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How a Business Component Field Sequences Records

A situation might occur where you must create a field that provides sequential numbering for the parent business component. For example, you might need to number line items in an order or products in an opportunity. The sequence field behaves as follows:

• It is editable and can be set to any number.
• When Siebel CRM creates a new record, the initial sequence number is the maximum sequence number of the existing child records, incremented by one.
• Siebel CRM does not renumber records to resolve the gap that results when it deletes a record. The user must do this work manually.

For more information, see Determining How a Business Component Sequences Records.

How Siebel CRM Creates a Sequence Field

Figure 15 describes how Siebel CRM creates a sequence field.

Figure 15. How Siebel CRM Creates a Sequence Field

Explanation of Callouts

Siebel CRM uses the following objects to create a sequence field:

1. Parent business component. The business component that contains the parent records in the parent-child relationship where the child records are numbered. For example, the Opportunity business component is the parent in the parent-child relationship with Opportunity Product.
2. Numbered business component. The business component that contains the child records in the parent-child relationship. For example, the Opportunity Product business component is the detail in the parent-child relationship with Opportunity. The numbered business component includes the following child object definitions:
   • Sequence value field. A DTYPE_NUMBER field that contains the resulting sequence value. Line Number and Order are examples of a sequence value field.
   • Business component user property. The Sequence Field business component user property must be present, with the Value property set to the name of the sequence value field.
3. Sequence business component. This business component is named xx.yy.

   where:

• xx is the name of the numbered business component.
• yy is the name of the sequence value field.

  It references the CSSSequence specialized class, and it contains the following fields:

• Sequence field. This field is named Sequence and is a DTYPE_NUMBER field.
• Foreign key field. A foreign key field that references a foreign key column that resides in the detail table. The foreign key column references the primary key of the base table that the parent business component references. You can use it to create the link that resides between the parent business component and the sequence business component.

  For more information, see Caution About Using Specialized Classes.

4. Detail table. The base table that the numbered business component and the sequence business component references.
5. Main link. The parent-child relationship that exists between the parent business component and the numbered business component. This link is typically predefined, such as Opportunity or Opportunity Product.
6. Sequence link. The parent-child relationship that exists between the parent business component and the sequence business component. You must typically add this link, except when a predefined Siebel application includes the sequence configuration. Opportunity and Opportunity Product.Line Number (Sequence) are examples of a link to a sequence business component.
7. Business Object. Includes the main link and the sequence link.

You can view an example configuration of a sequence field in a predefined Siebel application in Siebel Tools. For example, examine the Sales Assessment Attribute numbered business component, and the Sales Assessment Attribute Value.Order (Sequence) sequence business component.