MaxTECH Technical Training - Building a Query Management Application in Maximo

MaxTECH Technical Training
Build a Custom Application to Manage all Queries
Stephen Hume – Senior Maximo Consultant

Agenda
• Introductions 9:00am – 9:15am
• Course Objective 9:15am – 9:30am
• Application Designer
• Database Configuration – Relationships
• Security Administration
• Automation Scripting
• Naming Standards
• Documenting Implementation Steps while you go
• Creating The New Application 9:30am – 10:00am
• Adding data from related tables to the application 10:00am – 10:15am
• Additional configuration of the application 10:15am – 10:30am
• Break 10:30am – 10:45am
• Creating the Automation Script linked to an Action 10:45am – 11:00am
• Adding the Button to Trigger the Automation Script 11:00am – 11:15am
• Testing the Application 11:15am – 11:30am
• Review of the Technical Learnings 11:30am – 11:45am
• Questions, Answers, Plan for next Meeting 11:45am – 12:00Noon
BPD Zenith UK | Canada | USA | Australia | New Zealand 2

Overview
The purpose of this new application is an administrative tool to allow an admin user the ability to modify queries
which have been created by any users in Maximo. The admin user will be able to set a user query as public or
private, modify the SQL, and change the Query Description. The admin user will NOT be able to delete any queries
created by another user using this application. (The MBO rules are still enforced).
This application is very useful for managing all queries in all applications in Maximo. It allows the admin user to see
where queries have been used on start centers. It allows the admin user to see all queries created by users that
may no longer be active in Maximo.
One use case for this tool is that when a user has left the company, the admin user can grant that user access to the
query management application, reset the users password, log in as that user, go to the query management application
and then delete that users queries one at a time. This allows the admin user the ability to keep on top of user queries.
Much of what this application makes possible used to need to be done using back end database updates for query
management.

Creating the New Application
Information you need before you create the application:
- Name and Description of the new application
- Module where the new application is going to reside
BPD_QUERY
Query Manager
QUERY
QUERYID
SETUP
When adding this application into other environments
you can use migration manager to move all changes, or you
can replicate the steps manually.

Adding New Column to List Tab
Need to add the PUBLIC flag to the list tab to allow you to filter for public and private queries.
Click and Drag a Table Column to the last place on the Right
Right Click on that field and select properties
Attribute = ISPUBLIC

Adding Data from Related Tables to the Application
• Adding the Person’s Status and Name
• Creating the Relationship to the Person Table * this only needs to be done once for the entire group
NOTE: There is already a relationship on the Query table called MAXUSER which incorrectly links the
Query to the Person table. So a new relationship is created which properly links the owner of the Query to
the Person Table.
• Adding the related attributes to the List Tab and the Details Tab
Adding Status – Attribute is BPD_OWNER.STATUS
Adding Person’s Name – Attribute is BPD_OWNER.PERSON.DISPLAYNAME
• Making those attributes read only
On the details tab, those fields need to be made read only to ensure that users cannot change status or
Name of the person.

• Adding a table showing which Start Centers are Using the Query
• Create the relationship to the SCTEMPLATE table * this only needs to be done once for the entire group
NOTE: This relationship only needs to be created once for this class. It can be used by all students.
• Adding the table to the applications details tab
Click and drag a new section onto the application details tab at the bottom
Then click and drag a table into that section. Right click on the table and select properties
NOTE: The clause above has been tested and works with the training database (which is DB2).
It may need to be modified if your database is SQL Server.

Properties of the table – Relationship = SCTEMPLATE – datasource ID and Control ID will be different for
each student
Make the input
mode for the table =
readonly so that the data
cannot be updated by
the user.

Add two table columns to the table here are the properties for each column

Testing the Application
• Save your changes then OPEN the application under the Administration Module
Hit ENTER on the list tab to get a listing
of all queries in the system.
Then click on the first QUERYID to open
that Query.

Testing the Application
Scroll through the Queries by hitting the Next
Record Icon
When you get to the Open Service Requests
you should see that there is an entry in the Start Centers
table, telling you that this query has been used on a
Start Center.

Further Refining the Application Design
When an application is created, Maximo by default creates certain signature options, select action entries
and Tool Bar Items, also by default it gives access to those options to the MAXADMIN security group.
• Removing, hiding, renaming signature options
• Removing Select Action Items
Uncheck the Visible Flag on the following Options
DUPLICATE
INSERT
Modify the description of the following Options
DELETE – Change to Delete Record*
NEXT – Change to Next Record
PREVIOUS – Change to Previous Record
SAVE – Change to Save Changes
Uncheck the Visible Flag for
DUPLICATE

When an application is created, Maximo by default creates certain signature options, select action entries
and Tool Bar Items, also by default it gives access to those options to the MAXADMIN security group.
• Removing toolbar options
Uncheck the Visible Flag on the following Options
INSERT

• Improving the Default Layout
• Increasing Column Width on the List Tab
In order to modify the width of a column on the list tab, you need to save your changes
then export the XML using the Export ICON
This will open the xml in a new tab of the browser, you need to save a copy of the XML onto your
computer, then edit the xml with a text editor.

• Improving the Default Layout
• Add width=“n” to the end of the table column where you want to force a new width.
• NOTE: do no use 10 as the width – is it too narrow… use 100 instead
• Then save your changes to the XML file, and Import the XML back into Application Designer using the
IMPORT Icon.
In the example above I used the number 10, this represents 10 pixels in width, you can adjust this number up and
down until you get the desired width. Each time you change the XML using a text editor you will need to Import it
into the application designer. As it turns out 10 was too narrow, we set it to 100 for the display name which was
better suited.

