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About Dock Objects

Siebel applications can selectively replicate server data into the local database, and thus support mobile computing by allowing field personnel to share information across the enterprise, including both mobile and connected users. This is accomplished using Siebel Remote.

Dock objects are the foundation of Siebel Remote. Dock objects are collections of related tables. Each Dock Object object in Siebel Tools has one primary table and several other related tables as Dock Object Table child objects.

Different data is replicated to different local databases, depending on each local database owner's employee identity, position, organization, and visibility to data from different dock objects, and on the relationship between the dock objects. These rules are known collectively as routing rules or Dock Object Visibility Rule child objects.

When the data is updated on the server, the local database is synchronized when the mobile user connects to the Siebel Server and performs the synchronization, but only the data that should be replicated into the local database is synchronized. During the synchronization, any updates in the local database are also uploaded to the server.

For more information on routing rules and synchronization, see Siebel Remote and Replication Manager Administration Guide.

Dock Object Types

There are three types of dock objects:

• Private. Private dock objects are used exclusively for routing of non-configurable data. This setting makes sure that the rows in these dock objects are never routed to any mobile clients. All records from tables that are part of a private dock object are uploaded to the server during synchronization. None of these records are downloaded to remote users.
• Enterprise. Enterprise dock objects involves a distribution of records without restriction. All records from tables that are part of an Enterprise dock object are uploaded to the server during synchronization. Most of these tables should only be updated by an administrator and are typically downloaded but not uploaded by mobile users. To minimize synchronization time, Enterprise dock objects should only be used with tables that contain small volumes of data or are semi-static in nature (that is, the contents change infrequently).
• Limited. Limited dock objects contain numerous individual rules for determining the records that should be downloaded to particular users; these users should only get those records with which they have some direct or indirect involvement.

  There are nine types of visibility rules used for Limited dock objects:

  • Employee. Evaluates record according to whether it has a foreign key to the mobile user's Employee record.
  • Employee Manager. Evaluates record according to whether it has a foreign key to the Employee record of someone who directly reports to the mobile user.
  • Position. Evaluates record according to whether it has a foreign key to the mobile user's primary Position record.
  • Position Manager. Evaluates record according to whether it has a foreign key to the Position record of someone who directly reports to the mobile user.
  • Organization. Evaluates record according to whether it is associated with the same business unit as the mobile user.
  • Check Dock Object. Evaluates record according to whether it is related to another record that the user receives.
  • Calendar. Applies only to calendar appointment records. Evaluates record according to whether the mobile user has access to the calendar of the record's owner.
  • Category. Evaluates record according to whether it is in a category visible to the user.
  • SQL Rule. Used to handle special exceptions through custom SQL.

For more information, see Dock Object Visibility Rules.

Dock Object Table

The Dock Object Table object type is a child object type of Dock Object, and is used to specify the tables whose records are actually transferred in conjunction with the Dock Object. The Opportunity dock object and its child dock object tables are shown in Figure 25.

Figure 25.  Dock Object and Dock Object Tables

All of the tables identified in dock object tables for a given dock object are related, through foreign keys in the data model, to one driving table (also represented by a Dock Object Table object definition). The driving table is identified in the Primary Table property in the Dock Object object type.

For example, the Opportunity dock object shown in Figure 25 is based on the primary table S_OPTY, but it also includes other dock object tables such as S_NOTE_OPTY (notes for the opportunity) and S_OPTY_REL (relationships between opportunities). Also included are the extension tables for S_OPTY.

A dock object is therefore a set of logical records (opportunities in this case), where each such logical record is itself a collection of one or more physical database records spread across multiple tables.