Have you ever tried to add or change icons on screen tabs in Siebel HI application?

Before that,

Do you think, we can configure screen tab icons in Siebel HI at all?

And what about Siebel Open UI?

Answer is YES!

We can add or change icons on screen tabs in Siebel HI as well as Open UI application.

There are two ways to change screen tab icons in Siebel –

1. Repository Dependent Process – Configure Bitmap category and Bitmap in Siebel Tools

2. Repository Independent Process – Find out the image name and replace it with custom image

We all like fast and non srf solution, isn’t!

Here, we will discuss about repository independent process in details. Though we will brief you about srf dependent process also but main focus will be on non srf solution.

You may think, what is the use or business value of changing screen tab icons?

Well,

It’s not like that it does not have any business value. Better user experience is also a business value, right?

You know, image can engage users more than just a text.

Even we have seen a customer who asked to replace all texts from screen tabs with images completely just for better user experience.

So,

Steps for non srf solution to change icons on screen tabs in Siebel HI or Open UI:

Step 1. Find out the image name, responsible to display icon on screen tab

You already know how to find out any element or object in Siebel Open UI, right?

If not, you must go through our Open UI training articles, particularly Siebel Open UI theme customization.

Here we will change screen icon for ‘Account‘ tab.

So, right click on ‘Account‘ screen icon and click on ‘Inspect Element‘ to launch inspector.

Under Elements tab, you should see highlighted ‘img‘ html tag. Once you keep the cursor over that highlighted script, you will see a popup of that image and icon on screen tab will also be highlighted.

Now seeing the image, you can tell the image file name and size.

For ‘Account‘, image file name is ‘accounts_icon.gif‘ and size is ‘16X16‘ pixels.

Image size is important because we have to replace this image with same size image. Otherwise Siebel will not display the icon properly.

For this tutorial, we have got a custom image with 16X16 pixels.

If you want to increase the size for screen tab icons, then you have to modify CSS rules.

You can test it by updating CSS properties inline using browser developer tool.

On the right hand side, you can see few CSS properties from theme-base.css file, right?

Just change the height parameter from 16px to any other value and see, icon size is changed. Likewise you can test font size, padding, line height also. To know more about theme related configuration, read our article on Siebel Open UI theme.

Anyway, back to our topic.

So far, we know what is the image name and where to find it.

Step 2. Verify custom image

Same as application loading image, screen tab icon also has size limit. From the previous step, we have got to know that best fit image size is 16X16 pixels.

To resize custom image, you can use any third party tool like Microsoft Office picture Manager, Picresize.

Also don’t forget to save it with .gif format.

Step 3. Replace the out of box image

Now,

Copy your custom image file under ‘IMAGES‘ folder.

For dedicated client, copy the image under ..Client\PUBLIC\<lang>\IMAGES.

For web client, copy it under Siebel Web Server\PUBLIC\<lang>\images.

Do not delete the out of box image!

Before copying the custom image, rename the vanilla one. So that, if it requires, you can always get the vanilla image.

Step 4. Verify Siebel Open UI application

Now clear browser cache and relaunch Siebel Open UI application, you should see the new icon.

Simple and easy!!

But,

It has a drawback 🙁

What will happen if the same vanilla image has been used in other place/s as well?

In this scenario, vanilla image will not appear in any other place as you have changed the name.

But,

Good thing is that, we have never faced such issue but it may occur. In this case, you have to go for srf dependent process to change icons on screen tabs.

So, just a brief about Repository Dependent Process.

First, find out the ‘Bitmap Category’ and ‘Bitmap’ responsible to display the icon.

If the screen tab has icon, it will have ‘Bitmap Category’ also.

So navigate to Siebel Tools -> Screen and search for the screen.

From ‘Bitmap Category’ property in Screen object, you will get the category name.

If there is no category associated, you have to create a new one.

So copy the category name and query for the category under ‘Bitmap Category’ object.

Come down to the ‘Bitmap‘ child object and query with Name = Screen Tab Icon. If it is not there, then we have to create a new one with image name.

Name: Screen Tab Icon
Filename: Custom image file name

Do not forget to copy the custom image under ‘IMAGES’ folder as specified in step 3.

Compile all changes and launch the application. You must see the custom icon instead of vanilla.

Good enough!

If you have any question, please let us know.

Also if you want us to discuss any business scenario in this ‘Configuring Siebel Open UI‘ series, please leave your comment below.

Don’t forget to leave your feedback in the comment section!

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Watch our YouTube Video on how to configure Siebel Open UI to change icons on screen tabs:

‘Configuring Siebel Open UI‘ is our next series where we will discuss how to customize application as per business requirements.

Well,

Have gone through all Siebel Open UI training articles?

If not, we would suggest you to read Open UI tutorials first and then start configuration. 

Now its time to customize Siebel Open UI application.

We will start with few easy and interesting configuration requirements. Later we will discuss actual business scenarios.

Remember,

You must follow best practices as much as possible during Siebel Open UI configuration.

So,

Lets start with a simple requirement – change the application default loading image.

Though it does not have much business impact but we have seen many customers to change default loading images.

By default Siebel Open UI loading image looks like this – (spinning wheel).

We will change it to this – (running man).

Though our custom image looks like static image but actually it is an animated image 🙂

Sounds interesting?

Lets look configuration steps.

Steps for configuring Siebel Open UI loading image:

1. Verify custom image size

2. Rename out of box loading image (loadingAjax.gif)

3. Copy custom image

4. Verify Siebel Open UI application

Step 1: Verify custom image size

Very first step is to check custom image size. Image size must be less than or equal to 32 X 32 pixels. Otherwise Siebel will display only part of the image during application load.

To resize custom image, you can use any third party tool like Microsoft Office picture Manager, Picresize .

If you are using animated image, then don’t forget to save it with .gif format.

Step 2: Rename out of box loading image (loadingAjax.gif)

Do you know that loadingAjax.gif is responsible to display spinning wheel during application load?

So, before copying the custom image, rename ‘loadingAjax.gif’ file to keep the out of box image.

To rename the file, go to IMAGES folder under ..Client\PUBLIC\enu\IMAGES (for dedicated) or ..webserver\PUBLIC\enu\images (for web client), search for the file ‘loadingAjax.gif’ and rename it.

Step 3: Copy custom image

Now copy-paste your custom image file under IMAGES folder and rename it as loadingAjax.gif.

Step 4: Verify Siebel Open UI application

Delete browser’s cookies / history and launch the application. You should see your custom loading image instead of default image.

Simple and easy, isn’t it!!

If you have changed the default loading image in Siebel HI, then you are already familiar with these steps.

We have followed almost similar approach for Open UI also.

Do you want us to discuss any business scenario in this ‘Configuring Siebel Open UI’ series? please write us.

Also dont forget to leave your feedback in the comment section below.

Keep in touch, follow TechOneStop on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Google+.

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Watch our YouTube Video on how to configure Siebel Open UI to change application default loading image:

SBL-DAT-00500 and SBL-EAI-04451: There were more rows than could be returned. Please refine your query to bring back fewer rows.

Reason:

By default any business component query with ForwardBackward mode can fetch up to 10000 records at a time. If any query (generated by eScript or Workflow or any other way) returns more than 10000 records, Siebel throws this error ‘There were more rows than could be returned.’

How to fix:

Below we have mentioned 3 solutions to fix this error. You could choose one as per your requirement.

Solution 1: Use ExecuteQuery with ForwardOnly mode

This is the best solution if it fulfills your requirement. Oracle also suggests not to use ‘ForwardBackward’ mode with ExecuteQuery if it is not absolutely required. Instead of ‘ForwardBackword’, use execute query with ‘ForwardOnly’ mode that does not limit on fetching records.

Solution 2: Refine query

If you have to use ‘ForwardBackward’ mode to meet the requirement, try to add few more conditions so that Siebel fetches less than 10000 records at a time.

If there is an absolute need of fetching more than 10000 records using ‘ForwardBackward’ query mode, then only go for solution 3.

Solution 3: Change ‘DSMaxFetchArraySize’ parameter value

DSMaxFetchArraySize is a subsystem parameter that determines the number of records a business component query with ‘ForwardBackword’ mode can fetch at a time. By default, DSMaxFetchArraySize has value ‘0’ that means business component can return only 10000 records in ForwardBackward query mode. It does not restrict the number of records in ForwardOnly execution mode. If you want to get all rows from ForwardBackward query, set DSMaxFetchArraySize parameter value as -1 (negative 1). But you do it only when you don’t have any workaround because setting DSMaxFetchArraySize to -1 has impact on application performance due to large memory use. Even Siebel Object Manager could crash because of memory exhaustion.

To change this parameter value, follow below steps:

• Login into Siebel application as Administrator
• Navigate to Administration-Server Configuration > Enterprises
• Under ‘Profile Configuration’ tab, search for the profile ‘Server Datasource’
• In the Profile Parameters list, click on ‘Advanced’ button to get all advanced profile parameters
• Query on Alias field for DSMaxFetchArraySize and set the value to -1
• Restart Siebel Server services

Beside ‘DSMaxFetchArraySize’, you check ‘Maximum Cursor Size’ property at Business Component level also. This property also restricts the number of records that Siebel CRM can fetch from server. If ‘Maximum Cursor Size’ property contains any value, it overrides MaxCursorSize parameter, defined in the configuration file. This parameter is applicable only on Oracle or DB2 database.

– Set ‘Maximum Cursor Size’ property value to -1 if you want records until Siebel encounters an end of file
– Set it to ‘0’ to get 10000 records
– If you set any number greater than 0, Siebel fetches that many number of records

Same as DSMaxFetchArraySize, this property also has performance impact. So before setting this property value to -1, check all other possibilities to avoid it.

If your Siebel application is using IBM DB2, then you need to check another two parameters – DSPreFetchSize and DSMaxCursorSize.

Do you have any question? Please feel free to comment below.

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