How to setup, configure and use PeopleSoft Mobile Company Directory

At Oracle Open World 2012, Oracle presented three mobile applications for PeopleSoft. In my previous post you could read how to install, setup and use Mobile Expenses and Approvals for FSCM 9.1. Last week the third mobile application, Mobile Company Directory, was released for HCM 9.1. 

How to setup, configure and use PeopleSoft Mobile Expenses & Approvals

As mentioned in my previous post, Mobile Expenses and Approvals for PeopleSoft FSCM 9.1 was introduced at Oracle Open World 2012 and is now available for download, delivered with bundle 23. After seeing this live at Oracle Open World 2012, I had to have it running on my own sandbox. This post will describe the steps you need to take, to get up and running with PeopleSoft Mobile Expenses and Approvals.

Oracle ADF Mobile, Now General Available

After being announced at Oracle Open World 2011, Oracle ADF Mobile is finally general available as of today (October 22, 2012).

PeopleSoft Mobile Expenses & Approvals available for download

After a long, long time PeopleSoft is on the Mobile tour again. PeopleSoft has presented three mobile applications on Oracle Open World 2012: Company Directory, Expenses and Approvals. The latter two are now available for download in FMS FINANCIALS 9.1 BUNDLE #23. And you do not have to wait for Financials 9.2 or PeopleTools 8.53, this is already available on Financials and Supply Chain 9.1 with PeopleTools 8.52!

Oracle Open World 2012 & JavaOne presentations available for download

Oracle Open World 2012 is officially over and most of the presentation slide decks and session recording videos are becoming available in the Content Catalog.

Oracle Open World: It's a wrap ...

Wow, what a week this was. Oracle announced so many new technologies that by the third day, most of the attendees suffered from an information overload.

Some of the buzz words on Oracle Open World 2012:

• Cloud, Cloud and more Cloud


• Mobile


• Social


• Big Data


• Exadata X3


• Predictive Analytics


• Pluggable Databases


• SaaS


• PaaS


• IaaS

Oracle Open World: Day 4

Day four, what can I say about it? I think above picture illustrates it. Everyone is tired of attending all the sessions from 8 am to 6 pm and after this, attending the music events and all kinds of networking parties. You barely have the time to sit down and have lunch. But what is the news of today you might want to ask? Let's put it this way, if you have attended the first couple of days, the information load is so much that you can barely absorb it. Today was a day of sessions with mainly redundant information.

Oracle Open World: Day 3

After attending Oracle Open World for three days, it looks like the future is all about handling big data, flash, hardware, mobile and social media and all of this in the cloud. And Oracle is supplying all of these, although we see competitive products from partners. Oracle is really making cloud the new standard for your business and you can see this in all the keynotes. No more on premises hardware, maintenance, upgrade, just a monthly fee and you are up and running with your entire infrastructure.

Oracle Open World: Day 2

What a day today was! The day started off with a keynote on again Exadata X3 and in memory pluggable databases. In addition to Larry's keynote, not only did we see screenshots, we actually saw a live demo and use cases. And this continued throughout the entire day. Every Oracle session had a demo on a live system. Oracle is not just selling a dream, but demoing actual (nearly) complete ship able products.

Oracle Open World: Day 1

I call it Oracle Open World Day 1, but according to many people the actual Oracle Open World starts tomorrow. The day started with the streets of San Francisco filling up with OOW attendees, all wearing Oracle badges.

Being in a foreign country, a foreign language, different products & shops and customs, everything felt a bit strange and I didn't feel like I fit in. But after attending the first day of OOW, talking to people who speak my language (being Oracle!) and having the same passion (being Oracle), it felt like home again.

Oracle Open World: The day before

Today is all about registration. Luckily one of the registration points is also in my hotel, so I was able to register without waiting in any line. Imagine, about 45,000 people will be registering today for Oracle Open World.

Oracle Open World: The day before the day before

Today, the 28th of September, started off with an 11 hours flight from Amsterdam to San Francisco. All together, leaving home to the airport and checking in the hotel, took 17 hours. Something to think about if you are planning to attend Oracle Open World in the future from the Netherlands.

