In addition, you will learn to safely configure the Siebel data model. You will learn how the object types in the Siebel Repository are related to each other and how they are organized in different layers.
The book then teaches you to configure the Siebel CRM user interface objects such as views and applets as well as the underlying business layer objects by using real-life case-study examples. Always having one eye on performance and upgradeability, you will learn to safely configure the Siebel data model. Understanding and using the Siebel event framework for automation is also a key focus area of the book. You will gain a thorough and solid understanding of integration objects to support EAI interfaces.
Chapters on Siebel Workflow, Task UI, and scripting prepare you for the most complex automation requirements and ensure that you hit the road running on your first Siebel implementation projects.
If you already consider yourself an experienced Siebel consultant, be prepared for some unprecedented insights and pro tips. Download Example Code. Learn algorithms for solving classic computer science problems with this concise guide covering everything from fundamental …. To really learn data science, you should not only master the tools—data science libraries, frameworks, modules, …. Today, software engineers need to know not only how to program effectively but also how to ….
Data is at the center of many challenges in system design today. Difficult issues need to …. Applets and their controls only define which fields and methods of a business component are exposed to the end users. In Siebel web applications, the look and feel—the font style, background colors, and so forth—is defined by cascading stylesheets that are situated outside of the repository.
This is why the presentation layer is also called logical UI, whereas the files necessary to define the look and feel in the browser are part of the physical UI. We can describe a Siebel View as a web page that defines the arrangement of one or more applets on a layout template. The following screenshot shows the Account Summary View with one form applet on top and four list applets below in the Siebel web client:.
The list applets are arranged side by side for maximum visibility of the data that the end user needs for the business process. Each view references a single business object so that the application engine can use the link information to retrieve the correct child records for the selected parent record.
A screen is a collection of views that serve a similar purpose such as working with service request data or administering Siebel servers. In addition, a screen also defines the hierarchical order of the views and the labels that appear on clickable items such as tabs or links.
Following a rather simplistic but elegant design pattern, a Siebel application is not much more than a set of screens. In addition, an application object defines menus and web page templates to be used for rendering the user interface. When end users work with the data provided by the applets, they often have to invoke methods offered by the Siebel framework. Clicking the Site Map button to navigate to the site map, or selecting New Quote from the context menu of the Account List Applet, are just two examples how the end users utilize user interface components such as toolbar buttons or menu items.
The Siebel application architecture allows developers to place buttons and menu items in the following locations:. Each of these buttons or menu items invokes a method or command , which is handled either by Siebel's out of the box functionality, or by workflow processes or script code written by the developer. This provides the automation functionality required by the end users. Prominent commands such as New Record are often made accessible more than once such as a menu item, a keyboard shortcut, and an applet button at the same time.
Views, applets, and controls reference objects in the business layer. The references and the relationships of objects within the presentation layer can be visualized as follows:.
Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 of this book will discuss how to modify and create presentation layer object definitions.
Modern enterprise applications are never installed and used standalone. On the contrary, they are very often part of complex IT infrastructures with multiple integration touch points. In order to provide a standardized interface definition to access Siebel data, the Siebel Repository provides the ability to define Integration Objects.
In order to suit the different integration requirements such as mapping between Siebel and external schemas, integration objects can be defined as "internal" or "external". We can start by imagining a scenario where an integration architect has to define a data interface between Siebel CRM and an external order management application. The architect's duties include determining the exact set of fields to be exchanged between the applications. The external system may either not be capable of storing all this information or simply not need all these fields.
This is why the Siebel Repository includes integration objects. Integration architects can create integration objects that reference business objects, their components and fields, and define a subset of the information made available by the business layer objects. In other words, a Siebel integration object is a schema definition for data exchange via enterprise application integration EAI interfaces. Whenever the Oracle Siebel CRM design team creates integration touch points with other applications such as Oracle BI Publisher for reporting, they choose integration objects as the mechanism to define the schema of data to be exchanged.
Internal integration objects define the interfaces for the Siebel business layer objects. They have a similar hierarchy as business objects, containing integration components and integration component fields. The following diagram depicts the object types of the integration layer and their relationship to the business layer's object types:.
The integration component definitions within an internal integration object reference business components within the business object. Integration components define a list of integration component fields, each of which references a field in the business component referred to by its parent.
The Siebel CRM integration architecture provides data mapping functionality in order to assist Siebel developers in creating rich interface definitions.
A developer who wishes to map Siebel data to external data needs to import the external schema definition from a file typically an XML schema definition file, or. The import of an external schema produces so-called external integration objects, which are subsequently used by the Siebel data transformation engine to produce data sets that match the schema definition of the external systems.
In Chapter 18 , Supporting Integration Interfaces , we will learn how to create integration object definitions to support EAI interfaces. Enterprise software such as Siebel CRM must include features to automate business logic and provide business process guidance for end users.
The automation layer of the Siebel Repository includes the following object types that allow developers to fulfill automation requirements:. Almost the entire business logic that can be found in a Siebel CRM application is the result of the work of business services.
We can imagine a business service as encapsulated program code, which is designed to accomplish a certain task. The Siebel Repository comes replete with hundreds of preconfigured business services. The following list gives an impression of business-service-based logic in Siebel CRM:. Business services can be exposed as web services to provide the foundation for service-oriented architectures SOA. They can be written in many programming languages, of which Siebel eScript is the most popular at customer projects.
In addition, the Siebel application framework supports Java and Visual Basic as programming languages for business services. The Siebel Workflow module is known for its capability to orchestrate business services by defining the sequence of their invocation.
