Siebel Workflows Overview

When you use Siebel XML to integrate with Siebel Integration Objects, the interface uses a Siebel Workflow. You use Siebel to define a Siebel Workflow to emit or to receive Siebel XML using Siebel HTTP transport services. The topics in this section discuss how to create and use workflows that use the supported transport services.

Note
This section is intended as a supplement to the documentation for Microsoft BizTalk Adapter for Siebel eBusiness Applications and is not intended as a substitute for Siebel documentation. For complete and up-to-date information about Siebel Workflow and policy topics, see the Siebel Bookshelf documentation.

Siebel Workflows

A Siebel Workflow is a series of Siebel business services that are linked to accomplish a business task. You create workflows using the Siebel Client Workflow Administration screens. You can invoke workflows using one of the following methods:

• Using a workflow policy.
  
• Using a run-time event (Siebel Event).
  
• Using a script (eScript or Siebel VB).
  

The following topics briefly describe how to invoke the workflow through a policy condition. For more information about policy and other methods, see the Siebel Bookshelf documentation.

Invoking Siebel EAI Workflows Using Policies

This topic was last updated on: December 5, 2007

A workflow policy is defined by a set of conditions that executes a set of defined actions. A Siebel workflow policy consists of the following:

• Conditions that define circumstances, based on changes in the state of a Siebel database.
  
• Actions that define steps taken when conditions are fulfilled.
  

Creating a Workflow Policy

Creating a policy to invoke a workflow as an action involves the following steps:

1. Define an action to be executed after a policy is triggered. Use the Run Integration Process program.
   
2. Create a policy by setting conditions and selecting appropriate policy groups and actions.
   
3. Start the policy by selecting an activation date.
   
4. Run the Generate Triggers server task from Server Administration windows to set the conditions to be monitored.
   
5. Start the Workflow Monitor agent after editing with the appropriate policy group (to which your policy belongs) to evaluate whether to perform an action.
   
6. Start the Workflow Action Agent server task from Server Administration windows to perform the action.
   

For more information about the previous steps, see the Siebel Bookshelf documentation.

Siebel Workflow: Outbound

This topic was last updated on: December 5, 2007

When a Siebel Workflow is triggered based on a Siebel policy, run-time, or script (eScript or Siebel VB) event, the result is the generation of a Siebel XML document that is put on one of the Siebel transports.

For example, when you add a new account in the Siebel Call Center application, you can design and configure a workflow to be triggered on the account transaction. You can design the workflow to extract the data for the new record, convert it to Siebel XML, and then put it on an MQSeries message queue.

In this example, the Siebel Workflow process executes the following series of Siebel Business Services:

1. Calls the Siebel EAI (enterprise application integration) Siebel Adapter, which queries for the newly updated account record, and puts the data in its original internal structure into memory.
   
2. Calls the Siebel EAI XML Converter, which converts the data into an XML message.
   
3. Calls the Siebel EAI MQSeries Transport, which puts the newly created XML message into the appropriate MQSeries message queue.
   

After the message is put into the message queue, Microsoft Adapter for Siebel eBusiness Applications retrieves it. The following workflow sequence illustrates the previous steps.

Siebel Workflow: Inbound

This topic was last updated on: December 5, 2007

A Siebel Workflow that is triggered by an external event starts by receiving a Siebel XML document, which is put on one of its transports. The result might be the update of a Siebel record using the XML as input: for example, when a new account is added in another customer relationship management (CRM) system but must also be updated in the Siebel Call Center application. You can design and configure a workflow to receive or listen on an MQSeries message queue. Upon receipt of the XML message, the workflow processes the transaction into the Siebel system to update the record.

In this example, upon receipt of the Siebel XML message in the message queue, the Siebel MQSeries Receiver server task initiates a Siebel Workflow process, which in turn executes a series of Siebel Business Services as follows:

1. Calls the Siebel EAI (enterprise application integration) XML Converter, which converts the XML message into Siebel internal format.
   
2. Calls the Siebel EAI Siebel Adapter, which applies the newly updated account record based on the methods defined in its service.