About the Siebel Design Repository

The Siebel Design Repository is the traditional repository that has always been part of Siebel CRM. It contains editable metadata that defines application behavior. It is used make modifications to the delivered Siebel CRM applications.

To configure these modifications, you make changes to the Siebel Design Repository by using either one, or both, of the following tools:

• Siebel Web Tools. This allows configuration of repository objects within a Web browser.

• Siebel Tools. This allows any functionality that has not yet been moved to Siebel Web Tools. Developers usually perform this level of configuration. Eventually, all functionality remaining in Siebel Tools will be migrated to and only available in Siebel Web Tools.

The Siebel Design Repository consists of a hierarchical set of objects. For more information, see Siebel Object Types Reference, but let’s consider some simple examples:

• Table Objects. Describe the physical tables in which data is stored. Table objects and their child objects are often referred to as the data layer.

  • Column Objects. Describe the individual data attributes within those tables.

  • Index Objects. Describe database indices used for optimization, uniqueness, or performance.

• Business Component Objects. Provide an abstraction layer on top of the data layer. These are often referred to as part of the business layer that helps define relationships between data as well as business rules affecting that data. This allows for far more complexity than you define at the database layer.

  • Field Objects. Describe data elements and basic validation rules, for example, which fields are required, numeric, read-only, and so on.

  • Join and Multivalue Link Objects. Define relationships between objects, for example, a Contact object can have many Address objects.

• Applet Objects. Provide a visual representation of a business component so that a user can interact with it, and can then form part of the user interface layer.

  • Control Objects. Define the possible items that can appear on the applet, for example, buttons, labels, fields, menus, and so on.

  • Web Templates. Provide possible physical layouts for the applet, that is, specifying controls and their corresponding locations.

There are 50 top-level repository object types, many of which have child objects as described in the previous examples. By default, only the most commonly used object types (for example, Applet, Application, Business Component, Business Object, Business Service, Task, View, Workflow Process, and so on) are displayed in Siebel Tools and Siebel Web Tools, as illustrated in the following image.

To expose or remove object types from being available, do one of the following:

• Siebel Web Tools. Click the pencil icon.

• Siebel Tools. Click Options, then Object Explorer in the View menu.