Oracle Open World 2012, a few days to go

Just a few more days to go to Oracle Open World and social media is overflowing with all kinds of invitations and reminders. It is almost impossible to keep track of the information flood. It looks like this year it will be an even bigger event.

With the time slot of my session being on Wednesday 3:30 PM - Moscone West - 3011, already 156 people have pre-registered. I hope they will all show up and attend the session. It is looking to become a crowded session!

Do you want to stay informed on all the latest news at Oracle Open World on PeopleSoft and Fusion Applications, follow me on twitter @hakanbiroglu or visit this blog site again for a daily report.

PeopleSoft at Oracle Open World 2012: What to expect?

A few more days to go to Oracle Open World and excitment levels are rising.

With Oracle's acquisitions over the years, the portfolio of Oracle's products and technologies has become so much, that one might wonder how this will be reflected on Oracle Open World in just a couple of days. One answer is the 1900+ sessions in 5 days! But what about PeopleSoft? What can we expect on PeopleSoft on Oracle Open World?

Paco Aubrejuan, Oracle Senior Vice President for PeopleSoft, has published a letter to the PeopleSoft customers on the focus of PeopleSoft on Oracle Open World. Paco Aubrejuan mentions the following subjects:

• Rich new features and functions included in the upcoming PeopleSoft Release 9.2


• Extending PeopleSoft with new mobile solutions


• New solutions that revolutionize how customers maintain their PeopleSoft applications, streamlining PeopleSoft lifecycle management and reducing total cost of ownership


• Continued investment in PeopleSoft beyond the delivery of PeopleSoft Release 9.2

From the list of subjects, I think the majority of the PeopleSoft community has been waiting and awaiting mobile solutions for PeopleSoft. With PeopleTools Mobile being depreciated as of June 5, 2009, it is great that Oracle is willing to meet the requests of the community for mobile solutions.

But which solutions will Oracle provide and with which technology?

• JQuery Mobile, Rest services ...


• Oracle ADF Mobile with Soap Services (native presented at OOW2011 and still in beta ...)


• New technology ...?

Stay tuned and I will try to provide answers to all these questions.

Oracle Open World Schedule

 
With over 1900 sessions and 3000 speakers in five days, it is pretty hard setting up a schedule for Oracle Open World. Especially if sessions you want to attend, overlap or being held simultaneously. Finally I came up with the following sessions, I intend to attend at Oracle Open World.

If you want a live report on these sessions, follow me on twitter @hakanbiroglu.

For a detailed daily report on these sessions and the other happenings on Oracle Open World, visit this site again.

Advisor Webcasts for Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise

Where do search for information on PeopleSoft subjects? PeopleBooks, Forums, Blogs, Wikis, Google, etc ...

Most of the time the information you find via these media is either at a high level or specific to a small part of the functionality. What most people do not know is that Oracle is providing Advisor Webcasts on a regular basis for partners and customers. Hosted by the experts on that subject, with a deep dive in the subject, that you will not find anywhere else.

Using RTE enabled fields in BI Publisher with PeopleTools 8.52

In PeopleTools 8.50 adding a Rich Text Editor to Long fields was introduced. With this RTE users are able to actually format text like you would do in for example Microsoft Word. This was a great feature for online entry and presentation in PeopleSoft. Unfortunately this does have a downside. The text that is entered and formatted using RTE gets stored in the database as HTML. This means that when you are using PSQuery to query the data, the data is presented as plain text with the HTML tags and therefor also not usable in any BI Publisher reporting.

With PeopleTools 8.52 a new tempate is introduced that solves this issue and renders the HTML tags in the Long field to the actual formatting the same way as presented in online PeopleSoft.

I’m Speaking at Oracle OpenWorld. Join Me.

I am proud and honored to announce that I will be speaking at Oracle Open World, among many more community spreakers. To see the full list of spreakers and subjects, please use the following link.

