This time related to Siebel Admin
Earlier I used to work with Siebel 7.8 and now 8.1..
So quite a different experience..

In Siebel 8.1, I had successfully initilized my dbf from tool and was able to login into Siebel Tools.
But suprisingly, using same dbf I was not able to login to my mobile client and it was throwing the error,
“user id /password not correct..”

I tried everything..from reinializing my dbf to changing parameters in my client cfg…
But all atempts were in vain..
Finally I looked in to Siebel logs and found the error as “Error connecting to datasource SSD Local Db default instance”

I tool the help from one of my seniors and he recommended the following way out.. I tried, and it worked..

Just followed below mentioned steps and problem got resolved and I was able to successfully login into local client…
1. Open the ODBC Administrator.
2. Select the System DSN tab.
3. Select the local Tools datasource (by default, “SSD Local Db default instance”).
4. Click the Configure button.
5. In the configuration window, select the Database tab.
6. Clear the field labelled “Server name”.
7. Close the configuration window and exit the ODBC Administrator.

I am really happy that the issue finally got resolved, and I would like to thank my mentor for helping me. Please add a comment if this helps you sometime.. I’ll be glad to know..

Related posts:

1. Siebel – Unable to launch Local Client
2. Siebel – Unable to check out objects
3. Siebel – Run Case Insensitive queries
4. Siebel – Remove About SRF Window
5. Siebel EIM – Custom table mapping

Method 1:
Open your corresponding CFG file in Edit mode (for Tools or for the Client). Navigate to the corresponding section for the Datasource, Sample, Local, Server or some other custom section. Search for the following parameter and update the value from FALSE to TRUE.

CaseInsensitive = TRUE

This parameter is available in both the Siebel Tools and the Siebel Client CFGs, both on the Local and on the Server.

Method 2:
This method will work on the Server.

In the Siebel Web Client, login with Server Admin priviledges. Navigate to the following path:
Sitemap -> Administration – Server Configuration -> Profile Configuration (tab)

Query for the ‘Profile’ with the name, “Server Datasource”.
From the bottom-most applet, search for the parameter with Alias, “DSCaseInsensitiveFlg”. The parameter would have the ‘Name’, “Database Case Insensitive Flag”. Set the value to TRUE.

And you are ready to go.

Warning:
There is a field level setting that makes the query on that particular field Case Sensitive or Insensitive. It appears as a property with the name “Use Default Sensitivity” corresponding to every Business Component field.

Siebel Help says it would work with only the Id fields, and only those Id fields which are exposed corresponding to the Business Fields. We cannot set this for eg. for the field, ‘Id’, corresponding to ROW_ID in the Database Column. However, in practice, this property seems to work for all the Varchar type fields.

Ensure the flag in this field is ticked, such that this value is always, TRUE.

Be fast, be more productive, Outperform!!

Related posts:

1. Siebel – Case Insensitivity (CIAI) Wizard
2. Siebel – Unable to login to mobile client
3. Siebel – ActivateField() split wide open
4. Siebel – Number of rows displayed in List Applet
5. Siebel – InvokeServiceMethod() on Calculated Fields

I will share a practical usage example for the above vanilla BS here.
Launch your Siebel Client. Navigate to the screen,
Administration – Business Services -> Scripts
Press ‘New’. I chose the name, “04 Nitin Test” for my Test BS.

Write a small piece of code in the method, “Service_PreInvokeMethod”, and the language as eScript.

Sample code is as follows:

function Service_PreInvokeMethod (MethodName, Inputs, Outputs)
{

var Input_ps = TheApplication().NewPropertySet();
var Output_ps = TheApplication().NewPropertySet();

var bs_FINS = TheApplication().GetService(”FINS Data Transfer Utilities”);
bs_FINS.InvokeMethod(”GetActiveViewProp”, Input_ps, Output_ps);

TheApplication().RaiseErrorText(Output_ps.GetProperty(”<output arg name>”) );

return (CancelOperation);
}

You can replace the with the desired parameter one by one, to see the corresponding output. As a sample, I got the following outputs in my Siebel setup:

There are two strange observations in the table above.
1) The Output Argument, “Screen” returns NULL. Now, I am obviously within a screen, which has a name. Why is it NULL?

