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Siebel Configurator Server Components

Siebel Configurator allows users to interactively configure customizable products when ordering or generating a quote. Siebel Configurator uses a constraint-based solution engine that resides on the Siebel Server. This engine evaluates customer choices and generates product configurations that conform to business rules.

For more information about tuning Siebel Configurator, see:

• Siebel Performance Tuning Guide
• Siebel Product Administration Guide
• Siebel System Administration Guide

Remaining topics about Siebel Configurator in this chapter include:

• Siebel Configurator Performance Factors
• Siebel Configurator Deployment Planning

Siebel Configurator Components

Siebel Configurator is supported in the Siebel Server environment by the following components:

• Application Object Manager (AOM). The Siebel Configurator engine for product configuration is available within an AOM, such as Call Center Object Manager (SCCObjMgr_lang, such as SCCObjMgr_fra for French) for Siebel Call Center.
• Siebel Product Configuration Object Manager (alias eProdCfgObjMgr_locale). This is a special-purpose Object Manager component suitable for some Siebel Configurator deployments. For convenience, the component alias is generally referred to in this guide as eProdCfgObjMgr. This component contains the Siebel Configurator solution engine. It can be deployed on a separate Siebel Server from where Siebel Configurator sessions are invoked. The Configurator server in this type of deployment is also referred to as a remote or dedicated Configurator, which works in coordination with the invoking AOM.

  See later in this topic for locale-related requirements for a remote Configurator component.

• Siebel File System. This component stores cached object definitions for customizable product definitions in the CFGCache directory on the Siebel File System.

Siebel Configurator Architecture

Because product configuration may sometimes be computationally expensive, the configuration infrastructure provides flexible deployment options to suit different business needs. Topics in this section discuss considerations for choosing among different deployment options.

Before discussing Configurator parameters and where to set them, a brief overview will be presented of the Siebel Configurator architecture and of the various services in a Configurator deployment.

Figure 6 shows detailed Siebel Configurator architecture and the interaction of various services with each other during run time.

Figure 6. Detailed Siebel Configurator Architecture

The important services depicted in Figure 6 are as follows:

• UI. The UI business service is a service that the Configurator uses to render the user interface by binding the customizable product structure with the templates and submitting it to the Siebel Web Engine for rendering to the client browser. The UI business service is the way the user interacts with the Configurator. A unique instance of this service is required for each user.
• Instance Broker. The Instance Broker is a service that interacts with the UI service and maintains all information about the current configuration of the customizable product that the user is configuring. This service interacts with other services in response to user requests during configuration, receives their responses, and serves as backup to the user through the UI service. The Instance Broker is accessed through a proxy service: either the Complex Object Instance Service business service or the Remote Complex Object Instance Service business service.
• Object Broker. The Object Broker is a service (Cfg Object Broker business service) that extracts the customizable product definition from the database for use by other configuration services.
• Config Services. This is a configuration service that consists of factories (defined below).
• Factory. The factory is a service that represents a translation of the customizable product definition that is retrieved by the Object Broker into a format a worker (defined below) can understand.
• Constraint Engine or Worker. The constraint engine, also called a worker, is a service that enforces all the rules associated with the customizable product. It validates all selections (interactive or batch) as they are made to ensure a valid configuration. A worker of a factory can be shared among different requests originating from the same AOM process.

For more information about elements of Siebel Configurator's internal architecture, including the Instance Broker and the Object Broker, see Siebel Product Administration Guide.

Locale-Related Requirements for Remote Configurator Components

The three-letter extension to the alias of the Siebel Product Configuration Object Manager component (jpn in the example of eProdCfgObjMgr_jpn) corresponds to the value for the Locale Code parameter (alias LocaleCode) associated with the invoking AOM. For a remote Configurator component you intend to invoke, the name of the component must follow this pattern.

The reason for this requirement is that data passed between the invoking AOM and the remote Configurator component is in a locale-specific format.

If Locale Code on the invoking AOM is set to a value that does not correspond to a language supported for Siebel applications, you must either change the Locale Code on the invoking AOM or create a new remote Configurator component with the required name. For example, assume the invoking AOM is SCCObjMgr_enu, but Locale Code is set to ENG rather than ENU. In this case, you must do one of the following:

• Change Locale Code to ENU in order to work with a remote Configurator component named eProdCfgObjMgr_enu.
• Create a remote Configurator component named eProdCfgObjMgr_eng.

In addition, note that the Language and Locale Code parameter settings for the remote Configurator component must match the parameter settings for the invoking AOM component.

For more information about the Language and Locale Code parameters, see Siebel Global Deployment Guide. For more information about creating and configuring server components, see Siebel System Administration Guide.