Traditionally Siebel CRM has been heavily dependent on ActiveX controls. Oracle offers lifetime support on any Siebel version post version 8.0 (launched in February 2007). As of Siebel 15 (Innovation Pack 2015), almost all of the Active X controls have been replaced by Java scripts as a part of the Open UI enablement. New customers deploying Siebel are truly browser-independent…
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In the last two articles we covered the process of upgrading a development database. The steps involved were as follows: Upgrade the Development Database. Run the incremental merge. Resolve the conflicts. Run the post-merge utilities. Update the physical database with the custom objects. The steps above are only required to upgrade a development database. This article covers the upgrade process… Read more
As mentioned in the last article in this series, the Siebel upgrade process is split into 3 separate parts: Upgrade the Non-Production Database (Development Database). Perform the Database Upgrade. Perform the Incremental Repository Merge and any bug fixes. Upgrade the production database (Non-Development instances). We previously covered the first part of the upgrade, which was performing the database upgrade. During… Read more
There’s something slightly oxymoronic about the phrase XQuery Update Facility. Make your mind up, dude – are you querying or updating? You cannae do both! But as, with each passing year, XQuery got more powerful and more popular the lack of an ability to modify XML documents began to look more and more like a gaping hole. And so, in… Read more
In the nine previous articles in this series, we have learnt how to set up a Siebel Sandbox instance for Siebel users who want to re-implement Siebel and how to upgrade the application servers for users who want to perform an in-place upgrade. This article is relevant to all users who want to perform an in place upgrade. This might… Read more
In the first article in the series we talked about having multiple paths for a Siebel upgrade. In a nutshell: For Siebel versions 8.0.X and early 8.1 customers the best possible route is to re-implement Siebel rather than upgrade. For this purpose we had suggested that a sandbox environment be set up so that the existing business processes can b… Read more
In an earlier article, I discussed Automatic big table cache (ABTC) which is a new feature introduced in Oracle Database 12.1.0.2c. Automatic big table cache is an optional section of the buffer cache reserved for storing large objects. It tracks only big tables and automatically caches scanned big objects in big table cache thereby avoiding direct path reads. It caches… Read more
In the last article in this series, we completed the installation of all of the Siebel components for our sandbox. In this article we will configure all those components so that we can start the Siebel application up. Siebel has to be configured in a specific sequence: Create a Gateway Name Server. Configure an enterprise in the Gateway Name Server… Read more
This is the fourth part of a series introducing Oracle developers to XQuery. In the first three parts we’ve talked about XPath, Oracle’s implementation of XQuery, and FLWOR. This article won’t be taking on anything so meaty; I just want to clear up some odds and ends that I think are important, but I wasn’t able to shoehorn into any… Read more
As mentioned in the last article in this series, we have completed all the tasks necessary to create the Siebel Sandbox environment, except for the installation of the Siebel Application software itself. Up to now we have completed the following tasks: Setup of an Amazon Instance with 3 servers. Setup of Java and IIS. Setup and configuration of the Orac… Read more
In the previous installment of this series we looked at methods for seeing the pattern of the changes that would appear in a table and its indexes after a large delete. In this installment we move on to the workload implied by different patterns, then think about strategies or, indeed, the need for strategies for reducing that workload at t… Read more
The final step before we can start the Siebel Server installation is to configure the database server. In the last article in this series we completed the following tasks: Installation of the Oracle Database server on the Amazon server called Siebel Database Server. Creation of an Oracle Database called “SiebelDB”. Installation of the Oracle Client on all the servers. Befor… Read more
Before we can start installing the Siebel Application software we have a few more steps to complete. Just to recap the steps we have completed so far, we have: Set up a 3-server instance using Amazon AWS. We have downloaded all the installation software. We have extracted the software for the Database Server and the Siebel application. We have created… Read more
This is the third instalment in a series of articles that I’m hoping will serve as a primer for Oracle developers interested in learning about Xquery. And – confession time – I’ve left the best part for last. However, you really should start with Part 1. Good things come to those who wait. In the first article we talked about… Read more
The extraction of zip files is usually a fairly simple exercise, but in the case of Siebel CRM it is a unique challenge in its own right. The Siebel Network image creator (SNIC) can be executed with the JRE as well, however installing the Java development kit is advisable for 2 reasons: The SQL developer, which will be required at… Read more
This article requires that you have an Amazon AWS instance set up, as detailed in the previous article in this series. Downloading installation files should be something which is fairly simple, however in the Oracle scheme of things, the simplest of things can sometimes be the toughest. The first thing which needs to be done before the download is to… Read more
Serial direct path reads were first introduced in Oracle 11g to prevent wiping out a large number of buffers from the buffer cache by a serial large table scan. As a result, big tables accessed via serial Full Table Scans bypass the Buffer Cache and read data from the Data Files into the users’ Program Global Area (PGA). This prevents flooding… Read more
In this series of articles I’m hoping to provide a primer for newish Oracle developers who are curious about XQuery and are looking to dip their toes into its world. If that’s you, hi, nice to meetcha. Or rather, nice to meetcha again. This is the second article in the series; go back and read the first if you haven’t… Read more
A Siebel CRM upgrade project typically consists of numerous iterations even before the actual development and bug fixes take effect. It is wise to follow the age old adage “measure twice, cut once”. It makes practical sense not to upgrade the development instance until the upgrade team is absolutely sure of the upgrade process itself, since there will be slight… Read more
As of the most recent Forrester Wave Report for Customer Relationship Management applications, Oracle’s Siebel CRM is still quite a way ahead of its competition. This is despite the fact that around 2011-2012, Oracle invested heavily in the Fusion CRM stack, which unfortunately did not stand up well against the competition. In early 2013, Oracle restarted the development on t… Read more