Workspace issues in Siebel 20.3

Hi there ! Long time, no post, no see, eh ? As it turns out, a pandemic filled year leaves one no free time. 

After losing track in lower versions of the trusted Siebel CRM , I have now had the chance to work on an upgraded version. Siebel 20.3. Work started earlier this year, with a massive upgrade on my customer's systems.

And I must say, I am impressed. But also frustrated. 

The new workspace system fixes some of the issues in an earlier checkin/checkout system, but it opens up a whole bunch of new ones.

Like, you have to choose which workspace to merge into, at the time of creation, not at the time of delivery. Strange.

Also, you can't checkin the same workspace to more than one delivery branch. The only way I know to do this is to take SIF backups, and check them into a new workspace under a different branch.

But the one that frustrates the most...is that...there are still some tools objects that do not stay inside workspaces. 

Like Tasks. Of the famous Task Based UIs.

And ...get this...Tables !

These two objects, when modified, or created, immediately get delivered to the main branch !!

Currently, the following object types and their child objects remain as non-workspace objects:
    Table
    Dock Object
    EIM Interface Table
    Repository
    Workflow Policy Column
    Workflow Policy Object
    Workflow Policy Program
    Task
    Task Group
    Project

Now, I am on 20.3 version, so some of these might have been fixed on a newer version. But we are going to be on this version for a while longer so...

...need more coffee.

The awesome EAI Transaction Service

 

After I finally got to leave the ‘Siebel ecosystem’, I had to return as that was indeed my core competency. And because there are places were Siebel is still awesome.

Like, the concept of a Webservice transaction in Siebel session. I am yet to see other systems implement it.

Siebel provides an awesome business service called ‘EAI Transaction Service’.  It has two methods , BeginTransaction, and EndTransaction. Like the name denotes, you mark the beginning of the your webservice transaction , and then proceed to use ‘EAI Siebel Adapter’ to make your updates, and finally commit everyting with the EndTransaction method.

Nothing gets committed to the system until you End the transaction successfully.

On commit, the last updated date and time on the objects is correctly preserved.

Now, the truly awesome thing. Although the documentation mentions use of Siebel EAI services, any update can be done in the transaction, and they all will be treated the same way.

It works for scripting !

It works of Workflow updates as well.

So if you use a script to update a record, that update also will be commited only if the EndTransaction method is invoked successfully.

 

Otherwise, everything gets rolled back.

In other words, you don’t have to be doing EAI work in Siebel to use this BS. You can use it wherever you need to rollback changes in case something does not work out well. Doc ID 1293943.1

 

 

If only we could rollback our own mistakes in life like that .

Hard sell

 

Been hearing some stories about Oracle's power plays here in Australia. It seems they are strong arming existing customers to force them to move directly into their cloud offerings.

And it is not even cheap. Instead of a direct upgrade of any on-premise siebel installation, they are trying to sell my current client their CX cloud offering. With a total cost of 10 million over 5 years ! 4 million per annum for CX cloud !

This is a hard sell. Specially looking at other alternatives in the market.

So it was no surprise there, when we unanimously threw that option out of the window.

So now, back to  Siebel On-Premise for now.

 

OpenUI , I get it now

 

After years of questioning it , I am starting to understand the reason why people are crazy about OpenUI.  For decades, the crude activex based frontend was a big pain area in Siebel. Customers were always using an older, outdated version of Internet Explorer for Siebel CRM, because the latest version never supported it. There was also that crazy 32bit, 64bit IE version problem.

So when the move to a open standards based frontend was announced, it was welcomed with open arms. No more IE. Any browser, any device. But  then started the crazy ideas, crazy configurations, outrageous themes. People started implementing all their business processes purely in OpenUI ! I have stayed away fro this kind of work, for a long time.

But for the past 6 months, I have been working on pure OpenUI requirements. For integration. Yes, Siebel EAI integrations triggered from OpenUI ! Only reason I agreed to it, was because that was exactly what my customer wanted. And the challenge was too sweet to ignore. Javascript is a horrible language, but with OpenUI, it opens up possibilites endless.  Whatever restriciton Siebel puts up to you, can be bypassed in Javascript. I was able to implement a purely asynchronous VBC like applet in OpenUI, something which is not possible using traditional Siebel code.

