It has been a while since I had the “WOW-effect” about a new application.

Most internet applications have been set-up with technologies that we find normal nowadays. Technologies like partial page refresh (AJAX), drag and drop layout, WEB 2.0 like wiki, communities etc.

But these rules do not seem not to apply to ERP systems. They are still robust, pretty user-unfriendly en most of all not appealing.

Well, Oracle seems to have done it.

Oracle introduced a new layout with Peoplesoft 9.1 in combination with Peopletools 8.50, with building blocks of today’s technologies.

Tasper is a Dutch application in which employee’s can choose their own package of secondary conditions of labour. For clients it can be interesting to bye a package like this from the shelf rather than making it all yourself as ESS. These clients would need to integrate Tasper with their own HCM module, by means of synchronization. We have chosen to synchronize Peoplesoft HCM with Tasper by means of synchronous XML messaging.

The Choice for Messaging.

An alternative to messaging would be using a databaselink. Using the databaselink it would be possible to use the databaselink in combination with Oracle triggers. If I would commit a change in Tasper it would immediately would be inserted in the relevant record in PeopleSoft. This choice would bring along with it the risk that errors in one system would affect the other system. Instead it would also be possible to synchronize only during a batch update. Then the synchronization would have a delay of up to 1 day. Besides in the near further there will probably be a tendency to connect all relevant applications to each other by means of a BUS and/or BPEL, which would work by means of messaging as well. These are all reasons to choose for messaging as a means of synchronization.

In this blog we’ll continue where we left some time ago. The aim is to create a page containing the blocks which can be ordered by the user. First we create a new page containing some groupboxes with content. Every groupbox must be placed in a container, for we will switch groupboxes within these containers. To create a container, draw a frame around each individual groupbox and disable the frame border. To be able to address the groupboxes later, add a custom style class (added to the stylesheet), lets say ‘DRAGGABLE’ to each groupbox. Put a static html object at the bottom of your page in which we’ll put our javascript. So far for the server side.

More and more companies use selfservice funcionality. PeopleSoft deliveres some out-of-the-box selfservice functionality, but what if you want to develope some yourself?

Here are some pointers to get you on the right track:

Did you ever had to revise custom reports? DId you ever try to move the address a few millimetres to the right because off the introduction of new corporate stationery? Did you ever get headaches because the reporting tool Oracle Reports Developer was crashing once more destroying your recent modifications?

There is a new kid in (reporting) town…

With the introduction of the reporting tool BI Publisher (formerly XML Publisher) these problems are history. Using the tool introduced by Oracle in 2004 as XML Publisher the main disadvantages of the classic reporting environment become outdated:

1. No open standard
2. Not a user-friendly interface
3. No automatic report translations
4. No support for all formats
5. Extraction of data from a non-Oracle DB is problematic
6. Extensive tool training
7. High development costs
8. ‘Eternal’ maintenance
9. High upgrade costs