Configuring Siebel eBusiness Applications > Overview of Configuring Siebel Applications > Other Ways to Customize Application Behavior >

Personalizing Your Web Application

Personalization allows you to target content within applets that are directed to particular users based on their preferences or profile. For example, you can include a salutation applet in your application that greets the user by name, indicates how long it has been since the user last visited the site, and presents the user with information about specific products or services you believe the user may be interested in.

Some key points about personalization:

• Personalization is available on any applet in your Web application.
• Personalization uses rules and rule sets to specify which records a user should see in a given applet, based on the user's profile. Rules evaluate profile attributes to determine which records and applications to display. A rule set is a group of rules. If desired, you can create multiple rule sets such that if none of the criteria in one set of rules is met, the next rule set is evaluated.
• The user profile is based on any attribute that belongs to a Contact and the contact's account (if the user is a contact) or any attribute that belongs to an Employee and the employee's division (if the user is an employee).
• Personalization uses a new object called the User Profile Attributes to hold and retrieve elements of a user profile. These attributes can be used for display in the user interface of the Web application, and in Rules that determine the content users see.
• You can track events that occur in the context of the Web application. Specifically Siebel Personalization can track application, business component, and applet events. When an event occurs, it triggers a Personalization Action which modifies a user's profile attributes.
• Actions can be called by a rule or on an event. An action is used to set either a predefined profile attribute or a profile attribute created dynamically during run time. Profile attributes created dynamically during run time only exist for the duration of the user session. Profile attributes that are configured in Siebel Tools and those that are created during run time can be used to store state information in much the same way that variables stored in cookies or persistent frames might be. Wherever possible, profile attributes should be used in placed of cookies.
• Rules or actions can invoke business component methods or business services methods. Typically, these methods are used to return values that can be used either as criteria for a rule, or for setting a profile attribute.

For more information about personalization, see Personalization Administration Guide.