But OpenUI works poses its own challenges. Unlike tools, there is no object locking system, so better have some kind of CVS in place  if you have multiple people working on OpeUI files. Also, test in every browser. Do not assume that IE or Edge will honour the code the same way Firefox does. Test your code specially with the  Show More button on the applet (tip),  because Show More has lots of issues in OpenUI.

And finally, Siebel still provides the best architecture for a CRM system. Try to implement whatever you can OOB, and OpenUI should be the last option. Unless you want to get into maintenance hell.

 

Back to Siebel

After about 2 years of getting lost in various Oracle clouds, I am finally back to the Siebel game. Right on the latest version, Siebel IP 2016. Open UI. Yup, that’s there. And on a telecom project with tonnes of EAI integration and Order Management. And now I truly see why Siebel cannot be fully replaced. Until a worthy contender and full cloud replacement comes in, these kind of projects can only be implemented in Siebel.

I’ve come to understand that Oracle Cloud is a joke. At least for the time being, it can only be used for medium sized companies who have standard sales and service business processes. The amount of extensibility available is very less. And although one can write their own customization on Oracle PaaS and Java Clouds, that kind of beats the purpose anyway. The whole point of modern cloud is to reduce the amount of code written.

I’m hoping to ride out this last wave of Siebel projects before I too am forced to move to the cloud for good. 

For the time being, it’s good to be back. Happy New Year !

Importing WSDLs with cyclic references into Siebel

Siebel has some issues consuming WSDLs which had a little complicated schema structure. Like cyclic references. That is when one of the children elements of a complextype is the same complextype again.

In this example schema, element "LineItemARBOType" has a child of type "LineItemARBOType" again.

cleartext.blogspot.com

This WSDLs poses no problem when consumed into a programming language like .NET or Java, because the parser simply creates a class and references itself in it. But these kind of WSDLs were not supported in Siebel. Trying to import a WSDL with cyclic references would result in this error from tools.:

There are no web service definitions to be generated.(SBL-EAI-04340)
Following are warnings generated in the process:
Service 'xx' can not be imported, because none of its ports could be imported.(SBL-EAI-04333)
Port 'xx' can not be imported. PortType 'xx' can not be imported. The http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/:operation 'xx' was ignored. Error importing XML schema via method 'xx' for 'element' 'xx' in 'xx'(SBL-EAI-08009)
Cycle detected in the 'xx' schema: xx 'xx' has a cycle (SBL-EAI-09008).
(SBL-EAI-04331).

But turns out, Oracle has fixed this issue in IP2014 (8.1.1.14) release of Siebel. Via bug:Bug 10539615. WSDLs with cyclic references can be consumed into tools IP2014 and upwards. But it creates hundred of integration component entries (sometimes even thousands).

cleartext.blogspot.com

Oracle Sales Cloud: Getting around OSC’s WSDL parsing , Siebel UCM

 

Recently working on getting Oracle Sales Cloud integrated to Siebel UCM for Accounts. Oracle Sales Cloud can read a WSDL specification from a URL, but you still have to build the request message using Groovy script (would be nice to shoot whoever designed this). So you have to use Groovy script and write a global function to build up the message. Turns out, you can only add elements and attributes to the message which is already in the parsed WSDL. Nothing new can be added. © 2016 cleartext.blogspot.com

The problem here is that for integrations to Siebel UCM, a hidden attribute named ExternalSystemId has to be populated in the incoming message. This attribute is not in the WSDL when it gets generated from Siebel UCM. But it has to be sent in the SOAP request (would also be nice to shoot whoever designed this).  © 2016 cleartext.blogspot.com

Error invoking service 'UCM Transaction Manager', method 'SOAPExecute' at step 'Transaction Manager'.(SBL-BPR-00162)
--
<?> Failed to find ExternalSystemId in input message(SBL-IAI-00436)

 

This is what you get when you consume the UCM WSDL in SOAP UI.

The actual message has to be (see highlighted changes) © 2016 cleartext.blogspot.com

 

If you add the groovy script to add this attribute, OSC will simply ignore it, and the attribute is not send to UCM. The only viable workaround is to Edit the WSDL AFTER it is generated, but BEFORE it is given to Sales Cloud !  © 2016 cleartext.blogspot.com

1: Generate the WSDL from UCM.

2: Open it in an XML editor , use XMLSPY if you have it. © 2016 cleartext.blogspot.com

3: Find the definition of the top container element int the WSDL: © 2016 cleartext.blogspot.com

4: Add this text (highlighted) : © 2016 cleartext.blogspot.com

<xsd:attribute name="ExternalSystemId" type="xsd:string"/>

5: Now validate, save and upload this WSDL to your public folder from where OSC can read it. OSC does not consume WSDLs, but reads the definition on the fly. © 2016 cleartext.blogspot.com

6: Now add the groovy script to populate this new attribute with the registered SystemId Name.

 

Phew !!

© 2016 cleartext.blogspot.com© 2016 cleartext.blogspot.com

Siebel and Stackoverflow woes

 

Ok, we are nearing the end of another year, and there's one more month till Christmas. I have now fully moved out of Siebel, and embraced the new family of Oracle Fusion cloud applications. But I do keep track of what happens in the Siebel world. If things finally start to fix themselves (that would be a big miracle), Siebel might make a come back. I am a member of various forums where they track Siebel queries, and one of them is stackoverflow. In some of my previous organizations, I could not even access this site, due to firewall restrictions, but time and again the resources on the site have helped my own project problems. Though I have not yet asked any question on the site, just answered other's queries, and read what other's have left there. I have not asked direct questions because I want to solve my problems in my own capacity, Maybe its my ego, but I won't put up my requirement on the page and wait for some one else to solve it for me at no cost at all.

But that hasn't stopped others. And following the questions on the site gives you a good idea of what issues other Siebel developers are struggling with. At the moment of writing, these are the stats on the Siebel tag at stackoverflow.

Two years ago, there was a lot of activity around this tag, people were actively asking for and receiving help, the range of topics was wide. Here is a screenshot of the site from the waybackmachine from the start of this year.

Yep, back then, all questions were answered and there was more activity. But now the tag attracts weird questions mainly from css and jquery , because Siebel now uses OpenUI. There appears to be a bunch of noobs with only some basic Siebel training, who visit the site to mainly put up their own requirements, then wait patiently for someone else to solve it for them.

Like this guy:

Or this classical one which is a link issue, and  which is even documented supportweb.

Clearly, the Siebel pool of resources is decreasing in size. And its the same trend everywhere. Well, Siebel was always closed technology, at times the only place you could get help was on the Siebel support centre, specially about 10 years ago.

Others too have noticed the decline of activity on IT Toolbox and have created a new Siebel page on Slack.  Good old Neel of SiebelUnleashed fame too has abandoned ship. In a very candid and frank interview, he clearly speaks out the writing which has been on the wall for years.

 

"Siebel jobs are going to be there for a long time but unfortunately I don't see many new implementation of Siebel."

"People are sticking to Siebel either because they are heavily invested or they believe other products don't offer what they need."

 

So I am still (and thousands more) waiting for that miracle to bring Siebel consultants back in demand.

Anyway, back to Stackoverflow. I was pondering on these questions when I ran into a fantastic article about how stackoverflow may be the best and worst part of programming today. According to their stats, only 27% of question remain unanswered.

 

Siebel IP 2016 - No More High Interactivity

 

This is from Siebel Innovation Pack 2016: Client Platform Support - Statement of Direction (Doc ID 2017902.1)

 

 

Also it adds:

 

Siebel BIP Performance Tuning

 

1) Increasing the amount of heap memory available to the Java Virtual Machine (JVM)

Increasing the memory available to the JVM can improve the performance of the report generation and ensure that this error is not encountered.

