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How Siebel CRM Desktop Synchronizes Data During the Initial Synchronization

An initial synchronization is a type of synchronization that occurs in the following situations:

• Immediately after the user installs Siebel CRM Desktop.
• If you deploy a metadata change to the user that includes a change to the data schema.
• If the options in the login dialog box change. For example, the user name changes or the URL of the Siebel Server changes.

The purpose of the initial synchronization is to initialize the Microsoft Outlook data storage with the Siebel CRM data that is available to the user. Siebel CRM Desktop downloads files in the customization package to Microsoft Outlook the first time the user synchronizes metadata with the Siebel Server. This metadata includes the following information:

• Definition data for Siebel CRM Desktop, such as synchronization rules, object definitions, and so forth
• Siebel CRM data for Siebel CRM Desktop, such as accounts, opportunities, and so forth

Siebel CRM Desktop does the following work during the initial synchronization:

1. Establishes a synchronization session with the Siebel Server through the Web service interface.
2. Directs the Web Service Connector in Microsoft Outlook to call the DownloadMetadataFiles method of the PIM Client Metadata Service business service that resides on the Siebel Server.

   To broker requests through the EAI Siebel Adapter, Siebel CRM Desktop uses the business services that the Web services references. It uses the EAI Siebel Adapter business service to process the SiebelMessage payload in the requests.

3. Directs the PIM Client Metadata Service on the Siebel Server to obtain the login ID of the user from the session, and then determines what responsibility is associated with the user, what customization package is associated with the responsibility, and if the package is active. For more information, see Relationships Between Users, Responsibilities, Customization Packages, and Metadata Files.
4. If the customization package is published and valid, then Siebel CRM Desktop queries all metadata files of that package and constructs a Siebel message. Siebel CRM Desktop does the following work:
   • Sets the containsFiles argument to true.
   • Enters the relevant data in the packageId, responsibilityId, and hashValue arguments.
5. Applies the downloaded package for Microsoft Outlook.
6. Downloads Siebel CRM data.

   For more information, see How Siebel CRM Desktop Synchronizes Siebel CRM Data.

7. Logs out of the synchronization session that it established in Step 1.

For more information, see How Siebel CRM Desktop Handles Errors During Synchronization.