Snapshot Configuration

A snapshot is a document that contains information about an object, captured at a specific point in the object's lifecycle. Snapshots can either be created automatically when objects are approved, or on demand by users in AssetWise Director, ALIM Web, or AssetWise Engineering Designer.

Note: In previous versions of AssetWise, snapshots were referred to as digital approval records.

The actual generation of the snapshot document is a server-side process that uses the Snapshot Capture Service.

This section assumes:

You have already installed Snapshot Capture Service.
You have already enabled Snapshot Capture Service for your community.

(If this is not the case, see the AssetWise Implementation Guide for details.)

Once Snapshot Capture Service is installed and enabled for your community, the next step is to create a snapshot class. A snapshot class is simply a class of document whose Type is set to Snapshot. Once this class is created, you need to add at least one snapshot template to the class (one template for each object type you want to be able to create snapshots for). You can either create multiple snapshot classes with each class containing just one snapshot template, or you can create a single snapshot class that contains all of your snapshot templates.

The snapshot template determines:

which classes of objects a snapshot can be created for
which information will be included in the snapshot
what file format the snapshot document will be (XML, HTML, or PDF)
whether or not users can create snapshots
whether or not snapshots are created automatically upon approval of an object

Once you create the template, you can set security on the template to determine who can use this template to create snapshots, as well as who has the ability to modify, delete, and approve the template. Security can also be set on the resulting snapshot records to determine who can view, modify, delete, or approve them.

Related concepts
Creating and Viewing Snapshots

To Create a Snapshot Class

Open the System Admin tab (View > System Administration).
Click the Information Modeling icon .
Expand Classes & Attributes > Documents.
Select the eB System Docs class.
The class opens in the Content pane.
Expand the Child Classes topic and click the New link.
Enter a Code and a Name for the class and set the Type to Snapshot.
Click the Add icon in the Main toolbar to add the new class.

Now you can add one or more snapshot templates to this class. See the next procedure for details.

To Add a New Snapshot Template to a Snapshot Class

Open your snapshot class in the Content pane.
If you are continuing from the previous procedure, this class should already be open.

Otherwise, open the System Admin tab, expand Information Modeling > Classes & Attributes > Documents > eB System Docs, and select your snapshot class.
Expand the Templates topic and click the New link.

A new tab opens (next to your snapshot class) for you to configure the new template.
Enter a Name, Description, and Mask for the template.
Click the Add icon in the Main toolbar to add the template to the snapshot class.

Additional topics are now available for the template.
With the snapshot template still open, expand the Snapshot Options topic to set the configuration options for this template.
From the This Snapshot Template is for... list, select the object type you want this template to be used for.
In the ...belonging to the following classes list, check the check box for each class you want this template to be used for.
This is how you restrict which objects a snapshot can be created for. Any class of objects not checked will not be able to have a snapshot created for it.

In the Initiation section, turn on the options that determine when a snapshot can be created.

Setting	Description
Allow the user to explicitly request the Snapshot creation for this Template	If on, users can create snapshots of an object on demand, assuming the selected object matches the type and class specified in the template.
Auto create the Snapshot	Depending on the object type selected, the auto create options may be disabled from setting/changing. However, assuming the selected object type does allow for the auto creation of snapshots, the following options are available: On Approval of the <Objects> (the wording of this setting changes slightly depending on the object type selected) - If on, a snapshot will automatically be created for an object when it is approved, assuming the object matches the type and class specified in the template. Ignore auto create events when the Snapshot already exist - If on, a snapshot will not be created automatically if a snapshot already exists for the object.

Setting

Description

Allow the user to explicitly request the Snapshot creation for this Template

If on, users can create snapshots of an object on demand, assuming the selected object matches the type and class specified in the template.

Auto create the Snapshot

Depending on the object type selected, the auto create options may be disabled from setting/changing.

However, assuming the selected object type does allow for the auto creation of snapshots, the following options are available:

On Approval of the <Objects> (the wording of this setting changes slightly depending on the object type selected) - If on, a snapshot will automatically be created for an object when it is approved, assuming the object matches the type and class specified in the template.
Ignore auto create events when the Snapshot already exist - If on, a snapshot will not be created automatically if a snapshot already exists for the object.

In the Content section, check the check box for each piece of information you want to include in the snapshot.

Tip: You can also click the View Larger button to open the same list in a new window.
In the Rendition section, set your preference to XML, HTML, or PDF:

Select None (default) if you want the snapshot to be an XML file.

or
Select Render to HTML if you want the snapshot to be an HTML file.

or
Select Render to HTML then also turn on Render the HTML to PDF if you want the snapshot to be a PDF file.
(Optional) In the Other section, turn on Allow multiple Snapshots to be created if you want to allow objects to have multiple snapshots.
(Optional) In the Override for Current Session section, turn on Exclude Historic.
(Optional) Click the Select Active and Default Scopes link to select the scopes in which this template applies.
Click the Save icon in the Main toolbar to save the snapshot template.

Customizing a Snapshot

You can customize the style sheet and the logo.gif files associated with a snapshot. You can change the styling and layout of the snapshot rendition, or you can add your own personal logo.gif file in the snapshot. For advanced customization such as adding more style sheet elements to expose additional metadata, contact Bentley Professional Services.

By default, when you create a snapshot the system uses the style sheet files (.XSLT) stored in ...\Bentley\eB\Server\Engines\HtmlRendition\Resources. There is one style sheet for each object type. For example, the file 3.xslt is used for documents and the file 212.xslt is used for tags. To determine which style sheet to use, open the file and search for the <head> tag. For example, 3.xslt contains the following:

<head>
  <title>Document Details</title>
</head>

There is also a single logo.gif file that applies to all snapshots.

If you want to customize your logo or style sheet files, the options are:

Update the default style sheet and logo.gif file so that the changes will apply to all new snapshots created by the system.
or
Use your own style sheet and logo.gif files and keep the default files. If you choose this option, you will need to add the style sheet files and the logo.gif file to the Files topic in the snapshot template.

If you take option 2 above, you will need to create your own style sheet file based on one of the default style sheet files. You must also reference the childtable.xslt, lookuptable.xslt, and function.xslt files using one of the following methods:

Add the childtable.xslt, lookuptable.xslt, and function.xslt files to the snapshot template in AssetWise Director and then make them dependent files to the XSLT file.
Change the three include statements in the XSLT file to the following:

From:

<x:include href="./childtable.xslt" />
<x:include href="./lookuptable.xslt" />
<x:include href="./function.xslt" />

To:

<x:include href="./htmlrendition/resources/childtable.xslt" />
 <x:include href="./htmlrendition/resources/lookuptable.xslt" />
<x:include href="./htmlrendition/resources/function.xslt" />

If you add the graphic (logo.gif) file in your template, you will need to remove the relative path to the image:

From:

<img src="./logo.gif" style="float:right"></img>

To:

img src="logo.gif" style="float:right">