Siebel Consultant

A while ago I discovered the function RaiseError() in Siebel. To be honest, a colleague said that I could use that function in stead of RaiseErrorText().

Since we are implementing a multi-lingual application, all error messages should be multi-lingual. So whenever we wanted to throw an error message in eScript, we used the following code combining RaiseErrorText and LookupMessage in order to throw the error in the correct language.

TheApplication().RaiseErrorText(TheApplication().LookupMessage(”User Defined Errors”, “X_DISPATCH_REQUIRED_FIELDS”));

As you can see, this requires a lot of typing and this was also the opinion of a colleague. He then suggested me to use the RaiseError function instead. This is actually the same, but you just have to pass the name of the error you want to throw as an argument.

TheApplication().RaiseError(”X_BARCODE_NOT_NUMERIC”);

Off course you have to create the error message first in Tools in Message Category -> User Defined Errors and not in User Defined Strings as I tried.

The RaiseError function saves you time on typing code, so be sure to use it next time you want to throw an error in you script when running a multi lingual application.

Today we were facing an issue in the French and Dutch version of our application. Strangely enough, the issue was not occurring in the English application.

Since I thought it was related to eScript, I wanted to debug the code.

So I opened the Options windows and entered the path to the config file for the Dutch application. For some reason, the application was using the srf file in the ENU folder in stead of the NLD folder.

At first I thought something was wrong with the config file but it seemed ok. Then I checked the options for debugging again but they were all filled in correctly.

Being confused about it, I asked a colleague for help and he found on Supportweb Metalink that I had to pass the parameter for the language in the argument field. Adding /L NLD finally fixed the issue and I could start debugging our Dutch application

This is my explanation from now on: I’m compiling.

On my current project, we use JIRA to keep a track of all bugs found in the application. At first, it was a bit difficult using the tool - before we worked with an excel-file - but now it became a second nature. If I can fix my bugs on time, it will be a complete victory.

This is my list that has to be finished by tonight:

Looks possible, doesn’t it?

Today I ran into a very strange Siebel bug in Tools.

I modified a workflow on our development environment and because we’re in the last week of our UAT phase I wanted to deploy it immediately on the UAT server.

So I connected with Tools to UAT and after doing an export of the workflow from Dev, I tried to import it into UAT.
After selecting the project I wanted the workflow to add to, Siebel gave me the following error which seemed a bit strange:’Cannot perform UpdateRecord on the Business Component Repository WorkflowProcess (SBL-EAI-04421)’

After trying several things, I asked a more experience colleague for help. As it turned out, the solutions was very simple. There where already 11 versions of this workflow and for importing a workflow, this was to much.
So if you run into this error, first delete all obsolete versions of your workflow and retry importing the new workflow. It should work like a charm.

When something is not supposed to go wrong, it goes wrong. That’s Murphy’s law, and that is exactly what is happing at our project.

Last week we were suffering from a very slow development environment. Checking out projects in Siebel Tools took 30 - 35 minutes instead of the normal 1 - 2 minutes. Even after moving the database to a new machine where we used only 3 of the 32 processors and we had 21GB ram left, it remained extremely slow.

After some investigation, it turned out that is was a configuration issue. It seemed that every query comming from a programm with SIEB in its name, was checked to see if it was allowed to run. This was causing the slowliness. After changin that check, all went fine.

Untill I received a phonecall this evening. It was my colleague saying that I didn’t need to bother comming in at 6 o’clock as I normally do, because the entire development database was down and the DBA’s come in at 7h30. So let’s hope it’s not a severe issue and we can continue bugfixing very soo.

Let’s launch a new word today. And to make it complete, let’s try to get this word published in Van Dale (a Dutch dictionary)

The new word I’m trying to launch is a word that is being used on my current project by my colleagues.

The word I’m talking about is wimbug. And like all good words it consist of two words wim and bug.

Wim refers - as you might know to myself - and bug is according to wikipedia a software bug (or just “bug”) is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program that prevents it from behaving as intended (e.g., producing an incorrect result).

But what exactly is a wimbug. Well, a wimbug is a bug put in the system while fixing an existing bug. Probably my colleagues will reply that it’s also a bug so stupid that only I could have created it, but in that case the word could not be used widely spread.

So, if you (or somebody else) puts a bug in a system while replacing an existing bug, people can you’ve created a wimbug. You see, it can become a common used word if all of you help me out here.

So I ask you kindly, use the word. It’s all yours. Use it with proud. If you are a webdeveloper, Siebel developer, software developer, … and you have a blog, write about it, use it, spread it and help me getting the word in the dictionary. Together we can make this work. Help the spreading of my new word.

I thank you.

Since my knowledge of Siebel is far from complete, I’m still learning new stuff every day. Yesterday I was working on a little requirement that said that the tab order on the Service Request applet should have a logical order. So I set the tab layout and when I tested it, everything was ok, but when I wanted to create a new Service Request, the cursor automatically showed up in the Contact field instead of the Contract field which was tab n° 1.

After looking in supportweb and asking my colleagues for advice I stumbled upon the DefaultFocus_New Applet User Property where you can specify the field that should have the focus on creating a new record.

Who know’s how much time I would have spent looking to solve this problem if I didn’t found this user property.

Today I was modifying an Email template which is used to send out Opportunity details. The template consists of several template items that already existed but needed to be changed.

On of the template items displays several fields of the account linked to the opportunity such as Account Name, Address fields and some other. As I make my changes and test them I see that the field [Street Address 2] doesn’t show the value of the field but just the name of the field.

I switch to Tools to see if I’m using the correct field and see that the field name is not Street Address 2 but Street Address Line 2. So I change the name of the field in my template item (by hand, not by copy/past) and try again but still no value is showing.

Back to tools to check the name of the field and then I saw my mistake. The name of the field is not Street Address Line 2 but Stree Address Line 2. I immediately think of a typo from me but when I do an About Record for that field I see that it’s a Siebel Vanilla field and that the type is from one of the developers of Siebel.

I was glad to see that even those guys at Siebel make stupid typo’s and do see them.