PeopleSoft Event Mapping Framework

What is Event Mapping Framework?

If any delivered page has to be customized, user can simply modify and add the business logic to the necessary events. However, in the selective adoption model, user will be forced to retrofit customisations every time on a new image, fix etc.

The Related content event mapping frame work, a part of related content framework (RCF), enables users to inject custom code to component/component field events without modifying the actual objects. It is essentially a driver to create built on solutions for applications. This still involves customizations but is easier to maintain and retrofit.

How to implement Event Mapping?

Step 1: Application class with business logic

• Identify the target event, have good understanding on the context and component buffer.
• The app package should extend PT_RCT:ServiceInterface
• The business logic should be present in the Execute method

Step 2: Create a related content service definition

•  Create a new related content service definition in the below navigation.

•          Provide the application package name and class which contains the business logic.

Step 3: Map the related content service to the event

• ·         The mapping is done in the following navigation

•          Navigate to event mapping tab and select the component to inject the business logic.

•          Select the event to inject the business logic and the sequence in which it should be executed.

•         Component events/Component record events can be selected.

Migration of Event Mapping Framework

  Include the following object into project

o   Related content definitions – ensures the migration of related content definition and application package.

o   Related content services (Related content configurations & related content layouts) – ensured the migration of event mapping configuration.

Pros

• Allows customizing delivered functionality without modifying any delivered objects. This makes maintenance and retrofitting customization much easier.
• Users can include all modifications for a module in a single application package with sub packages for each component and each customization should be its own class.
• A single app package would be the entire module which makes migration, documentation and knowledge transfer much easier.
•  Map generic application class to multiple components. If the same business logic is needed in many components the event mapping is sufficient.

Cons

 Users can insert code before or after the event code. If the business logic requires the customization in between the existing code this feature does not support it.

Author: Eileen Franklin

Kovaion Consulting- PeopleSoft Practice

Email:eileen.franklin@kovaion.com

PeopleSoft- Fluid Dashboards

Introduction:

Dashboards can be accessed through content reference link and are primarily used for decision making. Dashboards give higher management decision support with high level views of team activities, key metrics and real time analysis.

Fluid Dashboards are counterpart to Classic Dashboard and has the ability to extend them to FLUID tiles allowing access to key information from mobile devices and are introduced with PT8.55.

They are highly role based and provide the summary of visual information and performance. They are easy to configure and appear anywhere in menu structure. Users can personalize dashboards according to their needs and will have the information at their fingertips.

Business Benefits:

• Fluid dashboards are simple and intuitive to use.
•  Provide an easy way for the user to access key information and gives seamless user experience across multiple platforms.
•  They can be optimized across multiple form factors. 
• Provides end user personalization where users can personalize based on their day to day activities.

Similarities with Classis Dashboard:

• Both the fluid and classic dashboards offers similar functionality e.g., both can be configurable and provides the summary of visual information and are role based.
•   Definitions are stored in the portal registry accessed through the Structure and Content component

Differences with Classis Dashboard:

Pagelets are used to modify the objects in Classic dashboard whereas Tiles are used in Fluid dashboard.

Steps in Developing Fluid Dashboard:

Step 1: Dashboards are managed under Manage Dashboard Pages component and please find the navigation below.

Navigation: MainMenu > PeopleTools > Portal > Dashboard > Manage Dashboard Pages

Step 2: Provide the required details as shown below and save the page.

Step 3: New dashboard has been created in Fluid Dashboards section. Access the tiles property and select the necessary tiles to publish the content on the dashboard.

Note: By default, tile property is set to optional which makes the tile hidden from the user. In order to make the tile visible change the property to required and save the page as shown below.

Step 4: Access the dashboard from the parent folder where it was created. Below is the screenshot of newly created dashboard.

Step 5: To access the dashboard from homepage directly, click on actions list button and select add to homepage and select the homepage from which the dashboard needs to be accessed as shown below.

Limitations:

• Unlike classic dashboards, due to some performance reasons, certain types of tiles are restricted for use on FLUID Dashboards only, and cannot be displayed on FLUID Homepages.

