How To: BI Publisher 8 Desktop Preview Template does not work

When previewing a vanilla BI Publisher template (srvreqaa.rtf) for "Service Request Activity - All" report that comes with the Siebel installation in BI Publisher Desktop the following error is thrown :

ConfFile: C:\Program Files\Oracle\BI Publisher\BI Publisher Desktop\Template Builder for Word\config\xdoconfig.xml
Font Dir: C:\Program Files\Oracle\BI Publisher\BI Publisher Desktop\Template Builder for Word\fonts
Run XDO Start
Template: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\aclist_sample.rtf
RTFProcessor setLocale: en-us
FOProcessor setData: E:\Sia811\siebsrvr\XMLP\DATA\BIP Accounts Sample.xml
FOProcessor setLocale: en-us
java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
at oracle.apps.xdo.common.xml.XSLT10gR1.invokeProcessXSL(Unknown Source)
at oracle.apps.xdo.common.xml.XSLT10gR1.transform(Unknown Source)
at oracle.apps.xdo.common.xml.XSLT10gR1.transform(Unknown Source)
at oracle.apps.xdo.common.xml.XSLTWrapper.transform(Unknown Source)
at oracle.apps.xdo.template.fo.util.FOUtility.generateFO(Unknown Source)
at oracle.apps.xdo.template.fo.util.FOUtility.generateFO(Unknown Source)
at oracle.apps.xdo.template.FOProcessor.createFO(Unknown Source)
at oracle.apps.xdo.template.FOProcessor.generate(Unknown Source)
at RTF2PDF.runRTFto(RTF2PDF.java:629)
at RTF2PDF.runXDO(RTF2PDF.java:442)
at RTF2PDF.main(RTF2PDF.java:289)
Caused by: oracle.xdo.parser.v2.XPathException: Extension function error: Class not found 'com.siebel.xmlpublisher.reports.XSLFunctions'
at oracle.xdo.parser.v2.XSLStylesheet.flushErrors(XSLStylesheet.java:1534)
at oracle.xdo.parser.v2.XSLStylesheet.execute(XSLStylesheet.java:521)
at oracle.xdo.parser.v2.XSLStylesheet.execute(XSLStylesheet.java:489)
at oracle.xdo.parser.v2.XSLProcessor.processXSL(XSLProcessor.java:271)
at oracle.xdo.parser.v2.XSLProcessor.processXSL(XSLProcessor.java:155)
at oracle.xdo.parser.v2.XSLProcessor.processXSL(XSLProcessor.java:192)

Some of the standard Siebel templates contain references to functions that are included in specific .jar files and if these are not loaded prior to opening the RTF template, then the preview will fail with the aforementioned error.

 In order to resolve the behavior the following procedure can be used :

1) Locate the following files which should be available in the %SIEBEL_CLIENT_ROOT%\CLASSES folder :

SiebelXMLP.jar
Siebel.jar
XSLFunctions.jar
SiebelCustomXMLP.jar
SiebelCustomXMLP_SIA.jar

2) Close all Microsoft Word sessions

3) Create a .bat file (startword.bat), and run it before opening the RTF template.
 

The .bat file should contain the following text :

echo %1
set _JAVA_OPTIONS=-Xbootclasspath/a:D:\811\Client\CLASSES\SiebelXMLP.jar;D:\811\Client\CLASSES\Siebel.jar;D:\811\Client\CLASSES\XSLFunctions.jar;D:\811\Client\CLASSES\SiebelCustomXMLP.jar;D:\811\Client\CLASSES\SiebelCustomXMLP_SIA.jar;
"D:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\Winword.exe" %1

How to setup the NFS subsystem to mount the Siebel Filesystem

The Siebel filesystem in general is installed on a central global file server that hosts the filesystem and shares it to all connected clients. Clients in this context might be a Siebel server, a dedicated client, a Siebel document server etc.In order to make sure that a file on the filesystem accessed by one client can not be opened simultaneously by another client, the filesystems internal lock mechanism is utilized by the software.Therefore the file serving product selected to host the  Siebel filesystem needs to implement a global locking concept.

The file locking is implemented different for various filesystem types.

If the file server is hosted on the Windows platform using Windows SMB protocol then file locking is enabled by default and no additional steps need to be taken.The same holds true if a Samba File server  running on a Unix host is selected to provide multi-platform SMB access when the Siebel server itself runs on Windows platform.

However in a pure Unix deployment the remote share is usually implemented using the NFS system.

Here a few configuration steps need to be verified:

For all Unix platforms it is mandatory that the NFS servers lockd and statd daemons are enabled in addition to basic NFS daemons that implement mounting and accessing a share.

These locking daemons need to be tuned in the number of threads on various platforms. Otherwise they might not be capable  to manage the high volume of concurrent lock requests that a large scale Siebel system will generate.

a) NFS server hosted on AIX:

# chssys -s rpc.lockd -a 511
# stopsrc -s rpc.lockd; startsrc -s rpc.lockd

b) NFS server hosted on Solaris:

/usr/lib/nfs/lockd  [nthreads]

nthreads should be set to a value of 200 initially. Can also be set by defining the  LOCKD_SERVERS
parameter in the nfs file.

c) NFS server hosted on HP-UX:

lockd thread tuning only available with HP-UX 11i v3 (Itanium). Syntax is the same as with Solaris.Therefore it is recommended to run only HP-UX 11i v3 as NFS file server platform.

d) NFS server on Linux:

For Linux deployments it is strongly recommended that only the NFS v4 protocol is used.

NFS v4 implements a more robust lock subsystem and therefore should be used whenever possible.

You should contact your Linux administrator to get the NFSv4 properly enabled.

