Bookshelf v7.8: About CRMML Messages

CRMML messages (Customer Relationship Management Markup Language) are a Siebel XML specification for customer-centric data exchange with other enterprise applications and Siebel Universal Customer Master (Siebel UCM) applications. External applications send CRMML request messages to Siebel applications and receive CRMML messages in response.

CRMML messages contain an envelope, a header section, and a body section. The message specification focuses on the hierarchy and definitions of header elements. It allows users to extend the body section with user-defined elements as long as the object descriptors in the header section describe the usages of the elements in a body section. The following example illustrates the layers of a CRMML message:

Envelope and Header Section. The CRMML message has one envelope element <CRMML>. <CRMML> is the root element for a message. It contains one optional header element <CRMHeader> and one or more body elements. The envelope has no attributes.

The header includes elements for sender and receiver. The following is an example for communication parties:

<FromSystem> is the sender and <ToSystem> is the receiver in this example. Both elements contain <SystemInfo> aggregate, which holds system ID, system role, and the name of the system. In the example, Sender's name is Client UI System and receiver is Siebel Master Data Applications System. Sender plays an insurance application role and receiver plays a service provider's role.

The header also contains a message descriptor that depicts the body of the message and objects inside the body sections. An example of the message descriptor follows:

The <MessageId> element can be unique to identify a single message, a pair of request or response messages, or a group of communication messages. Transaction scope can be any or all. <Timestamp> is the creation time of a message and <TimeToLive> is the expiration time of a message. Receiver should disregard a message if the message has expired.

The <MessageDescriptor> can have zero or more <ObjectDescriptor> child elements. The following object descriptor example illustrates a metadata for remote procedure call in a message header:

The first <ObjectDescriptor> refers to <PartyPackage> element in the message body by HREF. It indicates that <PartyPackage> is a software package. In this example, it is the Siebel Universal Customer Master Application. The second descriptor indicates that <InsertContactProfile> is a method in the package that the message intends to invoke. The third descriptor shows that <Contact> aggregate is the input argument for <InsertContactProfile>. For UCM implementation, the default usages of the first three elements are package, method, and argument; therefore, no objective descriptor is required for Universal Customer Master Application specific messages.

Certain values in the header are automatically generated by the connector, but you can specify others in the envelope integration object. Table 22 describes the elements and how they are configured. For system generated attributes, there is no configuration available.

NOTE: The CRMML envelope object information can be configured, contain custom fields, and works for both input and output formats. However, UCM business services refer to information in this object and look for specific XML values. Make sure specific fields exist in the business services before configuring the CRMML for your needs.

Table 22. Header Elements
Element	Structure	Attribute	Description	Default	Configuration
CRMML	(top level)
CRMHeader	In CRMML		Header aggregate
FromSystem	In CRMHeader		FromSystem aggregate
SystemInfo	In FromSystem		SystemInfo aggregate
		Type	Describes the type of SystemID such as ID or URL	ID	UCM Envelope Integration Object->SystemInfo Integration Component->type Integration Component Field, XML Literal Value
		SystemId	Identifier of the system	123-456-789	UCM Envelope Integration Object->SystemInfo Integration Component->SystemId Integration Component Field, XML Literal Value
		SystemName	Name of the system	SiebelCIFSystem	UCM Envelope Integration Object->SystemInfo Integration Component->SystemName Integration Component Field, XML Literal Value
		SystemRole	Role the system has	Service Provider	UCM Envelope Integration Object->SystemInfo Integration Component->SystemRole Integration Component Field, XML Literal Value
ToSystem	In CRMHeader		ToSystem aggregate
SystemInfo	In ToSystem		SystemInfo aggregate
		Type	Describes the type of SystemID such as ID or URL.	ID	UCM Envelope Integration Object->SystemInfo Integration Component->ToSystem_type Integration Component Field, XML Literal Value
		SystemId	Identifier of the system		System Generated
		SystemName	Name of the system		System Generated
		SystemRole	Role the system has		System Generated
Message Descriptor	In CRMHeader	MessageId	Identifier of the message		System Generated
		Transaction Scope	Currently, the only value supported for transaction scope is any		UCM Envelope Integration Object->MessageDescriptor Integration Component->MessageDescriptor_TrasactionScope Integration Component Field, XML Literal Value
		Timestamp	Time stamp of when the message is constructed		System Generated
		TimeToLive	Expiration length of the message from Timestamp value		UCM Envelope Integration Object->MessageDescriptor Integration Component->MessageDescriptor_ToLive Integration Component Field, XML Literal Value

Body Section. The body section contains user-defined message elements. The following is an example body section and is one of the messages supported by the Siebel Master Data Applications.

The example indicates that an external application requests to insert a contact profile to the Siebel Master Data Applications database. The contact detail information is contained within the <Contact> aggregate.