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About Inheriting Upgrade Behavior in a Siebel Upgrade


Environments: Development environment only.

Platforms: Windows, UNIX, IBM z/OS.

You can link objects together so that one object inherits the upgrade behavior of another. You do this by specifying an upgrade ancestor for an object.

Use standard objects as upgrade ancestors. A standard object is an uncustomized repository object provided by Oracle.

A common customization strategy is to create new objects by making a copy of a standard object and then modifying the copy, called the descendant.

For descendants that are the following object types, you can specify an upgrade ancestor:

  • Applets
  • Business Components
  • Integration Objects
  • Reports

You specify the upgrade ancestor in the descendant's Upgrade Ancestor field in Siebel Tools. During the repository merge, the descendant is upgraded in the same way as the upgrade ancestor. (Upgrade ancestors of applets are ignored in an ICL merge.)

For example, you create Applet-B by copying standard Applet-A. In Applet-B you specify Applet-A as the upgrade ancestor. In the New Siebel Repository, Applet-A has a new button.

After a regular merge, both Applet-A and Applet-B will have the new button.

After an ICL merge, Applet-B will have the new button, but Applet-A will not:

  • During the regular merge, Applet-B receives the new button because it is a descendant of Applet-A.
  • During the ICL merge portion, the web template configuration of Applet-A is copied from the Prior Customer Repository to the New Customer Repository. This web template configuration does not contain the new button. This removes the new button from Applet-A.
  • Since the ICL merge portion ignores the Upgrade Ancestor property, this change is not propagated to Applet-B. Applet-B retains the new button.

Limitations on the Upgrade Ancestor Property

The Upgrade Ancestor property is considered only during repository merges as part of application upgrades under these conditions:

  • If an upgrade ancestor is inactive in the New Siebel Repository, then it is obsolete, and its upgrade behavior is not propagated to descendants.

    If an ancestor object is obsolete in the New Siebel Repository, then its descendants are not also obsolete.

    If an upgrade ancestor is not present in the New Siebel Repository, then error messages display during the repository merge and are written to the merge log file. These errors are acceptable and do not mean the merge has failed.

  • The Upgrade Ancestor property is not considered during repository imports. However, imported objects can specify an upgrade ancestor. When the next application upgrade is done, the Upgrade Ancestor property is taken into account.
  • The setting of the Upgrade Ancestor property is not considered when applying application patches. If the upgrade ancestor is modified by the patch, then descendants are not modified.
  • Use caution when specifying upgrade ancestors. For regular merges, setting the Upgrade Ancestor property on applets propagates merge problems from standard-object applets to descendant applets.
  • Specifying an upgrade ancestor for objects slows the repository merge.

Upgrade Ancestor Picklist

When you click in the Upgrade Ancestor field, a picklist displays. The following criteria are used to populate the picklist:

Applets
  • Table is the same as the current applet buscomp
  • Class is the same as the current applet class
  • Upgrade Ancestor is null
  • Applet is a standard object
Reports
  • Buscomp is the same as the current report buscomp
  • Class is the same as the current report class
  • Upgrade Ancestor is null
  • Report is a standard object
Business Components
  • Bus Comp is the same as the current business component
  • Class is the same as the current business component
  • Upgrade Ancestor is null
  • Business component is a standard object
Integration Objects
  • Base Object Type is the same as the current Base Object Type
  • Business Object is the same as the current business object
  • Upgrade Ancestor is null
  • Integration object is a standard object

Propagating Changes to Objects After the Merge

If you do not select an upgrade ancestor for an object, then changes to the upgrade ancestor are not propagated to the descendant during the repository merge.

You can manually propagate changes to descendants after the merge by using the Siebel Tools object comparison and synchronization features. These features enable you to compare any two objects and propagate differences to one or both of the objects. For more information, see Configuring Siebel Business Applications.

Related Topics

About the Siebel Repository Merge

Siebel Incorporate Custom Layout Upgrade Option

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