Duncan Davies

Last week – along with others from Succeed – I attended the UKOUG PeopleSoft Roadshow. Although it’s just a single day event (where the Apps Conference is spread over two days) it does have the benefit of Senior Oracle US speakers – Jeff Robbins and Marc Weintraub.

As we have for a few years now, Succeed sponsored the event/the post event drinks.

We also took out a stand, here’s John and I attempting to charm some delegates:

There’s many reasons why I enjoy attending these events. It’s great to catch up with friends I’ve worked with previously, it’s great to meet new people who we might be able to help in some way, and it’s always a treat to hear what innovations are coming down the line in recently released and future versions of PeopleSoft and PeopleTools.

So, other than the exhibition, what did we learn?

From Jeff, (other than what we’ve previously discussed on Tools 8.53) we found out:

- the release frequency of PeopleTools is now around every 12-18 months, so Tools 8.54 would be mid-2014.

- Tools 8.54 is fully defined scope-wise and the developers are almost done with it. About half of the scope for 8.55 is done.

- the way PeopleTools handles mobile devices is changing, allowing it to be much more responsive to the resolution of the requesting browser based on templates (so a page would have different templates, a large and graphically rich one for PCs on the LAN, a smaller resolution graphically leaner template for mobiles etc).

- the new Update Manager Tool isn’t that new. It’s something that Oracle/PeopleSoft have been using internally for a decade, so it should be stable and mature already.

- there’s a new ‘Mastering PeopleTools’ scheme that is starting, enabling everyone easier access to Best Practice and to make sure that customers aren’t just upgrading to stay supported, but gain genuine value from the new functionality

Jeff also flashed up some brief glimpses of something that his team are trying with Tools 8.54. They’re changing the UI a little more – and it’s a tile-based layout (more akin to Windows 8 or Pinterest, I guess). This is the landing page:

Also, to access the menu you’d hit the orange button on the right:

Finally, there were a host of other ‘coming soon’ areas, like In Memory Processing, TimesTen for nVision and a ‘TCO lower than SaaS’ which will be really interesting to see how it’s done. Jeff actually said PeopleSoft will have the lowest TCO in the market, bar none, which we’ll all really look forward to.

One of the most interesting take-aways for me wasn’t something that was said, but was more of a general feeling. A couple of years ago when Oracle said “we’re still investing in PeopleSoft” I don’t think many people believed them – I was certainly sceptical. However with the content in the latest Tools and App releases their claim is much more credible. There were certainly a lot of customers that I spoke to who were either planning a 9.2 upgrade or had it on their roadmap.

The first two photos are from the UKOUG Facebook page which contains many more photos of the event.

There’s a new App on the PeopleSoft App Store!

We’ve developed an enhancement that’ll save your users precious time – every single time that they logon.

Groups of users often use areas of the system almost exclusively, however other groups never go near these areas and have their own hotspots of usage. You can spare your users extra navigation effort by redirecting them to their chosen areas upon logon, be it tabs, dashboards or even a specific page within a component.

See more details here.

I’m not sure how long you’ve been able to do this, it may have been in the product for a while, however I’ve only just discovered it.

Normally, when I need 3-tier access in App Designer I go through the process of setting up a profile in Config Manager. I believed this to be the one and only way of getting it to connect.  There is a shortcut, however:

This isn’t a strangely named profile chosen from the dropdown. I’ve just specified the App Server IP (or hostname) and the WSL port and it will connect. This also gets around having to know the Domain Connection password (which you’d need to enter if setting up a Config Manager profile.

This post is nothing whatsover to do with PeopleSoft but I’m hoping that some of you will find it interesting nonetheless.

You may have heard of Kickstarter. It’s a web-site where enterprising inventors/creative types can post an idea, a promotional video and a funding target. Users can browse the site and if they spot a project that they like they can pledge money towards it. There are typically different levels of pledge amounts, and each level has an appropriate reward.

One of the higher profile projects was the ‘Pebble Watch’, a bluetooth smartwatch that integrates with your smartphone (iPhone or Android). They posted their project with a $100,000 funding target that they raised within the first 2 hours(!) and hit $10.2m in the month-long period that it was open. I was one of the 69,000 that pledged to support the project, and in return they promised each of us one of the watches. Mine arrived this afternoon!

