Development - Recent Threads

Searching against a multi value list data type

paul.sheehy@bd.com — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 14:56:25 GMT

Good morning!

I currently use the multi value list data type for a product line property in my Part item type. Our products share a lot of subassemblies and components, so any particular part could be assigned to multiple product lines. This makes sense on the part form, where the user can see Part 123 is a member of Product Line A, B, and C for example.

However, this data type has one major drawback that I have not figured out how to overcome: searching. By default, the multi value list uses the 'AND' operator when evaluating multi value list selections as search critera.

For example:

In the Part search grid, if you select Product Line A and search, Aras will return parts with ONLY Product Line A selected; Parts with Product Line A & B, or A B & C will be excluded.

In addition, because the data type is a multi value list and not text, users cannot use wildcard characters in the search bar for this property.

These 2 issues severly limit the usability of the multi value list data type as search criteria. Intuitively, I believe users select Product Lines in their search criteria under the assumption of the 'OR' operator: selecting Product Line A, B means I would like to see parts that are under either Product Line A OR Product Line B OR both.

I've thought about a method that copied the multi value list to a separate property that is text (ex: 'A, B, C'). This would give the user the ability to search with wildcards, but would not help when searching multiple values because then the order of the values in the list would determine the results (ex: with A, B, C = searching *A*C* will work, but searching *C*A* will not).

Has anyone else run into this scenario and come up with a solution?

Currently running 12SP7.

Thanks!

Paul Sheehy

RE: Searching against a multi value list data type

AngelaIp — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 08:36:10 GMT

Modifying the Simple Search mode is a some kind of an easy solution! :) .

With my additional 5 year of knowledge since the last post, I assume it´s also possible to solve this one with a condition overwrite. It´s the solution I used for this one: How can I use wildcard filters for dropdowns in grid and for predefined Default Searches?

I don´t want to share the solutions in public, but I can give you some hints via in-mail.

RE: Notify User When a Relationship is Added when the Source ItemType and Related ItemType have matching properties

AngelaIp — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 07:25:07 GMT

Have you tried an onInsertRow event?

Notify User When a Relationship is Added when the Source ItemType and Related ItemType have matching properties

conner davis — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 18:36:23 GMT

I am trying to notify the user when a relationship is added where the Source Item has a property of _part_number that is equal to the Related Item property item_number, but continue with the action of adding. Basically just give a warning.

I have tried server side, got the message to be sent with an error message, but that stops the progress of the action.

I understand now that it needs to be a client side action, but I am having issues with getting the Items in the method to get the properties to then compare.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

Load xClass and xProperties, and link xProperties to multiple xClasses from AML

Amitosh Tripathy — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 14:29:26 GMT

We want to load 1k+ xclasses to Aras, we are talking about 4k+ xproperties here.

When we are running AML for creating relations xClass_xProperty_Flatten and xClass_xPropertyDefinition to link them to class tree, it fails with error :

<af:legacy_detail><![CDATA["xClass_xProperty_Flatten" can be added or deleted or updated only in XTree context]]></af:legacy_detail>

<af:exception message=""xClass_xProperty_Flatten" can be added or deleted or updated only in XTree context" type="System.ArgumentException" />

</detail>

I can load property definitions, but not classes, but can’t map the properties to classes. How can we mass create and reuse these xProperty definitions in more than one class from AML, by creating relations correctly?

RE: Load xClass and xProperties, and link xProperties to multiple xClasses from AML

Bryan Riley — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 17:59:02 GMT

I have a very similar issue, trying to create the xClass nodes under the xClassification Tree. I matched the <source_id> from a manually created one, but it still tells me ["xClass" can be added or deleted or updated only in XTree context].

RE: Searching against a multi value list data type

Bryan Riley — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 16:54:47 GMT

Is there any easy solution to this yet? I have the same question and don't really want to put a bunch of time into custom coding it

RE: How to customize the login function

AJ Sebastian — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 13:31:42 GMT

Hi Yuto,

Just to clarify, are you collecting the Aras ID/password in the external webpage? Depending on your use case there are different ways to achieve this.

If you're trying to authenticate with Aras via a third-party app we recommend authenticating via Oauth 2.0. These blogposts cover how you can authenticate via our REST API using Oauth 2.0: https://aras.com/en/blog/authenticating-in-oauth-2-0-with-aras-restful-api

This will serve the user your standard Aras login page for authentication.

How to customize the login function

Yuto Sumitani — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 03:54:17 GMT

Hello,

We are currently implementing user authentication (ID and password) through an external web page that was developed separately from the standard Aras interface.

After successful authentication, we would like to redirect users to the Aras main page by logging in via a URL that includes the user ID, password, and database name.

