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Using the Browser Health Check

The browser health check is an optional feature that provides a mechanism to help administrators make sure that end users' browsers and client environments are configured appropriately for running Siebel high-interactivity applications.

When the browser health check is enabled, a dialog box may appear when a user starts the Siebel application, indicating required or recommended browser settings or other configuration changes for the local client machine.

The browser health check lists all settings for which required or recommended settings are not currently in effect. For many such settings, the user can fix the settings from this dialog box and proceed to running the application.

Although the default browser health check settings are intended to meet most customers' needs, they may not apply for all deployments. For configurable browser health check settings, customers can determine which settings should be set to Required and which settings may be set to Recommended. Customers should determine user policies for working within the browser and interacting with the browser health check based on their environment.

To help you determine which settings are required for your deployment, see other sections of this chapter, other documents on Siebel Bookshelf, and System Requirements and Supported Platforms on Siebel SupportWeb.

The browser health check runs in the current language for the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser.

NOTE:  The browser health check runs as an ActiveX control. In order for the browser health check to appear, each user's browser must already have minimum settings for enabling ActiveX controls. For more information, see High-Interactivity Deployment—ActiveX Requirements.

Running the Browser Health Check

As noted, the browser health check lists each setting that does not match the required or recommended setting, as currently configured. Click on one of the listed settings to view more information about the setting.

In the example shown in Figure 1, two settings are checked:

• File download (Required)
• Reuse windows for launching shortcuts (Recommended)

You can click Auto Fix to fix all required and recommended settings for which check marks are displayed on the left (as with both of the above settings). After clicking Auto Fix, the button changes to Run. You can then click Run to proceed past the browser health check and run the application.

For settings displayed as Recommended, you can manually uncheck the setting, in order not to change this setting. (For a recommended setting, the check is enclosed by a box.) If no checked settings are displayed, the Auto Fix button changes to Run. You can then click Run to proceed past the browser health check and run the application. To exit both the browser health check and the Siebel application, click Exit.

Figure 1. Browser Health Check

Some required settings cannot be auto-fixed. For such a setting, for which no check box is displayed, click to display more information about the requirement, then address the requirement as described.

NOTE:  If you decide not to change settings currently shown as Recommended, and you have addressed all Required settings, you can check the box labeled Please do not warn me again about recommended settings. The browser health check no longer appears the next time you start the Siebel application. If, however, any settings are still Required, the browser health check continues to appear when you start the application; all Required and Recommended settings are listed. This behavior applies for each Siebel application.

Administering the Browser Health Check

In general, it is recommended that you enable the browser health check when you are deploying new or upgraded Siebel applications, or deploying applications to large numbers of new users or users whose browsers are newly installed. You should also enable the browser health check in environments that are configured with high security levels, or where installed Java software may not meet requirements for your Siebel high-interactivity applications.

The browser health check applies to deployments of the Siebel Web Client and Siebel Mobile Web Client (for high-interactivity applications).

After browser settings and other client environment settings for your users have been corrected and validated, you can optionally disable the browser health check to reduce login time for users.

To configure the browser health check, you set a series of parameter values, which are described later in this section. Browser health check parameters are configured in the application configuration file, such as uagent.cfg for Siebel Call Center or siebel.cfg for Siebel Sales. After you modify the configuration file, you must restart the Application Object Manager component in order for the changes to take effect for subsequent user logins.

• For Siebel Web Client deployments, the configuration file resides on each Siebel Server machine where AOM components are running, such as Call Center Object Manager.
• For Siebel Mobile Web Client deployments, the configuration file resides on each client machine.

For more information about application configuration files, see Parameters in Configuration File.

Parameters for the Browser Health Check

Parameters applicable to the browser health check are described below.

To enable the browser health check, the parameter EnableClientHealthCheck should be set to TRUE (the default) in the [swe] section of the configuration file. Set this parameter to FALSE to disable the browser health check.

When EnableClientHealthCheck is TRUE, parameters in the [ClientHealthCheck] section of the file are read by the browser health check to determine which settings should be checked.

As shown in the example below, the parameters in this section may be set to Required, Recommended, or Ignore. The behavior associated with parameters set to Required or Recommended is described earlier in this section. Any parameter that is set to Ignore is not displayed in the browser health check—the same as if the parameter were not defined.

[ClientHealthCheck]
AppletScripting = Required
DisableScriptDebug = Recommended
FileDownload = Required
PasteViaScript = Recommended
PrintBGColors = Recommended
ReuseWindow = Recommended
SUNJREVersion = Recommended

NOTE:  Additional parameters may also be included in your released Siebel product. For example, parameters that start with QFE represent specific Microsoft Internet Explorer QFE patches that may be required.

Some of the browser health check parameters are described below:

• AppletScripting. Corresponds to the Internet Explorer security setting Scripting > Scripting of Java applets. For more information, see Manual Settings for Scripting.
• DisableScriptDebug. Corresponds to the Internet Explorer advanced setting Browsing > Disable script debugging. For more information, see Disabling Script Debugging.
• FileDownload. Corresponds to the Internet Explorer security setting Downloads > File download. For more information, see Manual Settings for Downloads.
• PasteViaScript. Corresponds to the Internet Explorer security setting Scripting > Allow paste operations via script. For more information, see Manual Settings for Scripting.
• PrintBGColors. Corresponds to the Internet Explorer advanced setting Printing > Print background colors and images. For more information, see High-Interactivity Deployment—ActiveX Requirements.
• ReuseWindow. Allows the reuse of windows to launch shortcuts. This is an optional parameter but is recommended.
• SUNJREVersion. Corresponds to the version of Sun JRE software you must have installed. For more information, see High-Interactivity Deployment—Java Requirements.