Constellation Resarch Webinar "Where You Stand with Siebel" on Sept. 18th

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

Research and advisory firm Constellation Research will hold a Webinar on Where You Stand with Siebel on September 18th. The topic will be the different directions Oracle Siebel customers, partners, and consultants can take their Siebel implementation and their careers.

This year marks the 20th 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 pleased to be helping Siebel customers meet this challenge."

The webinar is based on the research paper "The State of Siebel in the 2013 Market: Different Strategies for Moving Siebel Implementations Forward and Assessing Career Risk" that will be published next week by J. Bruce Daley, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research.

Daley was, for many years, the publisher of the Siebel Observer, the largest publication covering the CRM pioneer. Widely quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Financial Times, Daley also founded the Enterprise Software Summit.

Bruce's 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.

Webinar Information

When: 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

The Future of Siebel CRM: Community Poll - [Poll close date 24th May 2013]

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.

[POLL CLOSED]


Thanks for your vote
-Ryan

*The following blogs are hosting this poll:
(in alphabetical order)

CRM Conundrum
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+.

[Update]

Its been a good two weeks of polling, the poll has now been closed. Thanks to all who participated. We appreciate your comments. A detailed analysis of the results will be put out shortly.

Siebel Mobile Connected Apps - Side effects of custom toggle applets.

We've been doing some development on the very new Siebel mobile connected apps. The Siebel Mobile app is a huge and exciting addition to Siebel CRM. However, Just like all new products, you can expect some product defects in the initial version of the software.

We will be updating this blog with all the bugs we come accross and their workarounds untill we have a permanent solution from Oracle.

Issue: Side effects of custom toggle applet in Siebel Mobile connected apps.

Here is how you can reproduce the Issue -

Create a toggle applet on a Form Applet to toggle on a particular LOV value. Lets say the LOV toggle Value is 'Retailer'

Issue 1 - (New Record renders the applet in Base Mode)

The applet opens in Base mode when the record context is the value (Retailer) used for the toggle in the list applet. However when you create a new record from other types record, this does not happen.

Issue 2 - (Toggling back from the toggle applet, renders the applet in Base Mode)

After you have selected the Toggle, and the toggle applet is active switch back to another LOV so the original applet loads. The applet switches to Base mode instead of staying on Edit mode.

Issue 3 - (Applet switches to List Applet on New record instead of opening the entry form applet) - Happens only in iPhone Mode
 
Upon creating a new record the applet switches to List mode (without loosing context, which is Ok). You then have to tap on the record again to go to Detail mode to edit/ enter data

Workaround:

The workaround to the above three issues would be to do away with the base mode completely, and have the applet render in Edit Mode at all times. You can do this by simply selecting the Applet Mode to Edit in the View web template items property.

Although, this is not the best approach to have a record editable at all times, especially when using a touch phone/pad. Its the only way that can keep the toggle from not breaking.

Any other workarounds are very welcome!

Cheers!

How to time trigger workflows through command prompt

If you have workflows in your CRM system that are required to be run everyday, but for some reason you are running them manually, this might be a good solution for you to save some time.

This solution demonstrates how you can trigger your Siebel workflows at specific intervals of time on windows. For, Siebel environments on other operating systems, you will have to create a solution similar to this, the only difference being the batch file will have to be written in shell (for Linux/Unix) or the programming language that is supported by the OS.

Step 1 - Write the batch file

Copy the below code in a text file and save it with the .bat extension

::Set Localization
  setlocal
::Gets The Parameters and sets into Environment Variables
   set GTYSRV=%1
   set ENTSRV=%2
   set SIEBSRV=%3
   set SIEBUSR=%4
   set SIEBPWD=%5
  
chdir C:\sia81\siebsrvr\BIN
  
   :: The workflow process name
   set wf=Test Workflow
   set command=run task for comp WfProcMgr with ProcessName='%wf%'
   c:\sia81\siebsrvr\bin\srvrmgr /g %GTYSRV% /e %ENTSRV% /s %SIEBSRV% /u %SIEBUSR% /p %SIEBPWD% /c "%command%"

This will connect to the siebel server via the command prompt and call the "Test Workflow" Workflow process.

