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UserExit Class in Maximo 7

August 24, 2010 in Maximo, Maximo 7, Maximo: MIF, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

If you are used to creating a UserExit class in Maximo 6 (MEA), then you will find a couple of big differences in Maximo 7. Some things are the same as in MEA. The main method you override are setUserValueIn() and setUserValueOut(). You still have the irData and erData parameters. …

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WebSphere and the exploded ear

August 13, 2010 in Maximo, Maximo 7, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

As a developer, I have always perferred using Weblogic or WebSphere for one reason: The exploded ear (see Running Maximo in an Exploded Ear (WebLogic) ). Unfortunately, WebSphere does not offer such a time saving method of running Maximo. At least I thought so, but thanks in large part of …

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MIF – Logical Management Operations

May 30, 2010 in Maximo, Maximo 7, Maximo: MIF by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

Logical Management Operations (LMOs) are a part of the Integration Module component that is new to Maximo 7. LMOs are a common data layer that defines actions the system takes on Operational Management Product. Fields Field Description Name This is the name of the class file you created. This is …

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MIF – External Systems

April 28, 2010 in Maximo, Maximo 7, Maximo: MIF by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

An External System describes a collection of interfaces that are for one application that is outside Maximo. Inbound messages must include the External System name so that the MIF can determine if the message is from a valid system and is enabled. Let’s look at the main tab:   Fields: …

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MIF – End Points

April 18, 2010 in Maximo, Maximo 7, Maximo: MIF by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

In defining where data is going to/coming from in an integration, you use a handler to describe what that “other end” of the integration looks like. An End Point is an instance of a Handler. By using an End Point to create an instance of a Handler, you can customize …

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MIF – Web Services Library

March 28, 2010 in Maximo, Maximo 7, Maximo: MIF by Michael Chrisman 3 Comments

Web services are a powerful tool in the MIF arsenal. The MIF provides a way to dynamically create web services based on the MOS, Enterprise Service or Standard Service. Without writing a line of code, Maximo will create the web service, WSDL, and all required web service files. Being that …

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Podcast Episode 1: What is an Interface?

March 12, 2010 in Maximo, Maximo: MIF by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

The first episode of the MaxCast podcast is now available. You can download the MP3 here: WhatIsAnInterface.mp3 or subscribe to the RSS feed here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/MaximoPodcast.   This week I talk about what is an interface and what you need to know to create one.

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MIF- Invocation Channel

March 12, 2010 in Maximo, Maximo 7, Maximo: MIF by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

An Invocation Channel is a way for Maximo to call an external SOA (ie, WebService) method. It provides ways to manipulate the outbound message as well as the response. That’s right, you can now have Maximo call an external web services or applications via a SOA definition. Invocation Channels are …

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MIF- Enterprise Services

March 12, 2010 in Maximo, Maximo 7, Maximo: MIF by Michael Chrisman 1 Comment

Enterprise Services are for inbound integration. Fields FIELD DESCRIPTION Enterprise Service This is a unique name for the enterprise service. Description This is a long description for the enterprise service. Operation This determines how this Enterprise Service will act. The Default is “Sync”. Other options are CREATE, DELETE, QUERY, SYNC …

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MIF- Publish Channels

March 12, 2010 in Maximo, Maximo 7, Maximo: MIF by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

A Publish Channel is an outbound integration interface. A publish channel is bound to one MOS (MIF Object Structure). It allows for special processing for outbound messages. Let’s look at the fields: FIELD DESCRIPTION Publish Channel This is a unique name for the publish channel. This name will be part …

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MIF- Integration Controls

March 12, 2010 in Maximo, Maximo 7, Maximo: MIF by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

Integration controls are a powerful way to either add a semi-hard coded value, a lookup validation list, or a cross reference lookup list to your MIF integrations. Integration Controls are valid for both Publish Channels and Enterprise Services.  They are used in Processing Rules.  One place where a semi-hard coded …

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Creating a Cron Task

March 12, 2010 in Maximo, Maximo 7, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

Within Maximo, you can create your own custom Cron Task. From an Integration point, you have to create a cron task if your requirements are for batch processing of data. The MEA/MIF are for instant message transfers. The first step is to create a new class. You will want to …

