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About Web Page Templates

The application is associated with a set of templates through properties in the Application object definition. These properties include Container Web Page, Error Web Page, Login Web Page, Logoff Acknowledgement Web Page, Sort Web Page, and Acknowledgement Web Page. Each property identifies a template to use in a given circumstance.

• Acknowledgement Web Page. The Web page displayed after the user logs in. This page is used as the first page the user is taken to after a successful login, except in the case of a login after a time-out. In the case of a login after a time-out, the user is taken to the view to which he or she was trying to navigate when the time-out occurred.
• Acknowledgement Web View. The Siebel view displayed after login. This page is used as the first view the user is taken to after a successful login, except when:
  • A user logs in after a time-out. In this case, the user is taken to the view to which he or she was trying to navigate when the time-out occurred.
  • Explicit login is specified for an SI mode view. In a standard interactive application such as eService, if view accessible through the home page as the Explicit Login property is set to TRUE (anonymous browsing), then after successfully entering the login credentials, the user is taken to this view instead of the Acknowledgement Web View defined in this property.
• Container Web Page. A page that defines the structure of the application. This page can contain the common UI components like screen bars, view bars, logos, and so on. This page can be used to define the HTML Frame definition document for the application. All views and pages (optionally) are shown within the context of the container page. About the Container Page.
• Error Web Page. The page to use when an error occurs in the application.
• Login Web Page. The page to use as the Login page.
• Logoff Acknowledgement Web Page. The page to which the user is taken after logging off the application.
• Sort Web Page. The page to be used to create a dialog to perform an advanced sort of list applet columns.

About the Container Page

The container page is the outermost template; it references view templates that in turn reference applet templates. The Web Page-Layout (Container Page) contains markup language and SWE tag elements that define the Web equivalent of the application window. You can see this template's logic in CCPageContainer.swt. The container page template, like view and applet templates, is processed by the Siebel Web Engine.

Container Page Areas

In the Web Page Layout Container Page, you find the following elements:

• The top of the container page contains markup such as corporate banner, as well as Siebel tags for predefined queries (favorites).
• The screen (tab) bar is generated beneath these as a table, and loaded by means of the SWE logic associated with the <swe:screenbar>, <swe:screenlink>, and <swe:now-control> tags.
• The view bar is also loaded, into the left-side portion of the page, by means of the <swe:viewbar>, <swe:viewlink>,and <swe:now-control> tags.

Once the container page is loaded, with screen and view names displayed, the screen and view names function as hyperlinks.

• When a screen name is clicked, the template for the default view for that screen is obtained, and the view is generated and displayed.
• When a view name is clicked in the view bar, the view template that is referenced in the view's object definition is loaded.

The Siebel Web Engine processes the set of tags in the view template to incorporate applets into the page. The view object definition identifies the applets to appear in specific sectors, and the templates for these are obtained. Similarly, tag references to controls in each applet are resolved by obtaining the corresponding controls from the repository, which are loaded into the Web page as specified in the applet's template. The container page can contain frames to support independent updating and scrolling of the various areas of a page. The use of frames is described in the next section.

About HTML Frames in the Container Page

HTML frames are available to use in the application's container page and in View templates.

Various frames are used in the container page of an application to provide independent updating and scrolling of areas such as toolbars, menus, and the main content area. Figure 125 shows multiple frames in a container page.

Figure 125.  HTML Frame

In a View template, applets can be grouped into separate frames, although this is considered a non-standard practice except in cases where independent refresh or independent scrolling is a significant requirement.

Rather than using the HTML <frame> and <frameset> tags, the <swe:frame> and <swe:frameset> tags are used in the Siebel applications so that SWE is aware of the frame names, and can control refresh and the targeting of URLs. These two SWE tags are described as follows:

• <swe:frameset>

  Purpose: This tag is analogous to the HTML frameset tag and is used to define the set of frames contained in the document. This tag is rendered by SWE as an HTML <frameset> tag. The body of this tag can only contain the <swe:frame> tags described below.

  Usage: <swe:frameset htmlAttr="xxx"> ... </swe:frameset>

  Attributes:

  • htmlAttr. This attribute can be used to specify the attributes for the HTML <frameset> tag. For example, htmlAttr="rows='89,25,*'" will support a layout in which the frames that belong to the frameset will take up 89 pixels, 29 pixels, and the rest of the window respectively.
• <swe:frame>

  Purpose: This tag is used to mark the beginning and end of the contents to be placed into a frame. SWE renders this tag as an HTML <frame> tag, with its src attribute set to a SWE URL that will retrieve the contents of the frame. This tag should be placed within the body of the <swe:frameset> tag.

  Usage: <swe:frame type="xxx" name="yyy"> .... </swe:frame>

  Attributes:

  • Type. The type attribute is used to indicate the nature of the contents of the frame. SWE uses this information to decide when to refresh this frame. SWE supports the following values for this attribute.
    • Toolbar. In a container page template, specifies that the frame contains the toolbar.
    • Screenbar. In a container page template, specifies that the frame contains the primary tab bar.
    • Viewbar. In a container page template, specifies links to views and categories of views.
    • View. In a container page template, specifies that the frame contains the current view, that is, the content area.
    • Page. In a container page template, specifies that the frame contains a Web page. These frames will not be refreshed after initially loading.
    • Applet. In a View template, specifies that the frame contains an applet.
    • Content. Supports multiple views on a page. The Content type frame defines the content area. It will contain a frame of type View that shows the main view. It can also contain one or more frames of type AltView to show alternate views, like the search center.
    • AltView. Used to designate subframes to show one or more alternate views in the content frame, such as the search center, in addition to the one in the View frame.
    • Name. This attribute can be used only when the type of the frame is Page. In this case, you can use this attribute to specify a name for the frame. For other frame types, SWE will generate standard names for the frames.

