KB81495133: WebCenter - How to automatically add documents to the Bill of Materials when they are picked up from a library

Description

When you create a new project based on items selected in a saved search or asset browser, the selected documents are not added to the Bill of Materials (BOM) by default. In case you regularly make use of an asset library like this, to create projects from and you use the Bill of Materials functionality, you may prefer a way to add documents to the Bill of Materials automatically upon project creation.

Image 1: A library project, all the documents have been added to the Bill of Materials.

Image 2: Library images can be located using a saved search. Documents have been added to the Cart to be able to create a new project containing these images.

Image 3 and 4: By default, the library documents are not added to the Bill of Materials of the new project.

This article describes how you can automatically add documents from an asset library to your new project's Bill of Materials. You can either add all documents or only specific documents. You can also choose between adding these documents at project creation time only or throughout the project. Choose the option that best suits your workflow.

Procedure

Automatically add documents added before start of project to BOM

Add all document to the BOM (project creation only) 

Upon creating a project, using a template and selected documents from a library, it is possible to start a workflow task that automatically adds each document to the Bill of Materials.

To set up such a workflow, follow these steps: 

1. Create a new task type Add all documents to BOM (project creation), set up a simple workflow with a Select Document node to select all documents and an Add to Bill of Materials node. Alternatively, import this task type into your system to get started: Add all documents to BOM (project creation).xml.

   

   
   

2. Create or modify your project template, add your task to it and configure it to start at project creation.
   
3. Make sure your saved search library has your specific template set up as Fixed Template. You can do this by modifying the Search Result Layout Options. 
4. Add a few items to the Cart and create your project. After project creation, you can see that your documents have been added to the Bill of Materials.
   

Add specific documents to the BOM (project creation only)  

Upon creating a project, using a template and selected documents from a library, it is possible to start a workflow task that automatically adds specific documents to the Bill of Materials based on a document attribute.

To set up such a workflow, follow these steps:

1. First of all, set up an attribute category for your documents, named Document Attributes or something similar. This attribute category should at least contain one attribute BOM based on a restricted set with values yes and no. You may use this sample attribute category to get started: Document Attributes.xml
2. Now make sure to assign the attribute category you have just created to the documents in your library project(s). The value should be set to yes for the documents that need to be added to the BOM.
   

3. Create a new task type Add specific documents to BOM (project creation), set up a simple workflow with a Select Document, an Add to Bill of Materials and a Router node. Alternatively, import this task type to get started: Add specific documents to BOM (project creation).xml

   

   

      
   

4. Create or modify your project template, add your task to it and configure it to start at project creation.
   
5. Make sure your saved search library has your specific template set up as Fixed Template. You can do this by modifying the Search Result Layout Options. 
6. Add a few items to the Cart and create your project. After project creation, you can see the documents with the BOM attribute set to yes have been added to the Bill of Materials.
   

Automatically add documents added at any point to BOM

Add all documents to the BOM

Upon creating a project, using a template and selected documents from a library, it is possible to start a workflow task that automatically adds each document to the Bill of Materials. If you follow these steps, specific documents will be added to the Bill of Materials during project creation as well as at later times after the project has already been created.

To set up such a workflow, follow these steps: 

1. Create a new task type Add all documents to BOM, set up a simple workflow with just one Add to Bill of Materials node. Using this node, you can add documents to the Bill of Materials. Alternatively, you can import this task type into your system to get started: Add all document to BOM.xml

   

    

2. Create or modify your project template, modify the Document Creation settings so that the task Add all documents to BOM is started for every newly added document.
   
3. Make sure your saved search library has your specific template set up as Fixed Template. You can do this by modifying the Search Result Layout Options. 
4. Add a few items to the Cart and create your project. After project creation, you can see your documents have been added to the Bill of Materials.

Add specific documents to the BOM

Upon creating a project, using a template and selected documents from a library, it is possible to start a workflow task that automatically adds specific documents to the Bill of Materials based on a document attribute. If you follow these steps, specific documents will be added to the Bill of Materials during project creation as well as at later times after the project has already been created.

1. First of all set up an attribute category for your documents, named Document Attributes or something similar. This attribute category should at least contain one attribute BOM based on a restricted set with values yes and no. You may use this sample attribute category to get started: Document Attributes.xml 
2. Now make sure to assign the attribute category you have just created to the documents in your library project(s). The value should be set to yes for the documents that need to be added to the BOM.
   

3. Create a new task type Add specific documents to BOM, set up a simple workflow with just one Add to Bill of Materials and a Router node. Alternatively, you can import this task type into your system to get started: Add specific documents to BOM.xml.

   

   

       

4. Create or modify your project template, modify the Document Creation settings so that the task Add specific documents to BOM is started for every newly added document.
   
5. While you are modifying the Document Creation settings, make sure your Document Attributes attribute category is applied by default.
   
6. Make sure your saved search library has your specific template set up as Fixed Template. You can do this by modifying the Search Result Layout Options. 
7. Add a few items to the Cart and create your project. After project creation, you can see the documents with the BOM attribute set to yes have been added to the Bill of Materials.