Innovator.Client

Innovator.Client is a library for connecting to Aras Innovator installations. It is a replacement for the IOM library provided by Aras. It is not a drop-in replacement, but rather aims to provide an API which is easier to use.

API Example

/// <summary>
/// Edit and release components of a given classification
/// </summary>
/// <param name="classification">Classification of parts to release</param>
private void ReleaseByType(string classification)
{
  var conn = Factory.GetConnection("URL", "USER_AGENT");
  conn.Login(new ExplicitCredentials("DATABASE", "USER_NAME", "PASSWORD"));

  // Get preliminary parts which have existed for a little bit of time
  var components = conn.Apply(@"<Item type='Part' action='get'>
                                  <classification>@0</classification>
                                  <created_on condition='lt'>@1</created_on>
                                  <state>Preliminary</state>
                                </Item>", classification, DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(-20)).Items();

  var aml = conn.AmlContext;
  // Iterate through the components
  foreach (var comp in components)
  {
    // Append the value " - Released" to the end of the name
    var edits = aml.Item(aml.Type("Part"), aml.Action("edit"), aml.Id(comp.Id()),
      aml.Property("name", comp.Property("name").AsString("") + " - Released")
    );
    // If the part was created after 2016-01-01, put the name of the creator in the description
    if (comp.CreatedOn().AsDateTime(DateTime.MaxValue) > new DateTime(2016, 1, 1))
    {
        edits.Property("description").Set("Created by: " + comp.CreatedById().KeyedName().Value);
    }
    // Apply the changes. Throw an exception if an error occurs.
    edits.Apply(conn).AssertNoError();

    // Promote the item. Throw an exception if an error occurs.
    comp.Promote(conn, "Released").AssertNoError();
  }
}

Installing

Get it via NuGet using the command

PM> Install-Package Innovator.Client

This will install the package in your Visual Studio solution

Compatibility

.Net

Innovator.Client has builds for .Net 3.5+ and .Net Standard 1.1+. In particular, there are builds for

• .Net 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.6
• .Net Standard 1.1, 1.3, 2.0

It is worth noting that the .Net Standard builds are largely untested while the full .Net builds are currently used in production deployments

Aras

The IOM is not backwards-compatible. For example, v11.0 of the IOM cannot be used with a v9.3 Aras Innovator vault. Innovator.Client strives to be compatible with all versions >= 9.3. It has been used in production deployments against Aras 9.3 and 11sp12.

Documentation

• API Documentation is hosted at https://erdomke.github.io/Innovator.Client/api/index.html
• For additional documentation, check out the various pages within the wiki

Why a new IOM?

Some use cases could not be addressed without a complete rewrite of the client (e.g. truly asynchronous AML calls, support for all Innovator versions, support for .Net Core, etc.). Furthermore, a rewrite provided the opportunity to address a number of frustrations with the current API (e.g. 'Not a single item' errors obscuring errors returned by the server). A more complete list of the goals/reasons are given below:

AML in code should look like AML

In Innovator.Client, there are multiple ways to include AML in code. In the first (and preferred) way, AML is embedded directly as a multi-line string:

// Get preliminary parts which have existed for a little bit of time
var components = conn.Apply(@"<Item type='Part' action='get'>
                                <classification>@0</classification>
                                <created_on condition='lt'>@1</created_on>
                                <state>Preliminary</state>
                              </Item>", classification, DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(-20)).Items();

Notice that parameters can be prefixed with an @ symbol. Parameters can of any .Net supported type. Core types (e.g. int, bool, DateTime, double, etc.) will all be serialized according to AML conventions. (This includes converting time zones where necessary so that a local date is rendered in the corporate AML time zone.) This prevents having to remember AML conventions and also helps prevent "AML-injection" attacks on your code. Since Innovator Admin supports parameters, these queries can be copied and pasted back and forth between your code editor and Innovator Admin during debugging.

In the second method, modifiable AML is composed using a method very similar to Linq-to-XML:

// Append the value " - Released" to the end of the name
var aml = conn.AmlContext;
var edits = aml.Item(aml.Type("Part"), aml.Action("edit"), aml.Id(comp.Id()),
    aml.Property("name", comp.Property("name").AsString("") + " - Released")
);

This coding style allows the nesting and structure of the AML to be preserved as it is being composed.