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Maximo 7 Admin Mode

March 12, 2010 in Maximo, Maximo 7, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 1 Comment

With Maximo 7, you now have to ability to do a Database Configuration from within the application. The first step is setting the application in Admin mode. Fields: Number of Administrative Sessions Allowed: this determines how many ‘admins’ can log into Maximo while it is in Admin mode. I do …

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New Attribute in MaxMessages table

March 12, 2010 in Maximo, Maximo 7, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

In Maximo 7, IBM has added a new column to MaxMessages table. It is MSGID. This field is required and must be unique. Now you can put any value in here and Maximo will work just fine. However, if you want to use the new Deployment tool with Maximo, then …

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Setting Maximo 7 Logging

March 12, 2010 in Maximo, Maximo 7, Maximo: MIF, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 3 Comments

There have been just enough changes to logging from Maximo 6 to Maximo 7. Most of these changes are nicer as you now manage logging through the front end and you don’t have to restart the application to make your changes active. However, one change is to where log entries …

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MIF- Object Structures: Alias Conflict

January 12, 2010 in Maximo, Maximo 7, Maximo: MIF by Michael Chrisman 1 Comment

We need to take a closer look at the Alias Conflict. An Alias Conflict is when you have column name that are the same in different MBOs. For example, if you create a MOS (MIF Object Structure) that includes ASSET and ASSETSPEC, then you will have a conflict of fields …

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MIF – Object Structures

January 12, 2010 in Maximo, Maximo 7, Maximo: MIF by Michael Chrisman 4 Comments

In Maximo 7, the Object Structures has changed a little from the Maximo 6’s version. An MIF Object Structure is made up of one or more Maximo Business Objects (MBOs). The basic functionality is the same as is in 6, but the screens have changed a bit. Before we look …

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How to upload a file for processing

June 16, 2009 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo 7, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 15 Comments

Although the MIF/MEA is great for processing inbound files. However, sometimes they do not meet all your needs. For example, the MIF will require the user to have access to a folder on the server (a security problem). The MIF is also design for automated data import. Sometime you need …

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The relationship between Domains and MBOs

June 06, 2009 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo 7, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 3 Comments

There is a relationship between domains and MBOs that until you understand it, can be very frustrating. For example, you create an MBO (or even use an existing MBO), you then create a domain, attach it to a field in the MBO, but when you go to use the screen, …

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How to create a dialog box

June 04, 2009 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo 7, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 10 Comments

Maximo provides many ways to add functionality to an Application Screen, from sub-tables to tabs. Another way is to add a dialog box. In Maximo, a dialog box is a ‘popup’ screen that appears on top of the current screen. You can use these to allow users to add more …

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Auto-populating relationship attributes in a parent/child table relationship

May 27, 2009 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo 7, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 9 Comments

Although it is easy to create MBOs (tables) that have a parent/child relationship in Maximo, getting the relationship fields to auto-populate when doing data entry on a screen requires a little coding. Let’s go over how. In this example, let’s say we created our own child table of ASSET. We …

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Maximo 7 Integration: A first look

March 10, 2009 in Maximo, Maximo 7, Maximo: MIF by Michael Chrisman 28 Comments

I can accurately say that in Maximo 7, IBM changed just about everything in the MEA and yet, changed very little. (I just really wanted to say that.) In Maximo 7, IBM changed many of the names of things as well as how you access them. Functionally speaking, it works …

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Another Maximo Blog

March 10, 2009 in Maximo by Michael Chrisman 2 Comments

OK, this one is pretty new but looks promising. It is called Maximo Times. Give is a look: http://maximotimes.com/

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Creating a Custom Dialog- Part 2

March 08, 2009 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 14 Comments

Now that we have our dialog box, the next thing is to add some custom functionality to the dialog box. In this example, we will add a button that when the user clicks it, it will call our custom code. First we are going to create our custom java class. …

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New Maximo Blog

March 05, 2009 in Maximo by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

That's right, there is another Maximo blog out there. This one is by Burak BÖLEK and it looks like there is some good Maximo programming stuff. Check it out at: http://www.burakbolek.com

