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Planview Customer Success Center

Aras Innovator

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Aras Logo

 

 

Overview

Aras Innovator is a PLM tool (Product Life Cycle Management) that focuses on the life cycle of physical products, such as parts, from the introduction phase, to growth, to maturity and finally decline. Within this world, businesses need software to guide them through each phase efficiently while ensuring high quality and centralized data. Aras is able to do this while executing rapidly on an interconnected system and ensuring that information flow from product concept to retirement is integrated between multiple teams across multiple departments.

Common Integration Patterns

Demo Videos

 

Connector Setup Details

This section describes the basic steps needed to prepare your Aras instance for use with supported Planview products. Note that additional fields for synchronization or configuration of queries may be required depending on the requirements of your integration.

Minimal User Permissions & Hub User

We recommend that you create a new user within your external tool, to be used only for your Hub integration. This is the user information you will enter when setting up your repository connection within Planview Hub. By creating a new user, you will ensure that the correct permissions are granted, and allow for traceability of the modifications that are made by the synchronization. 

In general, your Hub user account should have sufficient permissions to create, read, and update artifacts in your repository. However, depending on the use case, your user may need different permissions. For example, if you are only interested in flowing data out of your repository, your user may not need to have full CRUD access, as the 'create' and 'update' permissions may not be needed.

Your user should have a secure password or token. Please be aware that Hub will not allow you to save a repository connection utilizing a weak password/token, such as 'tasktop.'

List of minimal user permissions:

  • The Hub user must have the "Get", "Update", "Delete", "Can Discover", and "Can Add" permissions for each artifact type that will be part of an integration.

Connecting to the Aras Repository

Standard Authentication

Required Fields: 

  • Location/Connection URL 
  • Username
  • Password
  • Database
    • The database named specified in InnovatorServerConfig.xml
    • Database can be found here

Optional Fields:

  • Throttling Settings: This field indicates the number of API calls that can be made per minute. See details here.
    • Note: This field should only be set under the guidance of customer care as the ideal value is highly dependent on each customer's unique environment. 
  • Connection Security: If checked, insecure connections to this repository will be allowed. See details here.

Learn more about how to set up your repository in Planview Hub here. 

Screenshot 2023-09-08 at 2.46.54 PM.png

 

Other Configuration Settings

Rich Text

Supported rich text elements are: 

  • All standard HTML elements (headings, bold, italics, underline, tables, lists, etc)

Attachments

The Aras Innovator connector identifies the attachment field of an artifact by the Relationship which has the Relationship Name <artifact type name> File and links to a File ItemType. The connector will create attachments at the default vault that is associated with the Hub user.

Note: Due to third party API limitations, the filename for attachments flowing into Aras Innovator must not contain characters greater than Unicode U+00FF.

The connector can retrieve the following metadata when flowing attachments out of Aras Innovator:

  • File Name

  • Size

  • ID

  • Date Created

  • Creator

  • Description

  • Location

The connector requires the following metadata when flowing attachments into Aras Innovator:

  • File Name

  • Size

Learn more about how to configure attachment flow in Planview Hub here.

Person Reconciliation

For person reconciliation, the following fields are available:

Fields Used for Hub’s Default Person Reconciliation Algorithm

Field Names for Person Reconciliation Extensions

(Note that these are case sensitive)

Label in Aras

ID

person-id

Item ID

This can be found by opening the user under Administration>Users and going to File>Properties>Copy ID. This will copy the user's ID (person-id) to your clipboard.

Username

person-username

Login Name

Email

person-email

Email

N/A

person-display-name

keyed_name

N/A

person-first-name

First Name

N/A

person-last-name

Last Name

Note: The User ItemType must not be versionable. Hub expects the ID of a user to remain the same when the user has been updated.

Learn more about how to configure person reconciliation in Planview Hub here.

Full Scan

In general, a full scan is not required to synchronize updates from this repository. However, it is possible that some read-only fields may require a full scan. Please consult with customer care for additional details.

Learn more about how to configure change detection and full scan intervals in Planview Hub here. 

 

Supported Features

Special Features Supported

You can learn more about special features in Planview Hub here.

Feature

Applicable Hub Version

Applicable Repository Versions

Default Maximum Size in Repository

Not_allowed.svg.png Time Worked (Worklogs)

Not_allowed.svg.png Impersonation

 

 

 

Not_allowed.svg.png Comments

Not_allowed.svg.png Impersonation

Not_allowed.svg.png Public/Private

 

 

 

checkicon.png Attachments

Not_allowed.svg.png Impersonation

Planview Hub: 19.3 and later

Any supported repository version:

2GB

Learn more about maximum attachment size here.

checkicon.png State Transitions

Planview Hub: 21.1 and later

Any supported repository version:

N/A

 

Supported Artifacts

Supported Work Items

Learn about the difference between containers and work items in Planview Hub here. 

Supported Work Item Type

Applicable Hub Versions

Applicable Repository Versions

Unique URL?

PRs (Problem Reports)

Planview Hub: 19.3 and later

Any supported repository version:

Yes

ECRs (Engineering Change Reports)

Planview Hub: 19.3 and later

Any supported repository version:

Yes

Parts

Planview Hub: 19.3 and later

Any supported repository version:

Yes

Simple ECOs (Engineering Change Orders)

Planview Hub: 20.4 and later

Any supported repository version:

Yes

Express ECOs (Engineering Change Orders)

Planview Hub: 20.4 and later

Any supported repository version:

Yes

Express EDRs (Engineering Document Reviews)

Planview Hub: 20.4 and later

11.0SP15+

(with add-on Product Engineering 11R4+ installed)

Yes

Affected Item

Planview Hub: 20.4 and later

Any supported repository version:

Yes

Supported Containers

Learn more about containment in Planview Hub here. 

