Configuring Siebel Business Applications > Configuring Multi-Value Group, Association, and Shuttle Applets > About Association Applets >

Overview of Association Applets

An association applet is a type of applet that provides the user a way to associate a parent record with one or more children. It uses two business components that possess a many-to-many relationship with one another. The user cannot modify records in an association applet. You can call an association applet from a master-detail view or from a multi-value group applet.

Figure 75 illustrates an example of how Siebel CRM implements a many-to-many relationship between two business components in the Siebel schema.

Figure 75. Example Many-to-many Relationship Between Two Business Components

If a user adds a record to the child business component in a many-to-many relationship, then Siebel CRM associates the predefined detail record with a parent record rather than creating a new detail record. This is because parent and detail are relative terms in a many-to-many relationship. For example, Siebel CRM can display one opportunity to many contacts or one contact to many opportunities, depending on which view is active.

In this situation, the association applet presents the user with a list of available child records where the user can choose a detail record. The user can also create a new detail record. In the context of this many-to-many relationship, Siebel CRM does the following:

• If the user creates a new association for a predefined detail record, then Siebel CRM creates an association.
• If the user creates a new detail for an association, then Siebel CRM creates an addition.

Siebel CRM creates a new row in the intersection table for an association or an addition. Siebel CRM also creates a new row in the detail table for an addition.