      Author: Lakshmi Deepak P

      Kovaion Consulting -PeopleSoft Practice

      Email: lakshmi.deepak@kovaion.com

PeopleTools 8.56- Classic Plus

Introduction:

With the new release of PeopleTools 8.56, Oracle has introduced many features which take the User Experience to whole new level and Classic Plus is one amongst them.

Not all the components/pages can be  converted to fluid and Oracle has come up with a new feature in PT 8.56 called Classic Plus (Classic+) which converts classic pages to Fluid ones and thus brings unified look and feel within PeopleSoft.       

Business Benefits:

•  Improves end user experience exceptionally when the user switching between classic and fluid pages.

 Development Benefits:

• Reduces amount of rework drastically as the page layout will adjust automatically in Classic Plus compared to changing the component property to fluid mode.

 Best Practices:

The following steps are recommended to make use of Classic+ feature for the application.

•  Enable global Classic Plus setting in Branding System Options.
• Enable “Apply Fluid like theme for Classic” in Style tab at component level.
• Test the page layout and adjust whereever necessary.

 Development of Classis Plus:

Step 1: Enable global Classic Plus setting in Branding System Options.

Navigate through Navigator -> PeopleTools -> Portal -> Branding -> Branding System Options and select Theme Style Type as Fluid like theme for Classic under Classic Components sections and click on save as shown in the screenshot below.

Let us take an example of Personal Data page of converting from classic to fluid using Classic+ feature.

Personal Data page before enabling Classic plus:

Step 2: Open the component in application designer and enable Fluid like theme for Classic option under style tab and save the component as show below.

Personal Data page after enabling Classic plus:

Limitations:

•  The feature is limited to look and feel only and the classic plus pages are not as responsive as Fluid pages.
• Rework on some page layout adjustment may be required for complex pages as this feature changes the size of objects.
•  Though it is a small and simple change, users will not be able to enable as it requires a customization at component level.

      Author: Lakshmi Deepak P

      Kovaion Consulting -PeopleSoft Practice

      Email: lakshmi.deepak@kovaion.com

PeopleTools 8.55 - Navigation Collection and Tile Wizard

PeopleTools 8.55 has added many features which made PeopleSoft more user friendly  and attractive in that Navigation Collection ad Tile wizard are the one of the exciting new features which prominently reduce the user time in navigation through various component pages and made the home page more attractive.

Navigation Collection:

Navigation collections provide an easy way to access the pages (contents stored in our portal registry) of PeopleSoft at one place.

Navigation Collection Features:

• Various Content references or folder reference can be group together via a group of links.
•  Links in navigation collection are pointer to a content reference or folder reference in the portal registry in actually, it does not store the contents of the content reference or folder reference.
• They can be deployed to different users or groups of users easily as per users' business needs
•  Reduces the time of searching through application pages where users can quickly click on commonly used links required to complete daily tasks in the Navigation Collection.
• Whenever a link is clicked within a Navigation Collection, it redirected to a content reference or folder reference that is within the registry.

Creating Navigation Collection

Navigation: Main Menu à PeopleTools àPortalàPortal Utilitiesà Navigation Collections

Steps:

Follow the Steps for creating our new Navigation Collection.

Step 1: Navigate to Navigation Collection Component.

Step 2: Click on the Add Collection Link to create new Navigation Collection.

Step 3: Enter the Name and Description for your Navigation collection. 

Step 4: Click on Add Folder to add new subfolder into your navigation collection.

Step 5: Click on the Add link button to define of source page link for the navigation collection.

Step 6: Click on the Menu Prompt to Select the Source link and then navigate through the folders till source page.

Step 7: Click OK and your Navigation to the Link will be added.

Step 8: Similarly we can add number of sub folders and Link into your navigation collection. Then click on Save.

Step 9: Now go to Publish collection tab and then select the Checkbox Navigation Pagelet.

Step 10: Select the Pagelet category as PeopleSoft Application from the dropdown list and Click Save to publish your navigation Collection.

PeopleSoft Tiles

Aggregated blocks like (Tile) appears in collections, as you login into Fluid application pages including Home page are called Tiles.

