Pricing Administration Guide > Script-Based Pricing Factors > The Process of Implementing Script-Based Pricing Factors >

Planning and Writing the Script

As mentioned earlier, this chapter will not include specific instructions for writing the script. For more information about Siebel's scripting languages, see Siebel Tools Online Help. Also, look at the sample script at the end of this chapter.

This section will give you basic information about the interaction between the script and the pricing engine.

Passing Information to the Script

For information to be passed to a script, the following conditions must all be met:

• You must have created user properties to specify the information, as described in the previous section.
• The business component field with this information must be active.
• For customizable products, the field must exists in the Customizable Product Header, or Customizable Product business components, as appropriate. In the Tools definition for the fields in these business components, the calculated field check box must be checked, and the calculation field must be empty. Do not specify anything in the Customizable Product XA business component.
• For pricing customizable products during runtime, the integration object used to launch the customizable product session must contain the fields required.

You should verify that these four conditions are met for every item in the script.

Within the script, you get information by referencing the data about user properties that you created for this script. You can reference this data by using a key name starting with Var, to retrieve the attribute values that you entered when you created the business service. For example, if you entered the values shown in Table 35 when you created the business service, you can use those values in the script by writing the following code:

var QuoteName = Inputs.GetProperty ("Var 1");

var QuoteCurCode= Inputs.GetProperty ("Var 2");

var ProductName= Inputs.GetProperty ("Var 3");

var Color = Inputs.GetProperty ("Var 4");

The Var # syntax is used to represent variables, regardless of whether this item was in the user properties as a field or a parameter.

To avoid problems, observe the following cautions:

• Type carefully. No syntax checking is performed.
• Use the same business component names that you use when creating single pricing factors.
• After writing script factors, do not change the name of your attributes.
• If you specify customizable product user properties for a script that is used from a pricing model at the price list, the script will not receive any information.

Creating the Pricing Logic

Write the script to implement whatever business service functionality is required to accomplish your business process. The logic should determine:

• What the price for this item should be.
• What pricing comments are appropriate for the adjustments made.
• Whether the Pricing Factor Flow should take the Y branch or the N branch after this factor.

Getting Results Out of the Script

To get the results from the script into the Net Price field and the Pricing Comments field of a line item, you set the properties in the Outputs properties set that are shown in Table 36.

Scripts for Multiple Business Objects

It is possible to write scripts that mix business objects, as long as they do not mix customizable products with other objects. For example, you can write a single script and have it work for Quotes, Orders, and wherever else scripting is used.

To do this, you must specify user properties for each field that data comes from. For example, instead of the user properties shown in Table 35, which all refer to one business object, you could specify user properties similar to those shown in Table 37.

Whenever the script runs, one of these variables will be null and the other will have a value, depending on which business object the pricing is being invoked from. The logic of the script would have to take this into account and condition the logic to perform operations based only on those parameters that were actually passed.

CAUTION:  Do not create scripts that mix customizable products with any other objects. If customizable products and simple products need the same pricing, write two physically separate business services and invoke these services with separate pricing factors.

Legacy Syntax

Do not use the following legacy syntax in scripts.

If you see a user property named __BusComp Name __ this is a script with legacy syntax from version 6.x. This syntax will continue to work for version 7.x for simple products only if you carefully followed the recommended algorithm in the 6.x Bookshelf.

CAUTION:  This legacy syntax will not work for customizable products in version 7.x. If you use a script with this syntax, and a customizable product is present, Siebel ePricer will return an incorrect price.

Troubleshooting and Debugging the Script

If the script does not work properly, the problem may be caused by one of these common errors:

• Not specifying user properties.
• Attempting to use legacy syntax
• Not setting the Use Variable Map = Y property.
• Not specifying Script Applied = true in the Outputs property set.
• Mixing user properties for Customizable Product and any other product.

To help with debugging, you should implement error trapping and logging within the script. If you do not, any errors in the script will result in the script failing, applying no adjustment, with no indication of why this has happened.

Another debugging technique is to use the script debugging functionality of Siebel Tools.

An important debugging technique is to use the property set dumping function shown below. This function writes the full inputs and outputs property sets to a text file so you can see exactly what information is actually going in and out of your script. It creates a log file called PricingScriptFactor.log in the log directory for the application you are running.

function Service_PreInvokeMethod (MethodName, Inputs, Outputs)

{

PropertySetToFile(Inputs, "..\\log\\PricingScriptFactor.log", "Property Set with Variable Map In");

// Pricing functionality goes here

PropertySetToFile(Outputs, "..\\log\\PricingScriptFactor.log", "Property Set with Variable Map Out");

return (CancelOperation);

}

function PropertySetToFile (PropSet, fileName, title)

{

var file = Clib.fopen(fileName, "at");

LogData(("\n---------------------------------------------------"), file);

LogData(("Start Process " + Clib.asctime(Clib.gmtime(Clib.time()))), file);

LogData(title, file);

LogData("PROVIDED PROPERTY SET", file);

WritePropertySet(PropSet, file, 0);

Clib.fclose(file);

return (CancelOperation);

}

function WritePropertySet(PropSet, file, Level)

{

if ((Level == "") || (typeof(Level) == "undefined")){

Level = 0;

}

var indent = "";

for (var x = 0; x < Level; x++){

indent += "\t";

}

var psType = PropSet.GetType();

var psValue = PropSet.GetValue();

LogData((indent + "Type: " + psType + " Value: " + psValue), file);

var propName = PropSet.GetFirstProperty();

while (propName != ""){

var propValue = PropSet.GetProperty(propName);

LogData((indent + propName + " = " + propValue), file);

propName = PropSet.GetNextProperty();

}

var children = PropSet.GetChildCount();

for (var x = 0; x < children; x++){

LogData(( indent + "CHILD PROPERTY SET " + x), file);

WritePropertySet(PropSet.GetChild(x), file, (Level + 1));

}

}

function LogData(DataString, file)

{

try {

Clib.fputs((DataString + "\n"), file);

Clib.fflush(file);

}

catch (e){

// no action

}

}