Peoplesoft Outlook Integration

What is Outlook Integration?

Outlook Integration enables integration between PeopleSoft and Microsoft Outlook to schedule meetings and appointments. It makes things easy for organizations predominantly engaged with MS Outlook to schedule meetings driven by PeopleSoft data.

Utility Benefit:

·         Keeps communications and schedules in an organised way.

·         Simple and easy to configure & maintain.

·         Increases the productivity by tightly coupling PeopleSoft data and Outlook schedule.

·         Fast, effective and two-way integration keeps processes simple and reduces duplication

Sample Business Scenarios:

·         In Talent Acquisition Manager (TAM) manage interview schedules, interview directly in MS Outlook with updates applied on candidate records. Quickly link emails, schedules interview and adds attachments to candidates

·         MS Outlook can be integrated with PeopleSoft HR Notification to schedule meetings.

·         Absence takes can be requested by entering absence requests through Microsoft Outlook.

Implementation Steps for outlook plug in:

·         Install the PeopleSoft Outlook Plug in

·         Configure outlook menu in PeopleSoft settings and option add on menu. (Refer fig 1 for configuration details)

·         Make Setups based on each module (TAM, Absence Management, ePerformance etc.)

Prerequisites for PeopleSoft outlook Plugin:

To enable the communication and interaction between Microsoft Outlook and the PeopleSoft system, following are required:

·        The Microsoft Add-In—Represented in the PeopleSoft Outlook menu and handles all of the communication and information within Microsoft Outlook.

·        The PeopleSoft Outlook URL Handler—An external Windows application that allows you to drill into Microsoft Outlook directly from the PeopleSoft system.

How to get the PeopleSoft Outlook Plug-in?

The plug-in can be found as compressed files in the PeopleSoft path: "<<PeopleSoft Installation HomeDirectory>>\src\DesktopIntegration". Users can extract the various integration objects (Outlook Add-In, Outlook URL Handler or Word Add-In) and install.

PeopleSoft Outlook Menu:

After installing the PeopleSoft Outlook plug-in, user can see in the outlook, a new menu option PeopleSoft as shown in below screen.

Configuration: User can define the integration options with PeopleSoft and the other required setups like server details, User ID, Email Account, etc.

Based on the features selected, the relevant appointments, tasks, scheduling etc. will be possible from outlook. All the features that can be used from PeopleSoft to Outlook are covered under Enterprise components-Desktop Integration

}  Task- A task is a way for something to be queued up and put into the user’s tasks.

}  Task Queue- You can use the queue to manually add tasks to a user's Microsoft Outlook task list.

}  Appointment- Define the defaults for the user's appointments, invitations, and calendar.

}  Appointment Queue- To review the appointment queue, monitors integration transactions, or manually adds/updates meetings and appointments.

}  File Transfer- Set up file transfer registration.

}  File Transfer Queue- To review what you previously defined as defaults in your file transfers.

}  Address Book- To Register your address book.

}  Dynamic Displays- Dynamic Displays allow the display of information from your PeopleSoft system alongside items in Microsoft Office. You can use Dynamic Displays to show any information contained within the PeopleSoft system and those displays can optionally be shown automatically alongside the Microsoft Office items.

PeopleSoft and Outlook Integration Solutions

Out of Box integrations

   Out of the box, Oracle-PeopleSoft calendar integrations are available for modules like Absence      Management, ePerformance, Talent Acquisition Manager.

Let’s look at the calendar Integration with TAM.

Calendar integration with TAM: PeopleSoft delivered the setup for integrating TAM with    outlook. Three options are provided to user: Full Integration, Partial Integration and No   Integration.

Navigation: Setup HCM > Install>Product Specific>Recruiting Installation

• Full Integration: It is a two way integration between Microsoft Outlook and PeopleSoft which updates data changes in PeopleSoft when changed from Outlook.

• Partial Integration: Sends two notifications to the applicants: .ics attachment and regular notification. Send’s regular notification to Interviewers.Below screen shots show the mails received by the applicant triggered by selecting Partial Integration while scheduling the interview of the applicant.

Below screen shots show the mails received by the applicant triggered by selecting Partial Integration while scheduling the interview of the applicant.

