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Designing Screens and Views for Siebel Handheld Applications

Views in Siebel Handheld applications can display two or more applets simultaneously. You can configure screens and views to display applets in two modes, as described in Table 5.

NOTE:  Use only unique display names in the Screens and Show drop-down lists. The Siebel Handheld application uses the first screen or view display name that matches the selected name in the drop- down list. If two screens have the same display name, a search for the screen always returns the first display name found.

Configuring Tabbed Applets for the Siebel Handheld Client

The applet display mode is controlled by the application user property DefaultViewType. For more information about this user property, see DefaultViewType User Property.

To override the effect of the DefaultViewType setting, set the value of the view-level user property ViewType. For more information about this user property, see ViewType User Property.

To configure tabbed applet behavior for an application

• In Siebel Tools, set the value of the application user property DefaultViewType.

  For more information about this user property, see DefaultViewType User Property.

To configure tabbed applet behavior for a view

1. In Siebel Tools, set the value of the view-level user property ViewType.

   For more information about this user property, see ViewType User Property.

   NOTE:  ViewType overrides the DefaultViewType property in portrait orientation. In landscape orientation and on square screens, the default applet display mode is Tabbed.

2. If you do not want to show the context bar that displays the parent applet information at the top of a view, set the DisableParentBar user property to TRUE.

   For more information about this user property, see DisableParentBar User Property.

Screen Allocation for Traditional Two-Applet Mode

The amount of screen space available for applets is determined by the type of applets in the view. Two applets are stacked above one another. A parent form applet in a two-applet view displays multiple fields on a screen. Users use the scroll bar to navigate. The form applet dynamically resizes if there are fewer than five fields and, therefore, does not waste screen display space with empty lines. The maximum number of fields that are displayed at one time is configurable by setting the Max Parent Applet Size preference in the User Preferences dialog. For more information about user preferences, see Setting User Preferences in the Siebel Handheld Application.

Drill-Down Only Views

Some views can be drill-down only views—that is, they can be accessed only by navigating from another view. These views are not accessible through the Show drop-down list. However, when the user navigates to the view, the view title appears in the Show drop-down list. To configure a drill-down only view, set the view title as you do for any other view and set the ScreenMenu property to FALSE. For more information about drill-down only views, see Configuring Siebel Business Applications.

Applet Focus Behavior

When navigating between views, sometimes you might need to override the default behavior for giving focus to an applet

The GotoView method is used to navigate from one view to another. A button control is added to the applet in the view you want to navigate from, the button's methodInvoked property is set to GotoView and the button's View property is set to the view that is to be created. When the GotoView method is executed, it builds the specified view. If the view includes a parent and child applet, GotoView gives focus to the child applet. This is the desired behavior in most instances when you are simply navigating from one view to another.

If the desired behavior is to navigate to a new view and, additionally, to create a new record, then you must use the GotoViewNewRecord method. This method calls two methods; first it calls GotoView, and then it calls NewRecord, which creates a new record in the new view.

In some instances the default behavior of these methods does not produce the intended behavior. For example, in the Orders view of the Service Requests screen, when you tap the Create New Order button, it takes you to the Order Details view, which contains a parent form applet (Service Request Order) and a child list applet (Service Order Entry Line Item). In this instance, when the Create New Order button's GotoViewNewRecord method is executed, you want a new order to be created.

However, the default behavior is to give focus to the child applet rather than creating a new record in the parent applet. Therefore, you need to override the default behavior of GotoView with the control user property OverrideDefaultApplet, and set the value to the applet that you want to give focus. For more information about this user property, see OverrideDefaultApplet User Property. For more information about the View user property, see View User Property.

For example, if you create a button labeled Create Service Request Order, you must define the user properties shown in Table 6:

Views with Associated Print Templates or Reports

Print templates are text files that you design and create for printing. After creating a print template, you associate it with an applet. When a user chooses to print from a view, the print template that is associated with the applet is automatically selected and used for printing. Follow these guidelines when creating print templates:

• The print template name for a particular display applet is registered in the Mail Template property in the Applet object associated with the applet.
• The template must be placed in the Templates directory.
• The template name that goes into the Mail Template property must not include a path name or extension. For example, if the full path of the template is \Program Files\Siebel Handheld\Templates\InvoiceTemplate.txt, enter only the root name, InvoiceTemplate, in the property field.
• The template file itself must have a .txt extension on the device.

For more information about printing and print templates, see the following:

• Configuring Printing from the Siebel Handheld Application
• Installing Print Templates in the Siebel Handheld Install Directory
• Printing with the Siebel Handheld Application
• Print Tagging Language
• Print Configuration Settings