PSST0101 Just Trying to Remember and Share What I Learn in the PeopleSoft World

This is a little late, but better late than never.  This is the last review of the sessions that I attended.  This session was given by Tony Neaton from Griffith University in Australia.  I saw several different sessions on the test framework, and each one added a little bit more.  They didn’t completely overlap, which was very nice.

Here’s one quote that stood out at the beginning on of the session: “Testing is one of the biggest pains in the upgrade process.”  This caught my attention because I really think the test framework will make a huge impact if we can just implement it.

The list of the “things the framework is not” helped explain what it is:

• not a load testing tool (because it doesn’t support logging in as multiple users)
• not a Robot scripting tool
• Not a test case management tool

Tony pointed out that the distinguishing feature is that it understands the PeopleTools framework and metadata.  Other tools by contrast are either position-based (work off of x,y coordinates) or HTML tag based.  As a result, the tests are not as fragile and require less maintenance.

He also pointed out that you can use the Test framework to test older tools versions.  This feature is not supported by Oracle, but I understood they have been using it.  They set up a Tools 8.51 instance solely for the test framework.  Then, they pointed the testing at an older 8.48 system.  In my opinion, the test framework provides ample benefit to justify upgrading the tools in your current environment right now.

What stood out to me is that Tony did a good job of showing off the Test framework.  I think out of all the sessions, I got a better feel for the setup and use of the tool in this one.  He even showed the Integration Broker setup and things that must be configured to make it all work.  He discussed the Security Roles for the framework: PTF Administrator, PTF Editor, PTF User.

Another thing I thought was cool is that he showed how you can click on certain fields that you want to verify to make sure a particular value is in that field.  Then, he also showed in the testing tool how you can edit the test and change things like what value it is expecting.  One of the coolest things he showed is how you can change the test to loop through all the rows in a grid looking for the value.  This way, other unrelated data in the grid doesn’t break the test.

All in all, I really liked this session for showing me how the framework worked.  A picture is worth a thousand words, and a demo must be worth a million.  The demos were all videos, and I think a live demo might be have been slightly nicer.  But, you can go and download the demos since they were prerecorded.

I have been having trouble with my newly upgraded PeopleTools 8.51 environment.  The problem was that I had not set the PS_CFG_HOME environment variable plus I also did not have the report node configured for the Process Scheduler server definition.

So, my process monitor was showing everything hung in “Posting” status:
I found the error messages in the c:\documents and settings\\psft\pt\8.51\appserv\prcs\HR90DMO\LOGS\stdout.

=================================Error===============================
 Message:  Database error encountered
 Info:
 Section:
 Info:
 SQL Stmt: SELECT R.PRCSINSTANCE ,R.ORIGPRCSINSTANCE ,R.RECURORIGPRCSINST,R.MAINJOBINSTANCE ,R.PRCSJOBSEQ ,R.PRCSJOBNAME ,R.PRCSNAME ,R.PRCSTYPE ,R.RECURNAME ,R.TIMEZONE ,R.PT_RETENTIONDAYS ,R.PTNONUNPRCSID FROM PSPRCSQUE R ,PS_PRCSRECUR S  WITH (READUNCOMMITTED)  WHERE ((R.RUNSTATUS IN ('9', '17')  AND S.INITIATEWHEN = 1) OR   (R.RUNSTATUS IN ('3','6', '7', '9','10','12', '17')  AND S.INITIATEWHEN = 0))  AND R.INITIATEDNEXT = 0  AND R.RUNLOCATION = '2'  AND R.RECURNAME > ' '  AND R.PRCSJOBSEQ = 0  AND R.RECURNAME = S.RECURNAME
 Explain:  [Microsoft][SQL Server Native Client 10.0]Communication link failure
=====================================================================
=================================Error===============================
 Message:  Database error encountered
 Info:
 Section:
 Info:
 SQL Stmt: SELECT  Q.PRCSINSTANCE ,Q.JOBINSTANCE ,Q.MAINJOBINSTANCE ,Q.SESSIONIDNUM ,Q.OPRID ,Q.OUTDESTTYPE ,Q.GENPRCSTYPE,Q.PRCSTYPE,Q.TUXSVCID,P.PRCSOUTPUTDIR FROM PSPRCSQUE Q  ,PSPRCSPARMS P  WITH (READUNCOMMITTED)  WHERE Q.RUNSTATUS = :1  AND Q.SERVERNAMERUN = :2  AND Q.PRCSINSTANCE = P.PRCSINSTANCE
 Explain:  [Microsoft][SQL Server Native Client 10.0]Shared Memory Provider: No process is on the other end of the pipe.

=====================================================================

I knew about the PS_CFG_HOME variable, but I had just skipped it in my rush to just get something working. What I didn’t realize is that it would prevent me from seeing even an SQR. So, I fixed my PS_CFG_HOME variable:

I also copied the files from the appserv directory under documents and settings to the one in my PS_Home where I configured my PS_CFG_HOME. See this post for more information. That part is important because it needs the configuration files in the new locations. Then, I deleted the Cache, the logs, and the log_output to clean things up. The app server still wouldn’t start, so I tried to reconfigure it. That’s when I received this error:

Enter selection (1-26, h, or q): 13

Warning:  no changes detected, some configuration files will not be updated.
Loading configuration...