2) It has returned the ViewMode “4″.

A simple Lookup in Siebel Tools F1 help lists the following ViewModes of a view:
SalesRepView (0)
ManagerView (1)
PersonalView (2)
AllView (3)
OrganizationView (5)
GroupView (7)
CatalogView (8)
SubOrganizationView (9)

Notice carefully, 4 is not in the list!

Related posts:

1. Siebel – Fetch Active view properties
2. Siebel – Fetch Active view properties – II
3. Siebel Assets List view – Performance issue / Cannot display records
4. Siebel – InvokeServiceMethod() on Calculated Fields
5. Siebel – getMilliseconds() usage

However, I also felt that it was a very crude way of doing it. We can only get the information we need, by writing a small script for it. Moreover, the information was very limited.

I also came across an alternative method to get the details from the Active View. Try searching for the Business Service, “FINS Data Transfer Utilities” in your Siebel Tools. It has a method, “GetActiveViewProp”, which can help us achieve our objectives. Moreover, it supports our point of view of Scriptless Solutions!

Usage:
The BS, “FINS Data Transfer Utilities” does not take in any Input Arguments for the method, “GetActiveViewProp”. We can, thus, directly call this BS in Scripts or Workflows as the requirement may be.

There are a number of outputs, however, that return the corresponding data for the logged in user.
BusinessObject
This would return the Business Object of the view active at the time of invoking this Business Service.

IsAdminMode
This would determine if the current view works in Admin Mode. Admin Mode gives you extra priviledges on a particular view.
The Admin Mode is defined by the “Admin Mode Flag” on the property corresponding to the View in the Siebel Tools Object Explorer.

Screen
The name of the screen that the current view is a part of.

ThreadApplet
Name of the Thread Applet in the current focus.

View
The name of the active view.

ViewModeCode
This is returned in the form of a Code (a number). This defines the View Mode of the current view in focus.

I feel this post is getting too long. I’ll post a follow-up post with a practical example.

Related posts:

1. Siebel – Fetch Active view properties – III
2. Siebel – Fetch Active view properties
3. Siebel Admin Mode Flag – II – Issue Log
4. Siebel Assets List view – Performance issue / Cannot display records
5. Siebel – Admin Mode Flag

Working on a typical requirement recently, I came across a need to fetch the properties from the user’s active view. This was an attempt to recognize the user, and the details about the Siebel view/screen he was in.

On research we can see that there are a number of Application level methods which we have at our disposal.

We see that we can get the active Business Object name using the format:
TheApplication().ActiveBusObject();

Also, the active view name may be fetched using:
TheApplication().ActiveViewName();

The Login Id of the user logged in may be fetched using:
TheApplication().LoginId();

The Name of Logged in user (the one that is typed into the Login box) may be fetched using:
TheApplication().LoginName();

The Position ID may be fetched using:
TheApplication().PositionId();

The position name of the user logged in may be fetched using:
TheApplication().PositionName();

.. and maybe some more, in case I missed out on any.

However, this is very limited information (though may be sufficient for some requirements). More so, if we notice, the information is mostly User oriented rather than being Siebel session oriented.

We will explore further if there is a way to get more detailed information of the current view. Even simple topics turn into series of posts. There is so much to explore and share in Siebel..!!

Related posts:

1. Siebel – Fetch Active view properties – II
2. Siebel – Fetch Active view properties – III
3. Siebel Assets List view – Performance issue / Cannot display records
4. Siebel – Admin Mode Flag
5. Siebel – Popup Update Only

Somebody recently asked me if there is a way that we can force the user to Logoff from the current session, under some specific conditions. My simple research in Siebel Tools and around it brought up the following alternatives.

Vanilla Business Service Methods:
1) BS Name = LS Medical Product Issue Service
Method = Logoff

2) BS Name = Mktg Saw Service
Method = Logoff
Input = ServerId (This is the Analytics Web Server Id from which to Log off)

3) BS Name = FINS IBC Login Adapter
Method = Logout

I saw this as a very poweful Business Service with methods like, GetLoginId, GetLoginProperties, GetLoginState, GetNewMessageId, Login and of course, Logout. I could not find too much documentation around this BS in both the Bookshelf and Metalink. I will research more and try to post my findings here.

