This week’s topic: BOMs
As organizations start to see returns from XML implementations in technical publications, training, and support, they start to see how it can benefit even more departments across the organizations. One of the places that organizations look at first is to BOMs. BOM documents are highly structured. They're the definition of reused content: Their contents come from other places, other systems, other documents. Two classic signs for content that can benefit from XML creation and publishing systems.
Last week, we got a peek at the new Service Information System (SIS) that PTC is working on. SIS is a complete system for creating, maintaining and delivering service information throughout a product's lifecycle.
Today, we're scaling back and looking only at BOMs.
Question: Creating BOMs Automatically
Can you create a bill of materials (BOM) definition of the configuration of a document that identifies the components to be included and their versions such that the document can be produced as required and could be reassembled from its component parts at any time in the future?
Answer:
Yes, you can create BOMs and DITA maps directly in ACM.
Question: Versioning BOMs
Do you support versioning of BOMs to track how document configurations have changed over time?
Answer:
Yes
Question: Versioning BOM metadata
Does ACM support versioning of metadata that is attached to a component or a BOMs to identify when metadata has changed even if the metadata change can change the meaning of a component or a document?
Answer:
Yes
Key Concepts:
arbortext content manager (windchill), basics, dita