PeopleTools 8.4 Release Notes - PeopleSoft Toolboxpeoplesoft-toolbox.com/resources/releasenotes/PT840-Notes.pdf · PeopleTools 8.4 Release Notes 3 Table of Contents Preface

PeopleTools 8.4 Release Notes

May 16, 2002

Contributors: PeopleTools Product Documentation and PeopleTools Development.

Copyright © 2002 PeopleSoft, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

All materials contained in this documentation is proprietary and confidential to PeopleSoft, Inc. ("PeopleSoft") and is protected by copyright laws. No part of this documentatio may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, including, but not limited to, electronic, graphic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of PeopleSoft, Inc.

This documentation is subject to change without notice, and PeopleSoft does not warrant that the material contained in this documentation is free of errors. Any errors found in this documentation should be reported to PeopleSoft in writing.

This documentation that accompanies the software is licensed for use only in strict accordance with the applicable license agreement, which should be read carefully, as it governs the terms of use of this documentation and the related software, including the disclosure thereof.

PeopleSoft, PeopleTools, PS/nVision, PeopleCode, PeopleBooks, PeopleTalk, and Vantive are registered trademarks, and Pure Internet Architecture is a trademark of PeopleSoft, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. Copyright © 2002 PeopleSoft, Inc. All rights reserved.


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Table of Contents

Preface ..............................................................................................................................6

Upgrade Considerations ....................................................................................................7 Application Designer..............................................................................................................................................7

Collapsible Sections Accessible with PeopleCode........................................................................................7 Adding a Single/Multi-selector Column for Grids........................................................................................7 Access Keys for Field Labels ............................................................................................................................8 Grid Sorting..........................................................................................................................................................8 Grid Download to Excel ....................................................................................................................................8 Grid Personalization ...........................................................................................................................................8 Copy Project from File .......................................................................................................................................8

PeopleCode...............................................................................................................................................................8 Return Values ......................................................................................................................................................9 Exit Statements....................................................................................................................................................9 New Built-in Functions......................................................................................................................................9 Committing Database Changes.......................................................................................................................10 New Reserved Words.......................................................................................................................................10 Building Simple URLs .....................................................................................................................................11 iScripts ................................................................................................................................................................11 Declaring Variables Explicitly ........................................................................................................................11 Database Updates in FieldChange..................................................................................................................11 Query API...........................................................................................................................................................12 Component Processing.....................................................................................................................................12

Portal Technology .................................................................................................................................................13 Supporting Multiple Portal Sites ....................................................................................................................13

Application Engine................................................................................................................................................13 Updating PeopleTools Tables .........................................................................................................................13 Batch-Only Property for Temporary Tables.................................................................................................13

PeopleSoft Charts ..................................................................................................................................................14 Component Interfaces...........................................................................................................................................14 Data Mover.............................................................................................................................................................14 Global Technology................................................................................................................................................14

Linguistically Sorted Data ...............................................................................................................................15 Renamed Tables ................................................................................................................................................15

Deprecated and Not-Supported Products ..........................................................................................................17 Database Agent..................................................................................................................................................17 Import Manager.................................................................................................................................................18 Mass Change......................................................................................................................................................18 Message Agent ..................................................................................................................................................18 PIA Alternate Navigation ................................................................................................................................18 PS nVision..........................................................................................................................................................18 SQR .....................................................................................................................................................................19 Tree Manager.....................................................................................................................................................19 Windows Client.................................................................................................................................................19 COBOL...............................................................................................................................................................20 EDI Manager......................................................................................................................................................20

New Features...................................................................................................................21 Development Tools ...............................................................................................................................................21

Application Designer........................................................................................................................................21 PeopleCode.........................................................................................................................................................27 Portal Technology.............................................................................................................................................31 Introducing the PeopleSoft Mobile Agent....................................................................................................33 Component Interfaces.......................................................................................................................................33


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Introducing PeopleSoft Optimization Framework ......................................................................................34 Business Interlinks ............................................................................................................................................34 PeopleTools Global Technology....................................................................................................................35 Application Engine ...........................................................................................................................................37 PeopleSoft Workflow.......................................................................................................................................39 Using PeopleSoft Applications.......................................................................................................................39

Integration Tools....................................................................................................................................................42 PeopleSoft Integration Broker........................................................................................................................42 File Layouts and Data Interchange.................................................................................................................44

Reporting Tools .....................................................................................................................................................45 PS/nVision..........................................................................................................................................................45 Crystal Reports for PeopleSoft .......................................................................................................................46 Cube Manager....................................................................................................................................................47 Process Scheduler..............................................................................................................................................48 PeopleSoft Query ..............................................................................................................................................51 Tree Manager.....................................................................................................................................................54

Administration Tools ............................................................................................................................................57 PeopleSoft Internet Architecture Administration ........................................................................................57 Data Mover.........................................................................................................................................................58 Introducing the PeopleSoft Data Archive Manager....................................................................................59 PeopleSoft CTI ..................................................................................................................................................60 Import Manager.................................................................................................................................................60 PeopleSoft Personalizations............................................................................................................................60 Security ...............................................................................................................................................................61 Introducing the PeopleSoft Installer ..............................................................................................................62 Introducing the PeopleSoft Database Configuration Wizard ....................................................................62 PeopleSoft Upgrade Assistant.........................................................................................................................62

Items of Interest ..............................................................................................................64 Development Tools ...............................................................................................................................................64

Creating Page Definitions................................................................................................................................64 Application Engine ...........................................................................................................................................64 Record Definitions............................................................................................................................................65 Workflow............................................................................................................................................................65 Optimization Framework .................................................................................................................................65 Business Interlinks ............................................................................................................................................66

PeopleCode.............................................................................................................................................................66 CopyToRowset..................................................................................................................................................66 StartWork Built-in Function............................................................................................................................67 Changes to the Field Class Value Property ..................................................................................................68

Mobile Agent..........................................................................................................................................................69 Installing PeopleSoft Mobile Agent...............................................................................................................69 Configuring the Mobile Agent Development Environment ......................................................................73 Resolving Synchronization Conflicts ............................................................................................................74 Using Synchronization ID ...............................................................................................................................74 Registering Mobile Pages in Mobile Portal..................................................................................................75 Using SyncServer Objects ...............................................................................................................................77

Administration Tools ............................................................................................................................................77 PeopleSoft Search Engine................................................................................................................................77 Database Monitoring Addition .......................................................................................................................77 Jolt Session Pooling on the Web Server........................................................................................................78 PeopleSoft Portal...............................................................................................................................................78 Data Mover.........................................................................................................................................................79 Platform Support ...............................................................................................................................................79

Reporting Tools .....................................................................................................................................................80 SQR-ENCODING-DATABASE ...................................................................................................................80


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Cube Manager....................................................................................................................................................80 Query ...................................................................................................................................................................80

Integration Broker .................................................................................................................................................81 Changing the Integration Gateway URL.......................................................................................................81 Web Server Reboot Required after Changing Some Integration Gateway Properties ..........................81 Using ValidateSOAPDoc() with No XML in SOAP Doc Causes Application Server to Crash.........82 ParseXmlFromURL Method on Tru64 Platform Does Not Support HTTP Protocol...........................82 Integration Broker Monitor .............................................................................................................................82 Cross-Node Transaction Load Constraints...................................................................................................84 Hub Node Can’t be Selected Using Lookup ................................................................................................84 Two Meanings of Node....................................................................................................................................84 Two Meanings of Transaction........................................................................................................................85 Activating and Deactivating Relationships...................................................................................................85 Applying Channel Partitioning for Greater Efficiency...............................................................................85 Using Message Routing PeopleCode Events ...............................................................................................85 Working With Record and Field Aliases ......................................................................................................86 Data Translation Using PeopleCode..............................................................................................................86 Administering Messaging Servers .................................................................................................................86


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Preface

Version 05: 05/16/2002

PeopleTools 8.4 is a release that extends the technology presented in the PeopleTools 8.1x versions.

This is a "living" document to which we add updates and corrections as needed to support our releases in a dynamic manner by giving you the most current information. We suggest that you refer to Customer Connection regularly to see if there have been any updates to this document. When the Release Notes are updated, you will see a new version number and date at the top of this page.

The Release Notes contain the following information:

• New Features. This section provides an overview of the new features and significant changes by product area.

• Items of Interest. This section contains information regarding known issues as well as documentation that was not included in the PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks.


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Upgrade Considerations

This section presents the PeopleTools 8.4 technology changes that may affect your custom PeopleSoft applications, specifically in your ability to successfully upgrade. In some cases, changes in PeopleTools 8.4 may affect modifications you have made to your previous PeopleSoft implementation.

This information is intended to provide extra information to assist you in anticipating changes you may need to make. Some of the topics in this section may have already been mentioned in other parts of the Release Notes. They are included here to present a comprehensive list of upgrade considerations.

Important! The topics mentioned here apply to custom applications that you have developed using previous versions of PeopleTools. PeopleSoft 8.4x applications have addressed any issues caused by the changes introduced with PeopleTools 8.4.

Application Designer The following section describes Application Designer modifications that may affect previous custom configurations. For instance, if you have developed custom pages or applications, you should review these topics.

Collapsible Sections Accessible with PeopleCode

PeopleSoft has added the ability to programmatically determine at run-time whether a collapsible section (group box, grid, or scroll area) should be displayed initially as open or closed.

Customers should review any custom pages that have collapsible sections and, if applicable, add PeopleCode to expand or collapse the group box/grid/scroll area, based on data in the transactions and/or configuration data. This saves the user from having to open the collapsible section manually each time, which creates an additional transmission to the server in order to redisplay the page with the section expanded.

Adding a Single/Multi-selector Column for Grids

PeopleTools has added the ability to have a single selector (radio button) or multi-selector (check box) associated as the first column of a grid and the ability to test for it in PeopleCode. The single selector radio button implementation allows only one row to be selected without having to write FieldChange PeopleCode. This optimizes transmissions to the application server just to enforce mutual exclusivity, thereby improving a transaction’s performance.

Customers should review any custom pages and implement this functionality where appropriate to eliminate needless transmissions to the application server.


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Access Keys for Field Labels PeopleTools has added access keys for field labels. An access key is defined in the field label by placing an '&' immediately preceding the access key character.

If you intend to display the '&' in the label, then the label should contain '&&'. For example, the label '&Honors && Awards' displays 'Honors & Awards', and contains an access key (the 'H').

Customers should review any labels for custom pages that contain an '&', and update the label appropriately.

Grid Sorting

PeopleTools has added the ability for an end user at run time to be able to sort a grid based on any column by clicking on the grid’s column label. End users can also personalize each grid for a transaction to specify the sort order they would like the grid to display for each time they initiate the transaction.

Customers should review custom pages and consider removing any custom-coded grid sorting that can be replaced by using this new feature.

Grid Download to Excel PeopleTools has added the ability for an end user to be able to download grid data to Excel.

By default, this feature is enabled for grids. Customers should review any custom pages and disable this feature where it is not appropriate.

Grid Personalization PeopleTools has added the ability for an end user to specify the default order and sort sequence of a grid.

By default, this feature is enabled for grids. Customers should review any custom pages and disable this feature where it is not appropriate.

Copy Project from File The file format for exported projects has changed for PeopleTools 8.4. Because of this change, any projects exported in a release prior to 8.4 cannot be imported into 8.4. Likewise, any projects exported in 8.4 cannot be imported into any PeopleTools release prior to 8.4.

PeopleCode The following topics apply to PeopleCode enhancements that may affect custom PeopleCode written in previous releases.

Note. In many of the following sections, there is a reference to the “Compile All PeopleCode” utility. For documentation on this utility, refer to the following location in PeopleBooks: PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks: PeopleCode Developers Guide, Debugging Your Applications, “Compiling All PeopleCode Programs.”


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Return Values If a function is defined with a return value, but no return value is specified, the PeopleCode program will be invalid.

PeopleCode programs that ran in previous releases will no longer. You'll receive an error either at design time or at runtime.

PeopleSoft recommends running the "Compile All PeopleCode" utility on the database that contains PeopleCode programs. This utility checks all PeopleCode programs in a database and lists all invalid statements. Repair any reported errors.

Exit Statements Exit statements require a numeric value only. Boolean parameters are no longer allowed.

PeopleCode programs that ran in previous releases will no longer run. You'll receive an error either at design time or at runtime.

PeopleSoft recommends running the "Compile All PeopleCode" utility on the database that contains the PeopleCode programs. This utility checks all PeopleCode programs in a database and lists all invalid statements. Repair any reported errors.

New Built-in Functions For this release, several new built-in functions have been added:

• IsAlpha

• IsAlphaNumeric

• IsDate

• IsDateTime

• IsDigits

• IsNumber

• IsTime

• Max

• Min

• NumberToString

If you have already created a function to do one of these operations, you need to determine if these new built-ins will provide the same functionality. You tend to get better performance by using a PeopleCode built-in instead of a user-defined functions.

If you have created a function with the same name as one of the built-ins, the user-defined function takes precedence over the built-in one. However, you will get a warning message.

Customers should run the "Compile All PeopleCode" utility on the database that contains their custom PeopleCode programs. This utility will go through all PeopleCode programs in a database and list all warning statements. Repair any reported errors.


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Committing Database Changes You can no longer use the following functions/methods without committing all database changes prior to invoking the function/method:

• StoreSQL built-in function

• DeleteSQL built-in function

• AESection Save method

This is to avoid locking critical PeopleTools tables and hence freezing all other users.

You need to commit any database updates prior to using StoreSQL, DeleteSQL, and AESection.Save. The CommitWork PeopleCode function has been enhanced to allow this.

Note that open SQL objects can cause errors. When finished with a SQL object, it is good practice to call the Close method.

New Reserved Words PeopleTools has added the following words as reserved words for the PeopleCode syntax:

• Import

• Class

• end-class

• extends

• property

• out

• get

• set

• read-only

• private

• instance

• method

• end-method

• try

• catch

• end-try

• end-set

• end-get


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• throw

• create

This may cause a PeopleCode syntax error if there are any custom database fields that use these names and are referenced in PeopleCode.

Use the PeopleCode utility that compiles all the PeopleCode programs in the database and lists all the invalid statements. Customers should run this utility to make sure custom PeopleCode is valid for PeopleTools 8.4.

Building Simple URLs If any custom applications use PeopleCode to build URL strings, customers need to rewrite the code to use the new PeopleCode functions for constructing URL strings. For any custom applications, the structure for URLs has been simplified and URLs should now all be relative.

The user will see a "you are not authorized for this page" message when they try to navigate to a link of the old format.

The PeopleTools 8.4 upgrade process includes a conversion script that converts all portal content references to the new format.

Note. For details on Component and Script URL formatting, see the draft PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks, Portal Technology.

You are strongly discouraged from using the non-relative versions of these methods to generate links or form actions displayed in HTML source. Generating absolute URLs could make the custom application unusable under a reverse proxy server. For every absolute link your application creates, you need to configure the firewall to allow requests for that URL to pass.

iScripts PeopleTo ols 8.4 has adopted the XHTML 1.x standard.

Customers should review any HTML built with custom iScripts to ensure it conforms to XHTML 1.x standards.

Declaring Variables Explicitly The PeopleCode editor now issues warning messages if any variables are not declared. As a general rule, PeopleCode developers should declare all variables.

Database Updates in FieldChange PeopleTools has changed the FieldChange event to allow database updates by way of the Record, SQL object, or by calling an Application Engine program. All database updates in FieldChange are in a single unit of work, and they are committed to the database after the last statement in the FieldChange event.

Any PeopleCode action that requires a user response (as in issuing an error message or the DoModal function) that is executed after a database update in the FieldChange event causes a runtime error.


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For any custom PeopleCode, customers should review FieldChange PeopleCode for this situation and either restructure the code, or issue CommitWork( ) prior to the action that requires a user response.

Query API Many of the Query API properties and method names changed to be more consistent with the rest of the APIs in PeopleCode. For example, GetFirst changed to First, GetCount changed to Count, and so on.

Customers should review any custom PeopleCode programs that call the Query API and update them with the new property and method names.

Component Processing Prior to this release, you could make changes to the database in the FieldChange event by using the CallAppEngine function. This functionality has been expanded, and you can now make other changes to the database in the FieldChange event. To support this, the CommitWork built-in function has also been enhanced to allow it to be used in FieldChange as well as SavePreChange.

Due to these changes, in a couple of very special cases, your custom code may now produce errors.

• If you open a Component Interface in a FieldChange PeopleCode program, and you use that Component Interface to update the database, and after you change the database, you issue a message requiring a reply, or any other think -time action, your code may now produce errors. To avoid this, you must issue CommitWork after you close the Component Interface and before you start any user interactive events.

• If you have two consecutive calls to CallAppEngine in a FieldChange event, followed by a think-time event or something that would require a user response (like the DoModal function), your code may now produce errors. To avoid this, you must issue CommitWork between calls to CallAppEngine, and before you start any user interactive events (like the DoModal function or a message requiring a user response.)

An appropriate use for this functionality is saving user application preferences. For example, suppose you want to provide in your application a way for the end-user to personalize a list or preference, but you don't want to send the user to a different component. With this new functionality, you could display a simple secondary page where the new preferences are saved to the database immediately.