Step 2 - Schedule the batch file

The next step would be to schedule the workflow process to run at a certain interval in the day. On windows you will need to schedule this through the Windows task scheduler. On Linux/Unix you will probably have to use crontab.

How to schedule a task in windows

How to schedule a task via Crontab

Note: You will have to add the following parameters in the Add Parameters section each separated by a space.

<ENTSRV> <SIEBSRV> <SIEBUSR> <SIEBPWD>

example: Siebel81G siebelDev siebelDev sadmin sadmin@123

How to Optimize Siebel Application Login Time

Recently, we've had a lot of users complaining about the homepage taking too long to load. Why does the login page take long to load? What happens when the login page loads. Below are some of the tasks that Siebel performs while loading the application.

- Verifying Application Schema Version
- Loading / validating State Models (checks whether or not the expiration date is greater than current date)
- Verifying State Model values for transition
- Loading / Validating Personalization rules and rule sets for each event on applets, Business Components, - - Business services and application
- Loading / validating user profile data.
- Loading / validating System preferences
- Loading localized data (Phone format, date format, time zone, currency etc)
- Loads user reporting hierarchy
- Loads application view-responsibility data.
- Message Broadcast (This can be inactivated by inactivating the Message broadcast bar)

The reason behind such a behavior is that some of the static data (localization, license keys etc) and SRF data that are common to all business components are initialized for the object manager process with the first task or user login request. It is this initialization of tasks that causes the delay in service to the first user.

Setting the “OM - PreLoad SRF Data” (PreloadSRF) parameter to TRUE will trigger the loading of this global data for the object manager process when it is initialized upon starting the services. Now the first login should be faster as the burden of reading the static data is pushed to the component startup phase.

NOTE:  After setting the parameter to TRUE, you must recycle the services for the parameter value to take effect.

If setting the parameter at the enterprise level, all the object managers in the environment will automatically inherit the parameter value (unless an administrator has specifically set the value on the lower object manager level).

Also, if this parameter is set to be TRUE in conjunction with the MinMTServers parameter, the static data will be loaded for the number of object manager processes specified for the MinMTServers parameter when the component is initialized. This way there will be no delay in service for a large volume of users since the minimum required multi threaded object manager processes would already be initialized.

M.O.S Reference:  Doc ID - 476878.1

How to Create a Parent with Multi Child Tabs on Aggregate Views

As the quote goes, "You cannot NOT have a user experience". User experience is one of the most important things in product design. I personally feel that Siebel's User Interface could be a lot better than what it is (but thanks to the new Innovation pack for 2012, with the Open UI I think Siebel is getting there).

Most users do not like drilling down on a record which then takes them to the detail view of a record and then navigating back to the parent record. What they usually ask for is, if they could have the tabs right on the main view of the screen. Something like this -

 

Some thought this was not possible but actually it is and requires just a web template change for the Aggregate views.

Change the Web Template of the view to either one of the following -

1. View Parent Multi Child With Tabs

2. View Parent List With Tabs

Cheers!

Generating Data to UI mappings in Siebel just got easier!

This is one of those tasks which is fairly simple to do. However, can be very time consuming considering you have to generate a mapping for an entire/multiple repositories. We've all have had to do this at some point, not enjoying it one bit!

Well, here is a code that will save you some time and your sanity :).

The below code generates a screen to Applet, and an Applet to BC mapping which can be then exported to excel.


