Month: July 2014

PeopleTools 8.54 Released

digitaleagle PeopleTools 8.54, Uncategorized Leave a comment

I see that PeopleTools 8.54 is released according to the PeopleSoft Technology Blog.  I’m eager to get digging into the new features, but I’m afraid it may be a while before I get to play with it.

Currently, it looks like you won’t be able to play with it unless you can go through a full install.  Upgrades are not supported until after a patch or two is released:

Today, PeopleTools 8.54 is Generally Available for new installations.  Customers that want to upgrade to 8.54 from earlier releases will be able to upgrade in the near future when the 02 patch is available.

Of course, the easiest way to play with it would be to download it pre-installed from Oracle.  Here’s the way their blog says it:

Many of our customers have shown interest in Fluid and have asked us the best way to get productive quickly.  Our answer is to use the working examples they will find in the upcoming PSFT 9.2 application images.

The current images are PeopleTools 8.53.  I looked at the release dates from last year, and it looks like images came around the August time frame.  So, my unofficial guess is that we will get a fully installed version of PeopleTools 8.54 to play with sometime in August.  In the meantime, I may have to live vicariously through other’s experiences like the PeopleSoft Tipster.

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Jethro List: Ctrl + A

digitaleagle App Engine, File Layouts, Jethro List, Uncategorized 4 Comments

This post  is part of my Jethro List.  You can read more about the list on the Jethro List page.

Can I make another suggestion?  Some of the text boxes in App Designer don’t work like regular Windows controls.  Namely, they don’t support things like Control-A to select the entire text in the box.  This is slightly frustrating and also makes App Designer feel antiquated.

One of those places is the File Layout Field Properties dialog.  If you go to the “Field Name” text box, you can press Ctrl+A to select the entire field name easier.  That makes it easy to either copy the name or type a new name in it’s place.

File Layout Field Name

 

If you go to the Field Description box in the lower right hand corner, you will find that Ctrl+A doesn’t work.  You have to either use the mouse or hit Home, Shift + Ctrl + End.

File Layout Field Description

 

On a rabbit trail, the file layout UI could use some attention.  A feature that I would like for Flat Files is the ability to sort by the Start Position.  If you come behind someone who wasn’t as organized and didn’t put the fields in order, it can be annoying.  Also, file layouts seem to have issues with caching.  I have had many a time that I changed a file layout and saved only to reopen it and find my changes missing.

The Application Engine UI has a similar problem.  The descriptions for the sections, steps, and actions all don’t allow the use of Ctrl + A.

App Engine description fields

In conclusion, I think it would be helpful if Oracle could update the App Designer UI to match the standard features that we have come to expect in Windows applications.  I can live with it this way and can get my job done, but it sure would be nice to have a nicer feel to development.