There are several important considerations with this feature.

• All updates done in FieldChange (including those using CallAppEngine) should be considered a single database transaction. This is a fundamental change: previously, a single transaction was represented by a page or a component.

• A consequence of this is that a message requiring a reply, or any other think-time action, causes a fatal error if located in FieldChange after a database update that has not been committed to the database using the CommitWork function. So that it is possible for an application to update the database in FieldChange, do a think-time action, by preceding the think-time action with a call to CommitWork.


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Note. If you use DoSaveNow to commit the changes to the database, you will still receive this fatal error. You must use CommitWork.

• CommitWork commits the updates and closes the database transaction (that is, the unit of work). The consequence of using CommitWork is that because it closes the database transaction, any subsequent rollback calls will not rollback the committed updates.

• Just as any database updates in FieldChange required careful application design to ensure that the transaction model is appropriate, so too does the use of CommitWork.

• When using CommitWork in the Component Processor environment (as opposed to using it in an Application Engine program) CommitWork produces an error if there are any open cursors, such as any open PeopleCode SQL objects.

Portal Technology The following topics apply to portal enhancements that may affect previous implementations.

Supporting Multiple Portal Sites

To service multiple portals from the same webserver, install multiple sites. Then, use the new %Portal variable when invoking the Open method.

If a previous, custom application uses the hard-coded the portal name, "Portal", multiple portal sites can’t be accessed.

Application Engine The following topics cover changes to the Application Engine technology that may affect your Application Engine programs.

Updating PeopleTools Tables PeopleTools has changed the run time behavior for Application Engine programs that update PeopleTools tables (AESection object, StoreSQL function and DeleteSQL function). It is now required that all updates be committed by Application Engine programs prior to updating the PeopleTools tables.

AESection, StoreSQL and DeleteSQL perform a database commit after updating the PeopleTools tables.

Customers should review any custom Application Engine programs to make sure a database commit is issued prior to updating any PeopleTools tables.

Batch-Only Property for Temporary Tables PeopleTools has added a Batch Only check box field for Application Engine programs. If an Application Engine program is intended for batch execution only, you should select this option. With this option enabled, online temporary tables are not created by PeopleTools.


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This reduces maintenance costs as you won't need to administer online temporary tables for batch only programs. Customers should review any custom Application Engine programs and enable this option where appropriate.

PeopleSoft Charts The following charting tools are not supported in PeopleTools 8.4:

• Pinnacle Chart Server

• SimpleGraph

PeopleTools now enables you to create charts using the chart control and PeopleCode.

Any chart created with SimpleGraph or the Pinnacle chart server will no longer work.

Customers should review any custom applications that use charts, and update them to use the new PeopleSoft chart control.

Component Interfaces There has been a change in behavior of the GetHistoryItems property.

PeopleTools 8.4 has a new Component Interface property called EditHistoryItems that works in conjunction with GetHistoryItems. Prior to 8.4, if GetHistoryItems was set to true, the Component Interface object would return all history data and you could change this history data, the same as if you accessed a component in correction mode.

In PeopleTools 8.4, the EditHistoryItems property must now also be set to true to update history data. The default for EditHistoryItems is false.

Customers who have developed custom Component Interfaces should check to see that the GetHistoryItems property is set and determine if the EditHistoryItems property also needs to be set to true.

Data Mover There has been a Data Mover format change.

Customers who have any custom .DAT files from previous releases (before PeopleTools 8.4) need to recreate them for use with PeopleTools 8.4.

Global Technology The following topics address changes in our globalization technology that may affect custom applications.


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Linguistically Sorted Data PeopleTools now supports the use of databases that sort character data using language-sensitive sorting, instead of a purely binary order. Consequently, you can no longer assume that the database sort order is always binary, or matches the sort of data in memory for PeopleCode, SQR or COBOL. In PeopleTools 8.4, non-binary sorting is supported on Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server platforms.

This may affect binary searches and the results of binary comparisons performed in COBOL, PeopleCode and SQR in a linguistic database. In particular, customers who plan to implement a linguistic database should avoid writing code that depends on the sort of character data in memory matching the sort of character columns in the database using SQL ORDER BY clauses. Of particular concern is the use of greater-than, less-than, and between operators on character fields in SQL statements. Customers who plan to implement a linguistic database will need to review any custom COBOL, PeopleCode, and SQR programs to address this issue.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks, Global Technology.

Renamed Tables PeopleTools has renamed/deleted various PeopleTools table. Customers who reference these tables directly using SQL in custom applications must update any previous hard-coded SQL references. References to these tables in non-SQL PeopleCode syntax will be automatically adjusted by the upgrade process. The following list presents the new table names.

For custom applications, customers will need to review the following places for impacts and make the necessary code changes:

• SQLExec in PeopleCode

• SQL Objects in PeopleCode

• SQL Repository

• SQR

• COBOL

The following tables have been deleted/renamed in 8.4. All references to these tables must be changed.

PeopleTools 8.14 PeopleTools 8.4

XLATTABLE PSXLATDEFN, PSXLATITEM, PSXLATITEMLANG

MESSAGE_CATALOG PSMSGCATDEFN, PSMSGCATLANG

MESSAGE_SET_TBL PSMSGSETDEFN, PSMSGSETLANG

The following tables have been redesigned so that they comply with the PeopleSoft related language architecture. These tables no longer contain LANGUAGE_CD in their structure. Rather, there is an associated related language table that contains language information. Therefore, there is no need to join with PSOPTIONS to obtain the user's language.


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Since the PeopleTools tables are now using our related language architecture, accessing these tables directly should follow related language guidelines. Any view built against a table that's associated with a related language table will also require a related language view. All references to these tables in SQL and PeopleCode should be evaluated for changes, especially if these references assume the old single-table related language architecture. The following information outlines those changes as well as the changes necessary in order to conform to the new architecture.

Table Related Language Table

PSXLATITEM PSXLATITEMLANG

PSMSGCATDEFN PSMSGCATLANG

PSMSGSETDEFN PSMSGSETLANG

PSPNLDEFN PSPNLDEFNLANG

PSPNLFIELD PSPNLFIELDLANG

PSPNLHTMLAREA PSPNLHTMLLANG

PSPNLBTNDATA PSPNLBTNLANG

PSPNLACTIVEX Not necessary

PSPNLTREECTRL Not necessary

PSPNLCNTRLDATA Not necessary

Following are examples of how your custom code should be changed in order to comply with the new 8.4 table structures:

PSXLATITEM (Formerly the XLATTABLE)

If views against the PSXLATITEM are used for prompting, then display the description (XLATLONGNAME or XLATSHORTNAME) first, followed by the code. For example:

Base Language View

SELECT A.FIELDVALUE, A.XLATLONGNAME FROM PSXLATITEM A WHERE A.FIELDNAME = 'VENDOR_CLASS' AND A.EFF_STATUS = 'A' AND %EffdtCheck(PSXLATITEM XX, A, %CurrentDateIn)

Related Language View

SELECT A.FIELDVALUE, B.XLATLONGNAME, B.LANGUAGE_CD FROM PSXLATITEM A, PSXLATITEMLANG B WHERE A.FIELDNAME = 'VENDOR_CLASS' AND A.EFF_STATUS = 'A' AND %EffdtCheck(PSXLATITEM AA, A, %CurrentDateIn) AND %Join(COMMON_KEYS, PSXLATITEM A, PSXLATITEMLANG B)

Selecting a row of data from PSXLATITEM (PeopleCode) - Note that the Record Object will handle the related language processing.

Local Record &myRec; &myRec = CreateRecord(Record.PSXLATITEM); &myRec.FieldName.Value = FIELD.VENDOR_CLASS;


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&myRec.FieldValue.Value = 'A'; &myRec.SelectByKeyEffdt(%Date);

If &myRec.EFF_STATUS.Value = 'I' then .....(record not found) else &longname = &myRec.XLATLONGNAME.Value end-if;

Selecting a row of data from PSXLATITEM (SQL)

You may need to issue two SQL statements if the user's language is NOT equal to the base language. In this case, you first try to find the value in the related language table (or view), and if no value is found, you will then issue SQL against the base language table (or view). If the user's language is equal to the base language, then issue the SQL against the base table.

If %Language <> %Language_Base then SQLExec(“SELECT B.XLATLONGNAME FROM PSXLATITEM A, PSXLATITEMLANG B WHERE A.FIELDNAME = 'VENDOR_CLASS' AND A.FIELDVALUE = 'A' AND A.EFF_STATUS = 'A' AND B.LANGUAGE_CD = xxx AND %EffdtCheck(PSXLATITEM AA, A, %CurrentDateIn) AND %Join(COMMON_KEYS, PSXLATITEM A, PSXLATITEMLANG B)”, &VENDOR_CLASS_DESCR); end-if;

If (%Language = %Language_Base) or None(&VENDOR_CLASS_DESCR) then SQLEXEC(“SELECT A.XLATLONGNAME FROM PSXLATITEM A WHERE A.FIELDNAME = 'VENDOR_CLASS' AND A.FIELDVALUE = 'A' AND A.EFF_STATUS = 'A' AND %EffdtCheck(PSXLATITEM XX, A, %CurrentDateIn)”, &VENDOR_CLASS_DECSR);

Deprecated and Not-Supported Products The following topics cover products or features that are no longer supported or have become deprecated. A deprecated feature or product is one that is still supported, but any new development involving the feature is discouraged as the feature may be dropped from support in a future release.

Database Agent Database Agent is not supported in PeopleTools 8.4.

If you developed custom Database Agents, you will need to develop an Application Engine program that calls a Component Interface. After doing so, it is also recommended that you remove all existing Process Type Definitions for "Database Agent" as well as the associated Process Definitions.


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Import Manager Import Manager is not supported in PeopleTools 8.4. It has been removed from the PeopleTools software.

Any custom import definitions must be converted to file layout definitions. After the file layout is created, an Application Engine program can be created to perform the import.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks: PeopleSoft Integration Tools and Utilities, “File Layouts and Data Interchange.”

Mass Change Mass Change is a deprecated feature.

It will continue to be supported in PeopleTools 8.4, but no new features should be built using it.

Message Agent Message Agent is not supported in PeopleTools 8.4.

Any custom programs that call Message Agent API will not work as they cannot connect to the PeopleTools 8.4 application server.

As a result, Message Agents must be re-coded into Component Interfaces for PeopleTools 8.4.

Open the Component that the message was based on, create a Component Interface, and then re-code the program to use the Component Interface.

Since Message Agent does not exist in PeopleTools 8.4, it is recommended that you test the new Component Interface against 8.1x versions. This enables the Component Interface to be tested with the Message Agent to see if the Component Interface achieves the same results.

Customers should remove existing Process Type Definitions for "Message Agent API" as well as all associated Process Definitions.

PIA Alternate Navigation

The PIA “alternate navigation” is not supported in PeopleTools 8.4. Only portal navigation is supported.

Use the Component Registration Wizard to associate custom components with a permission list and Portal menu hierarchy.

PS nVision Reverse nVision, also known as nVision import, is not supported in PeopleTools 8.4.

If you have created any custom, reverse nVision reports, you should redesign the nVision reports to use XML Links and Component Interfaces.


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SQR PeopleSoft recommends using Application Engine instead of SQR for new file based processing and batch processing programs. SQR should continue to be used for high-volume custom reporting.

Tree Manager Windows Tree Manager is not supported in PeopleTools 8.4

If you have developed any custom Windows trees, you must convert them to run on the web.

The web-based Tree Manager is fully documented in the PeopleSoft Tree Manager PeopleBook. There is a special appendix that outlines any special considerations for configuring existing trees so that they work properly when accessed via the web Tree Manager.

In some cases, there are configuration changes required in order to maintain the full functionality that was provided by Windows Tree Manager and these manual configuration changes are outlined in the configuring Tree Manager for the web. You should pay careful attention to any existing, custom trees that make use of any of the following features:

• Application components and pages that were used to maintain the underlying data, were configured to only be accessed via Tree Manager. You should verify that any of your existing trees that used application components that were not accessible via a standard menu are working properly when updating the node or detail values from the web Tree Manager.

• Consider adding the new PSTREEMGRXFER work page to any application component that is accessed via Tree Manager, where the underlying application records are keyed by effective date, and you would like to have the effective date defaulted to and validated against the tree’s effective date. The PSTREEMGRXFER page has PeopleCode logic on the ENABLEEFFDT field RowInit, and also SaveEdit events.

• The SaveEdit events are used to default the effective date for new records and also validates the effective date at save time against the effective date on the Tree Definition. This logic may not work for all components and so it should be thoroughly tested when adding to your components.

• If any of your trees require configuration changes, remember to include the updated Tree Structures in your upgrade projects.

In general, you should perform unit testing on all of your existing, custom trees to make sure that the application components that are used to maintain the nodes and detail values are accessible when adding and updating the nodes and detail values from the Tree Manager.

Windows Client The Windows runtime client is not supported in PeopleTools 8.4.

No longer will page components or menu definitions be accessible by launching pstools.exe. Any Windows application (such as the IDE) that has a Go menu pointer to an existing Windows panel will not display the menu. These application menus will no longer be accessible from the Go menu of the IDE or other Windows-based PeopleTools.


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End users will need to access these pages using a browser. This may require adjusting your custom pages as not all page controls (as in scrollbars, etc.) are supported. Use the “convert panels to pages” utilities. (Select PeopleTools, Utilities, Administration, Convert Panels to Pages.)

COBOL PeopleSoft recommends using Application Engine instead of COBOL for new batch programs.

PeopleTools has added the ability for COBOL to call Application Engine. Use this feature to add any new functionality using Application Engine and then call the Application Engine program from the existing COBOL program. Note that Application Engine programs called from COBOL operate in a separate unit of work.

EDI Manager EDI manager is a deprecated feature.

It will continue to be supported in PeopleTools 8.4, but no new features should be built using it.


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New Features

Following is a summary of the new features in PeopleTools 8.4 arranged by the following functional areas:

• Development Tools

• Integration Tools

• Reporting Tools

• Administration Tools

For details on each of these features, refer to the PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks.

Updates and Fixes

On Customer Connection, you can find the latest updates required at installation or for an upgrade, defined at both the application level and the PeopleTools level by choosing Patches + Fixes, then Updates and Fixes, and Required for Installation or Upgrade . Expand either Installation or Upgrade and choose your product line. Or from the Updates and Fixes section, you can choose PeopleTools Updates and Fixes and choose your PeopleTools release. Please note that both application and PeopleTools updates may need to be applied.

Upcoming Releases

To learn more about your release or upcoming releases for your product line, please reference the Product Roadmap on Customer Connection. Select Support, Roadmaps + Schedules, then the current Product Roadmap.

Development Tools This section describes the new features used in developing PeopleSoft applications.

Application Designer There were several major enhancements this release in PeopleSoft Application Designer.

Record Definitions

On the Record Properties, Use tab there is a new setting area, Record-Level Auto-Update. These settings are used exclusively for mobile applications, enabling developers to display derived values on a mobile page.

System ID Field Set this field to assign a unique way to identify the record for mobile synchronization purposes.


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Timestamp Field Set this field to automatically update this field with the date and time when there's a change to the record for mobile synchronization purposes.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Mobile Agent, “Synchronizable Component Interfaces,” Using Synchronization ID and Synchronization Date Timestamp

Record Fields

In the PeopleTools 8.4 release there are two new search related settings in the Record Field Properties dialog box, Use tab.

Search Edit Selecting this option enforces the required property and table edits on the search page. It will also enforce these edits under circumstances where the search page would normally be bypassed. Setting this feature automatically turns on SetSearchEdit in PeopleCode.

Disable Advanced Search Options

Selecting this option prevents run-time search pages from displaying advanced search features for the selected field.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Application Designer, ”Creating Record Definitions,” Setting Record Field Use Properties

Build Options

PeopleTools has added a new build option to the Build dialog box called Create Triggers. Within PeopleTools, triggers are created in tables related to synchronization for mobile applications and for optimization servers. Within these applications, triggers are not created for all records; they are only created for records where specific properties have been set. For example, in a mobile component record, set the required properties for that record so triggers are created during the build process.

The Create Trigger Build Option is automatically selected by default if you select Alter Tables and Create Indexes.

Creating Functional Indexes

Creating indexes now includes creating functional indexes for Microsoft SQL Server 2000, DB2 (UNIX), and Informix.

For Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and DB2 (UNIX), if an index has more than 16 keys, the key fields are concatenated to a functional key. This key field is then added to a table as the last column. A unique index is created for this column as well as an additional index called PSW<record name> that is used as a search index.

For Informix, if there are more than 16 keys in an index, a function is created for every 16 keys. The name for this set of 16 keys is PS_<record name>_SP<the incremented number for each function>. The functions are used to create a unique index. An additional index called PSW<record name> is also created.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Application Designer, ”Building SQL Tables and Views,” Creating Indexes


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Grid Enhancements

The PeopleTools 8.4 release includes significant enhancements for grids. This gives the developer tools to equip the end user with more options for how they view and use grid data in their transaction page.

