Siebel CRM How To – Invoke Wrokflow through BC User Property

Till siebel 7.5 the only method know to invoke workflows were

• Runtime Events in start step of workflow
• Business Service
• Business Component Script
• Workflow Policies

But from Siebel 7.7 ownwards there is one more method by which we can invoke a workflow. That way is Siebel business Component user property. You can ‘Named Methodn‘ user property in a BC which can invoke a workflow where n is increment to the last named method user property defined on that BC.

Name: Named Method

Value:[Event Name] , “INVOKESVC”, , “Workflow Process Manager”, “RunProcess”, ‘ProcessName’,[Name of the Workflows] , ‘RowId’, [Row Id Value]

Example

The below mentioned will invoke a workflow named ‘Example Workflow’ when a new record is created in Example BC.

Name: Named Method 1

Value: “New Record”, “INVOKESVC”, “Example”, “Workflow Process Manager”, “RunProcess”, “‘ProcessName'”, “Example Wrokflow”, “‘RowId'”, “[Id]”

Hope this post helps you. If yes, Please post your comments.

Siebel CRM – Workflow Debugging through Logs.

When we talk about Siebel, I think Workflows are the most common term that we come across after Object Manager. We can achive really complex functionality through worklfows but what it means is that debugging them is equally complex. We generally test workflows through Simulation but if we were debug workflows in real time it can be quite painful and time consuming.

A simple method to debug workflow is to increase the log level for Workflow Process Manager (WPM) component. But if somebody has ever tried that he can vouch that it can be quite a headache to go through that log (believe me it is a lot and it can go up in MB’s even if the workflow is of moderate complexity). And what’s more is that most of the information that is contained in that log is useless and not realted to workflow functionality.
So here in this article I am going to present a pretty simple technique which can help you to get just the right amount of information that you need to debug a workflow.
Instead of increasing the log level of complete WPM component if you just increase the log level of just selective sub-components that should do the trick. I will list down the Sub-Components that you need to increase the log level to get just the appropirate information that you need.

• Workflow Definition Loading
• Workflow Engine Invoked
• Workflow Process Execution
• Workflow Step Execution
• SQL Tracing

Just increase the log level of the above said components from 1 to 4 and you are done !!!!!
To get logs from dedicated client you need set the Environmental Variable on your system. To understand the process of doing that Please go through my Old Post where I have explained about siebel logs.

Hope this post has helped you.
If the answer is “YES”!! Please leave your comments and visit again.

Runtime Events Workflows – Part 2

Click Here to Goto Part 1 of this Article

This Article is about Siebel CRM 7.X Workflows and Runtime Events. It tells you how can we use them to our advantange.

In this article I will tell you about the actual process of Setting up Runtime Event and Business Service assuming you have working knowledge of both. If you want to know the basics of these please see other posts of my blog.

Just one important thing that you should know about runtime evetns is that they are executed even before the Business Component Events.

To explain it better I am taking an example where our requirement is to execute a workflow when you click Submit Oppty button on Opportunity Form Applet.

1. Goto Administration ==>Runtime Events Screen
2. Goto Action Sets View
3. Create a New Record in the Action Set View of Runtime Events Administration Screen
4. Enter Any Name in the Name Field of the Action Set List Applet
5. Create New Record List Applet Below it
6. Enter

Name = “TestRuntimeEvent” ;
Action Type = “Business Service” ;
Sequence = “1”

1. In the Form Applet Below Enter the Following Details Business Service = “TestBS” ; Business Service Method = “TestMethod”8. Click Menu ==> Reload Runtime Events Make Sure that you have Active Flag checked in both List Applets.

You are done in Action Set View.

Now Goto Events view and Follow the steps given below

1. Click New and Enter the Following Information

Sequence = 1 ;
Object Type = “Applet” ;
Object Name = “Opportnity Form Applet” ;
Event = “InvokeMethod” ;
Sub Event = “Submit Oppty” ;
Action Set = “TestRunTimeEvent”

Conditional Expression should be given if you want the restrict the execution of this Runtime Event to certain conditions and Action Set Name is always the name of the action set that we created.

2. Click Menu ==> Reload Runtime Events.

* Everytime you make a change to runtime events you have to Reload them to activate the changes that you have made.

Now we are through the Runtime Event parts.

What we have done so far is that When user clicks Submit Oppty button it is going to call BS named TestBS with method as “TestMethod”.

Now we are going to write the code in the busines service which will actually result in the execution of Workflow Process Asynchronously.

1. Go To Administration ==> Business Service
2. Create a Business Record with name “TestBS”
3. Create a Record in List Applet for Service_PreInvokeMethod and choose Programming Langauge as “eScript”

Write the Following code in Code Window inside the function Service_PreInvokeMethod

if(MethodName == “TestMethod”)
{
var svc;
var child;
var input;
var output;
var rowid;
var bo = TheApplication().ActiveBusObject();
var bc = bo.GetBusComp(“Opportunity”); // Change the BusComp name with the name of the BusComp you want to execute the workflow with
svc = TheApplication().GetService(“Asynchronous Server Requests”); // Don’t change this – Actual BS that is responsible for submitting a job to WPM
input = TheApplication().NewPropertySet();
child = TheApplication().NewPropertySet();
output = TheApplication().NewPropertySet();
input.SetProperty(“Component”, “WfProcMgr”);
rowid = bc.GetFieldValue(“Id”);
// We would like to pass the row id of the Current record on which the user is working – You can pass more than one arguments
child.SetProperty(“ProcessName”, “Service Agreement – Agreement Status”); // Workflow process you want to execute
child.SetProperty(“RowId”, rowid); // passing the values
input.AddChild(child);
svc.InvokeMethod(“SubmitRequest”, input, output); /// invoking the business service method
svc = null; // nullfiying the objects
child = null;
output = null;
input = null;
return(CancelOperation);
}

And you are done!!!!!!!!!
Please post your comments if this post helps you in anyway.

Click Here to Goto Part 1 of this Article

Siebel CRM – How To Call a Workflow Asynchronously?

This Article is about Siebel CRM 7.X Workflows and Runtime Events. It tells you how can we use them to our advantange.
We all want the response time of our Application to be as fast as it can and we do everything that we can to achieve that. I am going to tell you about a way which can help you to reduce the response time without actually reducing any functionality. Siebel can execute workflows in two ways.

• Synchronous
• Asynchronous

Synchronous Execution : When workflows are executed Synchronously then user gets the control back only when the workflow has finished it execution.

Asynchronous Execution: When workflows are executed Asynchronously then user gets back the control immediately and the workflow is submitted to workflow process manager (WPM) as a job to be executed. WPM then executes the job later.

Often we have a functionality where large amount of processing needs to be done on an object which user is not going to use access right now. I can explain it with an example.

When user clicks copy button on a opportunity or quote we want certain custom entities to be copied over but which user will not access at that time but later.

So, we can reduce our response time by just copying the quote or opportunity synchronously and placing the code of copying of custom entities in workflow and executing that workflow asynchronously.

There are two way to execute a workflow asynchronously

• Workflow Policy
• Runtime Event and Business Service (BS) Combination

Workflow Policy is pretty traditional method of executing a workflow process.
You create a policy. Enter the conditions Specify the workflow to be executed Generate Triggers
I wouldn’t go into details of creating a policy but I will tell you some disadvantages of using Workflow Policy

1. Slow Execution
2. Difficult to setup
3. Not Reliable and Error Prone

But from siebel 7.7 onwards we have another more robust, efficient and quicker way to do that which is Runtime Events and Business Service.

Continue to Part 2