GIS Integration

IFS Application’s GIS Map enables easy access to business information in a map. Business objects in IFS Applications such as equipment objects, work orders and linear assets could be presented as graphical items (points, lines and polygons) on a map. For example, connect a business object of type linear asset to a pipeline in the map. Click on the pipeline and it shows business information from IFS and it enables business actions like create a fault report or navigate to its main window. One IFS business object could be connected to one or many geographical features on the map.

An established connection between a graphical item and a business object enables the following:

Perform business actions in GIS Map, like create incident reports e.g. fault reports or navigate to its main window.
Find business objects locations by navigating from business object's main window to GIS Map.
Read business information in GIS Map by using tooltip or object information dialog.
Search on business objects in IFS windows and navigate with them to GIS Map.
Search using business object key information in GIS Map.
Search by using GIS attributes and navigate with the result to into IFS.
Search on GIS objects by using proximity and navigate to IFS.
Manually select GIS objects and navigate to IFS.

Examples of some GIS related operations (tools) in GIS Map:

Monitor GIS attributes by using attribute table or attribute inspector dialog.
Edit GIS attributes.
Add, Move and Delete graphical items.
Measure distances or get coordinate information.
Search on locations, like coordinates, postal codes, street, city, country names etc.

Possible business related actions and business information shown are controlled by basic data configuration in IFS Applications. The graphical information shown in the map is controlled by ArcGIS system.

ArcGIS system is a proprietary commercial software developed by Esri and it provides an infrastructure for making geographic information available throughout a business organization, across a community, or openly on the Web.

Some general definitions in this document:

Graphical items on the map (geodata) are in this document referred to as GIS objects.
All graphical information belongs to a layer and is here referred to as GIS layer.
Equipment Objects, Work Orders, Linear Assets and Customers etc. in IFS Applications are referred to as IFS business objects.
IFS Applications GIS Map window is technically a web application and embedded inside in IFS Application form, here on called GIS Map.

Enable business objects to be used in GIS Map

One business object in IFS is represented by one or many logical units (LU) in the database and it should be decided what business objects – what LUs to be used in GIS Map. For example, should it be possible to work with GIS Map from a maintenance & service perspective, from a linear assets perspective or both? This is decided by the customer with advice from a system administrator or expert on IFS Applications. Once decided, LUs that represent the business objects should then be enabled, by configuration in GIS Integration. This is done in IFS Solution Manager/Object Connections window by entering the value GisintConnections in field for Service List.

Note! Also consider business security when enabling a logical unit for GIS integration in Object Connections window. A recommendation is to only select user interface views (UIV) for the logical unit because they are filtered to only show business information as made available for the user, according to business rules. The user will not be able to see business information where business rules is not made available for him/her. For example, it will not be possible to see business object information in GIS Map in site A if that site isn't added to the user. User interface views can often recognized by it's name because it often contains the text UIV; LINAST_LINEAR_ASSET_UIV, CMPUNT_COMPATIBLE_UNIT_UIV, EQUIPMENT_FUNCTIONAL_UIV, ACTIVE_SEPARATE_UIV etc. There could also be situations where business security is implemented for a database view but where the view name doesn't contain the text UIV.

Layer groups and user

A group of layers could be connected to one or many users. This enables different roles in an organization to see different kind of information in GIS Map, for example service technicians to see a sub-set of geographical information and planners, engineers etc. other types of geographical information. It’s also possible to give some users the possibility to edit connections (connect & disconnect), by using editable layers, while other users only can see geographical- and business information, using a read-only layer. Users could also be defined with different background maps (basemaps). The customer could give information about roles & users in the organization, while IFS system administrator could create the wanted configuration.

Connect Objects in GIS Map

Connections between GIS objects and IFS business objects are created in GIS Map, simply by clicking on a GIS objects and by providing an IFS business object ID. It’s possible to connect the same IFS business object to many GIS objects.

Enable navigation from windows in IFS to GIS Map

It’s possibility to search on a few business objects in IFS, right-mouse click and select a right-mouse option which navigates and shows them in GIS Map. IFS business objects must in this case have a connection to GIS object and the user must have access to GIS object from the layer mapping configuration. IFS custom menus are used in order to add the right-mouse option and this could be done by an IFS system administrator. The following are some examples:

Common for all custom menus are:

Menu Text= View in Map
Destination Window= frmGisMapClient
Action= Create Window with Transfer
Presentation Object= frmGisMapClient