4) BS Name = Communications Client
Method = PreferenceLogout

With the numerous methods to this BS, it seems more related to the Call Center application and CTI.

5) BS Name = SAWSessionServiceSoap
Method = Logoff

All the BS and the methods above can be directly used in Workflows or scripts. One immediate utility that I can think of is to forcibly logoff user sessions whenever we notice a user trying to access data or views that he should not be allowed to access.

We noticed in our implementation that the Logout method sends the SWECmd = Logoff to the Siebel Web Engine. This seems to be the recommended solution by Oracle above all the others. We can easily call the following code in Browser Script, when trying to do this through scripting for our purposes:
top.location = “start.swe?SWECmd=Logoff”;

We also noticed the Command, “Logout” in the Tools Object Explorer which can terminate the user session.

Please add to this in case you feel it is inadequate, or missing some details. I will update this post with the findings as we progress around this.

Related posts:

1. Siebel – Automatic User Logout
2. Siebel – DefaultFocus – User Property
3. Siebel – FINS Teller UI Navigation
4. Siebel – Fetch Active view properties
5. Siebel – Fetch Active view properties – II

Siebel is well integrated with Actuate Reports, used for reporting and Business Intelligence (BI) perspectives.

Today’s post has been contributed by Tapan Chitkara, a regular visitor to GeeksBlogging@dotCOM. Tapan has deep expertise in Siebel Actuate Reports.

By default, when a report is generated and viewed in the Siebel web client, or selected from Reports Server > My Reports view, the report will be presented in Dynamic HTML (DHTML) format in the web browser. When the user clicks on the Save button , a window will popup prompting to download the report to PDF or Excel. If you select PDF and try to save, the file will be saved as the name of the physical report file on the Server as shown in the image below (Please click on the image to enlarge):

GeeksBlogging@dotCOM - Generate Actuate Reports

If the default behavior is changed so that the report is always presented in PDF format (skipping the DHTML format), by following method, the report name will be displayed as a URL or default[1].pdf as shown below (Please click on the image to enlarge):

GeeksBlogging@dotCOM - Generate Actuate Report PDF

To change this behavior so that the report output will be saved with the same name as the report name in PDF format, the user can modify viewframeset.jsp (for Actuate 7) as follows:

1. Navigate to the following directory:

ACTIVEPORTAL_HOME/Viewer

2. Make a backup of the viewframeset.jsp file.

3. Use a text editor such as Notepad to open the viewframeset.jsp file.

4. Locate the line var sConnectionHandle and add the following:

var varTitle = ““;

For example:

var sConnectionHandle = (<%= bExistConnHandle %>) ? “<%= StaticFuncs.jsEncode(paramBean.getParameter(”connectionhandle”)) %>” : null;
var varTitle = “<%=StaticFuncs.getDocNameForViewerTitle(bExistConnHandle, paramBean)%>”;
 
5. Search for:
 
g_reportFrameURL = “../servlet/GetReportData” + replaceDuplicateParams(replaceDuplicateParams(replaceDuplicateParams(g_objectURL , “format”, “PDF”) , “page” , g_currentPageNumber ) , “scalingfactor” , scalingFactorValue );
 
6. Append + “&/”+varTitle as shown below:
 
g_reportFrameURL = “../servlet/GetReportData” + replaceDuplicateParams(replaceDuplicateParams(replaceDuplicateParams(g_objectURL , “format”, “PDF”) , “page” , g_currentPageNumber ) , “scalingfactor” , scalingFactorValue ) + “&/”+varTitle;
 
7. Delete the Standalone folder to clear the HTTP cache and start the services.
 
This technique is not suggested by Siebel as it could lead to unwanted results at times.

Thanks Tapan, for this wonderful contribution.

