In PeopleSoft, one can create either multiple employment instances or multiple employment assignments or both. The difference is as follows:

• An Instance is the parent of assignments under it. This means that it is possible to allocate multiple employee assignments under one instance.
• The employee record number is incremented as one creates multiple instances and/or assignments.
• The employee record numbers assigned to each record will differ based on the order in which they are created. For e.g. let’s say that there are 3 instances created initially for an employee. Each of these instances have only one assignment. This means instance 1 will have employee record number 0 (zero), instance 2 will have employee record number 1, instance 3 will have employee record number 2.
• Considering the above scenario, if I create 2 additional assignments in that order for the instance 2, then for the first additional assignment pertaining to the second instance, the employee record number will be 3 and for the second additional assignment, the employee record number will be 4.
• Now consider the following scenario – Initially 2 instances are created. Then 1 additional assignment is created for the 2nd instance. Then the 3rd instance is created followed by the creation of 2nd additional assignment for the 2nd instance. Now the employee record numbers will be assigned by the PeopleSoft system as follows: 
• Empl Rcd 0 (Zero) ——  Instance 1
• Empl Rcd 1 —————  Instance 2
• Empl Rcd 2 ————— Additional Assgn 1 for instance 2
• Empl Rcd 3 —————  Instance 3
• Empl Rcd 4 —————  Additional Assgn 2 for instance 2
• It has to be noted that the record for which the employee record number is 0 (zero) is considered as “Primary” Job and all others will be considered as “Secondary” Job.
• Also for multiple assignments, the first record will have the action as “Additional Job”.
• For the multiple instances, the first record will have the action as “Hire”.

I have completed my first complex multi level drill down report in Reporting Services. I should say that I am throughly delighted.. It took me 4 working days to finish the entire thing. This is a report that has to give the details like Sales, Direct Costs, Operating Expenses, Gross Profit, Income Tax, Net profit etc. all in a single page with drill down across months for different business units.

The Report will have a drilldown both at the row level as well as the column level. The row level drill down consists of a primart reporting head. For eg. in our case, it will be Operating Expenses. The second drill down will consists of following heads – Human Resource Costs, Employee Costs, Facility Costs etc. The third drill down under Human Resource Costs (for eg.) will consist of heads like Salaries, Bonus, Relocation, Business Travel etc. The fourth level drill down under the head Salaries will consist of all the GL account codes.

The column drill down will have all months at the first level. The second drill down level will consist of different business units under each month.

So that sums up the requirement. I have no clue how easy or difficult it is to do in nVision. But as far as Reporting Services is concerned, this is how I proceeded..

I first created a tree that represents the four level drill downs at the rowlevel. I wrote a query that ported the relevant data with the necessary structure from Oracle(PeopleSoft Database) to local report server database(SQL Server). The structure had the following columns Parent Node, Middle Node, Child Node and the accounts under the child node along with the posted transaction amount in PS_LEDGER table. I must admit this was pretty messy. I didn’t use any Oracle’s “connect by” and “prior” duo to get the hierarchy. I think, if I had used them, that would have increased the speed of the query by several times.

Anyways once I have ported the data, I wrote a dataset query in SQL Server that represents the order as required in the report. For eg, the Sales have to appear first in the drill down, followed by Direct Costs followed by Operating Expenses. Now if you simply run the report without ordering, it will display heads sorted by alphabetical order. This means, Direct Costs will be displayed first, followed by Operating Expenses and Sales. This is evidently wrong as we need to first show what’s the total sales of the company is for a particular month, for the operating expenses and direct costs to be deducted from it.

This part was bit tricky although not that challenging. Once you take care of the ordering, it is now time to show those uncomfortable “Gross Profit” which is simply total sales – total direct costs – total operating expenses. Now displaying this was tricky as this has to be calculated from the calculated fields and that too on the fly… I had more of these kind of heads in my requirement. The other ones are Income before tax, Net Profit. All of these are to be calculated impromptu from the other calculated fields.. My dataset query turned out to be one huge ugly monster. I will post both SQL Query and the dataset query tomorrow. They are really slouchy and difficult to maintain. I need to improvise on this. I will post them tomorrow. Any suggestion to improve them will be greatly appreciated.

Once I am done with the dataset queries with some prompts here and there, the report is ready to be deployed. Thats it. Pretty easy!! Isn’t it? I will try to emulate this in n-vision and estimate the time taken to do the same requirement. This will give us an idea of when to go for nVision reports and when to go for reports prepared using reporting services.

I plan to devote this week to nVision. The reason being that I have to produce an income statement report in Finance. The report looks demanding to me and it’s also a drill down report. There are two options for me : Using PeopleSoft nVision to do the report or using Microsoft Reporting Services to do the report. I initially thought I can do the report in reporting services. But I thought it will be rather better to look into the features of nVision and then decide whether to go with nVision or with Reporting Services. The first thing that I wanted to know is how will I know what is the SQL that is being used to generate the data in the nVision layout.

Well ,here is my first novice step of knowing nVision:

Go to the nVision report layout. In the tool bar, you will notice something called “nVision”. Click that.

