Aras Innovator Adapter

1. Getting Started: Using the Adapter

1.1 Introduction

• Publish a item from supported item types

• Bring in Items from Digital Threadinto ARAS

1.2 Accessing the Adapter

• ARAS is a Server adapter, the Digital Thread operations are run from the SBE’s Embedded web applications

• For performing Refresh operation the user needs to have write permissions on the items in the Channel

1.3 Attaching & Connecting

Detailed Channel Configuration can be found in Section 7.1

1.4 Publishing Items

• Items with links in the Channel item number are published

• Links to Items outside the scope of the Channelare also published

• Please note that on all the types we want to subscribe into ARAS, we need to add a property SBE Correlation Info, please look at this section for more details

1.5 Refreshing Items (Including Subscribed Items)

How it Works After Subscriptions

Once subscriptions are configured, performing a Refresh will:

• Create new items in the target system for the subscribed content.

• Update existing items if changes are detected in the SBE source.

Behavior of Refreshed Items

The created or updated items:

• Include subscribed properties and relations from SBE.

• Contain a special property: SBE Correlation Info, which helps to distinguish between:

  • Items created natively in the target system (real items)

  • Items created via subscription from another source (subscribed items)

This approach ensures:

• Clarity between source and synced content

• Traceability of item origin

• Consistent synchronization across systems

The Subscribed items are created under the Digital thread Subscriptions folder. Under Channel number of channel all subscribed items will be created.

1.6 Verify

Performs a validation check to ensure that the items published from SBE exist in the target system (e.g., ARAS) and are consistent.

What does Verify check?

• The Verify operation compares each item present in both SBE and the target/source system.

• It ensures that:

  • All properties (e.g., Summary, Status, Priority)

  • All relations (e.g., Linked issues, Child Of)

  • All metadata (e.g., Subscription Info)
    are accurately synchronized and consistent between the systems.

This helps ensure that no item is missing, degraded, or out-of-sync after publishing.

Note : Verify is supported from version 7.06 for Woburn and 8.01 for Melrose and above.

1.7 Soft Refresh

Performs a soft refresh, similar to Refresh, but preserves local changes in the target system. Local changes take priority over updates coming from SBE during a soft refresh operation.

1.8 Advanced Operations

1.8.1 Reset

Deletes any degraded or invalid items from the specified channel in SBE.

Note : Reset is supported from version 7.12 for Woburn and 8.04 for Melrose and above.

1.8.2 Clear Drafts

The Clear Drafts action in the SBE platform is an advanced operation available in the Digital Thread adapter menu. This action is designed to remove or clear any "draft" data or unpublished changes that are stored locally for a given channel or project. Drafts typically accumulate when you make changes but haven't yet published them to the SBE server.

1.8.3 Force Publish

Force Publish triggers a full publish of data, regardless of whether only a subset of data has changed since the last operation. It bypasses the usual "delta" mechanism, which would otherwise only send changes since the last publish. This is useful when you want to ensure that all data is sent to the target system, even if some data hasn't changed or if previous publishes may have missed something.

Note : Force publish is available starting from version 8.x.

1.8.4 Force Refresh

Force Refresh triggers a full refresh of data from the source, again bypassing the delta mechanism. It ensures that the local or client system is completely updated with the latest data from the source, not just the changes since the last refresh. This is helpful for resolving sync issues or when you want to guarantee that the client has the most up-to-date and complete data.

Note : Forces refresh is available starting from version 8.x.

1.9 Troubleshooting for End Users

Failed to Publish

This may occur due to the following reasons:

• Incorrect Mappings
  Ensure all required mappings are correctly configured. Refer to the Mappings Configuration section for guidance.

• Invalid Authentication
  The authentication may be outdated or incorrect. Please reconfigure it as explained in the Authentication Setup section.

• Publishing with Stale Data
  To resolve this, reset the channel, this operation will clear up the stale.

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2. Document Overview

2.1 Document Overview

This document provides essential information for using, configuring, and supporting the SBE Vision adapters for ARAS Innovator.

2.2 Document Orientation

This document is designed to inform users with various roles:

• End Users should begin with Section 1 to understand how to access and operate the adapter, and Section 5 for issues pertaining to the setup, configuration, and use of the digital tool itself.

• Digital Thread Specialists should focus on Section 1, and also consult Sections 3, 4, and 5 for deployment and semantic mapping. Section 11 contains details related to mapping items from this tool into a semantic ontology.

• Administrators should refer to Section 6 and beyond for setup, security, support, and version management.

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3. Adapter Use Cases

3.1 Adapter Overview

The purpose of this adapter is to allow the data contained within instances of ARAS to connect with the SBE Digital Thread platform. This adapter was built using the SBE Java Pro-SDK product.

