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General Guidelines for Developing a Siebel Application

This topic describes some general guidelines for developing a Siebel application. For more information, see Localizing Siebel Business Applications.

Guidelines for Naming an Object

If you name an object, then use the following guidelines:

• Never include a question mark at the end of a field name or user interface label.
• Use an object name that is meaningful and descriptive. For example, Account Detail Applet With Agreement, instead of Account Detail Applet 2.
• Do not use a license key option as an object name. For example, do not use Product Forecasting. This technique can cause Siebel CRM to not display a user interface object, such as a view.
• Prefix the name for each custom object you define with your company name. For example, ABC Product Forecasting View. This distinguishes your custom object from a predefined object.
• Be careful with spelling, spacing, and capitalization when naming an object. Typically, the logical name of an object in the Siebel repository uses complete words, mixed casing, and a space between words. However, a physical database object might use an abbreviation, uppercase, and an underscore. For example, the Service Request business component references the S_SRV_REQ database table.
• Do not use a reserved SQL word in an object name. For example SELECT, COUNT, FROM, WHERE, and UNION. This technique can cause unpredictable application behavior.
• Avoid changing the name of an object. It is time consuming to change the name of an object when Siebel CRM references it throughout the Siebel repository. If you must change the name of an object, use the Find in Repository feature from the Tools menu in Siebel Tools to find all of the references.
• Siebel Tools uses English (ENU). It does not support objects from other character sets, such as ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) codes or accented characters. If you attempt to use objects from another character set, then Siebel Tools displays a unique constraint error.

TIP:   If you are not sure how to name an object, use the predefined objects in the Siebel repository as a guide. Examine the predefined objects and conform to their established naming formats. For example, to create a new Association applet, use the business component name Assoc Applet naming format.

Related Topics

For more information, see the following topics:

• Naming Format for a Siebel Table
• Guidelines for Naming a Business Component
• Guidelines for Naming an Applet
• Guidelines for Creating a Join
• Guidelines for Creating a Business Object
• Overview of Guidelines for Creating an Applet
• Guidelines for Naming a View
• How Siebel CRM References Web Pages
• Reusing Predefined Objects

Guidelines for Using the Upgrade Ancestor Property

Upgrade Ancestor is a property that allows a copied object to incorporate properties of the original object from which the copy is defined. During an upgrade, Siebel CRM applies changes to the original object and to the copied object. You can use the following object types with the Upgrade Ancestor property:

• Applets
• Business components
• Reports
• Integration objects

For example, assume you create a copy of the Account List applet, name it the Premium Account List Applet, and then set the Upgrade Ancestor property. The new applet might differ from the original applet because the new applet includes a search specification that Siebel CRM only displays in accounts that are considered premium accounts. In a subsequent release, Oracle might add a new predefined list column to the Account List applet. During an application upgrade, your Account List applet and the Premium Account List Applet retain the configuration changes you made. However, these applets also receive the new predefined list column added in the new version.

Use caution if you copy an object. For more information, see Guidelines for Reusing a Predefined Object.

Note the following factors if you use the Upgrade Ancestor property:

• If you copy an object, then Siebel Tools does not automatically define the Upgrade Ancestor property. You must define it manually.
• Creating a new object without defining the Upgrade Ancestor property could add to your upgrade effort, because a custom object is not upgraded. Instead, it is copied to the new repository, but without changes.
• Creating a new copy of a business component or applet can result in a redundant configuration.

For more information, see Siebel Database Upgrade Guide.

Guidelines for Modifying Configuration Files

Although you can modify an application configuration file, Siebel CRM does not support any change you make to an application configuration file. The only exception occurs if Siebel documentation explicitly describes how you can change the configuration file. Any file that contains one of the following extensions and is part of the Siebel installation is a Siebel configuration file:

• cfg
• css
• gif
• swt
• htm
• xsl
• sws
• swf
• sw
• ctl
• sql
• ucf
• rox
• rod
• srf
• prd