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How Siebel CRM Renders Div Containers on Siebel Servers

Figure 1 illustrates how the Siebel Server uses OD tags that reside in ODH to rend er div containers on the Siebel Server. For example, it renders a tag with type od-type="view" as a view container. It does the same rendering on this server for Siebel Open UI that it does for high interactivity.

Figure 2 illustrates how Siebel CRM uses a presentation model, which is a JavaScript file that resides in the client that specifies how to handle the metadata and data that Siebel Open UI gets from the Siebel Server. Siebel CRM then displays this information in a list applet or form applet in the client. The presentation model provides a logical abstraction of the metadata, transaction data, and behavior for part of the user interface. Siebel Open UI includes a presentation model for each significant part of the user interface, such as the application menu, toolbars, screen tabs, visibility drop-down lists, applet menus, different types of applets, and so on. The presentation model does not render the HTML in the user interface.

Figure 3 illustrates how Siebel CRM uses a physical renderer, which is a JavaScript file that Siebel Open UI uses to render the user interface. A physical renderer contains instructions that describe how to render the physical presentation and interaction for a user interface element, such as a grid, carousel, form, tree, tab, menu, button, and so on. Each physical renderer references a presentation model, and it uses the metadata, data, and behavior that this presentation model defines to render an object in the client. For more information about presentation models and physical renders, see About the Siebel Open UI Development Architecture.

Siebel Open UI uses the presentation model and the physical renderer to separate the logical user interface from the rendering. This configuration allows you to modify the user interface without having to modify the logical structure and behavior of the client. For example, you can modify the physical renderer so that it uses a third-party, grid-to-carousel control to display a list applet as a carousel without modifying a presentation model. For more information about this example, see Customizing List Applets to Render as Carousels.

You can use the physical renderer of a control to implement a variety of configurations so that Siebel Open UI can render this control at nearly any physical location in the browser and with your custom logic. You can use the physical renderer to display different parts of the same applet in different physical panes in a Siebel screen. For example, you can configure Siebel Open UI to display a temporary recycle bin that uses data from the presentation model to render data in a pane that is physically separate from the data that the list applet displays. For more information about this example, see Example of Customizing Siebel Open UI.

You can use the presentation model to modify the logical behavior of the user interface without modifying the physical renderer. For example, you can modify a presentation model to add a list column in a list applet so that it iterates through list columns and renders them without modifying the physical renderer. This column can reside on the client even if the Siebel Server contains no representation of it.

You can customize at the control level writing plug-in wrappers that govern how a control should appear and behave when a certain set of conditions are satisfied. A check box appearing as a flipswitch on mobile devices is an example of this type of implementation.