"C:\OraHome_1\jdk\bin\java" -XX:MaxPermSize=128m -Xms512m -Xmx512m -Duser.language=en -Duser.dir=C:\OraHome_1\oc4j_bi\bin -Duser.country=US -jar "%OC4J_JAR%" %CMDARGS%

OS

Memory Value

Windows (32-Bit)

Any value of up to 1.4GB (based on available RAM)

Windows (64-Bit)   

1.4 GB or higher (based on available RAM

2) Changing the Server Request Processor DB Polling Interval

By decreasing the polling interval the Server Request Processor can check the S_SRM_REQUEST table more regularly thereby reducing the period before the request processing is started. Once the change has been made it is necessary to shutdown and restart the affected Siebel Server before the change will take effect.It is recommended that this change be made only on the Siebel Servers hosting the XMLPReportServer component as this change will result in an increased number of queries being issued against the S_SRM_REQUEST table in the database.

change param PollIntvl=1 for comp SRProc

3) Minimize the size of Integration Objects/Components

An excessive number of unrequired fields in the report will lead to increased data generation times from the XMLPReportServer component and will result in an increased data file size for BI Publisher to process.

4) Minimal Force Active fields on  BC-

Ensuring that a minimal number of fields are flagged as Force Active will help to ensure that the number of fields being returned when querying against the Integration Component for report generation is further reduced.

5) XMLPReportServer PreloadSRF parameter to TRUE

Prelolading the SRF into the process ensures that any performance overhead during the SRF load is encountered during component startup and not during report processing. This parameter is listed under Advanced tab.

6) Inactive Web Services not used in Enterprise

Due to Bug 10587893 at present the component will load all of the active webservices configured in the enterprise rather than just those which it may access, such as PublicReportService or PublicReportService_v11. This leads to a performance overhead during the first report request for any process as these can take a significant period of time to load. In order to reduce the impact of this loading process review the webservices configured as 'Active' in the Siebel Enterprise through the Administration - WebServices > Outbound Webservices and Inbound Webservices views.  Set any webservices which are not used in the enterprise to 'Inactive'..

7) Minimize logging levels on all report generation components

This will include the requesting Object Manager, the XMLPReportServer component, the EAI Object Manager, the File System Manager component, and the BI Publisher Server itself.

8) Eliminate any un-necessary scripting during report generation

 

9) Create Separate Named Datasource For Siebel BI Publisher Reports With Large Data Volume

Generating Large Reports (over 10,000 records) - When running report generation there may be scenarios in which more than 10,000 records need to be retrieved. The standard ServerDataSrc within the Siebel Enterprise has a row limit of 10,000 for any single query and therefore in order to support large report generation a custom data source is required without this restriction.

IP 2014 - Aurora theme

 

 

This is my reaction on seeing the new Aurora theme in Siebel IP 2014.

Siebel Quizzes !

 

If you haven't already checked out SiebelHub.com, I suggest you head there right now. Specially their Quiz section. Its the best place to brush up your brain cells, and learn of the latest happening in the Siebel world. You will need a linkedin account to participate.

Good Luck Quizzing !

On Siebel Tools Wizards

 

The other day I was debugging a business component configuration to identify the cause of wrong data appearing in the UI, as well as a degradation in performance. After spooling the SQL, I found the reason was that some Multi-Value-Fields were configured incorrectly. I showed the developer an easier and more accurate way of doing configuring MVFs, turns out he or no-one in the team knew about Siebel Tool's many wizards.

 

To add an MVF to , say the Service Request BC:

1: Lock the BusComp, and right click.

 

2: Choose the "New MVG" option from the menu:

3: Now you just need to follow the Wizard. Enter the Detail Business Component name and name for the MVL:

4: The link has to be configured ahead and should be available in the next screen. Here I am adding a BusComp for BIP reporting purpose. There is a small bug in this Wizard, it shows the caption of Link's SearchSpec and SortSpec are swapped. so that Sortspec is actually the link searchspec.

If there is no direct link between the entities, the Wizard will allow you to use indirect links, where you have to specify the Source field from the Master Business Component

 

5: The next screen is the most important, it allows setting of Primary options in the MVL:

6: Further configuration in the link, since this is a reporting link, I have made it read only by setting NoInsert,NoUpdate and NoDelete to true.