Now you will notice a variety of options. One of them will be “Options”. Click that. A dialog box will open. One of the options will be “Show Report SQL”. Check this.

Now when you run the report using “Report Request”, every SQL that is used will be displayed one by one as the report is run and the data is being fetched.

I will be posting more of my basics findings in the subsequent postings. Also do remember that I got to tell you about “Add Attachment” feature. I will be visiting on this topic soon.

I am doing a R&D on how “Add Attachment” works. I think it behaves differently across HCM and other streams. I will post my findings soon. Meanwhile, I was checking on different types of free reporting tools available for download in the net. I came across a reporting tool called LogiXML. It is pretty simple to use. Preparing drill down reports is piece of cake.  I think you can also use N-Vision for the same. But I feel producing drill down reports takes lesser time than N-vision.

The major hurdle is incorporating security to the data. The security feature is available only in the advanced versions. But then again, the advanced versions come with a cost. You will have to buy the product to incorporate security.

The other product I checked out was Microsoft Reporting Services, SQL Server 2005. This one is certainly worth it if your organisation has a licenced version. Otherwise you can also download the free version which is SQL Server Express Edition. Preparing drill down reports, incorporating security, formatting, parameterizing reports and deploying it takes so less time that you will be tempted to bring most of your MIS reports in PeopleSoft into Reporting Services.

It took me hardly a day to prepare a complex drill down report which will easily take me a week to do the same in PeopleSoft if it has to be done in one single page. I was able to bring security based on the network ID. I was able to bring into the system logic, that identifies the user who is logged into the network and filters data based on the user. This is fantastic.

I was also able to produce graphical reports, crosstab(matrix) reports with drill down and without it. All this requires no coding. Everything is drag and drop. Ofcourse for all those code buffs out there, there is a facility to write your own code using extensions that Microsoft provides.

The best part is I was able to schedule a job that takes in the transaction data from PeopleSoft(Oracle database) and port it into my local reporting database(MS SQL Server 2005) using DTS available along with the SQL Server 2005 as SSIS(SQL Server Integration Services). Then the report will be produced based on the mini-datamart that I had created in the SQL Server. Even, the report processing can be scheduled and made to run at a particular time. We can also automatically send the report via email to a set of users in the email distribution list. This feature is called Subscription. The report can be sent in excel, PDF, web archive, TIFF etc. This is a cool feature. When I got the email automatically sent by the server, I was thrilled.

I can also do a data driven subscription. This means, I can dynamically generate the content that will appear to the users as comments, or I can dynamically generate the list of users to whom this email has to be sent.

Whatever I have said is just tip of the iceberg. There is so much you can do with this tool. Check out whether you can satisfy your organisation needs with this tool. I am sure you can if you have too many reports in PeopleSoft. The best part is that the productivity of the developer is increased manifold.

Hope this post is useful.

There are 2 ways I know that can directly take you to the page without displaying you the search page.

1. You can use a PS_INSTALLATION record on the “Search Record” field of the component properties. This works because INSTALLATION table doesn’t have any key structure. If there is no key structure defined, then obviously the user cannot search on anything.
2. The other way is to use Peoplecode in SearchInit event. You can use SetSearchDialogBehaviour(0). This works provided all the keys required for the component is given. If only partial keys are provided, then the search dialog is still displayed inspite of a code written in the SearchInit peoplecode event. On the other hand, if you want to force display the search page, even if all the keys are available for the component, then use SetSearchDialogBehaviour(1) instead.

It’s a common scenario that a group of 3 or 4 members in a team will be working on the same “project” present in the Application Designer. In such scenarios, it is possible for a team member to erase the changes made by another team member on an object. For e.g. if a team member “EMP0001″ is working on a SQL view or in a step in an Application Engine, made some changes to it and saved it, there is every possibility that another team member “EMP0002″ accessing the same object to which “EMP0001″ made the change and making some changes to it.

A classic scenario is “EMP0001″ adds a step called “STEP01″ into an application engine and saves it. Now the team member “EMP0002″ deletes that step. How will the team member EMP0001 ensure that his changes are tracked and are protected from any extraneous changes without his/her knowledge.

This is how we can do it. There is something called “Change Control” present in the App Designer. It will be available under the “Options” tab in the toolbar. If you click Change Control for the first time, you can see two options – View History, Administrator.

If you click on the Administrator, you will notice three options that are primarily checkboxes – Change Control Locking, Change Control History and Lock All Definitions. By Default they will be unchecked and the third option will be grayed out.

Check both the options namely Change Control Locking as well as Change Control History. Once you do it, the system will ask you to log out and login again. I assume here that your login has Adminstrator access. All other users of the App Designer should also logout and login again. If you logout and login again, you can see some extra symbols like “LOCK”, “UNLOCK” etc in the toolbar now.

Now whatever object that you access will be read only. If you want to make changes to the object, you will have to lock the object. This can be done by right-clicking on the object and selecting “Lock”. Once you have locked the object, you can make changes to the object and save it. During locking, a display window will be prompted asking you to enter your comments. Through this, a history is maintained as to who made changes to the object, when and why?

