How to Embed Contextual Oracle Business Intelligence Content in Siebel Business Applications for Versions 7.8.2

Embed Contextual Oracle Business Intelligence Content in Siebel Business Applications for Versions 7.8.2

Instructions on how to embed Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OracleBI EE) formerly known as Siebel Analytics, Requests in Siebel Business Application views, so that navigating among the records in the parent applet updates the child Analytics applet with context-appropriate content.

Siebel Business Applications 7.8.2 supports a new argument (IsRecordSensitive) for Symbolic URLs that eliminates the need for browser script to support context passing.

This example uses a view that contains the Account List Applet and an Analytics Activity Report Applet. As the user navigates among the rows in the Account List Applet, the Analytics content in the child applet will automatically refresh.

The following are the high-level steps:

• Create an OracleBI EE Analytics Report with a Prompted Filter
• Create Symbolic URL for Analytics Report
• Create a Business Component Field for the Symbolic URL
• Create an Applet to Display the Symbolic URL Content
• Test Changes and Verify Results

Create an OracleBI EE Report with a Prompted Filter

1. Login to OracleBI EE as an Administrator and navigate to Answers.

2. Choose the Subject Area relevant to the appropriate request you want to generate. For this example, choose Activities.
   

3. Construct a request with the following columns in it:  Account Profile.Account Name, Account Profile.ROW_ID, Activity.Activity Type, and Activity Facts.# of Activities.

4. Create a filter on Account Profile.ROW_ID. Set the filter to “is prompted”. This allows a value for the filter to be passed in the URL query string.

5. Note the exact column formula of the ROW_ID column. This is the column name that will need to be entered into the symbolic URL in order for it to be generated correctly according to what Siebel Analytics Web expects. The column formula is available by clicking on edit formula button, as shown in the screenshot below:

In this example, the Column Formula value is: "- Profile".ROW_ID

6. Add a pivot table or a chart to make the display of the information meaningful to an end-user.

7. Save the request as Accounts_Activities_By_Type in the Service Shared Folder.

8. Note the path where the request is stored in the web catalog. In this case, it should be:  Path=/shared/Service/ Accounts_Activities_By_Type. This path is what needs to be entered as one of the arguments in the Symbolic URL Administration Screen in order for Siebel eBusiness to navigate to the correct request in OracleBI EE.

9. The final report should look as follows:

Create Symbolic URL for Analytics Report

1. In the Siebel Business Application, navigate to View > Site Map > Integration Administration > Symbolic URL Administration.

2. Create a new Symbolic URL for Analytics content called IntAccntSymbURL:

Field	Value
Name	IntAccntSymbURL
URL	http://NQHOST/Analytics/saw.dll (or your equivalent)
Host Name	Localhost (or the location of your Siebel Analytics Web)
Fixup Name	Default
SSO Disposition	IFrame

  

3. Create the following Symbolic URL Arguments for IntAccntSymbURL:

Name	Argument Type	Argument Value for this Example	Description of Argument Value
Cmd	Constant	Go	Go
Path	Constant	/shared/Service/ Accounts_Activities_By_Type	<Path to Analytics Report>
Syndicate	Constant	Siebel	Siebel
nqUser	Command	UseSiebelLoginId	If using Single Sign On, ignore this argument.
nqPassword	Command	UseSiebelLoginPassword	If using Single Sign On, ignore this argument.
Action	Constant	Navigate	Navigate
P0	Constant	1	1
P1	Constant	eq	Operator for the filter
P2	Constant	"- Profile".ROW_ID	Function name for the column used for the filter. This is the value from step 5 in section Create an OracleBI EE Report with a Prompted Filter.
P3	Field	Id	Business component field name that will supply a runtime value for the filter
IsRecordSensitive	Command	TRUE	When true, will cause Portal Agent Applet to refresh as user scrolls through parent records
IFrame Size	Command	IFrame	Optional argument for sizing the IFRAME

NOTE: P1 provides the equal to operator, P2 provides the filter name for the Analytics report, and P3 provides the name of the Siebel field that will supply the value. In this case, the value of the Id field in the Siebel application is passed to the Analytics filter "- Profile".ROW_ID.

