How to time trigger workflows through command prompt

If you have workflows in your CRM system that are required to be run everyday, but for some reason you are running them manually, this might be a good solution for you to save some time.

This solution demonstrates how you can trigger your Siebel workflows at specific intervals of time on windows. For, Siebel environments on other operating systems, you will have to create a solution similar to this, the only difference being the batch file will have to be written in shell (for Linux/Unix) or the programming language that is supported by the OS.

Step 1 - Write the batch file

Copy the below code in a text file and save it with the .bat extension

::Set Localization
  setlocal
::Gets The Parameters and sets into Environment Variables
   set GTYSRV=%1
   set ENTSRV=%2
   set SIEBSRV=%3
   set SIEBUSR=%4
   set SIEBPWD=%5
  
chdir C:\sia81\siebsrvr\BIN
  
   :: The workflow process name
   set wf=Test Workflow
   set command=run task for comp WfProcMgr with ProcessName='%wf%'
   c:\sia81\siebsrvr\bin\srvrmgr /g %GTYSRV% /e %ENTSRV% /s %SIEBSRV% /u %SIEBUSR% /p %SIEBPWD% /c "%command%"

This will connect to the siebel server via the command prompt and call the "Test Workflow" Workflow process.

Step 2 - Schedule the batch file

The next step would be to schedule the workflow process to run at a certain interval in the day. On windows you will need to schedule this through the Windows task scheduler. On Linux/Unix you will probably have to use crontab.

How to schedule a task in windows

How to schedule a task via Crontab

Note: You will have to add the following parameters in the Add Parameters section each separated by a space.

<ENTSRV> <SIEBSRV> <SIEBUSR> <SIEBPWD>

example: Siebel81G siebelDev siebelDev sadmin sadmin@123

How to Optimize Siebel Application Login Time

Recently, we've had a lot of users complaining about the homepage taking too long to load. Why does the login page take long to load? What happens when the login page loads. Below are some of the tasks that Siebel performs while loading the application.

- Verifying Application Schema Version
- Loading / validating State Models (checks whether or not the expiration date is greater than current date)
- Verifying State Model values for transition
- Loading / Validating Personalization rules and rule sets for each event on applets, Business Components, - - Business services and application
- Loading / validating user profile data.
- Loading / validating System preferences
- Loading localized data (Phone format, date format, time zone, currency etc)
- Loads user reporting hierarchy
- Loads application view-responsibility data.
- Message Broadcast (This can be inactivated by inactivating the Message broadcast bar)

The reason behind such a behavior is that some of the static data (localization, license keys etc) and SRF data that are common to all business components are initialized for the object manager process with the first task or user login request. It is this initialization of tasks that causes the delay in service to the first user.

Setting the “OM - PreLoad SRF Data” (PreloadSRF) parameter to TRUE will trigger the loading of this global data for the object manager process when it is initialized upon starting the services. Now the first login should be faster as the burden of reading the static data is pushed to the component startup phase.

NOTE:  After setting the parameter to TRUE, you must recycle the services for the parameter value to take effect.

If setting the parameter at the enterprise level, all the object managers in the environment will automatically inherit the parameter value (unless an administrator has specifically set the value on the lower object manager level).

Also, if this parameter is set to be TRUE in conjunction with the MinMTServers parameter, the static data will be loaded for the number of object manager processes specified for the MinMTServers parameter when the component is initialized. This way there will be no delay in service for a large volume of users since the minimum required multi threaded object manager processes would already be initialized.

M.O.S Reference:  Doc ID - 476878.1

How to Create a Parent with Multi Child Tabs on Aggregate Views

As the quote goes, "You cannot NOT have a user experience". User experience is one of the most important things in product design. I personally feel that Siebel's User Interface could be a lot better than what it is (but thanks to the new Innovation pack for 2012, with the Open UI I think Siebel is getting there).

Most users do not like drilling down on a record which then takes them to the detail view of a record and then navigating back to the parent record. What they usually ask for is, if they could have the tabs right on the main view of the screen. Something like this -

 

Some thought this was not possible but actually it is and requires just a web template change for the Aggregate views.

Change the Web Template of the view to either one of the following -

1. View Parent Multi Child With Tabs

2. View Parent List With Tabs

Cheers!

Tips 'n Tricks for Oracle CRM On Demand

An excellent free book providing tips and tricks fro improving your Oracle CRM On Demand application. - by Mathieu Emanuelli and Joann Alejandro Bravo

Cheers!

