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About the Business Service Step


A business service allows you to execute a predefined or custom action in a workflow process. Some examples of predefined business services include:

  • Notifications. Notifications can be sent to employees or contacts using the Outbound Communication Server business service.
  • Assignment. Assignment Manager can assign an object in a workflow process by calling the Synchronous Assignment Manager Request business service.
  • Server tasks. You can run a server component task using either the Asynchronous Server Requests or the Synchronous Server Requests business service.

For a list of some of the more commonly used predefined business services, see Predefined Business Services.

You can also define your own custom business services using Siebel Tools or the Administration-Business Service view in the Siebel client. You can use Siebel VB or Siebel eScript to define your own custom business services that you can invoke from a workflow process.

CAUTION:  A Business Services invoked from a workflow process cannot include browser scripts. A Business Service only works with server scripts. A business service with browser scripts fails if it is executed from a workflow process on the Siebel Server.

Defining a Business Service Step

You define a Business Service step in the Process Designer in Siebel Tools.

To define a Business Service step

Perform the procedure described in Adding a Step to a Workflow Process with the following modifications:

  1. In the Business Service Name property, pick the name of the business service to be invoked from the picklist.

    The picklist contains the business services defined in Siebel Tools or the Siebel client.

    For information about creating customer defined services, see Integration Platform Technologies: Siebel Enterprise Application Integration.

  2. In the Business Service Method property, choose the method for invoking the service. The choices available for this property depend on the business service you defined in Step 1.
  3. With the business service step chosen, use the MVPW to create new input and output arguments.

    For more information, see About Process Properties.

Making a Business Service Visible to a Workflow Process

Business service objects, which include the business service, business service method, and business service method argument, have Display Name and Hidden properties in Siebel Tools. For these objects to be displayed in a picklist, the Hidden flag for the object must be set to FALSE. For example, the methods and arguments you define in your business service appear in the picklists in the Arguments list applets for the business service. Note that, by default, a business service defined in the Siebel client is not hidden.

When creating a workflow definition in Siebel Tools, the value specified for the Name property for business services objects is the value that also appears in the picklists.

To make a Business Service visible to a workflow process

  1. In Siebel Tools, from the Object Explorer applet, click the Business Service object type.

    This action displays a list of predefined business services.

  2. In the Business Services OBLE, click the business service you need to modify.
  3. In the Properties window, change the Hidden property to FALSE.
  4. In the Object Explorer, expand the Business Service object type, then click the Business Service Method object type.
  5. In the Business Service Methods OBLE, click the method you need to modify, then change the Hidden property to FALSE in the properties window.
  6. Repeat Step 5 for each method, if applicable.
  7. In the Object Explorer, expand the Business Service Method object type, then click the Business Service Method Arg object type.
  8. In the Business Service Method Arguments OBLE, click the argument you need to modify.
  9. Change the Hidden property to FALSE in the Properties window.
  10. Repeat Step 9 for each method argument, if applicable.

About the Pass By Reference Feature for a Business Service

The _SupportsPassByRef_ user property is available for use on a Siebel business service. You cannot add this user property to a custom business service.

If, in a workflow process, you configure a Business Service step that is not marked for Pass By Reference, the Workflow engine returns an error. For the Workflow engine to honor Pass By Reference, the business service must have the Business Service User Prop setting to TRUE and the Business Service step in the workflow must be marked for Pass By Reference.

CAUTION:  Use of the Pass By Reference feature is not supported for a custom business service.

For more information, see Defining a Sub Process to Support Pass By Reference.

Business Service Calls to a Unix Shell Script

A Siebel process running on UNIX runs as the user that launches Siebel Services. If a workflow process invokes a business service that calls a UNIX shell script, the shell script runs as the Siebel Service Owner account.

Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved.