Open UI Customization - Part 1 - Intro

So, you have decided to customize Open UI look and feel? 

If you haven't read my previous blogs on enabling Open UI, here are the links:

Enabling Siebel Open UI - detailed instructions!

Enabling Open UI Mobile - detailed instructions!

Customizing Open UI needs completely different skill sets. If you are Siebel expert having no knowledge on web design then you are starting at level 0. First thing you need is to understand below web design technologies:
HTML and HTML5
CSS and CSS3
Java Script
JQuery Framework

You can refer to below very useful blogs which give some directions as to where you can learn above technologies. Ok! spend couple of weeks on above and continue here

How to learn Siebel Open UI? – from siebelunleashed.com

Time to Learn the Languages of the Web (and Good Design) –from siebel-essentials.com

Oracle has provided some default themes. Each theme refers to set of JavaScript and CSS files which provide different look and feel to your application.

Let's take a quick look at those. You can change the theme by navigating to Tools -->User Preferences --> Behavior and select values from drop-down for "Navigation Control" and "Theme" fields.

Theme 1: Tab - Gray Tab (similar to Siebel Hi  - Gray colour theme)

Theme 2: Tab - Tangerine  (similar to Siebel Hi - Tangerine colour theme)

Theme 3: Tree - Gray Accordion (Screen Tabs in Tree structure - Gray colour theme)

Theme 4: Tree - Tangerine Accordion (Screen Tabs in Tree structure - Tangerine colour theme)

Before we start customizing the look and feel for Open UI Siebel. It is essential to understand the Open UI Architecture and how it differs from traditional  Siebel High Interactive framework.

Enabling Open UI Mobile - detailed instructions!

Please read my previous blog for enabling Open UI here:

Enabling Siebel Open UI - detailed instructions!

Steps to have Open UI Mobile enabled: 
1) Create Object manager for Open UI

Follow the steps from previous blog to create new Object Manager SalesmObjMgr_enu. To enable Open UI Mobile for SalesmObjMgr_enu set below params: (Imporant ones: EnableOpenUI, MobileApplication and CFGApplicationName)

Param	Value
EnableOpenUI	TRUE
AppletSelectStyle	"Applet Select"
HighInteractivity	TRUE
MobileApplication	TRUE
EnableInlineForList	Never
ShowWriteRecord	TRUE
EnableSIFocusTracking	TRUE
SupportedMobileBrowser	"Tablet:iPad,Linux,Android-Chrome,webOS,MSIE-Windows NTTouch,MSIE-Windows NT-ARM|Phone:iPhone,iPod,Linux,Android-Chrome-Mobile,MSIEWindows Phone"
CFGApplicationName	"Siebel Sales Enterprise Mobile"

Below are the srvrmgr commands to set them:

change param EnableOpenUI = True for compdef SalesmObjMgr_enu

change param AppletSelectStyle = "Applet Select" for compdef SalesmObjMgr_enu

change param HighInteractivity = True for compdef SalesmObjMgr_enu

change param MobileApplication = True for compdef SalesmObjMgr_enu

change param EnableInlineForList = Never for compdef SalesmObjMgr_enu

change param ShowWriteRecord = True for compdef SalesmObjMgr_enu

change param EnableSIFocusTracking = True for compdef SalesmObjMgr_enu

change param SupportedMobileBrowser = "Tablet:iPad,Linux,Android-Chrome,webOS,MSIE-Windows NTTouch,MSIE-Windows NT-ARM|Phone:iPhone,iPod,Linux,Android-Chrome-Mobile,MSIEWindows Phone" for compdef SalesmObjMgr_enu

change param CFGApplicationName = "Siebel Sales Enterprise Mobile" for compdef SalesmObjMgr_enu

After creating the compdef you need to activate it using below command.
activate component definition component_alias_name
In our case, it will be
activate component definition SalesmObjMgr_enu

Now, synchronize the comp by running below command.
Sync comps

2)Set-up web server for Open UI

a) Adding Virtual Directory for salesm_enu
> Logon to your web server and navigate to \BIN directory under SWEApp. In my case, D:\SIA81\SWEApp\BIN
> Run below command from windows command prompt to create a virtual directory on your IIS.
metabaseedit.exe salesm_enu eapps.mtb

b) Pointing your virtual directory entry to the new Object Manager
> Take back up of your D:\SIA81\SWEApp\BIN\eapps.cfg
> copy the existing entry for your Siebel HI Object Manager and modify the ConnectionString it as below.

Enabling Siebel Open UI - detailed instructions!

