Configuration Guide for Siebel Offline Client for Life Sciences > Overview of the Offline Client for Life Sciences > Overview of Client Application Object Definitions >

About Filter Definition Files

A filter definition file is a file containing the metadata definition of the objects.

For Siebel CRM, the files reflect the structure of Oracle's Siebel CRM Web services to which they map and support. The files can have a flat structure or a hierarchical structure. It is important to note that synchronization uses only the flat structure. The hierarchical structure is used to render the UI.

Filter object definitions include attributes used to create tables in the local database and to manage access to the Web services.

Synchronization of data between the Offline Client for Life Sciences and Siebel CRM occurs through Web services. Filter definition files are used to map data objects and access functions from the Web services to the data model of the local database. The data model includes database entities, relationships between entities, fields in the entities, and the data types of the entities among other database related attributes, such as, the table constraints and various database fields. Consequently, the data model defined by the filter definition files is a subset of the data model defined by the Web services.

Filter definition files also serve as the basis for the data access service that the data layer provides to local Offline Client for Life Sciences applications. This data access service encapsulates the complexity of the data access in the data layer and simplifies design and implementation.

For Siebel CRM, each filter object definition includes a flat file that maps to Oracle's Siebel CRM Web services and their structure. Taking Related Accounts belonging to a Contact as an example filter, then the Related Accounts filter will be used by synchronization, and the Related Accounts node under Contact will be used by the UI.

Each application for the Offline Client for Life Sciences has a set of filter definition files that define the objects used in the application and the data stored in the local database. For more information about filter definitions, see Filter Definitions.

Siebel CRM uses WSDL definitions, which are delivered for preconfigured objects, to integrate with Siebel CRM.