Please note that the local lock mount option (llock) which is available on Solaris and HP-UX platform is not supported by Siebel. The Siebel filesystem relies on a global, system wide file locking. Local locking will cause data inconsistencies and it is therefore not supported to mount a share using the llock option.

As for the NFS clients, on the AIX platform  it is recommended to enable the lockd  on every client machine too for better load distribution.

When you consider to implement another file sharing protocol like GPFS, SAN, NAS etc. you need to make sure that a file locking concept equivalent to the above is available. Please contact the vendor of this filesystem for details on how locking can be implemented.

IMPORTANT :

In order to reduce the load on the remote file servers locking subsystem it is strongly recommended to set the anonymous users preference file to read-only. When a file is set to read-only, no  write lock request to the remote server will be issued by the application. Since this file will not be altered during anonymous part of the login procedure, it is safe to revoke the write permission.

Because anonymous user preferences file is being accessed for each session login, setting this file to read-only can significantly decrease the number of network lock requests.

To set for example the preference file for user GUESTCST read-only  run the following command:

cd filesystem/userpref

chmod a-w "GUESTCST&Siebel Universal Agent.spf"

Please note that the read-only setting only will remain established when the corresponding user account is exclusively dedicated to anonymous login. In case this account is also used for a regular session login, the preferences file will be updated and file attributes reset to read-write.

Since it is best practice to have a dedicated account only for anonymous login this restriction usually should not be applicable.

In case the anonymous user preference file does not exist in the userpref folder anymore, it will always be recreated with read-write attributes and then the write attribute needs to be manually removed again.

How To Avoid User Preferences (SPF) File Update When EAI Task Completes

Updating the SavePreferences parameter for the EAI Object Manager, the EAI processes run without latency and disk usage since the write to SPF file at the end of EAI processing is prevented.

Potential bottleneck when writing to the SADMIN&Application.spf file

Run the following command for srvrmgr (amend component name as required) :

change param SavePreferences=false for comp eaiobjmgr_enu

(shutdown/startup component required)

How Do You Connect Siebel Tools 8.x and the Mobile Web Client (MWC) to an Encrypted Local Database?

In Siebel version 8.0 and higher, when extracting a local database with the default settings, the local database is now encrypted. This is the standard behavior and differs from the earlier versions when you needed to make changes in order to encrypt the local database.One result is that if you download the local database using Siebel Tools, you will not automatically be able to connect to it using the Siebel Mobile Web Client (MWC).
This FAQ demonstrates how in Siebel 8.0 and higher you can use the Siebel Mobile Web Client (MWC) to connect to a Local Database extracted by Siebel Tools.
Steps
1. Run Generate New Database (GenNewDB).
2. Run Database Extract (DBExtract).
3. Start Siebel Tools and Connect to Local using your USER_ID and PASSWORD.  Due to the fact the local database does not exist on the PC, you will be prompted to download the Local Database.
4. Once the local database had downloaded, please ensure you can connect correctly using Siebel Tools.
5. Copy the file ${Tools}\local\dicdata.dat to ${Client}\local\dicdata.dat
Without this step, you cannot connect to the local database from the Siebel Mobile Web Client.
6.  Locate and copy the following parameters' lines exactly as they are from [Local] section of Tools CFG   (used to Initialize database) to Siebel Mobile Web Client's CFG file:
             DSDockEncryptDB = ...
             DSHashUserPwd    = ...
             DSHashAlgorithm   = ...
7. In the Mobile Web Client CFG file [Local] section, edit the ConnectString parameter to point to where the local database is located.
8. Copy the file ${Tools}\bin\mwc_storage.cfg to ${Client}\bin\mwc_storage.cfg
9. Change the ODBC DataSource for the Client by performing the following steps:-
a. Navigate to Control Panel  > Administrative Tools > Data Source (ODBC)
b. Select the System DSN tab
c. In the list, find the DSN Source called “SSD Local DB default instance”.  Double-click on it or click once and then click the Configure button.
d. Click the Database tab
e. Copy the Server Name (such as: C__SIA_TOOLS_Local_sse_data_dbf).  Click Cancel to close this window and return to the list of System Data Sources.
f. Locate the System Data Source for the client called “SEAW Local DB default instance”. Double-click on it or click once and then click the Configure button.
g. Click the Database tab
h. Paste the data just copied into the Server Name.  Click OK to save the changes.
NOTE: It is possible to extract a local database without encryption but you need to specify the parameters below:-
Encrypt client Db password = False
Client Database encryption method = none
If you create a non-encrypted local database, you will still need to copy the file ‘mwc_storage.cfg’ file from the ${Tools}\bin directory to the ${Client}\bin directory and update the local ODBC section in the client CFG file (assumes extraction took place using Tools)
SBL-SEC-10018, SBL-DAT-00522, SBL-SEC-10001 and SBL-DAT-00565, SBL-DAT-00522, Incorrect, "missing encryption key"

How to deploy Siebel BI Publisher Reports for Siebel Remote/Mobile users Siebel Reports - Version 8.1.1 [21112] and later

Follow the steps given below to deploy Siebel BI Publisher Reports to the Siebel Remote/ Mobile clients.

1. Manually copying over the RTF, XSL and XLF files. These files need to the placed in the following folders on the Siebel Remote Client:

• RTF: Client\XMLP\Templates
• XSL: Client\XMLP\Templates
• XLF: Client\XMLP\XLIFF\LANG

Note: LANG - stands for the language pack installed e.g. ENU for English

2. The Integration Objects & Business Services will be deployed in the standard way by local DB extraction and remote client synchronization.
3. The report View Associations are NOT routed to the remote client via synchronization process. A new local DB extract is needed if and when new report View Associations are introduced.