Generating Data to UI mappings in Siebel just got easier!

This is one of those tasks which is fairly simple to do. However, can be very time consuming considering you have to generate a mapping for an entire/multiple repositories. We've all have had to do this at some point, not enjoying it one bit!

Well, here is a code that will save you some time and your sanity :).

The below code generates a screen to Applet, and an Applet to BC mapping which can be then exported to excel.


Screen to Applet - 


select scr.name "Screen Name"
      ,nvl(nvl(ptabi.tab_text, scri.viewbar_text), scr.viewbar_text) "Screen"
      ,scrv.sequence "View Seq"
      ,vw.name "View Name"
      ,vwi.title "View"
      ,vw.busobj_name "Business Object"
      ,vwti.item_num "Item Num"
      ,ap.name "Applet Name"
      ,api.title "Applet"
      ,ap.buscomp_name "Business Component"
from   siebel.s_repository rep
       inner join siebel.s_screen scr on scr.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_screen_intl scri on scri.screen_id = scr.row_id and scri.repository_id = rep.row_id and scri.name = 'ENU-STD'
       inner join siebel.s_screen_view scrv on scrv.screen_id = scr.row_id and scrv.repository_id = rep.row_id
       inner join siebel.s_application appl on rep.row_id = appl.repository_id
       left outer join siebel.s_page_tab ptab on ptab.application_id = appl.row_id and ptab.repository_id = rep.row_id and ptab.screen_name = scr.name
       left outer join siebel.s_page_tab_intl ptabi on ptabi.page_tab_id = ptab.row_id and ptabi.repository_id = rep.row_id and ptabi.name = 'ENU-STD'
       inner join siebel.s_view vw on vw.name = scrv.view_name and vw.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_view_intl vwi on vwi.view_id = vw.row_id and vwi.repository_id = rep.row_id and vwi.name = 'ENU-STD'
       inner join siebel.s_view_web_tmpl vwt on vwt.view_id = vw.row_id and vwt.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_view_wtmpl_it vwti on vwti.view_web_tmpl_id = vwt.row_id and vwti.repository_id = rep.row_id
       inner join siebel.s_applet ap on ap.name = vwti.applet_name and ap.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_applet_intl api on api.applet_id = ap.row_id and api.repository_id = rep.row_id and api.name = 'ENU-STD'
where  rep.name = 'Siebel Repository'
and    appl.name = 'Siebel Power Communications'
and    nvl(rep.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(scr.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(scri.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(scrv.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(vw.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(vwi.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(vwt.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(vwti.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(ap.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(api.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
union
select scr.name "Screen Name"
      ,nvl(nvl(ptabi.tab_text, scri.viewbar_text), scr.viewbar_text) "Screen"
      ,scrv.sequence "View Seq"
      ,vw.name "View Name"
      ,vwi.title "View"
      ,vw.busobj_name "Business Object"
      ,vwti.item_num "Item Num"
      ,apta.name "Applet Name"
      ,api.title "Applet"
      ,apta.buscomp_name "Business Component"
from   siebel.s_repository rep
       inner join siebel.s_screen scr on scr.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_screen_intl scri on scri.screen_id = scr.row_id and scri.repository_id = rep.row_id and scri.name = 'ENU-STD'
       inner join siebel.s_screen_view scrv on scrv.screen_id = scr.row_id and scrv.repository_id = rep.row_id
       inner join siebel.s_application appl on rep.row_id = appl.repository_id
       left outer join siebel.s_page_tab ptab on ptab.application_id = appl.row_id and ptab.repository_id = rep.row_id and ptab.screen_name = scr.name
       left outer join siebel.s_page_tab_intl ptabi on ptabi.page_tab_id = ptab.row_id and ptabi.repository_id = rep.row_id and ptabi.name = 'ENU-STD'
       inner join siebel.s_view vw on vw.name = scrv.view_name and vw.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_view_intl vwi on vwi.view_id = vw.row_id and vwi.repository_id = rep.row_id and vwi.name = 'ENU-STD'
       inner join siebel.s_view_web_tmpl vwt on vwt.view_id = vw.row_id and vwt.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_view_wtmpl_it vwti on vwti.view_web_tmpl_id = vwt.row_id and vwti.repository_id = rep.row_id
       inner join siebel.s_applet ap on ap.name = vwti.applet_name and ap.repository_id = rep.row_id
       inner join siebel.s_applet_toggle apt on apt.applet_id = ap.row_id and apt.repository_id = rep.row_id
       inner join siebel.s_applet apta on apta.name = apt.applet_name and apta.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_applet_intl api on api.applet_id = apta.row_id and apta.repository_id = rep.row_id and api.name = 'ENU-STD'
where  rep.name = 'Siebel Repository'
and    appl.name = 'Siebel Power Communications'
and    nvl(rep.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(scr.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(scri.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(scrv.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(vw.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(vwi.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(vwt.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(vwti.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(ap.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(api.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
order by "Screen"
        ,"View Seq"
        ,"View Name"
        ,"Item Num"
        ,"Applet Name"

