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Inventory - Ports/Pins/Lens



Ports/Pins/Lens Equipment Grid

Users can navigate to the 'Ports/Pins/Lens (PPL) Equipment grid' by following this path: Main > Inventory > Equipment > Ports/Pins/Lens. If a piece of Equipment has an Equipment Catalog that has the Cabling Equipment flag checked, then it will also have a tab labelled Ports/Pins/Lens. This shows all PPL originating from the equipment and to the equipment (if any) to which each PPL is connected. From this tab new PPLs may be added, edited, or removed. PCR-360 provides functionality for bulk PPL creation, editing, removal, copying, and transferring of PPL. PPL records can be directly modified on a specific Cabling Equipment record. These modifications will be consistent with the other rules of editing PPL records. 

Equipment PPL Tab

Equipment PPL Tab

Add

More information on the

Add
button for the Ports/Pins/Lens form is available here.

Ranges

Ports/Pins/Lens Range Form

The

Ranges
button is very similar to the 'Add' button but has some additional functionality. The 'Ranges' button will allow a User to Add multiple Ports/Pins/Lens(PPL) with a single action to save time when adding large lists of PPL. The Range form will allow the User to designate a low to high prefix range to be added. (For example 1-3). Additionally, the User can designate a separator (Example: " - " ) and a low to high suffix. (For example 1-5).

Assuming a prefix Range of 1-3, a separator of " - ", and a low to high suffix of 1-5 the User would be adding 15 records with the

Save New
button. In this case the following would be added:

Example Ports/Pins/Lens

Suffix of '1'

Suffix of '2'

Suffix of '3'

Suffix of '4'

Suffix of '5'

Prefix of '1'

1-1

1-2

1-3

1-4

1-5

Prefix of '2'

2-1

2-2

2-3

2-4

2-5

Prefix of '3'

3-1

3-2

3-3

3-4

3-5

The 'Ranges' is more than a simple Add form, however, and will allow the User to edit multiple PPL. If after adding the above table the User were to click the Ranges button again and enter a prefix of 2-3, and a suffix of 1-1 they would select the 2-1 and 3-1 PPL for editing. This functionality allows the User to quickly Add and assign status' to multiple PPL. 

Back Connect Ranges

The PPL Range form allows for Back-Connect Ranges. Below is the add new "Ranges" form from the Port/Pins/Lens grid on any Cabling Equipment. To use this feature, the user just needs to enter the Destination Equipment and designate a low prefix to a low suffix range to be added. This functionality allows the User to quickly connect multiple pieces of Equipment together, without having the connection appear in the Cable Path. When ports are transferred, any back connects are transferred along with the port.

Add new, ports, pins, lens range form

Add new, ports, pins, lens range form

Copy

The

Copy
button makes a copy of all the existing PPL on another piece of Equipment and will assign the copied PPL to the current piece of Equipment. These copied PPL will not overwrite any existing PPL and instead appear as new, separate records.

Transfer Range

The

Transfer Range
 button will move all the existing Ports/Pins/Lens(PPL) from one piece of Equipment and assign them to the current piece of Equipment. This button can also be used to renumber PPL on the same piece of Equipment.

To Transfer a PPL Range, follow these steps:

  1. Click the Transfer Range button.

  2. This will open the 'Add New Select Equipment and Range to TRANSFER (move) the Ports/Pins/Lens' form. (PPL Range Transfer Form for short.)

    Transfer PPL Range Form

    Transfer PPL Range Form

  3. The Origination Equipment picker will automatically fill in with the Equipment from the open Equipment form.

  4. Click the Destination Equipment picker and select the Equipment that the PPL need to be transferred to.

  5. Be sure to select a Destination piece of Equipment that is different from the Origination Equipment.

    Destination Fields

    Destination Fields

  6. Select the Origination Port/Pin/Len Range.

  7. Enter (at minimum) Low Prefix and High Prefix of the PPL records that should be selected to Transfer.

    Origination fields

    Origination fields


    1. Separator, Low Suffix, and High Suffix are optional fields that increase the flexibility of ranges.

    2. This needs to specify the proper format for the PP. Generally, this format is based on the organization's naming conventions.

