About Queries

You use queries to locate one or more records that meet specified criteria. You can view the records that a query finds on-screen, export them to a file, or use them as input for a report. A query searches the database for specific data by using conditions or criteria. For example, you might want to find all open service requests with a high priority. You perform this query in the Service screen by using the query criteria of a Status field value of Open and a Priority field value of High.

After you create a query, you can save it, and run it again later.

Predefined Queries

Your organization can provide predefined queries (PDQs). Predefined queries have established criteria, and appear in the drop-down list for the Saved Queries field. You cannot change predefined queries.

For example, if you always work with accounts located in California, then the drop-down list for the Saved Queries field might contain a PDQ called CA Accounts that finds all the accounts in California. Each time you want to see only the California accounts, you do not have to create a new query. Instead, you can select the predefined CA Accounts query from the drop-down list for the Saved Queries field.

When you execute a predefined query, the query runs against all the data for the current screen. If you run a query to narrow the data set, then the predefined query uses all data for the screen, not just the data that appears in a list.

To execute a predefined query  

• Do one of the following:

  • Click the Execute Query button on the application toolbar to execute a predefined query.

    For more information about the Execute Query button on the application toolbar, see "About the Application Toolbar".

  • Use the appropriate keyboard shortcut (ALT+R).

Case Insensitive and Accent Insensitive Queries

Query features provide indexes that directly support case insensitive and accent insensitive (CIAI) queries on eligible text columns. CIAI queries ignore both the case and use of accents to return all records that otherwise match the query criteria. This capability is important when searching for records such as contact or customer names. For example, an exact-match query produces different a query results than a CIAI query if the query results contain capitalization inconsistencies (such as MacArthur and Macarthur) or accent usage inconsistencies.

CIAI queries apply to the entire query string. To find out if your Siebel application uses exact-match queries or CIAI queries, run test queries and review the query results. For more information about CIAI queries, see Siebel Global Deployment Guide.

Your Siebel administrator can configure specific columns for CIAI queries by defining CIAI columns and CIAI indexes in the repository using the CIAI wizard in Siebel Tools. The CIAI wizard sets the Default Insensitivity property for CIAI columns to DB Case & Accent. CIAI-enabled fields are blank in the user interface. The fields that contain the Case Required property represent non CIAI-enabled fields.

A case-insensitive query works on all supported databases for the current release of the Siebel application. However, an accent-insensitivity works only on the databases that provide the accent-insensitivity feature, such as Microsoft Structured Query Language (SQL). For more information about supported databases, see Siebel System Requirements and Supported Platforms on Oracle Technology Network.

Note: For Siebel CRM product releases 8.1.1.9 and later and for 8.2.2.2 and later, the system requirements and supported platform certifications are available from the Certification tab on My Oracle Support. For information about the Certification application, see article 1492194.1 (Article ID) on My Oracle Support.