Output looks like -

Applet to BC mapping -

select  "Applet Name"
,"BC Name"
,"BC Field"
,"Required"
,"Calculated"
,"Calculated Value"
,"Join Name"
,"Table"
,"Column"
,"Data Type"
,"Length"
,"Multi-valued"
,"MV Link"
,"Pick List"
,"LOV Name"
,min("Caption") "Caption"
,"Display Order"
from (
select ap.name "Applet Name"
      ,bc.name "BC Name"
      ,fld.name "BC Field"
      ,fld.required "Required"
      ,fld.calculated "Calculated"
      ,fld.calcval "Calculated Value"
      ,fld.join_name "Join Name"
      ,(case when fld.mvlink_name is null then nvl(nvl(jotab.name, fld.join_name), case when fld.calculated = 'Y' then null else bc.table_name end) else null end) "Table"
      ,fld.col_name "Column"
      ,fld.type "Data Type"
      ,(case when fld.prec_num is null then to_char(fld.textlen)
             else to_char(fld.prec_num) || to_char(case when fld.scale is null or fld.scale = 0 then '' else ',' || fld.scale end)
        end) "Length"
      ,fld.multi_valued "Multi-valued"
      ,fld.mvlink_name "MV Link"
      ,pl.name "Pick List"
      ,pl.type_value "LOV Name"
      ,coi.caption "Caption"
      ,co.sequence "Display Order"
from   siebel.s_control co
       inner join siebel.s_control_intl coi on coi.control_id = co.row_id and coi.name = 'ENU-STD'
       inner join siebel.s_applet ap on co.applet_id = ap.row_id
       inner join siebel.s_buscomp bc on ap.buscomp_name = bc.name
       inner join siebel.s_field fld on fld.name = co.field_name and fld.buscomp_id = bc.row_id
       inner join siebel.s_repository rep on bc.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_join jo on jo.buscomp_id = fld.buscomp_id and fld.join_name = jo.name
       left outer join siebel.s_table jotab on jotab.name = jo.dest_tbl_name and jotab.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_picklist pl on fld.picklist_name = pl.name and pl.repository_id = rep.row_id
where  rep.name = 'Siebel Repository'
and    ap.repository_id = rep.row_id
and    co.repository_id = rep.row_id
and    bc.repository_id = rep.row_id
and    fld.repository_id = rep.row_id
and    nvl(co.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(ap.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(bc.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(fld.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(rep.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(jo.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
union all
select ap.name "Applet Name"
      ,bc.name "BC Name"
      ,fld.name "BC Field"
      ,fld.required "Required"
      ,fld.calculated "Calculated"
      ,fld.calcval "Calculated Value"
      ,fld.join_name "Join Name"
      ,(case when fld.mvlink_name is null then nvl(nvl(jotab.name, fld.join_name), case when fld.calculated = 'Y' then null else bc.table_name end) else null end) "Table"
      ,fld.col_name "Column"
      ,fld.type "Data Type"
      ,(case when fld.prec_num is null then to_char(fld.textlen)
             else to_char(fld.prec_num) || to_char(case when fld.scale is null or fld.scale = 0 then '' else ',' || fld.scale end)
        end) "Length"
      ,fld.multi_valued "Multi-valued"
      ,fld.mvlink_name "MV Link"
      ,pl.name "Pick List"
      ,pl.type_value "LOV Name"
      ,coi.display_name "Caption"
      ,co.sequence "Display Order"
from   siebel.s_list li
       inner join siebel.s_applet ap on li.applet_id = ap.row_id
       inner join siebel.s_list_column co on co.list_id = li.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_list_col_intl coi on coi.list_column_id = co.row_id and coi.name = 'ENU-STD'
       inner join siebel.s_buscomp bc on ap.buscomp_name = bc.name
       inner join siebel.s_field fld on fld.name = co.field_name and fld.buscomp_id = bc.row_id
       inner join siebel.s_repository rep on bc.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_join jo on jo.buscomp_id = fld.buscomp_id and fld.join_name = jo.name
       left outer join siebel.s_table jotab on jotab.name = jo.dest_tbl_name and jotab.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_picklist pl on fld.picklist_name = pl.name and pl.repository_id = rep.row_id
where  rep.name = 'Siebel Repository'
and    li.repository_id = rep.row_id
and    ap.repository_id = rep.row_id
and    co.repository_id = rep.row_id
and    bc.repository_id = rep.row_id
and    fld.repository_id = rep.row_id
and    nvl(li.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(co.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(ap.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(bc.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(fld.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(rep.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(jo.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
)
group by  "Applet Name"
,"BC Name"
,"BC Field"
,"Required"
,"Calculated"
,"Calculated Value"
,"Join Name"
,"Table"
,"Column"
,"Data Type"
,"Length"
,"Multi-valued"
,"MV Link"
,"Pick List"
,"LOV Name"
,"Display Order"
order by "Applet Name"
        ,"BC Name"
        ,"MV Link" desc
        ,"Table"
  ,"Display Order"

