Hi,
I'm creating a lot of services with a service template feeded by a csv file.
For some channels here we have two probes and the element name is stored also as a property. So it's easier to access the name in Visio drawings.
Creating the property:
Property from a service where only one probe is available:
My problem is now when I use a shape with Element [property:CHANNEL_ELEMENT_SOURCEPROBE2] it will be shown. Is there a way to prevent it? I guess [element:5:name] is creating something like a wildcard.
Hi Stefan,
The "[element:5:name]" is a placeholder that gets resolved at service creation time, linking to the name of the child element with id "5".
When there is no such child element (e.g. because it is optional), the placeholder cannot expanded and remains as is.
I'm afraid there's no way around this without a software change (which could then return an empty value in this scenario)
Hi Stefan,
Do I understand correctly that you have a service (created via service template) with custom property 'CHANNEL_ELEMENT_SOURCEPROBE2' having the value '[element:5:name]'? And then in your Visio you have a shape with shape data 'Element' equal to '[property:CHANNEL_ELEMENT_SOURCEPROBE2]' and that links effectively to an element?
So this is how your 'service' properties window looks like
And this is how your Visio shape data looks like:
If the value of your property does not match with an element name, then it should not link and be hidden actually. So I’m wondering why it is showing up.
I’ll extend my answer with screenshots to further clarify what I mean and to see what is wrong in my understanding.
Hi Pieter,
need to start new answer to show you a picture:
Here you can see the setup, important it's a child view! Even if I remove ServiceContext it will be there. I guess the picture is self explaining 🙂
Aha, it’s a child shape! Child shapes that cannot link fallback to the context of the parent for alarm coloring. In your case the rectangle will get the alarm color of the service and the * will not be replaced by anything.
I can’t immediately think of a way to workaround this.
One thing you can consider though is trying to get something on top of it in case it is not linked. That subshape could then have a ‘NoAlarmColorFill’ Option and a Show condition linking to one of your service properties.
So your shape data could look something like this:
Options: NoAlarmColorFill
Show: -A|Service:*|PROPERTY:ChildNotAvailable|=1
Hi Wouter,
I thought it's maybe impossible to do something. I tried also to adapt my csv script that if instead of n/a values I put in this "Dont use me as a Filter".
After that I thought that the shape will not show up. But the shape is still there. Therefore I tried to work with show/hide like this:
<A>and<B>-A|Service:[this service]|Property:CHANNEL_MPTS_SID_BACKUP|Regex=^Dont use me as a Filter$-B|Service:[this service]|Property:CHANNEL_ELEMENT_SOURCEPROBE2|Regex=^Dont use me as a Filter$
<A>and<B>-A|Service:[this service]|Property:CHANNEL_MPTS_SID_BACKUP|Regex=Dont use me as a Filter-B|Service:[this service]|Property:CHANNEL_ELEMENT_SOURCEPROBE2|Regex=Dont use me as a Filter
But this is also not working the shape is always shown.
Hi Pieter,
yes this is the root cause I would say. I guess [element:5:name] will be empty used in a shape and so it takes any element.