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4. Supported Versions

4.1 Supported Adapter Products

This document covers all the version of adapter that support SBE 7.x (Woburn) and 8.x (Melrose), Look at the releases section for more details

4.2 External Tool Versions Supported

• ARAS 31

• ARAS 29

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5. Digital Tool Best Practices

5.1 Tool Configuration Considerations

• Tool settings that affect adapter behaviour

• Required modules or optional configurations include: Requirement Engineering Module, System Architecture Module

5.2 Usage Tips & Gotchas

• Common user mistakes

  • Refreshing without mappings for required properties
    Solution: Ensure all mandatory properties are mapped before performing a Refresh operation.

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6. Installation

6.1 Installation Instructions

• OS, Java, network requirements

• Java: JDK 11 for ARAS 31

6.1.1 Installing SBE Aras Package

• This section will have details of the Data Model, custom config and list the steps to deploy the SBE ARAS package

• An archive file (sbe_aras_deployment_package_x.x.zip) is provided with the files needed to deploy the SBE package.

Custom Types

The following new types are added as part of the package.

• Subscription

The custom relationship added are

• HasItems

Deployment

1. Package Import

Extract the deployment package and import the package using ARAS import utility

• DB and code tree backup

  • Before Installing/Importing package, Please take your Database and Code Tree backup into a separate folder

• Packages to import

  • com.sbevision.aras - Base package with SBE customizations

  • com.sbevision.aras.sys- Contains support for System Architecture module

• Go to the PackageImportExportUtilities → Import folder

• Open package import utility (Import.exe)

• Once the application opens you must provide the following parameters.

  • Server URL: http://<serverName>/<WebAlias>

  • Database: Database Name

  • UserName: Login user username (use admin user)

  • Password: Login user password

• Click on the login button

• Select the package which needed to import select file imports.mf

• Add Target Release and some Description (Optional step)

• Choose type ‘Merge’ & Mode as ‘Thorough Mode’

• Click on the import button

2. Code Tree Changes

a. No Changes in the code tree

Deploy SBE Library

• Copy the DLL from the package to the $InnovatorServer/bin directory of your Aras Innovator installation e.g. (C:\Aras29\Innovator\Innovator\Server\bin)

• Then register the DLL in method-config.xml file by adding it under ReferencedAssembliesxml node

• Restart the application from IIS Manager

Post-Import Actions

• Add items to Ploy items

To support subscriptions for a certain Item Types, we need to add those types to Poly List as given below

1. Add a reference of requirement item type in sbe poly items

   1. Go to TOC → Administrator - > Item Types

   2. Search for sbe_Repo_Poly item type and open it

c. Click on the Edit button

d. Click on the Poly Sources tab in the relationship

e. Click on the add Item Types which we want to Subscribe into Aras

f. eg: search for re_Requirement / sys_SystemElement item type select it and add it into the poly source

g. Once successfully added then click on the Done button

2. TOC

   1. Navigate to Administration -> Configuration -> Client Presentation in the TOC

   2. Click the search button to run the Client Presentation search

   3. Click the Global item property in the single search result

   4. In the Command Bar section grid, open the com.aras.innovator.cui_default.tocitem

   5. In the Command Bar Item grid, Add the Digital Thread Category and Menu items as shown below set the priority and other fields

com.aras.innovator.cui_default.toc_D7556A86E98648A1B5FA6F1AAA827FD4

Menu Item

- com.aras.innovator.cui_default.toc_28B6BAA12B534245B98B87FAC2756517
- com.aras.innovator.cui_default.toc_100C3C28EEB84410B87C578AE83A0360

3. Add Custom type to ‘Has Items’ TGV

Only Part and Document types are added to the Has Items TGV on Subscription item, if we are subscribing other item types, we need to add those item types to TGV so that it shows the full list of Subscribed items.

Please note that we assume that the custom types were added to Repo_Poly type as show in previous section of the document.

Follow the steps given below to add a Item type to TGV

In our example we will be adding sys_SystemElement item type

a. Go to TOC → Administrator -> Configuration -> Tree Grid View

b. Search for sbe_Sub_TGV Tree Grid view and open it

c. Click on the Query Definition item to open and then edit the definition.

d. Go to Query editor and Add Related item with Using Relationship

e. Select Has Items [System Element]

f. Add the necessary properties, please note that id is required property

g. Save when done

h. Go back to the TGV definition and click on the Edit button and select editor window on right side panel.

i. Click on the Relation which we want to map from the Relation List in TGV.

j. Right click on Relation and select map elements.

k. Select the appropriate property from property list for Name and Number column.

l. eg: Map the sys_SystemElement relation. For name column select {sys_SystemElement.name} and for Number column select {sys_SystemElement.item_number}.

m. Click Done to save TGV.

