We are continuing our Lazy Expert series of posts, with an explanation of how Oracle Policy Automation Public Cloud, and the rulebases deployed there, can be used within the Oracle Service Cloud application. In case you have missed out on the original post of this series, you can find it here . With the right Nudge, our Lazy Expert is not so lazy after all.
Part 1 looked at exploring, deploying and verifying the “RightNowSimple” rulebase to work with the Service Cloud Connection. The rulebase was launched directly using the Interview Session URL.
Part 2 looked at embedding this Interview into the Consumer Portal of Service Cloud so that anonymous visitors to the portal can use this same interview in self-service mode. This is accomplished by publishing an “Answer” in the knowledgebase, with the Interview Session URL embedded in an IFRAME, to the Consumer Portal. Optionally you can add some logic to your PHP and conditionally display the Interview.
Part 3 looked at embedding another sample Oracle Policy Automation Rulebase into the Service Cloud Consumer Portal so that “known” (logged-in) contacts can use the Interview Session for an appropriate determination to be provided by the Oracle Policy Automation rulebase. The Interview session will be launched in the context of a known user/contact and hence it is possible to pre-seed the Interview with the data from Service Cloud and, once the determination is completed in Oracle Policy Automation, save the data back into Service Cloud using the Service Cloud Connector.
This article will look at embedding the same Oracle Policy Automation interview that we saw in Part 3, StudentBenefits, and how this can be invoked from within the Agent Desktop. This is an example of using Oracle Policy Automation Cloud for providing assisted services to customers, by Agents, through the Agent Desktop UI.
Pre-requisites:
- The StudentBenefits sample Rulebase is deployed and the Service Cloud Connector is verified to be working as advertised.
- Most of the configuration is performed in the Agent Desktop and hence an appropriate credential with sufficient permissions in the Service Cloud is also needed.
Create a Custom Workspace (UI) in Service Cloud, for the Contact record
- If you do not already have a custom Workspace in Service Cloud, for the Contact record, you should create one from Configuration -> Application Appearance -> Workspaces / Workflows
In our example, we create a custom workspace named “CustomContact” using the steps listed below.
- Copy the Standard Contact Workspace as CustomContact into the Custom Folder.
- Open this new CustomContact Workspace and add a new tab labelled “Student Benefits”
- Drag and Drop the “OPA” control onto this new tab and specify the control properties that point to the deployed StudentBenefits rulebase, the chosen locale for the UI and the refresh behavior.
- You should then configure the control, setting the Policy Model, Locale and the Refresh behavior, so that when a new record is created and saved in the Agent Desktop, the Interview shows correctly. When you have done that, save the Custom Workspace.
Assign the new CustomContact Workspace to a relevant user assignable Profile (if required)
If you added the Oracle Policy Automation Control to a new Service Cloud Workspace, then you will need to assign it to somebody, so that you can test it. If you added it to an existing Workspace you can skip this step and proceed to verify the results.
- Open the “Profile” which should provide access to our CustomContact workspace, from Configuration -> Staff Management -> Profiles, and assign the new Workspace to the Contact record by clicking the Magnifying Glass icon to display the popup window.

Verify the results in Oracle Service Cloud Agent Desktop UI
- Login to the Agent Desktop as a user who is assigned the above Profile.
- Search / Navigate to a known Contact record and navigate to the Student Benefits sub-tab that you added
You can now work through the Oracle Policy Automation wizard and examine the results in the Service Cloud database.
This explains how the benefits of an Oracle Policy Automation rulebase and the designed Interview sessions can be made available for known Contacts / Users using the Service Cloud Agent Desktop.
This article also concludes the 4 part series of using Oracle Policy Automation Cloud and the provided Service Cloud Connector.
For more information about the integration, in the official online concepts section.
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