Screen to Applet - 


select scr.name "Screen Name"
      ,nvl(nvl(ptabi.tab_text, scri.viewbar_text), scr.viewbar_text) "Screen"
      ,scrv.sequence "View Seq"
      ,vw.name "View Name"
      ,vwi.title "View"
      ,vw.busobj_name "Business Object"
      ,vwti.item_num "Item Num"
      ,ap.name "Applet Name"
      ,api.title "Applet"
      ,ap.buscomp_name "Business Component"
from   siebel.s_repository rep
       inner join siebel.s_screen scr on scr.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_screen_intl scri on scri.screen_id = scr.row_id and scri.repository_id = rep.row_id and scri.name = 'ENU-STD'
       inner join siebel.s_screen_view scrv on scrv.screen_id = scr.row_id and scrv.repository_id = rep.row_id
       inner join siebel.s_application appl on rep.row_id = appl.repository_id
       left outer join siebel.s_page_tab ptab on ptab.application_id = appl.row_id and ptab.repository_id = rep.row_id and ptab.screen_name = scr.name
       left outer join siebel.s_page_tab_intl ptabi on ptabi.page_tab_id = ptab.row_id and ptabi.repository_id = rep.row_id and ptabi.name = 'ENU-STD'
       inner join siebel.s_view vw on vw.name = scrv.view_name and vw.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_view_intl vwi on vwi.view_id = vw.row_id and vwi.repository_id = rep.row_id and vwi.name = 'ENU-STD'
       inner join siebel.s_view_web_tmpl vwt on vwt.view_id = vw.row_id and vwt.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_view_wtmpl_it vwti on vwti.view_web_tmpl_id = vwt.row_id and vwti.repository_id = rep.row_id
       inner join siebel.s_applet ap on ap.name = vwti.applet_name and ap.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_applet_intl api on api.applet_id = ap.row_id and api.repository_id = rep.row_id and api.name = 'ENU-STD'
where  rep.name = 'Siebel Repository'
and    appl.name = 'Siebel Power Communications'
and    nvl(rep.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(scr.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(scri.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(scrv.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(vw.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(vwi.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(vwt.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(vwti.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(ap.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(api.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
union
select scr.name "Screen Name"
      ,nvl(nvl(ptabi.tab_text, scri.viewbar_text), scr.viewbar_text) "Screen"
      ,scrv.sequence "View Seq"
      ,vw.name "View Name"
      ,vwi.title "View"
      ,vw.busobj_name "Business Object"
      ,vwti.item_num "Item Num"
      ,apta.name "Applet Name"
      ,api.title "Applet"
      ,apta.buscomp_name "Business Component"
from   siebel.s_repository rep
       inner join siebel.s_screen scr on scr.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_screen_intl scri on scri.screen_id = scr.row_id and scri.repository_id = rep.row_id and scri.name = 'ENU-STD'
       inner join siebel.s_screen_view scrv on scrv.screen_id = scr.row_id and scrv.repository_id = rep.row_id
       inner join siebel.s_application appl on rep.row_id = appl.repository_id
       left outer join siebel.s_page_tab ptab on ptab.application_id = appl.row_id and ptab.repository_id = rep.row_id and ptab.screen_name = scr.name
       left outer join siebel.s_page_tab_intl ptabi on ptabi.page_tab_id = ptab.row_id and ptabi.repository_id = rep.row_id and ptabi.name = 'ENU-STD'
       inner join siebel.s_view vw on vw.name = scrv.view_name and vw.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_view_intl vwi on vwi.view_id = vw.row_id and vwi.repository_id = rep.row_id and vwi.name = 'ENU-STD'
       inner join siebel.s_view_web_tmpl vwt on vwt.view_id = vw.row_id and vwt.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_view_wtmpl_it vwti on vwti.view_web_tmpl_id = vwt.row_id and vwti.repository_id = rep.row_id
       inner join siebel.s_applet ap on ap.name = vwti.applet_name and ap.repository_id = rep.row_id
       inner join siebel.s_applet_toggle apt on apt.applet_id = ap.row_id and apt.repository_id = rep.row_id
       inner join siebel.s_applet apta on apta.name = apt.applet_name and apta.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_applet_intl api on api.applet_id = apta.row_id and apta.repository_id = rep.row_id and api.name = 'ENU-STD'
where  rep.name = 'Siebel Repository'
and    appl.name = 'Siebel Power Communications'
and    nvl(rep.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(scr.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(scri.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(scrv.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(vw.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(vwi.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(vwt.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(vwti.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(ap.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(api.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
order by "Screen"
        ,"View Seq"
        ,"View Name"
        ,"Item Num"
        ,"Applet Name"