I will be giving a presentation on Five Reasons to Upgrade to PeopleTools 8.52:

• Feature Packs


• BI Publisher Enhancements


• Secure Enterprise Search


• Dashboards


• InterWindow Communication

Time and speaking ground:

• Wednesday, Oct 3rd


• 3:30 PM 


• Moscone West 3011

You can also follow me on twitter @hakanbiroglu, where I will try to give a live report on the Oracle Open World experience.

Haven't registered for Oracle Open World yet ? Use the banner below to access the registration site.

Hope to see you there.

Advisor Webcast Inter-window Communication (IWC)

On May 15 Oracle held an Advisor Webcast on Inter-window Communication. In my opinion one the most exciting features added in PeopleTools 8.52. IWC makes it possible to have Pagelets communicate with each other on homepages, dashboards, workcenters and related content. This really brings an interactive Dashboard experience to PeopleSoft in the way Webcenter does this for the Oracle Fusion MiddleWare stack. And the best thing about it, is that it does not require any customization by a developer, all functionality is available in front-end PeopleSoft application to be used by the Business Analyst.

Create Google Maps directions in PeopleSoft using Related Content

In my previous post on setting up predelivered collaborative related services, I was asked to also elaborate on how to create your own custom related content based on field content from the component. In this post I will explain how to incorporate Google Maps directions as related content based on the home address of an employee and the work location. For this example I will be using PeopleSoft HCM9.1 on PeopleTools 8.51.

Fusion Applications - How to get Sizing Requirement?

In the last year many of us struggled with the unknown sizing requirements for Fusion Applications. I have had many comments on the my posts and read tons of other posts from different people stating what the hardware requirements for Oracle Fusion Applications are. None of the documentation state the overall hardware requirements needed for Oracle Fusion Applications. You can find the hardware requirements for the individual components, but you can not simply sum up these requirements.

Some say 60GB RAM, some say 90GB RAM, latest I have heard was 128GB RAM.

I have heard sounds like minimum of three servers up to 14 servers.

Well let's set it clear by what Oracle is saying on Oracle Support document 1379929.1

Oracle wants to ensure that each customer is successful with Fusion Applications and as it has over a hundred different components giving a sizing estimate has proven to be a bit of a challenge. So instead of giving a one-size fits no-one estimate Oracle has a special process in place that will lead to a proper sizing advice. It consists of contacting your Oracle Sales / Account person who in turn engages the Oracle Fusion Applications environment sizing experts team. Based up on your inputs they will provide a proper sizing report recommending the disk and memory requirements and CPU sizes for your configurations and usage level.

So let's stop guessing, if you want to know the hardware requirements, you need to contact Oracle.

One thing is sure, Oracle Fusion Applications is not like any other ERP system and consists of many components. Creating a local sandbox is not something that can be done on a single "simple" server.

Extending SmartHire (Template Based Hire) with custom Field Change &Field Prompt Events

'Hiring new employees or adding contingent workers into the system is one of the most time-consuming tasks for Human Resources departments. Template-Based Hire reduces the current labor-intensive data entry process through the Personal Data and Job Data pages by providing a configurable, template-driven approach. Template Administrators can define default data for various sections or fields in the hiring process and they can determine what sections should be displayed, hidden and made  equired to the end-user. This allows organizations to deploy policy control and flexibility in multiple template configurations for the end-users. This flexibility provides Human Resources departments the ability to decentralize the hiring process out to line managers or HR representatives in the field, rather than only allowing centralized hiring.'

Source: Red Paper Template Based Hire Red Paper for Human Resources 9.0.

Oracle extends Oracle Fusion Applications UPK

Oracle has recently added Oracle Fusion Applications Receivales to the available UPK's, which sets the counter to ten. UPK's can be downloaded from eDelivery.

Report back: Oracle Fusion Applications HCM Live demo at Logica theNetherlands

Finally it was so far. The Oracle Practice at Logica were presented a live demo of Oracle Fusion Applications by Ronald Jaarsma, Master Principal Consultant HCM and Remon van de Watering, Sales Development Manager HCM.

