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PeopleTools 8.54 New

features

Aug 2014

New Features in PeopleTools 8.54


Contents Brand New PeopleSoft Login Screen............................................................................................................. 4

New Login Page Color: .............................................................................................................................. 4

New Logo: ................................................................................................................................................. 4

Language Selection: .................................................................................................................................. 5

Accessibility Mode: ................................................................................................................................... 5

Introduction of 64 bit Development Client ................................................................................................... 5

PeopleSoft Application Designer .................................................................................................................. 6

Disable Row Highlighting in Grid:.............................................................................................................. 6

Enable Long Edit Counter for Long Edit Box: ............................................................................................ 7

Updated Dynamic Toolbar for Page PeopleCode & Record PeopleCode: ................................................ 7

Added Filtering Options when using Find Definition Reference:.............................................................. 7

PeopleSoft Fluid Interface ............................................................................................................................. 8

Enhanced Usage of CSS, Javascript & HTML5 ........................................................................................... 8

Responsive Web Design ............................................................................................................................ 8

PeopleSoft Fluid Pages Managed using Application Designer .................................................................. 8

Fluid Pages are device independent ......................................................................................................... 9

PeopleSoft Fluid User Interface Features ................................................................................................. 9

Capability to support device features ..................................................................................................... 10

Needs to be enabled for desktop users .................................................................................................. 10

PeopleSoft Application Engine .................................................................................................................... 11

Application Engine trace file split ........................................................................................................... 11

Application Engine trace file naming convention. .................................................................................. 11

Application Engine program section trace. ............................................................................................. 11

Application Engine trace file with PeopleCode and SQL trace outputs. ................................................. 12

Optional to commit AE Changes ............................................................................................................. 12

Use of Global Temporary Tables in AE Programs ................................................................................... 13

PeopleSoft Server Administration .............................................................................................................. 14

Portable PS_HOME ................................................................................................................................. 14

Push Notifications ................................................................................................................................... 14

New Approach to Recycle Application Server Processes ........................................................................ 15



No Support for Descending Indexes ....................................................................................................... 15

Configure Partitioning using PIA ............................................................................................................. 16

Oracle Database 12C- Multitenant Database ......................................................................................... 16

Usage of Materialized views: .................................................................................................................. 17

PeopleSoft Process Scheduler ..................................................................................................................... 17

Report Transfers to FTPS & SFTP servers ............................................................................................... 17

Single Tab for Report Definition Page: .................................................................................................... 17

Introduction of Partition Scheduling: ..................................................................................................... 18

Introduction of Self-service Scheduling .................................................................................................. 18

Search Framework usage with Process Scheduler .................................................................................. 19

Dynamic Process Status Alert Window: .................................................................................................. 19

PeopleSoft Change Assistant ...................................................................................................................... 19

Updated User Interface .......................................................................................................................... 19

New Features added to CA Job view: ..................................................................................................... 20

Limited Dependency on Environment Hub: ............................................................................................ 21

Updates to PUM action: .......................................................................................................................... 21

More options using command line: ........................................................................................................ 21

Support for applying database changes delivered with PeopleTools Patches: ...................................... 21

Comments and Suggestions ........................................................................................................................ 22

Connect with us for more educational material ......................................................................................... 22




Brand New PeopleSoft Login Screen

PeopleSoft Login Page is completely different from what we were used to seeing in pre-

8.54 tools release. Here are few of the changes to keep you informed on what’s coming

next in the world of PeopleSoft.

New Login Page Color:

PeopleSoft Login Page background color is bluish as compared to regular white for

previous releases.

New Logo:

Besides the color, Oracle has also changed the logo for ‘Oracle PeopleSoft’. New one looks a

little bit better.



Language Selection:

In previous tools release, there were separate links to select the languages but with

PeopleTools 8.54 you can use the drop down button to select the desired language.