[Aras guide to add/modify a TGV](https://aras.com/en/blog/an-introduction-to-query-builder-and-tree-grid-view)

3. Permissions and Identity

SBE Item Types (sbe_Repo, sbe_Subscription) items are configured to use the permission

sbe_Digital_Thread_Permission and identity sbe_Digital_Thread

We need to add the users performing the Subscriptions to respective locations before running the
operations.

4. Digital Thread Action

To Add the Digital Thread Menu item on Items that,

• Navigate to Administration > ItemTypes in the TOC.

• Search and Open the Item Type for which we want to add the Menu Item

• Edit the Type and go to Actions and search for sbe_DigitalThreadPopup and add it

In the following Example we add the Action to ItemType Part

5. Properties to support Subscription

In order to Support Subscriptions on an Item Type we need to add the following property.

• Navigate to Administration > ItemTypes in the TOC.

• Search and Open the Item Type for which we want to support Subscriptions

• Edit the Type and add the property sbe_correlation_info

• Please note this Property also needs to be added to Part BOM

Post-Installation Changes

1. Update the Variables

   1. Update the SBE digital thread URL in the preference

   2. Search for a variable in TOC > Administration > Variables

   3. Search for the sbe_rootUrl variable in the search grid.

   4. Open that variable and update the value with the root url of your SBE instance

1.1 Data Source

Update Aras Data Source value in variables

Go to TOC > Administration > Variables

Search for sbe_arasDS variable in the search grid.

Open that variable and update the value with the aras DS

1.2 Logging

To enable logging for the custom library, follow the steps given below

1. Edit the appsettings.json from the directory of your Aras Innovator installation e.g.(C:\\Aras29\\Innovator\\Innovator\\Server\\appsettings.json)'

2. Update the LoggerConfiguration section from the appsettings.json with below code.

```
"LoggerConfiguration": {
  "MinimumLevel": {
    "Default": "Debug"
  },
  "WriteTo": [
   {
     "Name": "File",
     "Args": {
       "path": "Logs\\sbeLog.txt",
       "rollingInterval": "Day"
      }
   }]
}
```

3. Save the file

4. Restart the IIS.

6.2 Configuration

The Adapter depends on a jsonconfig file to run various operations against a ARAS Server.

This jsonconfig file contains a list of all the Item Types along with properties and relations that the Adapter need to support.

The file is named types-definition.json and is currently part of a config-map attached to the adapter.

This section explains how to create this file based on the Types used on the ARAS server.

Introduction

Following the way ARAS treats Item types, the adapter also supports the following top level Item Types

Part,re_Requirement,re_Requirement_Document,sys_SystemElement,sys_System,sys_Function, Custom Part

The Adapter supports all the properties that can be retrieved from the ARAS Rest API.

As mentioned earlier The types-definition.jsoncontains all the Item types that need to be supported by the adapter.

In this section we will explore the format of the json and how to add a new Type called Part

We will add the

• Properties - State, Priority, Cost, Material (Alias)

• Relations - BOM, described By

The jsonfile we are going to create will contains definitions for one ore more types.

We will start looking at different parts of the config in the following sections.

Item Definition

This part of the config is where we will add information about the Item Type name and base type

So our definition for Item Type Requirement looks like this:

{
   "_itemType": "re_Requirement",
   "_baseType": "re_Requirement",
   "_itemNumberProp": "item_number",
   "_nameProp": "req_title",
}

Properties

This section explains how to add the list of properties that the adapter need to support for a given Type.

The field _properties contains the definition for the list of properties.

Each definition in turn contains the following fields

Let’s add properties req_complexity (String)

req_complexity will be Mandatory property on ‘Requirement’

{
  "_propName": "req_complexity",
  "_propType": "STRING",
  "_isMandatory": true,
  "_defaultValue": "Low",
  "_modifiable": true
}

Relations

We can add more than one relation similar to properties for a single Item type.

Let's add 2 relations for our Requirement

re_Requirement_Out_Link is relation on Requirement, whereas re_Requirement_Related_Parts is
a Reverse relation which is stored on the other side.

