1. Configuring Siebel Business Applications
  2. Guidelines for Overloading a Table

Guidelines for Overloading a Table

You might overload a table if you reuse it multiple times on different business components, and if each business component includes a search specification in a Type field. For example, if you use the S_EVT_ACT table to store regular activities, audit logs, error logs, messages, EAI logs, and so on.

If you overload a table, then to prevent Siebel CRM from display data from one business component in another business component, it is often necessary to add a search specification that queries a Type field.

Overloading a table can cause the following problems:

  • The search specification that Siebel CRM uses to type the table into various business components might cause performance problems. Siebel CRM might not design the table to be overloaded. For example, it often uses the TODO_CD column of the S_EVT_ACT table to set the type of the table. Siebel CRM does not denormalize this table on to the S_ACT_EMP intersection table for activities and employees. A query that uses the sales representative visibility against a business component that references the S_EVT_ACT table might result in poor performance.

  • No guarantee exists that adding indexes against these type columns will resolve a performance problem because adding an index might compromise performance elsewhere. The fact that Siebel CRM might not denormalize a type column onto a position, employee, or organization intersection table might affect a query in some views.

  • Overloading a table increases the table size.

For more information, see Options to Filter Data That Siebel CRM Displays in an Applet.

Oracle Designs Some Tables to Be Overloaded

Oracle designs some tables in the Siebel schema to be overloaded. For example, the S_ASSET table uses the TYPE_CD column to set the type for various business components. Oracle denormalizes and indexes this column onto the S_ASSET_POSTN and S_ASSET_BU intersection tables to improve performance in SalesRep and Organization visibility views. Some XM tables, such as S_ORG_EXT_XM, are designed to be overloaded.