Siebel Workflow is in fact 4GL—a fourth generation programming language that allows developers to implement complex business logic without the need to write program code. The following screenshot shows an example workflow process in the Workflow Process Designer in Siebel Tools:. Siebel developers use the process designer to create and modify workflow processes.
We can observe that a workflow is a series of steps, decision branches, and exception handlers—very similar to a written program. We can access the Workflow Process Designer in Siebel Tools by right-clicking a workflow process object definition and selecting Edit Workflow Process.
End users must be trained to perform various business processes and tasks in Siebel CRM. But some business processes are rather complex and also rarely executed, making it difficult to flawlessly perform a business process. End users might require guidance for complex business processes in order to carry out all steps correctly and enter high quality data.
The Siebel Task UI provides the technological foundation for creating task-based user interfaces and the technical flow behind them. Similar to workflow processes, tasks define a sequence of steps with the main difference to workflow that user navigation is at the core of the task. So-called task views can be created to provide the input controls and data that a user needs at a certain step in the business process. Developers use the Task Editor to create and modify task definitions.
A task definition contains one or more task view steps, which implement the user interface for the given step of the business process. Commands are reusable object definitions and act as invocation mechanisms for business services, workflows, or built-in methods of the Siebel application. They are typically referenced by menu items and toolbar buttons, and define the foundation for the invocation of Siebel functionality by the end user. We will learn how to create business services, workflow processes, tasks, and commands in later chapters of this book.
We have now discussed the major object types of the Siebel Repository. Together with other object types and features, they form the logical application architecture. We can combine the information about the layers of the Siebel Repository in a logical architecture map as shown in the following diagram:.
The data layer hexagon shaped objects of the Siebel Repository defines the physical storage of data such as tables, columns, and indexes. The business layer objects rectangle shaped objects , namely the business components, reference the data layer and serve as a level of abstraction to allow the modeling of real-world entities into metadata. The presentation layer trapezoid shaped boxes includes all object types that are used to present data and functionality provided by the business layer to end users.
The integration layer bookmark shaped objects provides the foundation for data exchange with external systems. The automation layer rhombus shaped objects and its business services enable the automation functionality of Siebel CRM. External systems can be integrated with Siebel CRM by exposing objects of the automation layer or by using interface tables. The following table serves as a quick reference, in alphabetical order, for other important object types in the Siebel Repository:.
Allows drawing of entity relationship diagrams and links them to business layer object definitions such as business components, links, and fields. Collections of bitmaps related to a specific value. Allows displaying of a graphic instead of text data in the user interface. This object type defines the list of values LOV for drop-down lists and single value selection fields.
A container for objects. Each object definition in the Siebel Repository must belong to one project. Represents a text string and its translations to multiple languages. Can be referenced from every object that displays static text in the user interface. Pointer to physical. Siebel Tools allows us to inspect, create, and modify various object types in the Siebel Repository. The logical Siebel architecture follows a strict principle of separated layers, thus providing the foundation for a stable yet extensible application framework.
The Siebel Repository metadata defines anything from the menu that an application displays to the tables and columns where the data is stored physically. The business layer consisting of business objects, business components, and links to mention the most important members is the main abstraction layer and entry point for data access for end users and external systems alike.
Alexander Hansal has worked as an IT professional in small, medium, and global corporations. Publication date: April Publisher Packt. Pages ISBN Chapter 1. Siebel Tools and the Siebel Repository. Siebel Tools user interface. Title bar. Menu bar. None Opens the New Object Wizards dialog from where various wizards can be launched. File Export None Opens the Export dialog which allows exporting the current list data to different file formats such as CSV comma separated values.
Edit Change Records None Opens a dialog that allows setting up to four fields of the selected records to the same value. View Windows None Allows opening various docking windows such as the Properties window. View Toolbars None Selection of toolbars to display. View Options None Opens the Options dialog box, which allows setting various user-specific program options. Tools Compile Projects F7 Opens the Object Compiler dialog, which allows compiling entire projects.
Tools Check Out F10 Opens the Check Out dialog. Tools Check In Tools Import from Archive None Opens an archive. Tools Compare Objects None Allows visual comparison of two object definitions in the same repository, in another repository, or in archive files. Tools Search Repository None Opens the Search Repository dialog, which allows full text search across the entire repository.
None Allows comparison of two. List Contains functions that are used in the list editor such as creating new records, navigating, querying, and sorting. History Contains the back and forward buttons and bookmark functionality. Debug Used during script debugging.
Simulator Used during testing and simulating of workflow processes. Format Toolbar Contains buttons to control the format and layout of items in the form applet grid editor and flowchart editors such as the workflow process designer.
Configuration Context Allows changing the browser and application context for applet editors. Docking windows. Docking window Description Object Explorer This is the main docking window, which displays the object types and their hierarchy in the Siebel Repository. Properties This window shows the properties of a selected item in alphabetical order or by category. Palettes Depending on the main editor window, this docking window displays the available object types to drag-and-drop into the editor canvas.
Applets This docking window allows the developer to drag-and-drop different types of applets into the view editor. Multi Value Property Window Needed for the configuration of workflow processes, tasks, and entity relationship diagrams. Bookmarks This window allows us to access bookmarks that can be created by the developer to navigate to commonly used object definitions more quickly. Web Templates Window Opens the Web Template Explorer , which allows displaying of the hierarchy of nested Siebel Web Templates and viewing of the content of the web template files.
Debug Windows Available via the View Debug Windows menu, these windows support the debugging processes of scripts and workflow processes. It contains a multitude of explanatory tables, screenshots, and precise diagrams to illustrate the topics.
When you have finished the book you will feel prepared to participate in Siebel CRM implementation projects. In addition you will be able to teach the "old dogs" some new tricks.
0コメント