Siebel Interview Questions

Siebel CRM Interview Q&A

In this page I'll try to put frequently asked Interview questions in the Siebel interview with answers.

Question 1: What are the different ways to invoke a workflow in Siebel?
Answer: Following are the different ways of executing workflows:

1. Calculated Field expression
2. Named Method User Property
3. From the Script of Applet, Application, Bussiness Component & Business Services
4. Workflow Policy
5. RCR & Server Requests
6. Web services & Receiver components(JMS,MQ)
7. Run Time Events
8. Order Management Signals
9. Asynchronous Server Request - Business Service
10.Command line using Server Manager 

Question 2: What is the difference between Asynchronous and Synchronous workflow?
Answer: Asynchronous workflow requests are executed by server in background and does not requires user to wait for the result. These type of workflows are usually interface workflows which doesn't require users interference.

Synchronous workflow is executed in user session and user has to wait till workflow is executed completely. Workflow is executed synchronously usually through button click or record operations like set field value or write record, where user need to know the result of the workflow.

Question 3: What is the difference between Expression business component and Filter business component in Siebel Operation?
Answer: These business components fields are used in Siebel Operation when search spec is built by referencing another business component field.

For Example: To find Account records where Account Id is specified in Contact's Account Id field, expression will be created like :
"[Id] = [Account Id]"
And Filter Business Component will be set as : Account and Expression Business will be set as Contact. Thus it will be evaluated as :

"[Account.Id] = [Contact.Account Id]"

Question 4: What is the difference between Stop step and End Step?
Answer: Stop step sets the status of workflow to “In Error” and End step set the status to “Completed”.
Stop steps should be avoided in integration workflows and workflow policies as they may cause server component to error out.
Stop steps have input arguments property whereas End steps have output arguments property.

Question 5: What is the difference betwwen unbounded static picklist and dynamic picklist?
Answer: Unbounded Static Picklist allows you to set a value apart from what is already specified as part of List of Values (S_LST_OF_VAL). A Dynamic picklist is based on a business component and the values are derived from the business Component based on foreign key relationship.

Question 6: What is difference between bounded and unbounded picklist?
Answer: In case of unbounded picklist We can enter free text wheras, in case of bounded picklist, we can not enter freetext and we have to select a value from the dropdown.

Question 7: Is it possible to create Workflow without Business Object ? If yes, how ?
Answer: Yes it is possible to create workflow without business object. Business Object is not a required field on Workflow. It is only required when in the workflow we need to use any siebel operation.

Question 8: What is Localisation?
Answer: Modify the object definitions in the local repository.

Question 9: What does install.ksh and imprep.ksh files do?
Answer: Install.ksh is used to populate seed data whereas, Imprep.ksh is used to populate repository data.

Question 10: Which file contains the Siebel environment variables ?
Answer: siebenv.sh

Question 11: How to start/stop a Gateway Server ?
Answer: To start: start_ns
             To stop: stop_ns
             To check the status: list_ns

Question 12: Which Utility is used to synchronize the data definition language of database with that of repository ? 
Answer: ddlsync

Question 13: If you do not specify sort order then which sorting order is by default used?
Answer: Ascending Order is used as default.

Question 14: In Siebel Workflow Stop step sets the workflow state to ?
Answer: In Error

Question 15: How do you control visibility in Siebel?
Answer: Through below mentioned way we can control visibility.
             a)BusComp view Mode 
             b)Visibility mode of view(All/Organization/Sales Rep)

Question 16: In Join specification can I give calculated field as a source field?
Answer: The Source Field property must reference a field that defines a database column. A computed field is an example of a field that does not reference a database column. You cannot use it as the source field for a join specification.

Question 17: Can I use calculated field in sort specification?
Answer: No

Question 18: What are possible reasons of values not showing in dropdown of static Picklist?
Answer: Following are the possible reasons:

• PickMap is not defined for Field which is showing Picklist values.
• Runtime Flag on Applet level is not true.
• You have not clicked on Clear Cache button after adding the values and trying to see values in same session.
• LOV Type and LOV Values are not defined.

Question 19: Difference between Link and Join?
Answer: Following statement gives a clear difference between Join and Link.

Joins are configured between a Business Component and a table whereas,
Links are configured between 2 Business Components. They represent Parent Child relationship.

Joins have 1:1 & M:1 cardinality whereas, Links have 1:M & M:M cardinality.

Question 20: What is the use of Link Specification property at Field object?
Answer: Link Specification property ensures that the value of this field can be passed to the Child BC via link. In other words if this property is set to true only then Child BC can refer get the value as pre-default or post-default with syntax ‘BC Name.Field Name’.

You can specify more than one parent in the pre-default values separated by commas. The list is checked from first to last until a value is found example

Question 21: What is output of 'Querypage' method of 'EAI Siebel Adapter' business service?
Answer: 

• Number of records returned.
• SiebelMessage containing the Siebel data as child property set.

Question 22: In which folder/path cfg files are stored?
Answer: ..\siebsrvr\bin\enu

Question 23: Which are the two methods supported by HTTP to transmit data in an HTTP request? 
Answer: GET and POST

Question 24: What is the use of Force Active property of Business Component Field?
Answer: The Force Active property of Business Component field makes that field to be queried and available even if the current applet is not displaying that field. 

**Use Force Active property carefully as it has performance implications.

Question 25: While creating EBC, one additional property needs to be set (when compared with creation of a normal BC ).. What is this property ? 
Answer: Data Source.

Question 26: User Preferences are saved in which file? 
Answer: .spf file

Question 27: Where is EAI.CFG file is located?
Answer: ..\siebsrvr\bin\enu

Question 28: Where is Siebel Repository file (.srf file) is located?
Answer: Siebel_Root\Objects\< Language Code>

Question 29: Which are the objects where we can have Sort Specification and Search Specification?
Answer: For answer go through below link:

             Places where we have Sort and Search Specification 

Question 30: Sort Specification property is on BusComp or Applet ?
Answer: Sort Specification property is on Business Component.

Question 31: Types of web template files?
Answer: Following are the types of web templates file:

• List Applet Web Template
• View Web Template
• Web Page Web Template

Question 32: If Outer Join Flag is TRUE, join returns?
Answer: All rows from base table, even when there is no related row in joined table.

Question 33: One List Applet could be based on ___ Business Component?
Answer: One and only one.

Question 34: Siebel Gateway Name Server uses ___ file to get details about component groups and components definitions?
Answer: siebns.dat

Question 35: “Every object definition could be associated with one and only one project”. Is the statement true?
Answer: Yes

Question 36: What is View Web Template Item?
Answer: Applets that have been bound to a view.

Question 37: To bring party data into non-party business component, the join specification destination column should refer?
Answer: PAR_ROW_ID

Question 38: How can you assign access groups to child categories?
Answer: By following ways we can assign access group to the child categories:

• Manually enter access groups for each child category
• Click on ‘Cascade’ button to assign the parent access groups to all child categories

Question 39: If there is always a related row in a join table, should you set the 'Outer Join Flag’ to ‘TRUE’?
Answer:  No, it is not necessary and will have a negative performance impact

Question 40: S_PARTY_PER stores relations for?
Answer: S_PARTY_PER stores relation for the following:

• Employee & Position
• Account & Contact
• Access Group & Members

Question 41: In which workflow mode can we use Wait step?

Answer: Wait step can only be used in an interactive flow.

Question 42: What is Seed Data in Siebel?
Answer : The data that Siebel supplies as a part of Siebel vanilla application is known as seed data.