Understanding Integration Tools

This chapter provides overview information and discusses:

PeopleSoft Integration Broker.
PeopleSoft Component Interfaces.
File Interfaces.
Supported Integration Tools.
Integration testing tools.
Enterprise integration utilities.
Workflow Technology.
MultiChannel Framework.

Understanding Integration Tools

IT departments are challenged by:

Multiple types of disparate systems.
Lack of communication standards.
Islands of automation (business applications) operating unaware of each other.

These conditions can lead to:

Duplicate data entry.
Unavailable or inaccurate information.
Inefficient operations.

The Enterprise PeopleTools integration tools enable you to share information seamlessly with other PeopleSoft applications, third party ERP vendors, legacy applications, and your business partners.

PeopleSoft Integration Broker

PeopleSoft Integration Broker provides service oriented architecture (SOA) technology that facilitates the transmission of synchronous and asynchronous service operations. Use the PeopleSoft Integration Broker to:

Perform asynchronous and synchronous messaging among internal systems and third-party systems.
Expose PeopleSoft business logic as web services to PeopleSoft and third-party systems.
Consume and invoke web services from third-party and PeopleSoft systems.

The two major components of PeopleSoft Integration Broker are the integration gateway and the integration engine. The integration gateway is a platform that manages the receipt and delivery of service operations passed among systems through PeopleSoft Integration Broker. The integration engine is an application server process that routes service operations to and from PeopleSoft applications as well as transforms the structure of service operations and translates data according to specifications that you define.

PeopleSoft Integration Broker offers the following benefits:

PeopleSoft Integration Broker is provided with PeopleTools so you don't need to purchase additional, third party integration tools.
Consistent infrastructure using PeopleSoft Application Servers and web servers.
Ability to reuse development staff skills.
"Out-of-the-box" integration to all PeopleSoft applications.
Supports all major integration methods, such as web services.

PeopleSoft Component Interfaces

Component interfaces provide a way to access the PeopleSoft database without using a graphical user interface. A component interface encapsulates a PeopleSoft component, which is a logical grouping of PeopleSoft pages representing a complete business transaction. You create component interfaces using PeopleSoft Application Designer.

A PeopleSoft component provides all of the business rules, through PeopleCode and edits, for interacting with the PeopleSoft database. Components are based on pages and are presented to the user to view and update with a browser. The component interface takes this same functionality and exposes it to third-party systems without using a graphical user interface.

Component interfaces:

Enforce all of the business rules defined on the component.
Provide synchronous access to the PeopleSoft database.
Provide access to PeopleSoft components through APIs.

Component interfaces expose the rich functionality delivered in the hundreds of components within PeopleSoft products. A component is an atomic transaction that implements a business process or function. A component interface provides real-time synchronous access to the PeopleSoft business rules and data associated with a business component.

The interface is exposed via standard access methods: Java, C/C++, COM, SOA, and CORBA (through partnership). Component interfaces encapsulate PeopleSoft data and business processes, and they hide the details of the structure and implementation of the underlying page and data. The actual interface consists of a set of clearly defined properties and methods that follow an object-oriented programming model. External applications can access component data only by using the properties or methods specified in the component interface.

File Interfaces

File-based integrations provide the ability to exchange files with third-party systems or legacy systems that do not support messaging. Files are exchanged using file layouts or PeopleSoft Application Engine programs. File layouts are used to graphically define where data is located in a file. The file definition layout is then accessible to the PeopleSoft Application Engine program to import or export the file.

The File class provides methods and properties for reading from and writing to external files. Most application interfaces to files require complex parsing of file data. Files that allow for this kind of complexity in a PeopleSoft application are based on a File interface.

A File Interface is a definition (or mapping) of a file to be processed. It identifies where data fields are located in the file. This powerful interface enables application developers to access data from a file as they would a message or a page buffer (scroll). There is no need to parse each file record into fields.

