How To Call Workflow Asynchrounously?

We all want the response time of our Application to be as fast as it can and we do everything that we can to achieve that. I am going to tell you about a way which can help you to reduce the response time without actually reducing any functionality. Siebel can execute workflows in two ways.

• Synchronous
• Asynchronous

Synchronous Execution : When workflows are executed Synchronously then user gets the control back only when the workflow has finished it execution.

Asynchronous Execution: When workflows are executed Asynchronously then user gets back the control immediately and the workflow is submitted to workflow process manager (WPM) as a job to be executed. WPM then executes the job later.

Often we have a functionality where large amount of processing needs to be done on an object which user is not going to use access right now. I can explain it with an example.

When user clicks copy button on a opportunity or quote we want certain custom entities to be copied over but which user will not access at that time but later.

So, we can reduce our response time by just copying the quote or opportunity synchronously and placing the code of copying of custom entities in workflow and executing that workflow asynchronously.

There are two way to execute a workflow asynchronously

• Workflow Policy
• Runtime Event and Business Service (BS) Combination

Workflow Policy is pretty traditional method of executing a workflow process.
You create a policy. Enter the conditions Specify the workflow to be executed Generate Triggers
I wouldn't go into details of creating a policy but I will tell you some disadvantages of using Workflow Policy

1. Slow Execution
2. Difficult to setup
3. Not Reliable and Error Prone

But from siebel 7.7 onwards we have another more robust, efficient and quicker way to do that which is Runtime Events and Business Service.

Continue to Part 2

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How To Call Workflow Asynchronoulsy?

Click Here to Goto Part 1 of this Article

In this article I will tell you about the actual process of Setting up Runtime Event and Business Service assuming you have working knowledge of both. If you want to know the basics of these please see other posts of my blog.

Just one important thing that you should know about runtime evetns is that they are executed even before the Business Component Events.

To explain it better I am taking an example where our requirement is to execute a workflow when you click Submit Oppty button on Opportunity Form Applet.

1. Goto Administration ==>Runtime Events Screen
2. Goto Action Sets View
3. Create a New Record in the Action Set View of Runtime Events Administration Screen
4. Enter Any Name in the Name Field of the Action Set List Applet
5. Create New Record List Applet Below it
6. Enter

Name = "TestRuntimeEvent" ;
Action Type = "Business Service" ;
Sequence = "1"

1. In the Form Applet Below Enter the Following Details Business Service = "TestBS" ; Business Service Method = "TestMethod"8. Click Menu ==> Reload Runtime Events Make Sure that you have Active Flag checked in both List Applets.
   

You are done in Action Set View.

Now Goto Events view and Follow the steps given below

1. Click New and Enter the Following Information

Sequence = 1 ;
Object Type = "Applet" ;
Object Name = "Opportnity Form Applet" ;
Event = "InvokeMethod" ;
Sub Event = "Submit Oppty" ;
Action Set = "TestRunTimeEvent"

Conditional Expression should be given if you want the restrict the execution of this Runtime Event to certain conditions and Action Set Name is always the name of the action set that we created.

2. Click Menu ==> Reload Runtime Events.

* Everytime you make a change to runtime events you have to Reload them to activate the changes that you have made.

Now we are through the Runtime Event parts.

What we have done so far is that When user clicks Submit Oppty button it is going to call BS named TestBS with method as "TestMethod".

Now we are going to write the code in the busines service which will actually result in the execution of Workflow Process Asynchronously.

1. Go To Administration ==> Business Service
2. Create a Business Record with name "TestBS"
3. Create a Record in List Applet for Service_PreInvokeMethod and choose Programming Langauge as "eScript"

Write the Following code in Code Window inside the function Service_PreInvokeMethod

if(MethodName == "TestMethod")
{
var svc;
var child;
var input;
var output;
var rowid;
var bo = TheApplication().ActiveBusObject();
var bc = bo.GetBusComp("Opportunity"); // Change the BusComp name with the name of the BusComp you want to execute the workflow with
svc = TheApplication().GetService("Asynchronous Server Requests"); // Don't change this - Actual BS that is responsible for submitting a job to WPM
input = TheApplication().NewPropertySet();
child = TheApplication().NewPropertySet();
output = TheApplication().NewPropertySet();
input.SetProperty("Component", "WfProcMgr");
rowid = bc.GetFieldValue("Id");
// We would like to pass the row id of the Current record on which the user is working - You can pass more than one arguments
child.SetProperty("ProcessName", "Workflowprocessname"); // Workflow process you want to execute
child.SetProperty("RowId", rowid); // passing the values
input.AddChild(child);
svc.InvokeMethod("SubmitRequest", input, output); // invoking the business service method
svc = null; // nullfiying the objects
child = null;
output = null;
input = null;
return(CancelOperation);
}


And you are done!!!!!!!!!
Please post your comments if this post helps you in anyway.

Post any Questions that you have

Click Here to Goto Part 1 of this Article

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Web Services - Introduction Part - 1

This is an age of Digitization and Communication. We want to make every aspect our life as easy as we can.We are trying to digitize every business process that we know such as marketing, sales. Internet is playing a pivotal role in making world a global village. We can reach anyone, anytime, anywhere. It is blurring the physical boundaries and eliminating the time differences.

Now we are ready to embrace the next generation Internet. Which is not only going to connect
computer but anything that can handle digital data. Already in Phase 1 was have mobile phones, pda, black berry's considerable changing our business models and the way we conduct our business. Now our office is a room with desk in it, it has expanded and can be a city, state or a country. And as we progress in this directions it will not be just mobile phones and computers we will have every equipment that will be able to connect and operated through Internet.

