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Siebel eBriefings Administration Guide > Integrating External Content >

Configuration Example

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Suppose A.K. Parker subscribes to news from Top News Corporation and wants to integrate it into its Siebel eBriefings application by placing a Top News section on the Account Briefing. Top News indexes company news by D-U-N-S Number. A.K. Parker stores a D-U-N-S Number for each account in the Siebel database. A.K. Parker will have to configure its application to extract the D-U-N-S Number for the current account and pass it to the content host when the request is made.

The configuration example of A.K. Parker falls into the parameterized category defined in Configuration Scenarios. In the sections that follow, this example is used to illustrate the process of integrating external content into your Siebel eBriefings application.

Figure 6 shows a sample external data section. This section is configured to display content from Lexis-Nexis. A.K. Parker would configure a similar section to display content from Top News.

Figure 6. My News Section

Process Overview

To integrate external content into the Siebel eBriefings application, you need to modify objects using Siebel Tools and define the content agent using the Integration Administration views in eBriefings.

Generally, copying existing objects in Siebel Tools and modifying them to suit your purposes is preferable to creating new objects from scratch. This allows you to use as much preconfigured functionality as possible. Figure 7 illustrates the process of integrating external content.

Figure 7. Content Integration Process

Configuring a Business Component to Handle External Data

External content appears in the Siebel eBriefings application through applets. Applets contain list columns or controls that are mapped to fields in specialized business components. These fields do not represent structured data like records from an RDBMS. Rather, each field represents the HTML results that are sent by an external content provider and displayed in an applet. The first step in integrating external content is to add a new field that represents HTML results to a business component.

Adding a New Field to a Business Component

In this example, A.K. Parker Distribution wants to include the Top News section on Account Briefings. To do this, A.K. Parker starts by adding a field to the SI Account External business component. This is a custom field that represents the HTML results sent by TopNews.

To add a field to a business component

To minimize configuration work, copy an existing field that is already configured to handle external data and modify its properties.

Start Siebel Tools.
Select Business Component in the Object Explorer.
Query for SI Account External.
Copy the Field CompanyNews.
Rename the new field as TopNews to represent external data and define the field properties.

The following table describes the key field properties related to Siebel eBriefings.

Property	Example Value	Comments
Name	TopNews	Defines the name of the field.
Calculated	4	A check mark in this field indicates that it is a calculated value.
Calculated Value	AccountNews	Maps the business component to the content agent defined in the Integration Administration views.
Column		Leave this field blank.
Join		Leave this field blank.
Multi Value Link		Leave this field blank.

Configuring an Applet to Display External Data

To display external content on a Siebel eBriefings view, you need to create an applet based on the business component that contains the specialized field for handling external data. See Configuring a Business Component to Handle External Data.

You can configure the applet so that it will not display on the Briefing document when no data is available. After you create the applet, you must map the applet to a Web template, and then define the Web template items.

For example, A.K. Parker can create a new applet by copying the ePortal Account News Applet and naming the copy TopNews.

To configure an applet

Create a new applet and define its properties.

The key properties related to Siebel eBriefings are defined in the following table.

Property	Example Value	Comments
Business Component	SI Account External	Applet should be based on the business component that has been configured to handle the external data.

Add the following user properties to hide the applet when no data is available. This feature is supported by applets with Class = CSSFrameListWeb.

Name	Value	Comments
NoDataHide	Y	If no data is associated with the applet, the applet does not appear on the view.
NoDataRequiredFields	TopNews	The value of this user property must match the name of the field added to the business component.

Add or modify the list column attributes.

The list column Field attribute must match the name of the field defined on the business component. For example, A.K. Parker would create a list column with a field attribute set to TopNews, because TopNews is the name of the field A.K. Parker defined on the SI Account External business component.

The key list column attributes for Siebel eBriefings are defined in the following table.

Property	Example Value	Comments
Display Name	Top News	Value displays in the user interface.
Field	TopNews	Matches the name of the field defined on the business component.
HTML Display Mode	DontEncodeData	This property must be set to DontEncodeData. Otherwise, the Siebel Web Engine will try to encode HTML results.
Name	TopNews	Name of the field defined on the business component.
Field Retrieval Type	Symbolic URL	Value is equal to Symbolic URL.

Associate the applet with a Web template.

The Web template used by Siebel eBriefings for applets displaying external content is:

ePortal Url Applet

Define Web template items.

The Web template item should match the list column property on the applet. Key Web template properties for Siebel eBriefings are defined below.

Property	Example Value	Comments
Item Identifier	501	Maps to <swe:control> tag in the Web template (.swt file).
Name	TopNews	This should match the name of the list column or control on the applet.

Modifying the Table of Contents Applet

Account, Competitor, and Company Briefings have a table of contents that lists the applets that appear on the page. Applets that contain data are displayed in the table of contents as hyperlinks. Applets that do not contain data are listed in the table of contents but are not displayed as hyperlinks.

