Overview

A Siebel Workflow is a series of Siebel Business Services linked together to accomplish a business task. You create workflows using the Siebel Client Workflow Administration screens. Workflows are invoked through 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 topic briefly describes how to invoke the workflow through a policy condition. For more information on policy and other methods, see the documentation on the Siebel Bookshelf.

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

• 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 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. Activate the policy by choosing 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 on the previous steps, see the documentation on the Siebel Bookshelf.

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 placed 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, place 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 Siebel Adapter, which queries for the newly updated account record, and places 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 places the newly created XML message into the appropriate MQSeries message queue.

   After the message is placed in the message queue, it is retrieved by the iWay Application Adapter for Siebel. The following illustration shows the Workflow sequence described in the previous steps. The flow boxes are from left to right: Start, Get Address, Create XML Message, Send to MessageQ, and End.

   

A Siebel Workflow that is triggered by an external event begins by receiving a Siebel XML document placed 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 CRM system but also must 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 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.

The following illustration shows the inbound Workflow process based on the previous description. The flow boxes are from left to right: Start, Get Address, Create XML Message, Send to MessageQ, and End.