Modifying and Creating Siebel Anywhere Configurations

This topic contains information about modifying and creating Siebel Anywhere configurations. A configuration is a required infrastructure element for the successful creation and deployment of an upgrade kit.

This task is a step in "Process of Planning and Preparing to Create Upgrade Kits".

This topic contains the following information:

• "Adding Components to a Configuration"

• "Removing Components from a Configuration"

• "Creating a New Configuration"

• "About Assigning Employees to a Configuration"

• "Assigning Employees to a Configuration"

• "Removing Employees from a Configuration"

  
  

  Note: If a new configuration is created, a configuration is split or merged with another configuration, or the name of an existing configuration is changed, then the ComponentName parameter on the corresponding Siebel clients must also be updated so that the clients can detect any upgrades.

  
  

Adding Components to a Configuration

Sometimes you might need to add components to an existing configuration. Any custom component that you create must be added to a configuration before you can use it to distribute upgrades. The following procedure describes how to perform this task.

This topic is part of "Modifying and Creating Siebel Anywhere Configurations".

To add a component to a configuration  

1. Navigate to the Administration - Siebel Anywhere screen, then the Upgrade Configurations view.

2. In the Upgrade Configurations list, select the configuration to which you want to add a component, and then click the Upgrade Components view tab.

3. In the Upgrade Components list, click New.

4. In the Upgrade Components dialog box, double-click the component you want to add.

   The component appears, highlighted, in the Upgrade Components list.

5. Repeat Steps 2 through 4 for any additional components you want to add to this configuration.

Removing Components from a Configuration

Sometimes you might need to remove components from an existing configuration. The following procedure describes how to perform this task.

This topic is part of "Modifying and Creating Siebel Anywhere Configurations".

To remove a component from a configuration  

1. Navigate to the Administration - Siebel Anywhere screen, then the Upgrade Configurations view.

2. In the Upgrade Configurations list, select the configuration from which you want to remove a component, and then click the Upgrade Components view tab.

3. In the Upgrade Components list, select the component you want to remove, and then click Delete.

4. In the dialog box, confirm that this record is the record you want to delete.

5. Repeat Steps 2 through 4 for any additional components you want to remove from this configuration.

Creating a New Configuration

In most cases, the configurations provided with Siebel Anywhere are sufficient. However, you can create new configurations for special situations or to represent different installed clients within your company. The procedure in this topic describes how to perform this task.

This topic is part of "Modifying and Creating Siebel Anywhere Configurations".

For example, if everyone in your company uses Siebel Sales and you must distribute certain upgrades to employees in remote offices separately from the rest of the company, then you would create a new configuration to accommodate this situation. The employees in the remote offices would be temporarily associated with the new configuration so that you could distribute the special upgrade just to them.

For details on associating specific employees with a configuration, See "Assigning Employees to a Configuration".

Also, you might need to create different configurations based upon language usage. If a subset of the users in your company use only U.S. English (ENU) and another subset uses both U.S. English and German (DEU), then create two different configurations.

If you must create a new configuration for long-term use (as in language usage), then make sure that every client CFG file is appropriately updated.

Note: The recommended method for creating a new configuration is to copy an existing configuration and modify the copy, as this method minimizes the possibility for error. The following procedure describes the use of this method. However, it is also possible to use standard Siebel Business Applications techniques to create a new record and fill in the necessary fields.

To create a new configuration  

1. Navigate to the Administration - Siebel Anywhere screen, then the Upgrade Configurations view.

2. In the Upgrade Configurations list, select an existing configuration record that is similar to the configuration you want to create, and then click the menu button and select Copy Record.

   A highlighted copy of the record that you selected appears.

3. Modify the fields in the copied record to meet your requirements.

   Some fields are described in the following table.

   Table 3-6 Upgrade Configurations List Fields

   Field Name	Comments
   Name	The name of the configuration. Caution: Limit the value of the Name field to 91 characters or fewer. Exceeding this limit causes synchronization to fail.
   Active	When this check box is selected, it indicates that the configuration is to be version-checked. When you create a new configuration by copying an existing configuration, this check box is cleared by default. Make sure to select it before using the new configuration.
   Component Type	This value is either client or server configuration.
   Comments	Comments can be entered here.

   
   

4. Add appropriate Upgrade Components to the new configuration you just created.

   To do this, see "Adding Components to a Configuration".

