Hidden methods of Outbound Communication Manager Business Service

Hi all.
Recently i had a requirement to integrate SMS functionality in siebel while exploring the solution for this i found one method 'ExpandCommTemplate' of Outbound Communication Manager which is used to convert the template content to Process Property which can be used in siebel workflows.

I used this method to convert the Template data to process property and sent the data in SMS body. I will post the details of how to send SMS in upcoming posts.

Business Service Name : Outbound Communication Manager

Business Service Method : ExpandCommTemplate

In Multi Value property window specify the following detals.

CommTemplateName : Name of Template

SourceBusObj : Name of  Business Object

SourceId : Object Id of record

The output is returned as Output argument.

ExpandedText, contains the template body

ExpandSubject, contains the template subject.

these values can be stored in Process Properties and can be used further.

Hope this was helpful .. cheers

Passing inputs from one workflow to sub workflow in Siebel

Hi all . i had a requirement to pass process properties from main workflow to sub process , the approach is very simple we can easily pass process properties from a workflow to sub process input arguments and also get the  output from the sub process in output arguments.
1.We need to create process properties in the parent workflow and map the process properties to process properties created in sub process.
2.for example suppose we need to pass say Card Number to sub process for this
#Create a process property in workflow say CardNumber also create a process property in sub process say CardNum
#In property window of sub process ,pass CardNumber in input argument and map this with CardNum of child sub process.
#If we need to get any output from sub process map the process property of main workflow and sub process in output argument.
See below for illustration.

Define sub Process in Main Workflow

Define Input Arguments 

Define Output Arguments

hope this was helpful .. cheers ..

Updating Records using "Inbound E-mail Database Operations" Business Service

Hi all , in my previous post http://siebelfoundation.blogspot.com/2015/06/siebel-operations-using-inbound-e-mail.html i described how tosearch for a record using the Business service ,this BS can also be used for updating a record.

Documentation related to Update Record operation of the BS is not given in bookshelf ,we need to give the following inputs.

Method : UpdateRecord
Business Service : Inbound E-mail Database Operations

The Following inputs need to be passed

Input Argument	Description
BusComp	Name of Business Component
BusObject	Name of Business Object
Id	Id of Record to Query
Field: Status	Field to update

The limitation of the method is that we have to query using Row Id only.

Hope this was helpful .. Cheers..

Calculating difference between two dates in Siebel workflow

Recently i had a requirement where i had to calculate difference between two dates and perform some check if difference was exceeding a given number.
There can be multiple ways of solving the problem the two best one are either write a custom script and do calculation there or use the expression in workflow and store dates in process properties and do checks there.
My requirement was to compare Date of Transaction with present date and Execute a operation only if the difference was greater than 10 Days.

Approach : 

1. Create 2 Process Properties , 

Name : JulianDayToday 

Value : Timestamp()

Name : TxnProcessedDate

Value : Create Date Field of BC

The Difference can be calculated with Expression 

Difference = [&TxnProcessedDate] - [&JulianDayToday]

value stored in difference can be used in decision points to execute the desired step.

hope this was helpful .. cheers..

Siebel Operations using Inbound E-mail Database Operations Business Service

Hi all, While working with Siebel workflows i came across this Business Service “Inbound E-mail Database Operations” which I found very useful. It has the following methods.

Method Name	Comment
AttachFile	Creates an attachment record.
DeleteRecord	Deletes a record.
ExpandBCTemplate	Substitutes values in a template.
FindRecord	Finds a record. This method recognizes the CaseInsensitive parameter in the CFG file. By default, the CFG file is configured to perform case-sensitive searches.
FindRecordEx	Matches contacts when processing inbound email. Only Siebel Email Response uses this business service. This business service finds all contacts in the Siebel database with a primary or alternate email address that matches the From email address of the inbound email and then associates each contact with the email activity record.
GetFieldValues	Gets the field values from a record.
GetRecordList	Gets a list of records.
InsertRecord	Inserts a record.
UseLocale	Designates the hour clock for the server. A value of False (the default) indicates the server runs on a 24-hour clock. A value of True indicates the server runs on a 12-hour clock. The Run Process workflow receives the date (Planned) from the driver in 24-hour format. Workflow executes the request on the server side. Siebel Server can run on a computer using a 12-hour or 24-hour clock.

While working in workflow it can be used as a alternative for Query Siebel Operation, to perform Search Operation also it can be used for various other methods mentioned above.

It is easy to use ,we need to pass the following argument in input and can store the output in Process properties for further use.

The following arguments need to be passed as input 

Input Argument	Description
BusComp	Name of Business Component
BusObject	Name of Business Object
QueryField	Field to Query
ValueField	Field whose value to get

and in the output argument the value can be stored in Process property.

for more details you can refer bookshelf http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E14004_01/books/eMail/eMail_BusServMeth5.html

cheers..