AX2200

Creating plan files

Using the Create Plan Files utility, you can create one or more plan files for a file group. Typically you would selectively create plan files during the setup and testing phase, and then you would create all plan files when you are ready to roll out the system to end users.

The Create Plan Files utility simply creates and saves the plan files—it does not refresh the files with data. Once you have created the plan files, run the Process Plan Files utility to populate Axiom queries with data.

In order to use the Create Plan Files utility, all plan codes must already be assigned to a template. For more information, see Assigning templates to plan codes.

The Create Plan Files utility is only available to administrators and to users with the Create Plan Files security permission. Additionally, users must have read/write access to the plan files that they want to create. Workflow stage ownership is considered to determine whether the user has read/write permission (but not process step ownership).

To create plan files:

1. On the Axiom tab, in the File Group group, click the arrow next to the file group name to bring up the file group menu, then click Create Plan Files.

   

   TIP: You can also access this command in the Explorer task pane.

   The Create Plan Files dialog opens, listing the plan codes for the file group. You can sort, filter, and group the list using standard Axiom grid features. This dialog always includes the following columns, which provide useful information for the plan file creation process:

   • File Exists: Specifies whether a plan file already exists for this plan code (True/False). This can help you determine whether you will be overwriting an existing plan file.

   • Assigned Template: Displays the name of the template that will be used to create the plan file. This assignment is taken from either the designated Template Column or the Default Template for the file group. If this entry is not as expected, then you should double-check the file group settings and the template column as appropriate.

2. Select the plan codes for which you want to create plan files. You can do this using one of the following methods:

   • Create all plan files: To create all plan files, select All.

   • Create selected plan files: To create certain plan files, select Choose from list, and then select the check boxes for those individual plan codes.

     To find the plan codes you are looking for, you can sort, filter, and group the list using standard Axiom grid features. You can show additional columns and hide columns by right-clicking in the column header. If you have filtered the list, you can select the check box in the header to select only the plan codes that currently display in the dialog.

   • Create a subset of plan files using a filter: To use a filter to create a subset of plan files, select Use filter, and then type a filter into the filter box. You can also use the Filter Wizard to build the filter. The filter must use the plan code table or a reference table that the plan code table links to. For example: DEPT.Region='West'.

     Once you have entered a filter, you can click Refresh plan file list to show only those plan codes that currently match the filter. The refresh feature is to help you determine whether you have defined the filter correctly.

   IMPORTANT: If you select a plan code that already has a plan file, the Create Plan Files utility will overwrite the existing file and create a new one.

3. Click OK.

   A message box displays the number of plan files you are about to create, and asks you to confirm that you want to continue. If you are overwriting any existing plan files, the message also informs you that a restore point will be created before the process begins, so that if necessary you can restore plan files that were overwritten (see Restoring plan files from restore points).

4. Click Yes to continue.

   If the number of plan files is not as expected, you can click No to cancel the process and return to the Create Plan Files dialog.

When the Create Plan Files process is complete, a dialog opens to display the results for each plan code included in the utility. The Result column displays success or failure, and the Details column provides additional information.

NOTE: If you are using Create Plan Files to create new on-demand plan files, those plan files will be automatically started in the designated Plan File Process for the file group. This only applies when creating a brand new plan file. If an existing plan file is overwritten, its process status will be left as is.

After creating plan files from templates

Once plan files have been created from templates, further changes to a template do not impact plan files, unless the plan files are re-created. However, you should be careful not to make any significant changes to a template once plan files are created, because the template is referenced by Process Plan Files and Print Plan Files to obtain lists of Axiom queries and print views respectively. Therefore you should not rename, delete, or otherwise edit any Axiom queries or print views in a template unless you plan to re-create plan files, or unless the existing plan files are no longer active and will not be used by these utilities.

Generally speaking, the Control Sheets of individual plan files should not be edited. If a change needs to be made to the Control Sheet, the change should be made in the template and then plan files should be re-created. Most importantly, you should not edit the Axiom queries in an individual plan file, because this may cause unexpected results when updating the plan file using Process Plan Files.

NOTE: These considerations do not apply if the file group uses virtual plan files. Virtual plan files are automatically rebuilt from the template each time they are accessed, so the plan file always uses the latest version of the template.

Using Create Plan Files with on-demand file groups

In most cases, the Create Plan Files utility is not used with on-demand file groups. By default, Allow Generation of Plan Files from Templates is disabled for on-demand file groups, so the utility is not available in the file group menu. Instead of creating plan files in bulk using the utility, users create plan files "on demand."

However, in rare cases, the utility can be used with on-demand file groups. For example, you might import records from another system and need to generate plan files for those records in Axiom Software. In that case, you can enable Allow Generation of Plan Files from Templates so that you can use the Create Plan Files utility to do so.