• User Personalizations

Foremost among the new grid features is the user’s ability to customize the look of a grid. A Customize link now appears on the grid navigation bar by default and is controlled in the Personalize tab of the Header Navigation Bar Properties accessed from the Grid Properties, Label tab. This link opens a personalization page for that grid allowing the user to change the column and sort order and freeze grid columns.

After making changes, the user can accept, preview, restore defaults, or cancel selections. If the user saves the new settings by selecting OK, the system stores the new settings as persistent values for that user based on a key structure. Therefore, each time the user accesses this grid, the system uses all personalization options that were set previously. The user can later restore all default settings if needed to remove all stored personalization settings from the database.

The user can now also alter column sorting directly in the grid by double-clicking on a column heading that appears as a link. Clicking the link repeatedly toggles between ascending and descending sort order for that column. This action overrides the persistent sort order set on the grid personalization page. Developers can enable this option on the Use tab of the Grid Properties dialog box in PeopleSoft Application Designer.

• Download Grid Contents

Developers can now give users the option of downloading a grid’s contents to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. This option is set by default on the Download tab of the Header Navigation Bar Properties dialog box.

• Improved Grid Development

The Columns tab has been removed from the Grid Properties dialog box to make grid development easier and faster. Developers can now add columns directly to the grid control in the page definition using any of the following methods:

§ Select a page control from the Insert menu or the page control toolbar and click on the grid.

§ Drag a page field from inside the current page or from another page.

§ Copy and paste a page field or record field.

§ Drag a definition (such as a record field, a page field, or an entire record definition) from the project workspace.

• Other grid development enhancements include:

§ Ability to view, move, and delete grid columns via the Order tab of the page definition.

§ Full support for copying and pasting, or dragging grids and their contents from one page to another.

§ Addition of a new tab separator control on the page control toolbar.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Application Designer, “Using Page Controls,” Using Grids


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Grid and Scroll Area Enhancements

Some feature enhancements for the grid control also benefit scroll area controls. These are the multi-row insert option and the single or multi-row selection option.

• Multi-Row Insert Option

New to this release is the added feature of allowing users to insert multiple blank rows to a grid or scroll area at runtime. This feature can significantly enhance the user’s experience when doing heads-down data entry and also meet the developer’s goal of limiting page processing.

At design time, developers can enable this feature by selecting the Allow Multi-Row Insert on the Use tab of the Grid Properties and the Scroll Area Properties dialog boxes. At runtime, the system administrator controls the display and the default of this setting, as well as whether or not the end user will have the option of overriding the default.

• Single or Multi-Row Selection Option

There is also a new feature that enables the user to select one or more rows in a grid or scroll area via a check box or radio button in front of each row. The settings for this option are on the Use tab of the properties dialog boxes for both of these controls.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Application Designer, “Using Page Controls,” Using Grids and Using Scroll Areas and Scroll Bars

Page Anchors

Page anchors enable the user to jump from one destination to another on a long page. You can now make a specific field on your page a jump destination by designating it as a page anchor. The launching point to that anchor is in the form of a push button or hyperlink that you define as a page anchor type in the Push Button/Hyperlink Properties dialog box.

Chart Control

There is a new page control called the chart control. This control serves as a placeholder for adding a chart to your page that you develop using PeopleCode.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook : PeopleSoft Application Designer, “Using Page Controls,” Using Charts and PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft PeopleCode Reference Guide, “PeopleCode Built-In Functions and Language Constructs D-G,” GetChart

Internal Links

PeopleTools has extended the definition of an internal link using the push button/hyperlink control to allow you to make a PIA definitional link to another component in another node (PeopleSoft database) or portal. Now you can easily add a link to a transaction page in your PeopleSoft Human Resources application, for example, that will take your users to a transaction page in your PeopleSoft CRM application.

Menu Definitions

The Registration Wizard is now the main tool for designing menus for your PeopleSoft application. Using this sleek new tool you can assign components and security to your menu.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Portal Technology, “Using Registration Wizard”


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Style Sheets

• Substyle Sheets

In the same way that PeopleTools supports subrecords, you can now define substyle sheets to share a common set of classes. A substyle sheet has all of the properties of a style sheet.

• Style Sheet Inheritance

You can now assign parent/child relationships for style sheets by adding a parent attribute to a style sheet definition. Assign the parent style sheet in the Style Sheet Properties dialog box.

Upgrade Enhancements

• Upgrade compare

There is a new attribute type called "FieldOrder" for records that are SQL view or dynamic views. If a view in the source project does not have the same order of a view in the target then the ReOrder attribute will show in the upgrade report. This indicates that the target view will be re-ordered (put in source view order) during the upgrade copy.

• Upgrade copy

In order to synchronize databases when performing an upgrade compare and copy for record definitions, PeopleTools has altered the upgrade copy process. During the upgrade copy (CopyProp only) of a table, subrecord, or temporary table, the indexes (_, 0 thru 9) will be re-ordered to the source index order. The target order will match the source order after copy.

For example:

If there is a source record, Z, that is a table with fields B, A, C, G, H and a target record, Z, that is a table with fields A, B, F, G, C, H where:

§ F is a customization and a Key field;

§ A and B are exactly the same except for field order, and both are keys; and

§ C,G, H are exactly the same except for field order, and they are non-key fields.

Then the upgrade compare will produce project items for the following record:

recname fieldname src status tgt status upgrade action

take action

Z Chg UnChg copyprop Y

Z F Abs *Chg delete N

* Unless record field F is deleted, an upgrade copy and compare will always show this project item.

The result of an upgrade copy on this record will change record fields A, B, F, G, C, and H on the target to B, F, A, G, C, and H, without moving the non-key fields. Another upgrade compare would produce the same project items.

Likewise, during an upgrade copy of a view or dynamic view, the target order will be reordered to match the source when a record field project item is copied and the source order does not match the target order.

For example:


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If there is a source record, Z, that is a view with fields B, A, C, and a target record, Z, that is a view with fields A, B, F, C where:

§ F is a customization; and

§ A and B are exactly the same except for field order;

Then, the upgrade compare will produce project items for the following record fields:


take action

Z A Chg UnChg Copy Y

Z B Chg UnChg Copy Y

Z C -- -- Copy Y

Z F Abs *Chg Delete N

* Unless record field F is deleted, an upgrade copy and compare will always show this project item.

The result of an upgrade copy will change A, B, F, C on the target database to B, F, A, C.

Another project compare would produce the following project items:


take action

Z A Chg UnChg Copy Y

Z C -- -- Copy Y

Z F Abs *Chg Delete N

Unless F is deleted, an upgrade copy and compare will always show these project items.

• Upgrade Options

There are a few new settings on the General tab of the Upgrade Options dialog box. Chartfield Options allow you to preserve customizations to target chartfield page fields and field formats. The Portal Structures Permission List settings enable you to select if you want to preserve the portal permission list values as they exist on the target database or copy those from the source database to the target during an upgrade copy.

Also new in Upgrade Options is the Report Options tab. You can now set the font size and type for your upgrade compare reports. We have also changed the default font to a smaller size to fit more data on the printouts. The compare differences will now appear on the report (in color) for quick scanning of differences. You can change the default color values on the Report Options tab.

• Copy From File

Selecting Cancel in the Copy dialog box after selecting Copy Project, From File from the Tools menu now closes the project in Application Designer and deletes the project reference from the database.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Application Designer, “Upgrading with PeopleSoft Application Designer”


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Change Control

PeopleTools has modified the way change control treats subordinate SQL definitions. The user can no longer alter subordinate SQL definitions in the project view or upgrade grid. When change control is turned on, the subordinate SQL definition can only be opened in read only mode. The Lock Definition and Unlock Definition menu items from both the pop-up menu and the menu bar are enabled only for primary SQL definitions.

Application Designer Command Line Parameters

Compare a project or database with the new Application Designer command line parameters compare functionality in PeopleTools 8.4. Use the Application Designer executable file, PSIDE.exe, along with the parameters for your project or database compare. The compare process also creates reports to a directory that you specify.

Chartfield Customizations

PeopleSoft Application Designer now enables you to perform bulk operations on fields across many different records or pages. This feature was developed mainly for the customization of chartfields used in financial applications. Access the new Bulk Operations option from the Tools menu. This option enables you to do the following:

Insert Select to insert fields into records, record fields onto pages, or fields onto both records and pages.

Modify Select to modify record or page fields.

Delete Select to delete fields.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Application Designer, “Appendix F: Bulk Operations”

The log file report for bulk operations, BulkOps.log, goes in the Log/Output directory specified in your psprcs.cfg file.

PeopleCode

New Classes

The following new classes have been added:

Class Description

Application classes Used to create your own classes and to extend existing classes.

Chart class Used to create charts, both based on a chart control and using an Internet Script.

Exception class Used to create your own exceptions.

Notification classes Used for ad-hoc notification, to create and send a notification to someone.

SOAPDoc Class Used to create and manipulate SOAP messages.

XmlDoc Class Used to create and manipulate XML messages.


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See the individual class documentation for more details.

Write Your Own Classes

PeopleSoft now enables you to write your own classes, or extend the provided PeopleCode classes, using the Application Classes. For example, you could create your own class that inherited the rowset class, then create your own property or method that you could use with every rowset in your component.

Use Application classes to help you structure your existing PeopleCode functions. You can replace your function libraries with application packages. Application classes provide more structure. Using the Application Packages, you have a clear definition of each class, as well as its listed properties and methods. This makes it easier to create a complex program that uses many functions.

Variable Enhancements

Several enhancements have been made to user-defined variables.

• If you don't declare a variable, it is automatically declared as Any. A warning messages is displayed in the Validate tab.

• You can assign a variable a value in the declaration statement. For example, the following is now valid:

Local Boolean &Bool = True;

• You can now declare local variables in the PeopleCode program itself, not just at the beginning. The following code snippet is now valid:

Local TransformData &incomingData = %TransformData; Local XmlDoc &tempDoc = &incomingData.XmlDoc; If (&tempDoc.ParseXmlString("<?xml version=""1.0""?><xml/>")) Then /* Create an array to hold the name value pairs */ Local array of array of string &inNameValuePairsAry; /* Load the array with some values */ &inNameValuePairsAry = CreateArray(CreateArray("locale", "en_us"), CreateArray("uom", "box"));

• If you declare a local variable inside a function it is a new variable each time the function is called. Its scope is only from the declaration to the end of the function. This allows you to create recursive functions.

• If you try to assign an invalid value in a declaration statement, you'll receive a warning in the Validate output window about the type mismatch. For example, the following produces a warning:

Local Boolean &bool = "yes";


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File Attachments

PeopleTools has added the ability to store file attachments in the database as BLOBs or externally on a file server. For any transactions that upload file attachments stored in the database, developers need to create a database record for PeopleTools to store attachments in the database and use this new framework. This allows PeopleTools to manage where the file attachment is stored (that is, in the database as a BLOB or on a separate file server).

Manipulating an Email Address

You can add, change, delete email addresses associated with a user, as well as mark a different email address as primary using PeopleCode.

Drop-down list items

You can populate a drop-down list with items using PeopleCode.

Using Object Functions

In prior releases, the following functions could only be used with OLE:

• CreateObject

• ObjectDoMethod

• ObjectGetProperty

• ObjectSetProperty

These functions can now be used with any PeopleCode object. In addition, two new functions have been added, CreateObjectArray and ObjectDoMethodArray, that can be used when you don't know the exact number of parameters either the constructor or the method takes.

Personalizations

You can get and set user options, that is, personalizations, using PeopleCode.

Nested Comments

You can now have nested comments in PeopleCode. If you want to nest comments, that is, enclose one set of comments with a another set, use the symbol <* at the start and *> at the end. You generally use this when you're testing code and want to comment out a section that already contains comments.

Note. All text between the <* and *> comment markers is scanned. If you have mismatched quotation marks, invalid assignments, and so on, you may receive an error when using these comments.

Additional HTML Tree Functionality

You can now add 'mouse-over' ability to all the nodes, leaves, and so on to an HTML tree, such that when a user rolls their cursor over one of these items, pop-up text is displayed.


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In addition, you can add code so that when a user selects a row, that row changes style, so the user has a visual indicator that the row has been selected.

Search class Enhancements

You can now schedule search indexes to be built using Process Scheduler and the Search class. You can also specify different types of searches indexes, such as HTTP (URLs) and file systems, as well as languages and mapping languages.

Query Class Enhancements

Support for Unions and SubQueries was added. This required significant changes to the class hierarchy and syntax. The largest impact is the introduction of the QuerySelect class. This means that for many of the existing query programs, it will be necessary to first position into the correct SELECT object prior to manipulating the dependant objects such as query fields, records, prompts, and so on.

You can now run a query using PeopleCode. You can write the results of the query either to a rowset or a file. You can find out the statistics for a query, such as average time it takes for a query to execute, the last time the query was executed, and so on. You can find inactive chartfields and remove them from the select list of a query.

PortalRegistry Classes Enhancements

The PortalRegistry classes have been enhanced with several new classes. You can now access a user's homepage, the different tabs and tab definitions, favorites, pagelets, pagelet categories, available categories, and others. Instead of using Content Providers, you can now use nodes to specify the full path to your content. Nodes only have to be set up once and are used with messaging as well as the portal. You can copy folders and content references between portals. See also PeopleSoft Internet Architecture Administration and PeopleSoft Portal Technology.

Tree Classes Enhancements

You can now cut and paste nodes and leaves between portions of a tree. You can also specify whether a leaf or node is displayed.

Message Class Enhancements

Using the existing message class functionality, you can send and receive message asynchronously. With the new enhancements you can send and receive messages synchronously.

ProcessRequest Class Enhancements

You can use PeopleCode to specify a job or a job set, that is a job that contains other jobs. You can also specify that a job, generates an HTML file containing information about the job as it's processing or the results.

Bulk functions

You can use bulk functions to insert or delete fields from records and pages, as well as update the indexes. You can also modify the page field order and the record indexes. These functions are intended for use during configuration time only, before active runtime usage is initiated. Using these functions during active runtime is not supported.


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In addition, several functions were added to support chartfields.

PeopleCode Debugging

The configuration of the PeopleCode debugger is now simplified for both two-tier and three-tier debugging. In previous releases, some manual configuration of COM ports was required. Now, for two-tier debugging you set an option on the Trace tab in Configuration Manager, and for three-tier debugging you set an equivalent setting for an application server domain in PSADMIN. In many cases, the default settings do not need to be altered.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks, PeopleSoft Internet Architecture Administration, Administration Considerations, “Setting up the PeopleCode Debugger.”

Portal Technology There have been several significant enhancements to the PeopleTools Portal Technology for PeopleTools 8.4 release. PeopleTools portal technology provides basic web-based navigation for your application pages. Its main purpose is to help users access PeopleSoft application pages.

Navigation

Another important enhancement is the way that users will be able to navigate through PIA. In PeopleTools 8.4 you are now able to view the navigation while you are in a PeopleSoft Application page. This enhancement also provides the ability to browse through the possible navigation links without committing to leave their current transaction.

Note. Alternate navigation is no longer supported in PeopleTools 8.4.

Simple URL

A major enhancement in PeopleTools 8.4 is the new format for URL. URLs are now much simpler to “read” and much more manageable.

The portal servlet needs three pieces of information in order to present a page to the user. These are the integral parts of a PeopleSoft portal URL:

• The name of the portal that the content is being accessed through.

• The node that hosts the content.

• The type and ID of the content.

Note. The ID format is different for each content type. Components are identified by menu, component, and market; scripts are identified by the program name , and so on.

Here’s what a URL looks like:

http://server/servlet_name/SiteName/PortalName/NodeName/content_type/content_id?content_parm

The following table describes the different sections of the URL.


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Section Description

http://Server/ Scheme (HTTP / HTTPS ) and web server name.

servlet name/ The name of the physical servlet that the web server invokes to handle the request.

SiteName/ Site name defined during the installation of PIA. This enables you to set up multiple sites on one physical web server. SiteName is ultimately mapped by the web server to a different configuration.properties file.

PortalName/ Name of the portal to use for this request. The portal definition contains metadata that describes how to present the content (that is, template, pagelets , and so on).

NodeName/ Name of the node that contains the content for this request.

Content type/ Type of the content for this request.

content id The identification of the content. The ID and type are used to ensure the correct content is retrieved.

?content parm Query string parameters (name value pairs) for the content.

See PeopleTools 8.4 Portal Technology PeopleBook Understanding the Registry and URLS for the full documentation of this significant enhancement.

Portal Registry Wizard

The Registration Wizard in PeopleTools 8.4 introduces a streamlined and efficient way to register components or scripts into a menu, registry, and add them to permission lists. You can also use the Registration Wizard to import custom menus, and register a component (or script) into multiple portals. The Registration Wizard has the additional benefit of reducing user errors, and maintaining synchronization between portals, by combining several different methods into one intuitive wizard interface.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook: Portal Technology, “Using Registration Wizard”.

Portal Administration

In PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleSoft introduces a simplified and centralized administration interface for the management of objects in the portal registry. These objects include folders, content references, templates, and content providers. Common administrative tasks include adding, deleting, and renaming portal objects.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook: Portal Technology, “Administering a PeopleSoft Portal”.