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Creating a Custom Dialog- Part 1

February 25, 2009 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

It is possible to add your own dialog box to an existing (or new) screen in Maximo. A Dialog box in Maximo is like a pop-up window that you can add fields and functionality. This entry will cover the creation of the the dialog window. The first step is to …

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MEA Example: Triggering interface when child record is modified

February 03, 2009 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 10 Comments

Sometimes, because of the structure of the message Maximo has to send, you have to make one table the base for the Integration object, but you need to trigger the interface when a record is modified on a child table. Since Maximo only listens for changes on the base MBO, …

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Using Standard Java SQL Connection in Maximo in a UserExit

February 02, 2009 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 14 Comments

It is possible to pass a SQL statement into the database without having to define a connection string. From any MBO object, you can get a connection to the current database. From that, you can pass in any SQL statement and use the results to populate values in a Integration …

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Error: Class Not Found. Class bytes found but defineClass()failed

January 27, 2009 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 4 Comments

If you created a custom UserExit or Mbo class and when you try to run it in Maximo you get the follow error in the log: Class Not Found. Class bytes found but defineClass()failed Note this is not a standard Class Not Found error. What this means is that you …

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Checking if an MBO has been modified

January 26, 2009 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

In Maximo, sometimes when, in code, you try to modify an Attribute on an MBO, you get an error saying that the records was already modified. This usually happens when you have extended the MBO class and the error causes the save to abort altogether. This can be avoided by …

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MEA: More on Query/Response Web Services

January 08, 2009 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

Querying on Children MBOs According to the MEA Programming documentation, in Maximo 6, if you create a Query/Response Web Service where the Integration Object has a parent and child MBO, you cannot query fields against the child MBO. I do have people that have tested this and found it to …

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Outbound Interfaces and Domain Descriptions

December 12, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

Sometimes, when dealing with Maximo domains, you need to export the Description for the domain item and not just the Domain Value. This can be done by creating a relationship and then a SET outbound rule. Although in this example I will be using AssetType (and the descriptions are not …

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How to install the INTCLIENT (without installing Maximo)

December 03, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 2 Comments

It is possible to install just the Integration Client on a computer without installing full Maximo on that computer. You will still need to have Maximo installed (and configured) on a computer somewhere so you can copy the needed files. This install is not small (requires around 170 meg) as …

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Maximo Integration Client- The Missing Manual

November 25, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 1 Comment

OK, I hinted that I might create a user's manual for the INTCLIENT and now, here it is. This is just version one and I am sure there are some things I either missed or got wrong. If you find something, please let me know and I'll update the document. …

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Intclient Error: UsernamePasswordCredentials class not found

November 25, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

I got this error when trying to use a web service (SOAPDOC). This error appeared in the command window running the intclient. Nothing appeared in the Message window of the inclient or on the application server. I don't know why this error occurs on some installs and why it doesn't …

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MEA: Overview

November 20, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 9 Comments

Someone recently asked me to teach them about the MEA and I pointed them to this web site. Only, as I was showing it to him, I realized that my site assumes the reader has a basic understanding of how the MEA works. What was missing was a definition of …

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MEA: Adapter

November 19, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 2 Comments

You probably noticed that Maximo (out of the box) is very ridged in the format of the message. Both XML and flat files must be in a "Maximo" centric format. However, you can make Maximo create messages in a different format. To do this, you have to create your own …

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Maximo-Eclipse setup guides

November 04, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

I have heard from more than a few people that they can't get approval to become a member of the Yahoo group to access the setup guides. As such, I provide them here. [legal speak]Please understand that I did not create these document and offer nothing for warrenty or support …

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Deleting an Application in Maximo

November 03, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 1 Comment

As a developer in Maximo, you end up either creating a new app (in app designer) to test something, or cloning existing apps. However, you probably noticed that there isn't an option to delete an application. As it turns out, to delete an application in Maixmo, you have do to …

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New Maximo Site

October 22, 2008 in Maximo by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

I just found a new Maximo web site: Maximo KnowledgeBase (http://www.maximokb.com/). Give a look see. Technorati Tags: Maxmio,Link,KnowledgeBase

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Migrating MEA and Database changes

