Siebel CRM, Oracles' market-leading Customer Relationship Management software, can be tailored to customers needs. In this book, the ambitious developer will learn how to safely implement customer requirements in Siebel CRM using Siebel Tools, Siebel's own integrated development environment.
This book is a complete practical guide to Siebel Tools and how it can be used to implement custom requirements. The book teaches you to configure the Siebel CRM user interface objects as well as the underlying business layer objects by using real-life case study examples. In addition, 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.
This book uses a real-life case study to provide easy-to-follow examples for the majority of chapters. The examples are radically practical and can be easily adapted to similar situations in Siebel CRM implementation projects.
The book ensures that you know what you are doing and why you are doing it by providing useful insight along with detailed practice instructions. The book 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 dog some new tricks.
Chapter 1, Siebel Tools and the Siebel Repository, introduces you to the user interface of Siebel Tools and the object definitions that form the Siebel Repository.
Chapter 2, Developer Tasks, lays the foundation for a solid understanding of common tasks in the development cycle.
Chapter 3, Case Study Introduction, provides an introduction to All Hardware, a fictitious company whose requirements serve as case study examples throughout the remaining chapters.
Chapter 4, Symbolic Strings, discusses the concept of symbolic strings, the central library of translatable texts that can be referenced from any object, that displays text in the user interface.
Chapter 5, Creating and Configuring Applets, teaches you how to create and modify form applets and list applets.
Chapter 6, Views and Screens, describes how to configure views and screens as well as how to register views in a responsibility.
Chapter 7, Business Components and Fields, introduces you to the important concepts of the Siebel business logic layer. You will learn how business components and their fields lay the foundation of the logical data model and how to configure them.
Chapter 8, The Data Layer, enables you to identify configuration options for objects that define the physical data model, such as tables, their columns and indexes.
Chapter 9, Business Objects and Links, completes the discussion of the business logic layer by introducing the concept of business objects and links. As in all chapters before, case study examples allow you to deepen your knowledge by providing a hands-on experience.
Chapter 10, Pick Lists, enables you to create static and dynamic pick lists on business component fields.
Chapter 11, Multi Value Fields, provides insight on how to configure multi value fields and their counterparts in the Siebel user interface.
Chapter 12, Configuring Access Control, shows how to configure business components to work within the Siebel Access Control framework in order to ensure data security.
Chapter 13, User Properties, introduces an important configuration option that allows developers to define specialized application logic while staying within safe declarative boundaries.
Chapter 14, Configuring Navigation, uses a case study example to explore the various possibilities of providing static and dynamic drilldowns as well as toggle applets.
Chapter 15, Customizing the Look and Feel of Siebel Applications, enables you to modify Siebel Web Templates and style sheets in a safe manner.
Chapter 16, Menus and Buttons, introduces the Siebel Event Framework and how to use it to configure user interface elements such as menu items, applet buttons, and toolbar buttons.
Chapter 17, Business Services, starts an exploration of the Siebel automation capabilities by introducing the concept of business services. You will learn about important preconfigured business services and how to invoke their methods.
Chapter 18, Supporting Integration Interfaces, brings information about integration objects and how to use them to support EAI interfaces. The chapter also introduces the EAI Siebel Adapter business service.
Chapter 19, Siebel Workflow, is the first of two chapters that explain the concepts and configuration options of Siebel Workflow processes. The chapter explains in detail how to create, simulate, and deploy workflow processes.
Chapter 20, Advanced Siebel Workflow Topics, explains how to use exception handling, subprocesses, loops, and other advanced techniques within Siebel Workflow processes.
Chapter 21, Siebel Task User Interface, introduces the Siebel Task UI and teaches you how to configure, test, and deploy task flows to allow better business process support for end users.
Chapter 22, Extending Siebel CRM Functionality with eScript, begins with an introduction to the Siebel scripting framework, discusses important aspects of the Siebel eScript language and shows you how to write a custom business service.
Chapter 23, Advanced Scripting Techniques, discusses topics such as browser scripting, translatable messages, and tracing while providing real-life examples.
Chapter 24, Deploying Configuration Changes between Environments, introduces the developer to techniques to migrate changes made to the Siebel Repository, administrative data, and files from the development environment to other environments.
Appendix A, Installing a Siebel CRM Self-Study Environment, guides you through the necessary steps to downloading and installing Siebel CRM software for a self-study environment.
Appendix B, Importing Code Files, provides brief step-by-step instructions on how to import the code files provided with this book.
Appendix C, More Information, gives you details of where to find more information on Oracle Siebel CRM.
This book is for a technical audience. You will get most out of this book if you have a solid information technology (IT) background and familiarity with operating systems and relational databases. If you have experience with enterprise-class information systems, consider this an additional benefit.
It is strongly recommendable to use additional resources on your Siebel learning path. The course offerings of Oracle University (http://education.oracle.com) are a perfect start.
The book is written with the role of a developer in mind who has to ramp up quickly on Siebel CRM, focusing on typical tasks such as implementing customer requirements by means of creating or modifying object definitions in the Siebel metadata repository using Siebel Tools.
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text are shown as follows: "A Siebel Tools archive file (AHA Customer Process Start View.sif) is available with this chapter's code files."
A block of code is set as follows:
function myTest(x : float ,y : float) : float
{
return x*y;
}
Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
repimexp /A I /C "SEAW Local Db default instance"
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Click the OK button."
Note
Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.
Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or may have disliked. Reader feedback is important for us to develop titles that you really get the most out of.
To send us general feedback, simply send an e-mail to <[email protected]>, and mention the book title via the subject of your message.
If there is a book that you need and would like to see us publish, please send us a note in the SUGGEST A TITLE form on www.packtpub.com or e-mail <[email protected]>.
If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide on www.packtpub.com/authors.
Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.
You can download the example code files for all Packt books you have purchased from your account at http://www.PacktPub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.PacktPub.com/support and register to have the files e-mailed directly to you.
Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or the code—we would be grateful if you would report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/support, selecting your book, clicking on the let us know link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata will be uploaded on our website, or added to any list of existing errata, under the Errata section of that title. Any existing errata can be viewed by selecting your title from http://www.packtpub.com/support.
Piracy of copyright material on the internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses very seriously. If you come across any illegal copies of our works, in any form, on the internet, please provide us with the location address or website name immediately so that we can pursue a remedy.
Please contact us at <[email protected]> with a link to the suspected pirated material.
We appreciate your help in protecting our authors, and our ability to bring you valuable content.
You can contact us at <[email protected]> if you are having a problem with any aspect of the book, and we will do our best to address it.