About Assigning Employees to a Configuration

The purpose of assigning employees to configurations is to handle uncommon situations, such as having one particular employee retrieve and test an upgrade kit. In most cases, testing is done using special test accounts and test configurations, and regular employees are associated with a specific configuration based on a ComponentName entry in the client's application CFG file.

This topic is part of "Modifying and Creating Siebel Anywhere Configurations".

For the procedure for assigning employees to a configuration, see "Assigning Employees to a Configuration".

For example, for the Siebel Sales application, the default value of ComponentName in the siebel.cfg file would be Siebel Sales Client. This means that everyone using the Siebel Sales application is automatically associated with the Siebel Sales configuration.

Assigning employees to a configuration in the Employees list in the Upgrade Configurations view can be used in place of the entry in the CFG file, or as a method for overriding the entry in the CFG file.

Caution: It is strongly recommended that you run only the Siebel Web Client (the client type that does not require a Siebel installer) for user accounts that have Siebel administrator responsibilities, to make sure that administrative tasks are performed while connected to the HQ Server, and to make sure that the administrator is not prevented from logging in for reasons related to component versions. If you run the Siebel Developer Web Client for any administrator account, then it is strongly recommended that the account not be associated with a Siebel Anywhere configuration. This precaution also helps prevent version-related login problems.

When associating employees to configurations, keep in mind the following recommendations:

• Do not dynamically assign the Siebel administrator to a configuration.

• Do not dynamically assign Siebel Tools users to a configuration.

  Siebel Anywhere will not allow an employee to be dynamically associated with more than one configuration. For example, if the employee JSMITH is dynamically associated with Configuration A and the Siebel administrator then associates JSMITH with Configuration B, then JSMITH is automatically disassociated from Configuration A and associated only with Configuration B.

Caution: If an employee is accidentally associated with an incorrect configuration, then that employee is disassociated from the correct configuration and might not have access to upgrades that are distributed to the correct configuration. For this reason, it is best to correct the configuration assignment without delay.

If an employee will use more than one installation of the Siebel client in the same Siebel Business Applications implementation, then do not associate that employee with a configuration. For example, if the employee JSMITH chooses to install and use both Siebel Call Center and Siebel Sales, then do not dynamically associate that employee with a Siebel Anywhere configuration. The reason is the upgrade kit for one configuration will likely be different than the upgrade kit for another configuration.

In this example, the CFG file would be different for the Siebel Call Center and Siebel Sales configurations. If JSMITH were dynamically associated to the Call Center configuration and logged in using the Siebel Sales client, then the version check would only detect that there was a new upgrade kit and would not differentiate between the two installations of the Siebel client.

If the login is specified under an Employees view, then Siebel Anywhere does not check the CFG file any further and only checks the version of the component listed under the associated configuration for that client. Typically, Siebel Anywhere groups users by the product they use, for example Call Center or Sales Client, which is determined by the CFG file the user uses.

Note: The first time a Mobile Web Client connects to the Siebel Remote Server to initialize the local database, Siebel Anywhere does a version check for the client using the Upgrade Configuration specified in the CFG file. Siebel Anywhere cannot detect a dynamic configuration assignment at this time. However, after the Mobile Web Client successfully initializes the local database, Siebel Anywhere can detect any dynamic configuration assignment for that client.

Assigning Employees to a Configuration

This topic describes how to assign employees to a configuration.

For more information about assigning employees to a configuration, see "About Assigning Employees to a Configuration".

This topic is part of "Modifying and Creating Siebel Anywhere Configurations".

To assign an employee to a configuration 

1. Navigate to the Administration - Siebel Anywhere screen, then the Upgrade Configurations view.

2. In the Upgrade Configurations list, select the configuration to which you want to add an employee, and then click the Employees view tab.

3. In the Employees list, click New.

4. In the Login field of the new record, click the select button.

   From the Pick Employee dialog box, select the employee you want to add, and click OK.

5. Repeat Steps 2 through 4 to assign additional employees to this configuration.

Removing Employees from a Configuration

Use the following procedure to end an employee's dynamic configuration assignment, which returns that user to the original configuration assignment defined in the user's CFG file.

This topic is part of "Modifying and Creating Siebel Anywhere Configurations".

To remove an employee from a configuration  

1. Navigate to the Administration - Siebel Anywhere screen, then the Upgrade Configurations view.

2. In the Upgrade Configurations list, select the configuration from which you want to remove an employee, and then click the Employees view tab.

3. In the Employees list, select the record for the employee you want to remove from the configuration, and then click the menu button and select Delete Record.