Nodes

In PeopleTools 8.4 a node (previously termed content providers) is basically a URI string that defines the database and server. It is used when the portal servlet attempts to retrieve content, whether internal PeopleSoft or external references, and assemble pages.


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Note. You must purchase PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal to be able to retrieve non-PeopleSoft related external references.

Every PeopleSoft database must have one and only one default local node that is used to define the address (URL) for that database. The default local node is used to signon to the homepage as well as with the Integration Broker to facilitate synchronous and asynchronous messaging between PeopleSoft and external or other PeopleSoft applications.

The use of nodes also simplifies PeopleCode programming, since long URLs can be referred to quite easily by the appropriate node name. Some node names (HRMS, EPM, SA, FDM, and CRM) are preset in your portal. Each database can have additional local nodes, which you can define in the Node Definition pages.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook: Portal Technology, “Administering a PeopleSoft Portal,” Specifying Portal Nodes.

Portal Definitions

Another major enhancement in PeopleTools 8.4 is the ability to create and maintain multiple portals on the same, or different databases. Portals can be created, maintained and deleted using the Portal Definition pages in the Portal Administration interface.

Introducing the PeopleSoft Mobile Agent

PeopleSoft Mobile Agent introduces new functionality to PeopleTools 8.4, and provides a runtime environment for executing PeopleSoft applications on disconnected mobile devices.

As part of PeopleTools 8.4, PeopleSoft Mobile Agent extends the functionality of the component interface designer to define synchronizable component interfaces, the building blocks of mobile pages. The new mobile page designer allows developers to define pages similar to PeopleSoft Internet Architecture pages to appear on mobile devices.

As a runtime environment, PeopleSoft Mobile Agent supports applications ported to mobile devices, such as PeopleSoft CRM Mobile Sales and PeopleSoft CRM Mobile FieldService. These applications allow mobile users to work with the data they need in the field using the familiar PeopleSoft 8 look and feel, and then to synchronize their updates with their network server when it’s convenient.

Component Interfaces The external API has been replaced with Java object Adapter for COM and C++.

Synchronization and Mobile events

The Component Interface Properties Synchronization Tab is used with PeopleSoft Mobile Agent. PeopleSoft Mobile Agent extends the functionality of PeopleSoft Internet Architecture (PIA) to disconnected mobile devices. This allows users to continue working with their PeopleSoft applications on a laptop computer or personal digital assistant (PDA) while disconnected from the internet or local network.

Each component interface is isolated and unaware of the other component interfaces in the system. In order to access and update information from other component interfaces, References establish relationships between component interfaces.

See PeopleTools PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Mobile Agent.


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See PeopleTools PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Mobile Agent, "Synchronizable Component Interfaces," Using Reference Properties.

See PeopleTools PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Mobile Agent, “Synchronizable Component Interfaces,” Using Mobile PeopleCode.

New properties

The Length property returns the length of the field property. The IsReadOnly property returns True if the property is marked Read Only in the Component Interface Definition; False otherwise.

See PeopleTools PeopleBook: Peoplesoft PeopleCode Reference, “Component Interface Classes,” CompIntfPropInfoCollection Object Properties.

Programming Templates

PeopleCode component interface templates can be generated for the programming languages C++, Java, Visual Basic, and PeopleCode.

See PeopleTools PeopleBook: Peoplesoft Component Interfaces, in the chapters for Programming Component Interfaces in Java, C++, COM and PeopleCode.

Introducing PeopleSoft Optimization Framework

The optimization framework is a new feature for 8.4. PeopleSoft Optimization Framework (POF) provides a foundation for building applications that use optimization-based decision-making capability within the PeopleTools environment. POF allows applications to specify an objective, define business conditions, and set resource constraints. POF then applies advanced mathematical modeling and solution techniques to find high-quality solutions that fit the input criteria.

This is in contrast to sequential query-based applications, which require users to analyze it and make decisions one at a time. The sequential approach is far less efficient and often times it leads to a sub-optimal solution.

POF provides mathematical optimization capability that is much more powerful. It attempts to look ahead as many combinations of different decisions as possible and quickly identify the most favorable ones.

See PeopleTools PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Optimization Framework Guide.

Business Interlinks

Changes to pshttpenable Runtime Plug-in

A few parameters were added to the XML design-time plug-in for the pshttpenable runtime plug-in. The HttpHeader parameter allows you to enter any HTTP headers, including custom headers. The Proxy-Authentication parameter allows you to set proxy authentication. The Proxy-Authorization parameter allows you to set proxy authorization.

See PeopleTools PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Business Interlink Used with XML Guide, “Writing a XML Design-Time Plug-In using the pshttpenable Runtime Plug-In,” HttpHeader: Add HTTP Headers.

See PeopleTools PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Business Interlink Used with XML Guide, “Writing a XML Design-Time Plug-In using the pshttpenable Runtime Plug-In,” Proxy-Authentication.


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See PeopleTools PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Business Interlink Used with XML Guide, “Writing a XML Design-Time Plug-In using the pshttpenable Runtime Plug-In,” Proxy-Authorization.

ISO Country Code

A new signature for the Session.Connect() method takes a two character string that is an ISO country code. Passing the ISO Country code lets the object adapter determine the country code to be used during processing. The list of the ISO country codes is in the pstools.properties file.

Syntax:

boolean connect(long ApiVersion, String Server, String UserName, String Password, String ISOCountryCd, byte[] ExternalAuth);

Example:

boolean bReturn=connect(1, "\\APPSRV:9000", "PTDMO", "PTDMO", "US", null);

PeopleTools Global Technology

Several significant enhancements are introduced in the area of Global Technology for PeopleTools 8.4. PeopleTools can now incorporate multiple translations of virtually all elements displayed to the user. The PeopleTools international language architecture includes international preference settings, related language tables, translation features, international formatting, time zone support, currency support, support for numerous character sets, and support for global reporting features.

Translation Utilities

In PeopleTools 8.4 several additional pages have been added to the Translation pages to simplify translation. To access these pages, select PeopleTools, Translations, Translate System Definitions.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Global Technology, “Translating Application Definitions,” Using the Translation Pages.

International Preferences

The international preference settings have been enhanced with the release of PeopleTools 8.4 with an improved centralized user interface that allows users to control the language in which they view and use the PeopleSoft system, as well region-specific formatting conventions for dates, times, and numbers.

International Date/Time Default Preferences defaults date and time formatting based on the language chosen at the signon screen.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Global Technology, “Controlling International Preferences,” Understanding PeopleSoft Internet Architecture Locale Based Formatting.

Multi Language Entry

A major new enhancement in PeopleTools 8.4 is the introduction of the Multi Language Entry feature which enables multilingual users to maintain language-sensitive data by switching from one language to another while working on a page. This means that they can conveniently maintain related language tables without closing the page and changing the signon language setting. The Multi Language Entry feature provides:


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• A visual cue for translatable fields.

• Ability to select languages dynamically on the page that needs translation.

• Ability to for users to turn the feature on and off using personalization and administrators to enable the feature for users using security settings.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Global Technology, “Working With Language Sensitive Application Data,” Editing Data in Multiple Languages.

Sorting

Sorting has been significantly improved with the release of PeopleTools 8.4 and you can now choose to sort translation table values with non-English characters (such as accented letters) instead of binary sorting.

There are many different components of PeopleTools that sort character data, most of which rely on the database system to perform their sorting using a SQL ORDER BY clause. However PeopleTools does perform some sorting in memory, see PeopleTools In-Memory Sort. Other parts of PeopleTools support only a binary sort for logistical or performance reasons. The following table indicates each of the common areas of PeopleTools that presents sorted lists of data to the user, and which mechanism each uses to perform the sort.

Functional Area Sorting Engine

Component Search Dialogs Database-level SQL ORDER BY sort

Scroll Buffers Database-level SQL ORDER BY sort

SQL Operations in PeopleSoft Query, nVision, Crystal and SQR

Database-level SQL ORDER BY sort

SQL functions called from PeopleCode (SQL Objects, ExecSQL) containing BETWEEN, <, >, MIN, MAX etc.


PeopleCode ScrollSelect( ) / ScrollSelectNew( ), RowScrollSelect( ) and RollScrollSelectNew( ) functions


Column-specific re-sort in PIA (by clicking on column heading)

PeopleTools in-memory sort

PeopleCode SortScroll( ) PeopleTools in-memory sort

Drop-down list of translate values PeopleTools in-memory sort

PeopleCode binary comparison functions ( <, >, =)

Binary sort

%BINARYSORT MetaSQL function

Binary sort

Greater than and less than COBOL operations

Binary sort


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Functional Area Sorting Engine

Greater than and less than comparisons in SQR

Binary sort

Review the Global Technology PeopleBook for an in depth discussion of sorting in PeopleTools and PeopleTools-based applications. Additional information is also provided about how to:

• Sort in PeopleTools

• Set the sort order

• Force binary sort in SQL

• Sort in COBOL

• Sort in SQR

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Global Technology, “Sorting in PeopleTools”.

Flexible Verity Locale Map

Provides an externalized map between PeopleSoft language codes and Verity locales, allowing companies to add their own language codes.

Application Engine There were several major enhancements this release in PeopleSoft Application Engine:

• Program Flow view in Application Designer.

• Viewing Temporary Table Usage.

• Calling COBOL from Application Engine.

• New Application Engine program types, daemon and transform.

Program Flow View

The Program Flow view shows an alternative way of displaying your Application Engine programs in Application Designer making them easier to develop and debug.


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Program Flow view of Application Engine program

Temporary Table Usage

You can now view browser pages reflecting your program’s temporary table usage, online instances and warning messages.

Calling Application Engine Programs from COBOL

To facilitate the conversion of existing COBOL programs to Application Engine programs, you can now call Application Engine programs from existing COBOL code. You do this by adding a copybook to your COBOL program and assigning copybook values.

New Program Types

• Daemon Programs

PeopleSoft Application Engine has a new daemon process, called PSDAEMON, that runs continuously when the Process Scheduler is running, and is intended for recurrent jobs. It polls the system checking for certain conditions to be true for events and when true, it schedules a process to handle the event.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook : PeopleSoft Process Scheduler, “Setting Server Options,” form more information.

• Transform Programs

These Application Engine programs are used to support XSLT transformation programming.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks: PeopleSoft Integration Broker, “Applying Transformation, Translation, and Filtering,” for more information.


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PeopleSoft Workflow This release of PeopleSoft Workflow includes major enhancements for ad-hoc Workflow notifications and supports the Blackberry pager system.

Notification Features

Note the following new features to facilitate sending notifications in workflow.

• The Notify toolbar button can be added to any PeopleSoft component. With the Notify toolbar button, the end user can determine when an event has occurred that requires that someone be notified. The Notify toolbar button opens the Send Notification page, where the end user can enter a personal message and send an email or worklist notification to one or many users.

• Notification Templates allows functional users to configure unique message text for each component. The Notification Template can include values from the component page (for example, Order Number, Customer Name) so that even the pre-defined text in the notification can be specific to the data on the page. These values are called template variables .

• The Blackberry Email Response notification setup and polling program allows companies to leverage the Research In Motion (RIM) wireless handheld device functionality to send and receive email. The email response from the device can trigger business logic in the PeopleSoft system to update or complete a transaction.

• The combination of Generic Templates and PeopleCode application classes can be used by application developers to extend the delivered notification features for a specific application.

Using PeopleSoft Applications Using PeopleSoft Applications contains enhancements to the following product areas:

• Navigational features.

• User preferences.

• Accessibility features.

• Enhanced searches.

Navigational Features

Navigating the PeopleSoft Internet Architecture has been improved with the following features.

• Left-Hand Navigation

The left-hand navigation is a navigational hierarchy where you can access a series of folder drilldowns. This structure is the primary means of getting around your PeopleSoft application. This structure collapses and expands based on your selections. The main level, also known as Home, contains a general list of the areas you can link to in that application. It also includes the following links: Change My Password, My Personalizations, and My System Profile.

• Add to Favorites, Edit Favorites


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Favorites allow you to create your own list of bookmarks to folders and content references. When you would like to add a page to your list of favorites, click Add to Favorites in the universal navigation header. Once you give your new favorite a unique description and click Save, the favorite appears for easy access in the left-hand navigation under My Favorites.

You can also manage your list of favorites using Edit Favorites. You can change the description or sequence of stored favorites or delete unnecessary links with this feature. Edit Favorites can be accessed from the left-hand navigation under My Favorites.

For more information see PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook: Using PeopleSoft Applications, "Working with Browser-Based Applications," Understanding Browser-Based Applications.

User Preferences

Personalize the information in the PeopleSoft Internet Architecture by using the following features in the left -hand navigation.

• My System Profile

My System Profile includes many items that reflect your preferences. Passwords, personalizations (language and currency code), email addresses, alternate users, and workflow attributes are set in My System Profile.

• My Personalizations

You can personalize the way data is displayed with My Personalizations. Your administrator determines which options you can modify. The personalizations that can be made include locale-specific changes, a mode for pages to support assistive technologies, or changes to images. The personalization categories include: General Options, International & Regional Settings, System & Application Messages, and Navigation Personalizations.

• Change my Password

Click Change my Password to access the page where you can change your password information. Use 1 to 32 characters to create your password. Your administrator, however, has the option of implementing additional password controls that may result in additional requirements for password changes.

For more information PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook: Security, "Setting Up User Profiles."

Accessibility Layout Features

Users can choose from three accessibility modes from General Options in My Personalizations. The default value for the accessibility layout mode is off, but you can select an Override Value from the dropdown list. To alter the display of a page for maximum efficiency, select Use Accessible Layout Mode. To use the standard page layout, select Use Standard Layout Mode. If the accessibility features have been turned on, you can always turn the features off by selecting the Accessibility Features Off option.

For more information, see PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook: Using PeopleSoft Applications, "Working with Browser-Based Applications," Using Accessibility Features.


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Enhanced Searches

Operators allow you to search on limited amounts of information or to conduct searches with specific values. Certain types of search operators can be used depending on the type of field. For example, if you wanted to search by the first letters for customer, company, or state names, you could use the "begins with" operator. Or, if you need to locate employee IDs between a specific range, you could use the "between" operator.

• Search Operators

There are two types of field use for the operators: for use in character fields and for use with all field types. The following operators are used in character fields:

§ Begins with.

§ Contains.

The following operators are used with all field types:

§ =.

§ not=.

§ <.

§ <=.

§ >.

§ >=.

§ Between.

§ In.

• Save Search Criteria

Save the specifics of the your search using the Save Search Criteria feature. If you've assembled a detailed search with a number of specific values and operators that you may use frequently, the save the search criteria saves time and keeps search results consistent. Once you have your criteria defined, click Save Search Criteria. Provide a name for your search, review the included values, and save it. Later on, the Use Saved Search dropdown list will appear so that you can select a previously saved search. Once a search is saved, that specific search record is available for use in other search pages that use the same search record. You can also delete any saved searched on the Delete Saved Searches page.

For more information, see PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBook: Using PeopleSoft Applications, "Using Keys and Search Pages," Using Search Pages.

Grid Personalizations

Users now have the ability to personalize grid data. This improvement to displaying data allows you to customize the order of the columns, the sort order, determine which columns are frozen, and which columns are hidden. You can control these settings by selecting the Customize link in the header or footer bar of the grid. Any personalizations that you make remain for that grid until you change them.


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In addition to personalizing the grid data, some grids also enable you to download the grid data to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. To download all the rows in the buffer click View All and then click the download icon.

Integration Tools The PeopleSoft Integration technology has changed dramatically for PeopleTools 8.4.

PeopleSoft Integration Broker

Internet technologies have become a platform that supports the open flow of information between systems. By leveraging standard internet technologies such as Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), PeopleSoft Integration Broker delivers a set of server-based technologies that supports true internet systems integration. These technologies streamline the integration of PeopleSoft applications with other PeopleSoft applications, internal systems, electronic marketplaces, and customer trading partner systems.

Integration Broker is comprised of two high-level subsystems, the Integration Gateway and the Integration Engine. The Integration Gateway resides on a PeopleSoft web server, and the Integration Engine is installed on an application server as part of your PeopleSoft application.

Integration Broker is part of the PeopleTools platform, so every PeopleSoft application that runs on PeopleTools 8.4 possesses Integration Broker. As a result, Integration Broker uses the same platform and security framework, hardware, database, operating system, and single sign-on security access as other PeopleSoft applications.

PeopleSoft Integration Broker architecture


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Integration Gateway

The Integration Gateway is a platform that manages the actual receipt and delivery of messages passed among systems through the Integration Broker. It provides support for the leading TCP/IP protocols used in the marketplace today, and more importantly, provides extensible interfaces for the development of new connectors for communication with legacy, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and internet-based systems.

Additional features of the Integration Gateway include:

• Backward compatibility for incoming Business Interlinks and PeopleSoft 8.1x Application Messaging.

• Listening connectors and target connectors that transport messages between integration participants and the Integration Engine. Also allows customers to build their own custom connectors to complement those delivered with Integration Broker.

• Basic logging information concerning message receipt, delivery, and errors.

