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Dock Object Visibility Rule

A dock object visibility rule is an object type that Siebel Remote uses to determine if it must download records to the user. It is a child of the dock object. If you use limited dock objects, then Siebel Remote downloads different data to different local databases depending on the following items:

• Employee identity of each local database owner
• Position
• Organization
• Visibility to data from different dock objects
• Relationship between dock objects

For more information, see Siebel Remote and Replication Manager Administration Guide.

Types of Dock Object Visibility Rules

Table 68 describes the values you can enter in the Type property of the dock object visibility rule when you use a limited dock object.

Check Dock Object Visibility Rule

Siebel Remote uses the Check Dock Object visibility rule to download data depending on data from other dock objects. The relationship between data in other dock objects and the current dock object determines which records from the current dock object Siebel Remote downloads.

The Foreign Key Table Name property of the table columns determines the candidate Check Dock Object rules that the Docking Wizard can find. For each foreign key, the following Check Dock Object rules exist regardless of where the foreign key column resides:

• Rules that use the dock object as the destination dock object. To determine these rules, Siebel Remote uses the foreign keys on the primary table of one of the following objects:
  • The current dock object. To find this kind of rule, Siebel Remote uses an algorithm that finds all foreign key columns except columns that reference the S_USER table or the S_POSTN table. It finds these columns in the table of the current dock object. For these foreign key columns, the algorithm finds the foreign key table that these foreign key columns reference. The dock object of the foreign key table becomes the object for the Check Dock Object of the newly created Check Dock Object rule in the current dock object.
  • Other dock objects. To find this kind of rule, Siebel Remote uses an algorithm that finds all foreign key columns that reference the primary table of the current dock object, on any table that is part of a limited dock object. The algorithm adds the appropriate Check Dock Object visibility rules to these limited dock objects, with the current dock object being the object for the Check Dock Object.
• Rules that use this dock object as the Check Dock Object rules. To determine these rules, Siebel Remote uses the foreign keys on the primary table of one of the following objects:
  • The current dock object
  • Other dock objects

    The algorithm for these types of rules is similar to the algorithm for rules that use this dock object as the destination dock object. The main difference involves switching the source table or column and target table or column.

Example of a Dock Object Visibility Rule

The example in this topic describes how Siebel Remote compares the overall visibility strength of a set of dock object visibility rules to the strength of each dock object table. Siebel Remote then uses this comparison to determine which records it downloads to the user.

A dock object visibility rule includes the Visibility Strength property. For most situations, the value for this property can be 0, 100, or any integer between 0 and 100. A visibility strength of 100 indicates full visibility. A visibility strength of 0 indicates no visibility. It is recommended that you use a value of 100 or less. If your configuration requires a higher value, then you can use any value up to 254.

To examine an example of a dock object visibility rule

1. In Siebel Tools, display the object type named dock object and all child objects of the dock object.

   For more information, see Displaying Object Types You Use to Configure Siebel CRM.

2. In the Object Explorer, click Dock Object.
3. In the Dock Objects list, query the Name property for Opportunity.
4. In the Object Explorer, expand the Dock Object tree, and then click Dock Object Table.
5. Note the values in the Visibility Strength property.

   For example, note the following:

   • Visibility strength for the S_NOTE_OPTY table is 100.
   • Visibility strength for the S_OPTY table is 50.
6. In the Object Explorer, click Dock Object Visibility Rule.
7. Note the following values for the first record that Siebel Tools displays in the Dock Object Visibility Rules list.

   Property	Value
   Sequence	1
   Visibility Strength	100
   Comment	You are on the sales team of the Opportunity

8. Note the following values for the sixth record that Siebel Tools displays in the Dock Object Visibility Rules list.

   Property	Value
   Sequence	6
   Visibility Strength	50
   Comment	Opportunity for an Account you have full visibility on

How Siebel Remote Processes the Rules in This Example

Siebel Remote evaluates each record in the Dock Object Visibility Rules list in ascending order according to the value in the Sequence property:

• If a dock object visibility rules passes, then Siebel Remote stops evaluating the rules and uses the value in the Visibility Strength property of the rule that passed as the overall strength for the rule.
• If none of the dock object visibility rules pass, then Siebel Remote uses zero for the overall strength for the rule.

In this example, Siebel Remote does the following:

1. Determines the overall visibility strength of the dock object visibility rules. For example:
   • If the user is on the sales team for the opportunity, then Siebel Remote uses the value in the Visibility Strength property of the first record in the Dock Object Visibility Rules list. This value is 100.
   • If the user is not on the sales team for the opportunity, then Siebel Remote evaluates each visibility rule in sequence until a rule passes. For example, assume visibility rules with 2, 3, 4, and 5 in the Sequence property all fail. Assume the user does possess full visibility to the account for the opportunity, so rule 6 passes. In this situation, Siebel Remote uses the value in the Visibility Strength property for the rule that contains 6 in the Sequence property. This value is 50.
2. Compares the visibility strength it obtained it Step 1 to the Visibility Strength property of the first table that Siebel Tools displays in the Dock Object Tables list, and then does the following:
   • If the visibility strength from the visibility rule is greater than or equal to the visibility strength defined for the table, then Siebel Remote downloads all records from the table to the user.
   • If the visibility strength from the visibility rule is less than the visibility strength defined for the table, then Siebel Remote does not download any records from the table to the user.
3. Repeat Step 2 for each subsequent record that Siebel Tools displays in the Dock Object Tables list.

For example, assume the overall visibility strength from Step 1 is 50. In this situation, Siebel Remote does the following:

• Does not download any records from the S_NOTE_OPTY table.
• Downloads all records from the S_OPTY table.

In this situation, the user receives all opportunity records but no notes for any opportunity. If the user is on the sales team of the opportunity, then the user receives all notes for the opportunities.