7: Now the MVL is configured, you can start configuring which all fields from the Detail Business Component should appear in the Master Business Component, in this case, Service Request:

8: That's it !

9: On Clicking Finish, Tools will start another Wizard to help you configure the MVG applets. After the first screen , the rest is similar to the Applet Wizard.

 

 

 

 

When I need to find in which applets a certain field is exposed, I use the similar PickList Wizard to find that out quickly.

1: For instance, to see all applets where the "Abstract" field of Service Request BC is exposed, simply right click on the field and choose "Add Picklist"

 

2:  The first screen of the Wizard shows all the applets where this field is exposed:

3: Nope, the list cannot be exposed from the wizard, you can only see the applet names. But if there are too many applets, I use Sys Exporter (that's a bad name for useful software) to export out the list into CSV:

 

There are rumours that in future releases, Oracle might remove Siebel Tools completely, I just hope they retain all those wizards to speedup development.

Siebel public facing applications SSL SHA1 – SHA 2 encryption message changes

 

Microsoft and Google announced SHA-1 deprecation plans that may affect websites with SHA-1 certificates expiring as early as after December 31, 2015.

As per oracle there is no plan to support SHA-2 before 2016 that is Innovation pack 2015.

According to Google’s blog on “Gradually Sunsetting SHA-1”, Chrome version 39 and later will display visual security indicators on sites with SHA-1 SSL certificates with validity beyond January 1, 2016. The production release of Chrome 39 is expected to be in November, 2014. The sites will be treated with one of the following indicators: “secure, but with minor errors” (lock with yellow triangle), “neutral, lacking security” (blank page icon) and “affirmative insecure” (lock with a red X). In order to prevent online users on Chrome version 39 and later from experiencing these indicators, SHA-1 SSL certificates expiring after December 31, 2015 must be replaced with SHA-256 (SHA-2) certificates.

Microsoft’s SHA-1 deprecation plan differs in the activation time and browser behavior. Microsoft’s security advisory on “Deprecation of SHA-1 Hashing Algorithm for Microsoft Root Certificate Program” informed us that Windows will cease accepting SHA-1 SSL certificates on January 1, 2017. To continue to work with Microsoft platforms, all SHA-1 SSL certificates issued before or after this announcement must be replaced with a SHA-2 equivalent by January 1, 2017.

 

https://www.symantec.com/page.jsp?id=sha2-transition

http://blog.chromium.org/2014/09/gradually-sunsetting-sha-1.html

https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/2880823

Quote Catalog not Loading

 

We faced a peculiar issue on the Quote Catalog view , Siebel version 8.1.1.11 SIA [23030].

When users went to the Quote Catalog view, which is where one starts adding products to the quote for the Pricing Engine, they noticed the Catalog did not load. This happened usually on the the first quote after login.

But once the Price List of the Quote was selected, or reselected, and the view was refreshed, the Catalog Items would start appearing.

The Business Component is [Quote Catalog Internal Product by Price List Optional] and it has a user property [SetPriceListSearch] set to ‘Y’. A simple search brings the bookshelf where it is mentioned that

‘This user property indicates whether the [Price List Id] = GetProfileAttr("PriceListId") search specification is applied to the business component. By default, it is set to Y, so only products in the current price list are displayed.’

Turns out, this is one of those many vanilla Profile Attributes managed by Siebel itself. It is set  to the Quote’s Price List’s Id when a Price List value is selected in the Quote. Otherwise, it is blank.

Try out this in the browser ui: javascript:alert(theApplication().GetProfileAttr("PriceListId"));

So the issue happens only for the first Quote selected by the user after login, if he has not changed the PriceList value of the Quote. The profile attribute is not set, even if there is already a Price List value at the Quote.

Inorder to fix this, I added a simple RunTimeEvent on the QuoteForm applets’ DisplayApplet event.

 

Action Set:

This would set the value of this ProfileAttribute when the Quote applet is loaded. With this fix in place, the Catalog items now appear correctly.

Trying out : javascript:alert(theApplication().GetProfileAttr("PriceListId"));

The other way to fix this is to disable the BC User property, so that items from every Price list is visible. But this would depend on your business use case.