• Connection persistence where there are continuous open feeds to external systems via connectors, with full failover capabilities.

• Transport protocol and message format management so that when messages reach the Integration Engine they are in the PeopleSoft message format.

Integration Engine

The Integration Engine runs on the PeopleSoft application server. It's tied closely to your PeopleSoft application, and produces or consumes messages for the application. Rather than communicating directly with other applications, the Integration Engine sends and receives messages through one or more separately installed Integration Gateways.

Features of the Integration Engine include:

• Modular architecture so it can treat Integration Gateways as black boxes and communicate with them using their standard connectors.

• Ability to adapt elements of an existing integration to produce a new integration with only minor adjustments.

• Handles messages containing data in a variety of formats, including PeopleSoft rowsets, XML document object model (DOM), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and unstructured data.

• Sends and receives messages asynchronously (like email) or synchronously (suspending activity to wait for a response).

• Applies message transmission type and routing based on specifications you define in a PIA component.

• Transforms message structure and translates data content according to specifications you define in PIA components and apply with Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) code or PeopleCode. These specifications can be reused for other integrations.

• Handles security features like authentication, nonrepudiation and cookies.


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File Layouts and Data Interchange In addition to manipulating transaction data, you can employ file layouts to move data between your PeopleSoft database and external systems (data interchange), using flat files as the transmission medium. File layouts enable you to:

• Export hierarchical PeopleSoft data to several flat file formats.

• Map incoming hierarchical file data directly to PeopleSoft tables.

• Preview and troubleshoot the input data and its formatting before importing it.

• Automatically generate the Application Engine and PeopleCode programs needed to perform data import.

• Use batch processes to perform large volume data import and export.

Exporting Data

The method you use to export data from PeopleSoft depends on the target application’s requirements. To export data to a flat file, you’ll create a file layout definition, then write PeopleCode to transfer the data to a file. The PeopleCode can be launched from Application Engine or any PeopleCode event. It should populate text strings, rowset objects or record objects, and apply the File class WriteRecord or WriteRowset method to transfer the data to the file, using the file layout definition to position the records and fields as required by the target application.

Importing Data

A file layout consists of a group of file records that produce a mapping between the inbound file data and the records in your PeopleSoft database. They support fixed, CSV and XML file formats. The file records aren’t required to be organized in any particular hierarchy.

Each file record must correspond to a record with the same name in your database, and its file fields must have the same names and data formats as the database record’s fields. The file record may contain a subset of the fields in the corresponding database record. It may also contain a subset or a superset of the fields provided in the corresponding file data.

The following is a list of the data import activities:

1. Provide the import data in a properly formatted flat file. Each record in the file must correspond to a record with the same name in your PeopleSoft database, and its fields must have the same names and data formats as the database record’s fields. Each record in the file must end with a newline character.

2. Create a file layout definition to match the record and field structure of your data. Insert the appropriate record definitions into your file layout, then reposition the file records and file fields to match the record and field positions in your file.

3. Preview and troubleshoot the input data format and content.

4. Generate the data import Application Engine program and PeopleCode.

5. Run the Application Engine program to import the data.


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Reporting Tools In PeopleTools 8.4 several improvements and enhancements have been added to the Reporting Tools Suite. This section of the release notes will highlight those changes.

PS/nVision

PS/nVision Navigation

Navigating to PS/nVision on the web has changed with Release 8.4. PS/nVision is now a second level portal folder placed below the Reporting Tools folder. Within the PS/nVision folder there is a navigation hierarchy, which contains the following areas:

PS/nVision Navigation Hierarchy

Drilldown - PORTAL_SETUP.DMS Script

It is no longer required to run the PORTAL_SETUP.DMS script during initial setup. The URI value will now pass as a command line argument to PS/nVision through Process Scheduler.

Certification for Microsoft Office XP

PeopleSoft now certifies using Microsoft Office XP with PS/nVision. However, when the nVision Layout Definition dialog window is open, you cannot select Excel columns or rows directly by simply clicking on them. When using Office XP you must use the nVision Layout Definition navigation buttons.

Using Portal Folders

Portal folders can be used to organize nVision report results into meaningful groups. When creating a report request with the output option of Web, you can select the top level folder, and then define a sub folder where the report result will be posted. Sub folders can be created dynamically by using nVision variables to generate the folder names, or statically by entering the actual folder name. Sub folders will be created under the selected top level folder and can be viewed from Report Manager.

See PeopleTools PeopleBook: PS/nVision, “PS/nVision Reporting on the Web.”

See PeopleTools PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Process Scheduler, “Using Report Manager.”

Using Business Unit Keyed Trees

Report scopes can be defined using business unit keyed trees by adding a valid business unit to the scope definition. A setId must still be entered as the key field for the scope, and the business unit entered is used for selecting business unit keyed trees.


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Business Unit Row Level Security on the Web

Previously, when using PS/nVision on the web, pages did not require Business Unit as a search parameter. Business Unit Row Level Security has now been implemented for financial databases, so Business Unit will be a required search parameter for nVision process requests, report books, and scope definitions. PS/nVision on the web supports row level security by either user ID or permission list that customers choose for PeopleSoft Financials.

Support Not Used Field Attribute

The following rules apply:

• Layout designer refuses to accept a filter field if it's marked not used.

• At runtime, layout criteria fields marked not used are ignored.

• At runtime for a tabular layout, column fields marked not used are ignored (not retrieved from Query).

• Scope dialog will not accept a not used field.

• At runtime, scope fields marked not used are ignored; if the scope contains only unused fields, it's treated as if there were no scope.

UNIX Report Repository - Spaces in Report Names

Previously, although PS/nVision reports were transferred to the UNIX Report Repository successfully, if the report name had multiple spaces in it, the URL link would not be generated correctly. Therefore, when you clicked on the report name link on the Report/Log Viewer page nothing happened. This issue has been fixed.

PS/nVision Report as an Email Attachment

Previously, when a PS/nVision report was emailed, the attachment had the report ID as the filename instead of instance name. This has now been fixed.

DrillDown Using HTTP Transfer Protocol

Previously, DrillDown did not work on the web when using HTTP transfer protocol. This problem has now been fixed.

Caching While Updating Tree via Tree Manager in Three-Tier Connections

Previously, PS/nVision reports sporadically produced zero results or incorrect data due to a caching problem. The problem has now been fixed also for three-tier connections.

Crystal Reports for PeopleSoft This section contains enhancements regarding Crystal Reports.


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CRWRPTPATH - Pointing to multiple directories

Previously, PeopleSoft Process Scheduler failed to run a crystal report if CRWRPTPATH was set to point to multiple directories. CRWRPTPATH has now been enhanced to allow the entry of multiple directories.

CRWRPTPATH must be specified in the Process Scheduler section of the Process Scheduler configuration file. Use semi-colons to separate multiple directories. For example, c:\crystal;c:\temp;%PS_HOME%\CRW.

Launching Crystal Reports from Windows Query Designer

With Crystal Reports, you can apply advanced formatting to the output of your queries. If you have access to the Windows version of Query Designer, you can run queries directly to Crystal Reports from Query Designer. This option is not available from web based Query Manager or Query Viewer. However, users who don’t have the Windows query can schedule a predefined Crystal Report to run on a Process Scheduler server, and the results can be routed to PeopleSoft Report Manager.

Support Not Used Attribute

Previously, although PeopleSoft Query excludes fields with the Not Used attribute turned on, the associated Crystal Report still contained them. This has now been fixed, which allows you to inactivate selected chartfields and still be able to run Crystal Reports containing those chartfields. However, the column label will still appear on the report.

Cube Manager

Cube Manager Navigation

Navigating to PeopleSoft Cube Manager has changed with Release 8.4. Cube Manager is now a second level portal folder placed below the PeopleTools folder. Within the Cube Manager folder there is a navigation hierarchy, which contains the following areas:

Cube Manager Navigation Hierarchy

Attribute Names

In Cube Manager 8.4 there have been a couple of changes to the Attribute Names. Business Unit is no longer set as an attribute by default, although you can still add this attribute yourself by using the Attribute Name page. The second change involves the attribute name "Shared" which has been renamed to "Data Storage", so now in the Dimension Input Table Attribute Name list for queries you will now see the attribute as Data Storage.


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Process Scheduler This section discusses some of the new features added to PeopleSoft Process Scheduler, and also important changes that have been made.

Support for Windows Client

Running process requests on Windows client is no longer supported. All process requests must be run on the Process Scheduler server.

Process Scheduler Navigation

Navigating to PeopleSoft Process Scheduler has changed with Release 8.4. Process Scheduler is now a second level portal folder placed below the PeopleTools folder. Within the Process Scheduler folder there is a navigation hierarchy, which contains the following areas:

Process Scheduler Navigation Hierarchy To navigate to the Report Manager, go to Reporting Tools, Report Manager.

Report Manager Enhancements

Report Manager has changed considerably. Report Manager now provides several different methods of viewing reports based on the level of access granted. For example, only users assigned to a Report Manager Administration role in PeopleSoft Security can delete reports from the database using the Report Manager - Administration page.

Using Report Manager, you can see all of the reports that you are authorized to view by opening your report list in a browser. Folders are provided to assist in organizing reports and reducing the size of the report lists. Report Manager consists of the following components:

Explorer: A hierarchical view of folders and reports.

List: A list of reports to which you have access.

Administration: Delete reports and add users to the distribution list.

Archives: View reports that have been purged from the report list after they have passed their expiration date.



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Report Manager - Reporting Pagelet

The My Reports pagelet enables you to display selected reports on your PeopleSoft homepage.

Note. As a licensee of PeopleTools, you are licensed to use the reporting tools, which are limited to tools available from the menu. You must license PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal to use the Report Manager pagelet.


Jobs and JobSets

The PSJob functionality has been significantly enhanced, including:

• Defining jobs within jobs.

• Scheduling JobSets.

• Displaying a hierarchical view of processes in a JobSet.

• Specifying output options for the main job, or at the item level.

• Viewing the status of each process request contained in a selected JobSet.

See PeopleTools PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Process Scheduler, “Defining Jobs and JobSets.”

Process Monitor Enhancements

Enhancements to the Process Monitor include:

• Filtering the process list by process name.

• Ability to monitor and administer PSJobs:

§ Only the main PSJob displays on the Process List page. To see the status of all processes and jobs found in the JobSet, the user selects the PSJob link. The PSJob Status page is displayed showing a hierarchical view of the JobSet. From this page a user can select an item to display the Process Detail page.

§ The View All Job Items checkbox has been removed from the Process List page.

New Process Type – Optimization Engine

A new process type, Optimization Engine, has been added to identify which Application Engine processes will not be able to run under USS because they have PeopleCode actions that use Optimization methods. The same parameters used for the process type Application Engine applies.

Note. This process type will not be available for OS390.


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Process Monitor, Process Detail – Current Step

A new Current Step field has been added to the Run section of the Process Monitor, Process detail page. The field displays the current Program.Section.Step.Action information for Application Engine processes that have a status of Processing. The field is only visible in this situation.

Setting Purge Options

Setting Purge Options information can now be found under the System Settings portal folder.

The system can now purge all process requests with a last update date that is past the Days Before Purge value for specified run statuses.

Defining Output Options

You can now determine the default output type, output format, and output destination at the process definition level.

Distribution File Options

Use the System Settings – Distribution File Options page to identify all the different types of files and the manner of how they are distributed throughout the system. File types are identified based on the file extensions. This is used by the Distribution Agent to determine how a specific file type will be transferred to the Report Repository using FTP or HTTP. Also, this determines the description displayed in the Report Manager.

Recurrence Definition

Previously, recurrence definitions were based on daily, weekly, or monthly schedules. You can now use customized dates when creating a recurrence definition. You can also enter exception dates, such as holidays.

Process Scheduler Configuration

In PeopleTools 8.4, on all platforms except USS, the Process Scheduler domain will, by default, bring up a configurable number of PSAESRV Tuxedo servers to process Application Engine batch requests. On USS, nothing has changed. If you want to run the previous way on UNIX or NT, where instead of using PSAESRV, the Process Scheduler spawned a new Application Engine executable for every batch request, you must change the configuration parameter 'Use PSAESRV' under the PSAESRV section in the scheduler configuration file from 1 to 0.

See PeopleTools PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Process Scheduler, “ Managing PeopleSoft Process Scheduler.”

Process Scheduler Configuration File - Process Scheduler Section

The ProgramName parameter has been removed from the Process Scheduler section of the configuration file. This parameter was used to rename PSPRCSRV.

Now, when Process Scheduler is started via Tuxedo, in both NT and Unix, the system starts Process Scheduler or Distribution Agent with a -CD parameter. Users can use this parameter to determine which process belongs to a database name.

PSPRCSRV -CT <database type> -CD <database name> -A <activity option> -S < Process Scheduler Server Agent>

See PeopleTools PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Process Scheduler, “Using the PSADMIN Utility.”


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JavaVM Options Added to PSPRC.CFG File

The following option has been added to the PSTools section of the PSPRC.CFG file. Parameters are required only if you are receiving the following Java exception: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError.

JavaVM Options Set options to the list of parameters required. Use a space to separate parameters. For example, -Xmx256m –Xms128m

Options need to be set if you are using HTTP transfer protocol and receiving Java exception thrown: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError.

Note. The psprc.cfg file will need to be updated manually as this option is not available using the PSADMIN utility.

OS390 using JDK 1.3.1. JAR files need to be appended to the JavaVM Options as follows:

xbootclasspath/a:<PS_HOME>/appserv/classes/entbase.jar:<PS_HOME>/appserv/classes/enthttp.jar:<PS_HOME>/appserv/classes/entssl.jar

PeopleSoft Query This section discusses some of the new features added to the PeopleSoft Query tool, including the following three completely new web based components:

• Query Viewer.

• Scheduled Query.

• Query Monitor.

There are also significant enhancements and changes to the Query API.

See PeopleCode, Query API section of these release notes.

This section also discusses important changes that have been made, including:

• Receiving an error if you try to create a private query with the same name as an existing public query when using web-based Query.

• The Database Agent process no longer exists for PeopleTools 8.4, so we have changed the description for these types of queries to be Process queries rather than calling them DB Agent queries.

Support for Windows PeopleSoft Query

PeopleSoft Query in Windows is still available on PeopleTools 8.4. However, future investments and new features will be primarily concerned with web based Query.

As of PeopleTools 8.4 release, the following features are currently only available using Windows Query:

• Interface with Crystal Reports.

• Query Access record view

• Ability to resort query output once it has been displayed


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• Windows clipboard support.

More detailed information and alternatives about these features are available in the PeopleSoft Query Red Paper that can be found in Customer Connection.

Query Navigation

Navigating to PeopleSoft Query has changed with Release 8.4. Query is now a second level portal folder placed below the Reporting Tools folder. Within the Query folder there is a navigation hierarchy, which contains the following areas:

Query Navigation Hierarchy To navigate to the Query Monitor, go to PeopleTools, Utilities, Administration, Query Monitor.

Query Viewer

Query Viewer is a run only version of Query Manager. It provides security administrators an easy way to limit some users to run-only access for all queries. The Security Administrator can easily provide run-only access to users who should run or schedule queries. Query Viewer enables you to search for a query, run or preview it (which displays results in current browser window), or schedule the query.

Schedule Queries

Query Manager interacts with PeopleSoft Process Scheduler to give users the ability to schedule queries. Output of the query can be formatted as html, pdf, Excel, or a text file.

Query Monitor

System administrators can use the Query Monitor to monitor query performance and usage. Some of the conditions that you can monitor include average run time, number of times run, and the dates last run. Using a predefined search, you can also select queries to review and report on.

Subqueries, Unions, Having, and Group By

It is now possible, from web-based Query Manager, to create and maintain queries that uses subqueries, unions, having, or group by clauses.

Subquery: A query whose results are used by another query. The main query uses the subquerys result set as a comparison value for a selection criterion.

Unions: Allow you to get the results from two or more separate queries at the same time.

Having: A having clause is like a where clause for rows of data that have been aggregated into a single row of output.

Group By: Allow you to group by columns when performing aggregation type of queries.


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Passing Run Time Prompts Through URL

Added the ability to pass run time prompts through URL to Query Service, and to specify whether a private or public version of the query is to be used. If neither private nor public is specified then Query Service defaults to first looking for a private query with that name, and if a private query is not found look for a public query.

Field Ordering

A new Field Ordering page has been added, which enables you to change the column order and/or sort order for multiple fields.

Database Agent Queries renamed to Process Queries

The Database Agent process no longer exists for PeopleTools 8.4, so we have changed the description for these types of queries to be Process queries rather than calling them DB Agent queries. You will be able to find your DB Agent queries under the new Process Query type.

You could use this type of query definition for queries that are run from an Application Engine process using the Query API.

AutoJoin Wizard

Using Query Manager, you can create a join between two records (any record join) by selecting your initial base record, defining its output fields and associated criteria, and then returning to the Record page to select the second record.

If you have AutoJoin Wizard option enabled, then PeopleSoft Query automatically attempts to join the new record to the existing record by looking for matching columns on the two records.