{
  "_relationType": "re_Requirement_Out_Link"
},
{
"_relationType": "re_Requirement_Related_Parts",
"_revRelationType": "re_Part_Requirement",
"_reverseRelation": true
}

Our final ‘Requirement’ item definition looks like this

{
  "_itemType": "re_Requirement",
  "_baseType": "Requirement",
  "_itemNumberProp": "item_number",
  "_nameProp": "req_title",
  "_relations": [
    {
      "_relationType": "re_Requirement_In_Link",
      "_revRelationType": "re_Requirement_Out_Link",
      "_reverseRelation": true
    },
    {
      "_relationType": "re_Requirement_Out_Link"
    },
    {
      "_relationType": "re_Requirement_Related_Parts",
      "_revRelationType": "re_Part_Requirement",
      "_reverseRelation": true
    }
  ],
  "_properties": [
    {
      "_propName": "classification",
      "_propType": "STRING",
      "_isMandatory": true,
      "_defaultValue": "Requirement"
    },
    {
      "_propName": "req_title",
      "_propType": "STRING",
      "_isMandatory": true
    },
    {
      "_propName": "managed_by_id",
      "_propType": "STRING",
      "_isMandatory": true,
      "_defaultValue": "BEF7E562141840F4B0AB407D7D7B3EF6"
    },
    {
      "_propName": "content",
      "_propType": "HTML",
      "_isMandatory": true,
      "_defaultValue": "<Requirement aras:id=\"597f23bb954440f7b5672f93371327ea\" reqId=\"965DE569BDD44E66B5C4C59FE768F87C\" xmlns:aras=\"http://aras.com/ArasTechDoc\" xmlns=\"http://www.aras.com/REStandard\"><Requirement-Info aras:id=\"18ef540869914fbab02a41d6f580a6fb\"><Requirement-Chapter aras:id=\"056829811e014d87afb20ed108b23f5d\"><aras:emph></aras:emph></Requirement-Chapter><Requirement-Title aras:id=\"eb1138d0a8054def917961b8d792547d\"><aras:emph>All Rels Test</aras:emph></Requirement-Title><Requirement-Number aras:id=\"216582e960b44c93bbd76f2f75206461\"><aras:emph>REQ-000000062</aras:emph></Requirement-Number></Requirement-Info></Requirement>"
    },
    {
      "_propName": "req_complexity",
      "_propType": "STRING",
      "_isMandatory": true,
      "_defaultValue": "Low"
    },
    {
      "_propName": "req_priority",
      "_propType": "STRING",
      "_isMandatory": true,
      "_defaultValue": "Low"
    },
    {
      "_propName": "req_risk",
      "_propType": "STRING",
      "_isMandatory": true,
      "_defaultValue": "Low"
    },
    {
      "_propName": "sbe_target_max",
      "_propType": "FLOAT"
    }
  ]
}

BOM definition

The shape id published out of ARAS is ‘Part BOM’, matching the definition in ‘types-definition.json’

The standard properties on a BOM are

{
    "_itemType": "Part BOM",
    "_baseType": "BOM",
    "_properties": [
      {
        "_propName": "quantity",
        "_propType": "INT",
        "_isMandatory": false
      },
      {
        "_propName": "reference_designator",
        "_propType": "STRING",
        "_isMandatory": false
      },
      {
        "_propName": "sort_order",
        "_propType": "INT",
        "_isMandatory": false
      },
      {
        "_propName": "description",
        "_propType": "STRING",
        "_isMandatory": false
      }
    ]
  }

Any custom properties that need to be supported must be added to ‘Part BOM’ definition

6.3 DataSource Type Definition

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7. Channels and Mappings

7.1 Channel Definition

The following are the Channel properties

Note: For asotBomLevel, If the value is 0, only the parent will get published, In case of -1 or empty value, full bom structure is published

7.1.1 Channel properties in ARAS

To get the channel properties of any item in ARAS

• Open an Item(Part/Requirement…)

• Item number - We should be able to see item number as shown below

• Revision - We should be able to see revisionas shown below

  

• Item type - We need to copy item type in same format as mentioned in types-definition e.g. Part, re_Requirement, re_Requirement_Document,sys_SystemElement etc.

7.2 Approaches to Mapping

• The types defined in the Configuration section will be used by the Adapter and the same Type and properties, relations are published out.

  The Shape Id’s will be the _itemTypeand the property and relations names will also remain the same.

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8. Security and Access

8.1 Authentication Methods

The Adapter supports Basic authentication which is the only authentication method supported by ARAS Rest API

8.2 Authorization and Roles

• Rest API access is by default enabled for all Users on ARAS

• The Adapter assumes the User running DigitalThreadoperations has necessary Read/Write Permissions on ARAS.

8.3 Secure Communication

The uriSchemaDataSource property defines the protocol http or https used by the adapter.

