to the Work Order Tracking application. Easy I said. I know I just need to add that custom fields in the ‘searchmore’ dialog of the WOTRACK application. However, when I added the new custom field to the Advanced Search dialog the lookup was displaying an empty list.
September 25, 2019
How to correctly define a Table Domain
Have you ever wondered what’s the difference between ‘Validation Where Clause’ and ‘List Where Clause’ in the Maximo Table Domain definition dialog? I believe this is one of the most common misused features in Maximo. I have see so many times tables domains defined in the wrong way. Let me show a good example of a built-in table domain. The ACTIVEUSER domain is used to allow the selection of an active user in the Cron Tasks application. Here are the domain details.
September 3, 2019
Script to run report and save as attachment
One of my customers asked me to take a kind of snapshot of work orders at a specific point of the workflow to keep track of special approvals and exact situation of the approved record. I decided to implement such requirement through the implementation of an automation script to generate a BIRT report automatically and attach it the work order. I my scenario I have triggered it from the workflow but it can be also triggered from an escalation.
September 2, 2019
Maximo escalations demystified (3/3) Monitoring execution
In the two previous posts (first, second) about escalations we have seen what are escalations and how to tune them. In this post will give you some hints bout how to monitor escalation execution. We know that escalations are background tasks to execute actions on a specific set of records. Some of these actions may be crucial for maintenance operations so it is very important to monitor the execution of such background tasks and alert the Maximo system administrator in case of failures.
August 30, 2019
Maximo escalations demystified (2/3) Performances and the 'repeat' option
In our first Maximo escalations demystified post I have described the general functionality of Escalations. We will now dig into some details that will help you using this powerful feature at its best. The Repeat flag When defining an escalation you always have to create an escalation point and then you can assign actions and communications to run. The ‘repeat flag’ have a somewhat strange meaning that is described in the official documentation in this way:
August 27, 2019
Handling a Custom Dialog using Automation Scripts
Automation scripts are undoubtedly a powerful feature but we all know there are some limitations. For example automation scripts cannot be used to handle user input in a custom dialog box. This is because the scripting engine runs in the businessobjects layer which is below the maximouiweb layer that can handle DataBeans and user interface events. However, leveraging the standard Maximo event, it is possible to circumvent this limitation. In this post I will explain how to display a custom dialog in the Work Order Tracking application to ask for user input and launch a script to take an action when the user press the OK button.
August 25, 2019