Automatic Repair of Query Definitions

Previously, an error would occur if you tried to run a query using Query Manager on the web that used a record definition that referenced fields that were deleted. Query Manager will now attempt to automatically repair the query. For example, remove the deleted field references from the query definition. A warning message is displayed informing the user that the query was modified in this way. The user can either choose to save the query or make manual adjustments to the query and then save it.

The Query API has also been updated to support automatically adjusting queries that refer to either deleted fields or deleted records when a query is opened.

Downloading to Excel

We have now added the query name and run time parameters when downloading to Excel from Query using Query Viewer or Query Manager. However, run time parameters are not downloaded when using the RUN option.

Specifying Criteria

The following improvements have been made:

• When specifying effective date criteria, when you select Field as a comparison value, only fields of type Date will be listed. If your query requires the use of a non-date field, select the Expression option instead.


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• To find blank values for fields such as character fields you can now use the “Equal To” condition type, and enter a constant comparison value of a single space. (Single or multiple spaces are interpreted as a single space and displayed as ‘ ’).

• When date fields are used as constant comparison values, they are now validated and the calendar is available for date selection.

• Type, length, aggregate and decimal attributes for expressions on the right side of a criterion are no longer available.

• A lookup button is now available to use to select, or enter a constant value you want to compare the first expression to in the text box.

Removal of Field Descriptions and Comments

Previously in Query Manager, the field description and comments were displayed along with the name of the fields. These descriptions and comments have now been removed.

Tree Manager In this section we discuss significant new features added to the Tree Manager tool, including:

• Drag and Drop.

• Tree Viewer.

For information regarding Query Access Group, see the Security section. The Query Access Group trees can be viewed and maintained by using the Query Access Manager, located under the Security, Query Security menu option.

Support for Windows PeopleSoft Tree Manager

We have discontinued support of Windows PeopleSoft Tree Manager in PeopleTools 8.4 because complete Tree Manager functionality is now available on the web.

Note. Additional steps may be required for configuring new and customized trees that will be accessed via the web.

See PeopleTools PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Tree Manager, “Appendix B: Configuring Tree Manager on the Web”.

Tree Manager Navigation

Navigating to the Tree Manager has changed with Release 8.4. Tree Manager is now a first level portal folder, and within the Tree Manager folder there is a navigation hierarchy, which contains the following areas:


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Tree Manager Navigation Hierarchy The Tree Manager Tree Utilities folder contains the following areas.

Tree Manager - Tree Utilities Folder

You can customize access to any of these folders or content references using the standard PeopleSoft portal and security settings.

Note. Query Access Group trees are not maintained or viewed by Tree Manager or Tree Viewer. The Query Access Group trees can be viewed and maintained by using the Query Access Manager, located under the Security, Query Security menu option.

Tree Manager Navigation - Tree Viewer

Tree Viewer is a read-only version of Tree Manager. It allows security administrators an easy way to limit some users to read-only access for all trees. The only actions available in Tree Viewer are Display Options, Print Format, and Close. Navigation options are the same.

Tree Manager Navigation - Audit Tree

The following two components/navigation paths are available to run the Tree Batch Audits program. The Tree Manager, Audit Tree component allows for the running of Tree Audits only. The Tree Utilities, Audit/Repair Tree component allows technical users to run the Tree Audits and other more advanced tree repair utilities. The Audit Tree component is intended to be accessible by end users that can modify trees so that they can run the audits in batch after modifying a tree. The Tree Repair Utilities can result in updates and batch modifications to tree data, and so this component should be restricted to technical or administrative users only.

Drag and Drop

To move nodes and detail values, drag and drop can be used as a substitute for cut and paste. The following rules apply when using drag and drop:

• You can drop values onto the root node, but you can’t drag the root node onto another value.

• You can drag nodes and detail values to another location, but you can’t drop nodes onto detail values.

• You cannot drag and drop on:

§ Branched nodes.


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§ View-only trees.

§ Dynamic detail leaves.

• Drag and drop functionality is only available for the current page.

• To use drag and drop on large trees, change the Number of Lines per Page field to a greater number.

Display Lines Per Page

The number of lines entered for the Display Lines per Page - Display Option remains valid until you change it again. The value remains persistent even if the user ends and restarts an internet session.

Expanding Child Objects for Nodes

To expand all child objects for a node, first select the node by clicking on its folder image or its name, and then click the image with two folders.

Performing Audits

You can now perform the detail tree audits as part of a standard batch program, the Tree Audit program. This new audit program will report on all of the audit errors found on one or more selected trees. The new batch audit program gives you a lot more details about all of the audit problems found with a tree, and it allows you to schedule this program to run on a periodic basis.

We have also enhanced the online audit process so that the audits run much faster. However, when the audits are performed directly from Tree Manager or the Tree Maintenance page they only report whether a tree is valid or not, as in they do not specify the particular node or detail value(s) which have audit problems. To get a detailed listing of audit problems with your tree you will want to run the Tree Audit batch program.

Multi-Navigation Paths

When you define a tree structure, you also define the menu, menu bar, and the default navigation pages for nodes and details. With multi-navigation, you can navigate to any of the components and pages that belong to the menu bar specified on the tree structure. For example, using the Personal Data tree, you could navigate to pages such as Personal Data, Benefits, or Salary Information.

When multi-navigation is enabled on the tree’s structure, you can click the Navigation Options link in Tree Manager and select the component to be invoked when editing data on a node or detail value.

See PeopleTools PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Tree Manager, “Appendix A: Setting Multi-Navigation Paths”.

Searching for Detail Values Rules

In order to support alternative database sort orders, we modified the logic used when searching for detail values. The system may not find a range based detail value when searching for a detail value that has been added or changed since a Save was performed. In order to find a recently updated range based detail value it may be necessary to save the tree before performing the search operation. The search results in this situation are dependent on database sorting options and database type.


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Note. This limitation only applies to searching for range based detail values that have been created or changed since the last save operation was performed.

Duplicate Names

Previously, when the user tried to add a new tree using the same name as an existing tree a warning that the value already existed would appear. This prevented the user from being able to have trees with the same name but under different SetIDs or effective dates. This problem has now been fixed.

Administration Tools The following additions were made in the area of administration tools.

PeopleSoft Internet Architecture Administration

PeopleSoft Search Engine

PeopleSoft Portal search functionality depends on two main sets of technology: PeopleSoft -built Portal technology and the Verity search engine. The end result of combining these technologies is that portal users can easily and efficiently search for any content references registered in the portal registry as well as external content included in the search index.

Searching involves two different operations:

• Creating and maintaining the search indexes, which is done by application developers and system administrators.

• Issuing queries, which end users perform.

In PeopleTools 8.4, to create and administer search indexes for use with PeopleSoft, use the PeopleTools utilities found under the menu PeopleTools, Search Engine. The utilities enable you to administer your indexes as well as create file system, spider, and record-based indexes.

PeopleSoft enables you to build collections by scanning the content of:

• File systems (documents)

• Web sites

• PeopleSoft database records

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks, PeopleSoft Internet Architecture Administration, “Building and Maintaining Search Indexes.”

PSADMIN Web Components Menu Removed

In previous releases, a menu existed in PSADMIN named Web Components. This menu contained options related to the PeopleSoft Web Client (or Java Client) technology introduced in the PeopleTools 7.x versions. PeopleSoft kept the menu in for the 8.x and 8.1x versions for upgrade support, but it no longer exists in PSADMIN for PeopleTools 8.4.


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Web Server Support

PeopleSoft supports the following web servers:

• BEA WebLogic 6.1.

• IBM WebSphere 4.0 AEs. (Advanced Single Server Edition)

PeopleSoft also supports a variety of HTTP proxy servers. See the PeopleSoft Hardware and Software Requirements guide and the PeopleSoft Platforms database for current, proxy support information.

Because of new web server versions and products, the locations of configuration files on the web server have changed.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks, PeopleSoft Internet Architecture Administration, “Administering Web Servers.”

Web Applications

The PeopleSoft servlets are deployed as web applications on WebLogic. This enables the packaging of an application containing multiple servlets as a single web application. Each web application runs within its own servlet context on the web server, and each web application has its own CLASSPATH. This enables different versions of a servlet to be used simultaneously.

Some benefits of using web applications for PeopleSoft are:

• An industry standard way to run multiple versions of PeopleSoft (PeopleTools 8.4 and later) on the same web server.

• Specific directories for:

§ Sensitive data files that a browser can't access, but the servlet can.

§ Class files.

§ JAR files.

New Application Server Process

There is a new server process named PSOPTENG. It supports the PeopleSoft Optimization Framework.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks: PeopleSoft Optimization Framework Guide.

Data Mover The following sections describe the changes in Data Mover.

Database Setup

The Database Setup program used to be a standalone component that you used during installations to create Data Mover scripts. Database Setup is now part of Data Mover, and you access it by selecting File, Database Setup.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks: Data Management, Data Mover, “Using Database Setup.”


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UNIX Command Line Support

The Data Mover command line interface enables you to run Data Mover scripts from the command line in UNIX and Windows environments. Keep in mind that the command line interface is designed only for running scripts, not creating and editing scripts. You create and edit scripts using the Data Mover Development Environment, which is supported on Windows only.

When using the command line interface the results of the script run appear in the command line window much like the contents of the output pane in the Windows GUI. The system also writes this information to the LOG file. When using the command line interface, keep the following in mind:

• Data Mover supports $PS_HOME, for UNIX, and %PS_HOME, for Windows NT.

• The command line interface also runs on Windows machines, however, in most cases you would use the Data Mover Windows GUI to run scripts on Windows machines.

• The Data Mover command line on UNIX is intended to increase the performance with large database loads during installation. It is recommend that you use the Data Mover Windows interface for other types of scripts.

Handling Language Data

Data Mover now manages the language data in a Data Mover script when importing in user mode. If the data you import is not the base language data, Data Mover imports the data into the related language table. If the data you import belongs to the base language, Data Mover inserts it or updates it depending on whether the data exists already or not.

New Commands

• CREATE_TEMP_TABLE

You use this command to create temporary tables used by Application Engine programs.

• CREATE_TRIGGER

You use this command to create database triggers on all tables or a specified table.

Swap Base Language Modification

During the initial installation, Database Setup generates a script that automatically swaps the base language if while in the Database Setup interface you selected a base language other than English.

Introducing the PeopleSoft Data Archive Manager PeopleSoft systems create and maintain volumes of data. Often the data in your online tables is no longer required. However, you don't want to simply delete the data just to make room for new data. Managing this historical data is a time-consuming challenge for many database administrators. However, unless you create an archiving strategy, databases increase to unmanageable sizes.


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The PeopleSoft Data Archive Manager enables you to select the rows of data you no longer need in your online system and store these rows in history/staging tables or in a flat file format. Keeping the data in the system in history/staging tables keeps the data available for queries and reporting. Also, removing the historical data from your online tables can improve overall performance.

You have the option to archive data directly to a flat file for long-term storage if the historical data is no longer needed for reporting. You may consider exporting the data to flat files and delete it completely from the system.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks: Data Management: “Data Archiving.”

PeopleSoft CTI With PeopleTools 8.40, PeopleSoft offers the same browser-based Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) as introduced in PeopleTools 8.16. However, in 8.16 the CTI console had two operating modes: PIA mode and Portal mode. In 8.40, only the Portal mode is supported.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks: Data Management, PeopleSoft CTI

Import Manager Import Manager no longer exists. The File Layout tool now enables you to perform the data imports previously handled by the Import Manager tool.

See the Integration Tools section of these Release Notes for more information.

PeopleSoft Personalizations

PeopleSoft offers a variety of options that enable end users, especially power users, to complete business transactions in a more efficient manner. These options improve a user's navigation speed through the system and enable users to select international preferences, such as date and time formats.

PeopleSoft Personalizations, or user preferences, has undergone some significant changes for PeopleTools 8.4. You select, customize, and define personalizations using the Personalization PeopleTool. To access the Personalization PeopleTool, select PeopleTools, Personalization.

Personalizations are grouped in three levels of categories to aid in development, organization, and deployment. The levels are:

• The first level is the Option Category level. This level divides personalizations between functional area, such as PeopleTools personalizations and HRMS personalizations. Also, there is a category for custom personalizations, which are those personalizations you develop and deploy in addition to the delivered personalizations.

• The second level is the Category Groups, which represent individual products within a Category Level. For example, within the PeopleTools Category Level some Category Groups are Application Designer, Process Scheduler, Security, and so on. Or, within the HRMS Category Level one Category Group could be Payroll.

• The third level is the Personalization Categories themselves. This is the level that the end user sees. A category represents a product feature, such as navigation or system messages. A category contains a set of related personalizations.


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After you have selected the personalizations for your site, you assign them to a user, or role, by way of the Personalizations page in the permission lists component in PeopleTools Security. The Personalizations tab enables the security administrator to assign role-based personalizations and enable user control for selected personalization options, if needed.

End users can view their personalizations options and, if allowed, customize them. They use the My Personalization page to access and customize personalizations.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks: PeopleSoft Security, Managing PeopleSoft Personalizations.

Security The following topics describe the changes to PeopleTools Security.

Personalizations

You define personalization options using the PeopleTools Personalizations interface. You link the personalizations enabled for your site to your users by way of permission lists. In the permission list interface there is now a Personalizations page where you select the personalizations for a permission list.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks: Security, Working with Permission Lists, “Setting Personalizations.

Distributed User Administration

PeopleTools has enhanced the ability to distribute user administration throughout the enterprise. With distributed user profiles, you grant a particular role the ability to modify another role, such as a manager modifying a small number of users under his or her control. For example, with distributed user profiles the HR Manager could modify the permissions of the role, HR Clerk.

To set up distributed user administration, do the following:

• Specify the appropriate roles in the Role Grant page in the Roles interface. This is where you decide which roles and administer the user settings of other roles.

• Once a role has access to the user settings for another role, the Distributed User Profiles interface is used to modify a user’s access.

The pages in the Distributed User Profiles component are the same as the corresponding pages in the "regular" User Profiles component. The regular User Profiles component is intended for system administrators. The Distributed User Profiles component contains a reduced number of pages, the ones that a manager most likely would need to modify for their direct reports.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks: Security, Setting up User Profiles, “Working with Distributed User Profiles.”

Definition Queries

For permissions lists, roles, and user profiles there is a new page in the interface named <Definition Type> Queries. For example, in the permission list interface the page is named Permission List Queries. This page contains a set of predefined queries designed to present you with such information as the user ID’s associated with a permission list, the permission lists associate with a role, a permission lists signon times, and so on.

The results of the queries can be downloaded to an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV text file.


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See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks: Security.

LDAP Integration

The PeopleTools LDAP integration has expanded to be similar to the options offered by the PeopleSoft Directory Interface. To access the expanded LDAP options, select PeopleTools, Security, Directory to view the options.

See PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks: Security, “Incorporating LDAP Directory Services.”

Introducing the PeopleSoft Installer The PeopleSoft Installer is a Java-based program that steps you through the process of installing files to your various servers. You will need to run the PeopleSoft Installer on each PeopleSoft server.

You can use this installer to transfer files directly to various PeopleSoft servers including application servers, batch servers, web servers, and database servers. You no longer need to first install all files to a file server and then transfer the files to the individual servers using the server transfer program, except for a batch server on OS/390

Run the installer from your PeopleTools CD to install the necessary products on your target machine(s). (Which files are installed depends on which products you are licensed for, the operating system on the target machine, the database platform, and the selected server option.) The PeopleSoft Installer installs files directly to Windows, UNIX, and Linux. PeopleTools and PeopleSoft Applications use the same PeopleSoft Install template.

Note. Verity is now included in the installation of a PeopleSoft application server. There is no longer a separate installation for Verity.

For more information, see PeopleTools Installation Guide for your platform.

Introducing the PeopleSoft Database Configuration Wizard

PeopleSoft developed a wizard to assist you with creating a PeopleSoft demo or system database. This wizard prompts you for the necessary values to create a database on all platforms except OS/390. The Database Configuration Wizard creates the database structure and loads the PeopleSoft database.

Note. If you are creating a database to use for your eventual production database, we recommend that you use the manual steps for creating a database which are still documented in an appendix of the PeopleSoft install guide. This enables you to customize the production database configuration for your requirements.

PeopleSoft Upgrade Assistant The following additions have been added to the PeopleSoft Upgrade Assistant.

For more information, see PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks: PeopleSoft Upgrade Assistant.


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Generate Filtered Upgrade Documentation

The PeopleSoft Upgrade Assistant can generate HTML-based Upgrade Documentation specific to the Upgrade Job. The PeopleSoft Upgrade Assistant loads the filtered documentation into the HTML browser you specified in the Upgrade Assistant options dialog box and saves the documentation file to the folder in which you stored your original html documentation.

View Activity for Current Step

The Activity window in the PeopleSoft Upgrade Assistant enables you to view activity for the current step. The Upgrade Assistant automatically displays the last 10 lines of the log file as indicated by the step. The feature is available on the Job Status tab.

Edit Job Properties

You can now view comments if you have modified the Job Properties. Click on the magnifying glass icon, related to the step, to display the comments associated with the step Job Properties.

You can now also update the Upgrade Assistant job with comments and enter start and stop times for manual steps, which enables you to keep better track of the overall time it takes to perform an upgrade.