Accessibility Mode:

PeopleTools 8.54 allows PeopleSoft applications to conform to WCAG 2.0 (Web Content

Accessibility Guidelines) regulatory guidelines. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

(WCAG) are a part of a series of guidelines published by the W3C’s Web Accessibility

Initiative. Their goal is to make content accessible, primarily for disabled users but also for

all user agents, including highly limited devices, such as mobile phones.

Users can now check ‘Enable Accessibility Mode’ on PeopleSoft Login Page to start the

session in accessibility mode.

Introduction of 64 bit Development Client

You might already know that PeopleTools 8.53 development clients such as application

designer, data mover were 32 bit applications and needed 32-bit Oracle client to connect to

Oracle database.

Starting with PeopleTools 8.54, PeopleTools development client is now a 64-bit application

and you won’t need to install Oracle 32 bit client for PeopleTools. Having a 64 bit

development client helps improve performance resulting due to high memory addressing.

Applications that are impacted by this change are:

Application Designer

Data Mover

Change Assistant

nVision

Change Impact Analyzer

Application Engine

SQR

Same applies for other database types too.



PeopleSoft Application Designer

The most important tool for any PeopleSoft Developer is PeopleSoft Application Designer

and any enhancements or update to this tool impacts PeopleSoft Developers. Oracle does

deliver few changes to Application Designer features every now and then with a new

PeopleTools release.

With release of PeopleTools 8.54, Oracle has again added few more features to this already

robust tool. Features added to PeopleSoft Application Designer 8.54 are:

Disable Row Highlighting in Grid:

By default, when a grid has more than one row, and an end user hovers the mouse over a

row or selects the row, the system highlights that row to indicate that it is the row of

current focus.

However, this can be distracting or unnecessary for some interfaces for varying reasons,

such as the number of rows in the grid, the form factor of the device displaying the page,

and so on.

PeopleTools 8.54 allows you to disable the row highlighting feature for grids. You can now

select the Disable Row Highlighting display option on the Use tab of the Grid

Properties dialog box.



Enable Long Edit Counter for Long Edit Box:

Long edit boxes do not limit the number of characters that a user can enter in the browser,

regardless of any limits defined in the underlying record field. As such, characters entered

by the user that exceed the field length of the field definition may be truncated. For

example, if you enter 012345678901234 into a long edit box associated with a field with a

field length of 10, the input would be truncated and saved to the database as 0123456789.

To help users avoid this situation, you can select Enable Long Edit Counter on the Long Edit

Box Properties, Use tab.

With this option on, a counter appears below the long edit box on the page, notifying

the user how many characters can be entered before reaching the field limit (N

characters remaining).

Updated Dynamic Toolbar for Page PeopleCode & Record PeopleCode:

Page PeopleCode and record PeopleCode can be viewed with fewer clicks using the toolbar

rather than the menu item. With a page definition or a record definition open in the

Application Designer workspace, the dynamic toolbar now displays a button for this

quick access to the associated PeopleCode for that page or record definition.

Added Filtering Options when using Find Definition Reference:

With PeopleTools 8.54, in Application Designer, when using the Find Definitions

References feature for field and record definitions, you can now search within a set of



specific definition types. This focuses the search for references, yielding fewer results,

making searches more efficient.

PeopleSoft Fluid Interface

PeopleSoft Fluid User Interface is a new user interface for PeopleSoft applications and is

considered to be a significant improvement over the classic user interface. Benefits of new

PeopleSoft Fluid Interface are:

Enhanced Usage of CSS, Javascript & HTML5

There is greater flexibility with enhanced usage of CSS, Javascript & HTML5.

Responsive Web Design

Using PeopleSoft Fluid User interface, developers can design applications which will be

responsive based on the device being used by the user. PeopleSoft applications can show

more or less content based on the screen size of the device. For example, iPhone can show

just the information which will fit on the screen whereas iPad or Laptop can show more

details. All this can happen dynamically and will be controlled by the developers.

PeopleSoft Fluid Pages Managed using Application Designer

Fluid pages can be developed and managed using PeopleSoft Application Designer and

developers can apply conditional formatting based on the device type.



