Top Five PeopleTools Technologies to Learn in 2021

Today is the first day of 2021! Have you set training goals? To finish 2020, we sorted courses by enrollment. Based on training interest and enrollment, here were the top five requested courses from 2020:

1. Fluid

It is no surprise that Fluid tops the list of training initiatives. Here are some reasons why

• Strategy: Fluid is PeopleSoft's strategic direction. All new PeopleSoft development happens in Fluid.
• Modern and mobile: Unlike Classic, Fluid is awesome on a mobile device.
• Support: Some Classic components have retired, replaced by their Fluid functional equivalent.

2. Integration Technologies such as REST and JSON

What do Chatbots, Texting (Twilio), Elastic Search, Multi-factor authentication, and Cloud have in common? They are all services outside PeopleSoft that require REST integration. So, just like Fluid, seeing integration at the top of the priority list is no surprise.

3. Application Classes

We've had object-oriented PeopleCode for decades, but without much adoption. I believe today's interest in Application Classes is based on PeopleTools frameworks. Here are a few of the PeopleSoft features that require Application Classes:

• Integration Broker
• Approval Workflow Engine
• Event Mapping
• Campus Solutions COMMGEN

Add to that nearly every new Fluid page using an Application Class as its PeopleCode container, and we can see why Application Classes are in the top five!

4. PeopleSoft Test Framework (PTF)

One of the primary benefits of Cloud is that Cloud solutions are always current. With Selective Adoption, your on-premise PeopleSoft has the same potential, but only if you can stay current. And end-user testing is a clear barrier to staying current. The more we can automate, the faster we can apply maintenance. There seems to be a direct relationship between currency and automation.

But with that said, I have one reason I think everyone should implement automated testing, and that is Configuration. Event Mapping, Page and Field Configurator, and Drop Zones are fantastic ways to transform customizations into configurations. But here's my problem with configurations: no compare reports. Every customization offers a compare report showing changes. Configurations don't. In fact, that is the point of a configuration. Our whole reason for configuring is to move changes into a layer above Oracle's delivered code. But configuration doesn't eliminate review. For example, configurations may reference fields that no longer exist, and will therefore fail at runtime. This is one of the challenges with configurations: no formal review process. This is a gap that I believe PTF can fill. I believe we should pair every configuration with a PTF test (or several tests). After each maintenance cycle, we can run our battery of tests to prove our configurations are still valid. Test failures immediately show us which configurations require review. Here's a short video showing an example:

5. Configuration

With selective adoption, continuous delivery, cloud pressure, support policies, and a steady stream of amazing new features, it is more important than ever that we stay current. And customizations are the enemy of currency. We can therefore, reduce the cost of getting current by replacing customizations with configurations. Page and Field Configurator, Drop Zones, and Event Mapping are some of the most important recent PeopleTools and Enterprise Components additions. Keep an eye on our online learning portal. We'll be releasing several configuration modules as on-demand recorded training.

6. Learn Something Outside PeopleTools

This is supposed to be a top-five list, but I couldn't stop. And I don't want you to stop either. Don't stop with PeopleTools. Learn something outside the traditional PeopleTools stack. If I could recommend one language to learn, it would be JavaScript. JavaScript is not a traditional PeopleTools technology, but it is the primary language of the PeopleSoft user interface. It is also the primary language of every website and the core of many Oracle PaaS frameworks.

At JSMpros, we teach all of these technologies regularly. Check out our website for our latest course offerings. Do you have a group of developers to train? Contact us for discounted group rates!

Learn How to Write Code for Integration Broker, Event Mapping, Tile Wizard and AWE

What do Integration Broker, Event Mapping, Tile Wizard, and AWE have in common? These are extensible PeopleSoft frameworks that invoke your code at runtime—Dynamic PeopleCode execution! How amazing is that? Imagine... every line of event PeopleCode you've ever written was declared in advance. But somehow, these frameworks are able to invoke PeopleCode at runtime. Did you ever wonder how? Are you trying to learn Object-oriented PeopleCode by reviewing Oracle-delivered examples?

