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Defining Customizable Product Models and Classes

This section describes some guidelines about creating customizable products and classes in a manner that will optimize performance:

• To maintain good performance, do not make your customizable products or classes any larger or more complex than absolutely necessary.
• Complexity is a function of the number of hierarchical levels and constraints built into the customizable product models and of the structure of the class.
• For defining class relationships, use specific classes as much as possible. For example, avoid defining class relationships without specifying classes, or use a subclass rather than a parent class if it is so defined.
• Minimize the complexity of user interface elements you associate with your customizable product models.
• Generally, using interactive or automatic pricing updates for customizable products is recommended. If performance is adversely affected, consider switching to manual pricing updates.
• When creating rules, using the Set Preference template allows you to create soft constraints that guide the Siebel Configurator engine in producing solutions, but which the engine can ignore if needed to avoid conflicts or performance problems.
• By default, when you add a customizable product to a quote, for example, default products and selections will be included, and Siebel Configurator may be invoked to create this default instance. If the customizable product default selections are large and complex, and if users are required to immediately customize the product, then turning off the Default Instance Creation feature will enhance performance with no loss of functionality.

For more information on these issues, see Product Administration Guide.