This is what it looks like:

There are a range of different watch faces, including standard analogue designs and variations on digital clocks. The chief benefit though is that it communicates with your phone via bluetooth. Any time you receive an email, text or incoming call the watch vibrates and displays what is happening on the screen. For texts or emails it displays the contents, enabling you to scroll up and down to read the message. For incoming calls it displays the caller, and gives the option to answer or decline the call. You can also do things like control the music on your phone remotely.

When I was out for a meal with the family earlier this evening I was able to subtly screen emails and texts, and even decline an incoming call (sorry boss!) without taking my phone from my pocket or my wife even noticing (a real plus!). I imagine that it’ll be far more discreet in meetings than glancing at mobile phone screens to see if the interruption is important.

A further point to note is that Pebble allow you to create your own Apps for the device. Even at this early stage there are already apps for adding additional notifications, and a RunKeeper app and an IFTTT channel are on the way.

If anyone is intrigued, there are more details and a video here.

A colleague of mine recently had a requirement to place an email address field on a page, and then just below it a ‘confirm email address’ – however the user should not be permitted to copy and paste from the first field to the second, they should retype their email address.

We didn’t think that there was a way of disabling paste via PeopleCode, so resorted to JavaScript. The solution was actually quite straightforward in the end:

1) Place the two input fields on the page and connect them to the records you wish to save to, as usual.

2) Place an HTML Area on the page, making sure it’s beneath the other fields (both on this screen and the order tab).

3) Make the HTML Area contents static, and paste in the following:

<SCRIPT language=JavaScript>
var message = "Paste disabled. Please re-key.";
 
function disablepaste(){
alert(message);
return false;
}
 
document.getElementById('DERIVED_TEST_TEXT2')
.onpaste=disablepaste;
</SCRIPT>

4) Swap DERIVED_TEST_TEXT2 in the above code snippet for you Record/Field name (i.e. it’s the record name, then an underscore, then the fieldname. Look in View Source or Chrome Dev Tools/Firebug if you’re not sure.)

5) You might also want to make the alert message a little more user friendly too.

Next up in the ‘How I work‘ series is Chris Malek of Cedar Hills Group. Chris is a Technical Consultant and President/Founder of Cedar Hills Group. He has 12 years experience working on PeopleSoft and is a former PeopleSoft employee. Although some of you may know him from this time, most will have heard his name from the blog he runs – his articles are often featured in the PeopleSoft Weekly.

Name: Chris Malek

Occupation: Independent PeopleSoft Technical Consultant @ Cedar Hills Group, Inc.
Location: San Diego County, CA, USA
Current computer: My main computer is an Apple MacBook Pro with 15 inch Retina display (16 GB RAM, SSD Drive), 24in Apple iMac (4GB RAM) – I use this iMac as a ‘thin’ client mostly and its large screen.
Current mobile devices: Iphone4 and an Ipad 1st Gen (upgrading to an iPad Mini soon)
I work: to learn something everyday and be mentally challenged.

What apps/software/tools can’t you live without?
Snagit – I have been using snagit for years. It makes communication and documentation so much faster. It is super easy to grab a screen-shot, then use the simple but powerful editor to mark it up with text, arrows, call-outs and even pull in other screen-shots. It is worth every penny.

Sublime text 2 – The best text editor I have found. Once you spend the time to learn the subtleties of it and install some plugins (there are hundreds) it is a powerful editor.

PeopleCode PeopleBooks – I write a lot of Peoplecode and I am constantly referencing the PeopleCode API documentation.

Balsamiq – I create a lot of PeopleSoft bolt-ons. I have found that creating low fidelity / pencil drawn UI sketches helps clients understand the proposed application and helps me flush out requirements faster. In general, people do not know what they want until they can see it. So quickly sketching out some UI options in something like Balsamiq helps get better requirements and helps create better applications.

Aperture – I have a large photo library and enjoy photography. Aperture is a great application that is powerful and integrates nicely with the many Apple devices my family has.

Google Reader – I have been a heavy Google Reader user for years. It is a great web app and it allows me to stay up to date on various tech blogs and niche topics I am interested in.