Even though it shares roots with its procedural predecessor, Object-oriented PeopleCode follows its own rules and design patterns. For example, what is an interface? How do you create properties and methods?

With so much emphasis on Application Classes, we've decided to create a two-day Application Class training course. In this two-day class, you will learn:

• Object-oriented concepts
• Methods
• Instance variables
• Properties
• Constructors
• Access control
• Inheritance
• Composition
• Interfaces
• Abstract classes
• Dynamic PeopleCode
• Design patterns and best practices
• PSUnit and test driven development

Our material includes plenty of Event Mapping examples.

Are you ready to learn more? Register now for our next class!

Announcing: Integration Tools Update Course

PeopleSoft Integration Tools is normally taught as a five-day introductory course designed to answer questions such as:

• What is Integration Broker?
• How do you configure it?
• What are Service Operations?
• How should I integrate with PeopleSoft?

But a lot of us already know the basics of Integration Broker. So last fall, we decided to add another course to our library: PeopleTools Integration Tools Update. This is a three-day class showing what's new with Integration Broker and covers topics such as:

• Producing and Consuming REST,
• Constructing Documents and understanding the role of Documents in integration,
• Creating structured and unstructured JSON responses,
• Understanding and implementing content negotiation,
• Responding to REST verbs,
• Using pre-built services such as Query Access Service,
• Securing integration points.

As we integrate Chatbots and Cloud solutions with PeopleSoft, it is critical that we understand PeopleSoft's modern integration capabilities.

Our next class begins April 14, 2020. Register now to reserve your seat!

Announcing Fluid 3!

At jsmpros, we teach Fluid training courses several times a month. PeopleTools Fluid is by far our most popular course. Through our Fluid 1 and 2 courses, we teach an incredible amount of material including:

• Fluid navigation,
• Fluid page development strategies,
• Oracle-delivered style classes and layout
• External CSS libraries,
• Fluid grid layouts
• Fluid Group Boxes
• Dynamic Tiles
• Responsive and adaptive mobile design concepts, etc.

The feedback from our Fluid 1 and 2 series is overwhelmingly positive. What we are announcing today is our next level Fluid course: Fluid 3. Through this course you will learn how to:

• Use Master/Detail to build business process based solutions,
• Build effective secondary headers similar to PeopleSoft's self-service headers (including Related Actions),
• Use Scroll Areas and Fluid alternatives,
• Extend Fluid with JavaScript libraries such as d3 and Oracle JET,
• Leverage the DataGrid to create compelling solutions,
• Add Fluid Related Content,
Convert Classic components to Fluid,
• Extend Fluid Pages with 8.57+ Drop Zones,
• Construct robust, business-centric dynamic tiles and Fluid navigation, and
• Learn additional PeopleSoft CSS classes not covered in the Fluid 1 and 2 courses.

To register for our upcoming August Fluid 3 session or any of our live virtual training courses, please visit our Live Virtual Training online catalog.

Has it been a while since your last Fluid training course? Are your Fluid skills a little rusty? Use our Fluid 3 course as a refresher to get you back into shape.

Note: If you have taken Fluid from other trainers, feel free to start with our Fluid 2 course. Even though we do not monitor prerequisites, we do encourage attendees with Fluid experience to attend our Fluid 2 training before continuing to Fluid 3.

Alliance Down Under 2018 Workshops

Today marks the 30 day countdown to Alliance Down Under, an incredible opportunity for Oracle customers to network, share experiences, and learn more about Oracle products. On Monday and Tuesday, November 5 - 6, I am partnering with Presence of IT to deliver several pre-conference workshops at Alliance Down Under. For more details and to register, please visit the Alliance Down Under pre-conference workshop page. Workshops available:

• Building better-than-breadcrumbs navigation
• Configure, Don’t Customize! Event Mapping and Page and Field Configurator
• Chatbot Workshop
• Data Migration Framework: Deep Dive
• App Designer for Functional Business Analysts (including building CIs for Excel to CI)
• Advanced PeopleTools Tips & Techniques
• Fluid Design/Configuration for Functional Business Analysts

We look forward to seeing you there!

