Siebel Musings welcomes Joseph !

Its my pleasure to introduce our new author Joseph Thomas.
Joseph brings along with him 3 years of hardcore experience in Siebel Configuration.
Readers can expect some dazzling posts in near future !!!

RESPONSE TO IMPOSSIBLE SIEBEL SCRIPTLESS CHALLENGE

[Requirement]

Display a floating tool tip with dynamic text, when a user hovers over a form applet label or image in High Interactivity.

Complete details are over here:
Scriptless Challenge - ToolTip

Solution



One liner solution

Edit the Caption - String Override for the control .

<label style="COLOR: RED" title="Welcome to Siebel Musings © Geeksajan">Person Id</label>

THERE EXISTS .... A SIEBEL BLACK BAG

A picture speaks a thousand words.

First and second are open for reader guesses. You can contact me at geeksajan@gmail.com.

Hints:
1) These are super powerful features (works both on Thick and Thin clients) that can lead us into amazing results.
2) _svf0 … pretty useful.

Third one is a POC that circumvents URL JavaScript Injection restrictions (if any exists).

v8.1 APPLY/ACTIVATE FIX

For all the Siebel folks out there who are facing a problem with DB Apply/Activate in Siebel v8.1.

geeksajan provides a root cause and fix for the issue:

Root Cause Identified: It seems there is a bug in the Internal Logging mechanism of Siebel Local Setup. The logging code goes for a toss without getting to the cursor end.

Fix:
Set Env variable SIEBEL_LOG_EVENTS = 0.
If not present add it and set it to zero.
So this basically tunes off the logging and thereby the buggy logging code :)

"Credential retrieval failed"

Recently I was facing an error given below while connecting to the dedicated client:

"ORA-12638: Credential retrieval failed" trying to connect to Oracle database

So what did I do next ?

Followed the Standard procedures.

1) Checking if I am connected to the wire :)
2) Checking my credentials against the DB.
3) ODBC setup is proper and working standalone.
4) Disable Hashing/Encryption

Still the problem persists.
I was able to solve the problem by changing the following parameter in
SQLNET.ora file (Network\Admin folder of Oracle Home)

# SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES = (NTS) --- Commented by geeksajan
SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES = (NONE) --- Added

Basically I made oracle ignore the Windows NT native security and use the credentials that I provided to authenticate with the DB.

Done !!!

SRFDiff: Compare two SRF's !!!

Cool new feature in Siebel 8.1 (much awaited)

The SRFDiff utility allows you to compare two repository (.srf) files. Both SRFs must be from the same locale and language and compliant with the current Siebel Tools schema version. From the Help menu in Siebel Tools, choose Technical Support to view the schema version of the SRF that Siebel Tools is using.
NOTE: The SRFDiff utility validates only for a major schema version. Therefore, SRFs with different minor schema versions, such as 44.39.0.248 and 44.40.0.1, are valid schemas.
The differences between the two files, that is new, deleted, and changed objects, are recorded in two user-specified XML output files, depending on what the comparison discovers:
1)diff_srf1_srf2.xml. This output file contains differences between the two SRFs and provides a list of new and modified objects. It may also contain new objects found in srf2 that are not found in srf1. This output file shows the differences found during the comparison using an attribute name/value list format.
2)deleted_records_diff_srf1_srf2.xml. This output file contains deleted objects (objects present in srf1 but not in srf2).
If no differences are found or both SRF files are identical, then the SRFDiff utility does not generate output files.

Sample Output

1) Adding a new field in the BC
<!-- Start: New object section -->
<FIELD Name="Test1" CALCULATED="N" CALCULATED_VALUE="" COLUMN="CONFLICT_ID" COMPOSITE="N" CURRENCY_CODE_FIELD="" DEST_FIELD="" DISABLE_SEARCH="N" DISABLE_SORT="N" EXCHANGE_DATE_FIELD="" FORCE_ACTIVE="N" FORCE_CASE="" HIDDEN="N" IMMEDIATE_POST_CHANGES="N" INTERNAL_PICK_APPLET="" JOIN="" LINK_SPECIFICATION="N" MESSAGE_DISPLAY_MODE="User Msg with Error Code Only" MULTI_VALUE_LINK="" MULTI_VALUED="N" NO_COPY="N" ORACLE_SEQUENCE_OBJECT="" PICKLIST="" POST_DEFAULT_VALUE="" PRE_DEFAULT_VALUE="" PRECISION="" READ_ONLY="N" REQUIRED="N" SCALE="" TEXT_LENGTH="15" TYPE="DTYPE_ID" USE_DEFAULT_SENSITIVITY="Y" VALIDATION="" VALIDATION_MESSAGE=""></FIELD>
<!-- End: New object section -->


2) New script in the BC:
New Script is not visible but there is an indicator that says a new object was added.

<!-- Start: New object section -->
<BUSCOMP_SERVER_SCRIPT Name="sscfcli">
</BUSCOMP_SERVER_SCRIPT>
<!-- End: New object section -->

BROWSER SCRIPT IN SIEBEL: REVELATIONS

This is just a post to let the readers know whats coming next.

We all know Siebel HI provides many soothing features to the Siebel Application.
But how safe is Browser Script?
Siebel provides very powerful Vanilla Business Services that can perform a CRUD (Create, read, update and delete) on Siebel DB thru Business Layer.

Ideal Scenario:
All Business Service's not exposed as ClientBusinessService will not be available in a browser script.
For eg: Try invoking EAI Siebel Adapter from a Browser Script.
You will get an alert: Cannot get service: EAI Siebel Adapter.

Siebel blocks the execution of Business Services not marked as a Client BS and that are not within the list of permissible ones.

Reality
You can invoke any Business Service using a Browser Script :)

Follow this space to know more revelations in this wild world of Siebel !