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About High Interactivity

The high-interactivity client is designed to provide users of Siebel applications with a user experience similar to that for users of traditional GUI-based client applications, such as for Microsoft Windows.

High interactivity reduces the number of page refreshes, compared to standard interactivity—when interacting with the application, browsing through records, and so on. This is made possible by making data-only updates from the server. The application thus makes optimal use of network bandwidth.

For example, a high-interactivity client does not require a page refresh for creating a new record. A user creates a new record by clicking the New button. A new row is created in a list dynamically, without a page refresh. The user enters the relevant data, then clicks outside of the record ("steps off of the record") to implicitly commit the change—again, without a page refresh.

Some of the features of the high-interactivity framework are:

• Fewer page refreshes. Data is updated separately from the user interface and full page refreshes are not needed in all cases.
• Support for client-side scripting. Client-side scripting allows the client to compute certain tasks locally, which can be beneficial for server performance.
• Support for implicit commit. This feature enables automatic saving when a user steps off of a new or modified record.
• Other usability features. Such features include MVG shuttle applets; drag-and-drop column reordering; drag-and-drop file attachments; keyboard shortcuts; smart controls for calendar, calculator and currency; and applet scrollbars.

The high-interactivity framework provides performance and usability enhancements by taking advantage of capabilities supported by Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers. These capabilities include Document Object Model (DOM), Java, and ActiveX controls.

Deploying Siebel applications in high-interactivity mode requires that customers and their users adhere to strict guidelines regarding the deployed operating system, Web browser version and settings, and Java software environment.