Siebel Essentials

...or "- " vs. "->"

If you are a frequent user of Oracle BI Answers, you might find the following rather useful

As you know, presentation tables can be nested or indented to ease navigation. I know you're smiling now and think "why is he bothering me with this kindergarden stuff?".
Of course you know how this is achieved. Let's visit the Administration Tool:

Notice two things here:

First, the stop sign icon, which indicates a Presentation Catalog in the Oracle BI Applications rpd file which you should no longer be using.

Second, the well-known use of the hyphen and space "- " combination in order to achieve the indentation of presentation tables.

Let's label this "Analytics Style" because this is the way it has been done.

Now let's have a look at the new presentation catalog:

We notice that there are no hyphens and spaces, which by the way made some of the presentation tables inaccessible for external systems in the past.

When you open the Properties dialog for an indented presentation table you see how it's done:

Simply type "->" in the Description and the BI Presentation Server will interpret this as the command to render an indented presentation table. The description will render into a tool tip and yes, it does include the "->".

Let's call this "OBI EE Style" and use it from now on.

Happy indenting

"Open the box, open the box!"

Introduced in version 7.7 of Siebel CRM, ADM (Application Deployment Manager) has been significantly enhanced in version 8.0. The purpose of ADM is to assist developers and administrators to deploy changes made to the Siebel Repository, the physical UI files, Actuate report files and – last but not least – the administrative data of a Siebel CRM application from one enterprise (e.g. development) to another (e.g. test).

Version 8.0 of Siebel CRM also introduces the Siebel Management Server and Siebel Management Agent. These java based modules are used for the packaging and deployment of the a/m changes.

This post covers the techniques to automate the ADM packaging process. It mainly focuses on command line utilites which can be invoked as part of a shell script.

1. Initialize the package / create folder structure using admpkgr

The command line utility for ADM packaging is admpkgr. It resides in the <installdir>/mgmtsrvr directory of the Siebel Management Server installation.

For automation purposes, shell scripts can be used similar to the following:

call admpkgr init d:\ousea\mgmtsrvr\adm\packages\xyz_package_01

2. Export database types (administrative data) using srvrmgr

Bookshelf Reference: Application Deployment Manager Guide version 8.0: Creating ADM Deployment Units from Database Types Directly from Command-Line

To automate the export of administrative data objects such as LOVs, Data Maps, Responsibilites and many more (ADM natively supports more than 60 data types in version 8.0), the ADM Batch Processor server component (new in version 8.0) can be used.

Using the ‘start task’ command from a srvrmgr prompt works as expected for the ADM Batch Processor, however some issues have been reported with passing the parameters. Here are two versions to do it. The first one is passing the parameters using the ‘with’ clause. The second is setting the parameters and then restarts the component.

We are using an input file here, so the basic command would be as follows (note the /i switch):

<installdir>\bin\srvrmgr /g <gateway_host> /e <enterprise> /u <username> /p <password> /s <siebel server name> /i "<path_to_inputfile>"

Sample input file for version 1:

start task for comp admbatchproc with admpath=<install_dir>\mgmtsrvr\adm\packages\xyz_package_01\database,admdatatype='EAI Data Map',admfilter='[Name] LIKE "XYZ*"',admeaimethod=synchronize,admprefix=XYZ_EAIDMAP

Sample input file for version 2 (which is safe especially for the admfilter parameter):

shutdown comp admbatchproc
sleep 60
change param admpath=d:\ousea\mgmtsrvr\adm\packages\xyz_package_01\database for comp admbatchproc
change param admdatatype='EAI Data Map' for comp admbatchproc
change param admfilter='[Name] LIKE "XYZ*"' for comp admbatchproc
change param admeaimethod=synchronize for comp admbatchproc
change param admprefix=XYZ_EAIDMAP for comp admbatchproc
startup comp admbatchproc
sleep 20

Here is an explanation of the parameters for admbatchproc:

admpath = Location for resultant export files
admdatatype = Name of Data Type (as in Application Deployment Manager screen)
admfilter = Filter to be applied on the data type. For example, '[List Of Values Parent(UDA).Value]="NM"'
admeaimethod = One of three methods: upsert, synchronize, or custom
admprefix = Prefix for the name of exported XML file

3. Export repository changes using consoleapp.exe

Bookshelf Reference: Application Deployment Manager Guide Version 8.0: “Using Consoleapp.exe to Create Repository Deployment Units”

The command line utility consoleapp.exe (in the Siebel Tools bin directory) can be generically used to invoke business service methods within a Siebel application from the command line (headless, i.e. without rendering a GUI). The ADM framework provides a bunch of business services which are used mainly for reloading the various caches or – in this case – for exporting repository changes.

