About User Interface Deployment Options for Siebel Web Clients

There are three fundamental user interface deployment options for a Siebel Web client:

• Siebel Open UI

• Standard interactivity

• High interactivity

The user interface characteristics of the Siebel Business Applications and the experience of your end users depend greatly on the user interface in which you deploy your applications. Each Siebel application is preconfigured to use one of these deployment modes. In general, it is recommended not to change the deployment mode from its default mode, unless you are migrating your users to Siebel Open UI.

Note: Siebel Open UI, a new user interface deployment option, is an alternative to high interactivity for employee applications or to standard interactivity for customer applications and presents several advantages. You can deploy most Siebel applications using the Siebel Open UI client. For more information, see "About Siebel Open UI". Most of the information in this chapter pertains only to standard interactivity or high interactivity and has not been significantly updated.

To deploy Siebel clients, software prerequisites and configuration requirements must be considered for each deployment mode. Each mode provides performance and usability characteristics that might offer advantages for a given environment. The deployment requirements for client computers must correspond to your target user characteristics.

For example, for employee applications, it is often feasible to deploy the applications in a controlled environment where specific client and browser requirements can be met that support high interactivity, which provides superior performance and usability compared to standard interactivity. For this reason, Siebel employee applications are provided for high interactivity. In general, it is assumed that you will deploy these applications using the Siebel Open UI client instead of the high interactivity client.

For customer applications, on the other hand, your deployment must have looser client and browser requirements for a diverse set of users, and require basic and broadly supported browser standards. For this reason, Siebel customer applications have traditionally been provided for standard interactivity. Newer customer applications are provided for Siebel Open UI.

You must coordinate all of your deployment activities: those described in this book and in other books, including those listed in "Additional Information About Browser Configuration".

This topic contains the following information:

• "About Siebel Open UI"

• "About Standard Interactivity"

• "About High Interactivity"

• "Comparing High Interactivity and Standard Interactivity"

• "Additional Information About Browser Configuration"

About Siebel Open UI

The Siebel Open UI client is the next-generation successor to the high interactivity client and an alternative to the standard interactivity client. Siebel Open UI provides a rich user interface experience, like high interactivity, yet presents many advantages over high interactivity and standard interactivity. Recent browser versions are strongly recommended for optimal functionality and performance. For more information, see Deploying Siebel Open UI and the Siebel Installation Guide for the operating system you are using.

Note: User interface references in this guide assume that you are using Siebel Open UI. The Siebel application procedures in this guide assume that you do not use left-hand navigation. However, you can set up left-hand navigation. For more information about left-hand navigation and about implementing it, see Siebel Fundamentals for Siebel Open UI.

With two exceptions, the remaining topics in this chapter describe requirements for standard interactivity and high interactivity and do not apply to Siebel Open UI. The following topics apply to all of the user interface deployment choices for the Siebel Web Clients, including Siebel Open UI:

• "Siebel Client Deployment Requirements When Using Firewalls or Proxy Servers"

• "Configuring Siebel Business Applications for Pop-Up Blocker Compatibility"

Related Books

For more information about configuring and deploying Siebel Business Applications with Siebel Open UI, see the following related books:

• For more information about the functionality that is available for Siebel Open UI, see Siebel Open UI Deployment Guide on My Oracle Support. To access this article, from within My Oracle Support, navigate to the Knowledge tab and search for Article ID 1499842.1.

• For the minimum browser standards and other support information for Siebel Open UI, see the Certifications tab on My Oracle Support.

• For information about enabling Siebel Open UI for Application Object Manager components and Siebel Mobile Web Clients, see the Siebel Installation Guide for the operating system you are using.

• For information about deploying Siebel Business Applications using Siebel Open UI, see Deploying Siebel Open UI.

• For information about configuring Siebel Business Applications that use Siebel Open UI, see Configuring Siebel Open UI.

• For information about using Siebel Business Applications that are deployed with Siebel Open UI, see Siebel Fundamentals for Siebel Open UI.

About Standard Interactivity

Standard interactivity provides users of Siebel Business Applications with a user experience similar to that for users of traditional Web applications for customer applications, such as those for consumers. The usability characteristics of standard interactivity are familiar to users of typical consumer Web sites. This deployment mode is available for the Siebel Web Client.

