100 Siebel Interview Questions : Workflows : Part 2

On readers interest, creating Part 2 for the post on Siebel Workflow Interview Question, feel free to leave a comment for any specific question that you faced difficulty in answering or would like to know more about any specific area in Siebel.

Question: Is it mandatory to specify Business Object on a Workflow?

Answer: No, Business Object needs to specified only when there is need to use Siebel Operation in Workflow.

Question: What is the difference between Expression business component and Filter business component in Siebel Operation?

Answer: These business components fields are used in Siebel Operation when search spec is built by referencing another business component field.

For Example: To find Account records where Account Id is specified in Contact's Account Id field, expression will be created like :

"[Id] = [Account Id]"

And Filter Business Component will be set as : Account and Expression Business will be set as Contact. Thus it will be evaluated as :

"[Account.Id] = [Contact.Account Id]"

read more on :
How to create Siebel Operation Expression 
Bookshelf: Defining Siebel Operation Search Spec

Question : How to compare two properties in Siebel Workflow?

Answer: Expression on Siebel Conditional branch can be used to compare two properties.  To see how to create expression in siebel workflow please see.

How to invoke siebel workflow through Command Line?

Siebel provides very simple way of handling this situation via server manager. Server manager is command line interface of Siebel which primarily designed to perform system administration activities like starting and stopping components, it can also be used create requests for the server components.

To execute a siebel workfow through command line first we need to connect to the server manager through this command:

srvrmgr /g gateway1 /e enterprise1 /s server1 /u sadmin /p pwd

 And then execute following command

run task for component WfProcMgr with processname='Test Workflow'

You additionally pass SearchSpec and use workflow process batch manager to execute workflow for multiple records.

run task for component WfProcBatchMgr with processname='Test Workflow', SearchSpec ='[Date]=Today()-1'  

This solution has only two limitations,  

First, we can not pass values for process properties of the workflow. This has to be done by querying the values first and then calling the actual workflow.

Second, if the batch size is huge it might take few hours to serveral hours to process depending upon the workflow process. This happens because Workflow Process Batch Manager executes the workflow in sequence. That means it will only start the workflow for second record when first is finished.

Please share your experiences with Batch processes designed through command line.  

Responsive UI Demo of Siebel Open UI IP2014

With IP2014 Siebel has adopted responsive UI design which adapts the UI in real time to the screen size and HTML5 capabilities available on the device. Following video is the best Siebel demo we have ever seen so far.

Please watch and Share!!  

Demo showcases :
- Differences between desktop and tablet devices(ipad)
- HTML 5 Compatibility test
- Application menu adapts to screen size (hides context menu on iPad)
- Icons are larger on tablet device for easy navigation.
- Calendar changes the layout for easier navigation in iPad
- Fluid Grid adapts to the resolution of desktop application into a tablet mode and further to mobile resolutions 
- Checkbox adapts to slider using plugin wrapper on iPAD
- MVG shows both shuttle applet and list applet.
- MVG on iPAD shows as pre IP2014 application.
- iPAD enables multi-select checkboxes.
- Scrolling in remains the same in desktop as in IP2013
- Infinite Scrolling is available in iPAD with progress bar!!! No need of IP2013 Solution  

How to get current timestamp in JavaScript?

Following Javascript code returns current date and timestamp of client. This is quite handy for Open UI development, one can call following code from console.log() method to record the invocation sequence which is otherwise very difficult.

function displayTime(str2) {  
    var str = "";
    var currentTime = new Date()
    var hours = currentTime.getHours()
    var minutes = currentTime.getMinutes()
    var seconds = currentTime.getSeconds()
    var milliseconds = currentTime.getMilliseconds()
    if (minutes < 10) {
        minutes = "0" + minutes
    }
    if (seconds < 10) {
        seconds = "0" + seconds
    }
    str += hours + ":" + minutes + ":" + seconds + ":" + milliseconds;
    return str2 + ": " + str;
    }

Siebel Open UI Example:

 console.log("PR Invoked" + displayTime("@"));

Hope it helps. 

How to traverse javascript object?

For in loop is one of my favourite commands of JavaScript and it just one step behind the modest alert() ;) 

It is a very powerful command and helps you to loop through any JavaScript object without knowing what object is all about. You don't need to know the types that exists in the object or number of child objects that object has. You just need have the handle of the object and you can loop through all its properties.

It is quite handy if you cant get your head around Siebel Open UI and you want to know what else is available in that object and how the functions are implemented in an object.

Examples:

MyPM.prototype.Setup = function (propSet) {       
    for(var x in propSet){console.log(x + "" + propSet[x]);
    }
        SiebelAppFacade.MyPM.superclass.Setup.call(this, propSet);
}

In this example I am trying to find what else is passed through the property set by Siebel to the Setup function of Presentation Model. and the following I am trying to all the methods that are available by theApplication() object.

for(var x in theApplication()){
console.log(x + " " + theApplication[x]);
}

For those who don't know, For in loop is just plain old JavaScript and is not some thing the jQuery offers.

Happy Hacking :)