Thursday, September 26, 2013

Using External Content in the FSCM 9.2 Links Pagelet (WorkCenters)

FSCM 9.2 comes with some great new WorkCenters. One of the features of the new FSCM WorkCenters is the configurable Links pagelet. With the links pagelet, you can add and remove links to information related to the WorkCenter's business process. One of the great features of the Links pagelet is that it allows you to set the starting page of a delivered WorkCenter. A current limitation of the Links pagelet is that it does NOT allow you to open external content in the WorkCenter's TargetContent area. To say it another way, you can add external content to the Links pagelet, but that external content opens in a new window. As usual, however, the only real limitation is imagination. Here is the method I developed that allows me to add external content to the Links pagelet and have it open in the TargetContent area: an iScript that redirects to the external content. I then register this iScript as a CREF and add it as a Link. The Links pagelet thinks the content is local, so it opens the external content in the TargetContent area. Here is the iScript:

Declare Function SpecifyPortalOpen PeopleCode FUNCLIB_PTPP.PTPP_PORTALR FieldFormula;

Function IScript_ContentRedirect()
   Local ApiObject &portal;
   Local ApiObject &cref;
   Local string &url = "";
   Local string &portalName = %Request.GetParameter("PORTAL");
   Local string &crefName = %Request.GetParameter("CREF");
   
   &portal = SpecifyPortalOpen(&portalName);
   &cref = &portal.FindCREFByName(&crefName);
   
   If (&cref <> Null) Then
      If (&cref.Authorized) Then
         &url = &cref.AbsoluteContentURL;
      End-If;
   End-If;
   
   %Response.RedirectURL(&url);
End-Function;

Here is how you use it:

  1. Create a CREF for your external URL
  2. Create a new CREF for the iScript. In the additional parameters section of the CREF, add PORTAL=EMPLOYEE&CREF=YOUR_CREF_NAME
  3. Update the new iScript CREF's security to match the external content CREF's security.

I use this technique with both OBIEE dashboards and Taleo.

34 comments:

Tom Mannanchery said...

Have you encountered any issues with opening Taleo within PeopleSoft frame, Taleo being a Flash based web application?

Jim Marion said...

You can use flash just fine in PeopleSoft. In this scenario you point the target content frame at the Taleo site, so it is entirely in a separate frame and isolated from PeopleSoft.

Kevin Weaver said...

Very Cool! Can't wait to upgrade to 9.2 and play with all the new features!

Pon Arun Kumar said...

Hi Jim, The configuration (configure pagelets) for WorkCenter/Dashboards under Enterprise Components
for example: to configure 'View Document Content WorkCenter' is not available in Interaction Hub V9.1 R2. Could you please help?

Jim Marion said...

@Pon, this article is very specific to financials 9.2. If you don't have financials 9.2, then you won't have the financials links pagelets and won't require a workaround. You can just use a navigation collection pagelet and set the target to be whatever you require.

Pon Arun Kumar said...

Thanks a lot for your quick response Jim :-) Finally found at that the provision to configure WorkCenter's pagelets, links maybe/would be released as a feature pack for 9.1 R2 or only in Interaction Hub 9.2. And sorry for mistakenly posting the question here in Financials section.

Have a great day!!!

Pon Arun Kumar said...

Thanks a lot for your quick response Jim :-) Finally found at that the provision to configure WorkCenter's pagelets, links maybe/would be released as a feature pack for 9.1 R2 or only in Interaction Hub 9.2. And sorry for mistakenly posting the question here in Financials section.

Have a great day!!!d

Simon Chiu said...

Hey Jim!

We have gone live with our peoplesoft implementation last week. We are using IH 9.1 R2 with FS 9.2 on tools 8.5.3.6 ~ all is doing quite well. We have noticed that some of our users are directly logging into FS 9.2, bypassing the IH. I am wondering that the least intrusive way of ensuring people are only using the IH. My thoughts would be to update the signin.html file on FS to forward you back to the IH (and keep a less publicized unchanged signinx.html handy for direct authentication for systems administrators). Would there be any repercussions with this? At first glance I don't see a way to enforce anything with Single Signon.

Thanks,

-Simon

Jim Marion said...

@Simon, PeopleSoft's SSO requires user names and trusted nodes. It does not require passwords. Once you have a working SSO between the nodes and common users, you can scramble the passwords in your content provider system so users don't know their passwords and can't log in. Be sure to test this somewhere and keep a backup copy of PSOPRDEFN :)

Simon Chiu said...

hey Jim ~ create suggestion. I will look further into this.

Regards,

Tom Mannanchery said...

Hi Jim,

Have you ever come across a WorkCenter created in Interaction Hub having elements like pagelets (in the WorkCenter dashboard), My Work pagelet links, Links pagelet links, Reports etc. coming from the content providers like FSCM, HCM etc? Let me call it Unified WorkCenter, for the lack of a better term.

I have been thinking about it and I think the main challenge is to configure the My Work pagelet links as it would need to use Application packages created in Hub, which can interact with content providers through IB setup.

Just wanted to see what you think about the feasibility of such a WorkCenter and your experience with it if you have seen it in the past.

Thanks,
Tom

Jim Marion said...

Hi Tom, Yes, using the Links pagelet in an Interaction Hub WorkCenter is certainly possible. The app classes don't have to be in Interaction Hub. With the Links one, of course, the targets of those links all have to be in the same content provider as the links pagelet. For example, if it is the FSCM links pagelet, then the CREF's need to exist in FSCM, but you can add the pagelet to a WorkCenter in Interaction Hub. You can also visit an FSCM WorkCenter from Interaction Hub without issue.

One area that is interesting is a Financials WorkCenter that has HCM links. The easiest way to accomplish this is to create a Navigation Collection in HCM and publish that as a pagelet, and then consume that pagelet in FSCM.

Tom Mannanchery said...

Thanks Jim. Normally, links in the My Work pagelet are configured using Root > Enterprise Components > WorkCenter/Dashboards > Configure Pagelets. But I dont see this in Interaction Hub.

I was wondering if this is a delivered behavior or something to do with our installation.

Tom

Jim Marion said...

Hi Tom, that is true. That doesn't exist in Interaction Hub. It is a 9.2 Enterprise Components feature used primarily by HCM and FSCM. You cannot configure that links pagelet in Interaction Hub, but you can create navigation collection pagelets in Interaction Hub. You could even apply an XSL template on step 5 of pagelet wizard to make the Interaction Hub nav collection look the same as the Links pagelet in FSCM.

I have created pagelets with cross-content provider links in them and I have done it in Interaction Hub. The tools I used to create them were Navigation Collections and Pagelet Wizard.

Does that make sense? Let me know if I missed the point again :)

Tom Mannanchery said...

Abolsutely. And it helps as well. So, even though we don't have Enterprise Components > WorkCenter/Dashboards in Interaction Hub, we could still use Navigation Collections and Pagelets created from Nav.Cols to get a similar functionality.

How about the My Work pagelet which is present in some workcenters (http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E51433_01/fscm92pbr2/eng/fscm/fapy/concept_UnderstandingThePayablesWorkCenter-MyWorkPagelet.html). The filters and links on this pagelet are configured using the Enterprise Components.
I was wondering if:
1. There is a way to have such a pagelet with similar filtering capabilities on a WorkCenter in Interaction Hub, and
2. Could that pagelet pull data from content providers?

I really don't have a use case or a requirement at the moment. I was only curious.

Thanks,
Tom

Jim Marion said...

@Tom, I had similar questions about the My Work pagelet. My understanding is it would be possible, but is not recommended. I have not looked at the code to see what it would take to add your own.

With all of this said, you can absolutely display those financials specific pagelets in an Interaction Hub WorkCenter. The key though is that they would only show financials content. It sounds like you want to expand them to include content from other systems as well.

Tom Mannanchery said...

Thanks Jim.

We added a couple custom My Work items in FSCM. We actually didn't know it wasn't recommended. :)

You are right that I am thinking of content from multiple systems. If you ever do POC, I would love to see how you did it.

Thanks,
Tom

Jim Marion said...

@Tom, "not recommended" sometimes just means it is not documented and hard :)

Unknown said...

Hey Jim!
Hope you are fine.
I have a question regarding BI Publisher Report. I have to show a signature image every logged in user on the report template. I have saved images on ftp url i just have to put the image signature of that particular logged in user. How can i do this? Kindly help me out.

Thanks & Regards,
Ayesha Jaffar

Jim Marion said...

@Ayesha, unfortunately I am not familiar with BI Publisher. I suggest you post your question on the PeopleSoft OTN discussion forum.

Tom Mannanchery said...

Hi Jim,

In this post, you are creating the CREF to the external URL. Can't this CREF be added to the Links pagelet as a 'Menu Item'? In that case it won't open in a new window right? We are trying to do that but running into security related issues. Just wanted to know what you think.

Thanks,
Tom

Tom Mannanchery said...

Hi Jim,

I have a quick question regarding the iScript approach that you have mentioned above. After we created the iScript, we tried to add it to the Links pagelet via 'Enterprise Components', the iScript CREF wouldnt show up as something that can be added to the pagelet.

Is there some setting you had to make to be able to add an iScript CREF to the Links pagelet?

Thanks,
Tom

Jim Marion said...

@Tom, external links in the version I was using open in a new window. It was my understanding that the FSCM team planned to change that later. I don't know when "later" is, so it may be resolved by now. You can always test it and find out.

Regarding the iScript, no, I didn't make any changes. Do you have your iScript in a hidden folder?

Tooyoou Team said...

Hi Jim,

Can WorkCenters be readily configured in a way that it is the first page (homepage) after a user logs into PeopleSoft? If so any insight/pointers would be very helpful.

Thanks.

Aakash Banerjee

Jim Marion said...

