Module 42-43 Siebel Business Rules

Siebel 8.0 Essentials

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Module 41: Siebel Business Rules

Module Objectives To know the process of automating business decisions and logic in

Siebel applications using Haley Authority To describe Siebel Business Rules architecture To understand how to create business rules and deploy them

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Implementing Business Logic in Siebel Applications Can often be done using declarative configuration such as:

Properties in business components and fields Siebel workflows Siebel state models Occasionally requires custom scripting

Custom scripting can result in:

Business logic that is distributed throughout the application Difficult to understand the complete set of implemented logic Business logic that is represented in multiple ways with different syntax Difficult to modify to meet new requirements The need to compile and deploy a new Siebel repository file (SRF)

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Business Challenge

Companies want a more unified way to implement business logic Centralized store of business rules or logic that can be easily modified to incorporate changing business processes Reviewable by non-implementers such as business analysts Deployable without recompiling the SRF file Allows updating of business logic at run time

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Solution: Siebel Business Rules Provides the ability for companies to create and enforce rules that

capture their business policies Rules are expressed in natural English rather than a script or SQL statements Rules can be specified and reviewed by business experts Rules are centrally developed and administered Rules are enforced globally throughout the Siebel application

Uses client-side configuration rather than repository-based

configuration and compilation Allows rules to be created, updated, and deployed during run time

Groups of rules, or modules, for different purposes and applications can be developed and deployed separately: Versioned objects help to easily revert to previous versions. Access levels to modules can be used to define who may modify particular rules and modules

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Examples of Uses of Siebel Business Rules Perform validation of data Provide default values for fields in records Provide default child records

Update records Implement dynamic read-only/required behavior Compute values of parameters to be used in decision steps in workflow

process and UI tasks Perform business calculations Determine if a warranty applies Determine if a customer is eligible for a discount or offer and explain why

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Siebel Business Rule Is the familiar connotation for well-defined business processes. Logical statements constructed that capture and implement business

processes in Siebel applications. Is a conditional or qualified statement about business entities and characteristics that apply in a business environment Is written using the rules of English grammar Are created using HaleyAuthority Are executed in the Siebel client using a run-time inference engine

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Concepts Are nouns that represent the entities and their characteristics

Are used to build rule statements Play roles in relations May include nouns or noun phrasings, including adjectives Correspond to business components and fields in the Siebel data model

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HaleyAuthority To implement natural language business rules to automate decisions

declaratively Is a separate third-party application used to examine and develop Siebel business rules Is installed as part of a Siebel Tools installation Is invoked from the Siebel Tools program group Imports relevant object definitions from the Siebel development

repository Generates the corresponding Haley concepts Is used to author the rule statements based on the generated concepts Stores concepts and statements in a separate database referred to as a knowledge base Deploys rules to a set of tables in the Siebel run-time client

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Run-Time Inference Engine Is a third-party rules engine used to evaluate and execute business

rules at run time Is installed automatically in the Siebel client during a standard client installation Is accessed by calling the Business Rules Service business service Serves as the interface to the inference engine Can be invoked using:

Runtime events Siebel workflows Siebel Task-based UI Business services

The same business logic (rule module) can be reused in any of these

contexts. Allows you to simulate rules execution before deployment

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Exploring Rules Use HaleyAuthority to examine rules

Click the Modules & Statements tab to display rule statements

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Structure of Rules Rules are written using English grammar (natural English) A given rule can be expressed in several ways Common practice is to create statements followed by qualifiers that

determine if the statement applies If: statement applies when at least one if qualifier is true Unless: statement does not apply when unless qualifier is true Only if: statement applies when all only if qualifiers are true

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Rule Statements A statement can be either a:

Statement of fact Example: An expense report is a valid expense report Statement of action Set Reimbursable Flag of an expense item to false Siebel-specific actions consist of three action types

Actions: Produce output or modify data in the Siebel application Set a field value, invalidate with reason Invalidate with reason raises an error but does not stop evaluation of rules Functions: Return a value from the Siebel application Get profile attribute, get active view name Predicates: Return a Boolean value User in task mode, currency is equal to

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Concepts Concepts are generated

automatically using the Siebel Object Importer in HaleyAuthority Entities correspond to Siebel objects Values correspond to single-value fields of objects Click the Concepts tab in

HaleyAuthority to display the concepts Entity: Describes entities (things) in the business model Value: Describes characteristics of

entities in the business model Rules developers must not: Modify the underlying concepts Create additional concepts manually

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Entities Expand Entity to display the entities

Represent the business components imported from the Siebel repository

Expense and Expense Item are Business Components imported for these rules

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Value Expand Value and its children types to display the values Represent business component fields imported from the Siebel

repository Are grouped by the type of the field

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Phrasings Consist of short expressions that capture a relationship between

concepts Typically represent the relationship between a business component and one of its fields or a child business component Are used to build rule statements

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Developing Rules 1. Create a New Knowledge Base 2. Import Siebel Object Definitions 3. Create a Rule Module 4. Deploy the Rule Module

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1. Create a New Knowledge Base Start HaleyAuthority from the Siebel Tools program group Select the ODBC connection string for the new knowledge base

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2. Import Siebel Object Definitions Invoke the Siebel object importer

In HaleyAuthority, select File > Import > Siebel Object Provide the connection information for:

Master repository data source (source of object definitions) Run-time data source (environment where rules will be run)

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2. Import Siebel Object Definitions On the first import for a new knowledge base the following occurs

immediately: Object definitions relating to currency and currency code are imported Concepts to support Siebel currency calculation procedures are created Siebel-specific actions, functions, and predicates are created After currency-related concepts are created:\

Select Import Siebel Objects Specify the Siebel Business Object Select the business component and, possibly, child business components For each selected business component, select one or more fields

Inspect the concepts and the phrasings created Verify that the entities and values corresponding to the objects and

fields have been created

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3. Create a Rule Module A module is a collection of rule statements that are deployed together Suggestion:

Create a rule module to contain only the statements that need to be evaluated as a set by the rules engine Name the rule module to indicate how the module will be invoked A module can be divided into submodules to improve readability Click the Modules & Statement tab Add a new module (and submodules if desired) Add one or more statements

Use the Edit Statement dialog box to enter the statement

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4. Deploy the Rule Module Invoke the Siebel Deployer

In HaleyAuthority select Tools > Siebel Deplo