Viewing the Log File

If you choose to restart a SQL script step, PeopleSoft Upgrade Assistant will rename any new log files associated with the step

to <scriptname>_RESTARTN.log where N is defined as a counter.

Using a Text Editor

Upgrade Assistant now enables the user to choose the default text editor.

Log File

It is also now possible to view the upgrade compare/copy results in a log file.


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Items of Interest

The following topics contain information regarding known issues with various tools, existing workarounds, or items that do not appear in the PeopleTools PeopleBooks.

Development Tools The following are known issues with development tools, such as Application Designer, Application Engine, and so on.

Creating Page Definitions

Occurs on Windows

The Windows Client will not display more than 50 occurs, no matter what is set in the designer. For example, if you select 100 for the occurs count, the Designer will only render the first 50. This situation does not apply to PIA; in PIA you will see all 100. This may lead to some differences in appearance between a page in the designer and in PIA runtime.

Application Engine

Restrictions for COBOL and Application Engine

PeopleSoft COBOL support does not include the new features added to the PeopleTools 8 version of Application Engine. So, if you’ve previously developed COBOL programs for use with PeopleSoft, expect the same functionality and limitations for COBOL that existed in prior releases.

The following list presents the relevant COBOL limitations:

You can only reference fields on a single state record.

The state record used by the COBOL module can’t reference sub-records.

You can’t have a Long Character field type on the state record used by the COBOL module.

Note. Be aware that the COBOL module executes in a separate unit of work. Consequently, any database changes made by your COBOL module need to be committed by that program. Otherwise, a “dead lock” may occur between your COBOL module and your Application Engine program.


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Application Engine and Personalizations

When running Application Engine from the PS_HOME\bin\client\winx86 directory (invoked from Application Designer or by the command line) the program uses the regional settings (language, currency, time and so on) from the Registry. These settings can be viewed or changed in Control Panel, Regional Settings.

Application Engine and the PeopleCode Debugger

PSIDE.EXE must be started first in order to be able to debug PeopleCode on a PSAE.EXE server.

Record Definitions If you want to create a search/prompt list that shows the fields in a record, use PSRECFIELDDB rather than PSRECFIELD.

Workflow For Business Process maps, when converting an image to JPEG, the edge of the image is sometimes lost. Increase the size of image by 1 on each side, so it converts the entire image.

Optimization Framework

Optimization Framework Scope

The PeopleSoft Optimization Framework (POF) is only intended to be used with PeopleSoft applications; it is not intended for customers to build their own applications with POF. If a PeopleSoft application uses POF, then a customer can use and modify the way that application uses the POF.

Deleting Records from the Problem Type Definition

When you wish to delete records or transactions from the Problem Type Definition, you can use either the Delete key or the Delete option on the right-click popup menu.

No Long Character Record Fields in Problem Type Definitions

In the 8.4 release, the optimization framework cannot handle record fields of type Long Character. Therefore, when you insert records into the problem type definition, you currently cannot select fields in those records that are of type Long Character.

Optimization Engine Timeout

The Optimization Engine Tuxedo timeout is set to 270 seconds, as compared to the application server, which is 300 seconds. If there is a timeout, this allows the application server to perform cleanup after the Optimization Engine times out.


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Business Interlinks

Distributed Business Interlinks not available on UNIX servers

Distributed Business Interlinks are not available on UNIX servers.

PeopleCode The following information applies to PeopleCode development.

CopyToRowset

The signature of the XmlDoc class method CopyToRowset has been expanded to allow for record aliases in a message, as well as message versions. Here's the new documentation for this method:

Syntax

CopyToRowset(&Rowset [Message_Name, Version])

Description

Use the CopyToRowset method to copy data from the XmlDoc to an already instantiated rowset.

The rowset must be based on a message object that has the same structure as the XmlDoc. That is, if you have a record at level 2 in your message and you want that data, you must have the same level 0 and level 1 records in your message as in your XmlDoc.

For example, suppose your XmlDoc had the following structure (that is, that PO_INFO and PO_LINE are at the same level, and PO_DETAIL is the child of PO_INFO):

PO_HEADER PO_LINE PO_INFO PO_DETAIL

If you wanted to include the information in the PO_DETAIL record, you would have to have at least the following record structure in your message:

PO_HEADER PO_INFO PO_DETAIL

Any records or fields that are in the XmlDoc that aren’t in the message (and vice-versa) are ignored.

Rowsets should be created using the following pseudo code:

&msg = CreateMessage(Message.name);

&rs = &msg.GetRowset();

&doc = CreateXmlDoc(&Xmlstring);

&ret = &doc.CopyToRowset(&rs, &name, &version);

XmlDoc objects have to follow the Peoplesoft message format:


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<? Xml version="1.0"?> <psmessage> <MsgData> <Transaction> <Record1 class="R"> <Field1>xxx</Field1> <Field2>yyy</Field2> . . . <Fieldn>nnn</Fieldn> <Record2> . . . </Record2> </Record1> </Transaction> </MsgData> </psmessage>

Parameters

&Rowset Specify the variable of an already instantiated rowset to copy data to.

Message_Name Specify the message name of the message. This parameter is only necessary when you specify an alias name for the message record in the message definition.

Version Specify the message version. This parameter is only necessary when you specify an alias name for the message record in the message definition.

Returns

This function always returns a True value, regardless of the success of the operation.

See Also

CopyRowset

“Message Class”

“Rowset Class”

StartWork Built-in Function The following example was added to the StartWork built-in function:

&oCI = &SESSION.GetCompIntfc(CompIntfc.CUSTOMER); If &oCI <> Null Then . . . For &i = 1 To &rsCustomer.RowCount &recCust = &rsCustomer(&Transaction).GetRecord(Record.CUSTOMER); StartWork();


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If &oCI.Create() Then rem ***** Set CI Properties *****;

. . . If Not &oCI.Save() Then rem ***** Error Handling *****; ..... End-If; End-If; rem ***** CommmitWork ensures that all transactions between *****; rem ***** StartWork and CommitWork get committed to the database *****; CommitWork(); &oCI.Cancel(); . . . End-For; End-If

Changes to the Field Class Value Property

Edit-box Field

Previously, if you had an edit-box field, and if the end-user selected the value in it and deleted the value, leaving the field empty, the value of the field in PeopleCode was not an empty (zero-length) string.

Now, the value of such a field is an empty (zero-length) string.

In addition, if the user adds one or more space characters to a field, the field still returns a Null string.

The following is how to check for this:

If (fieldname.Value = "") Then

Type Field Class Property Updates

The description of the values the Type Field Class property has been updated as follows:

The Type property returns the type of field. The values can be one of the following strings:

• CHAR

• DATE

• DATETIME

• IMAGE (for static images)

• IMAGEREFERENCE


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• LONGCHAR

• NUMBER

• SIGNEDNUMBER

• TIME

Note. Fields of type Attachment have a type of IMAGE.

This property is read-only.

Mobile Agent The following information applies to the PeopleSoft mobile technology.

Installing PeopleSoft Mobile Agent This chapter describes how to install the PeopleSoft Mobile Agent software to a laptop computer or PDA.

Installing on a Laptop

You can install PeopleSoft Mobile Agent to a laptop or other computer.


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Mobile Agent installation web page

To install PeopleSoft Mobile Agent on a laptop computer:

1. Run setup.exe from:

• The web site established by your administrator for PeopleSoft Mobile Agent installation. Click the link for your mobile device platform.

• The mobile portal web site directory of your web server. On a BEA WebLogic web server this location is c:\bea\weblogic6.1\config\peoplesoft\application\portal\ps\mobile\*.exe.

The PeopleSoft Mobile Agent Setup window appears.

2. Click Next.

3. Specify the directory in which PeopleSoft Mobile Agent will be installed, or accept the default.

4. Click Next.

5. Select whether to automatically start PeopleSoft Mobile Agent automatically.

6. Click Next.

7. Select the preferred language.


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After installation, this selection cannot be changed except by reinstalling PeopleSoft Mobile Agent.

8. Click Next.

9. Enter the address of your web server in the URL text box.

Contact your system administrator for this information.

10. Click Next.

A summary page appears, listing your installation selections.

11. Click Back to change a selection, or click Next to proceed with installation.

12. Click Finish when the installation completion window appears.

Modifying, Repairing, or Removing PeopleSoft Mobile Agent

After installing PeopleSoft Mobile Agent, you can modify, repair, or remove the software.

To modify, repair, or remove PeopleSoft Mobile Agent:

1. Run setup.exe according to step 1 in Installing on a Laptop.

The PeopleSoft Mobile Agent Welcome window appears.

2. Select:

§ Modify to specify another preferred language.

§ Repair to reinstall all program components.

§ Remove to remove all installed components.

You will be asked to confirm any changes to the current installation.

Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the modification, repair, or uninstallation.

Installing on a PDA

You can install PeopleSoft Mobile Agent to a PDA.

Installation to a PDA requires:

• Installing the appropriate version of PeopleSoft Mobile Agent to the computer that connects to your PDA.

• Installing PeopleSoft Mobile Agent to your PDA.

To install PeopleSoft Mobile Agent to a PDA:

1. Run setup_<processor_type>.exe from:

• The web site established by your administrator for PeopleSoft Mobile Agent installation. Click the link for your mobile device platform.


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• The mobile portal web site directory of your web server. On a BEA WebLogic web server this location is c:\bea\weblogic6.1\config\peoplesoft\application\portal\ps\mobile\*.exe.

The PeopleSoft Mobile Agent Setup window appears.

2. Click Next.

3. Specify the directory in which PeopleSoft Mobile Agent will be installed on the computer, or accept the default.

4. Click Next.

5. Select the preferred language.

The preferred language cannot be changed on the PDA except by reinstalling PeopleSoft Mobile Agent.

6. Click Next.

7. Enter the address of your web server into the URL text box.

Contact your system administrator for this information.

8. Click Next.

A summary page appears, listing your installation selections.

9. Click Back to change a selection, or click Next to proceed with installation.

The ActiveSync Add/Remove Programs dialog box appears.

10. Confirm installation.

Installation proceeds. A completion message appears when installation to the PDA has finished.

11. Click Finish when the installation completion window appears.

Modifying, Repairing, or Removing PeopleSoft Mobile Agent

After installing PeopleSoft Mobile Agent, you can modify, repair, or remove the software.

To modify, repair, or remove PeopleSoft Mobile Agent:

1. Run setup_<processor_type>.exe according to step 1 in Installing on a PDA.

The PeopleSoft Mobile Agent Welcome window appears.

2. Select:

§ Modify to specify another preferred language.

§ Repair to reinstall all program components.

§ Remove to remove all installed components.

You will be asked to confirm any changes to the current installation.

Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the modification, repair, or uninstallation.


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Expediting Initialization of a PDA

If PeopleSoft Mobile Agent is installed to a PDA, you have the option of using the processing power of the connected computer to expedite initialization (bootstrap synchronization) or update applications synchronization.

To expedite initialization (bootstrap) of a PDA:

1. From the Start menu of the computer connected to your PDA, select Programs, PeopleSoft Mobile Agent, PS Sync PDA.

The PeopleSoft Mobile Device Bootstrap page appears.

2. Enter your User ID and Password.

Your User ID and its associated roles determine the application metadata and business data that will be installed to your mobile device.

3. Click Synchronize.

The PeopleSoft Mobile Synchronization Results page appears, showing the progress of your bootstrap synchronization.

4. After Update PDA Applications completes successfully, open the PeopleSoft program folder on the PDA.

5. Start PS Mobile Agent.

6. Start PS Mobile Application.

7. Select Synchronization, Last Results to view the synchronization results.

Configuring the Mobile Agent Development Environment The tools required for developing applications for use with PeopleSoft Mobile Agent are installed with the standard PeopleTools installation.

If you plan to develop mobile applications, configure the web server to identify the application server (Sync Server gateway) used for synchronization. To configure the web server, edit the file SyncServerGatewayConfig.xml, which is found in the following directory path:

• For a BEA WebLogic web server C:\bea\wlserver6.1\config\peoplesoft\applications\PORTAL\WEB-INF\psftdocs\ps

• For an IBM WebSphere web server C:<WEBSPHERE_HOME>\installedApps\peoplesoft\PORTAL\WEB-INF\psftdocs\ps

Edit the file to reflect your environment, where:

• NAME is an optional name for the gateway.

• DESCRIPTION is an optional description for the gateway.

• MACHINE_NAME:PORT_NUM is the machine name and port number for the gateway.

• BATCH_SIZE is the size of each synchronization batch.


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• APP_SRVRS is the number of application servers configured for this gateway.

<?xml version='1.0'?> <sync-gateway-config> <primary-domain>1</primary-domain> <domain-list> <domain id='1' version='1'> <name>NAME</name> <description>DESCR</description> <connect>MACHINE_NAME:PORT_NUM</connect> <command-threshold>BATCH_SIZE</command-threshold> <thread-pool-size>APP_SRVRS</thread-pool-size> </domain> </domain-list> </sync-gateway-config>

Resolving Synchronization Conflicts The following section amplifies the Device Wins conflict resolution rule.

Device Wins

The Sync Server assumes that all values on the mobile device take precedence over those on the server. Where a conflict is detected between server and device values (because the values have changed on both the server and on the device), field values from the mobile device replace the values on the server. Field values that have changed on the server but do not result in a conflict are updated to the mobile device.

Fields that are not exposed through properties, but have changed on the server, will be retained. No message is issued to the device.

Device Wins would not result in any unresolvable conflict situations. If the server object has been deleted, the device object will be copied onto the server. However, business rule validations might fail, since the device might not contain all of the fields that are needed to save the row.

Using Synchronization ID This section updates the Set Sync IDs function.

Initializing Sync ID

If you included Sync ID in a new component, the build process initializes the value for Sync ID when building the associated table.

If you added Sync ID to an existing component, the Sync ID is zero (0), and will therefore not update properly. Initialize Sync ID to a value greater than zero with Set Sync IDs.


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Set Sync IDs page

To initialize the Sync IDs

1. Log on to PeopleSoft 8 in your web browser.

2. Select PeopleTools, Utilities, Administration, Set Sync IDs.

3. Select:

• Set By Record to set the Sync IDs for a selected record.

• Set By Project to set the Sync IDs for a selected project.

• Set All Sync IDs to set all invalid Sync IDs to valid Sync IDs.

4. Click Set Sync IDs.

Set Sync ID initializes all synchronization IDs encountered in the specified record, project, or in the entire database to a value greater than zero.

Registering Mobile Pages in Mobile Portal PeopleSoft delivers a Mobile Portal to enable registration of mobile pages. Administer mobile pages from the Mobile Portal.

Group mobile pages together as Content References into folders in Mobile Portal to provide a navigational scheme for the application’s mobile pages. Create as many folders as necessary to provide access to mobile pages in a logical scheme.


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Sync Server searches for mobile pages requiring synchronization by looking at the folders registered in the Mobile folder of the Mobile Portal. Even if your mobile page is otherwise synchronizable, if it is not registered in the Mobile folder in Mobile Portal, the mobile page will not be synchronized.

Registration of mobile pages is just like registration of any other content reference, with the following requirements and exceptions:

• Register Mobile Pages and Folders while logged in to the Mobile Portal.

• The Mobile folder comprises only one level of folders. These folders generally group mobile applications, but also include Synchronization and Alerts.

• Register mobile pages in a child folder to the Mobile folder. Do not register mobile pages directly in the Mobile folder.

• Register only mobile pages in the Mobile folder’s child folders. No other objects are valid.

• If you delete a mobile page in Application Designer, also delete the mobile page from its folder in Mobile Portal.

Note: To be viewed and synchronized from a mobile device, a mobile page must be registered in a child folder of the Mobile folder in the Mobile Portal

To register a mobile page:

1. Log on to PeopleSoft Mobile Portal.

You can change the default portal selection to Mobile Portal, or edit the URL to reference the Mobile Portal:

http://localhost/psp/ps/MOBILE/QE_LOCAL/c/UTILITIES.PORTAL_DEFINITIONS.GBL

2. Select PeopleTools, Portal, Structure & Content.

The Root Structure and Content page appears.

3. From the Structure & Content page, select the Mobile folder.

The Mobile Structure and Content page appears.

4. Either;

§ Select an existing folder for an application, or

§ Add a new folder for an application.

5. Add or edit Content References.

You cannot add a folder at this level.

6. Click Save.

See also

PeopleSoft Portal Technology PeopleBook , “Understanding the Portal Registry”


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PeopleSoft Portal Technology PeopleBook, “Using Registration Wizard: Changing Portals”

Using SyncServer Objects A SyncServer object can be instantiated in any PeopleCode program, but takes effect only in one of the events specific to mobile device synchronization:

• OnConflict

• OnSelect

• OnValidate

The Notify, Error, and Synchronizing methods are valid during synchronization in any event applied to a SyncServer object.

A SyncServer object variable can be scoped as Local, Component, or Global.

SyncServer objects are declared using the SyncServer data type. For example:

Local SyncServer &MySyncServer;

Component SyncServer &Abs_Hist_SyncServer;

You can also declare and set the SyncServer variable in the same line. For example:

Global SyncServer &MySyncServer = %SyncServer;

Administration Tools The following are known issues in the area of administration tools.

