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Upgrade Planning for Siebel Web Template Files and Style Sheets

Environments: Development, production test, production.

Siebel Web templates and Siebel Web template files (SWT files) help define the layout and formatting of the user interface, such as views, applets, and controls. The Siebel Web Engine in the Siebel Server uses the Siebel Web templates to build Web pages, which it then forwards to the Web server.

A Siebel Web template file contains regular HTML, WML, or XML tags interspersed with Siebel tags. Siebel tags are prefixed by swe and contain placeholders for UI objects such as controls and data. HTML formatting tags are defined in cascading style sheets (such as main.css).

When you install a new release of the Siebel Server or Siebel Tools, you receive a new set of Siebel Web template files and new style sheet files. The upgrade process does not use your existing files. If you have manually customized your Siebel Web template files or style sheet files, then you must evaluate whether to reimplement these customizations in the new Siebel Web template files and style sheet file.

Observe the following planning guidelines for reimplementing customizations:

• Resolve any UI problems related to object definitions in the Siebel Tools repository first. While doing so, review the areas of the new UI where you plan to implement Siebel Web template file customizations.
• Evaluate existing customizations to Siebel Web template files, and decide which ones to reimplement. Changes to the UI in the new release might make some customizations obsolete.
• Document why each customization was reimplemented. This reference will help you evaluate customization issues later.
• Use formal change control for managing versions of the Siebel Web template files and style sheet files. This allows you to maintain orderly distribution of the files to developers.
• Applets typically have a separate Siebel Web template file for each applet mode. Customize all the mode Siebel Web template files for an applet at the same time. This allows you to verify applet functionality in a single test pass in the UI.
• Individual Siebel Web template files are typically used by multiple screens, views, or applets. Set up formal test plans that verify customizations are correct across all UI objects that use each Siebel Web template file. This reduces the amount of time required to verify customizations and prevents unintended changes to the UI.
• Reimplement style sheet customizations in two passes. On the first pass, implement only those changes required to address UI usability issues. On the second pass, implement the remaining style sheet customizations after Siebel Web template customizations are complete. This shortens the time required to resolve functional problems in the UI.

After customizations have been completed, the Siebel Web template files and style sheet files must be copied to the Siebel Servers in the environment. The files must also be included in upgrade kits sent to remote sites.

Siebel Web template files have an .swt file extension and are located in the webtempl directory in both the Siebel Tools and Siebel Server installation.

The style sheet files are located in the installation directory of Siebel Tools and the Siebel Server (Windows path syntax). For example:

Siebel Tools: SIEBEL_TOOLS_ROOT\public\lang_code\files\main.css

Siebel Server: SIEBEL_ROOT\webmaster\files\lang_code\main.css

In these paths, lang_code is the installation language, for example, enu.

The steps for reimplementing customizations to these files and copying them to new environments are included in the upgrade process topics in Overview of Performing a Siebel Database Upgrade.

For information on how Siebel Web templates and style sheet files work, see Configuring Siebel Business Applications and Configuring Siebel Open UI.

NOTE:  In Siebel Innovation Pack 2015 and later, the upgphys process now executes a script that migrates data from Siebel Web template files into table-based content in the Siebel database. For more information, see About Migrating Siebel Web Template Data.