Output looks like -

Applet to BC mapping -

select  "Applet Name"
,"BC Name"
,"BC Field"
,"Required"
,"Calculated"
,"Calculated Value"
,"Join Name"
,"Table"
,"Column"
,"Data Type"
,"Length"
,"Multi-valued"
,"MV Link"
,"Pick List"
,"LOV Name"
,min("Caption") "Caption"
,"Display Order"
from (
select ap.name "Applet Name"
      ,bc.name "BC Name"
      ,fld.name "BC Field"
      ,fld.required "Required"
      ,fld.calculated "Calculated"
      ,fld.calcval "Calculated Value"
      ,fld.join_name "Join Name"
      ,(case when fld.mvlink_name is null then nvl(nvl(jotab.name, fld.join_name), case when fld.calculated = 'Y' then null else bc.table_name end) else null end) "Table"
      ,fld.col_name "Column"
      ,fld.type "Data Type"
      ,(case when fld.prec_num is null then to_char(fld.textlen)
             else to_char(fld.prec_num) || to_char(case when fld.scale is null or fld.scale = 0 then '' else ',' || fld.scale end)
        end) "Length"
      ,fld.multi_valued "Multi-valued"
      ,fld.mvlink_name "MV Link"
      ,pl.name "Pick List"
      ,pl.type_value "LOV Name"
      ,coi.caption "Caption"
      ,co.sequence "Display Order"
from   siebel.s_control co
       inner join siebel.s_control_intl coi on coi.control_id = co.row_id and coi.name = 'ENU-STD'
       inner join siebel.s_applet ap on co.applet_id = ap.row_id
       inner join siebel.s_buscomp bc on ap.buscomp_name = bc.name
       inner join siebel.s_field fld on fld.name = co.field_name and fld.buscomp_id = bc.row_id
       inner join siebel.s_repository rep on bc.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_join jo on jo.buscomp_id = fld.buscomp_id and fld.join_name = jo.name
       left outer join siebel.s_table jotab on jotab.name = jo.dest_tbl_name and jotab.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_picklist pl on fld.picklist_name = pl.name and pl.repository_id = rep.row_id
where  rep.name = 'Siebel Repository'
and    ap.repository_id = rep.row_id
and    co.repository_id = rep.row_id
and    bc.repository_id = rep.row_id
and    fld.repository_id = rep.row_id
and    nvl(co.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(ap.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(bc.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(fld.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(rep.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(jo.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
union all
select ap.name "Applet Name"
      ,bc.name "BC Name"
      ,fld.name "BC Field"
      ,fld.required "Required"
      ,fld.calculated "Calculated"
      ,fld.calcval "Calculated Value"
      ,fld.join_name "Join Name"
      ,(case when fld.mvlink_name is null then nvl(nvl(jotab.name, fld.join_name), case when fld.calculated = 'Y' then null else bc.table_name end) else null end) "Table"
      ,fld.col_name "Column"
      ,fld.type "Data Type"
      ,(case when fld.prec_num is null then to_char(fld.textlen)
             else to_char(fld.prec_num) || to_char(case when fld.scale is null or fld.scale = 0 then '' else ',' || fld.scale end)
        end) "Length"
      ,fld.multi_valued "Multi-valued"
      ,fld.mvlink_name "MV Link"
      ,pl.name "Pick List"
      ,pl.type_value "LOV Name"
      ,coi.display_name "Caption"
      ,co.sequence "Display Order"
from   siebel.s_list li
       inner join siebel.s_applet ap on li.applet_id = ap.row_id
       inner join siebel.s_list_column co on co.list_id = li.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_list_col_intl coi on coi.list_column_id = co.row_id and coi.name = 'ENU-STD'
       inner join siebel.s_buscomp bc on ap.buscomp_name = bc.name
       inner join siebel.s_field fld on fld.name = co.field_name and fld.buscomp_id = bc.row_id
       inner join siebel.s_repository rep on bc.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_join jo on jo.buscomp_id = fld.buscomp_id and fld.join_name = jo.name
       left outer join siebel.s_table jotab on jotab.name = jo.dest_tbl_name and jotab.repository_id = rep.row_id
       left outer join siebel.s_picklist pl on fld.picklist_name = pl.name and pl.repository_id = rep.row_id
where  rep.name = 'Siebel Repository'
and    li.repository_id = rep.row_id
and    ap.repository_id = rep.row_id
and    co.repository_id = rep.row_id
and    bc.repository_id = rep.row_id
and    fld.repository_id = rep.row_id
and    nvl(li.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(co.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(ap.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(bc.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(fld.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(rep.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
and    nvl(jo.inactive_flg,'N') = 'N'
)
group by  "Applet Name"
,"BC Name"
,"BC Field"
,"Required"
,"Calculated"
,"Calculated Value"
,"Join Name"
,"Table"
,"Column"
,"Data Type"
,"Length"
,"Multi-valued"
,"MV Link"
,"Pick List"
,"LOV Name"
,"Display Order"
order by "Applet Name"
        ,"BC Name"
        ,"MV Link" desc
        ,"Table"
  ,"Display Order"

