Authentication Business Service

Most people want security in this world. So whatever piece you design, Authentication becomes the key aspect. There are times when you want to authenticate whether the user-in-context is valid siebel user or not without actually logging into the system. This type of requirement is typical in Mobile Solutions using HTML5 and siebel webservices.

Here I unearth one more hidden gem of siebel, "Authentication Business Service". This magical service authenticates user against siebel irrespective of your security authentication mechanism. Be it database or LDAP it will return you valid siebel user name else invalid user/password error.The method is "Authenticate".  It accepts three input parameters:

1 - User Name - User Name to be authenticated in siebel
2 - Password - Password of the user
3 - GetPrivateCredentials - Y OR N based on the requirement.  If set to Y it will result user name in "Siebel User Name" output parameter.

One can see its usage in "LS Medical User Verification" workflow to get better feel of it. You can create web service based on this BS and can rest assured of your authentication approach. Hope it helps.

Happy Authentication!!

Live Webinar - Top 5 Siebel strategies for Siebel Customer

Renowned Siebel expert, J. Bruce Daley, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research, is planning to present a live webinar on top 5 siebel planning strategies. Please join me in attending the session as it can help you evaluate your current implementations and evolve go-ahead siebel strategies. 

In this webinar, Siebel experts will discuss findings from the Constellation Siebel reports.  Five different strategies are outlined – Move Forward, Move Away, Restart, Innovate Around the Edges, and Stand Pat – that you can use to move your implementation forward into the next decade. 

These are the topics:

• The real position Siebel technology holds in the market
• Why the conventional wisdom about the product is often wrong
• What trends are driving misconceptions in the market
• How to assess your Siebel implementations and a move-forward strategy
• We want to set the record straight so you know where you stand with Siebel that will provide insights to your organization and your career.

When: Thursday, Nov 14, 2013, 10:00 am PT / 1:00 pm ET

Register now before its late. Don't give it miss at any cost as they say show must go on. 

Happy Learning!!

Webinar Report and Survey

If you weren't able to follow Bruce Daley's webinar "Where Do You Stand with Siebel", here is a quick recap:

Oracle Siebel CRM is a mature application showing both continued robustness and signs of age. With Oracle sending mixed messages about the product’s future, Bruce Daley, VP at Constellation Research has published a report which helps Oracle Siebel customers understand the real position Siebel technology holds in the market, why the conventional wisdom about the product is often wrong, and what trends are driving misconceptions in the market. It also offers pragmatic advice for taking Siebel implementations in different directions and how associated careers will be impacted

You can view the replay and download the slides here.

You can download the report with compliments of Rimini Street here.

State of Siebel 2013 Survey

Along with the report, Constellation Research and the Siebel Essentials blog are conducting a survey to feel the pulse of the Siebel community. If you are involved in a Siebel CRM project, please take some minutes to fill in the survey form.

Click here to access the survey.

Thanks again!!

Constellation Research to Host Webinar on Where You Stand with Siebel

This free 45 minute webinar will discuss what different directions Oracle Siebel professionals can take their Siebel implementation and their careers.

Who: J. Bruce Daley, Vice President and Principal Analyst Constellation Research

What: Webinar: "Where Do You Stand With Siebel”

When: Wednesday, September 18, 2013 at 9:30 a.m. US Pacific time

How: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/578393734

Constellation Research, Inc., the award-winning research and advisory firm focused on disruptive technologies is offering a free 45 minute webinar to introduce a new analyst, J. Bruce Daley, in one of his primary research areas - the standing, enhancement, and conversion of legacy enterprise class software technology.

His topic will be the different directions Oracle Siebel customers, partners, and consultants can take their Siebel implementation and their careers. This year marks the 20^th anniversary of Siebel technology and as a mature application it shows signs of both robustness and age. With Oracle sending mixed messages about the product’s future, this webinar helps people making a living with Siebel determine exactly where they stand.

“Clearly Siebel technology is not dead and plays an important role in the IT infrastructure of many of our clients” noted R “Ray” Wang, CEO of Constellation Research.  “Figuring out exactly where Siebel fits into the mix is challenging. We are excited that Bruce will bring his wealth of understand and experience to helping Siebel customers meet this challenge. ”

Daley was, for many years, the publisher of the Siebel Observer, the largest publication covering the CRM pioneer.  Later he co-founded a boutique advisory services firm that brokered the sale of system integrator Blue Hammock Inc. to GCI International (now called Collabera) and conducted over 250 consultations with mutual funds, hedge funds, and private equity funds. Widely quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Financial Times, Daley also founded the Enterprise Software Summit.