Oracle’s letter to Siebel Customers

 

Oracle today sent out this e-mail to their Siebel Customers.

 

Siebel Log files - Top Errors

 

I am working on a brand new Siebel implementation, and we are seeing a lot of errors..Really. Huge log files with repeating errors on them. If you increase the Siebel component logging to maximum, Siebel will spit out Warnings to Errors, and everything in between. It becomes difficult to find out where the actual problem is.

I figured one way is to find out the most commonly occurring errors. Fortunately, we are on a Linux server system. So a little bit of googling, and using linux’s many commands solved the problem.

Running this command in the ses/siebsrvr/enterprises/*/logs folder prints the top occuring errors in the last 10 log files in reverse order:

grep "SBL-" `ls –tr *.log | tail -10`   | grep -v "Warning" | grep -v ".spf" | grep -v 'err=' | cut -f 6-10 | uniq -c | sort  –n

Here is a screenshot of errors for me. The command ignores Siebel Warnings, and errors related to .spf files, and also some errors from source files.

Hope it helps !

And what about Windows you ask ? Well, Windows guys are on their own. You can download windows ports of Unix commands.

BIP - Siebel functions

 

If you use Siebel functions in your BIP reports for date conversion, you will get “class-not-found” errors during your report generation.

 

 

The fix for this is to point BIP to the path where your Siebel JARs are installed.

In your Work designer: Go to Addins-> Tools –> Options, and add a the path to the Java option field, under Preview.

For me, Siebel is installed on D drive.

-Xmx256M  -Xbootclasspath/a:D:\Siebel\8.1\Tools_1\CLASSES\SiebelXMLP.jar;D:\Siebel\8.1\Tools_1\CLASSES\XMLP.jar;D:\Siebel\8.1\Tools_1\CLASSES\siebel.jar;D:\Siebel\8.1\Tools_1\CLASSES\XSLFunctions.jar;D:\Siebel\8.1\Tools_1\CLASSES\SiebelCustomXMLP.jar;D:\Siebel\8.1\Tools_1\CLASSES\SiebelCustomXMLP_SIA.jar

 

Take a shot at the Siebel 20th Anniversary Quiz

 

The good folks at On-Demand education have setup an online Quiz to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of Siebel. There competition seems fierce, till last week I saw only 30 names on the leaderboard, now it’s double that.  The questions are from everywhere, technical and functional Siebel thingies and some history.  You can find some of the answers of the questions on @lex’s awesome Siebel site, and he was involved in setting up of the questions.

The page is still open, but the correct answers are not disclosed. So go ahead and give it a try !

Siebel Anniversary Quiz

Inbound E-mail Database Operations - Does not Validate Picklists

 

The “Inbound E-mail Database Operations” vanilla business service is a favorite with Siebel developers, it is used when Siebel’s rules regarding business objects comes in the way of your actual business requirement. It can be used to modify records into any Business Component under a business object different from your workflow’s BO. But I recently found an issue in its working when there are bounded picklists involved. Usually when one tries to set a value to a picklist field, and the picklist is configured as bounded, Siebel throws up a validation error saying the value cannot be found in the bounded picklist….. In the case of Inbound E-mail BS, the error is not thrown ie, an exception is not caused. Try this out on your Siebel installation.

The business component Action has a field “Type”, which has a predefault and a bounded picklist.

The picklist is bounded

Now I use the Business Service Simulator view to use the Inbound E-Mail BS’s InsertRecord method to insert an acitivity record.

I have set a incorrect value for all three picklist fields, the values are simply not present in the vanilla LOV system. When the simulation is run, we expect Siebel to throw up a picklist validation exception. Instead, we get a success message and an Activity is created.

Instead of taking the wrong value we provided, Siebel has taken the predefault value directly. If the input value was a valid one, Siebel creates the record correctly.

We had an automation workflow which received inputs from Inbound XML to create an activity, and when the values in the incoming XML were wrong, the activities were still getting created without validation errors.  The solution we implemented was to add a validation step in the workflow to ensure the records had correct, validated values.

If you are using this BS in your project, do check if the possibility of this error occuring in your business flow.