Fluid Pages are device independent

Fluid Pages are device independent and are designed to work on any certified browser for

that device. You can check browser certifications on Oracle support.

PeopleSoft Fluid User Interface Features

Fluid Home Pages:

Fluid homepages are the fluid version of an application home page. It is just like existing

PeopleSoft Homepage.

Tiles:

Tiles are the new navigational structure for PeopleSoft Fluid home pages. These are also

known as grouplets and they provide a discrete view of the PeopleSoft application. Tiles

can be designed to provide information and dynamic content which can include

information from Pivot grids etc. Tiles can be compared to pagelets on classic homepage.

Notification Framework:

This feature is quite similar to Facebook notifications where you’re notified for any new

update. Similarly in PeopleSoft, Notification Framework will show the notifications in the

home page header. It will show the count of items that needs your attention.

PeopleSoft Navigation Bar:

As the name suggests, it helps a user navigate easily inside the PeopleSoft application. It’s a

dynamic bar that slides out from the side of the page. It includes entire PeopleSoft menu,



user favorites, recently used links & navigation links that are most commonly used by the

user. Navigation bar can be easily managed by the user and user will be able to restructure

the icons and pin pages to the bar.

Capability to support device features

With PeopleSoft User Interface, developers can create mobile applications to use device

features such as camera for image uploads.

Needs to be enabled for desktop users

PeopleSoft Fluid User Interface was created for mobile users and if desktop users need to

use Fluid pages, then it needs to be enabled separately.

These are some of the new features of PeopleSoft Fluid User Interface.



PeopleSoft Application Engine

PeopleSoft Application Engine for PeopleTools 8.54 has been updated with new features

especially with more options for AE Trace settings.

Application Engine trace file split

You can set the file size of the Application Engine Trace file. Whenever the file size

exceeds the defined file size value, the file will close and the log will shift to a new

file. By default minimum size of trace file is set to 20MB and maximum can be set to 1500

MB.

Parameter – AETFileSize

Application Engine trace file naming convention.

The naming convention for the Application Engine Trace file with a process instance

will include the Date/Time stamp.

Application Engine program section trace.

In previous PeopleTools versions, the trace file included output of the Application Engine

program with all the sections. With PeopleTools 8.54, you can select the sections to trace

output in the Application Engine Trace file.

Parameter – TraceAEEnableSection



Application Engine trace file with PeopleCode and SQL trace outputs.

You can combine the trace output for both PeopleCode and SQL into Application Engine

Trace file. If the value is set to Y, then PeopleCode and SQL Trace output will be merged

into AET file, otherwise PeopleCode & SQL trace output will be in .trc file in the same

directory as AET file.

Parameter – TraceAECombineOutput

Optional to commit AE Changes

You can opt not to commit the changes for application engine program to the database, if

the application engine program is running from Application Designer. When you choose to

run the AE from Application Designer, simply check ‘No Commit’ option.



Use of Global Temporary Tables in AE Programs

You can define Temporary Tables as GTTs in the Application Designer. This feature can be

applied to application Engine programs running in both batch mode and online mode. The

data in GTT is session specific for Application Engine programs running in batch mode and

transaction specific for Application Engine programs running in online mode. But GTTs in

online mode cannot be shared between Application Engine programs. Each Application

Engine program has its own set of GTTs.

Therefore, it is recommended that GTTs should not be used as Share Tables in online mode.

You can also define GTTs to re-startable batch Application Engine programs considering

that the data in GTT will not be retained when the program exists.

These are the new features for PeopleSoft Application Engine in Tools 8.54.



PeopleSoft Server Administration

Oracle has added great new features with PeopleTools 8.54. One important area where you

will notice significant changes is System and Server Administration. Features such as

Portable PS_HOME, Container databases are example of newly added features.

Portable PS_HOME

With PeopleTools 8.54, the latest enhancement involving PS_HOME, Portable PS_HOME,

will provide an easier way to use a private cloud configuration where multiple

application installations use the same PeopleTools install.

