Wimbug
Sep/073
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.
Typo
Jun/070
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.
Siebel Forum
Jun/0710
A while ago I was discussing with a colleague that we couldn’t find a very good forum about Siebel and that it would be convenient that we would have a forum for all the employees of our company.
And then I suggested, why not make one ourself. And since I already had a very good domain name, the URL for the forum was easily found: http://forum.siebel.be.
It will probably begin as a forum for our company but we hope that it can grow to a international forum for Siebel developers. That’s why we chose to use English instead of Dutch what would have been logical since we are a Belgian company.
You can visit it here. If you like it, you can help by spreading the word and placing a link on your website/blog and promote it to your co-workers. Thanks in advance.
Using Supportweb without logging in
Apr/076
Everybody who works with Siebel and therefor uses Supportweb will probably know about this trick but I mention it anyway (for those who should not know it yet).
When you want to search Supportweb for something you must need a login. If you just want to search, you can use a read-only login. If you want to create a SR, you need read/write access.
But with a little workaround, you can use Supportweb for searching without having a login. How? It’s very easy. Just go to the homepage of Supportweb (which will redirect you to https://ebusiness.Siebel.com/Supportweb/index.asp) and at the loginscreen just press the “Login” button without filling in the fields.
As expected nothing happens and you stay on the login page. Now, type in the address bar http://Supportweb.Siebel.com and you will be able to login and search.
I don’t know if Siebel/Oracle is aware of this ‘bug’ or not but it seems logical that they do, since so many people know about it. And if the didn’t know it, they might know it now. Although I doubt that someone from Oracle reads this blog.