CA Clarity PPM Tools  - XOG & Query Bridge

Business Challenge

Mass data inserts, updates or extractions with CA Clarity PPM is a challenging task for those that are not programmers or PPM developers with the right tools. Even those who are technically inclined must be XOG and NSQL query experts to be able to perform these tasks.  

Running large numbers of XML files is also very time consuming as they can only be done one at a time, making the process very  resource intensive. 

CA's XOG API and Query API are robust and comprehensive tools to perform mass volume data operations with CA PPM.  However, they are typically "command line" operations with no GUI and other useful XOG tools and functionalities that help the user avoid and reduce time-consuming cumbersome tasks.

Solution Details

XOG & Query Bridge (XQ) is a free to use CA PPM toolset that provides a GUI built on top of the XOG API and Query API. XQ makes your XOG and Query related tasks vastly simpler and quicker to perform, eliminating the need to tackle command line type operations.

By leveraging this GUI, a wider audience of PPM users are now able to take advantage of CA's XOG API and Query API, giving them the ability to perform all their PPM related tasks in a more controlled, intuitive environment that wasn't previously available.

XQ is the leading XOG and Query CA PPM tool with numerous features and highlights: 

  • An user-friendly GUI that enhances the user experience and shortens the learning curve for non-savvy XOG users.
  • Perform XOG webservice operations and run SQL queries on CA PPM environments.
  • XSLT Data Loader tool to transform XML documents.
  • Support to execute data requests for both on-demand and on-premise CA PPM implementations.
  • Web-based and desktop versions available.
  • Ability to create mass data requests based in a datasource file.
  • Ability to run single and bulk XOG requests.
  • Execute existing queries so data extractions / exports to Excel have no size limitations.
  • Historical execution reports of the status of each run.
  • Optional notifications by email that alerts users once their requests have been processed.
  • Maintained and supported by IT-ROI Solutions.
  • Integrated with the IT-ROI integrations framework.

Business Roles and Challenges

CA PPM Administrator

 
> Mass Changes

When it comes to performing massive data changes in our CA PPM environment, XOG is by far the best choice since it is fully supported and besides I'm already familiar with it. I can use a mail-merge to come up with the XMLs and then submit everything with four clicks using XOG & Query Bridge.


When our team needs to perform data requests, the Query API is by far the best choice. We recently needed to provide a list of names of all our CA PPM users along with their email addresses. This task was very easy to get done. We used XOG & Query Bridge to extract the information so that it could be used with a mail merge operation by another department.

> Data Loads

In order to optimize CA PPM license usage, we were requested to update user account statuses based on inactivity periods. This had to be performed monthly, and it was an ongoing manual and time consuming task to generate the XMLs. Using XOG & Query Bridge, and its automated technology, we simply sent the updated spreadsheet and it submits the entire set of requests to CA PPM for us.
> Migrations

During implementation, moving information from the development environment to the test environment has never been an easy task for our team, we had to deal with a command line client and file paths/names, a manual process to say the least. With XOG & Query Bridge, we are now able to submit one bulk request to retrieve the data, and since you get the result in a ZIP file, we just need to re-upload it and switch the environment, and done, all in a few clicks.


Power User
> Data Extracts / Reporting to Excel

Constantly and desperately looking for access to the CA PPM database days are over for me. When the CA PPM lists don't give me the information I need, I use XOG & Query Bridge to retrieve the required data for my reporting. I can even use it to build a pivot table in Excel to aggregate, slice and dice, and present the data. In fact, I don't need to build the same query twice, I can go to the existing queries tab and run it as many times as I need.

 

Videos & Webinars

MP4 version

Documentation

Contact Us

Contact IT-ROI Solutions