Clarity

I have created a gel script that runs in a process. It gets timesheet data, creates a CSV file and places it on our /fs0/clarity1/share location. I also send the same file via email to myself.

My question is... are there ANY other ways in an On Demand environment to get data out of PPM?

Thanks! - Joanne

Write a NSQL query ; call it over SOAP

...so NSQL query based portlet and export to Excel is not considered getting data out?

Write a report, export it.

Calling a NSQL via SOAP from a window command line as Dave pointed out:

curl --header "Content-Type: text/xml;charset=UTF-8" --header "SOAPAction: ""http://www.niku.com/xog/Query/The_NSQL_QUERY""" --data @NsqlResults.xml https://cppm.ondemand.ca.com/niku/xog

You might have to install curl or run the command on a linux box.

V/r,

Gene

What about ITROI's Query bridge - that can "just" run queries (as well as XOG/XML) against a Clarity URL can't it?

Hi Joanne ; sorry you have got a number of somewhat "flippant" answers to your question (mostly from me 'cos I was replying "out of core hours").

But the right-answer really comes down to your use-case, "getting data out of Clarity" happens all the time, for example when you log into Clarity and look at a screen, the data is "out of Clarity and into your head" - slightly more developed versions of that would be "run a portlet" (like Urmas suggests), "run a report" (like one of my flippant answers).

In truth my original "build a query web-service" answer (which is the simple to build NSQL query / SOAP option) would only be the "best" answer for a specific use-case (where you want to build some interface / repeatable process to get Clarity data into some other system).

So if you can describe your use-case a little more you might get some more specific (and less flippant from me!) direction!

Some previous discussions in this area might be (I'm sure there are many more);

Extracting Data from Clarity

Automating resource Clarity data to SharePoint

Automate file downloads from Clarity PPM

Like this one

Data Migration Opinions?

This is the image at the time related to the use of XOG and generating the xml files.

Currently there are more elements in the quadrant and a third dimension could also be added:

OOTB in CA PPM - Will and access to install and use third party tools.

Yeah, its almost an endless discussion...

To me though , "data-migration" implies getting data into Clarity (rather than out-of) - the actual use-case is all important then.

Thank you David. I need to fetch contractor timesheet data once a week to send to our Contract management company so that the contractors can be paid. They require that a csv file be SFTP'd to them. I am making the csv via a gel script in a process and placing it in the only location I am aware of. I was just wondering if there was any other way. The NSQL/SOAP method looks promising. I will need to research and learn that.

Thank you all for your assistance!

So NSQL/SOAP would give you the tools to build an end-to-end thing that could do this - something running on "your environment" that uses SOAP to call a web-service (CA SaaS) and then processes the returned XML data to format a CSV file and SFTP to the target environment.

or

you could build a portlet that delivered your data ; run that weekly (manually), export to excel and (manually) upload to SFTP.

Sorry, I should have thought of this sooner.

How about the CA PPM Data Extraction tool? You create your native query in SQL, and CA PPM schedules the job that runs the query it an places it in the Data Extraction Dashboard. You just have to log in and pull the excel output.

One last thing, the output goes to a specific path, so you can still have your script pick up the file and email you.

I highly recommend that you get a chance to try the Data Extraction tool. It has made life so much easier in getting data out.

Not doubting that at all.

How much money are you talking about?

Is there business justification for exporting contractor timesheet data weekly?

I believe that CA included it as part of our maintenance agreement with them, so no extra cost to us. CA approached us with this as a potential solution for some of extract requirements.

We have created multiple extracts with the Data Extraction Tool and some our customers rely on daily. So the benefit has been huge. We took one extract that was custom created for us that took between 30-45 minutes to run and recreated it in the data extraction tool. It went down to less than 10 minutes. Even if we had to pay for it, it would have already recovered the cost in savings by now.

Thanks. Don't disagree at all.

The more use cases you have the stronger the business case just thinking simplicity. Performance is a bonus.

While it does have its warts, once you get used to it, you'll want it in all your environments.