• No Integration: Disables calendar integration with outlook

• Customization: It is possible to integrate Outlook with People code using Icalendar.Icalendar is a file format which allows Internet users to send meeting requests and tasks to other users. Below is the sample code 

import PT_MCF_MAIL:*; /*Declare variables*/ Local string &dateStr = DateTimeToLocalizedString(%Date, "MM/dd/yyyy"); Local string &dateStamp = DateTimeToLocalizedString(%Datetime, "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss"); /*Receiver and sender email id*/ Local string &mail_to = "susan.silvia@kovaion.com"; Local string &organizer = "Madhur.mohini@kovaion.com"; Local string &desc = "TEST"; &dateStr1 = DateTimeValue(&dateStr | " 2:00 PM"); &dateStr2 = DateTimeValue(&dateStr | " 5:00 PM"); /*Prepare date formats required for .ics format*/ &tempTime = DateTimeToTimeZone(&dateStr1, "Local", "UTC"); &dtstart = DateTimeToLocalizedString(&tempTime, "yyyyMMdd'T'HHmmss'Z'"); &tempTime = DateTimeToTimeZone(&dateStr2, "Local", "UTC"); &dtend = DateTimeToLocalizedString(&tempTime, "yyyyMMdd'T'HHmmss'Z'"); &tempTime = DateTimeToTimeZone(%Datetime, "Local", "UTC"); &dtstamp = DateTimeToLocalizedString(&tempTime, "yyyyMMdd'T'HHmmss'Z'"); Local string &str = Char(13); Local string &icalstr = "BEGIN:VCALENDAR" | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "PRODID:-//Prod ID//PeopleCode vCal 1.0//EN" | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "VERSION:2.0" | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "METHOD:PUBLISH" | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "X-MS-OLK-FORCEINSPECTOROPEN:TRUE" | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "BEGIN:VEVENT" | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;RSVP=TRUE:MAILTO:" | &mail_to | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "ORGANIZER:MAILTO:" | &organizer | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "DTSTART:" | &dtstart | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "DTEND:" | &dtend | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "LOCATION:Conference Room" | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "TRANSP:OPAQUE" | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "DTSTAMP:" | &dtstamp | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "CATEGORIES:Meeting" | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "DESCRIPTION:Meeting Request" | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "SUMMARY:" | &desc | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "X-MICROSOFT-CDO-BUSYSTATUS:BUSY"| &str; &icalstr = &icalstr |  "X-MICROSOFT-CDO-IMPORTANCE:1"| &str; &icalstr = &icalstr |  "X-MICROSOFT-DISALLOW-COUNTER:FALSE"| &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "X-MS-OLK-AUTOFILLLOCATION:TRUE"| &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "X-MS-OLK-CONFTYPE:0"| &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "PRIORITY:5" | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "BEGIN:VALARM" | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "TRIGGER:PT15M" | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "ACTION:DISPLAY" | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "DESCRIPTION:Reminder" | &str; &icalstr = &icalstring | "END:VALARM" | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "END:VEVENT" | &str; &icalstr = &icalstr | "END:VCALENDAR"; Local PT_MCF_MAIL:MCFOutboundEmail &email = create PT_MCF_MAIL:MCFOutboundEmail(); &email.From = &organizer; &email.Recipients = &mail_to; &email.Subject = "Task " | &desc; &email.AddHeader("", "method=PUBLISH"); &email.AddHeader("", "charset=UTF-8"); &email.AddHeader("", "component=VEVENT"); &email.ContentType = "multipart/alternative"; rem &email.ContentType = "text/calendar"; Local PT_MCF_MAIL:MCFBodyPart &text = create PT_MCF_MAIL:MCFBodyPart(); &text.Text = " "; &text.ContentType = "text/calendar"; Local PT_MCF_MAIL:MCFBodyPart &iCal = create PT_MCF_MAIL:MCFBodyPart(); &iCal.Text = &icalstr &iCal.AddHeader("content-class", "urn:content-classes:calendarmessage"); &iCal.AddHeader("content-ID", "calendar_message"); &iCal.ContentType = "text/calendar;method=PUBLISH; charset=UTF-8"; Local PT_MCF_MAIL:MCFMultipart &mp = create PT_MCF_MAIL:MCFMultipart(); &mp.SubType = "alternative; differences=Content-type"; rem &mp.AddBodyPart(&text); &mp.AddBodyPart(&iCal); &email.MultiPart = ∓ &resp = &email.Send();

Limitations of PeopleSoft Outlook Integration:

• The integration is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2007 or higher.

• Not compatible with all type of calendars like lunar calendars.(Icals).

• The debugging options are limited with Icals as the errors messages generated are generic. In-depth Icals knowledge along with PeopleSoft skillset is required to debug. 

Author,

Susan Silvia

Kovaion-Peoplesoft Consulting Practice

Email: susan.silvia@kovaion.com