5 ChangeCast Transition Options

This chapter incudes:

Overview
References
External XML Transformation
Agile ACS XML Transformation in 9.3.2
Replacing the Destination ERP Integration

5.1 Overview

ChangeCast is a legacy tool which supported transforming Agile product records data into a specific text output format that was used by integration tools to load Agile PLM data into an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. In Agile PLM 9.0, Agile Content Service (ACS) replaced ChangeCast as the primary tool for ERP integrations. Up until Agile PLM 9.3.3, ChangeCast and ACS were released with Agile PLM. Starting with this release, Agile PLM releases do not include ChangeCast and Customers who have continued to run ChangeCast have several options to transition to use ACS.

These options, described below, are:

Using ACS with an External XML Transformation
Using the Agile ACS XML Transformation introduced with release 9.3.2
Using ACS by Replacing the Destination ERP Integration.

5.1.1 References

Agile Content Service User Guide, Release 9.3.3

5.2 External XML Transformation

Using this option, you can read, extract, and process an agile.xml file obtained from an AXML by unzipping the AXML file. The agile.xml is a standard XML file. The structure of this file is defined in the aXML.xsd schema. You can download the XML schema file from http://www.oracle.com/webfolder/technetwork/xml/plm/2011/09/aXML.xsd.

There are several methods to read and parse an agile.xml file. You can write your own code, or use an XML utility. One popular method to parse an XML structure file into other formats is using XSLT.

Note:

XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) is a language for transforming XML documents to other XML documents, or other objects such as HTML for web pages. Two basic output formats of XSLT are TXT and XML.

Figure 5-1 Proposed external XML transformation

Note:

File extension AGL is used to refer to the output files from ChangeCast. These are typically formatted text documents. An AXML file is a compressed file created by ACS that contains one (and only one) Agile product data file in XML format, and potentially several additional attachment files in other formats.

Sample.axml

|____aile.xml(only one)

|____sample attachment_1.doc

|____sample attachment_2.doc

. .

|____sample attachment_n.xls

5.3 Agile ACS XML Transformation in 9.3.2

Similar to the first option, this option enables you to use your existing integration to send data to ERP by generating an AGL file that is comparable to the output produced by ChangeCast, directly from ACS. In this option, you need to create an XSLT transformation file, load it into Agile PLM in an ACS format, and then use the format in the ACS configuration to create an output file similar to the AGL format.

Figure 5-2 Agile 9.3.2 transformation

To create an XSLT template (file):

Log in to Java Client, with Admin privileges and select Admin > System Settings > Agile Content Service > Format Library. The Format Library window appears.

Figure 5-3 Java Client's Format Library window
In Format Library, click the New button.

The Create Format dialog appears. Note that when you click the drop-down arrow, your choice of Template Type is either BI Publisher or XSLT and Output Type choices are XML and TXT.
In the dialog's Name field, type the name of the new format. For example, new_format and select TXT from the drop-down arrow menu.

Figure 5-4 The Create Format dialog
Click OK.

The Format Library window displays the newly created format.

Figure 5-5 The newly created format
In new_format, enable this format and then select the Template/XSLT tab.
Copy and paste the contents of XSLT in Template/XSLT page.

Figure 5-6 new_format in Format Library
Select Agile Content Service > Subscribers > the New button. The Create Subscriber dialog appears.
In Create Subscriber dialog, define a new destination and call it Example Destination and then click OK.

Figure 5-7 The Create Subscriber dialog
Select Agile Content Service > Subscribers > Example Destination > Add button.

Figure 5-8 The Subscriber Detail dialog
Select new_format when setting Subscriber Details for this subscriber.

The ACS subscriber will export the product data in the new format.

5.4 Replacing the Destination ERP Integration

This option requires changing the existing ERP integration to use the Agile AXML to directly output the format. Oracle offers integration solutions for several ERP systems and Oracle partners also offer other options to integrate from Agile PLM to ERP systems using ACS.

Figure 5-9 The new ERP integration designation