Hi ECM gurus,
I suspect this is an easy question. I have little experience with ECM (DocStar) so far. We’ve been using ECM to print out part drawings when the job traveler is printed. This works great. When we started, engineering was attaching the drawing to the part. Recently I discovered they began instead, attaching the drawing to the part revision. In doing so, ECM created a directory called PartRev. How do I tell ECM to look in both places to find the drawing?
The global search (search field at the top) in ECM will find the document(s) in both folders automatically.
The Retrieve tab has a checkbox for searching subdirectories, so it depends on how the search is constructed.
And this answer can be enhanced with the use of “related files” and what you are searching on to begin with (title or other field metadata)
I know you said you are using ECM directly to print, but have you considered using APR in Kinetic to automatically grab the drawing and print it with each Traveler? I ask because this is sort of a different answer.
Hi Mike,
You’re a great resource on here and I thank you for posing your question. Based on your response, I definitely didn’t describe my question well enough and I appreciate you.
Yes, we use APR. When the traveler is printed in Epicor ERP, the APR takes over and gets the drawing from ECM as long as it’s attached to the part. MY issue is APR finding also the drawing attached to PartRev. ECM created/added the PartRev folder to store the drawing in. How can I tell APR to look in both ECM directories for drawing file?
Please let me know if this helps. Thanks again
Hi @MikeGross I was able to figure it out. Some time I think you have to say things out loud to find the solution. I added another Take to the breaking and routing and linked it to revision number/PartRev. After that, it seems to work. I was able to print the job traveler with the part drawing that was attached to the part revision.
Thanks again for your response.
Good job - and happy to help!!!
and yes - the age old 'Say it aloud to answer myself" trick is one of those priceless tools in and Admin’s toolbelt! Love it!
This is an awesome post, but in Kinetic (2022.1.18) I get an “invalid path” when I try to print the traveler. The error message captured in the System Monitor does display a path and filename that appear to be correct, but it doesn’t print anything out.
Is this due to the Kinetic interface not playing as easily with ECM as the Classic interface did?
@Ernie - I might start troubleshooting this by making sure the traveler prints without the APR being turned on. If that works, then I’d doublecheck the path to the attachments exists (and spelled correctly).
The bpm type events handled by APR are done at the server level and doesn’t have much to do with the client interface, but rather windows document type handlers (if you’re doing a preview) and the windows printing service if you’re direct printing.
Are your attachments inside ECM? Can you bypass just that node of the APR workflow and get the Traveler to print? I’m just thinking how to narrow it down based on the info you provided.
Hmmm.
The traveler report style (without the APR) prints correctly. The attachment path listed on the attachment slide-out matches with what the error message describes as an “invalid path”. I’ve tried both print preview and print to printer. Attachments are inside ECM. “That node” is the only node in the APR workflow after the break.
You say attachments - plural - only other thing I can think of is that the attachments are not of the same type, so the ‘handlers’ are getting confused. Or one of the attachments is corrupt or something. Test printing the attachments directly from ECM and see if APR works with only one of the attachments - something like that maybe…
Right now it’s a single attachment, but in the future there will be multiple attachments probably from different locations. I want to make sure I can get ONE to work before I go whole hog!
In the Kinetic application, when I go to the Part Revision screen and click to view the attachment, if I click on the “item number” (it’s an ECM document number) I get the same “invalid path” error. If I click on the “View” link, the ECM website opens and the file displays correctly in the EMC browser window.
Does it have any characters in the filename or path that might choke the standard file handler?
When I first tried it there were spaces in the filename, but I renamed it so there were no spaces and the problem persists. My original wondering if it’s due to the Kinetic client being browser-based, and the security concerns of the browser executing local programs, remains… I’m going to set up a server printer and see if that makes a difference.
Just curious, @Ernie did you add the attachment in Kinetic using the browser version and selected the ECM document type? If so, was the attachment placed in the correct directory in ECM?
We’re SaaS Kinetic 2022.2.8 but still run the Modern shell. When we print our travelers, it pulls the drawing from ECM and prints it as well.
I added the attachment using the Kinetic interface from the smart client, not directly from the browser interface. I’m about to try it using the Modern Shell…
and that didn’t work either… same error message. I also can’t directly open the attachment by double-clicking on it in the Job Entry nav tree, and the “View in ECM” option is grayed out. When I try to open with either double-click or View, I get the same “invalid path” error.
Besides actually attaching the document to the record, is there anything in ECM I have to configure to allow it to print? I have APR set up to call the file, and it has all the correct information, it just doesn’t print the file.
I would suspect that until you can “view” the attachment, you won’t be able to print it. You need to resolve the viewing issue.
At least I’m pretty confident it ISN’T UI related.
Kool
Can you add a new attachment and view it?
If you haven’t recently, go ahead and check your ECM connection in Attachment Type Maintenance. Make sure that’s working.