If anyone is familiar with how to implement this kind of customization, we would greatly appreciate your advice.
For reference, our Aras Innovator version is Release 35.

Thank you in advance!

Release 36 Relationship Tab Indicators in Release Notes: First Listed, Then Removed - What is Aras Up To?

AngelaIp — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 13:48:21 GMT

Hi community,

We are at a point in the community where Aras cannot do anything without it being noticed. Even when they try to keep things secret, it’s usually already too late!

Either it was an accident, or it was a "planned leak" of new features - similar to how Apple handles the iPhone [emoticon:98f842990f454422aa6a04953955f9d9]- done just for the fun of seeing if anyone notices and to generate a bit of marketing buzz.

Has anyone of you studied the lastest release notes? A few weeks ago Release 36 was released. In general it contains:

1. A much more modern version of this one: https://github.com/ArasLabs/my-recent-items
2. A fix for this one: [mention:879f44d5b4a44eee976338383ea1a79c:46448885d0e64133bbfbf0cd7b0fd6f7]
3. And some other quality of live improvements.

BUT: The first version of the release notes also mentioned this additional feature:

This sounds like this feature:

The first idea was discussed years ago in a Github discussion and Eli helped to get the first draft working: https://github.com/ArasLabs/set-tab-color/issues/1

But it seems like the Release 36 were updated last week. The new additional relationship feature was now removed.
See: https://aras.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Aras-Innovator-36-Release-Notes-1.pdf

All jokes aside, I assume the topic was accidentally listed in the release notes. No big deal - it wasn´t even mentioned on the roadmap. Back then in Innovator 11, it wasn´t possible to implement something like this in a meaningful way in the standard product. I didn’t even expect it to show up anytime soon.

But: Is this something that Aras is currently actively working on? I am super curious to see how they´ll solve this on a technical level! This is definitely a feature to look forward to. People will love it!

Does anyone know more?

RE: Release 36 Relationship Tab Indicators in Release Notes: First Listed, Then Removed - What is Aras Up To?

AngelaIp — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 11:51:27 GMT

...but it´s still exciting! 😀It´s doesn´t matter if it comes in R36, R37 or R38. Your colleagues can take all the time they need to make it perfect! I love our 7-year-old solution, but I’m even more excited for it to finally be in the system.

One idea: Maybe Aras could include a small “sneak peek” of upcoming features when writing blogs about new releases?

Aside from that, my Innovator currently feels both years ahead and years behind technologically. I think I created Schroedingers PLM 😎

RE: Release 36 Relationship Tab Indicators in Release Notes: First Listed, Then Removed - What is Aras Up To?

Eli Donahue — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 21:56:55 GMT

Hi Angela! Unfortunately, the answer isn't as exciting as a clever marketing scheme - it was simply human error while creating the release notes for R36. 🙂 The relationship tab enhancement was initially planned for R36, but the team decided to hold the feature for further review. It should be available in November's R37 release.

RE: New community edition (Release 2025)

Eli Donahue — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 21:39:30 GMT

Hi all, thanks for sharing your feedback on the 2025 Community Edition. I’ve passed along your concerns to help improve communication around future releases. While there are no planned changes to the Community Edition this year, we’re taking the following steps based on your input:

Updating the 2025 documentation and website to clarify the user limit and remove any conflicting information.

Working to improve how we communicate product releases.

Publishing a blog post introducing the 2025 Community Edition and helping folks get started.

I'm closing this thread now that the feedback has been captured and actions are underway. For additional feedback about the Community Edition, questions about subscription options, or the next step in your PLM journey, don't hesitate to get in touch with info@aras.com.

New community edition (Release 2025)

AngelaIp — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 07:09:46 GMT

Hi community,

what are your thoughts regarding the new open release?

Angela

Best Way to Present a Complex Property with a Value (float) and Unit

Christian Ludtke — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 23:10:01 GMT

I am interested in Tracking a Dimensional Property

For example, Engagement Stock Length of a Rod

I want to persist the value of the Length using SI (Meters) in the Database.

I want to allow the user interface to allow the user to select the Unit from a pre-defined units (inches, millimeters, feet, etc.)

When the user changes the value of the unit, I want the system to convert the value shown to that unit.

If the Unit shown is not Meters, I want the system to convert and save the value shown to Meters.

Has anyone done this? Does Aras have any advanced data types for this?

RE: Best Way to Present a Complex Property with a Value (float) and Unit

AngelaIp — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 07:54:21 GMT

No: Aras is not that advanced.