October 17, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 3 Comments

It turns out that you can use the MEA to export your integration and database changes, and then import them into another system. You can do this because out of the box Maximo comes with integration objects for the MEA objects as well as the Object Configuration, Max Messages, Domains, …

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Domains Part 2: Adding to a screen

October 16, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 1 Comment

Now that we have define our domains, the next thing we need to do is setup a screen to use the domain (give the user the little magnifying glass next to the field on the screen). The first step is to edit your screen in the Application Designer. Next, export …

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Domains Part 1: Defining a Domain

October 16, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 5 Comments

Domains are how you tell Maximo what is valid data for a field. It also can be used to display a list of options. You can create a simple list of values or generate a list of values from a table. Let's first talk about the different types of Domains. …

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MaxMessages

October 02, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 24 Comments

One of the most common needs in any customization is the ability to tell the end user something. I am, of course, talking about an alert or message box. Maximo does provide away to do this within your custom Java code. Of course, it is not as simple as calling …

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Maximo Single Sign-on Howto

September 30, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6 by Michael Chrisman 4 Comments

Over on the Yahoo Maximo forum, someone posted a howto for configuring WebLogic and Windows 2003 for a Single Sign-on. Here is the link: LDAPSSOAuthentication.doc

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Extending MBOs

September 24, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 7 Comments

Let's talk about how to extend an MBO. Sometimes you need to add extra functionality to an MBO (like setting a field value when a certain set of criteria are added. The first thing to do is to setup your environment. You might also look into the Maximo4Eclipse. OK, the …

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MEA: UserExit Class

September 11, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 18 Comments

So far, we have covered how to interface with Maximo using standard out of the box tools, but sometimes, you need to do some complex processing. Maximo provides a way to do this by creating a custom user exit class. A user exit class is Java code that you can …

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MEA: JMS Queues

August 22, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 5 Comments

If you are using some type SOA tool, then you will need to setup the MEA to send and receive data on different JMS Queues. The MEA actually uses three JMS Queue for internal use. One is an outbound sequential queue, one is an inbound sequential queue (records will be …

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MEA: HTTP Post

August 14, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 14 Comments

Another way of getting data in and out of Maximo is via a HTTP Post method (like submitting a web form). Although this works well for putting data into Maximo, it is not very practical for send data out of Maximo (unless the receiving system is also Maximo). Let talk …

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MEA: XML and Flat files (Outbound)

August 01, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 11 Comments

The Maximo MEA has the ability to automatically generate both XML and flat files for outbound transactions. Out of the box, there is no way to automated the loading (inbound) of flat or XML files. Let's look at how to do it. Setup The Integration Object and Integration Interface are …

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MEA: Web Service Part 3 - Outbound

July 25, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 4 Comments

So far, we have covered how to get data into Maximo via a web service and how to query data out of Maximo. The last step is making Maximo push data out to a web service in another system. Let's get started with the setup. Integration Object and Integration Interface …

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MEA: Behavior of Integration Objects

July 18, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

It is important to under the behavior of Outbound Integration Objects. Specifically, I am talking about when data that is changed in the Maximo, what will trigger the Integration Interface. When you create your Integration Object, you select a main MBO (this is the one without any parent MBO). For …

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MEA: Web Service Part 2 – Query/Response

July 11, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 28 Comments

In the last entry, we talked about the Notify Web Service. This is use for incoming "Syncing" data. If you want to get data out of Maximo (using a web service), then you have to setup a Query/Response web service. Basically, you can use one Integration Object (or two if …

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MEA: Web Service Part 1- Notify

June 26, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 9 Comments

One of the features of the MEA is its ability to create a web service based on an integration interface. This is all done without having to write one line of code. You can create two different types of web services, Notify and Query/Response. A Notify web service is used …

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MEA errors fill log files

June 22, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

One thing you might find is that when you have a MEA record error, the JMS server keeps trying to reprocess the record over and over. This causes the server to slow down and fill up the drive space with log files. The reason for this is that the default …

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MEA: Error Handling

June 22, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 4 Comments

When the MEA processes a record and it has an error, the MEA do three things. The first is that it writes the error message to the server log file. Next it sends the error to the administrators email address. The last thing is that it write an XML file …

