Siebel CRM Patch Set 7 for Innovation Pack 2013 is Available

Last Saturday, Oracle made the latest patch set 8.1.1.11.7 / 8.2.2.4.7 available for download on My Oracle Support.

Apart from various bugfixes, including the Open UI and Mobile Applications realm, the patch set includes changes to the eScript ST engine which are described in document 1668366.1.

As usual, the patch set comes with a button that says "Read Me" which leads you to the installation guide which also contains descriptions of the resolved issues.

(All links require a valid account for My Oracle Support)

have a nice day

@lex

Siebel Open UI: Enabling Drag & Drop in Calendar Views

If you have applied the monthly patch set 8.1.1.11.4 or later, you would expect to be able to manage activities in the Calendar views by dragging and dropping them onto the calendar applet.

However, to achieve this state of bliss there are a view steps to take in the Siebel repository which is not modified by the patchset.

As the attentive Open UI geek you are, you should know that drag and drop functionality is driven by the presence of two applet user properties, namely

ClientPMUserProp = EnableDragAndDropInList
EnableDragAndDropInList = TRUE

Note that the ClientPMUserProp value could be a comma separated list, so we would have to add "EnableDragAndDropInList" at the end, but this is not the case for today's example.

Basically, all we have to do is to add the above two user properties to the list applets in our calendar views (e.g. the LS Pharma HI Activity Calendar View). If there are toggle applets registered for the base applet, we also must edit each toggle applet's user properties list.

In case of our example view, the base applet is the Pharma Calendar Activity List Applet and its toggle siblings Pharma Calendar Account List Applet, Pharma Calendar Affiliated Professionals List Applet and Pharma Calendar Professional List Applet

Using Siebel Tools (of course), we edit these applets and add the aforementioned user properties. After compiling the applets, we can test the functionality in the calendar view (see screenshot above).

Drag and drop an activity (or account/contact from the toggle applets) onto the calendar and (after watching the drag placeholder magically move back to the list) witness the appearance of a new calendar entry. This works in the daily, weekly and monthly calendar mode, as my tests have confirmed.

have a nice day

@lex

Siebel CRM Patchset April 2014

As of Friday last week, Oracle has made the latest monthly patchset - April 2014 - for Siebel CRM Innovation Pack 2013 (IP 2013) available for download on the My Oracle Support portal.

The version numbers are 8.1.1.11.6 and 8.2.2.4.6 respectively.

List of Siebel 8.1.1 patches on My Oracle Support

As is customary for monthly patchsets, the newest one is cumulative and includes all bugfixes and enhancements from previous monthly patchsets.

The installation process if facilitated by Oracle opatch as usual.

To see if you benefit from this patchset, please refer to the installation guide / readme document which lists all the issues addressed - a lot of which are related to Siebel Open UI.

have a nice day

@lex

Siebel CRM Patchset 4 for Innovation Pack 2013 Released

Yesterday, Oracle has released the 4th patchset for Siebel CRM Innovation Pack 2013 which provides cumulative fixes and features for Siebel 8.1.1.11 and 8.2.2.4.

The official version numbers are 8.1.1.11.4 and 8.2.2.4.4. (a feast for numerologists ;-)

As a frequent reader of this blog, you are aware that Oracle has started shipping monthly patchsets for the latest Siebel Innovation Pack releases.

As with all patches, the package is available for download on My Oracle Support.

The Readme document combines release notes and installation guide. Good old opatch is taking care of placing the new files onto your disk, so make sure you follow the instructions to avoid surprises.

Here are some areas which benefit from the patchset in terms of issues addressed:

• Siebel Order Management
• Open UI
• Mobile Applications (connected and disconnected)

have a nice patch

@lex

Changes in Oracle's Patching Strategy for Siebel CRM

If you are following the various articles on Siebel Open UI on My Oracle Support (hopefully using the great Open UI Information Center available as Document 1511846.2), you might have stumbled upon Oracle Support Document 1535281.1 (Latest recommended maintenance pack for Siebel Open UI on Siebel Version 8.1.1.x and Version 8.2.2.x) which holds some interesting information regarding Oracle's strategy for releasing quick fixes, maintenance releases or patches for future Siebel versions.

The biggest news is that from Innovation Pack 2013 (i.e. version 8.1.1.11 and 8.2.2.4) onwards, Oracle will provide monthly patchsets which introduce a fifth digit in the version number.

Source: My Oracle Support

So the January patchset for 8.1.1.11 is 8.1.1.11.3, as you can see in the above screenshot.

The patches can be downloaded as usual from My Oracle Support.

Bringing the new monthly patchset strategy together with the traditional version paths results in the following diagram:

Example version path from Siebel 8.0 to 8.1.1.11.3

Explanation:

When a Siebel customer goes from an older major release such as 8.0 to a newer one such as 8.1.1, a full upgrade is required. Besides physical schema changes, the full upgrade always includes the notorious repository merge and subsequent conflict resolution and post-merge fixup which is usually measured in person months or even years (for larger projects).

Once the newer release is reached, customers can apply patches or quick fixes without the need to merge repositories.

Since 8.1.1.10, Oracle delivers innovation packs (one per year), the current being IP 2013. To reach an innovation pack level, customers must not only apply the patch but also run the Incremental Repository Merge (IRM) which is (as of 8.1.1.11) basically the same as a full upgrade, albeit a bit more automated. Still there might be conflicts to resolved and things could break and require fixing.

If you are already on 8.1.1.11 (or 8.2.2.4), you can obtain the monthly patchsets which are just that, a patch. So there is no repository merge to do.

Monthly patchsets replace planned 8.1.1.12 / 8.2.2.5 fix pack

As announced in MOS document 1600520.1, "The new Patchset process will make redundant the planned release of Siebel CRM version 8.1.1.12 / 8.2.2.5 Fix Pack (FP) in early 2014." But, so the same announcement assures us, IP 2014 is still going ahead.

have a nice day

@lex