It is highly recommended the server communication is secured using https

The adapter assumes if customer certificates are used on the server they are wired into SBE deployment

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9. Release Notes

9.1 Version History

8.8 (Sept 29, 2025)

• SDK 8.18

• Merge features from release 7.17

8.7 (Aug 13, 2025)

• Merge features from release 7.16

• SDK 8.16

8.6 (July 4, 2025)

• SDK 8.15

8.5 (July 3, 2025)

• SDK 8.14

• Merge features from release 7.14

8.4 (April 16, 2025)

• SDK 8.11

• Merge features from release 7.12

8.3 (Feb 15, 2025)

• Merge features from release 7.11

• SDK 8.9

8.2 (Jan 8, 2025)

• SDK 8.8

• Merge features from release 7.10

8.1 (Aug 14, 2024)

• SDK 8.3

• Merge features from release 7.6

8.0 (June 5, 2024)

• SBE 8.x support

7.17 (Aug 24, 2025)

• Fix issue with updates on Requirement content

7.16 (Aug 5, 2025)

• Add new channel property subscribedItemOwnedBy used to control permissions on subscribed items.

7.15 (July 30, 2025)

• Support List Property in Aras

7.14 (July 18, 2025)

• Performance improvements for Refresh

• SDK 7.50

• Enable SDK Cache

7.13 (June 2, 2025)

• Better Handling of relation failures

7.12 (May 8, 2025)

• Bug fix on duplicate part bom occurrence

• Bug fix on adding new relation during rebase

• New flag on property definition to indicate if property can be modified

• Support Reset

• SDK 7.49

7.11 (Jan 16, 2025)

• Support ASOT updates on BOM

• Minor fix on Relation’s on System Architecture module

7.10 (Dec 6, 2024)

• Publish Requirements under the Requirement Document

• Support Refresh for chapter property

• Added asotBomLevelchannel property

• Support BOM subscriptions with Correlation Info

• Support BOM delete

• SDK 7.45

7.9 (Oct 28, 2024)

• SDK 7.44

7.8 (Oct 23, 2024)

• Sys Structure relation as a Model

• Handle use-case where name property can be different from req_title on a Requirement

• SDK 7.43

7.7 (Sept 13, 2024)

• Improve documentation

• Deprecate _sbeRelationType from types definition

• SDK 7.39

7.6 (July 26, 2024)

• All Items on a Baseline channel are authoritative

• Support sys_System multilevel relations

• Bug fix on custom type during publish

• Bug fix on boolean prop

• Implement verify

• Support ASOT deletes - Item and BOM relation

• SDK 7.36

7.5 (June 11, 2024)

• Validate User Credentials

• Use single property to store Correlation Id and Subscription Id

• SDK 7.33

7.4 (April 17, 2024)

• Support content property on Requirement

• SDK 7.27

• Support relation delete

7.3 (Feb 21, 2024)

• Store and use Correlation Info during Refresh

• Upgrade (Woburn) one channel at a time

7.2 (Jan 15, 2024)

• Validate channel properties on Readiness

7.1 (Dec 5, 2023)

• Support Rebase

7.0 (Nov 3, 2023)

• Deprecated Resource DTO

• Add Adapter Readiness

• Support Upgrade to SBE 7.x

• Parallel request processing

• Use Intents

• SDK storage

• Deprecated Subscription store

• New Project versioning

9.2 Breaking Changes

• Starting version 7.12 only ARAS 31 is supported

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10. Technical Reference

10.1 Adapter API Endpoints

The following are the Rest endpoint methods added as part of the SBE Rest Services

• method.sbe_getChannel_SubRepoItems - Get all Subscribed items for a given channel

• method.sbe_UpdateSubscription_Name- Update Subscription name by old name

• method.sbe_updateReqContent - Update content property present in Requirement

• method.sbe_getSysStructure - Get multi level items of System structure

• method.sbe_DeleteSubscriptions - Delete subscriptions during reset

10.2 Identity

The following are the item locator properties for the supported types.

BOM Locator

10.3 Configuration File Format Reference

this section explains the configuration file format reference.

10.4 Schema Support

The Adapter uses the types-definition.json config file to operate. This config contains all the Item types with properties and relations that the adapter needs to handle in ARAS, this section explains the format of the json file in detail.

The properties and relations defined in the types-definition.json config file are published by the adapter.

Part Relations

BOM

The standard properties on a BOM are

If the BOM item definition is added to the types-definition.jsonthe properties defined will be used by the adapter.

Links:

System Element Relation

System Element Structure Relation

Publishing sys_SystemElement Structure Relation As Model

Links:

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11 Upgrade

11.1 Migrate from SBE 7.x to SBE 8.x

This section will cover the guide to upgrade from your SBE 7.x to SBE 8.x

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