      NOTE:  SWE supports nested framesets. In this case the <swe:frame> tag will contain a <swe:frameset> tag, and the Type attribute of the outer <swe:frame> tag is set to Page.

HTML Frames in Container Page Templates

A container page template is used to create the frame definition document for the application. Note the following implementation details of <swe:frame> and <swe:frameset> tags in container pages:

• You do not have to define the contents of a frame using the <swe:include> tag although it is recommended. The contents can be placed directly into the body of the <swe:frame> tag.
• The contents of the <swe:frame> have to be complete HTML documents, that is, they should contain the HTML document structure tags like <html>, <head>, <body>, and so on. This includes the view templates as well.
• The contents of the <swe:frame> tag when the type is View should contain only the <swe:current-view/> tag.

The following <swe:frameset> definition is from the standard container page, CCPageContainer.swt:

<swe:frameset htmlAttr="rows='60,21,25,*' border='0' frameborder='No'">

<swe:frame type="Page" htmlAttr="marginheight='0' marginwidth='0'noresize scrolling='No'">

<swe:include file="CCFrameBanner.swt"/>

</swe:frame>

<swe:frame type="Screenbar" htmlAttr="marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' noresize scrolling='No'">

<swe:include file="CCFrameScreenbar.swt"/>

</swe:frame>

<swe:frame type="Viewbar" htmlAttr="marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' noresize scrolling='No'">

<swe:include file="CCFrameViewbar.swt"/>

</swe:frame>

<swe:frame type="View" htmlAttr="marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' noresize scrolling='Auto'">

<swe:current-view/>

</swe:frame>

</swe:frameset>

Support for Multiple Views on a Page

The SWE framework supports showing multiple views simultaneously on a page. The multiple views consist of a Main view and one or more Alternate views. The main view is the view that is selected using the view bar (level two or three) for a given screen. There is only one main view. Alternate views are other views that can be shown along with the main view: for example, the Search View that shows applets that can be used for find/search operations.

The multiple views shown on a page can be placed into separate HTML frames or can share the same frame. Multiple views can also be shown with the main view in the main browser window and a single alternate view in a pop-up window.

In employee applications that use high interactivity, only the main view can be in high interactivity. The alternate views will be shown in standard interactivity. It is recommended that you configure alternate views as simple views without any complex navigation links.

NOTE:  The examples given here describe creating multiple view layouts when HTML frames are used. The process is similar when frames are not used. In such cases, HTML tables can be used in the place of frames and framesets to position the views.

To support multiple views, the structure of framesets and frames used in the application has to be modified. Defined framesets and frames in the application's container template and in the view template were discussed earlier in this chapter. In addition, there is another layer, the Content Container (the container page for the Content area).

The frame of type View which was in the Application's Container page should be replaced with a frame of type Content. This frame defines the area where one or more views can be loaded. Initially this frame will contain a frameset that will have the View type frame.

The structure of the container template is given in the example below:

<swe:frameset htmlAttr="rows='80,50,50,*' border='0' frameborder='No'">

<swe:frame type="Page" htmlAttr="marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' noresize scrolling='No'">

<swe:include file="CCBanner.swt"/>

</swe:frame>

<swe:frame type="Screenbar" htmlAttr="marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' noresize scrolling='No'">

<swe:include file="CCScreenbar.swt"/>

</swe:frame>

<swe:frame type="Viewbar" htmlAttr="marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' noresize scrolling='No'">

<swe:include file="CCViewbar.swt"/>

</swe:frame>

<swe:frame type="Content" htmlAttr="marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' noresize scrolling='Yes'">

<swe:include file="CCMainView.swt"/>

</swe:frame>

</swe:frameset>

The file CCMainView.swt defines a frameset that contains the main view.

<swe:frameset htmlAttr="cols='100%' border='0' frameborder='No'">

<swe:frame type="View" htmlAttr=" noresize scrolling='Yes'">

<swe:current-view/>

</swe:frame>

</swe:frameset>

After making this change, the application should behave as before. All that was changed was the introduction of one additional layering of frames in the content area. The previous application container page template that had the View frame without the outer Content frame does not generate any errors, but does not allow showing multiple views in the application. All the application container templates should be modified to use the Content frame.

To show additional views in the content area, a different Content Container page in the Content frame should be loaded. This can be done by invoking the method LoadContentContainer from a control or page item. The Content Container to be loaded should be passed in using the User Property Container.

NOTE:  This should be set to the Web Template Name of the content container page and not to the .SWT file name. For example, to show the search view along with the main view, create a content container page (for example, CCSMainAndSearchView.swt), and load it using the LoadContentContainer method. CCSMainAndSearchView.swt contains the tags to load the main view and search view into two frames as shown:

<swe:frameset htmlAttr="cols='100%' border='0' frameborder='No'">

<swe:frame type="View" htmlAttr="noresize scrolling='Yes'">

<swe:current-view/>

</swe:frame>

<swe:frame type="AltView" name="Search" htmlAttr="noresize scrolling='Yes'">

<swe:view name="Search View" id="Search" />

</swe:frame>

</swe:frameset>

The main view is still called the <swe:current-view> tag. Alternate views are referred to using the <swe:view> tag.

• <swe:view>

  Syntax:

  <swe:view name="xxx" id="yyy">

  Attributes:

  • Name. Name of the Alternate View
  • Id. An Id for the location (or zone) occupied by this view. This Id will be used to replace this view with another view in its place.

The <swe:frame> tag contains alternate views called AltView.

To switch from showing the Search and Main views to showing only the Main View, invoke the LoadContentContainer method again, this time passing in the CCMainView.swt based container page.