Parsing and serialization should be handled by the library

Besides the handling of .Net types as describe above, AML can also be parsed by the library using culture and time zone aware methods. For example, the created_on property can be returned as either a Nullable<DateTime> or a DateTime based on which overload of the AsDateTime method is called:

comp.CreatedOn().AsDateTime(); // Get Nullable<DateTime>
comp.CreatedOn().AsDateTime(DateTime.MinValue); // Get DateTime

Full support for asynchronous calls

The IOM does not come with generic support for asynchronous calls (e.g. of AML statements) or single file uploads or downloads. In this library, asynchronous calls can be performed in .Net 3.5+ using the Promise pattern or in .Net 4+ using the async pattern. For example:

// .Net 3.5
var promise = conn.ApplyAsync("MY_QUERY", true, false)
    .Done(result => {});
    
// .Net 4
var result = await conn.ApplyAsync("MY_QUERY", true, false);

Support vault access via streams

Requiring that files be read from/written to disk requires accessing the slowest, most error-prone memory accessible on a computer. This is particular a problem for server-based code.

// Upload a file
var memStream = new System.IO.MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("FILE_CONTENT"));
var upload = conn.CreateUploadCommand();
var sourceId = "DOCUMENT_ID";
var fileAml = upload.AddFile(@"C:\DUMMY_FILE_NAME.EXTENSION", memStream);
upload.WithAml(@"<Item type='Document File' action='add'>
                    <source_id>@0</source_id>
                    <related_id>@1!</related_id>
                </Item>", sourceId, fileAml);
var fileId = conn.Apply(upload).AssertItem().RelatedId().Value;

// Download a file
var stream = conn.Process(new Command("<Item type='File' action='get' id='@0' />", fileId)
    .WithAction(CommandAction.DownloadFile));

Stop 'Not a single item' exceptions

Results come back from the server as an IReadOnlyResult object. From this object, you can assert that the server should have returned a single item, graph any items returned by the server, access the returned error, etc. However, once you obtain and IReadOnlyItem object, you are guaranteed throughout the code that it actually represents an <Item /> tag.

var result = conn.Apply("MY_QUERY");
result.AssertNoError(); // Do nothing other than throw an exception if there is an error
result.AssertItem();    // Return a single item.  If that is not possible, throw an appropriate
                        // exception (e.g. the exception returned by the server where possible)
result.Items();         // Return an enumerable of items.  Throw an exception if there is 
                        // an error other than 'No Items Found'
result.AssertItems();   // Return an enumerable of items.  Throw an exception for any error

Stop NullReferenceExceptions

When traversing a long tree, it nice not to have to deal with null reference exceptions.
Therefore, the library implements the null-object pattern. Simply check the Exists property to determine if a retrieved property actually exists.

var firstNameProp = part.CreatedById().AsItem().Property("first_name");
if (!firstNameProp.Exists)
{
    // Get the first_name by other means
}

HTTP Headers

The developer does not have control over HTTP headers when making calls to the server. Use cases for this might include:

• Including a custom User-Agent so that the server knows about custom clients and their versions which are in use
• Changing the TIMEZONE_NAME and LOCALE headers used by Aras for testing and development purposes
• Including additional authentication headers used by proxies within an organization

The code to achive this looks like

var conn = Factory.GetConnection("URL", "USER_AGENT");
conn.DefaultSettings(r => r.SetHeader("X-CUSTOM-HEADER", "MY_VALUE"));
conn.Login(new ExplicitCredentials("DATABASE", "USER_NAME", "PASSWORD"));

A .Net library should support .Net features

LINQ and IEnumerable

Enumerating through items is as simple as

var result = conn.Apply("MY_QUERY");

foreach (var item in result.Items())
{
}

Alternatively, leverage LINQ:

var result = conn.Apply("MY_QUERY")
    .Items()
    .Where(i => i.IsReleased().AsBoolean(false));

async and await

When using the .Net 4 version of the library, leverage the async and await keywords

var result = await conn.ApplyAsync("MY_QUERY", true, false);

SecureString

For security reasons, passwords are automatically stored in memory as SecureString. In addition, passwords stored in this way can be passed to the Login methods

Developing

To build the project, clone or fork the repository and run the build.ps1 file. The Innovator.Client.sln solution file can be used to debug and develop the .Net Standard 1.1 build of the library. To debug specific features of the other builds, consider using the Innovator.Client.Net35.sln or the Innovator.Client.Net45.sln file.