Output looks like -

So there you go...you could later consolidate both to have a full UI to Data level mapping.

Oh! Almost forgot, Your welcome ;)

Cheers!

How to Integrate Google maps with Siebel for multiple addresses

A few days back a client asked me if we could have Google maps integrated with their Siebel application, that would enable their reps to locate their contacts/accounts on Google maps, and find the best way to reach them based on their mode of commute. Initially, they had planned to do this for single addresses. However, I tried to convince them to go for multiple address selection.

The key business driver here in my opinion would be that, the user can optimize his/her travel route based on the proximity of his/her reps, thus saving time and money. Google maps also offers a few more features like checking for traffic, avoiding tolls, taking highways etc.

Google maps is really cool, and integrating it with Siebel makes it cooler ;)

Really!! show me how?

Step 1: The first step would be to get the Google map applet setup on your Siebel application. There are many ways to do this. For this example lets go with Mash-up your CRM with Google maps in < 30 minutes.

Step 2: Once you have this setup, just copy the below script on the contact/ account list applet or where ever you would like to have this integrated.

The below script will automatically refresh your Google map to give you a route of your selected contact addresses and will plot A, B, C pins on the map. Alternatively, you could also use a button to invoke this script.

Script -

 

Step 3: Make sure you change the field names in the script to match your contact BC. 

Step 4: Compile and test!

This is what map would look like

Almost forgot, Thanks to Benny and Alex for their post on Siebel Essentials

Cheers!

Siebel Power User - Part 1

Hey Folks,

Here is the first of the many Siebel power user series to come. Just recently discovered a few cool features in Siebel from an end user perspective.

Many a times the user is required to update multiple records of data based on a condition, that the user would normally not know how to execute simultaneously.

For instance, I recently had to update a few(not really) activities in Siebel under a condition where the activity had just one contact associated to it. How would an end user go about making this change?

Lets discuss two such "Good to knows" in the following scenario

The Requirement -

Lets say you have to update the status of 100 or so activities which do not have more than one contact.

The Trick -

Go to the Activities applet, and use the below query on the Contacts field

Count("Contact") > 1

Note: Contact is the MVL used in the Contact MVG

This will give you all activities with more than one contact association.

Now, lets update the Type of the Activities to 'Call'

Select all records and click the Edit option in the application menu and select change records. Change records allows you to update a maximum of 4 fields of the same record simultaneously.

Select Type in Field 1 and change the value to 'Call Back'
 

And there you go, you now have 15 more minutes to facebook ;)

Please feel free to use the comments section for any feeback on this post, or if you would like to contribute to this series.

Cheers!

