Bookshelf v7.5: Setting Up Custom Siebel Anywhere Upgrade Components

Siebel Anywhere Administration Guide > Upgrade Planning and Preliminary Tasks > Creating Needed Infrastructure Elements >

Setting Up Custom Siebel Anywhere Upgrade Components

This section contains information about creating custom components. Siebel eBusiness Applications provide many predefined upgrade components, but you can create additional components if you need them. For example, it would be possible to create an upgrade component to run a batch program in the form of a .bat or .exe file.

Siebel Anywhere can upgrade custom components, just as it does the predefined components provided with Siebel eBusiness Applications. For correct operation, however, you must define how Siebel Anywhere will monitor and verify the version number for any custom component. The following paragraphs describe how Siebel Anywhere monitors and verifies version numbers, followed by instructions for creating a custom component:

About Monitoring and Verifying Siebel Anywhere Version Numbers

Creating a Custom Component

About Monitoring and Verifying Siebel Anywhere Version Numbers

Siebel Anywhere uses information from the Locate Method, Locate Information, Version Method, and Version Information settings to determine how it needs to check the version of a component. Depending on the component, Siebel Anywhere uses some or all of these settings.

For information about when a version check occurs for each type of subscriber, see Table 4.

The following subsections describe how the Locate Method and Version Method settings are used, along with the Locate Information and Version Information settings. An example follows.

Locate Method

The purpose of the Locate Method setting is to build a path to a file or other location, such as a registry. This value is then passed to the Version Method to read version information. Table 13 describes some available values for Locate Method, each of which specifies a different way to locate version information.

NOTE: For some Locate Method values, you will need to specify additional information in the Location Information setting.

Table 13. Locate Method Values
Value	Comment
Siebel Root/Siebel Home	Determines location based on the client's Siebel root directory. Locate Information is ignored in this case. (For example, this method would be used for Siebel Upgrade Wizard components.) Both server and client use this to retrieve the value of Siebel Root.
Registry	Determines location based on information in the Microsoft Windows registry. Locate Information would contain the path to read in the registry. (For example, this method would be used for Third Party - Microsoft Word components.)
Environment	Determines the location on the client by reading an environment variable. Locate Information would contain the name of the environment variable to read.
CCF	Determines location on server from a set of common core facility (CCF) parameters. Locate Information would contain the value from the CCF program context. (For example, this method would be used for a Siebel Server Customer Revision component.)
CFG	Determines location based on reading the client's active CFG file. Locate Information would contain the section and entry to read from the CFG file, plus an optional value to append to the value read from the CFG file. (For example, this method would be used for a Siebel Client Customer Revision component.)

Version Method

This setting provides additional information that is used in conjunction with Locate Method to read the version of a file. Table 14 describes the available values for Version Method, each of which specifies a different way to determine the version of the component.

NOTE: Some Version Method values require you to specify additional information in the Version Information setting.

Table 14. Version Method Values
Value	Comment
File Version	Determines version based on reading the version of a file. Version Information would contain the name of the file to version check.
Registry	Determines version based on reading the version from the registry. Version Information would contain the path to read in the registry.
DLL	Determines the version based on executing an entry point in a DLL file. Version Information would contain the name of the DLL file and the name of the entry point. For example, `bin\sslcver.dll,VersionString` executes the function VersionString in the file bin\sslcver.dll.
Database	Determines the version based on reading the Siebel Database Schema. Version Information is ignored in this case.
CFG	Determines version based on reading the client's active CFG file. Version Information would contain the section and entry to read from the CFG file, plus an optional value to append to the value read from the CFG file. (For example, this method would be used for a Siebel Client Customer Revision component.)
SRF	Determines the version based on reading the SRF. Version Information would contain the section name and the entry name from the active CFG file to be read to determine the name of the SRF.

Example: How Siebel Anywhere Uses Locate and Version Methods

The following example shows how Siebel Anywhere checks component versions, using the Locate Method and Version Method settings.

Table 15 shows information that appears in the Upgrade Components list for the Siebel Client Customer Revisions_ENU component, along with comments explaining how each setting is used.

Table 15. Example of Locate and Version Method Values
Field Name	Value	Comments
Name	Siebel Client Customer Revisions_ENU	Name of the component.
Locate Method	CFG	Information about the location of component version information is stored in the client's active CFG file.
Locate Information	Siebel,ClientRootDir,bin\enu\clntrev.cfg	Information about the location of component version information is stored in the ClientRootDir entry in the [Siebel] section of the client's CFG file. To find the actual version information, append \bin\enu\clntrev.cfg to the value in the ClientRootDir entry. For example, if the ClientRootDir entry is c:\siebel, the path to the version information would be c:\siebel\bin\enu\clntrev.cfg.
Version Method	CFG	Version information is stored in the CFG file specified by the Locate Method and Locate Information settings.
Version Information	Siebel,Version	Version information is stored in the Version entry in the [Siebel] section of the specified file.

Creating a Custom Component

Siebel Anywhere functionality allows you to define your own custom components, if necessary.

The Siebel administrator must define how Siebel Anywhere will monitor and verify the version number for a custom upgrade component. Siebel Anywhere maintains an individual version number for each upgrade component. The version number must be maintained on a Siebel Anywhere subscriber to compare it to the version number in the database. The Siebel administrator can maintain the version number in the application, in a file, or in the Windows registry.

CAUTION: It is strongly recommended that the Siebel administrator use the Copy Record functionality to copy existing upgrade components and simply rename the new upgrade component so that the correct parameters are used for the new upgrade component. This method is described in the following procedure. Make sure that you also update the Locate and Version columns appropriately.

To create a custom component

From the application-level menu, select View > Site Map > Siebel Anywhere Administration.

From the Show drop-down list, click Upgrade Components.

In the Upgrade Component list, select an existing component that resembles the component you want to create, and then click the menu button and select Copy Record.

A highlighted copy of the record that you selected appears.

Modify the fields in the copied record to meet your requirements.

Use a meaningful name to describe the function of the component. Limit the Name field to 91 characters or less.

CAUTION: Exceeding the 91-character limit in the Name field causes the synchronization process to fail.

Make sure the Min Version and Max Version fields are blank. This information is filled in when the kits are applied.

For any configuration that you will upgrade using your new custom component, you must specify that the component is a related component for the configuration. For instructions, see Adding Components to a Configuration.