For more information on the IsRecordSensitive command, refer to Siebel Bookshelf 7.8 > Siebel Portal Framework Guide > Integrating External Content > Portal Agent Command Reference > IsRecordSensitive

For more information on the iFrame command, refer to Siebel Bookshelf 7.8 > Siebel Portal Framework Guide > Integrating External Content > Portal Agent Command Reference > iFrame

The final Symbolic URL Administration Screen result should look similar to this:

Create a Business Component Field for the Symbolic URL

Choose a Business Component that will pass the contextual information to the Siebel Analytics Web Server. Accounts, Service Requests, Opportunities, or any other entity that exists in the Siebel repository can be used. A new calculated field that will hold the symbolic URL needs to be created.

The Account business component is used in this example. In Siebel Tools, create a new calculated field on the Account business component to hold the symbolic URL:

Property	Value
Name	IntAccntSymbURL
Calculated	TRUE
Calculated Value	“IntAccntSymbURL”

 

Create an Applet to Display the Symbolic URL Content

Create a new applet that will serve as a container for the Analytics content. For expediency, you may copy the DNB Report Applet and modify it.

1. The new applet used in this example has the following Applet properties:

Field	Value
Business Component	Account
Class	CSSSWEFrameListWeb
Name	Account Analytics SymbURL Integrated Applet
Title	Account Integrated Analytics

 

2. Navigate to Applet > Controls. The Control object should have the following properties:

Field	Value
Name	List
Caption	List
HTML Row Sensitive	TRUE
Visible	Y

3. Navigate to Applet > List. The List object should have the following properties:

Field	Value
Name	List
Parent Name	Account Analytics SymbURL Integrated Applet

4. The List column must reference the calculated field and should have the following properties:

Property	Value
Field	IntAccntSymbURL
Name	IntAccntSymbURL
Available	TRUE
Content Fixup Name	Default
Display Name	Integrated Account Symbolic URL
Field Retrieval Type	Symbolic URL
HTML Display Mode	EncodeData
HTML Row Sensitive	TRUE
HTML Type	Field
Show in List	TRUE

5. The Applet Web Template should have the following properties:

Field	Value
Name	URL Applet
Sequence	1
Type	Base
Web Template	Analytics Applet

6. The Applet Web Template Items should have the following properties:

Field	Value
Name	IntAccntSymbURL
Control	IntAccntSymbURL
Item Identified	501
Type	List Item

7. Review the Edit layout and check the mappings when you are finished.

8. Add the applet to “Account Detail - Activities View” or a new view, if desired.

9. Compile all changes (business component, applet, and view) to the SRF.

Test Changes and Verify Results

1. Launch the application and navigate to the modified view.

2. Now, click on individual records in the parent Account List Applet. Notice that the Analytics content is updated automatically every time a different record is highlighted.
   

3. The final result should look like this:

 

Please be aware of the following with respect to the IsRecordSensitive parameter:

• Change Request 12-17PEFSY has been logged to address the product defect regarding the Symbolic URL argument ‘IsRecordSensitive’ causing drilldowns to fail.
  
• Change Request 12-1DI9SM3 has been logged to address the product defect regarding the IsRecordSensitive Parameter in the Symbolic URL arguments gets triggered during resizing of the Applet and expansion of the Column. IsRecordSensitive causes the view to reload upon every action.

Release Notes for the Siebel 8.1.1.8 Fix Pack

The following post describes known issues with the Siebel 8.1.1.8 Fix Pack, as well as any

applicable workaround information.

F1 Context-Sensitive Help Not Working in Siebel Tools

Bug 14002935: Context-sensitive help is not available.

Workaround: Apply Siebel 8.1.1.8 QF0000001 to resolve this issue (Bug 14250836).

Calendar Functionality Behaves Inconsistently

Bug 11789599: Within Calendar, customers cannot translate day and month strings for languages

that are not shipped.

Bug 10589738: The call-start time information is incorrect for accounts and contacts that are

dragged and dropped.

Bug 10537528: An error message appears when users click the Repeat Until Date field.

Bug 10520097: After an appointment is dragged and dropped, the appointment duration is incorrect.

Workaround: Apply Siebel 8.1.1.8 QF0000001 to resolve this issue.