File interfaces are unique to a specific format and may only process that particular type of formatted file. The definition created in Application Designer retains a consistent look and feel regardless of format.

File layouts support the following file types:

Fixed format sequential files.
Comma delimited files.
XML files.

Constructing File Layouts and Performing Data Interchanges

Supported Integration Tools

PeopleSoft supports these additional integration utilities:

EDI Manager.
Outgoing Forms API.
Open Query ODBC Driver and API.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a standard means of exchanging data between companies so they can transact business electronically. For example, using EDI a company can submit an order to a vendor, and the vendor can acknowledge and fulfill the order without any paper changing hands or any contact between company representatives.

With PeopleSoft Application Designer, you can implement routings, which transfer data from one step in a business process to another. One type of routings is a forms routing. With a forms routing, the system takes data from a PeopleSoft page the user is working on, enters it onto a third-party form, and mails the completed form to designated users by means of the forms product's mail capabilities.

The PeopleSoft Open Query ODBC driver and API allow third-party reporting tools or applications to access PeopleSoft data in conformance with the PeopleSoft Query access architecture (the embedded SQL access intelligence provided by PeopleSoft Query).

Integration Testing Tools

PeopleSoft provides these tools for testing your integration development:

Send Master Utility.
Simple Post Utility.
Automated integration point testing.
Transformation Test Utility.
Handler Tester.
Schema Tester.

Send Master Utility

The Send Master utility enables you to test PeopleSoft Integration Broker messaging interactions with PeopleSoft and third-party web servers, application servers, and integration gateways. It can test listening connector functionality, target connector functionality, connector introspection and transactions. Send Master enables you to post any data format, including the PeopleSoft Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) message format, to web and application servers over HTTP and HTTPS. You can also use Send Master to simultaneously test groups of different types of messages, as well as stress test your system.

Using the Send Master Utility

Simple Post Utility

The Simple Post utility enables you to use shell scripts or a Java API to post XML messages from third-party systems to the integration gateway. The utility wraps the incoming messages in the PeopleSoft XML wrapper format and posts them to the HTTP listening connector. The Simple Post utility reads ASCII, UTF-8 and UTF-16 file formats for incoming messages and converts them to UTF-8 to send to the integration gateway.

Using the Simple Post Utility

Automated Integration Point Testing

PeopleSoft provides a means for automated integration point testing. You can perform automated integration point testing as a means to unit test, perform cross-application business process testing, or regression test integration points. Automated integration point testing is suitable for testing integration points between PeopleSoft systems, PeopleSoft systems and third-party systems, and PeopleSoft systems and open interfaces. You can use automated integration point testing with the following PeopleSoft integration technologies:

Messaging, including asynchronous and synchronous publishing and subscribing.
Component interfaces.
Flat files.
Staging tables.

Using Automated Integration Point Testing

Transformation Test Utility

PeopleSoft Integration Broker provides the Transformation Test utility, which you can use to test Application Engine transform programs without sending messages, and with minimal development effort.

Using the Transformation Test Utility

Handler Tester

The Handler Tester allows you to test handlers defined for rowset-based and nonrowset-based service operations from within the PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture. You can test handlers without setting up a routing, without having pub/sub booted on your application server, and without impacting other developer activity on the system.

Using the Handler Tester Utility

Schema Tester

The Schema Tester Utility enables you to validate rowset-based and nonrowset-based messages against message schemas during development to determine if messages adhere to defined message schemas.

Using the Schema Tester Utility

Enterprise Integration Utilities

In addition to the integration technology provided by Enterprise PeopleTools, there is a set of utilities shipped with your PeopleSoft applications that are also a part of the PeopleSoft integration solution.

Note. The documentation for these utilities is not shipped with the Enterprise PeopleTools documentation; it is shipped with your PeopleSoft application documentation and resides in the PeopleSoft Enterprise Components for <your application> PeopleBook.