    3. For example, the range shown above represents Low PPL named A-01 with a range of 30 ports ending on C-10.

      PPL Grid example

      PPL Grid example

  8. Select the Destination Port/Pin/Len (PPL) Range.

  9. Enter (at minimum) the Low Prefix of the port range the newly transferred PPLs will start at.

    Destination PPL Range fields

    Destination PPL Range fields


    1. Separator and Low Suffix are optional fields that increase the flexibility of ranges.

    2. This needs to specify the proper format for the PP. Generally, this format is based on the organization's naming conventions.

    3. For example, the range is shown above (in conjunction with the Origination Range) represents Low PPL named D-11 with a range of 30 ports ending on F-20.

  10. Click the Transfer Range button to complete the transfer.

  11. The selected range will be transferred to the Destination Equipment with the specified new starting port.

Transfer All

The

Transfer All
button allows transferring every PPL on an Origination Equipment to a Destination Equipment. The form aims to eliminate a few steps when the User simply needs to move ALL of the ports. Any PPL from a Child Equipment Record will NOT be Transferred.

To transfer all PPLs on Equipment, use the following steps.

  1. Click the Transfer All button.

  2. The Origination Equipment picker will automatically fill in with the Equipment from the open Equipment form.

  3. Select the Destination Equipment Using the picker

  4. Click the button to complete the transfer 

  5. All PPLs will be transferred, as is, to the Destination Equipment.

    Equipment Form example

    Equipment Form example

If a User has attempted to Transfer Child Equipment PPL during the 

Transfer All
process, they will be greeted with this warning message to alert them about what will not be transferred.

Child Equipment PPL warning message

Child Equipment PPL warning message

Edit Selected

The

Edit Selected
button will allow the editing of a single PPL record. A User can only edit the single record, and if multiple records editing is desired the Ranges button should be used.

Delete Selected

The

Delete Selected
button will allow the User to delete the selected record(s). This deletion is not just the association and will remove the PPL from PCR-360.

Service Desk

The 

Service Desk
button will open the Service Desk Action associated with the PPL. This button will only open the Service Desk Action once the PPL has its Status effected by the Service Desk. Once a PPL has been designated in Service Desk, it cannot be selected to be added to a different piece of Equipment. This helps to prevent duplicate assignments.

View Path

  • The View Path button will open up the Cable: View Path report that the given Ports/Pins/Lens record appears on.

  • For a Ports/Pins/Lens record to have a Path associated with it it must first have a Status of Assigned.

  • More Information about Paths and the report is available here.

Renumber

Users can quickly renumber Ports/Pins/Lens (PPL) with the Transfer form.

  1. Click the Transfer Range button.

  2. This will open the 'Add new Select Equipment and Range to Transfer (move) the Ports/Pins/Lens' form. (Transfer PPL form for short.)

    Transfer Range Form example

    Transfer Range Form example

  1. The 'Origination Equipment' picker will automatically fill in with the Equipment from the open Equipment form.

  2. Click the 'Destination Equipment' picker and select the Equipment that the PPL has to transfer to.

  3. Select a Destination piece of Equipment that is the same Equipment as the Origination Equipment.

  4. Select the Origination Port/Pin/Len Range.

    • Enter the Low PPL of the PPL records that should be selected to Transfer. This needs to include the proper format for the PPL based on the organizations naming conventions. For example, if the Low PPL is named "123-ABC" where "-" is the separator, then the formatting should look like this: Low Separator: "123", Separator: "-", Low Suffix: "ABC".

      Low PPL fields

      Low PPL fields

    • Enter the High PPL of the PPL records that should be selected to Transfer. This needs to include the proper format for the PPL based on the organizations naming conventions. For example, if the High PPL is named "124-ABZ" where "-" is the separator, then the formatting should look like this: High Separator: "124", and High Suffix: "ABZ".

      High PPL fields

      High PPL fields

  5. Click the Transfer Range button.

The selected Range will be renumbered and remain on the original Equipment record since the Origination Equipment and Destination Equipment fields match.



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