• Other Design Options
• Adding Colours or Not
If you wanted to add some conditional formatting to your new application you could do the following
- Highlight the Status field in RED if the user is INACTIVE
- Highlight the Public field in GREEN if it is a PUBLIC query
Both of these options would require you to create conditional expressions and then apply a signature
option to the fields you want to highlight.
If time permits, this can be demonstrated in the class.
• Compacting the Design to Minimize Scrolling
When a power application is created by Maximo the default is to add all fields to the detail tab, and
make it so the user will need to do vertical scrolling to see the entire record.
This can be modified by adding sections, section columns and moving fields into the different columns
using Cut and Paste. If there is enough time in the course this will be demonstrated.
• One of the fields the (CLAUSE) field needs to be converted to a Multiline text box.
This is done by adding the multiline box, defining the number of lines (5)
and pointing to the CLAUSE attribute, don’t forget to delete the original CLAUSE
field which was created by the system.

• Granting Access to the Application
By default, when the new power application was created access was given to the MAXADMIN security
group. If when the application is actually ready access will be given to another security group, you need
to grant access using the Security Group application. You can for example give users “read only” access
to this application, and also ensure that those users do not have the access to open up the record for editing.
• Adding Reports to the Application (Not in scope for this course)
There are no reports for this new application. You could create some useful reports. A Query Listing Report, A
Query Detail Report. Queries for Inactive Users, Public Queries Not on any Start Centers, etc.
These reports can be created using ECLIPSE – BIRT and then added into Maximo using the report
administration tool.
It is also possible to allow users to create their own reports using QBR for this application, saving those reports
and making them available to all users.

The need for the Automation Script in this Application
The problem here is that out of the box the QUERY can never be updated by anyone except the person that
created the Query. You could change the “creator” of the query in the backend database, but this would
make the Query fail on any Start Centers where it might be used.
NOTE: The first time we created an automation script for the Query Management application, it was created as an
object level automation script. It was design to run automatically so that Queries were always editable by the
Admin User.
When we upgraded to 7.6 it was noted that start centers were not loading properly when users logged in, we
traced this back to the automation script which was looping through every query and trying to override read-only
features. We then converted the automation script to only fire when a pushbutton is pushed, making much less
intrusive to the system. Lesson learned from this – Automation Scripts need to be used with care as they can truly
cause system performance issues, and in the least expected way.

Creation of the Script
Go to the Automation Scripts Application and in the left hand menu click Create – Script with Action Launch
Point.
Give the Launch Point a Unique Name
It will be copied to the Action Field
You can use the same description for
the launch point and action
The OBJECT for this script is QUERY

Then add five variables:
CLAUSENAME
DESCRIPTION
ISPUBLIC
OWNER
CLAUSE
And for each one click Suppress Validation
Suppress Access Control and Suppress Action
Then click NEXT
Create the script name (Make it the same as the launchpoint name)

Then input the Source Code for the Script and then click the CREATE button
At this time the ACTION will be created by the system.

Adding a button to the Application to Trigger Script
Open the application you created in application designer, then create a new
signature option (same name as the action you created)
Be sure to check the action option for the Signature option or it will not do anything when you
click on the button in the application.

Adding a button to the Application to Trigger Script
Drag a Pushbutton Object onto the body of that tab
Then edit the pushbutton properties
Label: Edit this Query
Event: the name of the action you created
Click SAVE – you then need to go to the Security Groups Application
and give access to MAXADMIN Group to the new Security Option.

Granting Security Access to the Button
Go to security groups application filter to the MAXADMIN group
On the applications tab filter to your Query Management Application
Then in the signature options make sure the option you create is checked
Save your changes, log out of Maximo, Log back in and then go to your Query Management
application to test the pushbutton.

Testing your Application
Go to the Query Management Application you created and test the full application,
Record to record navigation, the unlocking button, displays of person name, status, width
of columns.
You can make adjustments to your design using the application designer, move fields around,
Re-position the pushbutton, adjust field widths, etc.
Once you are happy with the application it would be ready to move to your QA (pre-production environment).

Review of Learnings
You have learned the following skills through this training class.
1. How to create a new custom application against an existing Maximo Object
2. How to create relationships and use those relationships to display data from related tables
3. How to create a table of related data in an application.
4. How to remove or hide signature options
5. How to add new signature options
6. How to create an action triggered automation script
7. How to add a pushbutton to an application to trigger an action
8. How to give access to the pushbutton through security
Other ideas for administrative tools in Maximo.
Add a table to the person application to show which person groups that person belongs to
Add a table to the person application to show which security groups a person belongs to

Thank You
Stephen Hume
Senior Maximo Consultant
BPD Zenith
stephen.hume@bpdzenith.com
About the Instructor:
Stephen has been working with Maximo for over ten years in a variety of industries (Oil and Gas, Utilities)
He has taught Maximo courses to end users for both Technical and Functional audiences. He created an 8 week
Maximo University course which has been used to teach Maximo Support to new team members.
As a recent member of the Canadian Maximo User Group Steering Committee Stephen is very active in the
Maximo community, preparing and delivery presentations at Maximo User Group meetings and IBM Conferences
throughout North America

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