Fluid Forms with PeopleCode Event Mapping

 Fluid Forms and Approval Builder is a handy utility that provides an alternative to paper based processes in a organization. It’s key features are the out-of-the-box integration with,

1. File Attachments
2. Approval Workflow Engine
3. Component Interface Mapping

It is ideally suitable for building simple forms, collecting file attachments from users, invoking workflow approval process involving multiple users and finally updating a transaction component using component interface.

However a common feedback among customers is that this utility is too simple and not effective to build user friendly forms for real-world use-cases. Key limitations of this utility are,

• Inability to default or load contextual data to the form
• Inability to validate data entered by user
• Lack of support for multiple levels of data (table structures)

While this utility is not intended to build complex pages like application designer, basic features like field defaults and validations are essential to build user-friendly forms.

Thanks to the ever so powerful PeopleCode Event Mapping feature. We can now effectively introduce custom business rules and validations to the forms built using Forms and Approval builder.

 

I have illustrated this capability using a simple form created for employees to claim expenses.

• A fluid form is created using Forms and Approval builder, making use of the delivered attachment and workflow approval capability
• PeopleCode Event Mapping Framework is used to
• Pre-Populate form  with employee related information
• Validate data entered by user when the form is saved, allowing the user to resolve any validation error

Designing and deploying a form using Forms and Approval builder is entirely an online configuration activity, using PeopleCode event mapping framework to build and add business rules to the forms is a technical activity.

Explained below is the summary of steps to build a form as shown in the video.

• Use Form Designer utility to build and deploy a fluid form, making use of the full set of features like file attachments, workflow approvals, security

• Deployed form can be added to a Fluid Homepage
  • Optionally you can set a image for the tile
  • When the form is accessed, initial component that is loaded – EOFM_CONTAINER_FL. This component basically acts as an index listing the forms already created and allows user to create a new form

• When user clicks to fill a new form, the form layout page opens, notice the Fluid Component for this page is – EOFM_FORM_FL. This is the component to which the Peoplecode needs to be mapped.

• Create an application package and class that contains the Peoplecode to execute your business rules. Record/Fields associated with the Form data elements can be figured out by reviewing the structure of the component – EOFM_FORM_FL

• Register the Application Package/Class Peoplecode as a service under,

PeopleTools>Portal>Related Content Service>Define Related Content Service

• Associate this new service to the target forms component under,

PeopleTools>Portal>Related Content Service>Manage Related Content Service

Note: Component – EOFM_FORM_FL as delivered is not available on the portal registry, so this has to be first registered in the portal, so that related events can be mapped.

• Test the functionality to suit your requirements

Note:Peoplecode event mapping framework in PeopleTools 8.55 has capability to inject custom Peoplecode into component and component record field level events. This functionality is further enhanced in PeopleTools 8.56 providing more Peoplecode events such as page activate etc.

Update May 2019:

If you are PeopleTools version 8.56+, map the App Package Peoplecode to ‘Post Page Activate’ in the event mapping framework. So your code gets executed last.

Value defaulted to form fields only get saved, only when “&c_sdcontroller.updateField…..” gets executed for each value assignment.

Below is working code to pre-populate a form with a list of default value. In this example a list of direct reports are defaulted for a specific manager id.

import PT_RCF:ServiceInterface;
import FS_SD:Runtime:Controllers:*;

class SetFormData implements PT_RCF:ServiceInterface
   method execute();
end-class;

Component FS_SD:Runtime:Controllers:SDRuntimeController &c_sdcontroller;
Component FS_SD:Runtime:Controllers:SDSearchController &c_objSDSearchController;

method execute
   /+ Extends/implements PT_RCF:ServiceInterface.execute +/
   Local Rowset &rsFormDataLvl1, &rsFormDataLvl2, &rsDirectRpts;
   Local string &strLabelFldNm, &strAssgnmntFldNm;
   Local number &i, &j, &k;
   &rsDirectRpts = CreateRowset(Record.POIT_FORM_DIR_V);
   &rsDirectRpts.Fill("WHERERVISOR_ID=:1", %EmployeeId);
   
