Introduction to Oracle Scripting

This chapter covers the following topics:

Overview of Oracle Scripting
Components
How Scripts are Used

Overview of Oracle Scripting

Oracle Scripting is a set of tools that provides enterprises with scripts, which guide customers, agents, and employees through decision flows based on a series of questions and answers. Through branching logic built into the product, script flow is determined both by customer answers and by data stored in the customer tables.

Scripts can be used for a variety of purposes:

To assist enterprise agents in gathering data from or providing information to customers and prospects
As Web-based surveys to solicit information from a sample or target population
As self-service Web scripts that integrate with enterprise Web pages and provide a mechanism to guide Web customers through decision processes

Components

Oracle Scripting is composed of four components: Script Author, the Scripting Engine, the Scripting Administration console, and the Survey Administration console.

Using Script Author, trained script developers translate business requirements into miniature programs called scripts. Script Author supports two methods to create a script: using graphical layout tools to create graphical scripts, and using a Script Wizard feature to create wizard scripts. Both script types can be executed in either of the two Scripting Engine interfaces.
Using the Scripting Engine component, script end users execute the script in one of two runtime interfaces:
- The Scripting Engine agent interface is used in combination with Oracle business applications. Users of the agent interface are interaction center agents; they launch each script - which executes as a Java applet - from an Oracle business application form.
- Using the Scripting Engine Web interface, scripts execute in any Oracle Applications 12 certified Web browser. These can be used as survey questionnaires, or as Web scripts launched from an integrated Oracle self-service Web application such as Oracle iSupport.
  
  Note: Any script executed in the Scripting Engine Web interface, either as a survey questionnaire or as a Web script, requires a survey campaign to be defined and one of its deployments activated.
Using the Scripting Administration console, script administrators can launch Script Author as a Java applet, administer Oracle Scripting script files and custom Java archive files, and view panel footprint summary reports.
Using the Survey Administration console, you administer survey campaigns and associated survey resources.

Survey resources can include header and footer sections, error pages and final pages. For each script executed in the Web interface, the appropriate survey resources display.

The following summarizes the main usages of each component:

Use Script Author to build a script for execution in either Scripting Engine interface.
Use the Scripting Administration console to access Script Author (as a Java applet), to manage scripting files or custom Java archives, or to view panel footprint summary reports.
Use the Survey Administration console to administer survey campaigns, which is prerequisite to executing any script in a Web browser.
Use Scripting Engine to execute any script. The two interfaces include the agent interface (a Forms client) or the Web interface (a Web browser).

How Scripts are Used

There are various ways in which scripts can be employed to gather or distribute data for an enterprise. For example:

Scripts in the Scripting Engine agent interface can be launched from Oracle TeleSales and the Customer Support component of Oracle TeleService.

Note: Use of the Scripting Engine agent interface in standalone mode (without other business applications) is not supported by Oracle except for script testing and validation.
A script can serve as a survey questionnaire to solicit specific information from the sample or target population. Such a questionnaire can be executed in the Scripting Engine agent interface, or set up as a survey campaign and executed in a Web browser in the Scripting Engine Web interface.
Scripts or surveys can be executed in the Web interface as follows:
- An active survey deployment URL can be embedded as a hyperlink in an enterprise Web site pointing to a survey deployment.
- An active survey deployment URL can be embedded as a hyperlink in an Oracle self-service Web application (e.g., Oracle iSupport or Oracle iStore). Users of the Web application can launch a script in the browser. When executed in this manner, the script is referred to as a Web script. Web scripts are a valuable resource to provide scripted information to Web application users or to solicit feedback to the enterprise regarding the application user's experience.
- By leveraging other Oracle Applications (Oracle One-to-One Fulfillment and Oracle Marketing Online), you can send e-mail invitations and reminders to participate in a survey questionnaire to members of a defined population or sample, as set up on an Oracle Marketing list. The list includes a link to an active survey deployment.