It turned out that BI Publisher standard sets all fields of a PDF report to readonly. The PDF template is filled in with data coming from Siebel but when the report is generated, all form fiels are readonly.

To change this behaviour, you only have to create a new configuration file overwriting the standard settings. This configuration file is named xdo.cfg and has to be saved under <JRE_TOP>/jre/lib
Remark: no default configuration file is provided

The configuration file with the propertie to make all PDF report fields editable should look like this:

<config version=”1.0.0″
xmlns=”http://xmlns.oracle.com/oxp/config/”>
<!– Properties –>
<properties>
<!– PDF Security –>
<property name=”all-field-readonly”>false</property>
</properties>
</config>

Once the file is in place, the only thing left to do is restarting BI Publisher.

At the project where I’m currently working, some new elevators are installed. And one elevator is somewhat confused when it goes down from the 9th floor.

In Siebel Tools, there are two ways to do this:

1. Via Edit Web Layout

• Search in the Object Explorer for your applet and right click in the right hand pane on the record and select Edit Web Layout.
• Select the field you want to show in the Show More mode of the applet and right click.
• Select More
• After you compiled the applet, the field will be displayed if you click the Show More button.

2. Via the Object Explorer

• Search in the Object Explorer for your applet
• Go to -> Applet Web Template Items
• Query for the field(s) you want to show in the Show More section of the applet
• Fill in “More” in the Mode field.
• After you compiled the applet, the field will be displayed if you click the Show More button.

Do you have a blog or website about Siebel? Do you want to share your knowledge with others? Just drop the link in the comments and I’ll put it in my blogroll. No questions asked.

The only thing I would like in return is a link on your blog/website to siebelconsultant.net.

Problem:

This issue only occurs with controls that invoke a custom method.

Normally when you query in Siebel, you only see the Go, Cancel and Query Assistant buttons but for some reason, buttons that invoke a custom method are also showing on the applet after pressing Query.

In our case this was causing confusion since our custom buttons had the same caption.

Solution:

First I tried to find a solution on Metalink, but there I found the suggestion to use BrowserScripting to hide the buttons but that is like fighting fire with fire.

Then, I’ve noticed that the buttons are not showing in the Query Mode if they are disabled before you press the query button. So the solution is very simple. Set the CanInvoke for the method behind the button to false and the button will not show when you do a query.

To do so, start by setting a Profile Attribute to true on the WebApplet_PreInvokeMethode for the NewQuery method. This Profile Attribute has to be set back to false of course to avoid that you’re button stays disabled. The best place to do this is on the PreInvoke of the methods ExecuteQuery and CancelQuery.

function WebApplet_PreInvokeMethod (MethodName)
{
switch(MethodName){
case “NewQuery”:
TheApplication().SetProfileAttr(“QueryMode”, “TRUE”);
return (ContinueOperation);
break;
case “ExecuteQuery”:
case “CancelQuery”:
TheApplication().SetProfileAttr(“QueryModeBPG”, “FALSE”);
return (ContinueOperation);
break;
}
return (ContinueOperation);
}

Next, you test for this Profile Attribute in the WebApplet_PreCanInvokeMethod to set the CanInvoke for the method to true or false.

If the Profile Attribute is true the Query button is pressed and the button should become disabled so it’s not displayed on the applet. When the query is executed or cancelled, the Profile Attribute is false and the button can become enabled again if other conditions are met.

case ‘StartActivity’:
if( … ){
CanInvoke = ‘FALSE’;
}
else{
if(TheApplication().GetProfileAttr(“QueryMode”) == “TRUE”){
CanInvoke = “FALSE”;
return (CancelOperation);
}
else{
CanInvoke = ‘TRUE’;
return (CancelOperation);
}
}
break;

When you now query, you see that the buttons are no longer displayed.

After running or canceling the query, the buttons are displayed again and will be enabled if they have to be.

Problem:

We noticed the problem first when trying to delete an activity using the Dutch application. Instead of the delete confirmation dialog box, we received an empty message box as shown below.

As we went further through the application we noticed some more empty message boxes where we didn’t expect them – do you ever expect an ampty message box I wonder?

It took some time to find out what was causing this issue.

Solution:

The solution to this problem is actually very easy. Go to the Siebel webserver and open the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. In the left hand pane go to Web Sites -> Default website and select the url for the application where the issue is occuring. Rightclick and choose Properties.

The value for Local Path should be c:\SWEApp\PUBLIC\<language> where <language> is the language of your application. In our case it was pointing to the ENU directory while it was the NLD application.

After changing the Local Path and performing an IIS reset, the problem was fixed and the messages were shown in Dutch.

Surprisingly the third or fourth result was about exactly the same problem we had so I clicked on the link to read more about it. Sadly, the solution provided was not what I expected but there was an Id for a change request. So I copied the Id and pasted in to the search field to find out more about this change request.

There were only 2 results so I wanted to go back to my first search and pressed the back button in Firefox. One click brought me back to the article with the strange solution and I thought I one click on the back button would bring me back to my search results.

But it seems that Metalink performed a new search with the current string in the search field. So I ended up again with the two results for the Id of the change request. I wonder why Metalink does this. If I press back, I actually want to go back to the page I visited before and not get a new search result depending on what is in the search field at that time.

Is there someone from Siebel/Oracle umong my readers that can clarify why this happens?

Problem:

I was using the Siebel Dedicated Client because I wanted to test some eScript I wrote. When I tried to resend an email linked to a Service Request I received this error message.

The Siebel email client automation object is not found. Please check your browser setting to make sure downloading ActiveX control is enabled. If this does not solve your problem, please ask your system administrator to check the configuration.(SBL-CSR-00900)

Solution:

To make sure the Email client automation object can be downloaded correctly, perform the steps below:

• Check the server to make sure that Automation object is enabled and your browser setting allows ActiveX objects to be downloaded.
• Make sure that SWE properties are set
  In your .cfg file set the following parameters in the [SWE] section to TRUE:
  EnableWebClientAutomation = TRUE
  EnableEmailClientAutomation = TRUE
• Downloading ActiveX controls
  If you suspect that a user does not have the correct ActiveX controls, clear the existing ActiveX controls from the user’s browser, and on the next login, the controls should be downloaded. Follow these steps to clear the existing control:
  1. Clear the browser and reload its ActiveX controls.
  2. Exit out of browser.
  3. Launch Internet Explorer and navigate to Tools > Internet Options.
  4. Select Delete Cookies button.
  5. Select Delete Files button.
  6. Select Clear History button.
  7. Select the Settings button and select the View Objects button.
  8. Delete all of the files in this window.
  9. Login to the Siebel Application again
     

The problem with SmartScripts however is that they all need to be released whenever they are created. And since the customer is working with 3 different languages, this means a lot of manual labour.

Therefore, I’ve come up with a simple but clever solution. I’ve added to extra buttons on the top applet called Unrelease All and Release All.

To (un)release all SmartScripts at once, the user simply has to query in the bottom applet for the correct language and click on the Unrelease All or Release all button. The script behind the buttons then performs the action for all SmartScripts for the specified language.

In the customer’s case, you have to perform this action 3 times (for languages ENU, NLD and FRA) in stead of around 100 times for each SmartScript individually.

You might have noticed that no new posts were put here for some time. The reason was that I was a bit too lazy to do so.

But now I’ve found somenew energy so this is a fresh start. The purpose is now not only to blog about Siebel but also a bit more about my personal life. Of course, the main topic will remain Siebel, but still, some personal blogpostswill spice up this blog.

So get ready and join me in this new Diary of a Siebel Consultant.