BUT: It´s not hard to do. It´s one of the typical questions that you can perfectly solve with AI:

https://chatgpt.com/share/689304e3-6dd0-8003-82c1-8715ccc40a37

- Instead of the html part, use the existing Innovator "Unit" list.
- Add an "onChange" Method to the "Unit" list.
- The code uses an event listener. We don´t need this one, so simple remove the event listener stuff from the JS code.
- Instead of document.getElemetnById to get the native HTML elements, rewrite to use the OOTB Aras "value" and "unit" fields.

BTW: For those who think to directly ask AI for a an Innovator solution instead of a generic HTML solution. Go for it! The answers are just very often very wrong. Most of the time you get outdated solutions for Innovator 11. :)

RE: Any best practice tips to clean up orphaned files in the Global Files Container?

AngelaIp — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 11:54:07 GMT

Which Innovator version do you use?

In I12 with (enable force delete variable!), when i create a part with a thumbnail, and then delete the Part, the file will not be removed.

In I12, all files related to a property of type "Image" will only be stored in the Global Files Container.

The Global Files container is also used for files that you "just" upload to innovator without any reference to a relationship or item property. Typically we have this use case for temporary files like data packages.

Any best practice tips to clean up orphaned files in the Global Files Container?

AngelaIp — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 16:44:03 GMT

Hi community,

on a regular basic I clean up orphaned files. Typically these are files that were used in a relationship or file property item.

But we have another type of files -> images and thumbnails. If thumbnails are not referenced any more, they are not marked as orphaned. They stay in the Global Files Container. We cannot use the locator to check if the files are still used.

What is the best way to get and overview of these files?

I am already able to find orphaned thumbnails of Parts via SQL.

But I noticed that it´s dangerous to only check the "Part" Item Type. The "Image" property is used more than 30 ItemTypes. Just because my orphaned image isn´t use in a Part, doesn´t mean it isn´t use in a mpp_Tool

So I wonder if my current approach to get the files via SQL is really the best approach.

Does anyone have a better idea?

Angela

RE: Any best practice tips to clean up orphaned files in the Global Files Container?

Suhas — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 11:49:16 GMT

Hello AngelaIp ,

If a file is removed from a relationship or property, and it is not associated with any other entity, file item will be automatically deleted from the system as it becomes an orphaned file.

Regards,

Suhas

RE: Any best practice tips to clean up orphaned files in the Global Files Container?

AngelaIp — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 11:39:15 GMT

Hi Suhas,

thanks for the input!

The "Delete.Orphaned.Files" Variable unfortunately doesn´t seem to work for files in the "Global Files Container" like thumbnails.

As mentioned in the description, the Variable only applies to files in the Orphaned Files Container (=related files).

That´s why deleting thumbnails is a super dangerous task in general. You can just go to the "Files" ItemType and delete them. BUT: You will never get any warning when they are still used somewhere. They aren´t tracked by the file locator at all.

So the only solution I found right now is to look actively for references by SQL.

RE: Any best practice tips to clean up orphaned files in the Global Files Container?

Suhas — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 11:23:26 GMT

Hello AngelaIp ,

I hope below solution will work for you. something may be interesting for you.

Regards,

Suhas

What is the best way to clean up and delete useless / redundant History entries?

AngelaIp — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 10:39:48 GMT

Hi community,

I assume many of you use the item history for Parts, CAD or other ItemTypes. Dependent on how you configured the history, the history entries itself are more or less useful.

I noticed that we get a lot of useless history entries, when users do mainly relationship edits. In this case we often have plain "update" entries without any comment. Some of these empty "update" entries are caused by Methods in the background. See also: [mention:46cf4c52877a4baea3290952bed18c6f:46448885d0e64133bbfbf0cd7b0fd6f7]

The history table can be one of the biggest in Innovator, so I wonder if we can do some cleanup to optimize the data quality?
In our case I expect 20%-25% of the history entries to be redundant.

I definitely don´t want to remove all "Update" related entries. But I only want to store the "last" entry of a major change operation.
Just the ones that are around less than 30 seconds apart, were created by the same person and have no comment.

Example:

Is there any other answer than "SQL" (or AI ) to analyse which entries can be deleted?

Is there anything else we need to consider? Thanks for any suggestions or second thoughts!

Angela

R35/R2025 toolbar redesign: Simplified Icons + Labels = Usability Nightmare – How can we revert this quickly?

AngelaIp — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 15:14:53 GMT

Hi community,

in general I am happy with most of the UI/UX improvements in R35/2025. Many of them are great ideas and we are happy that Aras added them.
BUT: There is one "improvement" that I don´t like and I am searching for options to revert it as fast as possible. I am looking for a solution that I can reuse on every Innovator instance that doesn’t want to follow the new 'simplification' design trend.