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MEA: XML Messages

June 20, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

Let's take a minute to look a the XML message format. When dealing with the MEA you will end up dealing with messages in XML format. Even when you import flat files and interface tables, Maximo converts each record to the XML format. There are three different XML message formats, …

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MEA: External Systems

June 12, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 9 Comments

Let's look at the External Systems screen. External system is a way to group together interfaces that 1) go to the same external application and 2) have the same end point (more on this later) and 3) will be run on the same schedule. Every Integration Interface MUST be assigned …

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Running Maximo in an Exploded Ear (WebLogic)

June 05, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 7 Comments

As a developer in Maximo, it can be a bit of a pain, after any change to the classes you make, you have to 1) stop the application server 2) rebuild the Ear 3) restart the application server so it will auto-redeploy the ear. As it turns out, if you …

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MEA Integration Interface Processing Rules: Examples

June 05, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 14 Comments

Now that I have covered how to setup processing rules, I thought it would be good to give some samples on when to use what type of rule. Situation: say you have to have to convert lookup data from system X to Maximo lookup data. You know that each value …

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MEA Integration Interface Processing Rules - Part 2

June 04, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 2 Comments

In my last post, I talked about setting up Stop/Skip rules. In this post I will be talking about the other types of rules. There are two basic types of rules. The first type are rules that either skip a record or stop processing. The other type are rules that …

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MEA Integration Interface Processing Rules - Part 1

May 30, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 2 Comments

Let's talk a little more about processing rules. I covered the Integration Interface screen. In that I talked about the processing rules tabs, but only covered the fields and not how to set up processing rules. I will now attempt to cover how to create processing rules. However, there is …

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Maximo-Eclipse Setup Guides

May 22, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 2 Comments

I know that my last few posts have been links, but I feel the documents are important. These two are just as important if you are a developer with Maximo. I recently attended a condensed training class and was given two sets of documents for setting up eclipse to use …

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Maximo ERD, Programmers Guide, Java Docs and more

May 15, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 11 Comments

One of the most asked for is the Maximo ERD. I had heard rumors that one existed, but I was beginning to think it was a myth. But like Santa Clause's house at North Pole, Alaska (which I have been to), it turns out it does exist. You will need …

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New Maximo Group and 2 Open Source Maximo Project

May 13, 2008 in Maximo by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

Well, I just found out (and joined) a new Maximo group. It is called Maximo_AM and is hosted on Google Groups. You have to "join" the group (and be approved) before you participate, but from the posts there, it looks like a pretty technical board. Check it out: MAXIMO_AM. (Also, …

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Maximo Views: Creating Custom MBO Views

May 13, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: Views by Michael Chrisman 16 Comments

Okay, I figured out how to create a real custom view and have it be a valid MBO in Maximo. It is a little bit of a work-a-round, but it does work. The first step is to create your view's SQL statement. If the data is related to another MBO, …

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MEA: Integration Interfaces

April 20, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 1 Comment

Once you have your integration object all setup, the next step is to create your Integration Interface. An Integration Interface is where all data going between the Integration Object and some external system (inbound or outbound) must pass through. This is also where you can attach special processing classes that …

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MEA: Integration Objects

April 11, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 17 Comments

Let's take a minute to look at the Integration Object screen. First we need to define what an Integration Object is. An Integration Object is a Maximo MEA Object used to define what data will be available for both inbound and outbound data flow. It is made up of Maximo …

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Handy MEA tools included with Maximo

March 26, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 8 Comments

Maximo comes with a couple of very hand tools for helping you manage and program the MEA. These tools are officially unsupported, but they are pretty useful. The first tool is called: Integration Client. This is a Java tool that allows you to test your inbound MEA interface. This includes …

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More on Maximo MEA Setup

March 18, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

Here are a few other setup tasks that you might need to do to setup you Maximo MEA. Maximo MEA Server Name For purposes of the MEA each install of Maximo is given a name. This name is very important to the MEA as XML messages must be "addressed" to …

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Error: The Message Driven Bean ‘JMSContQueueProcessor-1′ is transacted,…

March 06, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6 by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

