Maximo 7.6 New User Interface Features

For existing clients upgrading to Maximo 7.6 they may miss some new features of the user interface (UI) because they are controlled by system properties set to zero for existing clients but set to one for new installations. The UI changes in Maximo 7.6 are:

• A new skin - tivoli13
• Start Center and Go To buttons are on the left
• Breadcrumb and List tab presentation changes
• Label positioning
• Hover dialogs
• Inline menu buttons
• Side navigation bar
• Recent applications
• Using relationships in Result Set definitions
• Guest login
• Improvements to clients using test automation tools
• Edit Mode – locking a record for editing

The main objectives behind some of these changes are to make Maximo more intuitive for a new user by adopting a more standard web UI design, reducing unnecessary information, and to improve efficiency for users, making it faster, reducing clicks, whitespace and horizontal scrolling. Some of these changes might be a bit of a shock for existing clients, hence why they can be optionally set and gradually introduced, or not at all. But there are some items here which are just simply great.

Inheriting Service Addresses

Locations and assets can inherit their service address. The starting point is to define a location system as an Address System, this is performed using the action Manage Systems in the Locations application. Only one location system per site can be nominated as the address system and it must be a hierarchical system it cannot be a network system. When you have added an address system to a site then it cannot be removed an error message will be received, every site must have one address system.

If you associate a service address with a location in the location hierarchy then the descendants of the location in the address system will also show that address, however, only the location where you add the service address will be marked when looking at the records in the database, the descendants do not have any record in the database to show the service address (SADDRESSCODE) to which they belong. If the location or descendant locations have assets then these also show the service address. Sub-assembly assets show the service address of their location, but this is likely to be the same service address as the parent asset.

When a location is used on a work order the service address associated with the location is copied to table WOSERVICEADDRESS and here there is a reference to the originating service address (SADDRESSCODE). The Work Order Tracking application main tab shows a few of the primary address fields and full details are shown on the Service Address tab. If you change any of these address fields the Service Address and its description (WOSERVICEADDRESS.DESCRIPTION) are made null and hidden attribute ADDRESSISCHANGED is set to 1. If you update the service address from the Service Address application it does not update existing work orders.

Similarly Service Request and Activities and Tasks applications have service address fields and a service address tab, as do Incident, Problem, Change and Release applications. The Service Request service address is stored in TKSERVICEADDRESS and for activities it is the WOSERVICEADDRESS.

Service Address Options

In Organizations application the action Service Address Options opens a dialogue box that can be used to change settings that effect the behavior of service addresses, these are defined at the organization level.

Address master gives the option to use an external system e.g. GIS system as the master for service addresses. When this is set existing records become read-only, it is not possible to reposition the service address on a map, or delete it, and if a new record is inserted you will not be able to save it.

Service address format is used to define whether the top line of the service address is to conform to a structured format. When creating a new service address the Street Address (STREETADDRESS) attribute will be read-only and you will need to use the button Add/Modify Street Address.


In the dialogue box enter the relevant fields for House Number, Street Name, Street Type and Apartment/Unit/Suite number. Either a Direction Prefix or Direction Suffix can be given. When the OK button is pressed Maximo will format the street address according to which of the predefined formats was chosen in Service Address Options. The Direction Prefix/Suffix are compass points, N, NE, E, etc. The Street Type is a domain (STREETTYPE) with abbreviations, e.g. RD - Road, DR - Drive, etc.

Coordinates defines whether Latitude and Longitude or Y and X are used to define the exact map position. When using Maximo Anywhere or Maximo Spatial the radio button must be set to X and Y. Note. Latitude is considered Y and Longitude is considered X but they are two different co-ordinate systems.

The Create service addresses for child records of assets and locations checkbox allow you to dedicate a service address to a particular location or asset. A hidden attribute OBJECTNAME will be set to LOCATIONS or ASSET and when this has a value the Service Address will not be selectable on another Location or Asset. The easiest way to see this in action is by duplicating a location with a service address and then to go to the map tab and move the marker to a new point on the map. On save a new service address is created and the OBJECTNAME = 'LOCATIONS' and PARENT is set to the value of the previous SERVICEADDRESS.

The Always prompt when a service address changes on work orders or service requests checkbox determines whether the user will receive a warning when they change the location which has a different service address to that saved on the work order or service request. The message below is only displayed if the service address has been saved to the database, e.g. exists in WOSERVICEADDRESS object for a work order.