Developing and Deploying Siebel Business Applications > Configuring the House and Opportunity Entities > Process of Configuring the House Detail View >

Configuring Text for Labels and Other User Interface Elements

This task is a step in Process of Configuring the House Detail View.

In this topic you configure text for labels and other user interface elements.

To configure text for labels and other user interface elements

1. Make sure Siebel Tools is set up to configure symbolic strings.

   For more information, see Setting Up Siebel Tools.

2. Check out the NREC Configuration project.

   The Symbolic Strings project includes predefined symbolic strings. It is recommended that you create all custom symbolic strings in a custom project. For example, the NREC Configuration project.

3. In the Object Explorer, click Symbolic Strings.
4. In the Symbolic Strings list, create new record using values from the following table.

   Name	Current String Value
   X_Bathrooms	Bathrooms
   X_Bedrooms	Bedrooms
   X_House_ID	House ID
   X_Number_of_Bathrooms	Number of Bathrooms
   X_Number_of_Bedrooms	Number of Bedrooms
   X_Square_Feet	Square Feet

   For the Project property, use NREC Configuration for all symbolic strings you create. Some of the customizations you make for the NREC project involve adding new fields or changing the names of predefined fields. To make these changes, you add these new symbolic strings or edit the Symbolic String Locale of a predefined string.

   As you create each symbolic string Siebel Tools automatically adds a child Symbolic String Locale object. This object includes ENU as the language, as determined by the language mode in Siebel Tools, which is set by default to ENU.

About Symbolic Strings

Siebel CRM stores the text that it displays on screens and views in the Siebel client. It stores this information in the repository. This includes the names of every screen, view, and field. For example, if the user displays information on accounts, then the view includes fields with names such as Account Name, Account Team, Site, Status, Territory, and so forth. Siebel CRM stores these names in the SRF file. If the user displays a page, then the Siebel Server uses the SRF file to determine which fields to display and the text labels to display with each field. These text labels are strings of text.

Symbolic strings is a model that Siebel CRM uses to keep the text strings separate from the view definitions. Symbolic strings provide the following advantages:

• Reduces redundancy because many objects can reference one symbolic string. For example, you only need to define the term Account Team one time as a symbolic string. When you must use Account Team on multiple views, you can reference the same string rather than defining a separate text label for every view and applet that uses Account Team.
• Results in a more consistent display of objects in the Siebel client. By reusing the same symbolic string, you avoid having slightly different phrasing on similar views. For example Acct. Team, Act. Team, Account Group, Client Team, and so forth.
• Simplifies maintenance because you only have to maintain one string for a given term. If you must change the name from Account Team to Client Group, you can update the symbolic string. Siebel CRM displays your update in all views that use this symbolic string. This technique is more efficient than having to change each view individually.
• Eliminates duplicated translations of the same word, which simplifies translation. Because you reuse symbolic strings, the same term does not exist in multiple different objects that must be translated.
• Reduces localization cost, time, and inconsistency. If the term Account Team is on five views, then Siebel CRM must translate it five times. A symbolic string allows Siebel CRM to translate the term only once. This saves on localization costs and reduces the development time for the project. The use of symbolic strings also helps prevent inconsistent translations. Although the NREC example does not cover localization, many custom deployments are localized.

How Siebel CRM Uses Symbolic Strings

Siebel CRM uses symbolic strings in a top-level object in the Siebel repository named Symbolic Strings and a child object named Symbolic String Locale. Each symbolic string record represents a word or phrase, for example Account or Contact, and is language-independent. Siebel CRM stores all translations of that word or phrase, including English, as child symbolic string locale records. User interface objects reference symbolic string records for text strings. Siebel CRM retrieves the literal display value from one of the several translations stored as symbolic string locale records according to the current Tools language mode.

Strings Not Included in the Symbolic Strings Model

The symbolic strings model includes text strings stored in the repository. User interface objects reference these strings. Example interface objects include applet titles, control captions, and list column display names. The symbolic string model does not include other types of strings that are typically supplied as seed data, such as LOVs, error messages, or predefined queries.

Properties of a Symbolic String

Table 9 describes some of the properties of a symbolic string.