If you have done an install of Maximo using BEA Weblogic with the MEA enabled, then you might see this error message in the log file: I am not sure if this does affect the performance of Maximo, but it is pretty easy to fix. Here's how. With Weblogic running, …

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IBM’s Maximo Data Loader

February 14, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6 by Michael Chrisman 39 Comments

IBM has a tool that will help you with loading data into Maximo. This tool, called the Maximo Data Loader (MDL), allows you to quickly migrate data into Maximo. Why use the MDL? The MDL fills a niche very nicely: a way to import data into Maximo without have to …

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Using a Maximo View to add a calculated field

January 18, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: Views by Michael Chrisman 7 Comments

Adding a calculated field to a screen can be a daunting task for anyone that is not a Maximo programmer. The current methods include writing a Java Class that does the calculation and returns the value. However, it is possible to use an MBO View to accomplish this. However it …

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Maximo Views - Introduction

January 18, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: Views by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

As anyone who has played with the Database Configuration tool in 6.x will knows, Maximo manages it entire data model within itself. But what you may not know is that Database configuration will also let you create and manage views. When ConfigDB is run, these are translated into real database …

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A look at some Maximo System tables

January 01, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 3 Comments

I thought I would write a little summary of a few of the Maximo tables and what I have found they are for. This will not be a complete coverage, but only the little tidbits that I have found. Table Name Description/Comment AutoKey This table contains the counter for the …

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Work Tech’s new MEA Generic Posting Interface

January 01, 2008 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 1 Comment

With the new version of Maximo (6.x), Work Tech had to create new interface for their WorkTech Time application. I have to say, this new interface is pretty nice. They have developed an interface that makes it fairly easy to get data from WorkTech Time to Maximo Using the MEA. …

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Maximo and Unique IDs

December 12, 2007 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: Programming by Michael Chrisman 12 Comments

If you always enter data from the front end of Maximo, then this post has nothing to do with you. However, if you have to load (or manipulate) data from the back end then let me tell you about Maximo 6.x and unique ids. I recently did an upgrade from …

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Maximo Custom Reports Part 3: Full Integration

November 28, 2007 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: Reports by Michael Chrisman 5 Comments

So far, we have setup custom reports and then extended it to support multiple reporting tools. Now we are going to fully integrate these reports. Now you might be asking what I mean by "fully integrated" as the reports already show up in the Maximo reports list and you can …

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Maximo Custom Reports Part 2: Supporting multiple external reporting tools

November 28, 2007 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: Reports by Michael Chrisman 4 Comments

In the last entry, I talked about how to setup and configure Custom reports in Maximo 6.x. In this entry, I am going to talk about how to extend this functionality to support multiple external reporting tools. The documentation that comes with Maximo talks about how it will only support …

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Maximo Custom Reports Part 1: Setup and Configuration

November 25, 2007 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: Reports by Michael Chrisman 27 Comments

In a recent upgrade project to Maximo 6.2, I got to play a lot with Custom Reports. The client had a large investment in Oracle Reports and Web Reports from their 4.11 installation and wanted to reuse as much of it was possible. In a series of 3 blog entries, …

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Maximo(MXES) MEA Part 3: Debugging/Troubleshooting Interface Tables

November 14, 2007 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 19 Comments

In this entry I will be talking about how to debug and troubleshoot the MEA Interface tables. The MEA can seam very much like a "black box" where you put records in and they come out the other end, but what happens inside the box can be a mystery. If …

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Maximo(MXES) MEA Part 2: Programming Interface Tables

November 05, 2007 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 0 Comments

In this entry, I will be talking about how to program the MEA interface tables. In the last entry I talked about how to setup the MEA but the one thing to remember is that you do not get to define what the table looks like (at least not directly), …

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Maximo(MXES) MEA Part 1: Overview/Configuration

October 27, 2007 in Maximo, Maximo 6, Maximo: MEA by Michael Chrisman 70 Comments

This is the first of a three part series on the Maximo Enterprise Adapter (MEA). I will be talking about the MEA found in Maximo Version 6.x (MXES). The MEA is a tool that helps you with interfaces to other applications. It allows you to automate importing and exporting data …

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