In a shell script example, one would use consoleapp.exe to call the “Siebel Tools Export Support for ADM” business service as follows to export the “XYZ New Order for Account” Workflow:

<tools_installdir>\bin\consoleapp "<tools_installdir>\bin\enu\tools.cfg" ENU SADMIN <password_for_sadmin> "Siebel Tools Export Support for ADM" "Export:Repository=Siebel Repository,Object_1=XYZ New Order for Account,Type_1=Workflow Process,ExportFile=<install_dir>\mgmtsrvr\adm\packages\xyz_package_01\repository\XYZ_WF_1.sif,DescriptorFile=<install_dir>\mgmtsrvr\adm\packages\xyz_package_01\repository\XYZ_WF_1_des.xml,ExportCount=1,LogFile=d:\temp\adm.log"

If this is your first exposure to consoleapp.exe, it might feel a little weird. Here is the syntax:

consoleapp.exe <configuration_file.cfg> <language> <username> <password> "<business_service_name>" “<business_service_method>:<property1=value1,property2=value2,propertyn=valuen,…>"

An alternative way to use consoleapp.exe according to bookshelf is to use an xml input file. I have not yet had the privilege to test this in real life, however. The syntax is as follows:

consoleapp.exe <configuration_file.cfg> <language> <username> <password> /f inputfile.xml

Caveat: Make sure that the descriptor file name is exactly spelled like the export file name, having .xml (instead of .sif) as the file type and des as the suffix. Example: ExportFile=XYZ_WF_1.sif, DescriptorFile=XYZ_WF_1_des.xml.

4. Export file types using OS utilities

Files, such as web template files (.swt), must also be copied into the respective package directories. Since there is no dedicated utility provided by Oracle, the shell script would refer to classic file copy utilities. The following is an example for Windows xcopy:

#copy all web template files changed since June, 1st 2007 to the webtempl directory
xcopy <tools_installdir>\WEBTEMPL\*.swt <install_dir>\mgmtsrvr\adm\packages\xyz_package_01\file\AppServer\webtempl /D:06-01-2007

5. Delete empty subdirectories using OS utilities

It is best practice to delete empty subdirectories to increase processing time and decrease the amount of warnings during packaging and deployment. This would be accomplished using classic OS utilities. The following is a windows example:

rd <install_dir>\mgmtsrvr\adm\packages\xyz_package_01\File\AppServer\reports\enu

6. Generate the package descriptor file using admpkgr

Now it’s time for admpkgr again. As in step 1, it can be used in a shell script with the ‘generate’ option as follows:

call admpkgr generate <install_dir>\mgmtsrvr\adm\packages\xyz_package_01

7. Validate the package using admpkgr

Here is a windows example how to call admpkgr from a shell script and direct the output to a log file:

call admpkgr validate <install_dir>\mgmtsrvr\adm\packages\xyz_package_01 >> "d:\temp\admpkgr_out.txt"

Summary

The ADM packaging process is multifold, and various command line tools come into play when you want to automate it, namely admpkgr, srvrmgr, consoleapp.exe and OS file system manipulation tools.

Here I go again

If you have been involved in Siebel CRM projects over the past years, you might have come across some business analyst who mentioned the Siebel Business Process Solution Library (BPSL), which has been released as part of the strong business process strategy together with Siebel CRM version 7.5 in 2002.

Teaching the approach to analyze your business processes and align them with the out of the box functionality BEFORE you start customizing the hell out of your CRM app during the Business Analyst courses*, Siebel instructors all over the world were challenged to position the library NOT as a complete encyclopedia of all business processes that you can do in Siebel applications. To be honest, this would be a ridiculously small library given the vast functionality of Siebel CRM.

However, the BPSL has had a rich (including integration with Corel iGrafx and IBM Rational Requisite) but also difficult past and finally has emerged again on metalink3, Oracle's support portal for Siebel CRM customers. So if you have access to metalink3, you also have access to the link below.

Link to BPSL on metalink3 (credentials needed)

*Note: The current Business Analyst training does not teach the BPSL.

get trained

So you have to get up to speed with Oracle BI EE 10g (formerly known as Siebel Analytics) and don't know where to start?

click to enlarge

General Overview, Architecture of Oracle BI EE 10g:
Oracle BI 10g: Analytics Overview (1 day)

Oracle Answers, Dashboards, Delivers, BI Office, Briefing Books, Presentation Server:
Oracle BI Suite EE 10g R3: Create Reports and Dashboards (3 days)
Allows to certify as Siebel 7.7 Analytics Application Developer Professional

Oracle BI Publisher (formerly known as XML Publisher):
Oracle BI Publisher 10g: Fundamentals (3 days)

Oracle BI Administration Tool, BI Server:
Oracle BI Suite EE 10g R3: Build Repositories (5 days)
Allows to certify as Siebel 7.7 Analytics Server Architect Professional

Oracle BI Applications, Pre-built ETL, DAC Server, Informatica Repository:
Oracle BI Applications 7.9: Develop a Data Warehouse (5 days)
Allows to certify as Siebel 7.7 Data Warehouse Developer Professional

Siebel CRM Marketing Enterprise (Uses Integration with Oracle BI EE 10g):
Marketing Manager (Siebel 7.7) - User perspective (2 days)
Marketing: Server Architect (Siebel 7.7) - Administrator perspective (3 days)

Siebel Pharma Analytics, Disconnected Analytics:
Pharma Analytics (Siebel 7.8) (2 days)

Real-Time Decisions (RTD):
Oracle BI 10g: Real-Time Decisions (RTD) for Developers (3 days)

These courses are offered worldwide as instructor-led classroom trainings or as live virtual classes via the internet.

If you feel that 27 days of training is not enough (or too expensive ;-) there is another possibility to quickly get to grips with the one or the other Oracle Product. This is the online tutorial offering at the Oracle Technology Network.

The tutorials on Oracle BI are free of charge as all the other tutorials that you find there.

Happy learning

@lex