Output looks like -

So there you go...you could later consolidate both to have a full UI to Data level mapping.

Oh! Almost forgot, Your welcome ;)

Cheers!

Siebel Power User - Part 1

Hey Folks,

Here is the first of the many Siebel power user series to come. Just recently discovered a few cool features in Siebel from an end user perspective.

Many a times the user is required to update multiple records of data based on a condition, that the user would normally not know how to execute simultaneously.

For instance, I recently had to update a few(not really) activities in Siebel under a condition where the activity had just one contact associated to it. How would an end user go about making this change?

Lets discuss two such "Good to knows" in the following scenario

The Requirement -

Lets say you have to update the status of 100 or so activities which do not have more than one contact.

The Trick -

Go to the Activities applet, and use the below query on the Contacts field

Count("Contact") > 1

Note: Contact is the MVL used in the Contact MVG

This will give you all activities with more than one contact association.

Now, lets update the Type of the Activities to 'Call'

Select all records and click the Edit option in the application menu and select change records. Change records allows you to update a maximum of 4 fields of the same record simultaneously.

Select Type in Field 1 and change the value to 'Call Back'
 

And there you go, you now have 15 more minutes to facebook ;)

Please feel free to use the comments section for any feeback on this post, or if you would like to contribute to this series.

Cheers!

Setting a Default Template in an Applet To Be Used With Send Email (F9)

Hey Guys,

Its been a while since my last post, apologies for the same. I have been trying to do too many things at the same time :P

While doing some extensive research on Siebel's f9 send email functionality, I came across this cool feature.

So if your business uses a common template to send out to its contacts from a specific applet, this feature could prove useful to you - saves you the effort of manually selecting the template.

Here is how you can add a Default Email Template to your applet.

Step 1: Query for the desired applet you want to set up the email template for.

Step 2: Goto View > Windows > Properties Window.

NOTE: If you are using Siebel versions prior to 8.x. You do not have to open the applet properties window. You should see it as part of the properties for the applet in OBLE.

Step 3: In the Mail Template property enter the Email template name exactly the way it appears in the Siebel Client.

Step 4: Compile and test - Now when you are on the just modified applet and hit F9, you should see the template pre-populated in the template selection dialog.

Note: Setting a default template for the Send Email command, as described above, overrides template visibility by channel. For example, if a template is specified as the default email template for Change Request applets, this same template will also be the default template for these applets for the fax channels (using the Send Fax command).

Cheers!

Create an HTML email in Oracle CRM On Demand

Hey Folks,

For any business, It's very important to keep your customers happy at all times.You need to constantly keep them updated on how their service requests are being processes. Below is one such example

I recently came across a requirement in which my client wanted to have some functionality in which, when a new SR is created, a Service Representative should be able to generate a neatly formatted email with all the required information and send it across to a Customer, so they know that the SR is being looked into, something like a SR Acknowledgment.

Here's what I did for them!