   If GetLevel0()(1).FORM.FORM_TYPE.Value = "XXXXXXXXX" And
         GetLevel0()(1).FORM.FORM_APPR_STATUS.Value <> "A" Then
      &rsFormDataLvl1 = GetLevel0()(1).GetRowset(Scroll.FS_SD_RT_GRP_VW);
      For &i = 1 To &rsFormDataLvl1.ActiveRowCount
         &rsFormDataLvl2 = &rsFormDataLvl1(&i).GetRowset(Scroll.FS_SD_RT_GLC_VW);
         For &j = 1 To &rsFormDataLvl2.ActiveRowCount
            For &k = 1 To &rsDirectRpts.ActiveRowCount;               
               &strLabelFldNm = "EMPLOYEE ID" | &k;
               If &rsFormDataLvl2(&j).FS_SD_RT_GLC_WK.SD_FLDNAME.Value = &strLabelFldNm Then
                  &rsFormDataLvl2(&j).FS_SD_RT_GLC_WK.SD_FLDNAME.Value, &strAssgnmntFldNm);
                  &rsFormDataLvl2(&j).FS_SD_RT_GLC_WK.SD_TEXT5_2.Value = &rsDirectRpts(&k).POIT_FORM_DIR_V.EMPLID.Value;
                  &rsFormDataLvl2(&j).FS_SD_RT_GLC_WK.SD_TEXT5_2.DisplayOnly = True;              
                  &c_sdcontroller.updateField(&rsFormDataLvl2(&j), &rsFormDataLvl2(&j).FS_SD_RT_GLC_WK.SD_TEXT5_2);
                  Break;
               End-If;
               &strLabelFldNm = "NAME" | &k;
               If &rsFormDataLvl2(&j).FS_SD_RT_GLC_WK.SD_FLDNAME.Value = &strLabelFldNm Then
                  &rsFormDataLvl2(&j).FS_SD_RT_GLC_WK.SD_TEXT30_1.Value = &rsDirectRpts(&k).POIT_FORM_DIR_V.GetField(@("Field.NAME")).Value               &rsFormDataLvl2(&j).FS_SD_RT_GLC_WK.SD_TEXT30_1.DisplayOnly = True;
                  &c_sdcontroller.updateField(&rsFormDataLvl2(&j), &rsFormDataLvl2(&j).FS_SD_RT_GLC_WK.SD_TEXT30_1);
                  Break;
               End-If;
               &strLabelFldNm = "JOB TITLE" | &k;
               If &rsFormDataLvl2(&j).FS_SD_RT_GLC_WK.SD_FLDNAME.Value = &strLabelFldNm Then
                  &rsFormDataLvl2(&j).FS_SD_RT_GLC_WK.SD_TEXT30_1.Value = &rsDirectRpts(&k).POIT_FORM_DIR_V.JOBTITLE.Value;
                  &rsFormDataLvl2(&j).FS_SD_RT_GLC_WK.SD_TEXT30_1.DisplayOnly = True;
                  &c_sdcontroller.updateField(&rsFormDataLvl2(&j), &rsFormDataLvl2(&j).FS_SD_RT_GLC_WK.SD_TEXT30_1);
                  Break;
               End-If;
            End-For;
         End-For;
      End-For;
   End-If;
   
end-method;

PeopleSoft Pivot Grid

The PeopleSoft Pivot Grid is a reporting tool used to provide a pivot table and chart representation of live data using PS Query data source. This enables users to visually display data in a dashboard. Data can be displayed in different views by performing operations such as pivoting and filtering, which enables business analysts to interpret data in a variety of ways.

Business Benefits:         

1. Pivot grids can be published as pagelets, so can be published on home page or any other navigation.

E.g.: Managers can use this pivot grid on their Dashboard to track the Employees Report, Direct Line Reports, Employees Head count etc…

2.                Users can take action directly from the chart/report. - Related Content can be configured in Pivot grid.

 

3.                Drilling Down on the Aggregate Values

              

    

The detailed view displays the complete data of the grid and Actions dropdown helps navigate to related links or action can be taken.

4.                Inter Window Communication: Pivot Grid Pagelets can interact with each other and with the transaction pages. Configure Publication and Subscription with all the intersecting Prompt and Filter values between Pivot grids. We get the consistent behavior with progressive filtering in the publisher and subscriber.

5.                Pivot grids can be published as Related Content on any of the components, so that the user can refer them easily.