Hard-coded paths and symbolic links are removed, which will allow the install of

PeopleTools to be more easily copied to other servers.

UNIX file servers can create a mount point to use the installation with any number of

environments.

With a single PeopleTools install being used with multiple application installs,

procuring an environment becomes faster and cheaper. In addition, when it is time to

apply maintenance, it is quickly performed in one place instead of in each separate

environment, thus lowering the total cost of ownership.

However, the PS_HOME file system is portable, meaning the PS_HOME directory

structure is self-contained and the content within it functions independent of a specific

host or file path location.

Using this portability, system administrators only need to run the PeopleTools

installation program once to create the initial PS_HOME and then copy that PS_HOME to

other required locations throughout the network.

Push Notifications

Push Notification is an event framework that enables PeopleSoft server run time to push

data directly to PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture browsers. This allows bidirectional

full duplex communication between browser clients and server runtime.



The feature allows defining individual events or group-related events as collections and

provides an API to dispatch events to browser clients.

Notification Window uses the push mechanism provided by Push Notification and

collates various notifications generated by the system to the window.

It categorizes notifications into actions and alerts and allows actions to be performed

on the notification items.

Approval Workflow Engine (AWE) and Trigger Business Event (TBE) are some of the

functional areas that will have their notifications published to the Notification Window.

This feature uses WebSocket push technology in WebServer with Tuxedo Eventing in

Application Server.

New Approach to Recycle Application Server Processes

The Percentage Memory Growth parameter has been removed for PeopleTools 8.54 and

replaced with a new approach to recycling server processes.

Parameter ProcessRestartMemoryLimit has been added with PeopleTools 8.54.

You can enter a memory threshold for recyclable server processes running within

the domain. When the server processes exceed the limit, the system restarts, or

recycles, them.

This setting applies to all recyclable server processes within the domain. If set to 0, this

feature is disabled and the system recycles server processes according to the recycle

count setting for that recyclable server process.

No Support for Descending Indexes

With PeopleTools 8.54, PeopleTools will no longer support descending indexes on the

Oracle database platform.



Configure Partitioning using PIA

With PeopleTools 8.54, Oracle database customers are able to configure partitioning of

PeopleSoft tables as well as indexes. These configurations no longer need to be done

outside of PeopleSoft.

To establish partitioning definitions, a new Partitioning page is provided in PeopleSoft

Internet Architecture. On this page you can review delivered PeopleSoft partition

definitions, or specify table and index partitioning parameters, generate the partitioning

DDL and save the DDL to the PeopleTools metadata tables.

Oracle Database 12C- Multitenant Database

Multitenant Database is a new feature included in Oracle database 12c that provides the

ability to move previously autonomous databases (such as PeopleSoft application

databases) into a single container database instance.

PeopleTools supports this architecture, whereby you can define PeopleSoft databases as

pluggable databases during the installation process. The primary benefit of Pluggable

Databases is the ability to consolidate data and code without altering existing schemas or

applications.



Usage of Materialized views:

PeopleTools 8.54 enables potentially significant CPU savings by using materialized views

for the Oracle database. Application Designer can be used to declare and define

materialized views (including the data refresh period) for use within PeopleSoft

applications.

PeopleSoft Process Scheduler

PeopleSoft Process Scheduler is widely used for running processes and any new features

added to it, have a significant impact on overall architecture. New features of PeopleSoft

Process Scheduler introduced with PeopleTools 8.54 are listed below.

Report Transfers to FTPS & SFTP servers

PeopleSoft 8.54 supports the distribution or transfer of report files and deleting or

purging directories with FTPS and SFTP servers.

FTPS (also known as FTP-ES, FTP-SSL and FTP Secure) is an extension to the commonly

used File Transfer Protocol (FTP) that adds support for the Transport Layer Security (TLS)

and the Secure Sockets Layer(SSL) cryptographic protocols.

When choosing FTPS, you can also select the SSL mode as either Explicit or Implicit. Default

SSL mode for FTP is set to explicit and can’t be changed.

