What’s New in Teamcenter 9.1: Easier Icon Customization

April 9, 2012 • By • Comments 8

Because I like to torture myself by reading what’s new and cool in the latest Teamcenter version, which I likely won’t be able to play with for a long time, I started to read through the What’s New document for Teamcenter 9.1, which you can check out for yourself at GTAC’s website.

One thing that jumped out at me, because we had just been discussing the rigamarole that you currently have go through, was the news that as of TC 9.1, icon configuration will be done directly inside the BMIDE. You no longer will have to create a separate Eclipse project to customize your icons.

From the documentation:

To add or change icons on business object types, use the Fnd0Icon business object constant in the Business Modeler IDE. The icon definitions are placed on the server and used by the rich client. Previously, you had to perform a customization to add the icons. Now it is done entirely through the Business Modeler IDE.

I like the sound of that. I’d much rather have a single BMIDE template to maintain than a template and a separate eclipse project.

Icon Overlays

It goes on to say this, which I think was pretty interesting:

You can also use a property rendering XML file to overlay icons on the base icon conditionally based on property values. For example, you can decorate the icon with images to designate the business object’s state (status, remote, checked out, process, and so on).

As far as I know this is a new capability (please correct me if I’m wrong). I can think of plenty of uses for icon overlays. A common user request is to make more about an object’s state graphically obvious.

How well does it work?

Okay, the 64,000 dollar question is, has anybody tried this yet? How well does it work? If you’ve had a chance to deploy a TC 9.1 data model that customizes icons, let us know how it went.

  • http://hooverm.pip.verisignlabs.com/ Teamcenter Heretic

    So, wassup with this love affair with the BMIDE?
    The current method of creating a plugin isn’t as nice as the old CLASSPATH method but c’mon it is pretty straightforward.
    The BMIDE is only pleasant to those who didn’t experience the niceness of CLASSPATH and the tools offered in iMAN!  Sure it is better that what was available to the Enterprise folks but to throw the baby out with the bathwater???

     

    • http://plmdojo.com Scott Pigman

      And wassup with this BMIDE hatred?
      Although I’m certain that my opinion of the BMIDE is higher than yours (a low bar, to be sure), you have made several good points about its flaws over the years. But whether or not the BMIDE was  an improvement is really beside the immediate point. I don’t see SPLM going back to the iMan way of doing things. So seeing how we’re living in a BMIDE driven world I’d just as soon see it also manage things like customizing the icons rather than have a whole other setup I have to maintain to take care of it.

      BTW, maybe I didn’t work with the right tools, but I did work with iMan and I have used the CLASSPATH method, although for me it was more something that I’d set up or adjust once every year or two after having had to relearn what I had done last time.

      • http://hooverm.pip.verisignlabs.com/ Teamcenter Heretic

        The BMIDE is only OK if we accept it as such.

        The DSA utilities were soooo close to being what we needed but the folks who gave us the BMIDE didn’t take too close a look at it.  They came form Enterprise where EVERYTHING is hard.  So now we have a tool that is overly complex and unnecessary.

        If we accept the “I cooked it, you’ll eat it” then I’ll have a bad taste in my mouth for along time ;)
        I believe that the suite of tools will only get better if we push together.  Trust me, when you see the improvements in the LOV implementation you will understand what I mean.

        I’ve spent a decade doing implementation and customization of the iMAN/Teamcenter product and the BMIDE works for sure, but is it friendly?  Is it suitable to task? 

        Aren’t you afraid every time you have to deploy a template to your systems?  I am.

        • Mahadevan

          I agree with you, and the last line, Aren’t you afraid…yes.. for sure..we need to check…. have utilities for checking..and then confirm it twice..before deploy

  • Pingback: Should the BMIDE Stay or Should it Go? | The PLM Dojo

  • TonyC

    OK so in tearms of the new icon overlay, I have just tried it and it couldn’t have been simpler.
    Basically all you do is import the icon (16×16 is the biggest it can be), and then it is avaiable for attaching to say a new business object. Simple

    • http://plmdojo.com/ Scott Pigman

      Cool. That’s good to hear, thanks for the report.

  • Steve Niemira

    I have heard that using this new method to change a status Icon in BMIDE only changes the icon on the Status Object itself (not the icon that appears next to your ItemRevision or Dataset). I’m talking about the icon that appears under your item revision at the same level as your datasets. In 8.3 and before, this status icon uses a black flag regardless of what icon you are using on the ItemRevision or dataset.

    I believe you will still have to use existing methods to change the other icon.

    I usually use the customer.properties method rather than creating an eclipse project. Just drop a file named customer.properties into TC_ROOTportalpluginsconfiguration_8000.3.0 with your icon changes

    example:

    TC_ROOTportalpluginsconfiguration_8000.3.0customer.properties:

    release_status_list.OnHold.ICON=images/OnHold.png

    Then be sure to put the icon locally as well:

    TC_ROOTportalpluginsconfiguration_8000.3.0imagesOnHold.png