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About the Siebel Programming Tools

Oracle's Siebel Business Applications include two programming languages. Siebel VB is a Visual Basic-like programming environment that includes an editor, debugger, interpreter, and compiler. Siebel VB runs on the Windows operating system only. Siebel eScript is, similarly, a JavaScript-like programming environment, which uses the same tools that Siebel VB uses. Siebel eScript runs on both Windows and UNIX operating systems. With these built-in languages, you can extend and configure your Siebel application beyond the capabilities provided by declarative object property definition.

The languages are integrated with other Siebel tools, such as the Applet Designer, Siebel CTI, and Siebel SmartScript. Using this integration you can define object properties both with the designer and by attaching scripts.

You should regard coding as a last resort. Siebel Tools provides many ways to configure your Siebel application without coding, and these methods should be exhausted before you attempt to write your own code, for three reasons:

• Using Siebel Tools is easier than writing code.
• More important, your code may not survive an upgrade. Customizations created directly in Siebel Tools are upgraded automatically when you upgrade your Siebel application, but code is not touched, and it may need to be reviewed following an upgrade.
• Finally, declarative configuration through Siebel Tools results in better performance than implementing the same functionality through code. For more information, see Siebel Performance Tuning Guide.