Trailing wildcard characters - Who doesn't want them?

Siebel provides a nice functionality for query actions.

Whenever you query against a specific field, the application automatically suffixes that with a wildcard character - “*”. This will fetch the results for the values starting with the value your specified in the query.

Take an example.

Go to the contact view, query for “Bl” (without the quotes), and you will see the results returned with last names starting with “Bl”.

You will see “*” suffix to the string that you typed in when you do re-query.

Although this is quite useful, there have been surprising requests from users disable this functionality for specific fields.

Disable * in the queries everywhere. #

The behaviour of automatically adding wildcard character is enabled by a parameter called “AutomaticTrailingWildCards”. You’ll find this in Component parameters.

To change the value navigate to Administration - Server Configuration > Enterprise > Component Definition view. By default the value is set to true. You have to either restart the component, or perform a reconfiguration After the change.

For the client this is under [[InfraUIFramework] section of configuration (CFG file) file ([SWE] section in older versions of Siebel). You may not find it by default, just add the parameter as well as the value in the file. Just add this parameter not already present -

AutomaticTrailingWildCards = false

Changing the parameter to FALSE will disable the addition of “*” character for all queries, application wide.

Disable * in the queries for specific fields. #

It is also possible to use user property to suppress the wildcard in the queries for specific fields.

Create the following business component use of property.

Name: Disable Automatic Trailing Wildcard Field List
Value: First Name, Last Name.

Compile the SRF, and you will know more see the wildcard character added to the specific fields.