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Guidelines for Creating a Business Component

This topic describes guidelines for creating a business component. For more information, see the following topics:

• Guidelines for Naming an Object
• Guidelines for Reusing a Predefined Business Component
• Guidelines for Reusing a Predefined Business Object

Guidelines for Naming a Business Component

Do not use the parent entity in the name of a business component that represents child entities. For example, use ABC Subsegment instead of ABC Account Subsegment. Similarly, you can include only the name of the business component in an applet that references these child business components. For example, ABC Subsegment List Applet instead of ABC Account Subsegment List Applet.

An exception to this requirement occurs if you must use multiple variations of the same business component or applet. A multiple variation might be necessary if Siebel CRM must display an entity as a top level applet and as a child applet on other views, and if these two applets are not the same applet. In this situation, you can place the name of the parent entity at the beginning of the name of the child applet. For example, the ABC Account Contact List Applet is a contact list that Siebel CRM displays as the child of an account. It uses the word Account to distinguish it from the predefined ABC Contact List Applet.

Guidelines for Creating a Business Component That References a Specialized Class

If you must create a new business component, then you must avoid copying a business component that references a specialized class unless you do the following:

• Create a true copy of the original business component that contains the same functionality.
• Apply only minimal modifications.

For example, you can create a Locked Service Requests business component that displays only the service requests that are locked. To do this, you use a business component user property:

• Copy the Service Request business component, and then reference the CSSBCServiceRequest specialized class from this new business component.
• Create the Lock Field business component user property.
• Create the conditions that Siebel CRM must use to lock a service request.
• Create a search specification for the business component that gets only the service requests that meet the conditions. For more information, see Options to Filter Data That Siebel CRM Displays in an Applet.

The underlying behavior of the new business component remains the same as the original business component. You must avoid copying a specialized business component to reproduce an isolated feature that is associated with that business component.

If you set the Class property of a business component to CSSBCServiceRequest, then you must add the Abstract field to this business component. If you do not add this field, and if an applet references a business component that is a child of the business component that you add, then Siebel CRM might disable the New button in this applet.

For more information, see Caution About Using Specialized Classes.

Guidelines for Configuring How a Business Component Sorts Records

If you define the Sort Specification property of a business component, then use the following guidelines:

• The fields that your sort specification references must be child objects of the business component.
• Use a comma to separate field names.
• Include (DESCENDING) or (DESC) after the field name to indicate that Siebel CRM sorts a field in the list in descending order. For example, Start Date (DESCENDING). If you do not add a sort order, then Siebel CRM uses ascending order.
• Do not enclose the field name in square brackets. For example, [Account Name]. Siebel CRM accepts brackets in a search specification but not in a sort specification. For more information, see Options to Filter Data That Siebel CRM Displays in an Applet.
• Do not exceed 255 characters in the sort specification.

Guidelines for Modifying a Predefined Business Component That Siebel CRM Does Not Use

If you modify a predefined business component that Siebel CRM does not use, then use the following guidelines:

• You must not delete, deactivate, rename, or modify any predefined object that Siebel CRM does not use. Do not delete these objects because other objects might reference them.
• You can delete any custom business component that you create that Siebel CRM does not use and that does not reference any other object that Siebel CRM uses, such as an applet.