Symbolic String Locator

As an addendum to my previous post here i publish a mini symbolic string locator. It can help you to identify at what all places any particular symbolic string is being used. As a part of beta release it searches only at the Applet(List + Control) level. It is available in Downloads section also.

This can be of real help in scenario when you are asked to modify any existing symbolic string value and you have to look at objects to compile. The advantage of this tool is you don't have to open any sort of siebel client on your machine while running it. Only you have to remember the DSN name, the one given in the CFG for local client. It takes two parameter as input.

Local DSN = The DSN name of your siebel local client and Username/Password.

Symbolic String = The symbolic string to search.

The Objects sheet gives you flexibility to search the limited objects. The output for each object type is captured in respective object sheet.  If it errors out after giving correct DSN name make sure you have selected "Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects Library"  in your excel references. Once again valuable inputs/suggestions/comments are always welcome.

Happy Crunching!!

Profile Hunter 1.0

Off lately i have been involved in the training and knowledge transfer sessions so delay in writing post. Trust me training is definitely not the best part of job. In one of the sessions i was asked a scorcher of question.

Is it possible to find all the places where we have used any profile attribute including tools and client side artifacts ?

This prompted me to learn some excel vb and i have come up with an alpha profile hunter tool which guns down profile attributes used in client side artifacts. This tool is available for you for download and trial. It is also available under Downloads link.It takes profile attribute you have specified and searches this attribute in below objects

Personalization Applet
Personalization Applet - Rule Set
Personalization View
Personalization - Rule Sets
Runtime Events - Objects
Runtime Events - Action Sets
DVM
DVM - Rule Set

A simple SWOT analysis will give you a better detail.

Strength
- It searches for given Profile attribute across all configurable client side artifact where we can use GetProfileAttr or SetProfileAttr methods.
- It gives results in the Output sheet which can be very useful in any support or maintanence project.
- It is easy to configure.
- It is flexible enough allowing user to select or deselect objects to be searched.
Weakness
- When searching across all objects watch out for performance.
- As it is based on Siebel mobile web client automation server it needs dedicated or mobile web client running in background.
Opportunities
- With ever increasing configuration and customization, this can be very handy tool for maintanence of project.
- Most of the time development is done by some team and support by other. In such scenarios this tool can be very helpful.
Threats
- Unattractive UI
- It doesn't search in siebel repository for profile attribute in this release.


Regarding search on the tool side there are already couple of options available including siebel repository search and awesome Oli has developed terrific repository analyser. I am also in process of enhancing this to make it search on tools side artifacts. As usual as it is in crude phase any input, suggestion and comment to improve are most welcome.

Happy Hunting!!

Disclaimer: It can be taxing on system to search on all objects, please do a dry run by selecting one or two objects to search in order to ensure it is working fine on your machine.