His first research paper for Constellation: “Seeing the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in Legacy Applications: How to Attack or Defend an Installed Base by Understanding How to Qualify the Success of a Legacy Applications was published this week. This original research helps sales representatives and sales management determine how likely a legacy implementation is to be converted so they can qualify opportunities and threats more quickly. The report is available for purchase at http://www.constellationr.com/

His second research paper “The State of Siebel in the 2013 Market: Different Strategies for Moving Siebel Implementations Forward and Assessing Career Risk will be published next week. This research helps Oracle Siebel customers understand the real position Siebel technology holds in the market, why the conventional wisdom about the product is often wrong, and what the trends driving the misconceptions in the market. The report also offers pragmatic advice for taking different Siebel implementations in different directions and how they will impact different careers. The report will be available on the Constellation website Wednesday, September 18, 2013 at:

9:30 a.m. US Pacific time

10:30 a.m. US Mountain time

11:30 a.m. US Central time

12:30 a.m. US Eastern time

17:30 UK time

18:30 Central European time

Webinar Information: To register for this complimentary webinar, go to: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/578393734

Multiple File Attachments

Necessity is mother of taking chances. In recent outrage by our business users, we were asked to provide option of selecting multiple file attachments. Unfortunately siebel doesn't provide option of creating multiple attachment in one go. Even drag and drop in High interactivity creates only one attachment. With Open UI there are options but with good old HI and SI mode this can be real tricky. However, With mix of HTML-Javascript-browserscript we were able to achieve a custom built html file with multiple file browse options. where user could select three files in one go.

Below custom file browse HTML was used . Name is as "MultiFileAttach.htm".

<html> <head> <script language=JavaScript> function returnFilePath() { var filectrl1 = document.getElementById("file1"); var filectrl2 = document.getElementById("file2"); var filectrl3 = document.getElementById("file3"); window.returnValue = filectrl1.value + ","+ filectrl2.value+ "," + filectrl3.value } </Script> </HEAD> <body onunload=returnFilePath();> <form action="" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data" name="form1" id="form1"> <label>File1<input type="file" id="file1" /></label><br/> <label>File2<input type="file" id="file2" /></label><br/> <label>File3<input type="file" id="file3" /></label><br/><br/> <input type="button" onclick="javascript:window.close();" value="Submit"> </FORM> </BODY> </HTML>

Once the HTML page is ready, copy it in  Siebel\Client\PUBLIC\Enu and \siebsrvr\WEBMASTER\enu folders. I was not able to use Multiple attribute for file input type (food for thought for Javascript masters) so was forced to use three different file controls. The key here is returnValue property which returns the "," separated file paths, which we use in our browser script to parse and create attachments in siebel file system.Below is the browser side code.

  switch(name) { case "AttachmentTest": var sFullPath = theApplication().ShowModalDialog ("MultiFileAttach.htm", "", "dialogHeight:150px;dialogWidth:350px;dialogLeft:150px"); var sFileArr = sFullPath.split(","); for(i=0; i<sFileArr.length;i++) { var sFilePath = sFileArr[i]; if(sFilePath.length > 0) { //alert("In Loop" + sFilePath); var sBS = theApplication().GetService("FINS Industry BC Facility Service"); var sInputs = theApplication().NewPropertySet(); var sOutputs = theApplication().NewPropertySet(); sInputs.SetProperty("BusObjName","HLS Case"); sInputs.SetProperty("FileBusCompName","HLS Cases Attachment"); sInputs.SetProperty("RootBusCompName","HLS Case"); sInputs.SetProperty("RowId","2L-8D"); //Change the RowId accordingly sInputs.SetProperty("SourcePath",sFilePath); sInputs.SetProperty("FileNameField","HLSFileName"); sBS.InvokeMethod("CreateFile",sInputs,sOutputs); } } this.InvokeMethod("RefreshBusComp"); return ("CancelOperation"); break; default: return ("ContinueOperation"); break; }

We are invoking the custom "MultipleFileAttach.html" using ShowModalDialog method. Once we capture the path of attachments, "FINS Industry BC Facility Service" is used to create the attachments. In order to use this BS on browser side one must define this as part of user property on Application Level. One on Open UI can sleep well as there are lot of plugins available for Multiple File uploads. Java punters can propose alternate solutions to this approach, as usual your comments/inputs/suggestions are most welcome.

Happy Crunching!!

Warning: This piece is for demo purpose. Please test this solution thoroughly before you implement in your production systems.

Sample ASI SOAP Message

A lot has been written about Siebel ASI's. Developers tend to swore by them in order to achieve anything. Despite being so famous, the-mother-of-document siebel bookshelf doesn't have enough sample examples of them. Though there are details about structure of the ASI's. How they can be deployed as web services, about Interface integration objects, etc but still those fascinating examples are missing which helps in quick understanding.
If you have already worked on ASI's you can directly jump to comments section for your experience else you can continue to have a look as the sample SOAP message which can be directly fired from your SOAP UI to fetch results.

Here i am discussing about OOB siebel ASI, Siebel Contact and its two operations:

1 - QueryById
As the name suggest you can query contacts available based on one Input, i.e. RowId. Sample input message for same will look like:
<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:asi="http://siebel.com/asi/"> <soapenv:Header/> <soapenv:Body> <asi:SiebelContactQueryById soapenv:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"> <primaryrowid xsi:type="xsd:string">1-4VYGI</PrimaryRowId> </asi:SiebelContactQueryById> </soapenv:Body> </soapenv:Envelope>

2 -QueryByExample
 With this operation you can query on any of the fields as mentioned in the integration object. Sample request message for the same will look like.  This will return you all the contacts starting with Ra* in the response message based on your output integration object.
<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:asi="http://siebel.com/asi/" xmlns:soapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"> <soapenv:Header/> <soapenv:Body> <asi:SiebelContactQueryByExample soapenv:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"> <siebelmessage xsi:type="con:ListOfContactInterfaceTopElmt" xmlns:con="http://www.siebel.com/xml/Contact%20Interface"> <listofcontactinterface xsi:type="con:ListOfContactInterface"> <contact soapenc:arrayType="ns:Contact[1]" xsi:type="soapenc:Array"> <contact xsi:type="ns:Contact"> <firstname xsi:type="ns0:string">Ra*</FirstName> </Contact> </Contact> </ListOfContactInterface> </SiebelMessage> </asi:SiebelContactQueryByExample> </soapenv:Body> </soapenv:Envelope>

We will discuss sample request messages pertaining to other operations in next posts. I also found a very good article written on ASI from oracle which can be of great help to others.

Happy Integration!!

Android and Siebel WebServices

Finally life has turned to, need of hour,development of MobileApps for siebel and trust me it is as thrilling as watching any bond movie. with new projects come new challenges. So while developing android app for our users we got stuck in one show-stopper issue.

The main requirement was to consume a webservice hosted in siebel. On Android, consuming a SOAP web service is more difficult (as opposed to consuming a RESTful web service), since it does not include any libraries to communicate with SOAP web services. Unfortunately you have to manually write the code to consume the service which is not as straightforward as compared to writing in any other Java project.

With siebel doesn't giving a direct hosted URL it was more difficult for us to write the code. As an alterate solution we have to write a .net webservice which consumes the siebel webservice. The next issue is to generate the Java classes needed from the .Net WSDL files, and this is where I was coming up short with knowledge. But with little help from google found library called kSOAP2 that filled the gap and helped in generating the classes. I am still not able to figure out how to directly consume siebel webservice in android app without wrapping it in another webservcie. Any idea on this will be of great help.

Happy Integration!!

Poll Result and Analysis

Results of the Poll Future of Siebel are out officially. @lex has collated and presented the analysis at this link. You can also catch up with the official press release here. The results have not taken many by storm but yet gave oxygen to the faith that there is no reason to panic and give up on Siebel. In the ever changing market dynamics, Siebel will continue to emerge with its architecture evolving and adapting to market needs.

With "Open UI" striking and more customers embracing it, its time to explore some Java skills. It also marks centuries of post on CRM Conundrum. Thanks to all readers/followers for making it success. Sooner or Later even you will be reading on piece of Open UI here till then stay tuned.

Happy Voting!!

UIF Calendar Control in MVG Applet

Recently while working on multilingual application we faced strange issue. While setting values in MVG applet with calendar control, any date value was getting appended with UIF_ string. As a result invalid format error was coming. Eagle-eye pursuit resulted in the fact that even on the calendar control the month was like "UIF_May". To our surprise this issue was not happening on all machines. It was occurring only in some of the user machines with specific configuration. On discussion with Oracle it is found to be product defect.
                                                           

With configuration of Windows 7 and IE 8, it happens in ARA/ENU/FRA implementations. In order to resolve the issue IE 8 must be updated to latest patches from Microsoft or as an alternate solution could be:

1. In the Internet Explorer browser, go to Tools > Compatibility view setting > Uncheck all the options.
2. Press F12 and set the Browser Mode value to IE8.

This will resolve the issue for while.  

Happy Crunching!!

Poll Closure

The poll for seeking your opinion regarding future of Siebel has been closed.  Gratitude to everyone who cast their votes and participated in discussions. 

Please stay tuned for a detailed analysis of the poll results on Siebel-Essentials. Many thanks again for voting to all Followers/Members/Readers/Friends. 


Happy Voting!!

The Future of Siebel CRM: Community Poll

"Even after 20 years...It's still magic even if you know how it's done..."

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of Siebel Systems. After being acquired by Oracle in 2005, Siebel CRM and the successor of Siebel Analytics, Oracle Business Intelligence, are still flagship products. Thousands of IT professionals worldwide make a living from these two systems.

Siebel CRM itself has been on the market for 17 years, and in the Siebel community there is much excitement about Oracle's commitment to strengthen the product's position, for example by delivering the

Open UI framework. At the same time, many people wonder how many years Siebel has left. Always with our fingers on the pulse of the Siebel community, we - a group of dedicated Siebel bloggers* are working together to conduct a poll to find out public opinion on that question.

If you want to cast your vote on the poll, you can do it right here. Alternatively you can use this link to access the poll in a separate window or on a mobile device.





Thanks for your vote.

Happy Voting!!
PS: Special thanks to Alex for orchestrating this wonderful piece and celebrate in style.

*The following blogs are hosting this poll:

Impossible Siebel
On Demand Education
Siebel Essentials
Siebel Observer 
Siebel Tech Blog
Siebel Unleashed 
Wentari 


Did we miss your blog from this list? Do you want to participate? Then please contact Alex via twitter or Google+.

RecipientBusComp

A lot has been written on CreateRequest Method for Outbound Communication Manager Business Service. Recently we faced strange issue where users were bombarded with multiple emails for single request. On searching the issue on web i discovered lot of instances where this issue has occurred but solution was not clearly provided. This issue occurs mainly because Recipient Groups are not properly set up or the relationship between Primary BC and Recipient BC is not correctly defined.In this post i will try to take a dig at some of the important parameters which can help you define recipient buscomp.

Consider a scenario where you have a Service Request and multiple contacts associated to it with multiple roles. Now on status change mail should trigger to all contacts associated to Service Request and in some cases only to contacts with specific roles.

One can achieve the same without creating custom Recipient Groups with help of Recipient BusComp and Recipient Search Spec parameter.If one has good understanding of recipient groups i will still recommend go with that approach. However to use "TestAddress" parameter is not a good idea here because it overrides recipient's email address and will send multiple emails to the email defined in TestAddress. If you are using TestAddress with Recepient BusComp parameter, then ensure that only one record is returned in Recipient Buscomp. If there are multiple candidates in the Recepient Buscomp, multiple emails will be sent to TestAddress. Using TestAddress will ignore the value returned by Recipient Email Address Field user property in Recipient Buscomp.

In order to implement the above scenario, you have to consider following parameters of CreateRequest Method.

1 - CommProfileOverride
This is the name of profile used for communication

2 - PackageNameList
This is the name of template which is used for field substitution

3 - SourceIdList
Semicolon-delimited list of IDs. These Ids are used for record substitution for the BC defined in the Template.

4 - SourceBusObj
Name of the business object. This is very important in order to determine the link between primary Bc and Recipient BC. Service Request in this Case.

5- RecipientBusComp
Name of the Business component which contains recipient records. In this case it has to be business component based on the inter table between Servcie Request and contact. Email will be sent to associated contacts to the value returned by Recipient Email Address user property in recipient business component. In this case it is Service Request Contact BC.

6 - RecipSearchSpec
This parameter can you used to filter recipients. We can filter record based on the role to send email to specific person.

7- TestAddress
If Recipient Email Address Field user property is not defined and email needs to be sent to particular email id. However make sure Recipient BC always returns one record.
Using these parameters one can control email flow dynamically. Any comments and suggestion on usage of this method is useful.

Happy Mailing!!

[FieldName.TransCode]

While the whole world running for Open UI but I am still flagging my own old issues.Recently during performance improvement drive from my inner soul,  i read an interesting property while querying on Multilingual fields. If you know about TransCode function this post in not for you.

In Multilingual environment, with loads of records, querying on Multilingual field can be really taxing as these searches require a join to the S_LST_OF_VAL table in the resulting SQL code. To increase the performance one can append "TransCode" function with field name to retrieve the (untranslated) language-independent code (LIC) from a column in the base table, rather than returning the display value.
Syntax:
[Status.TransCode] = 'closed'

This function can be used in
1 - In Calculated Fields.
2 - In script. for ex. in GetFieldValue("Status.TransCode") statement
3 - In Workflows.
4 - In Link/Picklist searchspec.
5 - In DVM validation expression.

I am sure most of guys in siebel development will be aware of this thing but if you are not aware of this Transcode it can be helpful in future implementations.


Happy Crunching!!