JungleDisk and Amazon S3 – I don’t keep paper and scan all business records to PDF. I backup all my computers to Amazon S3 using JungleDisk. I have piece of mind that if my computer fails or my house catches fire that I can get my records without a problem. It also allows me to do secure syncing with my family computers and I hold the encryption keys which is unlike something like DropBox where they control the encryption keys.

Besides your phone and computer, what gadget can’t you live without?
I don’t know if you can call it a gadget but I can’t live without my surfboards. I started surfing when I moved to Southern California about 8 years ago and it has become a passion. It is really fun, keeps me in shape and is a great stress reliever. Staying in shape is a top priority for me and my TRX Trainer is another favorite non-tech gadget. It is light, portable, and versatile. It gives you an exercise combination between Pilates, Yoga, and weight training.

I also love my Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner. As I stated above, I don’t keep any paper records. This little scanner is amazing and it was pivotal in allowing me to go completely paperless about 5 years ago.

What’s your workspace like?
In my home office, I have a desk that can be adjusted for standing. I don’t always stand while working and actually prefer sitting most of the time. However, it is nice to have the options to change postures. I have a white-board on the wall where I can sketch ideas and jot down my daily to do list which helps me stay focused.

What do you listen to while you work?
I love Pandora. Lately, I have been listening to the “Jazz Essentials” station. Another popular station for work hours is my Massive Attack pandora channel which has a bunch of down-tempo type music. I am also a big fan of anything by Yo-Yo Ma  especially the album titled “The Cello Suites.”

What PeopleSoft-related productivity apps do you use?
1.) Chrome Developer tools to find field names of PeopleSoft fields by inspecting the HMTL.
2.) HTTPFox FireFox plugin and Fiddler to troubleshoot cookie issues, dig into weblibs and spy on javascript Ajax calls.
3.) My DataDumper application class to quickly view buffer states and debug code because I hate looking at trace files. You can view an introduction here.

Do you have a 2-line tip that some others might not know?
If you are viewing any PeopleSoft page in any web browser (except IE), right click on a field and choose “inspect element”.  That will bring up the developer tools and will display the HTML source of the field that you had highlighted. The “id” attribute will have the record and field name in the form of {Record Name}_{Field Name}. This is really useful for dynamic pages where opening up the application designer page definition may not be obvious especially if there are nested sub-pages. This is a good trick to teach analysts that create tech specs as they can easily find the technical names and communicate in the language of the technical staff.

What SQL/Code do you find yourself writing most often?
I create and support a lot of electronic signature / approval type customizations. This requires me to log in as many different users throughout the day for testing purposes. Therefore, I do a lot of password resets from the back end. Here is a script I use against my base account where I know the password and reset some target user’s password to match mine so I can login as them.

UPDATE PSOPRDEFN
SET OPERPSWD = (SELECT OPERPSWD
FROM PSOPRDEFN B
WHERE B.OPRID = ‘USER-WITH-KNOWN-PASSWORD’)
WHERE OPRID = ‘USER-I-NEED-TO-LOGIN-AS’;

There are some caveats to this trick. This will not trigger an integration broker message since you are updating from the back end. Therefore, this will not sync to other PeopleSoft databases. I have also seen in the 8.53 pre-release notes that the password hashes may be stored with a salt soon so this will probably not work after 8.53 is released.

What would be the one item you’d add to PeopleSoft if you could?
If I could not get version control then I would focus some of the following areas of Application Designer:

* Code completion
* Better support for navigating complex Application Class hierarchies
* An option to force PeopleCode variable declarations
* Support for message catalogs on compare reports
* Support for exporting message catalogs to a file with the project

I could go on for hours.

What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?
I think I am a very quick learner and have the ability to understand complex problems and break the problem into smaller manageable chunks. I owe this to the Engineering program that I completed in college. The program taught amazing problem solving skills and transformed the way I think.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
When I was in training at PeopleSoft, a veteran consultant told me “Never learn COBOL or you will be stuck as the COBOL guy on a big project and never learn any new technology.” This stuck with me because I love learning new technologies. I took the advice and stayed clear of COBOL and I don’t regret it.

I also recently heard a quote the resonated with me: “It is OK to make mistakes as long as they are new ones.”

I’ve been meaning to read Jim Marion’s new book ‘PeopleTools Data Management and Upgrade Handbook’ for a while, and last month it finally got to the top of my reading pile. This time he has co-authored with Paula Dean who also has a strong past in the PeopleSoft world.

