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Category: Image

How to bulk upload images via the Integration Framework?

27 June 2018 / / 19 Comments

In the previous post, I provided an example of how we can customise Object Structure to enable import/export of binary data via MIF. It is achieved with Java customisation. From Maximo version 7.6, the automation scripting framework has been greatly extended to support integration. With this update, we can enable import/export of binary data with a simple automation script. Below is an example of how we can configure Maximo 7.6 to bulk upload images to Item Master application:

Step 1: Add a new Object Structure

  • In the Object Structures application, Open and duplicate the MXITEM object structure to create a new one. Name it MXLITEM
  • Under “Source Objects for MXITEM”, delete all child objects, and add a new child object IMGLIB as shown below

Step 2: Add an Integration Automation Script

  • In the Automation Script application, choose Action > Create > Script for Integration
  • In the pop-up, enter the following  details:
    • Select “Object Structure”, choose “MXLITEM” for Object Structure
    • Select “Inbound Processing”
    • Language: Python
    • Copy/paste the piece of code below to the  Source Code area.

Step 3: Upload images to Item Master

Download the Excel VBA tool in this GitHub repo. Use it bulk upload images to Item Master:

  • Upload the Settings page with the URL and the username/password to connect to Maximo
  • Put all the image files in the same folder as the Excel file
  • Update the Data sheet with the list of Item Number and the name of the image file.
  • Click on “Upload Images”

Notes & Updates

Note 1: be careful with photos taken from newer cameras, the files usually have high resolution and thus can be quite big. I’ve seen an eager team of engineers upload images for all assets and inventory items in a power plant, and overnight, the database grew from 1GB to 20 GB. Thus make sure you resize the images before uploading.

One quick and simple method in Windows is to select multiple files, then right-click, and choose Send To > Mail Recipient. Windows will give you a pop-up to resize the files, choose the smallest size (640×480). Windows will resize the files, then attach them to Outlook, in Outlook, select all the files, and copy/paste them to a different folder. These files will be much smaller than the original, full-resolution files.

Update Aug/2023: I have posted a new article on how to automatically rescale the image to a smaller size

Import/Export Maximo ImageLib Data via Integration Framework

31 March 2018 / / 10 Comments

In Maximo, we can upload images as attachments (DOCLINKS) which are stored as files on the server or as “profile” images which are stored as binary data inside the IMAGELIB table. Profile image is quite useful to give the user a quick view of what an inventory item or an asset/location looks like.

While Maximo allows us to upload DOCLINKS attachments via the Maximo Integration Framework (MIF), uploading images to the IMAGELIB table via MIF is not supported out-of-the-box. Therefore, to upload images, we can only do it manually one by one via the Maximo UI.

For bulk loading, if we have access to the DB server, we can write a stored procedure to read the files and import binary data directly to the database. There are two scenarios I had in the past in which this
approach doesn’t work

  • When we built mobile apps and wanted to upload data to IMAGELIB. In that case, my teammate extended a REST handler class to achieve this requirement.
  • When we needed to bulk upload images, the client did not give us access to the database

To address this requirement, we can extend the process classes of object structure (OS) to encode/decode binary data into Base64 string to deliver the data via XML or JSON format. Since this processing is done on object structure, it will support both application Import/Export and sending/receiving binary data via the integration framework’s MEAWEB API or JSON API.

To encode binary data to Base64 text string before exporting OS data, we can extend MicSetOut.class and associate it to the OS by specifying the class’s path in the “Outbound Definition Class” field. Below is the sample Java code which exports Item master data with Image:

To decode base64 string back to binary data before storing it to IMAGELIB table, we can extend the MicSetIn.class and associate it to the OS by specifying the class’s path in the “Inbound Processing Class” field. Below is the sample Java code:

Once we have the customized classes in place, it is possible to Export/Import ImageLib data using XML format or via web services. It is also quite easy to write a simple Excel/VBA program to bulk upload images via MIF without the need to have direct access to the DB server. But these are different topics and perhaps, I’ll provide examples in other future posts.

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