Description	Logical Unit	Window	Source Key Name	Destination Key Name
Fault Report	ActiveSeparate	frmWorkOrderPrepareTab	WO_NO	WO_NO
Fault Reports	ActiveSeparate	tbwWorkOrder	WO_NO	WO_NO
Case	CcCase	frmCaseHeader	CASE_ID	CASE_ID
Cases	CcCase	tbwOverviewCases	CASE_ID	CASE_ID
Functional Object	EquipmentFunctional	frmFunctionalObject	CONTRACT	CONTRACT
			MCH_CODE	MCH_CODE
Functional Objects	EquipmentFunctional	tbwFunctionalObject	CONTRACT	CONTRACT
			MCH_CODE	MCH_CODE
Linear Asset	LinastLinearAsset	frmLinastLinearAsset	LINEAR_ASSET_SQ	LINEAR_ASSET_SQ
			LINEAR_ASSET_REVISION_NO	LINEAR_ASSET_REVISION_NO
Linear Assets	LinastLinearAsset	tbwLinastLinearAsset	LINEAR_ASSET_SQ	LINEAR_ASSET_SQ
			LINEAR_ASSET_REVISION_NO	LINEAR_ASSET_REVISION_NO

GIS Object Configuration

GIS Object configuration control’s what business information and actions to show in GIS Map, for example:

Tooltip shown when hovering over a GIS object.
Fields in GIS Map’s Object Information dialog.
Related data in GIS Map’s Object Information dialog.
Actions in GIS Map’s Object Information dialog.

Object Information dialog in GIS Map

Object Information dialog is shown once you click on a GIS object where an IFS business object connection exists. The dialog presents business information and useful actions in IFS. Three main parts are shown in the dialog:

Fields from the business object.
Related information from the business object is shown in tabs.
Actions to be performed on the business object are shown as links.

All information (fields, tabs and actions) are controlled by GIS object configuration and defined on per business object’s LU. What to show in the dialog is decided by the customer and configured by an IFS system administrator. Parameters are used in order to define actions and might require assistance from an expert on IFS Applications.

Fields to be shown in Object Information dialog

Fields to be shown in Object Information dialog for a specific business object is defined by checkboxes in GIS object configuration.

Related information to be shown as tabs in Object Information dialog

A business object’s related information could be shown in Object Information dialog as tabs. This is defined in GIS Object Configuration window.

The Where Condition connects the original logical unit and its related IFS business objects. When the connection does not use the key ref value, user needs to follow a defined format to build the Where Condition. Consider the following:

When the connection depends only on key ref value do not need to define the condition specifically. User can leave the Where Condition field blank.
When the connection build using keys of the original logical unit, Required format – RELATED_INFO_LU_KEY = [#ORIGINAL_LU_KEY]

For example, enable work orders to be shown for a equipment object in Object Information dialog:

Original LU is EquipmentObject and related LU is WorkOrder
Condition can be written as: MCH_CODE_CONTRACT = [#CONTRACT] AND MCH_CODE = [#MCH_CODE]

When KEY_REF is used together with other conditions, for example:

MCH_CODE is not null AND key_ref = [#KEY_REF]

Note! The Where Condition is not case sensitive, but it’s strictly required to be accurate with the format and field names.

Examples for Functional Objects in LU EquipmentFunctional

Tab Name	View Name	Where Condition
Documents	DOC_REFERENCE_OBJECT
Characteristics	TECHNICAL_SPEC_OBJ_INFO
Active Work Orders	ACTIVE_SEPARATE_OVERVIEW	MCH_CODE_CONTRACT = [#CONTRACT] AND MCH_CODE = [#MCH_CODE]

Show the functional object's underlying structure:

Tab Name	View Name	Where Condition
Serial Parts	EQUIPMENT_OBJECT_UIV	SUP_CONTRACT = [#CONTRACT] AND SUP_MCH_CODE = [#MCH_CODE] AND SERIAL_NO IS NOT NULL
Functional Parts	EQUIPMENT_OBJECT_UIV	SUP_CONTRACT = [#CONTRACT] AND SUP_MCH_CODE = [#MCH_CODE] AND SERIAL_NO IS NULL
Locational Parts	EQUIPMENT_OBJECT_UIV	LOCATION_CONTRACT = [#CONTRACT] AND LOCATION_MCH_CODE = [#MCH_CODE] AND SERIAL_NO IS NULL
Process Parts	EQUIPMENT_OBJECT_UIV	PROCESS_CONTRACT = [#CONTRACT] AND PROCESS_MCH_CODE = [#MCH_CODE] AND SERIAL_NO IS NULL
Electrical Parts	EQUIPMENT_OBJECT_UIV	CIRCUIT_CONTRACT = [#CONTRACT] AND CIRCUIT_MCH_CODE = [#MCH_CODE] AND SERIAL_NO IS NULL

