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Extended Pick Processing in Siebel Handheld Applications

The Handheld application is used to capture and record transactions entered by users. During synchronization, these transactions are processed on the server. A situation can arise in which a transaction fails when it is applied to the Siebel Server (through Direct Server Synchronization). For example, a Handheld application user creates a professional call activity for one of their contacts. However, since they last synchronized with the server, the contact involved in this transaction was deleted from the server database. As a result, when the user tries to synchronize their handheld device, the server does not find the contact, and the call activity for the contact cannot be inserted into the server database. To generalize this example, any transaction that involves data selected through picklists or pick applets fails on the server if that pick data is not present at the time of synchronization.

With many users synchronizing with Siebel Server and modifying data at different times, this scenario is not uncommon.

The following describes how a pick transaction is recorded on a handheld device and processed on the server during synchronization. Assume that the user wants to create a new call activity for the contact. In order to do this, the user inserts a new record in the Professional Call screen and picks the desired contact. When the contact is selected on the handheld device, the Row Id of the contact (Contact Id) is recorded. However, on the handheld device, the application does not record any of the pick map fields associated with the contact; only the Contact Id is recorded. When the user synchronizes their handheld device, that Contact Id is used to locate the contact record in the server database. The Contact Id is then used to retrieve all of the fields used in the pick map for the Contact Id (Last Name, First Name, Middle Initial, Address, City, State, Zip Code, and so on).

In order to minimize pick processing failures, the Handheld application must record the pick row ID and all of the pick map data that is required for a successful transaction. This data must be recorded at the time of the pick, so that it can be passed to the server for processing. This enhanced functionality is called Extended Pick processing. Now, when the user synchronizes, the transaction is processed on the server as follows:

• The synchronization process first looks for the pick record on the server database. For example, to add an activity it looks for the contact and, if it finds the contact, it retrieves the necessary data and adds the activity. This is the default behavior.
• If the server does not find the pick map record in the database and extended pick processing is enabled, it retrieves the pick record ID and pick map data from the Handheld application transaction and applies the data directly to the server.

Enabling Extended Pick Processing in Siebel Handheld Applications

You can enable Extended Pick processing globally or at the business component level when configuring the Siebel Handheld application. When the DefaultHandheldSyncPickMode parameter is enabled, every pick transaction is subject to pick processing.

To enable extended pick processing globally

1. Navigate to the Administration - Mobile screen, then the Application Administration view.
2. Click the Settings tab, then Query on the following value:

   DefaultHandheldSyncPickMode

   If there is no such record, a new record with that value must be created. See Table 21 for the values to enter.

   Table 21. Application Settings

   Setting Name	Value	Description
   DefaultHandheldSyncPickMode	NoFail	Turns Extended Pick processing ON.
   	FailOnError	Turns Extended Pick processing OFF This is the default behavior if the parameter is not specified in the Settings view.

To enable extended pick processing at the business component level

• When enabling extended pick processing at the business component level, the user property is defined on specific business components. Use the HandheldSyncPickMode user property to set the extended pick processing mode for the fields you require. For more information about this user property, see HandheldSyncPickMode User Property.

Table 22 shows the combined effect of the settings in the Application - Mobile, then the Settings View and on a business component.

• The DefaultHandheldSyncPickMode setting is omitted from application settings.
• If there is no setting on a particular business component, the setting defined in the Settings view applies.
• If there is no setting defined in the Settings view, or on the business component, the default behavior is for Extended Pick to be turned OFF.

In Table 22, read down the Tools Configuration column (which shows what HandheldSyncPickMode is equal to) and across to the Mobile Administration View Setting column (which shows what DefaultHandheldSyncPickMode is equal to) to see the combined result. For example, a NoFail configuration in Tools combined with a FailOnError setting in the Mobile Administration View results in the combined effect NoFail.

Recommended Extended Pick Processing Settings

It is recommended that you use the Extended Pick processing settings in the following way:

• Product|NoFail
• FS Invoice Payments. Payment Num|NoFail
• FS Invoice. Account Name|NoFail, Order Number|NoFail
• Retail Audit Product. Product Name|NoFail
• Cycle Counting. Inventory Location Name|NoFail
• Cycle Counting Execution. Product|NoFail
• CPG Store Conditions in Retail Audit. Product Name|NoFail
• CPG Account Merchandising Product. Product Name|NoFail
• Asset Mgmt - Asset. Product Name|NoFail
• CG FS Activity Parts Movement. Product Name |NoFail

The Consumer Goods Handheld application comes with these default recommended settings.