6.                Displaying Grid from Chart-only view -  Display the grid from a chart-only view and then perform various actions such as pivoting data, dragging and dropping, and slicing and filtering data to change the grid layout. After the layout is satisfactory, you can synchronize the chart with the grid view.

7.                View grid option allows user to display the results of the query in grid format and filters can be applied.

8.                PeopleSoft Pivot Grids allow the user to analyze data within the PeopleSoft application.  The advantage here is that, as we all know, initial data analysis often leads to more questions and a need for deeper analysis. PeopleSoft Pivot Grids allow the user to dive deeper, all the way down to the transactional level into the system to grab more data for the desktop spreadsheet. It is cleaner, easier and more efficient.

9.                Pivot Grids allow the user in a specific job role to focus on the activities that are most important to their specific job requirements.  The user is able to immediately access the most Relevant information for their role. Information is easily prioritized and action lists can be created.

Development Process

Pivot grid can be developed in five easy steps:

Navigation: Main Menu -> Reporting Tools -> Pivot Grid -> Pivot Grid Wizard.

Step1: Provide pivot grid basic details - grid name, title and type.

Step 2: Provide data source type and PS Query name.

Step 3: Provide data model values. At least one value and axis for the column should be specified.

Along with at least one value and axis specifying for the columns.

Step 4: Provide X and Y axis and filters.

Specify data model options providing X and Y Axis and specify filtering in fourth step.

Step 5: Verify the pivot grid, publish it as pagelets or related content.

 

Limitations on Pivot Grid:

• Supports only PS Query as data source.
• Pivot Grid Does not have a Vertical Scroll bar for viewing data, but it displays all possible rows based on the current layout.

ExcelToCi - End user Guide

 When opening PeopleSoft ExcelToCI tool we can see it is actually an Excel workbook containing 5 different spreadsheets.

The first one, called "Coversheet", is only used as a summary or quick guide of the tool.

So, in order to start working with this PeopleSoft tool, we must go to the second sheet, called "Connect Information".

In this sheet it is defined all the information we are going to use to connect our workbook with PeopleSoft.

Most important ones are:

Connection Information: You should be able to obtain this data from the PIA URL:

URL: 

Web Server: psoft.company.com 

Protocol: HTTP 

HTTP Port: 8050 (if no port specified then likely to be 80) 

Portal: EMPLOYEE 

PeopleSoft Site: PSPRD (Case sensitive)

Node: PT_LOCAL 

Language Code: ENG 

Chunking Factor: 40 

Web Server Machine Name: The name of the PeopleSoft web server to connect to 

Protocol: The protocol used to access the web server. 

HTTP Port: The port number that the web server uses 

Portal: The name of the portal 

PeopleSoft Site Name: The name of the PeopleSoft site. 

Node: The PeopleSoft node. 

Language Code: The code for the language used in the data to be submitted to the database 

Chunking Factor: The number of rows of data to be uploaded to the database at given time

Chunking Factor: You can think it as the quantity of lines you want to work with at the same time when sending information to the database. In this case I've chosen 7, meaning the tool will process 7 rows at a time.

Error Threshold: Each line at the level 0 of the component implies an execution of the  PeopleSoft Component Interface behind this tools. So, If I'm going to process several lines, I've several chances of making Component Interface get to an error.

With this variable I am able to set to the ExcelToCI tool an error range before aborting its flow. If you want to be very strict you may set this variable to 0, so the first time the ExcelToCI gets an error it will stop processing the rest of the lines.

On the other side, if you are working with a simple Component Interface you might not give much importance to an error line, since each line is independent from the other ones and you want to process the most lines at a while. In this case you should set a high "Error Threshold" number.

Then, when the ExcelToCI flows is ended, you could take a look to the error lines and fixed them before processing them once again.

Once we have this information set, we must go to the "Template" sheet.

In this sheet we will start working with ExcelToCI "Add-Ins"

The first one is "New Template". This add-in will let us generate a new tempalte based on a PeopleSoft Component Interface.

When clicking to that button, the following windows appears. There we have to enter our user and password to access PeopleSoft.  Besides we have to add the name of the Component Interface we will be working with.

Once it is loaded, in the same sheet we can see all the Component Interface structure displayed as columns. It is also shown some specifications for each property.

1) Which Component Interface Collection is the owner of the property.

2) The name of the current property.