@Aakash, there is this feature called "Custom Tabs" in the portal registry that allows you to configure any component (including a WorkCenter) as a homepage. You then use security and the CREF sequence number to make it the first tab.

Tooyoou Team said...

Thanks for the reply Jim. For some reason Custom Tabs Navigation Collection does not exist in 9.2 FSCM Demo environment. Checked Structure and Content and Navigation Collections as well. I tried creating a Custom Tabs Navigation Collection and adding a link to the nav collection. The link is the asset management workcenter that I created and the one that I want to show when the user logs in. Then I published the collection as Navigation Page with Public Access for now. But when I login the same Main Menu is display and no workcenters. I will keep digging. But any help is always welcome. Thanks for your time.

Tooyoou Team said...

So finally I was able to get the WorkCenter Tab ready and it shows up as a Tab beside My Page tab when the user logs in. However when the user clicks on the WorkCenter tab they are logged out and returned to the PeopleSoft log in page.

stellone said...

Hello, we are PS 9.2 HCM PT 8.53 and split from PS 9.1 CS PT 8.53. We have a workcenter in HCM and need to create a CREF over to HCM. We have done that but when we are linked over to HCM, the Workcenter is 'empty' where it would have the Add... Update... links to forms we created, it has no links to choose from. Any thoughts on that?
Samantha

Jim Marion said...

@Stellone, I believe what you are experiencing is that CS is trying to display a WorkCenter in CS and is assuming that all of the WorkCenter metadata is in CS. Based on the CREF definition, it is using the HCM page as the starting/landing page for the WorkCenter, but it is not using the WorkCenter metadata from HCM. If you want CS to display the HCM defined WorkCenter, then you need to actually transfer the user from CS to HCM so that HCM becomes the top level window, not CS. This would mean the URL at the top would change to the HCM URL, not the CS URL. The trick, of course, will be getting back to CS.

How you handle this will depend on how you launch the HCM WorkCenter. I'm not exactly sure the answer. I would have to try a few settings. Some things to think about are the portal URL from HCM, the "No Template" setting in the CS CREF, and the NAVNEWWIN attribute. I think a combination of these might get you what you want.

Of course, another option is to redefine the WorkCenter in CS, possibly using Pagelets defined in HCM.

stellone said...

Thank you Jim.
We are able to get over to HCM with the CREF. As you can see in the URL, it starts in CS and changes over to HCMDEV as other CREFs do.
https://xxxxxxxx/psp/csdev/EMPLOYEE/HCMDEV/s/WEBLIB_PTAL.ISCRIPT1.FieldFormula.IScript_PTAL_DASHBOARD?tab=G3WORKCENTER&FolderPath=PORTAL_ROOT_OBJECT.U_CS_GT_FORMS_WORKCENTER&IsFolder=false&IgnoreParamTempl=FolderPath%2cIsFolder

I am confident we are in HCM at this point but the left side options for Add, Update, Evaluate the forms in the WorkCenter do not resolve. No error.
In CS Content Ref Administration the Usage Type is Target, Storage type is Remote by URL, url type is PS generic URL and the template name, portal url and content ref attributes are all the same as the one created in our HCM environment.
Our vendor does not have experience with CREFs from one environment to another concerning WorkCenters... I have googled a bit and we have opened an issue with Oracle to see if they can help.
Really appreciate your response.
Samantha

Jim Marion said...

@Stellone, see the /csdev/ part in the URL? That means you are using the CS portal to view HCMDEV content. Yes, you are correct that you are seeing HCMDEV content in the TargetContent area, but the workcenter information is coming from /csdev/. It is this part of the URL that has to change to see the real HCM WorkCenter.

stellone said...

Thanks. I understand what you are saying now.
We did hear back from Oracle, http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E41633_01/pt853pbh1/eng/pt/tprt/task_AdministeringContentReferences-c07266.html#DefiningContentReferences-c07268__pt000468c - Content Reference Admin

I also discovered and SR and Bug that indicate making a Content Reference to a WOrkCenter is not possible by direct link. You can link to the individual pagelets in the workcenter,
which is essentially like re-creating the workcenter all over again.


BUG 21124845 - CONTENT REFERENCE LINK DOES NOT WORK FOR TIME AND LABOR WORKCENTER

Darn!
We will try to create a CREF to each pagelet and see if that works.
Samantha

Karthik said...

HI Jim,

We have a reverse proxy server setup for our HR webserver. Our FIN and HR nodes are trusted nodes. We have created a CREF for a FIN component within HR. Is it possible to hit the FIN CREF coming thru the reverse proxy server for HR outside the network?

Karthik

Jim Marion said...

@Karthik, I'm not sure I can answer that question without seeing your specific network, so let's try to answer it a different way. Menu links (CREF's) generate a URL. The browser uses that URL to fetch page content. If your browser can load that URL, then I believe that answers the question. Whether or not it is a CREF is irrelevant (although it has to be a CREF to be a menu item).

Yes, reverse proxies, firewalls, etc, are the common way to make PeopleSoft content available outside an internal network, but actual implementation details vary.