Navigation Bar

PeopleSoft Tiles

Tiles Features:

•     Tiles hold the information for end users.
•     It enables an easy way to navigate around the system.
•       Tiles give users direct access to targeted transactions.
•    Tiles can be personalized based like which tile needs to be displayed to specific User, their Position...Etc.,
•       Tiles can be secured by role and can be made mandatory or optional.

Tile Wizard for Tile Creation:

Creating new tiles and publishing can be done easy with help of this Tile Wizard of PeopleSoft 9.2. without having specific development tools or skills. We can have different data source for our Tiles.

Tile Wizard leads usthrough 5 Steps for creating and publishing new tile. Each step appears in a numbered path at the top of the page to indicate where we are in the tile creation process.

Data Source for Tile:

•      Application Class
•     Free Text 
•       Navigation Collection
•    OBIEE
•       Pivot Grid       

Creating Tiles with Tile wizard:

Navigation:Main Menuà PeopleToolsàPortalà Tile Wizard.

Steps:

Navigate to Tile Wizard page and then click on Create New Tile button for creating new tile.

Step1: Tile Basic Information – Specifying tile information.

 Provide Name and Title for you Tile and then Click on Next

Step2: Data Source Information – specifying data source parameters when applicable.

Select the data source as Navigation Collection from the Dropdown list.

Click on the Collections Name Prompt  and then Select you Navigation Collection.

Then Select the Collection Type as Navigation Bar and the Click on Next.

Step3: Target Page Information – Selecting the target page and tile repository location

            Check for the details of target page is right and the click next.

We can add the security to our tile by mentioning the permission list and role.

Step4: Tile Display Properties – Specifying display properties.

  User can select the icon for your tile from the image prompt.

Step5:Review and Submit – Review and publishing the tile definition.

          Click on the publish button to publish your tile.

Now your Tile will be visible in the fluid home page under the selected parent folder navigation.

On clicking our Tile it will lead you to the links in your navigation collection.

Author: Neelufar Mohammed Esack

Kovaion Consulting-PeopleSoft Practice

Email: neelufar.mohammed@kovaion.com

PeopleSoft-Smart HR Templates

What is Smart HR Template?

• Smart HR templates is an  approach to simplify the various transaction process done by HRs, such as hiring, updating a person’s personal or job data, or managing a person’s profile data

• Templates can be personalized to meet departmental needs through automated population. Users can view and test templates dynamically. So the only thing HR enters is the new hire’s personal information.

• HR can configure personal,job and profile transactions to simplify the user experience.

New feature of Smart HR template in PS-9.2

•  Enables administrators to use the Manage Transactions component to view transactions that are in draft status, require HR review, or encountered errors.

•  Provides integration with Profile Management profiles and Smart HR to help the end users enter/update a person’s profile using Smart HR transaction templates and pages.

• Introduces new component Transaction Type to identify a template's use, indicate what sections are permitted in template, define which components will be updated during the Smart HR process, and to determine which users have appropriate security access.

      Business benefits: 

•     HR can do all the transactions at one place, resulting in increase of efficiency.
•     Streamlines repetitive data entry.

     Process of Smart HR Template:

       

        User Types in Smart HR:

•     Template Administrator
•     HR Administrator
•     Users

        

     Let’s have a case study on Smart HR with a simple example step by step.

    Step1:  Create template record/field

    Navigation: Set Up HCM->Product Related-> Workforce Administration->Smart HR Template-> Template Record/Field

   Create a new record or use any delivered record by giving record alias and select the necessary field names in that record. Here, the delivered record alias “JOB” has been taken for illustration where all the fields are chosen from “JOB” record

Step2: Create/Use Template Section

         Navigation:  Set Up HCM->Product Related-> Workforce Administration->Smart HR Template > Template Section.

     Template Section page is used to identify and configure sections, and list and configure the fields contained in a section. The fields available for templates are grouped into sections, like group boxes. User can determine which sections and the order in which the sections should be presented to the end user when creating a Smart HR template.  Sections and their fields are delivered as system data. These delivered sections can be modified within the templates based on the organisation's needs for hiring.