If you have reached to this blog, it means you have done the upgrade to Siebel 8.1.1.11. If you haven't yet decided then refer to my previous blogs on Siebel upgrade and the need for Open UI here:

Siebel upgrade Vs moving to cloud

The need for Siebel OpenUI

The need for Open UI Mobile

Prerequisites for enabling Open UI:
> Siebel 8.1.1.11 with latest patch set installed
> Incremental Repository Merge completed
> Latest fully compiled srf is deployed

Steps to have Open UI enabled: 
1) Create Object manager for Open UI
It is always easy to clone an existing working Siebel HI Object manager rather than creating a brand new one. I will give you details for both the options.

NOTE:I am a big fan of using srvrmgr command line as you can build re-usable commands and run them on DEV, test and prod whenever you need. Below is how you connect to srvrmgr command.

1.      Login into the Application server and navigate to the Drive where Siebel Server is installed (eg: d:\sia81\siebsrvr\bin)

2.      SRVRMGR /G “gateway servername” /e “enterprise servername” /u login /p password

Option 1) Clone your current Siebel HI Object Manager
Connect to srvrmgr command prompt and run below command
copy compdef from source_comp_def_alias to target_comp_def_alias
For example, I want to clone 
my current Siebel HI Object manager SSEObjMgr_enu into 
a new Open UI (OUI) Object manager SSEObjMgrOUI_enu

How to go about Siebel Upgrade - your path to Open UI!

Ok, if you have reached to this post then, it means you have decided to upgrade your Siebel. If still not sure then, review my previous blog on Siebel upgrade Vs moving to cloud and then come back here.

In this part I will be covering all the preparation work that you need to do to go for Siebel upgrade. 

These are the questions you need to first get clarified:
1) What is your current version and is it SEA or SIA?
This will determine, whether you can have one step upgrade or you need to have two step upgrade.

2) What is your current DB version. Is your database Unicode compliant?
Latest Siebel works on Oracle R11g and unicode at best. You may need to plan for DB upgrade along with Unicode conversion.

3) Do you have actuate reports to be migrated to BIP?
If yes, you need to include in your plan to convert all actuate reports into BIP and will increase your upgrade and testing window.

4) Do you have Old Siebel eScript T (typeless) Engine or New ECMA Version 4 ST (Strong Type) Engine?
Siebel 8.*, by default has ST Engine for eScripting. If you have T Engine, you may need to validate most of your eScript code to make it compliant with ST Engine.

5) Do you have CTI telephony integration? 
In Siebel 8.*, the CTI architecture is completely changed. If you have CTI, you need to study more to understand the new system.

Identify your Siebel upgrade path:
You can perform one step upgrade directly from following previous releases to Siebel 8.1.1.11 SIA:

• Siebel 7.5.3 SIA
• Siebel 7.7.2 SIA
• Siebel 7.8.2 SEA and 7.8.2 SIA
• Siebel 8.0 SEA and 8.0 SIA
• Siebel 8.1.1 SEA

See below table for full details taken from Oracle bookshelf 

Current Version	Upgrade Approach	Upgrade Tasks
7.5.3 SEA through 7.7.2 SEA	* Full database upgrade. * Two-step repository upgrade.	You must perform a two-step repository upgrade: * Upgrade 7.5.3 SEA through 7.7.2 SEA to 8.1.1 SEA * Upgrade 8.1.1 SEA to 8.1.1.11 SIA
7.5.3 SIA	* Full database upgrade. * Single-step upgrade.	Perform a full database upgrade. A Development environment upgrade and a Production environment upgrade is required. * You can directly upgrade to Siebel CRM version 8.1.1.11. It is a single-step upgrade and post-upgrade process. * The New Customer repository, generated through a three-way repository merge, contains all the content from the Siebel CRM version 8.1.1.11 Innovation Pack.
7.7.2 SIA
7.8.2 SIA and SEA
8.0 SIA and SEA
8.1.1.0 to 8.1.1.7 SEA
8.1.1.0 to 8.1.1.9 SIA	* Maintenance release installation. * Incremental repository merge.	Run Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) maintenance release installer to apply the Siebel CRM version 8.1.1.11 SIA maintenance release. NOTE:  Siebel Innovation Pack content is not included in the maintenance release. If you intend to use Open UI and new features included from the Siebel CRM version 8.1.1.11 Innovation Pack then you must import it using incremental repository merge.

The need for Open UI Mobile - Siebel CRM on any Device!

The recent studies show that the World is Getting Even More Mobile! See below trend analysis on business insider - Pretty soon Tables/Smartphone will out-sell PCs! 

Pretty soon Tablets/Smartphones will out-sell PCs! 

Take me and you! apart from your usual office hours - where do you spend most of your time - on your PC/laptop or on your tablets/smart phones? Let's face the reality, our users want information on their finger tips - where ever and which ever device they are using.

Oracle has innovated a brand new architecture to bring your Favourite Siebel which was bounded to your Internet Explorer 8 on Windows -  to a true device and browser independent platform - called Open UI!  