Here’s a link to it on Amazon.com.

And here’s a link on Amazon UK.

Those are direct links, not affiliate links.

I also wrote a review of the book on Amazon.com. Here’s what I said:

The ‘Data Management and Upgrade Handbook’ fills a large gap in the PeopleSoft book marketplace. We have Jim’s first book which caters for genuine hard-core PeopleCode developers. We also have David Kurtz’s book which caters for DBAs. For a long time we’ve been missing a book for those of us that sit in between, maybe we do some development, but we also perform some system administration activities too (like migrating code between environments, using data mover, applying the odd patch or bundle etc). This book is aimed squarely at these ‘DevOps’ staff – and there are a lot of us.

In the first part of the book (Data and Change Management) Jim and Paula take us methodically through each of the tools that you’re going to need to use as part of your day job (like Change Assistant and Data Mover) and introduces those that you might not ‘have’ to use, but should make your life easier (like Data Archive Manager and Version Control).

In the second part (Upgrades) they walk us through a typical upgrade, covering the factors that govern the time and manpower required, through project teams and activities, and onto the tools that smooth the process (like PeopleSoft Test Framework and automated test suites).

It’s just over 300 pages, so it’s short enough to read through cover-to-cover when you’re trying to upskill someone with a few years experience, but it’s also detailed enough to keep around as a reference manual. There’s not a single customer that couldn’t benefit from having a copy or two of this in the project office.

Next up in the How I Work series is Praj Basnet, the talent behind the excellent PeopleSoft Wiki. I don’t know for sure – but judging by the traffic coming in to this blog from elsewhere – I suspect Praj’s site is amongst the most visited PeopleSoft related websites. The traffic he gets is no doubt due to the breadth and depth of the content he’s posted on there.

Name: Praj Basnet

Occupation: Software Engineer and PeopleSoft Consultant
Location: Rockhampton, Australia
Current computer: Mac Book Pro 15″ (16GB RAM, SSD)
Current mobile devices: iPhone 4, Samsung Galaxy Tab 2
I work: largely remotely, and have never been more productive or happy.

What apps/software/tools can’t you live without?
The Google suite (gmail, calendar, reader, drive). Evernote and Wunderlist to manage information. Software that is multi-platform and works/syncs across devices (phone, tablet, laptop etc).

Besides your phone and computer, what gadget can’t you live without?
Turns out with a laptop, and a smartphone that has Internet access, I can pretty much work from anywhere and focus on getting things done. It’s always nice to also have a good cup of coffee and some peace and quiet. So a decent coffee machine and noise cancelling headphones are always a help.

What’s your workspace like?
I recently switched to a make-shift standing desk. The first two weeks were hard work! I found I could only stand for 30 minutes or so at a time. Slowly I’ve built up to standing about 4-5 hours a day with breaks in between. I undock and use my laptop and sit somewhere comfortable when I do need to sit down. If you are thinking about switching to a standing desk, take it easy, and keep at it. It can be hard work in the beginning, but the benefits and increased energy are worth it.

Other than that, when on the move, I just clear out a workspace and start working. The main thing for me is that it has to be clutter-free. Nothing worse than paper, devices, wires and stuff everywhere.

What do you listen to while you work?
My diverse music collection. Usually it works a treat, but it can be too distracting. Sometimes having the noise cancelling headphones on and nothing else is enough (i.e. white noise). Other times, I get sick of having headphones on and just like silence. It depends.

What PeopleSoft-related productivity apps do you use?
On Windows when connecting to Oracle databases, SQLTools++ is a must. Text editors like Sublime Text and NotePad++ are essential. I love the command line and use it as much as I can. One thing I find myself doing a lot is grepping through multiple files/folders to search for a text string (e.g. a PeopleCode export or bunch of configuration files).

There’s a comprehensive list of the tools I’ve used over at the PeopleSoft Wiki, although at the moment it is mainly Windows focused. I need to update it with Mac, iOS and Android apps.

Do you have a 2-line tip that some others might not know?
If you are ever stuck without PIA access to a PeopleSoft site, and need to manage or create users, use the User Profile component interfaces and the Application Designer CI tester to get the job done. See the wiki for details.

