1. Siebel Applications Administration Guide
  2. What’s New in This Release

25Integration Using ASIs

Integration Using ASIs

This chapter includes information about administering iHelp. It includes the following topics:

About ASIs

ASIs allow you to integrate Siebel Business Applications with other applications in real time. For general information about ASIs, see Siebel Application Services Interface Reference.

The Accounts, Contacts, or Households screens use ASIs to exchange data with any external application such as a back-office application. The following information lists these ASIs. You must set up these ASIs shipped with your Siebel application before they can be used. This chapter provides the procedures that you must perform to set up these ASIs. Depending on your business needs, you might choose to set up ASIs and activate workflows for some or all of the GUI commands listed in the following table.

Table ASIs for Accounts, Contacts, and Households

Screen GUI Command Workflow Outbound and Inbound ASI Pairs

Accounts

Update External System

Synchronize Account ASI

External Account

Siebel Account

Accounts (Credit Profile view)

Refresh

Get Account ASI

Contacts

Update External System

Synchronize Contact ASI

External Contact

Siebel Contact

Households

Update External System

Synchronize Household ASI

External Household

Siebel Household

Setting Up Account, Contact, and Household ASIs

To set up the prebuilt ASIs for Accounts, Contacts, and Households, perform the following tasks:

  1. Setting Up Web Services for Account, Contact, and Household ASIs

  2. Activating Workflows for Account, Contact, and Household ASIs

Other tasks you might want to perform include:

  • Extending ASIs. For more information, see Siebel Application Services Interface Reference.

  • Deactivating fields in the ASIs. For more information, see Siebel Application Services Interface Reference.

  • Customizing ASI workflows. For more information, see Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide.

    Setting Up Web Services for Account, Contact, and Household ASIs

    To set up the Web services, you must set up both outbound and inbound Web services for the ASIs. The procedures that follow show you the steps required for each ASI.

      Setting Up Outbound Web Services

      Complete the following procedure to set up an outbound Web service.

      To set up an outbound Web service

      1. Navigate to the Administration - Web Services screen, then the Outbound Web Services view.

      2. In the Outbound Web Services list, query to display the record with External Account, External Contact, or External Household in the Name field.

      3. Verify that the fields in the Outbound Web Services list match those in the following table.

        Namespace Name Status

        http://siebel.com/asi/

        One of the following:

        External Account

        External Contact

        External Household

        Active

      4. In the Service Ports list, create a new record, and complete the fields in the following table.

        Field Comments

        Name

        Type a name for the port.

        Service Display Name

        Select External Account, External Contact, or External Household.

        Transport

        Select a value from the drop-down list.

        Address

        Displays a template address when you select a transport. Edit the address to which to send the data.

        Binding

        Select SOAP_RPC if a SOAP header is expected by the receiving application.

        Setting Up Inbound Web Services

        Complete the following procedure to set up an inbound Web service.

        To set up an inbound Web service

        1. Navigate to the Administration - Web Services screen, then the Inbound Web Services view.

        2. In the Inbound Web Service list, query to display the record with Siebel Account, Siebel Contact, or Siebel Household in the Name field.

        3. Verify that the fields in the Inbound Web Services list match those in the following table.

          Namespace Name Status

          http://siebel.com/asi/

          One of the following:

          Siebel Account

          Siebel Contact

          Siebel Household

          Active

        4. In the Service Ports list, review the information in the fields for the service port and make any changes required for your Siebel application.

        5. In the Operations list, review the information and make any changes required for your Siebel application.

          Activating Workflows for Account, Contact, and Household ASIs

          The following workflow processes are used for real-time integration of account, contact and household data:

          • Synchronize Account ASI

          • Get Account ASI

          • Synchronize Contact ASI

          • Synchronize Household ASI

          You must activate these workflows. For information about activating workflows used by Account, Contact, and Household ASIs, see Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide. For a description of these workflows, see ASI Workflow Descriptions.

            ASI Workflow Descriptions

            This topic describes the workflow processes that are used to invoke the ASIs for account processes.

            It is not necessary to modify these workflows, but you can modify them to suit your business model.

              Synchronize Account ASI

              This workflow submits the account information to the outside application to synchronize the information between the current and outside application.

              • Query For Account By ID. Queries for the account on the current application using the object ID. Returns an account property set containing the account information.

              • External Account Proxy. Calls the Synchronize method on the outside application, passing in the account property set. This step returns an account property set, which contains any changes the outside application made to the account.

              • Synchronize Account. Takes the account property set returned by the previous step and synchronizes it with the account in the current application.

                Synchronize Contact ASI

                The Synchronize Contact ASI process is essentially the same as the Synchronize Account ASI process, except that contact replaces account.

                  Synchronize Household ASI

                  The Synchronize Household ASI process is essentially the same as the Synchronize Account ASI process, except that household replaces account.

                    Get Account ASI

                    This workflow queries the outside application to retrieve the latest information about the account. It returns the new information and synchronizes the account on the current application.

                    • Query Account By ID. Queries for the account on the current application using the object ID. Returns an account property set containing the account information.

                    • Isolate Integration ID. In the next step, the workflow uses a query by example. Query by example takes the property set and looks for an account with exactly the same values for the fields in the property set. If the account has changed on the outside application, then those values no longer match. The workflow must query by a value that does not change (the integration ID). Isolate Integration Id takes in a property set and removes all the fields, except the integration ID.

                    • External Account Proxy. Using the property set, which has only an integration ID now, this step queries by example on the outside applications. After it finds the account with that integration ID, it returns an account property set containing the account information.

                    • Synchronize Account. Takes the account property set returned by the previous step and synchronizes it with the account in the current application.