UFC, Inc. - Pangea Engineering Document System

Product Description:

Pangea is an application that allows engineers to track their drawings in FileNet P8. The application was designed using primarily Microsoft.NET technologies and it provides a user-friendly methodology for users to perform their job functions. The search, display, index, lookup and many other features of the application are completely definable by the system administrator. The application's customizable features provide the user with an extremely flexible environment with features far beyond what the out of the box FileNet Workplace product provides. The application is composed of two components. The first is a web-based utility(ASP.NET) for searching, viewing, downloading and printing documents. This utility allows the user to select multiple drawings and combine them all into a single PDF file and download this PDF file to their computers. It also allows the user to print multiple documents at the same time. The second component is a thick client application that performs all of the functions of the thin client but also allows the user to check in/check out drawings from FileNet P8. It allows users to track the drawings that are checked out to view which user has checked them out. When the drawings are checked in they are automatically rendered to a TIFF file so that FileNet users who do not have a CAD program can also view the drawings. The program keeps the rendered TIFF copy of the drawing and the original CAD file in synch.


The application also tracks the documents as they progress through their "life cycle". A document can move both forward and backward through the stages in the process. The workflow stages are defined as: Current(when documents are checked out for revision and also for new documents that will be committed to FileNet); Prepared(for documents that have been completed and checked and are awaiting indexing and check-in to FileNet); Committed(when a document has been indexed and committed to FileNet P8); and Rejected(when a document has been rejected at the indexing or committed step and needs to be repaired).


Why the Need?

Our customers found that FileNet Workplace was limited in terms of its' functionality. Workplace does not allow a user to combine multiple documents together after a search is requested for those documents. The documents have to be opened one by one to view, print or download them. When a user selects multiple documents in the selection criteria, they still open up separately.


FileNet Workplace thick client does not have a tracking system to monitor when groups of particular types of documents have been "checked out" of FileNet. A user has to search for an individual drawing to see whether or not it has been checked out. Our solution allows the user to perform searches using a project based search criteria to inform the user which documents have been checked out for a particular project. This prevents two engineers from "marking up" a drawing at the same time. This "Query" function displays a list of documents and their multiple value property fields where FileNet's Workplace could not.
System Requirements


Pangea Web Server

• .NET Framework 1.1 and 2.0 must be pre-installed.
• Microsoft Web Services Enhancements 2.0 must be pre-installed.
• IIS 6.0 or higher must be pre-installed.
• FileNet P8 COM client with Enterprise Manager must be pre-installed and configured.
• A P8 user with sufficient privileges to access the relevant P8 object stores and document classes must be provided.
• For each P8 document class, a list of indexes must be provided for each of these functions: Search, Display, Index, and Lookup. If Lookups are to be configured, the relevant database connection information must be supplied. Additionally, each document class must belong to an administrator defined "Company". The names of these "companies", the document classes that belong to them, and a 2 or 3 letter alias must be provided.
• The P8 Content Engine Web Service must be enabled and configured.

• .NET Framework 2.0 must be pre-installed.
• Bentley Microstation must be pre-installed and configured.
• AutoDesk must be pre-installed and configured.
• Spicer Imagination must be pre-installed and configured.
• FileNet P8 COM must be pre-installed and configured. Enterprise Manager is not necessary, but encouraged for troubleshooting issues.
• A network share location common to all users of the application must be provided and mapped to the same drive letter on all Pangea Desktop machines.
• Pangea Desktop clients must have network connectivity to the Pangea Web Server.

• Database table creation scripts will be provided to the customer. These (SQL Server only) tables are required by the applications. Security information sufficient to add/remove items from the relevant tables must be provided. Both the Pangea Web Server, and the Pangea Desktop clients must have network connectivity to the relevant database. These tables would most likely reside in the FNTables database.