Search Functionality Does Not Work

Bug 13386485: After the Siebel 8.1.1.8 Fix Pack has been installed, when users launch the Siebel

8.1.1 SRF (such as siebel_sia.srf) and click on the Binoculars icon, they receive the following error

message: “An error has occurred preparing a Sql statement. Please continue or ask your systems

administrator to check your application configuration if the problem persists.(SBL-DBC-00108).”

Users receive the same error message if they navigate from Site Map > Administration - Search and

click the Binoculars icon.

Workaround: Use the following workaround to resolve this issue:

1 Navigate to Administration - Search > Search Engine Settings, and add the following parameter:

ACR505 Activation = FALSE.

2 Log out of the application and log back in.

3 Copy the .swt files associated with displaying search results from a backup file. (These files are

located in the siebsrvr\WEBTEMPL directory.)

4 Restart the Siebel Server.

Actuate Reports Does Not Work

Bug 13908101: After users install and configure Actuate, when they synchronize the SADMIN user,

they receive an error message.

Workaround: Contact Oracle Global Customer Support to request a Quick Fix for this issue.

Errors Registering New Partners Within Partner Relationship

Management Portal

Bug 13934882: When users try to register a new partner without logging into Partner Relationship

Management Portal, instead of being directed to a login page, they receive an error message.

Workaround: Contact Oracle Global Customer Support for information about how to obtain a Quick

Fix for this issue.

Unable to Generate Non-ENU Language Reports

Bug 14062631: Users cannot generate reports for languages other than English (ENU) after they

have applied Bug 13910528.

Workaround: Request a patch from BI Publisher Fusion Middleware.

Generate Triggers Job Only Uses "OR" Logic when Creating Triggers

Generate Triggers Job Only Uses "OR" Logic when Creating Triggers

While creating the Generate Triggers job, it is observerd that all the triggers are created with "or" logic even though their policies contain a series of "anded" criteria.

This is the expected behavior.

The triggers created for multiple conditions of one policy with "or" logic is expected behavior.

The reason for this is to separate the functionality of Generate Triggers (Gentrig) and Workflow Monitor (WorkMon) Components. Gentrig is a relative simple Server Component that monitors DB record changes and inserts a record of these changes into S_ESCL_REQ. WorkMon then evaluates the inserted record (violation) and checks to see if all the conditions associated with Rule of the violation are met.  Only if all conditions are met, does WorkMon then fire the associated action for the policy.

Architecturally, it is more efficient to have WorkMon evaluate the conditions associated with a violation rather than having a complex trigger mechanism.  Additionally, because condition data is often stored in more than 1 table; and because a series of conditions that cause a violation of policy can occur at separate times while still within the monitor action interval, capturing these with database triggers is very difficult -because database triggers can only fire for concurrent actions.  As a result of this database limitation, it becomes important to capture all of these potential violations in order to have WorkMon evaluated them as a whole at the time of the policy action.

For example, a policy has 2 conditions: SR area=Network and Activity Priority=1-ASAP. 2 triggers will be generated. One trigger monitors SR being created or updated, and checks to see if the area equals Network. The other trigger monitors Activity records being created or updated, and checks to see if the Priority equals 1-ASAP. If we created AND triggers, and a user creates a SR without Activity, since the activity is not there, the trigger will not be violated. Later, a user adds an activity to the SR, but because the trigger created was using an "AND" trigger, and in this instance the main SR record is not updated, still no database trigger fires. The violation would then be lost as no trigger would be fired in either instance due to the anded logic.
However, if the OR logic exists for the triggers, then there will be 2 records inserted into S_ESCL_REQ (1 for the SR area Network added/upated, 1 for the Priority 1 activity added)  Because workMon will evaluate each record as it is inserted, the condition would not evaluate as a violation until the activity is added (the second record).  Therefore, the first row would be discarded (as there was no activity), but the second insert would cause a violation and the action would fire because at that time, both the SR Area and the Activity Priority meet the policy conditions.

So, as you can see when you look at the architecture in its entirety, even though the triggers are generated with "or" logic, the WorkMon component will evaluate the entire rule as a whole before deciding whether or not it is appropriate to fire off the workflow.

Please note that Modifying triggers manually is not a supported practice.