These additional utilities include:

Publish utility.
Error Handling utility.
Effective Date Publish utility.
Flat File utility.
XML Schema utility.

Publish Utility

The Publish utility automates the process of copying the contents of an entire table into a remote database or legacy system. Use the utility to synchronize data from an existing system when a new PeopleSoft system is installed. The data is chunked based on the maximum size set for a message. You can control the size, number, and frequency of these data messages by using a series of data publishing rules and:

Whether to create header and trailer records.
Where the data comes from.
Whether to chunk the message.
Which related languages to publish.

The publishing rules include pages for full table publishing rules, batch publishing rules, record mapping, languages, and batch programs.

Error Handling Utility

The Error Handling utility is a PeopleTools application that you use to view and correct messages that are received by the subscriber. You can also use this utility to correct data that is stored in staging tables.

PeopleSoft applications that receive flat file data from other systems through batch processes have built-in facilities to validate and correct data prior to updating the main application tables. Likewise, before updating core PeopleSoft application tables, the subscription process detects data errors in the messages that it receives. These error messages are stored in either message queues or staging tables.

In some cases, however, errors can’t be sent back to the third party for correction (such as when data is in a flat file). In these cases, you must provide error processing on incoming data so that messages that contain information on business objects, such as items and vendors, can be corrected and reprocessed in the PeopleSoft system. The Error Handling utility enables you to achieve this task.

Effective Date Publish Utility

The Effective Date Publish utility enables you to design processes to update external systems that process only current data and don't use or recognize effective dating.

For example, for full data messages that are intended for vendors who do not handle effective dating, the Effective Date Publish utility enables you to publish only those rows that are currently active. Any future-dated rows are not published and written to the delay table instead.

Flat File Utility

The Flat File utility enables you to develop complementary processes to translate incoming files into messages or translate outbound messages into files. You use this utility when external systems send you flat files, when external systems only accept flat files sent to them.

The Flat File utility reads the data in an incoming flat file and copies the rowsets of the data file into a message. When the utility sends the message to the subscribers, the subscribing systems receive the message an initiate normal inbound data processing. This process works in reverse for outbound flat files.

XML Schema Utility

PeopleSoft Open Integration Framework enables near real-time messaging and transactions by using a format that is based on XML to convey information between diverse applications in a standard way. To take advantage of this standardization, you must obtain clear XML definitions (schemas) for each application message, component interface, or business interlink.

The XML Schema utility provides the following features:

Output options for the XML Schema utility, document type definition (DTD), or BizTalk definition for all application messages.
The ability to create an XML definition for a single object, for all of the objects, or for all of the objects by a specific owner.
A single flat file for each XML definition that is written to your system’s %TEMP directory (when you use the Microsoft Windows client) or the server’s common access file directory (when you use PeopleSoft Internet Architecture).
An application foundation for future standards of XML definitions.

Workflow Technology

Workflow enables collaboration between applications, organizations, and people. PeopleSoft Workflow enables you to:

Automate paper-based business processes.
Increase collaboration between employees, customers, and suppliers.
Integrate your system according to business processes.

The main elements of PeopleSoft Workflow include:

Business process definitions, which reflect the business process—from beginning to end.
Activities, which are a set of logically ordered steps in a process.
Worklists, which are the automated “to-do” lists.
Rules, which determine the activities that are required to process your business data.
Roles, which describe how people fit into the workflow.
Routings, which specify where information goes and what form it takes—email message or worklist entry.

PeopleSoft MultiChannel Framework

PeopleSoft MultiChannel Framework delivers an integrated infrastructure to support multiple interaction channels for call center agents or other PeopleSoft users who must respond to incoming requests and notifications. The PeopleSoft MultiChannel Framework can be used from any PeopleSoft application.

A “channel” refers to the technology used to communicate during an interaction. PeopleSoft MultiChannel Framework supports the following channels:

Voice (telephone).
Web collaboration (chat).
Email.
Instant messaging.