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Siebel Object Definition Sequence

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This section describes a typical sequence of steps for defining a Siebel application.

NOTE:  This section focuses on the tasks listed in steps 4 and 5 of Overview of the Application Development Process.

Step One: Create Business Object

Create your business object as described in Defining Business Objects and Business Components.

Step Two: Create Screens, Applets, and Views

In the first phase, you use Siebel Tools to configure business objects. The Business Model—business objects, business components, and so on—is defined using the current capabilities of Siebel Tools. Alternatively, you can use the business objects that are shipped with the Web application.

You configure the user interface by building and configuring HTML display objects—applets and views—based on the Business Object Model that you created in the preceding phase. This is where the applet and view Web layout changes occur.

At this point, you can begin to think about how your application will look and work in HTML. The HTML application is composed of several related display objects—page containers, views, and applets. Some of these objects are shared across application deployments, specifically applets and views.

For information about how to create objects, refer to Logical User Interface Objects Layer.

Step Three: Associate Each Applet and View with the Correct Template

Now you will create an application definition in Siebel Tools. The Web application is assembled from the various HTML display objects and templates that were shipped with the base application, those that were customized in the configuration process, and Web pages that do not contain any Siebel elements.

The mapping between applets and views and their respective templates is achieved visually in Siebel Tools. Figure 38 depicts how the Web application is assembled.

Figure 38.  Assembling the Components into Your Web Application

For more information about this process, refer to Logical User Interface Objects Configuration.

Step Four: Modify Templates as Needed to Create a Corporate Image

If you need to make changes to the structure in a template, you can open the template in an HTML editor and modify it. For example, if you are creating a list applet, you may want to make a column bold. Or you might need to make a global style change for the Web application to blend in with an existing Web site or support a branded look and feel to external users.

NOTE:  The templates are located in the webtempl directory below the Siebel Server installation directory.

Step Five: Establish Mapping Between Controls and Templates

Templates are definitions of user interface layout and formatting. Each template contains placeholders for controls. In this phase, you create the mapping between each control in the repository definition of each applet and view with the placeholder in the corresponding template file. For more information about mappings between controls and templates, refer to "Mappings Between Controls and IDs" in Physical User Interface Layer.

Step Six: Web Application Definition

The application can do nothing at this point because it lacks an application definition. Therefore, you must modify a version of the Web application in Siebel Tools and save the .SRF file for the modified Web application.

To create the Web application definition in Siebel Tools

1. Using the Object List Editor, create a new Application Object, entering the required attributes such as Name and Project.
2. Add a page container template to the Web application for your home page.
3. Select a default login page, error page, and acknowledgement page from the list of available Web pages.
4. Associate the Web application with the newly created screens.

The Siebel Web application model requires data to move from the database server and the Application Object Manager to the Siebel Web Engine and, ultimately, to the user's browser. When this data transfer needs to happen over low-bandwidth lines, as is often true in a Web client system, it becomes necessary to optimize the application in order to achieve the kind of performance users expect. The next section gives you some specific ways to modify the application definition for better performance.

Strategies to Optimize Application Performance

To modify your application to achieve better performance, do the following:

• Reduce the number of objects. Specifically, use fewer
  • Views per screen
  • Fields per applet

    Only one page container is allowed.

• Cut down on unnecessary duplication. While the screen size available to present an HTML page does not limit the number of applets permitted per view, the need to shorten load time makes it a good idea to use multiple applets only when you consider it mandatory.
• Minimize the number of multimedia objects such as graphics, audio, and video.

Step Seven: Compile the Repository Changes into an .SRF File

In this phase, you should compile the .srf. For more information about this procedure, refer to Repositories.

When the application is run, the Siebel Web Engine does the following:

1. Reads the object definitions from the .SRF file.
2. Selects the specified templates.
3. Combines the object definitions and templates.
4. Retrieves necessary data from the underlying business objects and business components.
5. Presents the HTML output to the user.

Repository Validator

You can use the repository validator in Siebel Tools in conjunction with the Time Filter to detect errors in the configuration of the Web application and associated templates. This helps you detect invalid object references and unused objects, and verifies that all required attributes of controls and Web controls have been specified.

Step Eight: Test the Application

Having created default mappings between each object definition and an appropriate template, you can test the whole application.

Restart the Siebel Server, Web Server, and Gateway Server, link to the application's URL from a browser, and begin your testing. In addition to testing links, test the following:

• Logging in

  NOTE:  When coding an HTML link in an application that directly accesses a view or an eSmartscript, (for example, in a Web template or by script) you must make sure that the URL adheres to the case-sensitivity used to access the HTML application.

• Inserting new records
• Updating existing records
• Deleting records
• Performing queries
• Performing sorts
• Logging off

Testing with Browsers

The Siebel application templates have been tested with supported browsers. If you have not modified the Siebel default templates, there is no need to test the application in different browsers. However, if you have modified the Siebel default templates, you may want to test how the application behaves in different browsers.

Step Nine: Deploy the Application

When you have thoroughly tested the application on a development machine, you are ready to deploy it on your Web site.

Deploying the application involves the following major steps:

1. Copying the templates to the webtempl directory in the Siebel Server installation
2. Copying all new HTML and images to the public directory on the Web Server machine
3. Adding a link from the existing Internet or intranet site to the application

For more information about installing the application and infrastructure, see Siebel Server Administration Guide.

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