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1. BI – Upload multiple Actuate ROX files
2. Siebel – Number of rows displayed in List Applet
3. Siebel – Showing red asterisk on a conditionally required field
4. Siebel – EAI Siebel Adapter – Looping Multiple Records
5. Siebel – Reading data directly from Siebel SRF

This is something very trivial, and I guess most of you would already be implementing this in your personal set-ups. However, just for the purpose of making and retaining notes here, I will add this post.

We would be modifying some Operating System Environment variables here.
I have my desktop running on Windows XP. In this case, right click on the ‘My Computer’ icon, and select ‘Properties’.
Navigate to the Tab labelled ‘Advanced’.
Press the button ‘Environment Variables..’
In the section for ‘User Variables”, look for the variable named, “SIEBEL_LOG_DIR”. If not already present, create one. In my case, I gave it the value, “D:\\SiebelLogs”. All Siebel Logs will now be created in this custom directory rather than the vanilla Siebel directory under Siebel Install directory.
Similarly, create another User Variable with the name, “SIEBEL_LOG_EVENTS”. The value of this variable can vary between 0-5, with 0 indicating the lowest level of detail, and 5 indicating the maximum level of details. A log level of 5 creates extensive logs very large in size owing to the high level of details.
Save and close.

Now, every new session of Siebel Tools or Siebel Web Client will start creating logs in the directory pointed to by SIEBEL_LOG_DIR according to the Log level set in SIEBEL_LOG_EVENTS. This can help in detailed understanding and debugging of most processes, before we execute them on the server.

Related posts:

1. Siebel – EnableServiceArgTracing – Logging Messages
2. Siebel- Close Browser window when logging off
3. Siebel – Unable to launch Local Client
4. Siebel Server Architecture – an Introduction
5. Siebel – Run Case Insensitive queries

•         Create a new .swt file say “LogOffDestination “ which contains following HTML script:
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
</body>

<script for=window event=onload>
window.opener = ‘ ‘;
window.open(”",”_self”);
window.close();
</script>
</html>

•         Now place this .swt file in <Siebel Tools>\WEBTEMPL\, <Siebel Client>\WEBTEMPL\ and <Siebel Server>\WEBTEMPL.
•         In Siebel tools, navigate to “Web Template” object in Object Explorer. Create a new web template say “LogOff Destination” and give this new “LogOffDestination.swt” in the “File Name” property of the “Web Template File” object.
•         Now Navigate to “Web Page” object in Object Explorer. Create a new Web Page say “Log Off Destination” and set “LogOff Destination” Web Template you just created in “Web Template” object.
•         Now navigate to “Application” object in Object Explorer. Query for “Siebel eSales”. Now change web page in “Logoff Acknowledgement Web Page” from the given value to “LogOff Destination”.
•         Now compile “Web Template”,”Web Page” and “Application” objects in the srf.
Now when you log out from the application, it will close the IE.

Related posts:

1. Siebel – Remove About SRF Window
2. Siebel – About SRF Window – Remove data
3. Siebel – Enable Detailed Logging – Local
4. Siebel – EnableServiceArgTracing – Logging Messages
5. Siebel – Forcing User Logoff

One impromptu question came up from the audience, “What if I want to limit opening of the About SRF window itself in the first place?”. I said, “Nice question!”.

Try out the following steps to disable the About SRF window itself from Siebel Web Client.

Log into Siebel Tools.
Navigate to ‘Application’ in the Object Explorer. In may case, “Siebel Automotive”.
Notice that the Menu property corresponding to this Application reads, “Generic WEB”.
Navigate to ‘Menu’ in the Object Explorer in Siebel Tools.
In the ‘Menu Item’ below the ‘Menu’ in OE, search for the record name as “Help – About SRF”, or the Caption as “About SRF…”.
Set the corresponding property, ‘Inactive’ to TRUE.
Compile into Siebel SRF and Go!

You should no longer see the ‘About SRF’ option in the ‘Help’ menu.

Just as I said with my previous post on hiding data from the About SRF Applet, you can play around with similar other entities as well. Let me know if this helped you. Cheers!