3) Record Type: We should take this property as the "Buffer Level". In this case it will always be 0, since it is a very simple component.

4) Field type, field length, Key or not, Required or not, sequence in the Component Interface

At the end, we could see (below highlighted in red) each column label and "a grey row" just below. This are the lines which we'll be working with.

 Now, the rest of the "Add-ins" start to be useful.

If we stay in one cell and click the “Select Input Cell” option, the cell will be marked in a light orange colour. At this way, the ExcelToCI knows this column will be available for users to insert data in the final template.

If we want to set more than one cell at a time, we'll be able to do this by selecting them and choosing “Select All Input Cells”

Thus, the ExcelToCI tool will set all the cells as available for user inputs.

On the other side, if we are pretending to avoid users inserting any property, we could then hide that cell by selecting it and choosing the “Do Not Include For Submission” option. This option will set the cell back to gray colour and hide it from user template.

For instance, in my example I'm not using the name column, so I'll hide it.

Once we have our template set, we can go to the next step by clicking the “New Data Input” option.

At this time we will sent to the "Data Input" sheet.

In this sheet we are going to fill all the data we want to process. As you could see below, the "Name" column is not displayed at this time.

I'll add some information (sorry for hiding some data, I've created this tutorial for some mates and I must hide it because of privacy purposes).

If you notice, rows at the first column are equals in every rows. 

If we are sure a column will allways have the same "fixed value" (for instance if we have a button in our PeopleSoft Component Interface and we want to click it by using PeopleCode) we can set this fixed value in the previous sheet, "Template".

In this case I'll add a fixed value to the SETID column since I know all my vendors will belong to that one.

Now I can select that cell and choose the "Deselect Input Cell" option which let us indicate to the ExcelToCi tool we won't have this column visible in the "Data Input" section.

In this case, the cell will be painted in a light blue colour, showing it is not able for users to input data but it will be taken into account when posting data to PeopleSoft.

Another way of making this configuration is by click the "Include for Submission" option.

I'll set this change back, just to continue with our example.

Now I generate the "Data Input" once again.

ExcelToCi alerts me previous data will be erased since the tempalte has changed:

An the new Data Input is not showing the Setid column.

I'll set all the values, but in this case I'll add some errors in when adding mails.

 With this information, I can go to the next step by clicking the "Stage Data for Submision" option.

This option will take all the information we've previously added and prepare it to be sent to the PeopleSoft Component Interface, leading us to the last sheet “Staging & Submission”.

In this sheet we are able to see a summary of all the steps we've been taking.

You can see there are all different lines, containing "Level 0" records.

Those lines are all related to a SETID we have set at the Template sheet and contains the information we have added at the "Data Input" page.

Once we took a second look to confirm everything is properly filled, we choose the "Submit Data" option to send information to PeopleSoft.

We are once again asked for adding our connection information. 

In this case we are only asked for adding user and password, since the Component Interface was previously set, but ExcelToCI wants to confirm we have access to process information with the chosen Component Interface. 

At this point, ExcelToCI starts processing all the information and, in case the "Error Threshold" is exceeded the process will be stopped.

On the other side, we can see lines that were properly processed are marked by a GREEN cell at the beggining of the row, where as the error ones are marked by a RED cell.

We could finally see there are 2 lines having no marks. this is because those lines were not processed yet.

This is the result of the configuration we've previously made.

The ExcelToCI tool has taken the first 7 lines and worked with them as a single block.

5 lines were properly processed where as 2 lines failed. Since the Error Threshold was set to 1, then the ExcelToCI tool process has ceased.

If we now take a look at the database, we will see new 5 lines were added to our table in peoplesoft as a result of the Component Interface process.

On the other side, if we "hover" the mouse in a Error cell, a pop up message is shown detailing the error that was caused when processing that line.

In order to fix those errors and continue processing the lines we have to choose the "Post Results" options. 

At this time, the ExcelToCI tool will update the "Input Data" sheet with the execution results so we'll be allowed to change any data.

Once we fix all the values we choose the "Stage Data For Submission" option once again.

ExcelToCI tool will lead us once again to the last sheet.  At this point, only pending lines are shown.

Let's click once again in "Submit Data" option.

I'm asked for credentials once again.

And now the rest of the rows are properly processed:

If we now take a second look to the database, we can confirm all the lines are now inserted in our table.