June 2014 – PSST0101

I’ve been a bit behind on reading my news. Back in April, PeopleSoft released their “Release Value Proposition” for PeopleTools 8.54, and it’s got me excited about it. Then, a week or two ago, PeopleSoft published the pre-release notes. I don’t have any inside information, but I thought I would list the features that looked exciting to me…

Code Completion: HUGE — this is a feature I have been looking for for years!
64-bit developer client: Application Designer, etc. is going 64-bit. So, a developer must run a 64-bit machine to develop, and now no 32-bit database drivers are required.
Automated Configuration Manager: looks like tools that will make automating refreshes much easier
%SelectDummyTable: allows for a better way than using the DUAL table for Oracle or PS_INSTALLATION for platform independence
Mobile Application Platform: new interface for smart phones
Fluid Layout: Creating interfaces with CSS positioning rather than fix positioned pages. It will be a learning curve for developers
Application Designer: PNG files supported for images in Application Designer
Application Engine changes: it will now split the trace file into multiple files if it gets too big, you can now choose not to commit at the end of the program
Branding Framework: tools to allow customizing the look and branding without needing to code; it looks like it is all in the PIA
Query: Default values for prompts and support for images in Query results
BI Publisher Updatable PDFs: users can update the report and submit the content back into PeopleSoft
Global Temporary Tables (for batch App Engines): supporting in-memory tables
Materialized Views: for Oracle — App Designer will create views that store their data in the database for quicker retrieval
Portable PS_HOME: On Unix the psadmin binary is only located in the bin directory, paths are not saved in configuration files to moving and cloning the directories easier, and the PS_HOME variable is not set by the psconfig.sh script (you set that before calling the script and everything is relative to PS_HOME)
Push Notification Framework: looks like it allows the PIA/Web Server to initiate messages to the browser
PIA-Based Definition security: ability to secure App Designer definitions using the online pages plus additional new features
Query Security: new advanced option to allow up to 5 security records for an individual record
SQR: new XML output option
Component Interface: new errors sheet to consolidate errors

As I went through the documents, I noticed a couple of features that are already released and that I need to do some learning and catch up. Do you mind if I just take some notes out loud here?

Activity Guides: “Activity Guides are a useful PeopleTools feature that helps guide users through complex or infrequently performed processes.” What’s new: “With PeopleTools 8.54, Activity Guides will be even easier to create and manage because PeopleTools includes an Activity Guide Management WorkCenter.”
Data Migration Workbench: “Data Migration Workbench is a lifecycle management tool first delivered with PeopleTools 8.53 that enabled customers to move and compare configuration data easily and securely between PeopleSoft application instances such as DEV, TEST, and PROD”
JSON: The PeopleSoft Documents Technology mentions using JSON, and I hadn’t kept up that JSON was available.
Oracle Secure Files: mentions that Report Repository files can be exposed as a “virtual mount point”

64-bit History: The 64-bit requirements have been of notable interest to me because I spent some time working for a client who had challenges switching away from 32-bit hardware. One of the documents listed the history of the migration of PeopleSoft from 32-bit to 64-bit. Here’s a nice summary:

PeopleTools 8.48 — Unix Application server converted to 64-bit
PeopleTools 8.50 — Linux Application server
PeopleTools 8.51 — Web Server
PeopleTools 8.53 — Windows Application server
PeopleTools 8.54 — Developer Tools

Month: June 2014

PeopleTools 8.54: Looks Exciting

Resources