PeopleSoft Search Engine The following items should be noted regarding the PeopleSoft Search Engine:

• Setting the Search Designer's “Store Index at" field has no effect. The location of the collection is specified through in the application server configuration. In a future release, this field will become a read-only field indicating the location of the collection.

• Setting "Remap Path to this URL" has no effect. In a future release, this field will map a file system path to a URL for access with the HTTP protocol. This feature has not been implemented for the current release.

• The Build Index button builds indexes interactively on the application server. Building large indexes or indexes that take a long time can cause application time outs. The appropriate way to build indexes is by scheduling it in the Search Index administration interface.

• The index building and searching is built upon verity technology, which is not supported on Tru Alpha 64 version 5.X.

Database Monitoring Addition The following information does not appear in the PeopleTools 8.4 PeopleBooks:


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For the EnableDBMonitoring parameter in PSADMIN, there are now three valid options. With PeopleTools 8.17, PeopleSoft added (2) Start & End.

For reference, the valid values for this parameter are 0, 1, and 2.

• Enter 0 for Never. Do not use database monitoring feature.

• Enter 1 for Start. Identifies the end user running the current application server service request.

• Enter 2 for Start & End. Identifies the end user running the current application server service request and clears the information when the service request completes.

There is performance degradation associated with using database monitoring. If set to 1 [Start] or 2 [Start & End], a SQL statement must be issued to the database at the beginning of each service request to set the user information.

If set to 2 [Start & End], a SQL statement must be issued to the database at the end of each service request to reset the user information.

Jolt Session Pooling on the Web Server

Jolt Session Pooling is off by default. With the Jolt Session Pooling on servlets can share Jolt Session objects that are necessary to interact with application server, which can minimize the number of concurrent requests.

To turn Jolt Session Pooling on edit web.xml and restart the web servers as per the following steps:

To enable Jolt session pooling:

1. Shutdown WebSphere or WebLogic

2. Open web.xml

• For WebSphere the web.xml is located in: <websphere>/AppServer/installedApps/peoplesoft/PORTAL/WEB-INF/web.xml

• For WebLogic the web.xml is located in: <weblogic>/config/peoplesoft/applications/PORTAL/ WEB-INF/web.xml

3. Search for "joltPooling", go to the next line and replace false with true

4. Repeat step 3 for all occurrences of "joltPooling" .

5. Save the file.

6. Startup WebSphere or WebLogic

PeopleSoft Portal If you are redirecting to a portal URL from an iScript and the iScript appears to be in an endless loop, register the iScript with a content reference and select the No Template option.


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Data Mover

Long Support

Records defined using Data Mover EXPORT and IMPORT commands can have a maximum of 250 total columns and no more than one long column.

The current documentation incorrectly implies that more than one long column is supported.

Database Trigger Issue

On Oracle, when you import data to a table that has mobile triggers created on the database and which also has EFFDT (Effective Date), the Data Mover import fails with errors. The following are the options to workaround this problem:

• Use the Data Mover command SET COMMIT 1 during import. This will have some impact on the performance because of the COMMIT after each insert.

• Drop the mobile triggers on the TABLE to which data is being imported. Import data using Data Mover and then recreate the triggers afterward.

Set the Sync ID the values in the SYCNID field and the details are given below as described below.

If you included Sync ID in a new component, the build process initializes the value for Sync ID when building the associated table.

If you added Sync ID to an existing component, the Sync ID is zero (0), and will therefore not update properly. Initialize Sync ID to a value greater than zero with Set Sync ID.

To initialize the Sync ID

1. Log on to the Mobile Portal in your web browser.

2. Select PeopleTools, Utilities, Administration, Set Sync ID.

3. Click Set Sync ID.

Set Sync ID initializes all new synchronization IDs encountered in the database to a value greater than zero.

Platform Support

OS/390

For those on OS/390 or z/OS, the Process Scheduler is run under OS/390 or z/OS Unix System Services. Windows NT/2000 Process Scheduler remains an additional option for those on OS/390 or z/OS. In addition, PeopleSoft now supports, AIX, HP-UX, and Solaris 8. These three batch servers are limited to Application Engine and Process Scheduler support only. COBOL, Remote Call (Application Engine calling COBOL) and SQR are currently not supported on AIX, HP-UX, and Solaris 8 batch servers communicating with a DB2/390 database. See the PeopleTools 8.4 Installation guide for DB2 UDB for OS/390 for more information about configuring Process Scheduler on OS/390 and z/OS.


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Reporting Tools The following are known issues in the area of Reporting Tools.

SQR-ENCODING-DATABASE PeopleTools no longer has the SQR system variable SQR-ENCODING-DATABASE. If you need to use this variable, include dbencode.sqc in your program and run Get-Database-Encoding. Then use SQR-ENCODING-DATABASE.

Cube Manager

Multi-Language Support Using Hyperion Essbase Platform

The PeopleSoft Cube Manager PeopleBook is incorrect in its description for using the Language Code field, which is displayed on the Essbase Advanced Options page. This field is currently not used because PeopleSoft Cube Manager only supports the language of the user when building an Essbase cube. However, the following workaround is available for creating a cube with multiple languages:

6. Log onto Cube Manager as a user with one of the preferred languages, and build the cube using Create options for both Meta-Data and Data.

7. Go to Essbase Application Manager and open the Essbase cube outline built by Cube Manager in previous step. Make a copy of the alias table called "default" to be the preferred language. For example, FRENCH1. Save the Essbase outline.

8. Log onto Cube Manager as a user with another preferred language, and build the cube using Create option for only the Meta-Data.

9. Go to Essbase Application Manager and open the Essbase cube outline built by Cube Manager. Make a copy of the alias table called "default" to be the second preferred language, and save the Essbase outline.Query

Query

PeopleSoft Query Red Paper

The PeopleSoft Query Red Paper discusses the major features and functions of the web based PeopleSoft Query tool that is included with each PeopleTools 8 release. The paper can be found on Customer Connection using the following URL:

http://www.peoplesoft.com/corp/en/products/technology/literature_library.asp

Public and Private Queries

Users will now receive an error if they try to create a private query with the same name as an existing public query when using PS Query on the web. This error does not address cases where a private query with same name as public query already exists, but it prevents it from happening in the future.


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Note. In the Windows version of PS Query, you will still only receive a warning. However, we recommend that you create queries with unique names.

Personalization Settings

Dates and amounts included in the query output are formatted based on international and regional settings the user has specified using My Personalizations. There is currently no formatting for character fields.

Note. Formatting based on personalization settings is not available for Scheduled Queries

Integration Broker The following sections contain information that is not currently in the Integration Broker documentation.

Changing the Integration Gateway URL

When you change the Integration Gateway URL for a defined gateway, clicking the Load button will not replace any of the existing connector property information. It will however add any missing connectors or connector properties that it finds for the new Integration Gateway URL.

To pick up the Integration Gateway connector and connector property settings for the new URL, you must delete all of the existing connectors and then click the Load button. This process will pick up default connectors and connector property settings for the new URL, as well as any custom connectors you may have developed.

Another option to the procedure described in this section is to create an entirely new Integration Gateway (Gateway ID) entry and specify the new Integration Gateway URL.

To pick up the default Integration Gateway connector and connector properties settings after you change the Integration Gateway URL

1. Change the Integration Gateway URL for the desired Gateway ID and click Save.

2. Delete each connector. Save your changes.

3. Click the Load button to load the delivered connectors and their default properties.

See Also

Web Server Reboot Required after Changing Some Integration Gateway Properties

Web Server Reboot Required after Changing Some Integration Gateway Properties

If you make changes to properties in the following sections of the IntegrationGateway.properties file, you must reboot the web server for the changes to take effect.


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• Integration Gateway Certificate section.

• JMS Configuration section.

Using ValidateSOAPDoc() with No XML in SOAP Doc Causes Application Server to Crash If a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) document contains no XML the ValidateSOAP() function will cause the application server to crash. PeopleSoft provides two methods that you can use to verify that there is XML in a SOAP document before you validate it.

Workaround 1

Use the following workaround only when you are creating a new SOAP document from a file. ParseXmlFromURL replaces any existing data in a SOAP document.

Local SOAPDoc &soapRequest; &soapRequest= CreateSOAPDoc(); &bool = &soapRequest.ParseXmlFromURL("C:\\yourDirPath\\inputSOAP.xml"); &ok = &soapRequest.ValidateSOAPDoc();

Workaround 2

Local SOAPDoc &soapRequest; &soapRequest= CreateSOAPDoc(); &soapRequest.AddEnvelope(0); /* optional */ &soapRequest.AddBody(); /* optional */ &soapRequest.AddMethod("MyMethodName", 1); /* required */ &ok = &soapRequest.ValidateSOAPDoc();

See Also

ParseXmlFromURL Method on Tru64 Platform Does Not Support HTTP Protocol

ParseXmlFromURL Method on Tru64 Platform Does Not Support HTTP Protocol

On the Tru64 platform, the XmlDoc class ParseXmlFromURL method does not support the HTTP protocol (for example, http://221.131.212.178/test.xml). It supports only the local file protocol (for example, /tmp/test.xml).

Integration Broker Monitor This section contains information pertaining to Integration Broker Monitor.

Navigating in Integration Broker Monitor

The “Using Integration Broker Monitor” chapter of the PeopleSoft Integration Broker PeopleBook contains several instances of incorrect navigation information for opening Integration Broker Monitor and accessing components to view asynchronous and synchronous message information.


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To open Integration Broker Monitor, select PeopleTools, Integration Broker, Monitor and select the component with which you want to work.

The following table lists the components and pages to use to view synchronous and asynchronous message information. The navigation paths to this information are also included.

To view… Use this component or page… Navigation

Asynchronous message instances.

Monitor Message component. PeopleTools, Integration Broker, Monitor, Monitor Message.

Asynchronous publication contracts.

Pub Contracts page in the Monitor Message component.

PeopleTools, Integration Broker, Monitor, Monitor Message, Pub Contracts.

Asynchronous subscription contracts.

Sub Contracts page in the Monitor Message component.

PeopleTools, Integration Broker, Monitor, Monitor Message, Sub Contracts.

Synchronous message instances.

• Synchronous Messages page in the Monitor Message component, or

• Synchronous Details component.

• PeopleTools, Integration Broker, Monitor, Monitor Message, Synchronous Details, or

• PeopleTools, Integration Broker, Monitor, Synchronous Details.

Synchronous Message Publication and Subscription

The Understanding Synchronous Messages section in the “Using Integration Broker Monitor” chapter of the PeopleSoft Integration Broker PeopleBook incorrectly references synchronous publication contracts and synchronous subscription contracts.

Synchronous messages are sent and delivered in real time and no contracts are involved.

Integration Broker Monitor Displays Sync Message Send Successful When It is Not

If the response message name is not the same on the source node and target node for a synchronous message, the message appears successful from the target perspective even when it is not.

On a source node, a synchronous outbound transaction includes a response message name. If on the target node the onRequest PeopleCode, which builds the response message and sends it back to the source, uses a different response message name, the Integration Broker Monitor on the target side shows that the synchronous message send was successful. However, the publication fails on the source side since the response was not returned with the expected message name.

Integration Broker does not verify that the target is returning the correct message name.


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Cross-Node Transaction Load Constraints There is a limitation to the size of a message that Integration Broker can process. The peak message size that the Integration Gateway can process is:

• 3.8 MB uncompressed message (Integration Gateway logging fully disabled).

or

• 2.8 MB uncompressed message (Integration Gateway logging fully enabled).

These limitations were discovered using the following specifications:

Environment Two PeopleSoft Application Servers (two nodes), one WebLogic web server running the Integration Gateway and Portal.

Test Detail Cross-node transaction between two PeopleSoft implementations.

Processor Single Pentium III, 650mghz

Operating System Windows 2000

RAM 256k

Additionally, the web server was not optimized for peak performance. The peak message sizes will increase noticeably on servers with more overall runtime capabilities, especially on multi-processor machines with larger RAM capacity.

Hub Node Can’t be Selected Using Lookup On the Node Definitions — Node Info page, you can specify a hub node, which will serve as a “gatekeeper” for the current node. All transactions outbound from the default local node to the current node will be redirected to the hub node instead, without the need to modify the transaction definitions. You can select any existing PIA node for this purpose, and you must define appropriate relationships and transactions on that node to route the message properly.

Currently, the lookup feature for the Hub Node field doesn’t produce a valid list of node definitions, and no edit validation is applied to this field. To specify the hub node, you must ensure that you accurately type its name in the field.

Two Meanings of Node Integration Broker uses the term node in two different places, with two distinct meanings:

1. You create a PIA-based node definition, which is an application’s internal representation of a system with which it exchanges messages. You refer to any application, database or system that participates in messaging as a node.

2. Within the hierarchical structure of a message, a node is any section of the message enclosed by an XML start-tag/end-tag pair, or a single empty tag. A node can contain data or other nodes. Many XSLT and PeopleCode messaging keywords incorporate the term. T


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Two Meanings of Transaction Integration Broker uses the term transaction in two different places, with two distinct meanings:

1. You create a PIA-based transaction definition as part of a node definition. It describes the basic unit of work in an integration. You use a transaction to designate a message and version that the associated node can send or receive, and whether that message will be outbound or inbound, and whether it will be synchronously or asynchronously transmitted or received.

2. The standard PeopleSoft base message format includes one or more Transaction sections, each of which contains one row of message data, or a “message instance.”

Activating and Deactivating Relationships The following issues currently apply to the active status of a relationship:

• When the integration engine invokes a transaction that’s associated with an inactive relationship definition, the transaction will fail.

• When you change the status of a relationship definition — either from active to inactive or from inactive to active — some elements of Integration Broker don’t receive notification of the change in status, causing unpredictable effects in your messaging. You must reboot your application server for the status change to take full effect.

Applying Channel Partitioning for Greater Efficiency By default, inbound messages assigned to a given message channel are processed one at a time, in the order they were sent. This means the sending node can engage in a series of transactions that modify a specific record, with assurance that they’ll be applied by the receiving node in the correct order. This can be rather inefficient when the sequence doesn’t matter, or when it’s only relevant to messages with the same key values.

You can use fields that are common to the messages assigned to a channel to partition it into subchannels. Integration Broker creates these subchannels at runtime. Each subchannel processes only the messages for which the selected common fields have an identical combination of values. The subchannels work in parallel, each processing its own subset of messages simultaneously, but the messages in each subchannel are still processed in the order they were sent.

You can find more information about partitioning on PeopleSoft Customer Connection, under Integration Broker Advanced Topics.

Using Message Routing PeopleCode Events To invoke PeopleCode that receives messages, each message definition provides the associated Subscription and OnRequest events. The message definition also provides two events for routing messages:

• The OnRouteSend event enables you to apply PeopleCode that filters the destination nodes to which Integration Broker routes the message.

• The OnRouteReceive event enables you to apply PeopleCode that determines whether the


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default local node accepts the inbound message.

You can find more information about the message routing events on PeopleSoft Customer Connection, under Integration Broker Advanced Topics.

Working With Record and Field Aliases

Each node participating in a transaction maintains its own independent definition of the message and its versions, including record and field names and their aliases.

You can specify an alias for any record or field in a message definition. When you send a message with an alias defined, and the message is converted to XML for sending, only the alias makes it into the XML. If you don’t specify an alias, the original name is used.

Preserving Aliases in a Transform Program

If you need to transform a rowset based message containing aliases, and you plan to do it using the PeopleCode Rowset class, by default the records and fields with aliases revert to their original names. If you want to preserve the aliases, you must transfer the message data to a working rowset using parameters that specify the original message and version.

You can find more information about working with and preserving aliases on PeopleSoft Customer Connection, under Integration Broker Advanced Topics.

Data Translation Using PeopleCode

Although XSLT is the recommended language for using the codeset repository to translate message data, you can use PeopleCode for this purpose as well. Because XSLT works only with XML DOM-compliant message data, you must use PeopleCode if the message you’re translating contains non-XML data.

You can find more information about data translation using PeopleCode on PeopleSoft Customer Connection, under Integration Broker Advanced Topics.

Administering Messaging Servers PeopleSoft’s PSADMIN utility offers you a set of messaging server processes that comprise the default, or demonstration, messaging server. You could use this as your only messaging server, but in most cases, you’ll find it necessary to add multiple servers to increase the performance of your messaging system.

As the volume of published messages increases in a production system, it’s likely that a single messaging server could become overloaded. To avoid any potential overloads and performance degradation, PeopleSoft suggests that you create additional messaging servers to cope with an increase in message volumes. You can dedicate a messaging server to one or more specific channels to handle their message traffic exclusively and reduce performance bottlenecks.

You can find more information about dedicated messaging servers on PeopleSoft Customer Connection, under Integration Broker Advanced Topics.

Using SyncServer Objects

Documents

PeopleTools 8.4 Release Notes - PeopleSoft Toolboxpeoplesoft-toolbox.com/resources/releasenotes/PT840-Notes.pdf · PeopleTools 8.4 Release Notes 3 Table of Contents Preface