Related posts:

1. Siebel – About SRF Window – Remove data
2. Siebel- Close Browser window when logging off
3. Siebel – Popup Update Only
4. Siebel – Run Case Insensitive queries
5. Siebel – changing Textbox height

I guess almost all the Siebel users would have seen or used the Siebel ‘About SRF’ window to know about the latest SRF that has been compiled, or other technical information for the application that they just logged into.

However, for a lot of reasons you may want to disable this Siebel feature:
1) Security Reasons
2) Making data available on a Need to Know basis
3) Making available custom information than that in the About SRF window. Or,
4) Just for plain fun!

Either way, a nice to know feature in Siebel.

Remove some data from the About SRF Window

In Siebel Tools, navigate to ‘Applets’ in the Siebel Object Explorer.
Search for the ‘About SRF Applet’ in the List of available applets.
In the ‘Controls’ section below the ‘Applets’ in the Object Explorer tree, select the controls that you no longer want to show on the ‘About SRF Applet’. There would also be corresponding Labels visible as different controls.
Set the property, ‘Inactive’ to TRUE for all these controls and corresponding Label controls.
Compile and go. Tell me what you see!

This concept can also be used to show some customized data onto the Siebel ‘About SRF Applet’ as the requirement may be. Just remember to add the proper controls in the Edit Web Layout section of the Applet.

I am sure that the smartest of the lot will find many more similar applications, related to this implementation. Once you are done playing with this one, drop me a comment telling me how all did you play with this Applet.

Related posts:

1. Siebel – Remove About SRF Window
2. Siebel- Close Browser window when logging off
3. Siebel – Autosave Opportunity data – The concept
4. Siebel – Autosave Opportunity data – Sample Code
5. Siebel – Reading data directly from Siebel SRF

There are two kinds of settings in Siebel to control this:
1) Control the number of default rows being shown. And,
2) The maximum number of rows being shown in one go on the screen. This is when we press the Show More button on the Applet.

Controlling the default number of rows
There is a parameter called “NumberOfListRows” in the “SWE” section of the .cfg file. If you change this value, to say 10, you would see 10 rows by default in the List Applets by default. This is when this setting is not being overridden by some other property in Siebel.

If you want to set the default value of the number of rows to be displayed in only one Applet, you can set the property, “HTML Number of Rows” for that particular applet. This appears as a column in Siebel Tools along with the name of the Applet. Press multiple number of times to reach this particular property in Siebel Tools.

The value will default to 10 in case this property is not set at the indivisual Applet and the CFG file level.

Controlling the Maximum Number of Rows
In the SWE section of the CFG file, you can set the parameter, “NumberOfMaxListRows”. This will control the number of rows to be displayed on the List Applet once the Show More button is pressed and the applet expands.

This value defaults to 20 if not set in the CFG.

These tips are true for 7.x versions of Siebel. I remember one of my friends telling me that there is another option in Siebel 8.0. If somebody knows about that, please add to this post.

Related posts:

1. Siebel – HTML Code displayed in Error Message
2. Siebel – Custom Applet Title
3. Siebel Assets List view – Performance issue / Cannot display records
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5. Siebel – millisecond dates on Applet

Today, I would discuss its usage, as to how we can use it in our implementations.

A simple ‘About View’ of the EAI Queue screen shows us that the two applets are based on the following -

The usage of these Siebel EAI Queues is through the vanilla Business Service, “EAI XML Queuing Service”. The various self explanatory methods on this Business Service are:
AddMessage – Add message to the EAI Queue
DeleteMessage – Delete message from the EAI Queue
GetMessage – Retrieve a message from the EAI Queue
UpdateStatus – Update the status of an existind message on the queue
GetStatus – Get the Status of a particular message on the queue. The messages supported OOB are – Confirmed, Error in Processing, Error in Sending, Initial, Processed, Sent

I will try to demonstrate the usage through a TEST queue.

Navigate to the screen Administration – Integration -> EAI Queue.
Do a NewRecord with the Queue name of your choice. I gave the name, “Nitin Test Queue”.

To use it, I created a simple two step workflow-
Step 1:
Query step using EAI Siebel Adapter. I made a simple query on Order Header. This returned a SiebelMessage.