Siebel Open UI for sure is the next big thing in Siebel CRM world! Siebel Open UI is built on an open architecture that can run any Siebel business application on any Web browser that is compliant with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards. It can display data in Web browsers that support Web standards on various operating systems, such as Windows, Mac OS, or Linux. For example:

■ Internet Explorer 9 onwards
■ Google Chrome
■ Mozilla Firefox
■ Apple Safari and many more modern browsers

Please see my previous blogs to have more discussions on Open UI itself. 
- The need for Siebel Open UI
- Siebel upgrade Vs moving to cloud assessment

So, what is Open UI Mobile?
It's a Siebel mobile application which can work in connected or disconnected mode. This application is built on top of jQuery Mobile user interface system. jQuery Mobile is a HTML5-based user interface system designed to make responsive web sites and apps that are accessible on all smartphone, tablet and desktop devices.

What do you get with Open UI Mobile?
It's a device independent web based mobile application for Siebel. So you don't need to worry to build custom application for each device. It works on all modern tablets and smart phones seamlessly.

The need for Siebel OpenUI

Business Challenges with the current Siebel interface

The main issue we are facing is user adoption related. The Siebel look and feel is completely outdated and offers very rigid User Interface. This leads to the need for more training time and effort. Increased Time for Performing Tasks. Moreover, users at time feel Siebel as a policing tool and not a tool to automate and improve their efficiency. You might have heard many saying "I need to log this SR/Activity because my boss says" or "I manage my work on excel and later in the day dump onto Siebel" etc etc. This is all due to usability of the application. Why users prefer excel over Siebel screen to log info?

The second issue is it's Infrastructure Dependency. As you know, Siebel Hight Interactive version can work only on outdated IE8 and Windows platform. Due to this we can’t use other browser nor have IE upgraded -leading to inability to access other modern HTML5 based applications like MS SharePoint, workday or attask etc.

Modernize with Siebel Open UI

Oracle has done a great job in bringing up this new UI framework for Siebel called "Open UI". As the name suggests - Oracle aims to make Siebel work on any browser and any device! Open UI transforms Siebel into a modern and intuitive CRM platform, with next-generation mobile support for Tablets and Smartphones.Open UI allows Siebel to run in all modern web browsers including IE9, Chrome, Firefox and Safari. It removes the need for Active X controls and allows Siebel to present a transformed and richer UI based on modern web technology.

Not only that the UI can be completely tailored based on your organization needs. This is all possible due to the open and modern web architecture that Oracle has adapted. It's HTML5, CSS and Java script based. Using this, organizations can build various themes - which offer different layout and colours to the screens. Open UI greatly enhances user experience and productivity, taking advantage of the latest web innovations with device driven layouts, intuitive navigation, touch optimization and enhanced accessibility support – same URL, different UI.

The best of all - no license cost to use Open UI! But yes Open UI is available only beyond Siebel 8.1.1.9 versions. So, if you are on 7.x or 8.0.x versions then, you need to undergo a painful upgrade process. 



In my company, we upgraded from Siebel 7.8 to Siebel 8.1.1.7 last year. I did it with the help of implementation partners and a small in-house development team. Month 1 for DEV upgrade - Month 2 TEST upgrade - Month 2,3&4 full testing - End of Month 4 go-live. It took 4-5 months from start to finish. 

See my other blog on upgrade assessment that I did and why picked Siebel upgrade as against to moving into cloud based solutions here. One thing for sure, Siebel upgrade is not a big deal as long as you know what you got to do and engage right partners to help. Especially with the IRM (Incremental Repository Merge) utility that Oracle has released, it makes upgrade very simple and easy. 

After that we have patched 8.1.1.10 and 8.1.1.11 as and when they became available to leverage all the enhancements and bug fixes on Open UI. 

Enough of upgrade story, let's continue with Open UI. 




Again! Oracle has done a clever job in designing the default theme. The default theme they have built looks more or less like Siebel HI. This is mainly to avoid huge costs on user trainings. See below screenshots for example,

Siebel Upgrade Vs moving into cloud - my analysis!

I have been working in Siebel world for almost 12 year now. I am a big fan of Siebel architecture and the flexibility this product offers to cater for all sorts of weird business needs. I have played various roles including developer, designer, architect and functional expert. Presently working as CRM Manager at CHEP (www.chep.com) looking after the Siebel delivery.

Last year, in my company we were on Siebel 7.8 version and I was thrown into a situation – do we really need to upgrade Siebel or throw it and bring other cloud based solutions. So, I decided to go to the bottom of this analysis and conclude what is best for the organization. I picked up all the leading CRM suites available in the market and did a round 1 bird’s eye view comparison and we decided to stick to two leading could providers salesforce and CRMoD by oracle and of course existing Siebel.