Project Navigator now supports the addition of custom tools to its menu. These tools, once added, can automatically be made available to all users or made available to only a subset of users and/or workstations. The tools you add must be references to separate program (EXE, COM, or BAT) files. When you are going to add a custom tool for everyone to use there are several things to consider:
Do you want the user to operate on one or more files in TIMS3?
Do you want the manipulation of these files to take
place on the local workstation or on the server?
If they will run the manipulation on the local workstation does the program file exist on all workstations in the same consistent location?
NT Scheduler service must be running on the TIMS3 file server(s).
Users must be given NT domain privileges to submit jobs to the
default file server scheduler.
Submitting jobs to the scheduler can only be done on workstations
that are directly connected to the domain, i.e. submitting via an
Internet connection is not possible. All Internet connection tools
must be performed on the local workstation.
To add a new custom tool you must be defined in TIMS3 as a 'TIMS3 Mgr' class user. If this is the case then an add tools menu item should be enabled under the Project Navigator 'Tools' menu. Click the 'Add Tools' menu item to access the 'Custom Tools' dialog shown below.
When the 'Custom Tools' dialog appears for the first time and there are no previously defined tools, click the 'New' button on this dialog to add a new tool. Define the name of the tool (e.g. NotePad as in the example below). Next, type in the command line to the EXE, COM or BAT file that should be executed when the user selects this Tool name.
Next, if this tool will not manipulate files then your done, just click OK. If, however, this tool will manipulate files then you must check-on the 'Add Files to Command Line' (and probably 'Include file full path'). Next you must decide if the manipulation will be done on the local workstation or on the server. The default is setup to 'Execute Locally' which will require the files to be either 'Checkout files first' or 'Copyout files first'. If you want the manipulation done on the server then select 'Use server file spec' and specify a time to submit the command to the server scheduler.
If you'd like to limit the use of this tool to certain users or NT groups then you must check on the checkbox and specify the group and./or usernames in the list next to the checkbox. Note each group/user name must be separated with a comma character.
Select the Project Navigator->Tools->Add Tools menu option to again bring up the 'Custom Tools' dialog. Select the tool name you want to edit by using the Tool Name dropdown list. Edit your changes in the dialog and then press OK or Apply to submit the changes.