Step 2:
Use the Business Service, “EAI XML Queuing Service”, method “AddMessage”.
Input Paramters:
QueueName Nitin Test Queue
ReferenceID Dummy-01
SiebelMessage
Status Initial

You will notice that a new record will be created on the EAI Queue screen. I noticed that Siebel uses the Windows temp directory as a temporary storage area. The working is something similar to the way Siebel handles the Attachments. Siebel creates separate attachment files in the Siebel Filesystem and exposes that through an interface. Siebel will autogenerate a Sequence Number everytime a new message is inserted into the EAI Queue.

Voila! No need for any customization. I have a ready made OOB solution which is scalable, robust and can be used for for Logging and Error Handling purposes. The best part is, I got it up and working in say about 5-10 minutes. Any other custom architecture could possibly take 2-3 resources working on it maybe for Weeks, if not months. They could be covering phases like conceptualizing, architecting, prototyping, implementing, testing, embedding in our flows, testing again, etc. However, a custom architecture comes with its own set of pros and cons. This may not just be the best of solutions after all. Stay tuned for my critique on EAI Queues..

Related posts:

1. Siebel – EAI Queue
2. Siebel – EAI Queue – a Critique’
3. Siebel – getMilliseconds() usage
4. Siebel – Symbolic Strings – Usage
5. Siebel – EnableServiceArgTracing – Logging Messages

I will try to cover here as to how we can customize and modify this OOB functionality such that user can scroll among records using the normal UP and DOWN arrow keys on the keyboard.

The process of scrolling UP and DOWN in the list of records uses the ‘Commands’, “Next Record (SWE)” and “Previous Record (SWE)” in the Tools Object Manager. It is in the corresponding ‘Accelerators’ for the command which tells the system to use CTRL + UP and the CTRL + DOWN keys for this operation. In my case, I inactivated the existing record for ‘Extended’ Browser platform and introduced a New Record in its place. I changed the corresponding values from CTRL + UP to UP, and from CTRL + DOWN to DOWN.

Compiled the changes into the Siebel Client SRF, and I could now scroll between records using only the UP and DOWN arrow keys on the keyboard. No need to use CTRL together with the UP or DOWN key press when scrolling between records.

Related posts:

1. Siebel – Merge Records Functionality
2. Siebel – Looping multiple records – Update records
3. Siebel – Merge Records – Checklist
4. Siebel – SIA BC Utility Service – Loop multiple records
5. Siebel – Automating Merge Records by script – II

I was making a fresh install of Siebel yesterday, when something very strange happened. I could not launch my Local Client. This was even more strange because:
1) I could successfully launch my Sample Client
2) I could successfully launch my Local Client when invoking it in Debug mode from within Siebel Tools!

I was installing an instance of Siebel 7.8.2 for the concerned. My operating system in use is Windows XP.

My Sample client was opening successfully. This meant my Internet Explorer settings are fine, and the executables to execute one after the other are installed fine.

I could launch my local client from within Tools using the same CFG file and the login parameters indicated that my configuration of the CFG file was fine, and I was using the correct login credentials. This also concluded that it was not an issue of license keys. I was left in the blue unable to think of as to what the possible reason could be.

I tried increasing the Logging level to maximum, trying to find out what is really hampering the launch of local client. I noticed that there were no errors being indicated in the log files being created. Just that the log files would be created successfully for some time, and then, the entire process would halt. The log files stopped being updated after a certain point, without indicating any error.

On comparing the log files of client launch in debug mode and without debug mode, the only difference was that the log file size in Debug mode was much larger, the log files were being updated properly right till the end and that the debug mode Local client was working fine.

Now, the million dollar question: then how was the problem resolved?

On top of the base install of 7.8.2, I installed the patch 7.8.2.8.
When I tried launching the Local client now, it worked beautifully without hanging.

I am still hunting for the possible difference that the patch installation made, which enabled the successful launch of my Local Client. Any pointers from anybody?

Related posts:

1. Siebel – Unable to login to mobile client
2. Siebel – Enable Detailed Logging – Local
3. Siebel – Unable to check out objects
4. Siebel – Run Case Insensitive queries
5. Siebel- Close Browser window when logging off