SFTP (Simple File Transfer Protocol) can be used to transfer report files and it can be

configured in Active mode or Extended Passive mode.

Single Tab for Report Definition Page:

Report Node Definition page has only one tab now. Until PeopleTools 8.54 there were 2

separate tabs for HTTP Distribution Node and FTP/Xcopy Distribution Node.



With PeopleTools 8.54, you can use the drop down box to select different transfer method.

Transfer method can be set to HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, FTPS, SFTP & XCopy.

Introduction of Partition Scheduling:

Partition scheduling provides capability for performing parallel processing and also

for automation of batch execution of multiple processes. It helps in faster

performance by breaking down a process that works on a large data set, to multiple

parallel processes that work in tandem on smaller datasets.

You can also execute multiple processes that process different data. You can execute a

partition process either from the Partition Manager page or by using the Partition Schedule

API in PeopleCode.

Partition schedules can be configured to read values either from existing prompt tables of

the fields chosen as partition fields or by implementing Application Class in PeopleCode

which return the set of partition data values.

Introduction of Self-service Scheduling

Self-service scheduling allows you to execute processes and generate reports using

context specific information without breaching the data security. You can execute self-

service schedules using API or from any transaction page where the self-service schedule is

configured. This schedule then retrieves mapped application data from the transaction

page and uses it for the process execution.



Additionally, based on the configuration, the user receives alert sliding windows giving the

status of the process they execute and a link to the final report.

Search Framework usage with Process Scheduler

PeopleTools 8.54 expands Search Framework usage with Process Scheduler and now

you can search for reports and related data stored in database, based on a keyword

and display the report containing the specific keyword.

Dynamic Process Status Alert Window:

You can configure to receive dynamic slide-in alert windows to show the status of

submitted process. This window will appear in the bottom right on all PeopleSoft Pages

showing the processing status. Once the process is finished, you will also get a final process

status window with a link to the report stored in report repository.

PeopleSoft Change Assistant

PeopleTools 8.54 brings lots of changes to PeopleSoft user interface. With introduction of

PeopleSoft Fluid User Interface, PeopleSoft applications can be made flexible and the

application display can be changed dynamically based on user’s device type.

Design changes have also impacted PeopleSoft maintenance tool i.e. Change Assistant and

there are significant changes made to it.

Updated User Interface

As soon as you’ll launch Change Assistant for PeopleTools 8.54, you will notice its new look.

New User interface uses PeopleTools tangerine color and though it’s not much impressive

but it’s better than previous boring look.



New Features added to CA Job view:

Change Assistant Job View has an option to display filtered template steps. Additionally

there are more step statuses added such as ‘Steps Completed Manually’ etc.



Limited Dependency on Environment Hub:

With PeopleTools 8.54, Change Assistant won’t have to rely on EMF (Environment

Management Framework) to identify the target databases. Change Assistant will be able to

retrieve the database information without EMF. You would still need to configure EMF if

you plan to deploy files. (You can anyways copy the files manually so as such there is no

dependency on EMF).

Updates to PUM action:

Besides changes to wizard for Change Assistant actions (as shown below for Update

Manager action), there have been more changes in PUM target upload process. In

PeopleTools 8.53, after you provide the details for target and source environment, clicking

on Next would automatically upload the target details to PUM source.

With PeopleTools 8.54, uploading the target details to PUM source is a standalone task and

can be done separately.

More options using command line:

Now with PeopleTools 8.54 you can use command line to perform PeopleSoft Update

Manager related configuration & setup tasks.

Support for applying database changes delivered with PeopleTools Patches:

When you install a PeopleTools patch, a change package containing all the database

changes will be included in the PTP directory. A new task has been added to the Update

Manager action “Apply a Patch to Your Current PeopleTools Release”. The wizard will guide

you through the setup process, check the compatibly and apply the patch.



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PeopleTools 8.54 New - PeopleSoft Tutorialpeoplesofttutorial.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/New-Features-in... · Page PeopleCode and record PeopleCode can be viewed with fewer clicks