Solution:

Step 1: Build the Report
Create a Narrative Report that will contain all the required fields that is required to send out an email.

In Step 2 on the reports wizard add only a Narrative View

Save the report


Step 2: Create a Weblink and add to the Layout

Create a Weblink field in the Service Request Object.
Edit the weblink properties and add it to your report, note that we are passing the SR number as a parameter in the report, so we get details specific to this record only.

Add this weblink to the Layout assigned to your user role.

Step 3: View your changes
Create  a new SR record or view an existing SR record that has all the required fields you need to successfully send out the email. You should see the email weblink that we created in Step 2 above

Click on the Weblink to launch the report. you will now see your neatly formatted email with all the required details.

Step 4: Add this in Outlook.
In your IE menu bar click File -> Send -> Page by E-mail...

The above step will create new email in Outlook with your formatted report.

 

And you're ready to go!

Cheers!

Oracle CRM On Demand and Google Talk

Hey Guys,

If you are a Google Talk user, you may be aware that there is a link that allows you to sign into your Google account and chat with your contacts without the GTalk setup installation.

We are about to use this cool feature in Oracle CRM On Demand to help Service Reps to chat with customers to resolve their queries.

This feature may also be available for other messengers (yahoo, rediffmail, windows live), but let’s talk about Google for now.

  

Step 1:  

Navigate to Admin---Application Customization---Global Web Applets. 

Create a New Web applet and Fill in the below. You may also choose to have this on the Homepage according to your requirement.

URL: http://talkgadget.google.com/talkgadget/popout?

Step 2:  Add the Custom Web Applet to your Action bar for the ‘My Setup---Personal Layout---Action Bar Layout’ Global link.

You should now see the Custom
Web applet on your Action Bar.

Finally, Sign
in to your Google Account by clicking the sign in link and enjoy! 



Cheers! 

 

How to Stop a BusComp_PreWriteRecord

Many a times we find ourselves in a situation wherein we think our configuration is correct, but why the hell can I not see my changes. Tiny things make a big difference in Siebel and we spend hours trying to figure out whats going wrong, and more often than not its just a silly property that we may have overlooked :)...read on

When the current record of a BC has beeen modified, the user cannot step off the record without either saving or undoing the record. (Under normal circumstances, saving is done automatically when stepping off, so the user does not need to save the record manually.)

When calling RaiseErrorTest in BusComp_PreWriteRecord, or when returning CancelOperation from this event, the current record does not get saved to the database; however, it remains modified, and thus the user cannot step off the record. For the user, after clicking away the custom RaiseErrorText message, it may appear as if the system suddenly gets unresponsive as they cannot step forth and back anymore, and unexperiences users may not know how to escape this situation (by e.g. undoing the current record or by modifying the record until it saves successfully).

If, on the other hand, the script calls UndoRecord before raising an error, all changes are lost, which might lead to a negative user experience.

This is why Bookshelf recommends to not using RaiseErrorText within BusComp_PreWriteRecord.

If you observe a situation where it seems necessary to cancel an ongoing WriteRecord operation in the BusComp_PreWriteRecord event handler, then depending on your scenario you may want to consider these alternate approaches:

1. Verify the changes earlier

Some scenarios might allow verifying the changes to the current record earlier, such as in BusComp_PreSetFieldValue() or at applet level. However, consider that unless a BC field has the "Immediate Post Changes" flag set to TRUE; changes in the UI will not reach the BC (and thus not trigger BusComp_PreSetFieldValue()) until the user saves or steps off the record.

2. Verify the changes later

In BusComp_WriteRecord(), it is possible to use RaiseErrorText() since raising an error here does not cancel any pending operation - the WriteRecord already has finished. In this scenario the wrong data is already committed to the database, so either the user needs to navigate back to the record and modify it appropriately, or an internal process needs to identify and clean up the record later. (This depends on your particular scenario.)

3. Use Siebel Task UI

Siebel Task UI allows to guide the user through a set of operations before saving the result. As per the Task UI documentation, "Task UI's wizard-like user interface guides the end user through task execution, allows navigation both forward and backward within task execution, and allows task execution to be paused and resumed as needed."

This process can make use of "transient" business components, which means that the data does not get stored to Siebel tables until the task is finished successfully.

Thus the Task UI seems suitable to implement the desired two-step process of saving contact data to an external system first and then to the Siebel database.

Cheers!