Examples for Linear Assets in LU LinastLinearAsset

Tab Name	View Name	Where Condition
Documents	DOC_REFERENCE_OBJECT
Characteristics	TECHNICAL_SPEC_OBJ_INFO
Active Work Orders	ACTIVE_SEPARATE_OVERVIEW	LINAST_LINEAR_ASSET_SQ = [#LINEAR_ASSET_SQ] AND LINAST_LINEAR_ASSET_REV_NO = [#LINEAR_ASSET_REVISION_NO]

Examples for Linear Asset Segments in LU LinastSegment

Tab Name	View Name	Where Condition
Documents	DOC_REFERENCE_OBJECT
Characteristics	TECHNICAL_SPEC_OBJ_INFO

Examples for Case in LU CcCase

Tab Name	View Name	Where Condition
Documents	DOC_REFERENCE_OBJECT
Characteristics	TECHNICAL_SPEC_OBJ_INFO

Examples for Design Object in LU PlantObject

Tab Name	View Name	Where Condition
Documents	DOC_REFERENCE_OBJECT
Characteristics	TECHNICAL_SPEC_OBJ_INFO

Examples for Project in LU Project

Tab Name	View Name	Where Condition
Documents	DOC_REFERENCE_OBJECT
Characteristics	TECHNICAL_SPEC_OBJ_INFO

Examples for Programs in LU ProjectProgram

Tab Name	View Name	Where Condition
Projects	PROJECT	PROGRAM_ID = [#PROGRAM_ID]

Examples for Customers in LU CustomerInfo

Tab Name	View Name	Where Condition
Customer Orders	CUSTOMER_ORDER	CUSTOMER_NO = [#CUSTOMER_ID]

Examples for IAL views

IAL views could be used in order to show information as tabs in Object Information dialog. The following example gives a list of customers:

Tab Name	View Name	Where Condition	View Schema
Customers IAL	CUSTOMERS	CUSTOMER_NAME IS NOT NULL	IFSINFO

Actions in Object Information dialog

Actions could be added in Object Information dialog on fields (as links) or shown in the section called Actions. The wanted actions and how it should be displayed is controlled by GIS object configuration. A common example is where navigation is enabled from Object Information dialog to the business object’s main window in IFS.

Data transfer parameters

Data transfer parameters are usually attributes of the object and possible to managed by the window.

Note! Parameters for data transfer will in most cases work but is also depend on how the target window, wizard, dialog etc.is implemented.

The definition of attributes is like this:

target_attr_name is found in the LU to which the data transfer is made e.g. data transfer to open a window.
source_attr_name is found on the LU from which the configuration is made.

The data transfer goes to the target_attr_name from source_attr_name, like this: target_attr_name <-- source_attr_name

For example, create a data transfer parameter for LU PlantObject to open a design object's corresponding equipment object in an equipment object window: frmEquipObjStructure

In GIS Object Configuration window, create a configuration for LU PlantObject, open Action tab and add:

From Object ID in PlantObject LU with source_attr_name: [#KEYA]
To Object ID in EquipmentFunctional with target_attr_name: MCH_CODE

The data transfer parameter should in this case be like this: MCH_CODE = [#KEYA]

Or in other words, value in attribute KEYA should be sent into attribute MCH_CODE. This parameter will enable the design object to be opened when used as an action, in Equipment Object Navigator window, (as long as a corresponding equipment object is created). In the above example we don't consider the value for site and it could be a potential problem if the same value for Object ID exists on several sites. The data transfer parameter when also considering site, should look like this: CONTRACT = [#SITE]^MCH_CODE = [#KEYA]

Parameters for data transfer could get its values in a few different ways:

Static values:

target_attr_name ='value1'^target_attr_name1 ='value2'

Example: CONTRACT='101'^MCH_CODE='6000-1'

Dynamic value, taken from the GIS object:

target_attr_name = [#source_attr_name]

Example: CONTRACT=[#MCH_CODE_CONTRACT]

Methods with arguments:

target_attr_name = [&Some_Api.Some_Method]

Example: USER_ID=[&Fnd_Session_API.Get_Fnd_User]

Methods with static or dynamic arguments:

target_attr_name = [&Some_API.Some_Method([#source_attr_name1],‘THEVALUE’,[#source_attr_name12])]

Example: supplier_id=[&Equipment_All_Object_API.Get_Vendor_No('101',[#MCH_CODE])]

Control parameters

These are parameters sent to the window in situations where data transfer isn't used. Control parameter name must be prefixed with a dollar sign ($).

Note! Target window must have been implemented to manage control parameters, else it will not work.

Single control parameter with a static value:

$param_name=’VALUE’

Multiple parameters with dynamic values:

$param_name=[#source_attr_name]^$param_name1=[#source_attr_name1]

Single parameter with method call:

$param_name=[&Some_API.Some_Method]

Multiple parameters with method call using both dynamic and static values:

$param_name=[&Some_API.Some_Other_Method([#source_attr_name1],[#source_attr_name2],'THEVALUE')]

Examples for Functional Objects in LU EquipmentFunctional

Database view is in this example EQUIPMENT_FUNCTIONAL_UIV in Solution Manager/Object Connections window.

