PeopleSoft Campus Self Service Mobile

Oracle extends it’s PeopleSoft Mobile Applications fleet yet one more time with Campus Self Service Mobile. What differs Campus Mobile from the mobile applications until now, is the that this it is not a mobile (web) application, but a true native mobile app, built using Oracle ADF Mobile.

PeopleSoft Mobile Time Entry

Oracle has recently extended it's PeopleSoft Mobile Applications fleet, Mobile Expenses & Approvals, Mobile Company Directory, Mobile eProcurement, Mobile Inventory, with yet another application: Mobile Time Entry.

As stated on the PeopleSoft Apps Strategy blog, Mobile Time Entry is now generally available on FSCM 9.1 as a single post with Resolution Id 898134 and will also be delivered with bundle 28 that will be available on 15th of November, 2013.

PeopleTools Automated Environment Configuration

Don't you just hate it whenever you create a new instance of PeopleSoft or clone a production environment, you have to take the same manual configuration steps, like renaming the default local node, settings portal URI, configuring Integration Broker, configuring SES, etc? Wouldn't it be great if this could be automated?

That is probably what someone at Oracle also thought ...

Training on Demand: Fusion Applications Extend Applications with ADF

Recently we followed the training Fusion Applications: Extend Applications with ADF in Training on Demand format.

What is Training on Demand?

"You train online via an Internet connection, 24/7. Access streaming lectures, whiteboarding and lab activities, with the ability to search video, pause or rewind. These courses are recorded. Courses are made available on a named user basis for a term of ninety (90) days from the effective date of your order." 

The training consists of a 5 day schedule and both of us were not able to schedule 5 consecutive days with all the projects that we are working on. This was exactly the training format we where looking for. We could follow the training whenever and wherever.

Although the recorded videos are available for 90 days, we were very surprised by the fact that we had to reserve lab time to execute the practices.

"As part of this course, you are eligible for 1 time, 5 days access to live Lab Environment. Please follow the steps below to test, configure, reserve and access your lab. You can click each section title to view each full step. We highly recommend testing and configuring your system before reserving your lab." 

In fact we still had 5 consecutive days to plan away from our projects to be able to execute the practices. This was number 1 of many disappointments to follow during this training.

Extending the PeopleSoft 9.2 virtual machine with GUI and GuestAdditions

In my previous post I described the steps for getting started with the PeopleSoft 9.2 virtual machine. Although I am still thrilled that Oracle has made this generally available, I am of the opinion that it would have even been greater if the virtual machine was pre-delivered with GNOME or KDE. I am sure that a lot of customers and partners will use this virtual machine, but is everyone comfortable  with just a Linux command prompt? I think not.

Fortunately you have the root account and full access to the virtual machine, so we can go ahead and extend the virtual machine with the GUI our self.

Note, this post is not part of the virtual machine deployment as intended by Oracle. It is my choice to extend the virtual machine and it is your choice to follow this post.

Installing PeopleSoft 9.2 pre-build virtual machine

The past years I have seen a lot of people on OTN forum struggling with PeopleSoft installations. Installing PeopleSoft on uncertified OS, mismatch between versions and releases, 32 vs 64 bit, etc, etc.

Well those days are over. As of April 14, Oracle made pre-build virtual machines of PeopleSoft HCM 9.2, ELM 9.2 and FSCM 9.2 for VirtualBox available. These virtual machines enable you to get a PeopleSoft Demo up and running within an hour, without installation! No, I am not lying nor am I fooling you, I timed it! Customers do not have to invest time and effort in installing a Demo environment and developers can have a properly installed local environment for R&D.

In this post I will describe the steps you need to take to get started with the PeopleSoft HCM 9.2 virtual machine. I will be deploying the virtual machine on my laptop with following hardware:

• Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
• 8 GB RAM

Get ready to be amazed ...

Switching from VMWare to VirtualBox

Ever since I discovered virtualization, I have been creating and using dedicated virtual machines for all my PeopleSoft sandboxes and Fusion MiddleWare components. This allowed me to run multiple releases of OS and PeopleSoft on my own laptop. Until recently I was using VMWare Player and was not a big fan of VirtualBox. After running my first PeopleSoft sandbox based on the OVM templates in VirtualBox I was amazed by the performance and memory allocation. Ever since I have moved all my VMWare virtual machines to VirtualBox.