Live Three-day Fluid Training Event in Seattle Dec 4

Are you interested in learning PeopleTools Fluid? Have you already taken a Fluid training course, but still don't feel comfortable with Fluid? Please join us in beautiful downtown Seattle from December 4th through the 6th to learn all about PeopleTools Fluid. Our curriculum starts with Fluid navigation, works its way into Fluid page construction, and finishes with advanced topics such as site-specific CSS3, JavaScript, and event mapping. This course is packed with best practices and tips.

Through the material in this course you will become comfortable with Fluid and proficient with Fluid development. You will learn the skills necessary to apply PeopleSoft-specific CSS and how to write your own custom CSS. You will learn several shortcuts for converting existing custom Classic pages to Fluid.

With most of HCM Employee Self Service Classic set to retire on December 31st of this year (MyOracle Support document 1348959.1), there is no better time to learn Fluid. Space is limited and the early bird discount expires soon so Register now to ensure a seat in the best Fluid class available!

Live Virtual Fluid Training in July

In the Northern hemisphere, with days getting longer, and temperatures rising, many of us seek wet forms of recreation to keep cool. With the heat of summer upon us, I can't think of a better topic to study than the cool topic of PeopleSoft Fluid. That is why we are offering a remote live virtual Fluid training class during the hottest week of July. Additional details and registration links are available on our live virtual training schedule page. I look forward to having you in our virtual class!

Fluid in Seattle! Special Fluid Training Event

May 23, 2018

PeopleTools Fluid UI Training

8.54 through 8.56

Led by Jim Marion

SpearMC and jsmpros are co-hosting a PeopleTools Fluid training event in Redmond, Washington immediately following the Spring PeopleSoft Northwest Regional User Group meeting. Through this event I will cover the exact same material I regularly teach online, but in person for a 40% discount off the online price. The event runs from Wednesday May 23 to Friday May 25 at the exact same venue as the Northwest Regional User Group meeting, the Seattle Marriott Redmond 7401 164th Avenue Northeast, Redmond, WA 98052. Additional details and registration information are available on the Registration Website.

Registration and More Information!

January PeopleTools Training Courses Posted

We posted our January PeopleTools training agenda. This month includes our extremely popular Fluid course as well as our new PeopleTools Delta course. Register online at www.jsmpros.com/training-live-virtual/. Our First course is January 8th, which is coming up quickly.

Besides our regular mid-week agenda, we added weekend courses for those that are committed mid-week and can't take time away for training.

The time zone for these courses is designed to catch as many US attendees as possible. If you would prefer another time zone, let me know and we will consider scheduling a future course in a more favorable time zone.

Why Fluid and why PeopleTools Delta? Fluid first: Any PeopleSoft 2017 Year in review post must include Fluid Campus Solutions. Oracle's Campus Solutions team made significant progress in Fluid student self-service. Honestly, I am extremely impressed with Fluid student self-service. Because of this progress, many of our customers are currently implementing Fluid student self-service. Likewise, PeopleSoft HCM has published retirement dates for key manager and employee self-service components. Support for most Classic manager self-service components, for example, retires in just a couple of days. Classic employee self-service retires one year later, on December 31, 2018 (for more details on Classic retirement dates, see MyOracle Support document 1348959.1). If there was ever a time to think about Fluid, that time has come. Now is a great time to learn Fluid so that you are ready for those change requests and implementation details. While there are obvious similarities between Classic and Fluid development, they are very different.

As customers implement Fluid, they will undoubtedly revisit existing customizations. This is where a PeopleTools Delta course becomes important. You could continue down the same path, customizing delivered definitions or you could investigate new PeopleTools features that allow you to configure (instead of customize) business logic and tailor the user experience. I could recount story after story of customers saving 10's to 100's of thousands of dollars in implementation, customization, and lifecycle management costs because they learned new PeopleTools features.

Does your organization have 8 or more people interested in a training course? If not, do you know 8 or more people from various organizations you can get together for a class (with virtual training, all users can be remote)? If so, we have group rates available. Besides significant savings (quantity discounts), large groups have flexibility and control over the training agenda. Feel free to contact us for more information.