The best part is yet to come. Say if team member EMP0001 locked an object, if EMP0002 logs into the same project, he can see a “Lock” symbol on the object locked by EMP0001 along with the userid who locked it in brackets, which in our case is (EMP0001). So EMP0002 will know that EMP0001 is working on it. It is possible for EMP0002 to unlock the object locked by EMP0001. You can ask me whats the big idea. The idea is the changes are tracked now. Now EMP0002 can check the history log before he/she makes the changes.

In the classic scenario (App Engine Step example) that I explained before, EMP0001 can lock the project itself. So whatever changes EMP0002 makes to the project, actually wont get reflected into the project unless and until EMP0002 unlocks the project. So even if EMP0002 deletes the step STEP01 inserted by EMP0001, the system will allow him/her to delete. But actually the change will not be reflected in the project. Through this, the user EMP0001 protects his/her object from unnecessary encroachment.

I am sure you would have come across situations, where you will have to build views, records etc… However, let’s take this scenario, whereby you have two views ABC_VW and XYZ_VW… Now the XYZ_VW is used in the SQL written in ABC_VW. Obviously, this makes XYZ_VW as parent view and ABC_VW as child view. Even without building XYZ_VW, if you are going to save the SQL of ABC_VW, the App Designer sweetly saves the SQL. But the trouble comes later. When you are building the ABC_VW without building XYZ_VW, the App Designer faithfully writes an error in the log file quoting “Table or view doesn’t exist”. 

How will you tackle this problem? Some of you would think that you will ensure manually that XYZ_VW gets built before ABC_VW. But what if you are doing an upgrade and you want the system to take care of this automatically for all the parent and child views? Is there a way?

There is a way. Apparently, when you build records or views or even query views you will find a box called “Build Sequence No” in the record type tab. By default this is 1. So if we want the system to take care of build sequences automatically for our scenario, enter 1 for XYZ_VW and 2 for ABC_VW.

Now when you build the project containing these views, the system automatically builds XYZ_VW first followed by ABC_VW. This should clear off another misconception that the records get built in the order that is mentioned in the upgrade tab of the App Designer. If we see our example, ABC_VW gets listed first followed by XYZ_VW. But XYZ_VW gets built first. In the upgrade tab, every object is arranged in the alphabetical order and has no significance related to build sequences.

See you tomorrow~

In some rare occasions, we will come across a scenario, where we will have to write an AE Program that can work across platforms. Let’s say that the development environment is on SQL Server. You are writing your AE program with multiple steps. Let’s say in one of the steps, you are to fetch the system date. So you use a getdate() functionality to do the same. But what if the production environment runs on Oracle? You will have to obviously use “sysdate” in your SQL to fetch the date. How do you tackle this problem???

You may argue that you can use the MetaSQLs %CurrentDateIn() or %CurrentDateOut() (as the case may be), to get the dates. But what if there is a restriction that you are not to use any MetaSQLs at all.

You may argue that you can create two SQL objects one for SQL Server and the other for Oracle and use a %DbType Peoplecode. But again, you are using a MetaSQL here. Oopsy Daisies!!!

So here comes the importance of AE Section Properties.

Some of us tend to overlook what are present as “Properties” in an AE Section

If you carefully observe, there is something called “Platform” mentioned there. All you have to do is create a section “SECABC” with the platform as Microsoft. Now write your SQL Server specific SQL there. Now create another section with the same name “SECABC” but with the platform as Oracle. Now write your oracle specific SQLs here. That’s it. You are done.

Cool isn’t it?? I will see you with some more findings tomorrow.

Recently I found an interesting article on how to find out whether a particular database is on UNICODE or not. Here is it.

PeopleTools 8.46, 8.47, 8.48, and 8.49 – How Do You find out if Oracle Database has been installed as Unicode Unicode DB must be using a supported Oracle/PeopleSoft unicode character set. (UTF8) You can check what is the value by running the following query in the DB instance in question.

SQL> SELECT PARAMETER, VALUE from V$NLS_PARAMETERS where PARAMETER=’NLS_CHARACTERSET’;

PARAMETER VALUE
—————
NLS_CHARACTERSET UTF8

In addition, PeopleTools must be told that it is utilizing a UNICODE db and that is done by the setting of the UNICODE_ENABLED boolean flag on the PSSTATUS table. A value of 1 indicates this DB is to be treated by tools as a UNICODE DB.

SQL> SELECT UNICODE_ENABLED from PSSTATUS;
UNICODE_ENABLED
—————
1

When do you exactly use DoSave()?.. when do you DoSaveNow()?.. Well the difference is how soon you want to trigger the save processing event. Suppose, let’s say that you have assigned a value to a field in the row and the processing further down in the present peoplecode event depends upon the value stored in this field in database, then it makes sense to call the save processing events(SaveEdit, SavePreChange, Workflow & SavePostChange) immediately. In such a scenario, DoSaveNow() should be used which triggers the save processing events immediately and returns the control back to the present peoplecode event.

In certain cases, we can defer this triggering of save processing events till the present peoplecode event finishes. In such cases you can use DoSave().

I will come up with more examples sometime on DoSave() and DoSaveNow().