Notes On Siebel

Order of Events revisited

March 30th, 2008

SKV commented on my Order of Events post from July pointing out a contradiction he spotted in TechNote 581. On page 20 of that document, point 4. states:

Problem: If a buscomp has code on WriteRecord and the runtime event fires on WriteRecord, which occurs first?
Solution: WriteRecord runtime event is in essence a Post-WriteRecord event and will be fired AFTER the buscomp code is executed.

That statement’s in direct opposition to my assertion that:

…the Runtime Event occurs before the equivalent Server Script event for the same object…

As I responded in the comments, this highlights a mantra I’ve learnt through painful experience: never trust the documentation! However, since my writing here is really just more documentation, it might be useful to explain how I arrived at my list. To get the order of events published previously, I took a random object (BusComp Account Note, as it happens) and modified each browser script and server script event to log the event to a file. For example, the PreWrite looks like this:

function BusComp_PreWriteRecord ()
{
   var f = Clib.fopen("C:\\events.txt", "at");
   Clib.fputs("BusComp_PreWriteRecord\n", f);
   Clib.fclose(f)
   f = null;
   return (ContinueOperation);
}

A similar script on each event gives me an ordered list of script events. To add in the Runtime Events, I created a client-side business service to log to the same file. So in Admistration – Business Service > Details I created the Events business service, then added the Log method using a very similar script. This Log method takes a single parameter: the event string, which is appended to the file.  In Administration – Runtime Events > Events, I can now add every event I want to log, with an action for each to call the Events.Log method with the name of the event. In no time at all, I have a complete, ordered list of  events, as published. Given my testing, I’m inclined to assume the documentation is incorrect. However, all of my testing was only on Siebel 7.8, so there’s a slim chance of variations between versions. Anyone want to verify?

Entry Filed under: Siebel