Presenter: Ken Rodas

Start Centres Best Practices

Agenda

• Start Centre Contents Overview

• Best practices: less is more

• Start Centre editing approaches

• Portlet Queries Best Practices

• New Start Centre features in Maximo 7.6

• Demo: Creating an efficient Start Centre

• Q&A

Start Centre Contents Overview

Best Practices

Best Practices

1. Make the content relevant

2. Limit the number of query-based portlets

3. Leverage Indexes on the Transaction Tables and Portlet tables

4. Display records requiring attention from the currently logged-in user

Make the Content Relevant

• Limit the number of columns displayed in portlets

• Summarize result sets with graphs

• Be selective about the “Quick Insert” portlet

– May lead to creation of unnecessary records

– Business should verify that the user’s role requires this functionality

Limit the number of query-based portlets

• Query-based portlets include:

– KPI Graphs and Lists

– Result Sets

• Four or less portlets per Template

• Limit the number of columns displayed between 3 –5 (essential information only!)

• Multiple Start Centres, few portlets

Leverage Indexes on Transaction and Portlet Tables• Index: data structure that improves the speed of data

retrieval operations on a database

• There should be an index on LAYOUTID for all Start Centre portlet configuration tables

• Apply more indexes as needed

• Delete Start Centre records for inactive users

– The user’s Start Centre data is not deleted when the user record is deleted or set to INACTIVE

Source:https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home?lang=en#!/wiki/IBM%20Maximo%20Asset%20Management/page/Start%20Center%20best%20practices

Table Description

SCTEMPLATE Templates and presentation XMLs

SCCONFIG Start Centre given to a user based on group and template

LAYOUT Configuration for a given start centre

INBXCONFIG Configuration of an inbox portlet

ACTIONCFG Configuration of a quick insert portlet

FACONFIG Configuration for a favorite applications portlet

KPILCONFIG Configuration of records related to KPIMAIN records (i.e. which KPIs)

KPIGCONFIG Configuration of records related to KPIMAIN records (i.e. which KPIs)

RSCONFIG Configuration of result set portlets

REPORTLISTCFG

Configuration of records related to REPORT (i.e. which reports belong to which app)

Display records requiring attention

• Portlet: “Inbox/Assignments”

– Relates to Workflow Assignments only

• Can also be set as a result set if Workflow is disabled or not sending assignments

Start Centre Editing Approaches

Generate Templates and allow changes

Pros Cons

Users get exactly what they want Updates to templates will cause re-work for the user

Users may not follow best practices and apply inefficient queries

Support and Troubleshooting becomes a challenge

All editing options available to all users

Generate Templates and do not allow changes

Pros Cons

Consistency across user base No flexibility for users

Simplified support and Troubleshooting

Performance can be managed better

No editing available

Hybrid: generate templates and provide users with a whiteboard they can use

Pros Cons

Users get what they want Additional configuration required (security groups)

Consistency across major Start Centres Support and Troubleshooting

Users may not follow best practices and apply inefficient queries

Limited, local editing available

Portlet Queries Best Practices

Portlet Queries Best Practices

1. Use the Application’s Default Query

2. Use membership conditions

3. Use ‘select 1’ when joining tables

4. Avoid UNION and use UNION ALL

5. Embrace regular expressions

Goal: Reduce loading time, improve readability

Application Default Query

• Additional to your desired query

• Filters out most irrelevant records (e.g. closed WOs, resolved defects)

Work Order Tracking

Use membership conditions

• Membership condition: query clause that tests a value for membership in a list of values or subquery

– status in (“ALL SEARCH VALUES HERE”)

• By default, Maximo uses multiple OR’s

– status = ‘VALUE1' or status = ‘VALUE2' or status = ‘VALUE3'

(status = 'APPR' or status = 'CAN' or status = 'INPRG' orstatus = 'ACTIVE')

status in ('APPR', 'CAN', 'INPRG', 'ACTIVE')

=

Joins in Where clauses

• Use ’select 1’– Displays rows related to desired field only

• Avoid using ’select *’

exists (select 1 from maximo.ASSET whereassetnum = WORKORDER.assetnum and siteid = WORKORDER.siteid)

Embrace regular expressions

• Regular Expression: sequence of characters that define a search pattern.

• Utilized for pattern matching with strings

• Useful for matching complex patterns

‘Ste(v|ph)en’ -> regular expression that indicates all fields containing ‘Steven’ or ‘Stephen’

Source:

https://docs.oracle.com/cd/B12037_01/server.101/b10759/conditions018.htm

persongroup like '%ENG%' or persongroup like'%EMAIL%' or persongroup like '%SECURITY%' orpersongroup like '%OFFICE%'

regexp_like(persongroup, 'ENG|EMAIL|SECURITY|OFFICE')

=

New Start Centre features in Maximo 7.6

New Start Centre Features in 7.6

• Sidebar Navigation

• Download Result Set results in CSV format

– maxAttributeCFG.title

• Truncate text in Result Sets

– webclient.shortenportlettext

Sidebar Navigation

• Maximo-wide feature

• Highlight: My Recent Applications

– Displays a list of the most recently used applications

– System property webclient.maxRecentApps• Increase/decrease number of applications stored

Download Result Set results in CSV Format

• Similar to downloading from list view in any Application

• Labels display maxAttributeCFG.title system property

• Available on version >= 7.6.0.4

Truncate Text in Result Sets

• Prevents horizontal scrolling in the Start Centre

• System property: webclient.shortenportlettext

• Default value is false

Demo – Creating an efficient Start Centre

Questions? Contact Ken Rodas at:

(403) 648-3103 ext. 704

krodas@ontracksconsulting.com

Thank you!