Weekend Fluid Classes

Habit 7: Sharpen the saw. We all know we must sharpen our mental saw. The challenge is fitting saw sharpening into our schedule. If you are a billable consultant dedicated to a project, then you are often bound by contract to be onsite during regular business hours. If you find yourself in this situation, sharpening your technical skills can be challenging because most training courses happen during your committed working hours. We understand the struggle and want to do what we can to help. With that in mind, we are offering our popular Fluid training series over two consultant weekends (Friday and Saturday) of January:

• Fluid 1: Jan 12-13, 2018
• Fluid 2: Jan 26-27, 2018

Further details and registration information are available on our website

November/December Online Class Offerings Posted

We posted our online class offerings for November and December, 2017. You can find details on our website. Our Fluid classes have been extremely popular, so we will continue offering those at least once per month. Our Fluid 1 class is designed to get a developer up and running with Fluid as fast as possible. Through hands-on activities, you will use familiar tools and existsing skills to build Fluid components. No web development experience necessary. If you are a PeopleSoft developer, then Fluid 1 will teach you what you need to know to build Fluid pages. But there is more to Fluid than just dragging and dropping fields on a page. Fluid 2 takes your Fluid game to the next level by teaching you Fluid design patterns and Fluid techniques to build Fluid pages the way Oracle builds Fluid pages.

November, 2017

Course Title	Date	Start Time	End Time	Duration
AWE	Nov. 7, 2017	9:00 AM PDT	4:00 PM PDT	2 days	Register
Fluid 1	Nov. 27, 2017	9:00 AM PDT	4:00 PM PDT	2 days	Register
Fluid 2	Nov. 29, 2017	9:00 AM PDT	4:00 PM PDT	2 days	Register

December, 2017

Course Title	Date	Start Time	End Time	Duration
Fluid 1	December 11, 2017	9:00 AM PDT	4:00 PM PDT	2 days	Register
Fluid 2	December 13, 2017	9:00 AM PDT	4:00 PM PDT	2 days	Register
PeopleTools 8.55/8.56 Delta	December 19, 2017	9:00 AM PDT	4:00 PM PDT	2 days	Register

October Fluid Training

Last month I announced two new training courses: Fluid 1 and Fluid 2. We ran these courses at the end of September. For those of you that weren't able to attend the September session, we scheduled another series for October:

• Fluid 1: October 23 @ 9 AM Pacific (Register Now)
• Fluid 2: October 25 @ 9 AM Pacific (Register Now)

Both sessions run for 2 days from 9 AM Pacific until 4 PM Pacific. The first course, Fluid 1, is a course designed for developers, architects, designers, and system analysts, and focuses on the basics of Fluid development. The point is to make students productive as fast as possible. Through hands-on activities, students will learn the basics of Fluid development including Fluid user interface configurations and best practices for page development. There is no extra fluff in this course. Students will learn how to build Fluid pages without having to become web development experts.

The second course, Fluid 2, teaches developers the techniques used by Oracle and modern web developers to build both responsive and adaptive user experiences through Fluid. This course is definitely level 2. Students will learn advanced topics such as how to use modern CSS frameworks for responsive design and how to create dynamic tiles for intelligent homepages.

Prerequisites? Experience. The entry requirements for Fluid 1 are intentionally low. The first half, day one, will be in the browser. No PeopleTools experience is required to use a browser. System analysts will benefit greatly from this half of the course. The second half, day two, is exclusively in Application Designer. In day two, students will build Fluid pages using Application Designer. Experience building Classic pages, records, and components is required. I have found there are a lot of non-developers with experience building and examining Classic pages, records, and components. That qualifies.

Students attending Fluid 2 are expected to have experience building Classic and Fluid pages in PeopleTools as well as experience working with Records, Fields, and PeopleCode.

Normally PeopleTools 1, PeopleTools 2, and PeopleCode would be prerequisites for learning Fluid. This is true. Anyone learning Fluid should have this experience. But often I find that people with relevant experience avoid registering for courses because they haven’t checked a specific training requirement box. Do not discount your on the job training experience.

