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Important Terms and Concepts

This book uses the following terms and concepts that you must understand before you customize Siebel Open UI:

• A user is a person who uses the client of a Siebel business application to access Siebel CRM data.
• The user interface is the interface that the user uses in the client to access data that Siebel Open UI displays.
• The client is the client of a Siebel business application. Siebel Call Center is an example of a Siebel business application. Siebel Open UI renders the user interface in this client.
• The server is the Siebel Server, unless noted otherwise.
• An administrator is anyone who uses an administrative screen in the client to configure Siebel CRM. The Administration - Server Configuration screen is an example of an administrative screen.
• Predefined Siebel Open UI is the ready-to-use version of Siebel Open UI that Oracle provides to you before you make any customization to Siebel Open UI.
• A Siebel CRM object is an object that resides in the Siebel Repository File. For example, a screen, view, applet, business component, menu, or control is each an example of a Siebel object. The Contact List Applet is an example of a Siebel CRM applet. A Siebel CRM applet is not equivalent to a Java applet. For more information, see Configuring Siebel Business Applications.
• A predefined object is an object that comes already defined with Siebel CRM and is ready to use with no modification. The objects that Siebel Tools displays in the Object List Editor immediately after you install Siebel Tools, and the objects that the SRF (Siebel Repository File) contains before you make any customization, are predefined objects.
• A custom object is a predefined object that you modified or a new object that you create.
• The term focus indicates the currently active object in the client. To indicate the object that is in focus, Siebel CRM typically sets the border of this object to a solid blue line.
• To derive a value is to use one or more properties as input when calculating this value. For example, Siebel Open UI can derive the value of a physical renderer property from one or more other properties. For more information, see Deriving Presentation Models, Physical Renderers and Plug-in Wrappers.
• The term class describes a JavaScript class. It does not describe the Siebel class object type, unless noted otherwise, or unless described in the context of the Siebel Object Hierarchy. For more information about the Siebel class object type, see Siebel Object Types Reference.
• The term reference describes a relationship that exists between two objects, where one object gets information from another object or sends information to this object. For example, in the Siebel Object Hierarchy, the Opportunity List Applet references the Opportunity business component to get opportunity records from this business component, and the Opportunity business component references the S_OPTY table to get opportunity records from this table.
• The term instance describes the current, run-time state of an object. For example, a business component instance is a run-time occurrence of a business component. It includes all the run-time data that the business component currently contains, such as the values for all fields and properties of this business component. For example, an instance of the Contact business component includes the current, run-time value of the City field that resides in this business component, such as San Francisco. You can configure Siebel Open UI to get a business component instance, and then modify this data or call the methods that this business component references.

For more information about these terms and other background information, see the following items:

• A complete list of terms that this book uses, see Glossary.
• Using the Siebel Open UI client, see Siebel Fundamentals for Open UI.
• Enabling the Siebel Server to run Siebel Open UI, see the Siebel Installation Guide for the operating system you are using.
• Using Siebel Tools, see Using Siebel Tools.