CMDTUX_CAT:111: ERROR: TUXCONFIG (C:\Documents and Settings\psadmin\psft\pt\8.51
\appserv\HR90DMO\PSTUXCFG) of machine SKPHCM90 must be the same as the TUXCONFIG
 environment variable (E:\psoft\HR90DMO\appserv\HR90DMO\PSTUXCFG)

CMDTUX_CAT:867: ERROR: tmloadcf: Above errors found during syntax checking

==============ERROR!================
Unable to load the configuration! Check the TUXEDO log for details.
==============ERROR!================

==============ERROR!================
Unable to load the Domain configuration! Check the TUXEDO log for details.
==============ERROR!================

This thread claims that you have to set the TUXCONFIG variable. I didn’t think that you did have to set it, so I did a little more experimenting.

In the config file, I found the Log/Output Directory was still set to the “Documents and Settings” directory:

I changed this to the PS Home directory:

So, that fixed it so that I could reconfigure the process scheduler via psadmin, but I still had trouble with the report distribution. Process Monitor said it was running without a report node:

I went to check the Report Node (PeopleTools > Process Scheduler > Report Node). The port number was wrong on the URL, so I had to fix that (it should probably match the port number on your browser as you are logged in):

That still didn’t fix the problem, so I checked the server definition (PeopleTools > Process Scheduler > Servers). Sure enough, the report node was blank!

So, I entered the report node and saved the page:

Then, everything started working!

Again, for a sense of completeness, I can’t leave off the Moodle Integration Bolt-On session that I attended.  Actually, I attended it up front (co-presenting).

The presentation went well from my point of view.  I thought my material went rather fast, but on the other hand, I hope that it communicated everything in a short amount of time without waisting the attendees time.  I’ll be interested to hear any feedback.  Hopefully, they got the information from the session they were looking for.

One of the things that stood out to me was the fact that many people seemed to have trouble on the Moodle side.  They were doing different  kinds of batch integrations and such.  Hopefully, Sean’s presentation of using the plugin to configure Moodle to come get the data really helped them.

Another thing I enjoyed was having a couple of the people from the Student Administration Integration Pack attending.  They helped me understand their product more.  Our solution was very simple, easy, and cheap.  But, their solution is much more complete.  They pointed me to IMS Global.org where they are working on a standard for this kind of data.  They are including more information than just the data elements that we are interfacing, and in addition, they are including outcome information, which would entail interfacing the grades back into PeopleSoft.

I have been very careful to keep my work life separate from this blog because it is really a personal blog.  At the same time, I made it a goal to blog what I learned at HEUG, and so, there is a conflict.

Let me just simply say that this morning I had the opportunity to sit in on the Continuing Education session where my company presented our new ACE product.  The tool automates the Enrolling, Admitting, and Paying for non-credit courses.  Since I have done some development on the product, I was able to answer a few questions, and the session went very well.  I enjoyed seeing the high level of interest from the attendees.

If you have a chance, check out the information on the company website.  Also, please let me know if you have any questions or comments so that I can pass them on to our team at MIS.

I am very excited about the HEUG Alliance conference next week.  This is my first time attending, and I will get to present with Sean McKay from George Fox University.  So, if you are planning to attend, please catch us at 4:30 on Tuesday afternoon.  We will be talking about our Moodle interface that we worked on last year (a great project).

Also, I won’t be presenting at it, but I will be at the ACE presentation at 9:30 that morning.  Joe Rossi and Adrian Valente will be presenting the tool that we built in PeopleTools to automate enrolling and accepting payment for continuing education from self service.  So far, that tool has generated a lot of excitment, and I think that presentation will be good.

Finally, I can’t leave off Jim Marion’s presentation at 9:30 on Monday.  I am going to make it a special point to listen in on his presentation to see what tips and tricks I can pick up from him.  Ever since his announcement about his book, I have wanted to meet him, and now I will get to hear him speak!

If it wasn’t for the time conflict, I would have mentioned Grey Sparling’s presentation at 9:30 on Tuesday morning.  Their blog posts are always helpful, and I would love to hear a presentation.  I saw something about the sessions being recorded, and I will have to do some research to see if I can watch or listen to the recording.

Anyway, if you are attending and you read my blog, please stop by the MIS, Inc. booth and say hi.  I would love to meet you.

I came across a link to Team Oracle the other day.  I didn’t realize that they have their own Air Show team!  I’ll have to watch the schedule to see if I can catch them in our area.

While we are on the topic, I did already know that Oracle has their own Yacht Racing team.  You can check out BMW Oracle Racing here.

Now, we just need a Basketball team!  We could have Oracle Arena and the mascot could be the CPU Chips.  Maybe that is too much imagination.