Containers that can synchronize between repositories

Applicable Hub Versions

Applicable Repository Versions

Unique URL?

N/A

 

 

 

Containers used to define the boundary of a collection

(when clicking 'Manage Projects' on a collection)

 

 

 

N/A (entire repository is used)

Planview Hub: 19.3 and later

Any supported repository version:

N/A

Containers used for artifact routing

 

 

 

N/A (entire repository is used)

Planview Hub: 19.3 and later

Any supported repository version:

N/A

 

 

Supported Field Types

Note: If one field of a given type is supported, others that are also that type in theory should also work. However, sometimes there are instances in which this is not the case due to the repository. So, while we can claim support for fields at the type level, there is a chance that some specific fields of a given type will not synchronize properly.

Field Type

Does Hub support custom fields of this type?

How is field type referenced in the repository?

Sample Repository Fields Supported

Limitations

checkicon.png String

checkicon.png

String, Multilingual String, Foreign, Sequence, Text

ID, Title, Name, Revision

 

checkicon.png Single-select

checkicon.png

List, Filter List

Unit, Cost Basis, Priority, Severity, Change Type

 

checkicon.png Multi-select

checkicon.png

Multi Value List

 

 

checkicon.png Boolean

checkicon.png

Boolean

Changes, Released, Fast Track

 

checkicon.png Date

checkicon.png

Data Type: Date
Pattern: long_date, short_date,<empty pattern>

Release Date (ECR) 

 

checkicon.png Date Time

checkicon.png

Data Type: Date
Pattern: long_date_time, short_date_time

Release Date (Part), Effective Date, Superseded Date

 

Not_allowed.svg.png Duration

Not_allowed.svg.png

 

 

 

checkicon.png Double

checkicon.png

Float, Decimal

Cost, Weight, Recurring Cost, Nonrecurring Cost

 

checkicon.png Long

checkicon.png

Integer

Generation

 

checkicon.png Person

checkicon.png

Data Type: Item
Data Source: User

modified_by_id, created_by_id

  • The User ItemType must not be versionable. Hub expects the ID of a user to remain the same when the user has been updated.

checkicon.png Persons

checkicon.png

RelationshipTypes with Name "User"

 

  • The User ItemType must not be versionable. Hub expects the ID of a user to remain the same when the user has been updated.

checkicon.png Relationship(s)

Learn how to configure relationships in Planview Hub here.

checkicon.png

Data Type: Item
Data Source: PR, ECR, or Part, Simple ECO, Express ECO, Express EDR

RelationshipTypes with Name "PR", "ECR", "Part", "Simple ECO", "Express ECO", "Express EDR"

Part Alternate, Part BOM, PRs

 

checkicon.png Rich Text

checkicon.png

Formatted Text

 

 

checkicon.png Location

Not_allowed.svg.png

 

Read-only artifact location only

  • If an artifact type represents a versionable ItemType, the artifact location will link to the version of the artifact at the time that the artifact was last updated by Hub. It is possible that this location will not be the most recent revision if a user has manually updated the artifact after its last synchronization.

Not_allowed.svg.png Web Links

Not_allowed.svg.png

 

 

 

 

Functional Limitations

Category

Limitation

Applicable Planview Versions

Applicable Repository Versions

Third Party API Limitation

Parent Links

The Aras connector does not return the Parent ECO link for Express EDRs.

Planview Hub: 20.4 and later

Any supported repository version:

Third Party API Limitation

Affected Items

The Aras connector offers limited support for creating and updating Affected Item artifacts. Affected Items artifacts are only supported in read-only form.

Planview Hub: 20.4 and later

Any supported repository version:

Configuration Requirement

State Transitions

For state transitions to function properly, the Parent ECO field is sometimes considered a required field on Express EDR artifacts.

As the connector cannot add or update the Parent ECO field on the Express EDR artifact, you should ensure that your EDRs were created with a Parent ECO field already added.

Planview Hub: 20.4 and later

Any supported repository version:

Good to Know

State Transitions

Parent validation of EDRs on state transitions can be disabled in Aras if desired.

Planview Hub: 20.4 and later

Any supported repository version:

Good to Know

Express ECOs

Express ECOs can be updated to add or remove child EDRs.

Planview Hub: 20.4 and later

Any supported repository version:

Configuration Requirement

State Transitions

For state transitions to function properly, the Affected Item field is sometimes considered a required field on ECO and EDR artifacts.

As the connector cannot update the Affected Items field on the ECO and EDR artifact types, you should ensure that the Affected Items field is populated before executing state transitions.

Planview Hub: 20.4 and later

Any supported repository version:

Good to Know

Affected Items

Validation of Affected Items on state transitions can be disabled in Aras if desired.

Planview Hub: 20.4 and later

Any supported repository version:

Configuration Requirement

Simple ECOs

In default configurations, Simple ECO artifacts may require the 'owned_by_id' field to be set.

As this is an unsupported field type, you will need to ensure that the owned_by_id is optional or has a default value set before synchronizing Simple ECO artifacts.

Planview Hub: 20.4 and later

Any supported repository version: