Installation and Configuration of open UI

Download 

1.Go to Oracle Delivery Cloud and sign in 
2.Select ‘Siebel CRM’ as the Product Pack and an appropriate platform. You’ll still, for some infuriating reason, find 8.1.1.x under 32-bit Windows and 8.2.2.x under 64-bit Windows. Very odd 
3.Download the 5 ZIP file components of the installation and unzip them all to a common folder 
4.Open up a command prompt, as administrator, and CD to the unzip folder 
5.Set the JAVA_HOME variable, if required. For example: set JAVA_HOME=”E:\Java\jre6? 
6.Run snic.bat 
7.Create a new image, patch set 
8.Go through the usual process of selecting desitnation, platform and components and pick one or more languages 
9.Though it looks like the JAVA process has frozen / crashed, it’s now unzipping the JAR files into appropriate installers 


Install 

1.Installation is the same as you would expect, if you have installed 8.1.1.8 or 8.2.2. Check out my earlier article for some gotchas on the new installation process 
2.You’ll still get the stupid “you’re about to install into a non-empty directory” message. For a patch? Really? 
3.The patch process also takes ages. This, I suspect, is because the installer recognises it’s own instability and does a ‘backup’ (i.e. OS level folder copy) of the entire SIA / SEA folder before it does anything. I still think Oracle have taken a huge step backwards with the clunky and unreliable installer 
4.Once you’ve installed Enterprise, Web Server, Web Client and Tools (very important!) you’re ready for the next step 


Enable Open UI 

1.First up, you won’t find the instructions for enabling OpenUI in the patch documentation. Instead, refer to MOS article 1499842.1 for a Deployment Guide for Open UI 
2.Unzip ‘OpenUI_Base_8119.zip’ from within the Siebel Tools REPPATCH folder. Here you’ll find instructions on what projects to lock and a .BAT file to import all the appropriate SIFs to enable OpenUI
3.Lock the projects, create the new Reports project then edit the preferences file appropriately – it’s all documented in the instructions 
4.Run the import batch file and check the result in the Notifactions\Log folder. I chose ‘Import All Packages’ to save time. This seemed to work perfectly first time though it took forever as each SIF is imported individually, using a new Siebel Tools process 
5.Perform a full compile of the SRF and deploy to your server environment 
6.Now you have two choices – clone an existing OM (recommended) or update an existing one to use OpenUI in place of HI. I went for cloning as, though it’s more involved, it allows me to access and compare my existing HI OM 
7.Personally, I used the server manager scripts that were generated from the mergecfg.exe tool to create the OM. I first created a new OM component then used the scripts to update the partameters to match those of the existing Sales (SSE) OM component 
8.In the parameters for the new OM, set the new ‘EnableOpenUI’ parameter to ‘True’ 
9.In IIS, create a new Virtual Directory for your new OM and create appropriate entries in eapps.cfg to point to it. I called my OM ‘SSEOUIObjMgr_enu’ and the Virtual Directory and eapps entry ‘sales_openui_enu’. You can use the editmetabase.exe tool in the SWE bin folder to do this (metabaseedit.exe sales_openui_enu E:\sba81\SWEApp\BIN\ENU\eapps.mtb) 
10.Restart everything, just to be sure 

The advised high-level roadmap for customers follows: 

1. Upgrades to a release compatible with Open UI. 
2. Implement Siebel 8.1.1.9 or 8.2.2.2 or above. 
3. Apply QF’s applicable to the release 
4. Migrate from SEA to SIA if on a SEA release. 
5. Import Open UI related SIF files. 
6. Read FAQs and other release documentation provided for the migration. 
7. Add an object manager for the UI, and set it to Open UI using the Open UI enablement settings. 
8. Test the upgraded deployment on HI and SI. 
9. Test the Open UI client rich internet application (RIA) deployment. This can be tested in parallel when running       the environment because it runs on a separate object manager). 
10. Perform user-acceptance testing for all the deployed client UI options. 

Configuration 

Overview: High level configuration steps 
To deploy Siebel Open UI, several steps must be followed. 
1.Download the Innovation pack 2012 release. 
2. Import your seed data using the provided batch files 
3. SIF files for import are provided to enable Open UI and Siebel Mobile features. These must be imported. 
4. Compile & deploy the new SRF 
5. Please bounce your server (or restart your mobile web client) after completion of the import 
6. Add or clone an object manager depending on use of Siebel Mobile or Open UI 
7. Add Virtual directories as needed. 
8. Set the image files based on deployment requirements 
9. Use EnableOpenUI= TRUE (or FALSE) to change between HI and Open UI mode. Set this parameter in the c       client CFG file or in the object manager parameter as needed. 
10. Tune Web Server performance for your environment and web server type. 

Siebel Tools contains the following zip files in the REPPATCH folder. 

1. OpenUI_Base_8119.zip or OpenUI_Base_8222.zip 
2. OpenUI_Mobile_8119.zip or OpenUI_Mobile_8222.zip 

Note: If you have run previous versions of Seed or SIF data import run the steps below to update the information. 

Note: Siebel Tools requires use with Internet explorer 8. 
To import the Sif file, compile and deploy the SRF with the components in the applicable SIF file (named openUI_*.zip) based on the instructions in the readme.txt file contained within it. 

1. Back up your target database. 
2. Create an ODBC entry for the database where you plan to import the seed data into. 
3. Open your tools.cfg file and change SymStrPrefix=X to SymStrPrefix=SBL. 
4. Create new projects as specified in the beginning of projects_and_objects.txt. 
5. Check out or lock the projects specified in the "Projects to Lock/Check Out" section in                                  projects_and_objects.txt. 
6. Ensure language.txt contains the language codes of the languages you need with each code in a separate line. 
7. This step is optional, but recommended. Specify environment information in preference.txt. 
8. You will be prompted for the information for entries that are left blank. 
  - REPOTOOLSBIN=<path, where to find siebdev.exe, e.g. C:\siebel\tools\bin> 
  - REPODATASOURCE=<DataSrc entry from tools.cfg, where to import the objects into> 
  - REPOUSERNAME=<User Name> 
  - REPOPASSWORD=<Password> 
  - DBTYPE=<ORACLE|MSSQL|DB2UDB> (i.e. the data base vendor) 
  - DDLPATH=<path that contains ddldict.exe and ddlimp.exe, usually <Siebsrvr>\bin> 
  - SIEBUSER=<Siebel Username> 
  - SIEBPW=<Siebel Password> 
  - ODBCDATASOURCE=<ODBC DataSource Name> (i.e. the name of the ODBC data source reated in step 2) 
  - TBLO=<Table Owner> 
  - TBLOUSER=<Table Owner User> (only needed for MSSQL) 
  - TBLOPW=<Table Owner Password> 
  - Run import.bat. 
9. Verify the import logs in <package>\Log for all imported packages. 
10. Compile the repository to create a new srf with the new and modified objects, which are listed in projects_and_objects.txt. 
11. Open your tools.cfg file and change SymStrPrefix=SBL_ back to SymStrPrefix=X. 
12. Verify the import logs for the seed data in <package>\Seed\<DBTYPE>. 
13. Please bounce your server (or restart your mobile web client) after completion of deployment of the new SRF file. 
14. Perform configurations according to the “Additional Instructions” documents in the subfolders, if such documents exist. 

Adding Siebel Open UI Object Managers To set configuration for Siebel Web Client via server object managers, set the parameters in Application Server Configuration> Component Parameters as follows: 

To render as High Interactivity client: 

1. EnableOpenUI=FALSE
2. HighInteractivity=TRUE 

To render as Open UI client: 

1. EnableOpenUI=TRUE 
2. HighInteractivity=TRUE 

Enabling and Disabling Open UI on clients To set configuration for Siebel Dedicated and Mobile Web Clients via client configuration, set the client parameter, in uagent.cfg in the [InfraUIFramework] section as follows: 

To render as High Interactivity client:

1. EnableOpenUI=FALSE
2.HighInteractivity=TRUE 

To render as Open UI client:
1. EnableOpenUI=TRUE
2. HighInteractivity=TRUE 

Backing up configuration and setting Environment variables

1. Stop Siebel Server. 
2. Stop Gateway Server and make backup of siebns.dat file. 
3. Restart Gateway Server. 
4. Set SIEBEL_HOME environment variable to SES_HOME/siebsrvr directory. 
5. Start Siebel Server and make sure that components are online (assumption: Srf used by Siebel Server is the resulting SRF after SIF import) 

Comparison between Open UI Application and Siebel

1. Custom applications have the advantage over Siebel in user friendliness, because there are things that you could do with current web technologies that are never"possible" in Siebel.

2. Siebel is a vast product with a lot of technologies that allows us to build a descent and usable interface, If the technology is out there, and its supportable, we use it and give the client what they want, of course it has to be supported by good architecture.

3. Instead of switching to another application in order to meet client requirements. Siebel CRM come up with solution which meet the  users requirement.

4. Siebel Open UI has been designed with the same purpose.

Open Ui Frame Work

   Presentation Model

       A presentation model is a JavaScript file that specifies how to handle the metadata and data that Siebel Open UI gets from the Siebel Server

1.Works with proxy data
   Run Time Data
    —Metadata

2.Determines what logic should be applied
    Client side scripting without requiring the need of siebel server

3.Capture behaviors
—   Did the user leave a control

4.Exposes properties
—   Collect field values
  — Set properties

Physical Renderer

A physical renderer is a java script file that siebel open UI uses to build the user interface.

1.Simply builds the UI

2.—Implementation to plug in a third party UI control

3.—The same list of records can be shown as
—A list apple
—A carousel

Siebel Open UI

Open UI is by far the most awaited feature of Siebel 8.1.1.9. Open UI is all about providing a New Standards Based Open Client supporting a multitude of clients and devices. I describe the available features in brief.

Siebel Open UI : (Browser Independent)

       Transforms Siebel deployments into a truly “Open” Platform supporting all browsers not  just IE . It can display data in Web browsers that support Web standards on various  operating systems, such as Windows, Mac OS, or Linux. For example: Internet Explorer,  Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari

Siebel Open UI : (Platform/Device Independent)

     Smart, efficient, with a modern look and feel for Desktop Browsers on any hardware platform

         Mobile Browsers on any tablet or smart phone

Siebel Reporting Architecture with BI Publisher

There are two modes in which Siebel application access BI Publisher engine to generate reports – Connected Mode and Disconnected Mode

This is a only diffrence in terms of the way BI Publiser is integrated technically and how the reports are generated inside the siebel application. so from the end user point of view there is no difference when they  request to run the report.

1. Connected Mode

• Used by Siebel Web Client to communicate with standalone BI Publisher server.
• XMLP Report Server component is configured on the Siebel server.
  • It retrieves the report data from Siebel database through Integration Objects.
  • It invokes the Reporting Service/Engine at BI Publisher server through Web Services and also transfers the data to be displayed in reports. Reporting engine prepares the final report and sends it back to the XMLP Report Server component.
  • It saves the received report in Siebel File System and also passes it back to the user.

2. Disconnected Mode

• Used by Siebel Mobile/Dedicated Web Client.
• BIP Reporting Engine is implemented in Siebel.exe file itself via embedded libraries.
• This leads to limited functionality. For example, scheduling of reports is not supported.
• This also leads slightly less performance.
• It retrieves the data and generate/display the final report.

Siebel - BIP Reports

BI Publisher is a template-based publishing engine developed by Oracle. It allows customers to rapidly develop or modify reports templates. Siebel application uses Oracle BI Publisher report engine to generate Siebel reports.

It is based on industry standard technologies such as XML and Web Services. It utilizes familiar software (Microsoft Word) as a development tool. It supports various report viewer applications such as Adobe Reader, MS Word and MS Excel.

Oracle earlier had XML Publisher (acronym – XMLP) tool to work with reports. BI Publisher is an extension to this tool. This is the reason why you may see ‘XMLP’ at various places – files, folders, web-services etc.

Certain properties of Siebel/BIP report are as follow:

• Reports are assigned to specific views. Users, with access to these views only, would be able to use mapped reports.
• Reports are not available globally.
• Reports can be generated in two modes – Real Time and Scheduled.
• Reports are saved on Siebel File System. Thus, once generated  reports can be accessed later on.

Advantage of BIP over Actuate

Actuate (Developer)                                                       BI Publisher (End User)

1. Uses COM to talk to siebel. This                                  1. Uses web services. This mean
    means report object in a tool,                                          Integration objects, SOAP
   .ROL files and siebel.bas                                                       messages and XML

2.Generate report object library                                    2. Generate XML data

3. Create report in actuate                                                3. Create report layout template
                                                                                                           in a word
4. Compile report                                                                  4. Don't need to compile report

5. Deploy report executable                                             5. upload template

6. Associate report with view                                           6. Associate with view, no restart
     and deploy SRF                                                                      of server

Siebel EAI - Basic Steps

Siebel integration involves following four basic steps:

1.     Access Data

1. For inbound integration, Siebel will receive and save data
2. For outbound integration, Siebel will retrieve and send data

2.     Convert Data

1. Siebel stores data in tables.
2. But to transport data, it is converted into more convenient format.
3. Popular industry standard is XML format

3.     Sending Data

1. Prepared data is sent over some specific channel – it can be HTTP protocol or any other industry standard transport

4.     Transforming Data

1. Siebel uses tables as its data structure
2. External application may use any other data structures to store their data
3. On exchange of information between two systems having different data structure, it is required to transform the data and then save it.

Following are the four possible data exchange scenarios:




Additional processing may include following two cases:

1. Transforming the data at Siebel end due to difference in data structure of exchanged information
2. Routing incoming XML to desired process based on its content.

Method Name – Represents the methods available in various Siebel EAI business services. Please refer the snapshot below for an example of methods exposed by EAI File Transport business service.


Start -> EAI Siebel Adaptor -> Data Map -> Custom BS to change type to a prop set -> Proxy BS -> Custom BS to change type of Prop set-> Data Map -> EAI Siebel Adaptor -> End

Siebel EAI

Integration Objects (IO) defines the structure of data to be exchanged between Siebel application and external system. IO represents hierarchical data structures.

IO also used as templates to create memory-resident instances for data processing by business services.

IO consists of Integration Components (IC). One of them is marked as Primary IC. IC further consists of Integration Component Fields (ICF).

There are two types of Integration Objects as follow:

1. Internal IO

1. Describes structure of data being read or written to Siebel application
2. Represents a subset of Siebel Business Object

2. External IO

1. Describes of structure of data being exchanged between Siebel application and External application
2. Is required in two scenarios:
   • External application is unable to handle data in Siebel format
   • Additional manipulation is required before saving the received data at Siebel end

Horizontal and vertical Application in Siebel

The main difference between both is that “Vertical Applications are specifically made for one domain and Horizontal Applications are Common which can be used for any domain”.

So basically we can say the vertical applications are designed industry wise and horizontal applications are designed field wise.

Vertical Applications are specifically made for one domain.Examples: Siebel ePharma , Siebel eFinance

Horizontal Applications are Common which can be used for any domain.Examples: Siebel Call Center, Siebel Sales

Lets discuss this in detail

Siebel Horizontal Competency Practices are Common which can be used for any domain. We can take example Siebel Systems’ Call Center Practice, which is prepared to help with the design, development, and deployment of a complete call center solution that includes business process design, infrastructure, and hardware and software customization.

Call Center and Service
Customer Telephony Integration (CTI)
Email Response
Field Service
Internet-enabled Service
Marketing and Analytics
eService
Partner Relationship Management (PRM)
Employee Relationship Management (ERM)
Marketing

Siebel Vertical Competency Practices are specifically made for one domain, They fulfill are desired requirement of specific industry.

Financial Services
Banking
Insurance
Healthcare
Communications/Media/Energy
Communications
Media
Utilities
Oil and Gas
Consumer Sector
Life Sciences