Aras has simplified the toolbar CUI buttons, aligning them more closely with the current - but questionable - trend of overly clean design. As a result, the icons have become harder to distinguish. To compensate, labels were added, but they take up a significant amount of space. The situation worsens when using the German or French language pack, where labels are typically 30- 40% longer. In that case, there’s hardly any pixel left for custom elements, often forcing the toolbar to wrap into a second row.

This is the default search grid in Release 35/2025:

This is a common layout that I use in I12/14:

Many of my ItemTypes have one or two custom buttons in the toolbar. They often use labels so people can easily see that the custom buttons are unique and important for the specific ItemType. In the shown sample I even removed one default element ("Today") to save some space.

Fun detail: Aras now uses the upload icon to represent 'share,' which doesn’t fit the context at all. This is especially confusing when custom buttons next to it actually perform "real" upload actions (like in my image)!

How can we bring back the previous design fast?
- I assume the additional labels can be removed in the language pack?
- Update the icons via AML?

What is your opinion regarding the design update?

Angela

RE: R35/R2025 toolbar redesign: Simplified Icons + Labels = Usability Nightmare – How can we revert this quickly?

AngelaIp — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 09:26:52 GMT

Wow, thanks for the detailed explanation! You even recreated the border around the CUI elements!!!!👍😀
I can’t wait for an optimized Open Release version of Innovator where I can finally use this kind of customization in practice!

And before everyone thinks I’m just roasting everything about the R35 design - there are definitely a few things I actually like:

This one looks odd at first, but it’s surprisingly helpful!
The new “clean” design in the grid right-click menu looks quite decent!
Innovator finally supports colors in the grid!
The LifeCycle dialog and new main page.
The loading spinner is no longer "Synthwave purple." I mean… purple? Seriously?
...

Many of the aspects I dislike about the design aren’t actually due to Aras’s design changes themselves, but rather because they don’t work well when using the German language pack.
In many cases, the German translation is simply overdone - it translates everything too accurate or unnecessarily.

Here are some screenshots that show what we’re dealing with:

Situation: Standard Part grid on a laptop or small office monitor. There is no space left for custom buttons.
Bonus: Some grammar errors in the tool tips make Innovator sound like a German with East European background. Which sometimes sounds quite funny btw.

So don´t even think of working with laptop. For German get a 27" screen if possible.
This is a standard German Part relationship tab:

This is the English version (customized)

The translation for "AML" really reflects Aras´s struggle to explain the term to a German audience, so they ended up using two long words for AML. So But I confirm that the German translations are very accurate. Far to accurate!!! Nobody needs it that accurate. 😃

To German audience (feel free to translate with any browser tool):

Ich hab selber in der Vergangenheit nie das Ganze Sprachpaket genutzt, sondern immer ein stark vereinfachtes, so dass nur Enduser-relevante Sachen übersetzt werden. Gerade bei Admin Begriffen wie "ItemType" oder "LifeCycle" macht eine Übersetzung oft keinen Sinn, da fast nichts mehr mit den Handbüchern übereinstimmt und man sich immer einen Wolf sucht. Auch die Übersetzung allgemein gebräuchlicher Begriffe wie "BOM" kann man sich oft sparen.

Vielleicht findet sich ein paar Interessenten an der regelmäßigen Entwicklung von "Lightweight-German" Sprachpaketen.
Da kann man vieles Skripten. Aktuell habe ich die Dinger immer nur bei Bedarf erstellt.

Meldet Euch bei Interesse!

Tree Grid Views but with additional filters to hide data we don´t need - what options do we have?

AngelaIp — Tue, 06 May 2025 10:15:20 GMT

Hi community,

let´s assume we have a multilevel BOM with many Parts. Some of them have Documents attached. There are Documents on level 0, 3 and 7 of the BOM. I want to have an tree-like overview of the Parts and the Documents, but I don´t want to display the Parts with no documents.

We can use AML or SQL to get the data. E.g. I currently use following custom AML solution to get all documents and their levels in a simple grid rendering, SQL would work similiar:

In the past I already used some 3rd part libs to render lightweight trees. But these custom trees often don´t blend in well if we don´t spend a lot of time with styling.

So my idea is right now to use TGV for the tree rendering. I made a very test with QD and TGV. Data is missing intentionally as it´s just a functional sample. TGVs work well for trees, but they will show the complete BOM structure. Is there any way to hide the data we don´t need?

We can use parameters to filter the data. But this filter option currently only hides the text of the elements and not the complete grid row itself.

This behavior probably has a reason. In a multilevel BOM scenario Innovator cannot tell on which BOM level we have documents. TGVs need the complete data for the rendering. But I would be awesome if we would have some additional filter options to play around with appearance of the data AFTER query execution.

Does anyone has an idea to do these kind of tree renderings? Thanks for any input!!!

Angela