Setting a Default Template in an Applet To Be Used With Send Email (F9)

Hey Guys,

Its been a while since my last post, apologies for the same. I have been trying to do too many things at the same time :P

While doing some extensive research on Siebel's f9 send email functionality, I came across this cool feature.

So if your business uses a common template to send out to its contacts from a specific applet, this feature could prove useful to you - saves you the effort of manually selecting the template.

Here is how you can add a Default Email Template to your applet.

Step 1: Query for the desired applet you want to set up the email template for.

Step 2: Goto View > Windows > Properties Window.

NOTE: If you are using Siebel versions prior to 8.x. You do not have to open the applet properties window. You should see it as part of the properties for the applet in OBLE.

Step 3: In the Mail Template property enter the Email template name exactly the way it appears in the Siebel Client.

Step 4: Compile and test - Now when you are on the just modified applet and hit F9, you should see the template pre-populated in the template selection dialog.

Note: Setting a default template for the Send Email command, as described above, overrides template visibility by channel. For example, if a template is specified as the default email template for Change Request applets, this same template will also be the default template for these applets for the fax channels (using the Send Fax command).

Cheers!

Skype - Siebel Custom Integration

Want to call one of your contacts/prospects in Siebel without a lot of manual effort? now you can...
Here are a few simple steps of how you could integrate Skype with your siebel application.

Thank you Bernard for sharing this!

Configuration Steps - (for this example I am going to use the contacts applet)

Step 1: Create a custom Business service called 'OS Skype Integration' and assign it to a locked project.

place the below code in the PreCanInvokeMethod event of the Business Service

function Service_PreCanInvokeMethod (MethodName, &CanInvoke)
{
    if(MethodName == "GetField")
    {
        CanInvoke="TRUE";
        return(CancelOperation);
    }
    else if(MethodName == "TransformToSkype")
    {
        CanInvoke="TRUE";
        return(CancelOperation);
    }
    else
    {
        return(ContinueOperation);
    }
}

place the below code in the PreInvokeMethod event of the Business Service

function Service_PreInvokeMethod (MethodName, Inputs, Outputs)
{
    try
    {
        switch (MethodName)
        {
            case "GetField":
                this.GetField(Inputs, Outputs);
                return (CancelOperation);
              
            case "TransformToSkype":
                this.TransformToSkype(Inputs, Outputs);
                return (CancelOperation);      
              
            default:
                return (ContinueOperation);
        }
    }
    catch(e)
    {
        TheApplication().RaiseErrorText(e.toString());
    }
    finally
    {
    }
}

Now that the two methods are defined and ready for use, lets define the logic inside them


Create two new functions as below -

GetField: This method as you can see will get the properties set by the Browser script in the Contact List Applet and will make them available in the Input Property Set of the Business Service.


function GetField(Inputs, Outputs)
{
    var sfield = Inputs.GetProperty("fieldname");
    var sId = Inputs.GetProperty("Id");
    var boName = Inputs.GetProperty("boName");
    var bcName = Inputs.GetProperty("bcName");
    var bo = TheApplication().GetBusObject(boName);
    var bc = bo.GetBusComp(bcName);
    bc.ClearToQuery();
    bc.SetViewMode(AllView);
    bc.ActivateField(sfield);
    bc.SetSearchSpec("Id", sId);
    bc.ExecuteQuery(ForwardOnly);
    if (bc.FirstRecord())
    {
        var svalue = bc.GetFieldValue(sfield);
           Outputs.SetProperty("fieldvalue",svalue);
    }
    else
    {
        Outputs.SetProperty("fieldvalue","");
    }
}

TransformToSkype: This method contains the main string used to make the call. The string includes the Skype exe path and teh Phone Number of the call recipient/Siebel Contact.


So, the string being passed would look something like this "C:\Progra~1\Skype\Phone\skype" /callto:+14152065351. This string is passed to the browser script for execution.

NOTE 1: The target customer base for the Client where I implemented this was for US only, thats why the '+1'. If you wish to make it more general you could check the Country of the contact and derive the country code based on that.