PeopleSoft 9.1 Mobile Inventory: Create customization environment

In previous posts I described to steps to install and configure all components to run Mobile Inventory. Common in the PeopleSoft world is to right away start customizing the application the moment it is 'out of the box'. Oracle has made this also possible for Mobile Inventory, by delivering the source files for Mobile Inventory.

In this post I will describe what is needed to create an customization environment for Mobile Inventory.

PeopleSoft 9.1 Mobile Inventory: Test the application

Now that we have fully finished the installation and all configuration, we can start using Mobile Inventory. The installation manual also describes a chapter on setting up WS- Security. Since I am running on a sandbox, I won't setup WS-Security. If you wish to deploy Mobile Inventory in production, you should definitely setup and configure WS-Security.

PeopleSoft 9.1 Mobile Inventory: Deploying Mobile Inventory Application

As said, the Mobile Inventory is build using ADF Mobile. In order to use the Mobile Inventory Application, we need to deploy the application ear delivered by PeopleSoft to Application Developer running within Weblogic Server. Enterprise Manager is used to deploy the Application.

PeopleSoft 9.1 Mobile Inventory: Setup PeopleSoft Integration Broker & Activating Inventory services

PeopleSoft Mobile Inventory retrieves and writes data to PeopleSoft FSCM using webservices. In order to call the FSCM webservices from PeopleSoft Mobile Inventory, the PeopleSoft Integration Broker must be setup and the webservices used by PeopleSoft Mobile Inventory must be actived. Furthermore permissions must be granted to users to be able to access the webservices.

PeopleSoft 9.1 Mobile Inventory: Applying the authentication provider

The PeopleSoft Authentication Provider authenticates a user name and password by connecting to a PeopleSoft Application Server. With successful authentication, the system creates a Principal and Subject, identifying the authorized use of a secure web server session. The system can use this subject to run a secure web session and provide WS-Security parameters for subsequent calls to the PeopleSoft system. So, users will log in with their PeopleSoft account to Mobile Inventory. No need to install and setup a separate Identity Management provider.

PeopleSoft 9.1 Mobile Inventory: Installing Weblogic Server &Application Development Runtime

As described in the previous post PeopleSoft Mobile Inventory is build on ADF Mobile pages. In order to run these pages you need to install Application Development Runtime, which runs as an extention of Weblogic Server. To be able to install Weblogic Server, first you have to install a JDK. I have downloaded and installed JDK 1.6.0_31. I will not describe the installation steps of JDK.

I will install all software needed on a Windows 2008R2 64bit Server.

Installing PeopleSoft 9.1 Mobile Inventory: Where to start

In a previous post I wrote about the availability of PeopleSoft 9.1 Mobile Inventory as part of PeopleSoft Financials Supply Chain Management.  The FSCM Mobile Inventory Management application provides tools to integrate mobile devices to the PeopleSoft Supply Chain Management system. Oracle ADF Mobile is used along with the PeopleSoft Integration Broker and PeopleSoft (Component Interface) Web Services.

PeopleSoft CIs are PeopleTools components that enable exposure of a PeopleSoft component for synchronous access from another application and act as a web service in the PeopleTools Integration Broker. The system then publishes web services through the PeopleSoft Integration Broker to pass transaction data between PeopleSoft  applications and additional component (third-party) applications. Mobile pages build with Oracle ADF Mobile access these CI services to retrieve data from PeopleSoft FSCM Inventory and send transactions to add and update data in PeopleSoft FSCM Inventory.

This post will describe all prerequisites and software needed to run Mobile Inventory.

PeopleSoft goes Mobile, again

For years PeopleSoft had Mobile applications build on PeopleTools for various applications. On June 5, 2009 this got deprecated, see statement from Oracle below. But now Oracle is again taking the Mobile road, this time not using PeopleTools, but Oracle Mobile ADF. First to be released is Oracle Mobile Inventory, available for Windows Mobile, Ipad and Android, in fact all devices with a mobile browser. Hope that Oracle will incorporate Mobile in other applications too.