Actions to open windows:

Window Name	Action Name	Parameters
frmFunctionalObject	Functional Object	MCH_CODE=[#MCH_CODE]^CONTRACT=[#CONTRACT]
frmEquipObjStructure	Equipment Object Navigator	MCH_CODE=[#MCH_CODE]^CONTRACT=[#CONTRACT]
frmWorkOrderPrepareTab	Work Orders	MCH_CODE=[#MCH_CODE]^CONTRACT=[#CONTRACT]

Other useful actions:

Window Name	Action Name	Parameters
frmPmTab	Create Separate PM Action	$CONTRACT=[#MCH_CODE_CONTRACT]^$MCH_CODE=[#MCH_CODE]
dlgFaultReportWizard	Create Fault Report	$CALLING_FROM='GISMAP'^$IFS_OBJ_ID='1'^$CONNECTION_TYPE_DB='GISEQUIP'^$GIS_LAYER_LU='EquipmentFunctional'^$MCH_CODE=[#MCH_CODE]^$CONTRACT=[#CONTRACT]
frmWoFaultReportCustOrderTab	Create Service Request	$MCH_CODE_=[#MCH_CODE]^$CONTRACT_=[#CONTRACT]

Action to navigate to a customized Fault Report window:

Action called Default Layout to navigate to the default window for Fault Report.
Action called Customized Layout to navigate to a customized Fault Report.

Window Name	Action Name	Parameters
frmPmTab	Default Layout	$CONTRACT=[#CONTRACT]^$MCH_CODE=[#MCH_CODE]
frmPmTab	Customized Layout	$CONTRACT=[#CONTRACT]^$MCH_CODE=[#MCH_CODE]^$PROCESS='LAYOUT1'

Examples for Linear Assets in LU LinastLinearAsset

Database view is in this example LINAST_LINEAR_ASSET_UIV in Solution Manager/Object Connections window.

Actions to open windows:

Window Name	Action Name	Parameters
frmLineastLinearAsset	Linear Asset Information	LINEAR_ASSET_SQ = [#LINEAR_ASSET_SQ]

Other useful actions

Window Name	Action Name	Parameters
dlgFaultReportWizard	Create Fault Report	$CALLING_FROM='GISMAP'^$IFS_OBJ_ID='1'^$CONNECTION_TYPE_DB='GISEQUIP'^$GIS_LAYER_LU='EquipmentFunctional'^$MCH_CODE=[#MCH_CODE]^$CONTRACT=[#CONTRACT]

Examples for Elements in LU LinastElement

Database view is in this example LINAST_ELEMENT_UIV in Solution Manager/Object Connections window.

Actions to open windows:

Window Name	Action Name	Parameters
frmLineastLinearAsset	Linear Asset Information	LINEAR_ASSET_SQ = [#LINEAR_ASSET_SQ]^LINEAR_ASSET_REVISION_NO=[#LINEAR_ASSET_REVISION_NO]

Examples for Work Orders in LU ActiveSeparate

Database view is in this example ACTIVE_SEPARATE in Solution Manager/Object Connections window.

Action to create a Separate PM Action:

Window Name	Action Name	Parameters
frmPmTab	Create Separate PM Action	$CONTRACT=[&Active_Work_Order_API.Get_Mch_Code_Contract([#WO_NO])]^$MCH_CODE=[&Active_Work_Order_API.Get_Mch_Code([#WO_NO])]

The parameter works as long as the work order has a equipment object.

Condition in GIS Layer Mapping and Object Configuration windows

Users are by default not allowed to enter SQL code in IFS windows. This is prevented on purpose because of security reasons. However, some configuration in GIS Maps enables some limited SQL conditions to be entered. The following could be controlled by using SQL:

Enter condition on records in Layer Mapping window, enables some selected business objects from the LU to be represented by a specific layer. For example a LU with a condition that only retrieves business objects of type Valve, to be connected against a layer that represents valves in the geodatabase.
Enter a condition on records in GIS Object Configuration window to enable different dialog configurations for different types of business objects. For example a condition where business objects of type Valve and Pump are configured to show different dialogs.
Enter a condition on records in GIS Object Configuration/Relations tab to filter information shown on relations in Object Information dialog.

The possibility for a user to enter SQL conditions is controlled by a system privilege called DEFINE_SQL. The system privilege DEFINE_SQL is found in Permission Set Detail window, in the System Privileges tab. The check box for DEFINE_SQL enables users to enter SQL in above condition fields.