NOTE 2: You could also simply use 'callto:+14152065351' in the below script skiping an extra step(Step2 - Creating the LOV) - Thanks Ranjith for pointing that out.

function TransformToSkype(Inputs, Outputs)
{
    var sWorkphone = Inputs.GetProperty("PhoneNum");
    var sFirst = sWorkphone.charAt(0);
    var sSkypeNum="";
    var sLOVText = TheApplication().InvokeMethod("LookupValue","OS_SKYPE_PATH","Path");
    if(sFirst!="+")
    {
        sSkypeNum = "\"" + sLOVText + "\"" + " /callto:+1" + sWorkphone;
    }
    else
    {
        var sLast = "\n"
        var sSubstr = Clib.strstr(sWorkphone, sLast);
        var sRtn = sWorkphone.replace(sSubstr, "");
        //sSkypeNum = "skype:" + sRtn + "?Call";
        sSkypeNum = "\"" + sLOVText + "\"" + " /callto:" + sRtn;
    }
    Outputs.SetProperty("SkypeNum",sSkypeNum);
}


Step2: Create an LOV as seen in the below screenshot - This would contain the .exe path of Skype.









Step 3: Lock the 'Contact List Applet' and create three custom buttons as shown in the screenshot.(Note: The 'InvokeMethod property for the Skype buttons should be same as the ones in the script')
Make sure the buttons are clickable by using the CanInvokeMethod Applet User property.

You could also get more creative and use a 'Skype Toolbar' in Siebel. Like I have and call the business service from the Command Invoked. The Script would change in that case.(The Browser script from the applet would then be required on the Business Service)

 









Step 4:  Place the below script in the browser script evet Applet_PreInvokeMethod of the contact list applet.

code:
function Applet_PreInvokeMethod (name, inputPropSet)
{
    if(name=="Skype" || name=="SkypeCell" || name=="SkypeHome")
    {
        try
        {
            var serv = theApplication().GetService("OS Skype Integration");
            var inp = theApplication().NewPropertySet();
            var outs = theApplication().NewPropertySet();
            inp.SetProperty("Id", this.BusComp().GetFieldValue("Id"));
            switch(name)
            {
                case "Skype":
                    inp.SetProperty("fieldname","Work Phone #");
                    break;
                case "SkypeCell":
                    inp.SetProperty("fieldname","Cellular Phone #");
                    break;
                case "SkypeHome":
                    inp.SetProperty("fieldname","Home Phone #");
                    break;
            }
            inp.SetProperty("boName", this.BusObject().Name());
            inp.SetProperty("bcName", this.BusComp().Name());
            outs = serv.InvokeMethod("GetField",inp);  
            var svalue = outs.GetProperty("fieldvalue");
           
            inp = null;
            inp = theApplication().NewPropertySet();
            inp.SetProperty("PhoneNum",svalue);
            outs = null;
            outs = theApplication().NewPropertySet();
            outs = serv.InvokeMethod("TransformToSkype",inp);
            svalue="";
            svalue = outs.GetProperty("SkypeNum");
           
            //calls the ActiveXObject and passes the Skype exe path allong with the phone number of the contact
            var wsh = new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell");
            var oExec = wsh.Exec(svalue);
            wsh=null;
            return ("CancelOperation");
        }
        catch(e)
        {
            alert ("Error Applet_PreInvokeMethod : " + e.toString());
        }
        finally
        {
            inp=null;
            outs=null;
            serv=null;
        }
    }
    return ("ContinueOperation");
}

This script will call the 'OS Skype Integration' and pass the respective Phone numbers for transformation if required.

Step 5: Since we are invoking the Business service from the browser level. The Business service will have to be registered as a client business sevice in the Application User Props
















Step 6: Compile all objects you modified.

Step 7: Compile the browser scripts by using Genb or should I say UltraGenB(A cool new utility created by Jason Le of Impossible Siebel)


Query on any contact in the Contact List Applet and hit one of the buttons....and there you have it...TRING TRING!!!

























Happy Calling!!