Overview
The goal of this guide is to assist experienced Windchill administrators in their understanding of the architecture and management of Windchill Extensions.
It will allow you to understand how to deploy and undeploy extensions and manage extensions within Windchill.
What are Windchill Extensions?
Windchill Extensions (WEX, for short) are "add-ons" that can be installed on any Windchill system. They may add new features, alter the behavior of existing ones, or improve the usability of the system. Some of their more interesting capabilities are:
-
Plug & play: no more waiting for a go live to install and configure customizations on your Windchill. Install and uninstall WEXes in seconds without the need of restarting your system.
-
Full compatibility: your configurations will persist through upgrades. Following your Windchill update, simply install the versioned extension, and you’re up - no reapplying existing configurations.
-
Secure, IT-friendly architecture: the WEX platform is based on a unique micro kernel that supplements the Windchill system. It enables your subscribed Windchill Extensions to be fully isolated from your Windchill service. Windchill Extensions use digitally signed software packages, ensuring all installed extensions are verified and secure.
Architecture
The architecture of the program ensures isolation: the extension is a separate plug in that will not be placed in the Windchill codebase. An extension will have no effect on the Windchill system and all WEXes are compatible with any other extension and any other customizations that may be already installed on the system.
Terminology
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| WEX | Shorthand for "Windchill Extension". |
| WEX package | The Windchill extension file: it has a .wex extension and is in a zipped format. |
| WEX bundle | A zip or jar of wexes that will be passed onto the deployer for it to deploy and install each one of them. Has a .wexb file extension. |
| Deploy | Act of unpacking the wex into the codebase. |
| Install | Act of injecting the touch points and configuring Windchill to use the wex. |
| Load | The dynamic loading of the classes by the WEX Kernel. |
| groupId | The id that identifies the author of the WEX (e.g. com.wincomplm). |
| artifactId | The id that identifies the project (e.g. wex-deploy). |
| wexId | The id of the WEX: wexid = groupId + artifactId (e.g. com.wincomplm.wex-deploy). |