Server Script Run for Each Client

Scripting on server side events, also known as server script, runs inside the Siebel Object Manager. This means where the server script runs depends upon where the Siebel Object Manager runs. This varies for different types of architecture, as follows:
Siebel Web Client
In both High Interactivity and Standard Interactivity modes, the Siebel Web Client connects to the Siebel Web Server, then to the Siebel Server. The Siebel Web Client uses the Object Manager residing in the Siebel Server to support its functionality. In this circumstance, the server script runs on the Siebel Server.
Siebel Dedicated Web Client and Siebel Mobile Web Client
The Siebel Dedicated Web Client and Siebel Mobile Web Client run a local version of the Application Object Manager on the machine where the client resides. In this circumstance, the server script runs in the client machine.
Impact on Scripting
The awareness of the above differences is critical for scripting, especially when the script accesses environment-specific references, components, or data sources. For example:
If the server is on a UNIX operating system, the server script running on it must be written in eScript, because there is no Siebel VB script engine on the UNIX environment.
When using server script to directly access files, the awareness of your local file system is very important, since different machines may have a different file system hierarchy and different file access permissions.
Using COM objects to access external applications is a common practice on server script, but it is not possible if the server script runs on a UNIX platform.

Index

Although the best performance improvement can be seen when a column has an index created on it. However, care must be taken while deciding whether to create an index or not. Below are some of the tips to decide,
When To Create an Index
When you have large table
When the table is mainly used for queries
When you generally query the table for one or few distinct values
When large number of NULLs are in the column
When Not To Create An Index
When you have small table
When users make DML (Data Manipulation Language) changes to the table frequently
When your query results contain substantial portions of the data the table actually stores
When table is updated frequently

Profile Attributtes

Profile Attributes I stumbled upon them in siebel when I was working on my first assignment involving Siebel EAI. Till that time I had only used and heard of Global Variables which you could use throught out your script.But as the requirement said only if user clicked a button in View A and then performed some particular action in View B trigger a workflow.As views involved had different BC's it was not possible to have done through global variables. Then my senior colluege introduced me to a new entity in siebel called 'Profile Attributes'. They are important because they have a unique property. They are available throughout the application. The best term that comes to my mind to describe them is 'Session Variables'. Those who have worked a little bit on development of Web Application will understand exactly what I am saying and for those who hasn't worked on them I will explain.

As you know from siebel 7 onwards it has Web Architecture. So, as soon as you login into siebel through your browser a session is started which last till time you log out or you close your browser window or according to the length set through session parameter at server level.Now discussing in details that how server maintains this session and what goes on behind the scene is out of scope of this article but what you need to know is that Siebel server recognises every unique user through session id that is given to you when you login to siebel and it remains valid until you session closes due to above mentioned reasons. So, Profile Attributes are variables that can hold any value during the session of the user. There are two methods available to in siebel escript that help you to work with Profile Attributes.
GetProfileAttr
SetProfileAttr
GetProfileAttr method is used to retrieve the value of a particular profile attribute. The syntax is
TheApplication().GetProfileAttr("ProfileAttrName")
SetProfileAttr method is used to set the value of Profile Attribute. If the Profile Attribute that you mention is not already existing it creates a new Profile Attribute. The syntax is
TheApplication().SetProfileAttr("ProfileAttrName",Value)
So, to accomplish the our requirement we Set a profile attribute when clicked the button on view A and then when he went to View B and did the particular action we wanted we retrieved the value of the profile attribute and if all the conditions were met we executed the workflow and everybody developed happily ever after :)
But, there is a twist in the story and it was not a happy ending after all which highlights the fragile nature of Profile Attributes. Now, in a particular situation this solution won't work. If user clicked button on View A and then logged off which meant profile attribute is destroyed hence the functionality failed. So, as you all must have guessed this solution was scrapped :(
So, the moral of the story is use Profile Attributes with caution and only if you are sure that if the session is destroyed you functionality wouldn't fail.

Siebel CRM How to Restrict a Field to Only Accept Certain Characters

We have a multilingual application and we have Unicode enabled database but still we would like to restrict user from entering certain characters.
We want to prevent user from entering numbers in alpha-numeric fields.Solution:Use charCodeAt function given by Siebel but not documented properly by Siebel. Here I am giving a Pseudo code to explain how it can be used.if (FieldName == "First Name") {for (var i=0;i less than field length ;i++) {var ASCII_code = fieldvalue.charCodeAt(i)if(ASCII_code is not valid code)Error("Not Valid Code");}} charCodeAt() returns the ASCII code of the character that is supplied to it. ASCII code comparison is way faster than the number function that are used to compare strings so we can also use this function where we want to compare two strings by just modifying the above given Pseudo code.Hope this helps! If yes, Please put your comments below.

Next Record & Delete Record use with Caution

Number of times we have written code in which we have to traverse number of records in a loop and n number of times we have missed one important statement that results in our code to stuck in infinite loop. Yes, I am talking about the statement Object.NextRecord()This statment is generally used at the end of the loop so that after all the processing is complete we move on to the next record in the record set and perform processing on the next record. I am giving a Psuedo code to explain that.while(not end of recordset){perform operation recordset.NextRecord()}But here I am going to to tell you about a situation where doing a NextRecord(). will result in problems. Yes, I we are deleting the records in the loop then we don't need to use the NextRecord() function.Reason for that is using DeleteRecord() results in pointer to moved to next record automatically and if we use NextRecord then it will result in skipping of the last record we are trying to delete. Pseudo to explain thiswhile(not end of RecordSet){do processingrecordset.DeleteRecord();// recordset.NextRecord(); // no need to use next record as delete will automatically move the pointer to next line}

Picklists/Pickmaps

Often we forget one thing or other while making a Picklist. Here is some trobleshooting guideline for the same, hope you all would enjoy this
A Pickmap determines which Fields from the pick BusComp will be copied to the BusComp in which the Field with a Picklist is defined.
- When there is a static Picklist and no defined Pickmap, the user will not see a list of values to make his selection.
- When there is a dynamic Picklist and no defined Pickmap, nothing will be copied from the source BusComp.
- When the Pickmap is defined, but does not contain a mapping to a foreign key column on the base table, no reference will be saved to the base record and the update is lost.
- For Fields, that do not have a Picklist attribute defined, there should be no Pickmaps either.
- If a Pickmap is a copy Pickmap, then the value of the Field in the Picklist business component will be automatically copied into the Field of the parent business component specified by the Field property.
A Pickmap specifies instructions for copying Fields when a Picklist is used by a Field, for example to identify which Field must be populated with Picklist values when a Picklist item is chosen. Missing Pickmaps will result in Field values not being populated from the Picklist and an error could occur in the application.

Cascade Delete Property

Here is another good one. Tip for Cascade Delete Property on New Link Definitions and believe me its very useful. Here it goes

- The property should be set to “Delete”, if the child record has no other relationships through other links. This happens often when using a _XM table for the child BusComp. Without the parent record, the child _XM record is not necessary and should be deleted.
- Set the value to “Clear”, if the link defines a 1:M relationship, but the value could be related to another record through another link (e.g. an activity record, which can be associated to a contact as well as to an account).
Ensure that the FK reference on the activity record is cleared, indicating that there is no longer an account associated to the activity before deleting the related account. the activity should not be deleted, as it still has a relationship to a valid contact.
- The property should be left as “None”, if the link uses an intersection table (M:M).
- Set the Inter Child Delete propert to “TRUE” for a M:M link as long as a child intersection record should be deleted when a parent record is deleted.