Kovaion Consulting - The journey into 4th year

Dear All,

As we complete another successful year, I'm happy to share Kovaion's ongoing progress with you all. Since its inception in 2010, Kovaion has grown steadily. Today, with the talented team, we are well ready to take the next leap of growth.

Year 2013

2013 was another year of solid growth. In spite of unstable demand and fierce competition, we have made considerable progress. Here are some highlights from year 2013:

• Revenue increased by 50%
• Addition of 3 new clients  - Thomas Exchange Global, A Global Consulting Company and A Leading Global Financial Services Company
• Human resource base increased by 4%.
• Presentation on Oracle Data Masking at EMEA PeopleSoft Road Show.
• Successful 5 client site visits
• New proprietary tools were developed and implemented to serve our customer’s current and future needs.  

We are committed to develop strategy to overcome few challenges in the next year with ease.

Plans for the future

In the coming year we will make further progress. We continue to invest heavily in our People, Process and Technology to ensure we deliver profitable growth and create value for our clients. Our goal is always to simplify our client's business needs through our value added services. We look forward to launch some very exciting products/solutions in the year 2014 to make us more competitive in the market. We planned to transform the organizational setup (structure) for efficient business decisions and operations.

Looking ahead, we are focused on accelerating the execution of our growth strategy while continuing to build on the strength of our brand—innovative and cost effective solutions. We are incredibly excited about this journey and truly believe we will deliver our best services in the coming years.

Our Commitment

As a member of the society, we are committed to operate our business in a responsible way. We  pledge to care for the development of our own associates as well as the communities in which we operate.  Kovaion Trust continues to contribute to the communities where we work and support local schools / students. We are committed to run our business with good ethical standards.

Thanks to you all

Finally I would like to thank all our esteemed clients, partners, associates and well wishers for their continued trust, commitment, support and involvement. I look forward to a successful  year 2014.

Wish you and your family a merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

  

Kovaion Consulting

www.kovaion.com

PeopleSoft Enhanced Feature in Reporting

1. Summary

This blog includes the steps to implement PeopleSoft enhanced features in reporting.

2. Working with PDF reporting options in BI Publisher

The following BI features are available on PDF documents.

ü  Counting the number of pages in a pdf file

ü  Merging PDF

2.1      Counting the number of pages in a pdf file

The java object ‘com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfReader’ is used to find the number of pages in a pdf file.

Sample Code:

Local JavaObject &obj_Split_PDF_Size = CreateJavaObject("com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfReader", “<PDF file with full path>");

/* &NumberofPages – gives the number of page in the PDF file */

Local number &NumberofPages = &obj_Split_PDF_Size.getNumberOfPages();

2.2      Merging PDF

The application Package PSXP_ENGINE:PDFMerger can be used to merge two PDF files.

Sample Code:

&Reportmrg = create PSXP_ENGINE:PDFMerger();

&ret = &Reportmrg.mergePDFs(<Array of input files to be merged as array of strings>, <Output Merged File>, &out);

3 Working with .RTF (Document) reporting options in BI Publisher

Following features are available on Oracle-PeopleSoft BI Publisher .rtf template.

ü  Using Barcodes on Report

ü  Dynamic/Conditional Watermark

ü  Dynamic images in the report output

ü  Headers & Footers.

3.1      Using Barcodes on Report

The following step needs to be carried out to use barcode on BI publisher reports.

ü  Corresponding barcode font has to be downloaded and placed in the local machine (C:\Windows\Font) and also the Application Server (<Server path>/fonts/truetype/).

ü  The field to be displayed as barcode is first included in the template and the font of the field is changed to the downloaded barcode font.

ü  In  File > Properties and in the custom tab enter the following details

Name: xdo-font.<font name>

Type: Text

Value: truetype.<path to the font file>

Setting this property will make the barcodes visible when the output is pdf

3.2      Dynamic Header and Footer

Form fields cannot be inserted into header/footer of rtf templates. So to have dynamic or conditional text in header or footer, the xml tags are directly written in header and footer which then converts to values when the report is run.

Eg: <?fld_DESCR?>

3.3      Dynamic/Conditional watermark

ü  Watermark is entered through Format> Background > Printed Watermark in the rtf template.

ü  In the text enter the condition

Eg: <?xdoxslt:ifelse(<condition>,'Watermark to be displayed when the condition is satisfied','Watermark to be displayed when the condition is not satisfied')?>

3.4      Dynamic images in report output

ü  The dynamic image may be in any of the following format- jpeg/ bmp/ gif/ png.

ü  Hold the path of the dynamic image in a record field used in the report.

ü  Insert a dummy image in the template.

ü  By double clicking and in the web tab of the image enter the dynamic value/field as below in the alternative text.

Eg: url:{.//<fieldname>}

// - - > For level 0 record

.// - - > For level 1 record

ü  Fieldname is the record field that holds the path of the image in the report.

4         Working with Excel reporting options in BI Publisher

Following features are available on Oracle-PeopleSoft BI Publisher Excel template.