The table of contents (TOC) applets for the Account, Company, and Competitor Briefings are named:

SI Account TOC Applet
SI Company TOC Applet
SI Competitor TOC Applet

Because A.K. Parker is adding its custom TopNews applet to the Account Briefing, A.K. Parker would modify the SI Account TOC applet by adding the name of the TopNews applet.

To add an applet to a TOC applet

Select the TOC applet that you want to modify.
Add a new control to the TOC applet to represent the applet that you want to display in the TOC.

Other than the name, you can accept the default attributes for controls. Note that this control does not map to a field on the business component. It is simply a placeholder for the TOC entry that points to a specific applet. In the example of A.K. Parker, it points to the TopNews applet.

Property	Example Value	Comments
Name	TopNews	The name of the control must match the name of the applet you want to display on the TOC applet.
Caption	TopNews	The caption is displayed in the TOC.

Select the Applet Web Template called:

TOC Items

Add an Applet Web template item to represent the applet that you want to display on the TOC applet.

Property	Example Value	Comments
Name	TopNews	The name of the Web template item must match the name of the applet you want to display on the TOC applet.
Item Identifier	706	TOC applets have three 10-item columns used to display the names of the applets that appear on the page. Web Template Item Identifiers determine the column and sequence of the items on the TOC. 501-510 displays in the left column. 601-610 displays in the middle column. 701-710 displays in the right column.
Type	Control	Specifies whether the template is a Symbolic URL.

Adding the Applet to a View

Next, you need to add the new applet to a view.

For example, because A.K. Parker wants to display TopNews data on the Account Briefing, A.K. Parker adds the TopNews applet to the Account Briefing view.

To add an applet to a view

Add the applet you created to the view where you want it to appear.
Map the Web template item to the view.

NOTE:  Make sure that the order of the applets on the view is consistent with the order of the controls (applet names) on the TOC applet.

Creating Content Agents

You define content agents in the Integration Administration views. To define the content agent, you need the data host's URL, the authentication parameters, and required arguments. The components of the HTTP request are shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8. Content Agent URL Components

For example, A.K. Parker Distribution would define a content agent that has the required information for building an HTTP request to TopNews.com. The content agent would include the D-U-N-S Number as a search term, A.K. Parker's user name and password for the TopNews site, and an argument limiting the number of returned articles.

To define a content agent

Navigate to the Integration Administration view and click Host Administration.
Define the server address and user credentials (user name and password).
From the Show drop-down list, select Symbolic URL Administration.
Define the symbolic URL as shown in the following table.

Field	Comments
Name	Enter the name of the Symbolic URL. This is the name of the field user property on the business component.
URL	Enter the external content's URL.
Host Name	Enter the name of the external host. Click the Host Name select button to select a name from a predefined list.
Fixup Name	Define the link target and view that will display the link. The Fixup Name updates a relative link with necessary information such as server name, and so on.
MultiValue Treatment	From the drop-down list, select the formatting method to use when multiple values are passed. Choose from the following options: Comma-separated Separate arguments Use first record only

Once you have completed the Symbolic URL form, create the content agent definition using the Symbolic URL Arguments applet, as shown in the following table.

Field	Instructions
Name	Enter a name for the argument.
Required Argument	Select the check box if this argument is required in the content agent. If the Required Argument option is not selected, the URL will not be passed to the content host.
Argument Type	Specify which type of argument this is: BC (business component) and Field, Constant, Field, Language Value, or URL Argument.
Argument Value	Enter the literal value for the argument. Arguments are values from the Siebel database or static text defined as field user properties on the business component. In this example, Max is the maximum number of headlines to be retrieved and MID is the value of the MID field user property (MID is the D-U-N-S Number).
Append as Argument	Select the check box if you want this argument to be appended to the URL. This option provides an easy method for turning on or off an argument.
Substitute in Text	Select the check box if you want the argument value to replace a text string.
Sequence #	Enter a number to indicate the relative order of the argument. You can enter the arguments in the form in any order and then use the sequence number to order or reorder the arguments. If you leave these fields blank, the arguments will appear in the same order in which they appear in the form. Number the entries in such a way that you can add arguments as needed at a later time. For example, use a numbering method such as 100, 200, 300, and so on.

What Happens at Run Time

When a user opens a Briefing document that contains an external data section, the corresponding business component uses the information defined in the content agent to send an HTTP request to an external content source. The external content host sends the HTML results, and the results are displayed in the external data section.

For example, in the case of A.K. Parker Distribution, the following steps describe what would happen at run time:

The SI Account External business component and the TopNews applet would be initiated. Rows would be created and the applet (data section) would render the list column called TopNews, just as they would if they were displaying data from the Siebel database.
The specialized field for TopNews would be calculated by:
Gathering the URL, required arguments, and syntax.
Generating the HTTP request to TopNews.com. For example:

http://news.topnews.com/bin/script.asp?DUNS=123456789&MAX=10

Sending the HTTP request to TopNews.
TopNews returns the HTML results containing the current news articles for the Account.
The articles about the current account are displayed in the TopNews section of the user's Account Briefing document.

Figure 6 is an example of an external content section.

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