Bonus tip, you can restart the PUB/SUB processes on the app server without restarting everything else through the tuxedo tmadmin console using shutdown -g PUBSUB and boot -g PUBSUB. See the wiki for details.

What SQL/Code do you find yourself writing most often?
Effective date logic, it just seems to come up all the time. I cheat sometimes and use app designer and the %EffdtCheck meta-sql to generate some of the SQL for me. But it generally needs tweaking.

What would be the one item you’d add to PeopleSoft if you could?
Simple, effective version control and change management out of the box. Having all the code in app designer go straight to a git repository or something similar would be great.

What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?
I’m not better than anyone else at them, but there are two things I would consider my strengths:

Consistency. When I started the PeopleSoft Wiki, my one and only goal was to be consistent about getting a few articles up there every week. Some weeks would be great, others, not so good, but I think success all came down to putting in an effort every day/week/month and not making excuses.

Willingness to share information. If I learn something interesting, I like to tell others about it. I don’t like keeping things to myself in the hopes of being “smarter than everyone else”. If anything by sharing information you tend to get more respect because people genuinely value your input.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Ideas without execution have very little value. Everyone has great ideas, but few people ever actually get to the stage of “doing” something with them. Even fewer people keep at it when things get tough. The people that do, are the successful ones.

Next up in the ‘How I Work’ series is Jiju Vengal of HRoi Consulting. You’ll probably recognise Jiju’s name from his popular PeopleSoft HCM for You blog where he focuses mostly on Time and Labor and Absence Management. He’s probably the most prolific PeopleSoft blogger, averaging almost a post a week in 2012. On top of the blog posts Jiju often experiments with other mediums, most recently podcasts and ERP movies.

Name: Jiju Vengal

Occupation: PeopleSoft HCM Functional Consultant/Chief Consultant at HRoi Consulting
Location: Singapore
Current computer: HP Pavillion (Win7, 8GB RAM)
Current mobile devices: iPhone4, Samsung Galaxy Tab2
I work: better and more productively after regular office hours (when the office is quiet!)

What apps/software/tools can’t you live without?
Internet connection is a definite life line for me. Other than the ever dependable google search and e-mail, I use blogger.com, wikipedia and the RSS aggregator on Outlook frequently. Having access to a sandbox PeopleSoft instance will also be high on the must have list!

Besides your phone and computer, what gadget can’t you live without?
I am not a gadget person. Besides work, I read quite a lot, but prefer to have a physical book in hand rather than an e-reader!

What’s your workspace like?
This is a tricky question as I have been primarily working from different customer sites away from Singapore for some time now – so it really depends on where I am working. But, my work desk in Singapore would have my laptop, a fixed line phone, photos of family and the books in my personal library decked up.

What do you listen to while you work?
I do not listen to music when I work. Unfortunately I need a quiet environment when I am working on important things!

What PeopleSoft-related productivity apps do you use?
I find UPK (User Productivity Kit) to be an extremely useful tool for business process documentation and user training (including documentation of customisations). We have also been using Firebug quite a lot these days.

Do you have a 2-line tip that some others might not know?
The Time and Labor rule set provides the functionality to write and execute SQL statements from PIA (including updates and deletes) – without the need to have access to app designer or even a database editor like SQL Navigator or TOAD.  If used judiciously, this can be a powerful tool to implement certain requirements without heavy customisations – a simple example is the need to have a process to create user defaults in T&L for new hires.

What SQL/Code do you find yourself writing most often?
I do not do a lot of dedicated coding these days, but when I have to – they are mostly SQLs on Time and Labor/Absence Management tables for reporting purposes and T&L rule writing.

What would be the one item you’d add to PeopleSoft if you could?
Improvements to the Time and Attendance product line like native mobile apps for T&A (I know companies like Succeed have worked on this!), country extensions for Time and Labor, better self-service experience in Absence Management etc. I have been trying to advocate this in my blog for some time and I hope the Oracle product team get to hear it.

What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?
There are many consultants who have more experience in PeopleSoft than me, but what has helped me in my career are – a) Ability to see the forest instead of the trees b) Empathise with the customer – provide business oriented solutions rather than purely IT oriented solutions and c) Working harder than the rest.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
It’s foolish competing against others, the only way to move up is to compete against yourself and keep improving yourself.