Importing departments and creating the Department Tree

Some while ago I was asked to import departments from a Non-PeopleSoft system and to generate the department tree for these departments. As usual you start off by looking for Vanilla solutions. What I have understood, is that the department tree is usually created manually and using the TreeManager utility TreeMover they are copied across environments. So PeopleSoft has a Vanilla solution for importing and creating department trees. However, after examining the TreeMover, which is a powerfull tool I have to admit, it is a feasible solution only if already a department tree is created manually.

Why do I say this?

BI Publisher enhancements in PeopleTools 8.52

Yesterday (January 7th 2012), I attended the online Web Seminar  Why to use BI Publisher? New Features in PeopleTools 8.52 and a few interesting topics were handled that are introduced in PeopleTools 8.52 for BI Publisher

• Data entered in PeopleSoft using a Rich Text Editor for Long fields can now be incorporated in BI Publisher sustaining the formatting


• Ability to transform data, using JDeveloper XSL mapper or any third party tool

PeopleSoft Applications Portal 9.1 Feature Pack 1

Again Oracle shows its commitment to continue investing in PeopleSoft. This time by changing the release model of PeopleSoft Applications Portal, formally known as PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal, by adding Feature Packs. With these Feature Packs customers do not need to upgrade or re-implement PeopleSoft Applictions to be able to use the new features, as Feature Packs come as patches that can be applied to the current PeopleSoft application using the change assistent.

Create interactive dashboards with InterWindow Communication (IWC)

In a previous post I mentioned a new feature of PeopleTools 8.52: Dashboard. With this feature you can create custom dashboards with pagletes that provide information about a certain business area. Oracle didn't stop here and also added Interwindow Communication (IWC).

Interwindow communication is a frame-to-frame messaging mechanism that enables browser window objects—such as pages or pagelets—to be aware of and react to field-level data changes that occur in other window objects that share the same browser window. Interwindow communication enables you to publish field-level changes as they occur so that any subscribing page or pagelet becomes instantly aware of the change and then, can act on it in real-time. Administrators, subject matter experts or application developers configure page fields to respond to either changes in value or a mouse click. When the triggering event occurs, the application posts a string-formatted message. Because of partial pagelet refresh functionality, subscribing pagelets can then respond within the context of the data contained in the message. Interwindow communication supports component-based pagelets and noncomponent-based pagelets (iScript-based or other Pagelet Wizard pagelets).

Create apealing Dashboards with PeopleTools 8.52

Oracle has added another great feature to PeopleTools 8.52:

Dashboards

A dashboard is an overview consisting of pagelets containing information about a certain subject. Until now you were able to add pagelets to your home screen or workcenters. Because you only have one PeopleSoft home page, you are limited in the number of pagelets you can add to get a clear view of what is happening in your business or which actions you need to take. Workcenters did add some additional productivity, but you are limited to add pagelets only to one frame of the browser.

Extending PSQuery productivity with Drilling Url

PSQuery is an online PeopleTools functionality heavily used by business analysts and key users to gain information from the PeopleSoft application without the need of development or database SQL knowledge. The biggest con of PSQuery is that you end up with one static list of data, which is usually exported to Excel for further enhancement and analysis.

From PeopleTools 8.50, you now have the ability to create more in-depth analyses and productivity using drilling URLs.

When you build a query using Query Manager, you can define drilling URLs that are associated with this query using the expression option. These settings are saved into the database, along with prompt, criteria, and so on, as part of the metadata for this query. When you execute this query through Query Manager or Query Viewer, the query results page shows results as links, which you can click to be redirected to a different page in a new browser. You can create URLs for:

• Other PSQuery, for more in-depth information about a subject, actual drilldown functionality


• PIA Component, direct link to components where the keys for the search page of the component are extracted from the selected columns in the query


• External URL, non PeopleSoft URLs, for example Vendor sites


• Attachment URL, direct link to an attachment that is stored in the database or file system


• Free Format URL, any type of URL you want to construct, can be used for example to deep link to other non-PeopleSoft applications

So how does one create a drilling URL?