Most user interactions in standard interactivity clients result in a page refresh. When creating a new record, the user clicks the New button (which refreshes the page when the application displays a new entry form), enters the relevant data, then clicks the Save or Submit button (which again refreshes the page when the application redisplays the original page). Similarly, when a user browses through a list of records, the page refreshes each time that a new record is selected.

Note: Siebel Open UI, a new user interface alternative, presents several advantages. For more information, see "About Siebel Open UI".

About High Interactivity

High interactivity is designed to provide users of Siebel Business Applications with a user experience similar to that for users of traditional GUI-based client applications, such as for Microsoft Windows. This deployment mode is available for the Siebel Web Client, Siebel Mobile Web Client, and Siebel Developer Web Client.

High interactivity reduces the number of page refreshes, compared to standard interactivity, when the user interacts with the application, browses through records, and so on. These benefits are made possible because data-only updates are made from the Siebel Server, which optimizes the use of network bandwidth.

For example, a high interactivity client does not require a page refresh for creating a new record. A user creates a new record by clicking the New button. A new row is created in a list dynamically, without a page refresh. The user enters the relevant data, then clicks outside of the record (also called stepping off of the record) to implicitly commit the change, without a page refresh.

Some of the features of the high interactivity framework are:

• Fewer page refreshes. Data is updated separately from the user interface and full page refreshes are not needed in all cases.

• Support for client-side scripting. Client-side scripting allows the client to compute certain tasks locally, which can be beneficial for server performance.

• Support for implicit commit. This feature enables automatic saving when a user steps off of a new or modified record.

• Other usability features. Such features include MVG shuttle applets; drag-and-drop column reordering; drag-and-drop file attachments; keyboard shortcuts; smart controls for calendar, calculator and currency; and applet scrollbars.

The high interactivity framework provides performance and usability enhancements by taking advantage of capabilities supported by Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers. These capabilities include Document Object Model (DOM), Java, and ActiveX controls.

High interactivity clients use a Siebel-specific remote procedure call (RPC) though HTTP or HTTPS, which is the fundamental communications channel for this client type. The Siebel RPC sends and retrieves data over HTTP or HTTPS to and from the Siebel Server. For the Siebel Web Client using the high interactivity client, no other communication channels are used.

Deploying Siebel Business Applications in high interactivity requires that customers and their users adhere to strict guidelines regarding the deployed operating system, Web browser version and settings, and Java software environment.

Note: Siebel Open UI, a new user interface alternative, presents several advantages. For more information, see "About Siebel Open UI".

Comparing High Interactivity and Standard Interactivity

Table 4-1 outlines the basic differences between the two traditional deployment modes. The topics that follow provide additional information about each of these modes.

Table 4-1 Comparison of Standard Interactivity and High Interactivity

Feature	Standard Interactivity	High Interactivity
Support for broader variety of browsers	Yes	No
Uses JavaScript technology	Yes	Yes
Uses ActiveX technology	No	Yes
Uses Java technology	No	Yes

Note: Accessing different versions of an Application Object Manager while simultaneously using Siebel Web clients on the same client computer is not supported.

Certain features and functions in Siebel Business Applications require particular browser settings for standard interactivity and high interactivity. Unless stated, all supported browser versions for applications using these deployment modes require the settings and configuration outlined in this guide or in other relevant documents. The requirements for your individual deployment might vary.

Note: Siebel Open UI, a new user interface alternative, presents several advantages. For more information, see "About Siebel Open UI".

Related Topics

"Requirements for Deploying Siebel Applications Using Standard Interactivity"

"Requirements for Deploying Siebel Applications Using High Interactivity"

Additional Information About Browser Configuration

Information related to topics in this chapter can be found in the following documents:

• For information about the browser requirements for Siebel Open UI, high interactivity, or standard interactivity clients, see the Certifications tab on My Oracle Support.

• For information about installing components for Siebel Business Applications, see the Siebel Installation Guide for the operating system you are using.

• For information about deploying Siebel Business Applications, see Siebel Deployment Planning Guide, the Siebel Installation Guide for the operating system you are using, Deploying Siebel Open UI, and other applicable documentation.

• For information about configuration tasks for Siebel clients, see Configuring Siebel Business Applications, Configuring Siebel Open UI, and related documents.

• For information about optimizing performance for Siebel clients, see Siebel Performance Tuning Guide. For information about configuring firewalls, using browser cookies with Siebel Business Applications, and other security topics, see Siebel Security Guide.