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You're reading from  Oracle Siebel CRM 8 Developer's Handbook

Product typeBook
Published inApr 2011
Reading LevelIntermediate
Publisher
ISBN-139781849681865
Edition1st Edition
Languages
Java
Tools
Oracle Siebel
Concepts
CRM
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Author (1)
Alexander Hansal
Alexander Hansal
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Alexander Hansal

Alexander Hansal has worked as an IT professional in small, medium, and global corporations. Since 2001, Alexander works as a technical instructor and consultant for Siebel CRM and Oracle Business Intelligence in Europe. He enjoys teaching, and shares his knowledge and expertise in his classes at Oracle University and in his weblog, http://siebel-essentials.blogspot.com/
Read more about Alexander Hansal

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Chapter 18. Supporting Integration Interfaces

This chapter introduces the major objects of the interface layer of Siebel CRM applications, namely Integration Objects. Because they are widely used in reports, standard Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) connectors, web service interfaces, and custom EAI interfaces, a developer must understand these object types. In this chapter, we will learn how to configure integration objects to be able to support integration interfaces.

The chapter is structured as follows:

  • Understanding integration objects

  • Creating internal integration objects

  • Defining integration component keys

  • Testing integration objects

  • Advanced settings for integration objects

Understanding integration objects

What we have learned so far in this book is generally aimed at providing an interface for users that allows them to interact with data and functionality provided by the business layer of Siebel CRM applications. While screens, views, and applets provide the human interface, integration objects provide the EAI interface.

The following diagram illustrates this:

From the preceding diagram, we can learn the following:

  • Views and applets constitute the user interface for human interaction with the data and functionality provided by business components.

  • The business layer, constructed by business objects and business components, is the single point of access for users and EAI interfaces. The business layer defines the logic for accessing the tables in the Siebel database.

  • Integration objects and integration components constitute the integration layer by mapping to business objects and business components respectively.

  • The EAI Siebel Adapter business service serves as...

Creating internal integration objects

Siebel Tools provides a wizard that assists developers in the task of creating internal and external integration objects. Because the focus of this chapter is on supporting integration interfaces with EAI Siebel Adapter, we will only discuss how to create internal integration objects.

Case study example: Creating an internal integration object

As defined in Chapter 3, one of AHA's requirements is to support reporting on data used by sales representatives. AHA intends to use Oracle's BI Publisher, which is the standard reporting tool for Siebel 8.1 and higher. The Account business object should be used to create the integration object. The business analyst team has identified the following business components and fields as relevant for reporting (the business component name is followed by its hierarchy level in parentheses and the list of fields):

  • Account (Parent): Name, CSN, Account Status, Type, Partner Flag, Account Status Date, Price List, Currency...

Defining integration component keys

The following procedure describes how to define user keys and status keys for integration components. In the example, we create a copy of the Internal Account Interface integration object to provide the AHA team with an interface that allows querying and manipulating of account data. The Name and CSN fields will serve as key fields:

  1. 1. Navigate to the Internal Account Interface integration object.

  2. 2. Copy the Internal Account Interface integration object.

  3. 3. Set the following properties for the copied object definition:

    • Name: AHA Customer Interface

    • Project: AHA EAI Objects

    • Comments: Created for AHA prototype

  4. 4. Select the Account integration component of the AHA Customer Interface integration object.

  5. 5. Navigate to the Integration Component Fields list.

  6. 6. Query for the CSN integration component field and uncheck the Inactive flag, making the field active.

  7. 7. Navigate to the Integration Component Keys list for the Account integration component.

  8. 8. Deactivate all...

Testing integration objects

We can use the Business Service Simulator view, introduced in the previous chapter, to conveniently test new and customized integration objects. To verify the functionality, we must invoke the methods of the EAI Siebel Adapter business service and provide the correct input property sets.

The following table describes the methods and their arguments of the EAI Siebel Adapter business service:

Advanced settings for integration objects

We can specify user properties on all levels of an integration object—object, component, and field level to define specialized behavior. The following table describes the most important user properties for integration objects (IO), integration components (IC), and integration component fields (ICF). The table also informs us on the applicability of the user properties for each level:

Method

Description

Input Arguments

Output Arguments

Query

Executes a query on the business components referenced by the integration object's integration components.

OutputIntObjectName:

The name of an internal integration object. Defines the structure of the output property set.

SearchSpec:

Allows providing query criteria in Siebel Query Language.

PrimaryRowId:

When provided, the query is executed against the primary business component and matches the Id field with the property value.

SiebelMessage:

The Query method accepts a hierarchical input property set, which...

Summary

Integration objects and the EAI Siebel Adapter business service play a vital role in integrating Siebel with external applications including Oracle's BI Publisher (the standard reporting engine for Siebel 8.1 and above).

In this chapter, we learned how internal integration objects work and how we can use the Integration Object wizard in Siebel Tools to create them.

We also discussed the post-wizard configuration steps for integration objects as well as basic testing procedures.

Finally, we described the most important user properties that we can use to fine-tune the behavior of EAI Siebel Adapter during read or write operations.

The next chapter is the first of two chapters on Siebel Workflow. In the following chapter, we will learn how to create, test, and publish workflow processes.

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Published in: Apr 2011Publisher: ISBN-13: 9781849681865
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Author (1)

author image
Alexander Hansal

Alexander Hansal has worked as an IT professional in small, medium, and global corporations. Since 2001, Alexander works as a technical instructor and consultant for Siebel CRM and Oracle Business Intelligence in Europe. He enjoys teaching, and shares his knowledge and expertise in his classes at Oracle University and in his weblog, http://siebel-essentials.blogspot.com/
Read more about Alexander Hansal

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User Property

Description

IO

IC

ICF

ViewMode

Can be set to the Siebel visibility codes (Sales Rep, Manager, All, Organization, Catalog, and so on) to override the current view mode of the business component during queries.

Yes

Yes

No

AdminMode

When set to Y, the business component will be switched to administration mode, which allows all insert, update, and delete operations.

Yes

Yes

No

AllLangIndependentVals

When set to Y, EAI Siebel Adapter uses the language independent code (LIC) value for a multilingual list of values.

Yes

No

No

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