How to customize siebel error messages?

With IP14 Oracle has provided ErrorObjectRenderer.js to replace browser based dialogs with jQuery based dialogs. Problem with browser based dialogs is that users can accidently disable them. Thus it is not a good place to show error messages or important instructions to the user. 

Standard alert()

However jQuery based dialogs always shows up on the screen and user have to click ok always to get past them.

jQuery Dialog

Lets see how we can achieve the same functionality in IP13.  

Open UI framework uses browser alert() function to popup error messages. In Javascript it is possible to override any function including browser native functions like alert and change it according to the business needs.

Simplest way to override alert is to define a function alert() in your code, this will force your browser to call your custom function all the time whenever Siebel calls alert() instead of browser's native function. .

function alert(str){

 $("<div id='my_error'>" + str + "</div>").dialog({
               modal: true,

                buttons: [{ id: "btn-accept",

                    text: "Ok",

                    click: function () { $(this).dialog("close"); }               

                }]

            });

}

Just add the above code in post load file and job done, after executing this code all the error messages will shown in jQuery dialog which will always pop-up. See it in action on codepen

Happy alerting ! 

This is trick is shared by avid reader TJ, please share your tips and tricks in comments below.

Top 10 most annoying features of Open UI!

I am back with another installment of #ShameOnOracle series. I have been doing talking with lot of Siebel users recently, Strange enough I got almost the same reactions when I asked user what they don't like about Open UI.

From the reactions I have created this list of Top 10 most annoying features of Siebel Open UI:

1. No vertical scroll in list applets.
2. No hour glass for system processing.
3. No popup multi-line text areas.
4. MVG lost shuttle applet.
5. Attachment drag and drop doesn't work.
6. On the fly attachment update is not supported.
7. Product configurator is slower than HI product configurator
8. Screen real estate is not utilized properly in 8.1.1.9 to 8.1.1.14, lot of blank spaces left on UI.
9. Keyboard shortcuts doesn't work properly.
10. Document title is not static.

Please be mindful that these list of issues faced by end user at my current customer only and does not represent all users of Siebel Open UI. Issues presented here might not look like an issue to you personally or your customer.

Did you receive same reactions anywhere? Please feel free to share your feedback or solutions in comments below.

#ShameOnOracle

HTML Attributes doesnt work in Siebel Open UI

HTML Attribute Property of applet controls is a standard interactivity application's property which allows to set HTML attributes so that javascript can directly refer that element using document.GetElementById() or GetElementByName()

From Tools help:
"
HTML Attributes (O) -  Specifies to add HTML tag attributes to the HTML tags that the Standard Interactivity client creates when it displays the control. For example, If you set the HTML Attributes property to size=30 for a text box, then the client creates the following tag: <input type = text size=30 . . .>
"

However this trick is not available in Open UI as Open UI is considered to be HI application. Enhancement request has been created by oracle to consider this in future releases.

Solution:

In absense of this attribute property, developers have to scan through the elements using syntax like :

To access control of applet use following in PR layer:

this.GetPM().GetControl ("First Name");

or following to access the applet's wrapper.

var appplet_wrapper = "#s_" + tihs.GetPM().Get("GetFullId") + "_div";

 After getting access to the applet wrapper one can use jquery find method to extract controls of the applet.

 Hope it helps.

Migrating Open UI Manifest data between environments

Siebel Open UI manifest records created in Administration - Application> Manifest Administration, and as per IP 2015 there is no way provided by siebel to migrate the data created to higher environments.  Manifest BusComp are not available in ADM export out of the box.

This limits the siebel automated deployments and introduces manual intervention step.

Searching on support web reveals that Oracle has accepted the system limitaion and created a BUG for it in 2014 however no update has been provided till yet.


From Oracle

"
The manifest is now stored in Repository tables and therefore would be migrated with the rest of the Repository.
With the way Open UI Manifest migration is implemented, there does not appear to be a SIF export; yet, it migrated with the Siebel repository. Thus, it seems there is no way to generate a SIF for the manifest data.  Siebel Tools Object Explorer Screen shot that lists the S_UI_* tables and shows project name: "Repository Table" that proves dev2prod will migrate these.

Customer requested an enhancement on being able to incrementally migrate Manifest information without doing a full repository migration, such as using a .SIF file.
"

Bug created :  BUG 19469254 - OPEN UI MANIFEST MIGRATION BETWEEN ENVIRONMENTS IN .SIF FILES

Solution : 

The only way available now is to manually keep track of the manifest changes and import them through UI with every release.

To make it a bit easier to identify the custom records one search with : [Record Source] = 'Customer'

This will return only the custom created manifest records.

#AnotherBug

Open UI just doesn't work!

I recently met a group of people who basically vented out their first reactions on Siebel Open UI. Group consisted of both technical staff and non technical end users, thus I was able to validate and confirm issues.

At the end of discussion I was left with long list of things that doesn't work in Open UI. On researching support web, picture became more appalling.

Following is the list of very basic things that just don't work in Open UI, and sad part is that Oracle is not acting on them at all.

Please share your views in the comments below.

1. Scrolling through list applet does not work with keyboard shortcut.

   When you get a list applet displayed in Open UI and before you click on any data row you navigate with the keys <CTRL>+<ARROW-DOWN> the focus will jump to the next record.But the previous record is still highlighted.
   Oracle raised couple of bugs for it, but didn't provided any fix for IP2013
   
   

2. Drag and Drop of attachment does not work in IE9 and IE11 in IP2013 however it works in other browsers.

   
   
   
   Open UI Product Management recommends :
   ..."Drag and drop will not work in any IE version in Siebel 8.1.1.10 release and below. The biggest issue here is that IE8 and IE9 simply don’t support standards based drag and drop in HTML5. For IE10 there is a defect in a third party being used to provide this functionality. The third party has resolved the issue and it will be included in a future Siebel release. We would not encourage customers to upgrade the third party themselves, but rather they should wait for the next Siebel release when a fix will be made available"....
   In one of the SR oracle has gone one step further and recommended to change the browser.
   
   

3. Open UI doesn't show hour glass while running query.

   This has been reported to oracle by many customers and since earliest open UI release, still oracle hasn't provided any fix yet.
   Steps to replicate:
   1) Log Into Open UI enabled siebel application
   2) Navigate to Accounts > All Accounts View
   3) Select the field to be searched using In Line Search(dropdown on top of list applet)
   4) Query for a field which can take some time to return records
   5) hourglass not shown and user doesn't know whether the system is querying or not!
   
   

4. Vertical scroll is not present in open ui list applets.

   
   

   

   Siebel HI List Applet

   This one is the annoying thing of open UI. I don't understand why oracle has gone ahead picked up jqgrid for designing list applets. Grid is not capable enough to handle the large amount of data thus vertical scrolling is difficult to implement. This is also the reason of bad performance of Open UI client.
   
   

5. Text area fields in open UI does not pops up.

   
   This is the second most annoying thing for an experienced HI user. Suddenly after upgrade Siebel losses it's popout text areas and no solution was provided till date. I have seen long time wasted to resolve this thing by many developers.
   

We all know list of issues with Open UI doesn't end here. I will create another list of Top 10 annoying things of Open UI to share it with you.

Till the time if you any problem that was just rejected by oracle to fix and think that should get slot in top 10 the please share it in comments below.

#ShameOnOracle