But how are we making this happen? How is that possible that such distinct equipments are able to connect and communicate? As we know that for anything to communicate there has to be something common between them. Now that common thing between all these things is a Web Service. Which is nothing but a language based on XML and SOAP which provides basis for these equipments to communication with each other. Future applications are going to be web enabled and based on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). To explain it in layman terms we can say that anybody who would want to use these application will have some services on his disposal, which he can use to get his work done. Before we can understand what a web service is we have to understand three things.

• XML : Xtensible Markup Language
• SOAP : Service Object Access Protocol
• WSDL : Web Service Description Language
  

XML : In simple language Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a simple, very flexible text format derived from SGML (ISO 8879). Originally designed to meet the challenges of large-scale electronic publishing, XML is also playing an increasingly important role in the exchange of a wide variety of data on the Web and elsewhere.
(To explain XML in detail is out of scope for this article but you can visit below links to get more details on XML)
W3 School
Wikipedia
XML communities, Resources
XML Information, News

SOAP :SOAP originally stood for Simple Object Access Protocol, and lately also Service Oriented Architecture Protocol, but is now simply SOAP. SOAP makes use of an Internet application layer protocol as a transport protocol. SOAP is nothing but a wrapper around XML data. It describes the data it is carrying. That is how diverse application can understand the what is being sent to them without knowing who sent them. Of course there are other methods also to connect to diverse applications such as CORBA, GIOP, ICE, and DCOM

WSDL: It is again nothing but XML structure defining or rather describing the service the application is providing. It describes what kind of data it can accept. What kind of function it can perform and what kind of output it is going to return. In more technical terms it can be described as an XML format that allows service interfaces to be described along with the details of their bindings
to specific protocols. Typically used to generate server and client code, and for configuration.Which any application that has capability of understanding XML can use.

A Web Service is nothing but usage of above said technologies in combination to exchange data
between heterogeneous application.

As next part of this article I will define Web Services in Context of Siebel. Answers to questions like how are they helpful and a turtorial to create a web services in Siebel and a real case study.

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Case Study - Siebel Application

Application: Siebel Call Center

Version: 7.8.2.3

Module: Quote

Description:

Copy/Revise of Quote takes more than 3 minutes. Copy/Revise Implementation is not a vanilla implementation and there are 9 entities that are being copied along with Quote and Quote line item. Quote Line Item contains moderately complex products which can be customized. At any given point of time there are atleast 9 products and 100 attributes that are needed to be copied.

Current Solution:

Scripting to copy all the Entities, Quote and Quote Line Item

Current Problems:

Due to excsseive scripting there are various kind of scripting error being enconterd frequently. Due to complex scripting in place frequent break down of Copy/Revise Functionality.

Solution Recommended:

Use of Signals which have been introduced in the Siebel 7.8 Architechture.Signal provide you a hassel free way of using C++ data structure defined by Siebel. These data structure can be modified by users to include custom entities and fields that have been defined.

Results:

Copy/Revise is taking less than 10 seconds for copying of all the entities that is without a single line of code. The process is robust and stable and flexible enough to have more entities added to it without additional overhead.

Complete implementation story and design coming soon.

Please see other posts in siebel section for details on signals.

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Best Practices For Siebel

• Whenever there is a requirement to extend a column in a table it is suggested that instead of extending the Base Table we should extend the Extension table corresponding to it.
  Whenever you extend the column in a table make sure you also extend the EIM table corresponding to it and also make a record in the Attribute Mapping.
  Steps for it:
  
  a) Go to the EIM Interface table object and identify the correct EIM table.
  
  b) Extend the EIM Table.
  
  c) In EIM Table Mapping object > Attribute Mapping Object > create a record for newly added column.

• The customized buttons who have the Method Invoked Property as"EventMethod%" ie. prefixed with 'EventMethod' need not to be forcibly enable
  by using 'PreCanInvoke" event scripting.
  They are always enabled.

Hope this helps. Keep Coming for more

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Siebel... First look

Part-1

Siebel, I heard this world when I entered the world of IT. I said to myself what the hell is that, out of university having mind full of the magic words like C++, Java, .Net. The word siebel didn't ring any bell. Then someone from the crowd of the newly joinees blurted out I think it is a CRM and I (well, most of us) had no idea what was he talking about. Then he started telling us some definitions which he must have learnt while completing his course and it was going all over our head we couldn't understand a word.Then as time passed we learnt what actually a CRM is and what exactly is Siebel. I would say I was rather lucky to come or rather stumble across Siebel (Which I realised later.. of course).

Enough of background now something for which you are here.



CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. We come across CRM everyday in our life but we seldom notice it. It is a very basic concept of any business even a street peddler selling trivial stuff uses CRM in on form or the other (I know it sounds absurd right now, but just wait a little more) and still we never notice it.


An example would explain what exactly I mean

When we go to a our shop across the street and we buy say a toothpaste or a tea bag the shop owner knows that we prefer a specific brand and without our asking he presents us with a brand that we want. This in layman terms can defined as a CRM. Now when we talk about MNC's and other really big companies they want to provide their customers with similar personalised experiences so they also depend on CRM for these needs.

We all know that in today's cut throat competition where World is a global village the most difficult thing to do for a business is to retain customers. Dynamics of today's business change very quickly we need to be flexible to accommodate changes may be on daily basis if required. This is where Siebel comes into the picture. It helps us manage every transaction that we have with our customer using technologies like Siebel Analytics forecast what the demand will be in few years to come.It helps in managing business transaction of mammoth level with ease. siebel can be used by wide variety of business including sales, marketing, callcenter etc.

In next few posts I will discuss more about siebel and it various applications.

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