ü  Multi Sheet excel report- Excel object

4.1      Multi Sheet excel report- Excel object

The following peoplecode generates multisheet excel with the excel application

&oWorkApp = CreateObject("COM", "Excel.Application");

&oWorkApp.DisplayAlerts = "false";

ObjectSetProperty(&oWorkApp, "Visible", True);

&oWorkBook = ObjectGetProperty(&oWorkApp, "Workbooks");

&oWorkBook.add();

&oWorkSheet = &oWorkApp.Worksheets("Sheet1");

/* Modify the name of the worksheet */

&oWorkSheet.name = "Test Sheet";

/*Access the cells of the worksheet */

&oWorkSheet.Cells(1,1).Value=’Test’

&oWorkSheet = &oWorkApp.Worksheets("Sheet2");

&oWorkSheet.name = "Access";

/*Delete the third sheet */

&oWorkSheet = &oWorkApp.Worksheets("Sheet3");

&oWorkSheet.delete();

&oWorkApp.ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs("<File name with full path to save>");

&oWorkApp.ActiveWorkbook.close();&oWorkApp.Quit();

UKOUG EMEA PeopleSoft Roadshow 2013 – Post Event Article

Kovaion Consulting's Oracle Data Masking Solution presented at the EMEA PeopleSoft conference is available to download. If you are a UKOUG member or attended the conference you can download the presentation at http://www.ukoug.org/2013-events/emea-peoplesoft-roadshow-2013/agenda/oracle-data-masking/

Read EMEA PeopleSoft RoadShow 2013 post event article at

http://www.ukoug.org/what-we-offer/news/emea-peoplesoft-roadshow-2013-knowledge-sharing/

If you need further details/demo on Oracle Data Masking, please contact us at info@kovaion.com. We are happy to assist you.

Kovaion Consulting at UK Oracle User Group (UKOUG) EMEA PeopleSoft Roadshow 2013

Kovaion Consulting will participate at the UKOUG EMEA PeopleSoft Roadshow on 24th April 2013, CBI Conference Centre, London.

We invite you to attend our presentation on "Oracle Data Masking". Check out detailed agenda at http://www.ukoug.org/2013-events/emea-peoplesoft-roadshow-2013/agenda/oracle-data-masking/

 We will be happy to share our experience on Oracle PeopleSoft solutions. 

Presentation Abstract: Oracle Data Masking technology and techniques aimed at preventing the abuse of sensitive data by hiding it from users. The process of concealing private data in non-production environments such that application developers, testers, privileged users and outsourcing vendors do not get exposed to such data. How masked data provides the most effective way to protect privacy and support compliance initiatives. 

Learning from Presentation: Oracle Data Masking technology and techniques and also how to safe guard your data and breaches and their monetary and implicit impacts. Also demonstrate the Oracle Data Masking on masking sensitive data for ERP applications (PeopleSoft).

To learn more about the conference, please visit the UKOUG website: http://www.ukoug.org/2013-events/emea-peoplesoft-roadshow-2013/agenda/

PeopleSoft Related Content

What is Related Content Service Framework?

The PeopleSoft Related Content Framework enables to link application pages with contextually relevant collaborative content. In simple terms Related Content Service Framework allows extension of a transaction without customizing the component, also allows the user to perform more actions, tasks, and to see related information without leaving the transaction.Brings additional, supplemental information into the transaction in a bottom or side frame. Related content services are ideal for the scenarios when the user wants to access two pages at same time, or some display only information like Help instructions etc.,

Some of the Business Benefits:

• User can quickly access all the required information in one place without any additional effort.
• Related Content Service is easy to configure no development work will be required so less maintenance.
• Additional supplemental information helps increase performance.
• Related information from two different Databases can be viewed from one page makes easy to perform tasks.
• Very Secure- uses the same PeopleSoft Security as the application transaction

Sample Business Purpose/ Example:

• Any document related to the page can be displayed as related content. Eg: Staffing Company can get the timesheet document as related content to timesheet entry page.
• For trainings in the learning and development module, the corresponding training material can be placed as related content.
• Reports/ Graphical representation(Charts) of data can be displayed as related content.
• Complex Edit rules of a page can be given as document (External documentation) in related content frame.

1. Development Process of the Related Content Service

Defining the Related Content Service. To define a related Content Service, navigate to

Main Menu -> People Tools -> Portal -> Related Content Service -> Define Related Service

There are 7 different types of services that can be created. Use an application class when Peoplecode needs to be run to execute business logic.Non-PeopleSoft service type accesses any non-PeopleSoft pages, external content, or services. By using  PeopleSoft Component  as service type  the component can be from the local PeopleSoft system or from a remote PeopleSoft system. Embeddable Pagelet service type is used todefine a PeopleSoft Pagelet wizard created embeddable pagelet to be used as a service.OBIEE (Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition) Pagelet is used to define a PeopleSoft Pagelet wizard created OBIEE data source based pagelet to be used as a service. PeopleSoft Query service type is used to access PeopleSoft Query definitions. The query results can also be filtered based on the query definition and the parameters that it requires. PeopleSoft Script can be used in situations in which an iScript has been used to develop the application functionality based on PeopleSoft data or non-PeopleSoft data, such as stock quotes or weather information.

2.   Manage Related Service Definition.

After assigning the related service definition to a PeopleSoft component, user can configure the related content service and related actions. Service parameters, security, layout etc., can be defined.

Main Menu > People Tools > Portal > Related Content Service > Manage Related Content Service > Configure Related Content Page.

After implementing these steps the related content service will be displayed in the component to which it is attached to.

In order to implement the related content services we need to configure the web profile with the Authentication and local node needs to be authenticated with a Password.

Limitations of Related Content:  Some of the limitations of the related content would be we cannot handle the dynamic pages as related content services. A related Content service doesn’t support a language sensitive field to be used as a service parameter.