     These delivered sections can be grouped and categorised:

1.      Personal Data sections (includes section like Name, Birth Information, Gender, Education, etc.)
2.      Job Data sections (like Work Location – Job Indicator, Job Information, Job – Salary  Plan, etc.)
3.      Federal sections (Like Data Control Dates & Action, Tracking Data, Name, etc.)
4.        Manage Profile sections (like JPM Competencies, JPM Memberships, JPM Tests, etc.)

           Here, the delivered Section” JOB_EARNS_DIST_01” has been taken for illustration.

         Step3: Template transaction type

        Navigation: Set Up HCM->Product Related-> Workforce Administration->Smart HR Template-> Template Transaction Type.

    This is used to define the transaction types for the smart HR templates created. It is a new feature released in 9.2. Here, since we are updating the Job data, transaction type JOB is selected. The newly created section is added to this transaction type in Sections tab as shown below.

Step4: Template Creation 

    Navigation: Set Up HCM->Product Related-> Workforce Administration->Smart HR Template->Template Creation.

    Template Creation page is used to create and modify the templates. Here, a new template “KOV_UPDT_JOB_DTS” is created to do transactions.

Template Creation tab change the status to Active and fill the mandatory information.

Then in Configuration tab, choose transaction type as Change Job Data. Choose the override or hide options as per the business requirements. Provide the page title for your template.

Include our section in the Sections tab by clicking on Add Section as shown above. After completing the creation of templates and template sections, we can do the Smart HR transaction and test. 

Step5: Smart HR transactions

      Navigation: Workforce Administration->Smart HR Template->Smart HR transactions.

    Choose the template created and click on Create Transaction. Then, enter the required fields and click on Continue.

     Then, enter the new information which needs to be updated and click on Save and Submit as shown below.

    The required information thus gets updated in Personal data table using Smart template. Similarly, we can do all HR transactions in one page using these smart HR templates easily.

    Limitations:

•      Smart HR templates cannot be used for mass updates.

•      This can be used only with employees having Employee record “0”.

Neelufar Mohammed Esack

Kovaion Consulting-PeopleSoft Practice

Email: neelufar.mohammed@kovaion.com

Creating Linked Servers in SQL Server 2012 to SQLServer 2000

 Linked server is Equivalent to Database link in Oracle database.

It is easy to create linked Server in SQL Server 2012 to any version till SQL Server 2008 using SQL Server management studio.

Challenges are encountered while creating linked server for a DB from SQL2012 to SQL2000

While creating a Linked Server, it throws following error reason being that SQL Server 2012 does not support Native Client 11 to connect to SQL 2000.

Resolution Steps:

• Downloaded and installed the SQL Native Client 10.
• Install the SQL Native client 10 and create Linked Server as below.

EXEC sp_addlinkedserver @server = N'TESTLNSVR',

                        @srvproduct=N'MSSQL',

                        @provider=N'SQLNCLI10',

                        @provstr=N'PROVIDER=SQLOLEDB;SERVER=xx.xx.xx.xx'

• This will create the  link server  but while accessing it could throw error as:

To rectify the above error , following steps should be followed:

Define ODBC data source using SQL native client 10 in ODBC tool in Windows server.

Once the ODBC Data source is completed ,perform the connectivity test and it should be successful.

1)     Now create the linked server using script.

EXEC sp_addlinkedserver @server = N'TESTLNK_SVR',

                        @srvproduct=N'',

                        @provider=N'MSDASQL',

                        @provstr=N'DRIVER={SQL Server};SERVER=xx.xx.xx.xx;UID=test;PWD=Test123;',

                        @catalog=N'DBNAME'

Server:  TESTLNK_SVR is the link server name through which DB on target server is accessed.

Provider: MSDASQL is an OLEDB provider that connects to ODBC, instead of a database.

Provider string: SQL Server Is the OLE DB provider-specific connection string that identifies a unique data source.

Server in Provstr: Server name where the SQL Server 2000 instance is setup

Catalog: DBName is the database name that we are trying to access in target SQL Server instance.

Once the Linked Server is created, it can be accessed using below SQL.

SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY(TESTLNK_SVR,’SELECT * FROM TABLE’)

Author:

Mohammed Fazulullah

Kovaion Consulting-PeopleSoft Practice

Email: mohammed.fazulullah@kovaion.com