Are you interested in hosting on-site training for your organization? For more information on these or other courses, please feel free to send a request to info@jsmpros.com.

Here are the full course abstracts:

Fluid 1

Technology Overview

• Why Fluid? Learn the history and purpose of Fluid

Hands on: Reviewing elements of Fluid

• Fluid banner
• Navigation bar
• Fluid homepages (also known as Landing pages)
• Tiles
• Transaction pages

Working with Fluid Homepages and Dashboards

• Understanding Fluid homepages
• Hands on: Personalizing Fluid homepages
• Hands on: Creating and managing personal and public Fluid homepages
• Hands on: Managing Fluid system settings
• Hands on: Creating and managing Fluid dashboards
• Understanding the role of the Portal Registry in Fluid homepages

Working with Tiles and Tile Wizard

• Understanding Tiles and the Tile Repository
• Hands on: Creating tiles
• Hands on: Managing Fluid Attributes of Content References
• Hands on: Creating tiles with the Tile Wizard
• Understanding the role of the Portal Registry in Fluid tiles

Creating Fluid Pages

• Understand the differences between Classic and Fluid
• Learn key design concepts such as Phone-first, Responsive, and Adaptive design and how they relate to Fluid
• Hands on: Creating Fluid page definitions (standard and two-column)
• Hands on: Using page and field Fluid-specific attributes

Working with Fluid Components

• Understanding Fluid components
• Hands on: Creating Fluid components
• Hands on: Configuring Fluid Content References

Working with Search Pages

• Understand Fluid search options
• Hands on: Implement real-time Component search through Pivot Grids
• Hands on: Implement real-time Component search through custom search Pages
• Hands on: Implement keyword Component search through the Search Framework

Fluid 2

Advanced Fluid Page Design

• Understand the role of CSS in Fluid and responsive design
• Hands on: Working with different Fluid page types
• Hands on: Using Oracle-delivered Fluid CSS classes
• Understanding CSS Flexbox
• Hands on: Creating custom CSS classes
• Hands on: Using CSS frameworks
• Hands on: Using Fluid adaptive design with subpages

Using PeopleCode in Fluid Applications

• Learn about and use Fluid-specific PeopleCode functions, design patterns, and best practices

Advanced Tiles and Tile Wizard

• Hands on: Creating static and dynamic tiles using a variety of technologies
• Hands on: Dynamic tiles and the Tile Wizard

Understanding Fluid Definitions and Metadata

• Understand delivered Fluid managed definitions, the building blocks of Fluid
• Understand Fluid metadata such as Tile Wizard metadata

Event Mapping in Fluid

• Hands on: Learn how to extend delivered Fluid components without changing Oracle’s code

New Fluid Training Classes, Live and Virtual

On December 31, 2017, just a couple of months from now, Oracle will decommission the first set of Classic pages to be fully replaced by Fluid. Support document 1348959.1 contains a list of Classic pages, sorted by date, that are slated for retirement every year over the next few years. Customers interested in retaining a supported PeopleSoft implementation should familiarize themselves with this document and prepare to implement Fluid. This document contains important Manager and Employee self-service features that will no longer be supported in Classic form. Is your team trained and ready to adopt Fluid?

During my tenure at GreyHeller, I had the opportunity to lead several customer-specific Fluid workshops. The purpose of these workshops is to give customers hands-on experience with Fluid. These workshops are a starting point, a Fluid experience. As humans, we are often afraid of the unknown and these workshops provide practical, real-world experience.

I have expanded these workshops into a multi-day two-part series and am offering them in two formats:

• Remote, but live virtual classes (LVC) hosted by GoToTraining or
• By request on-site live instructor-led training.

Both courses (and formats) are two full days. The first course, Fluid 1, is a course designed for developers, architects, designers, and system analysts, and focuses on the basics of Fluid development. The point is to make students productive as fast as possible. Through hands-on activities, students will learn the basics of Fluid development including Fluid user interface configurations and best practices for page development. There is no extra fluff in this course. Students will learn how to build Fluid pages without having to become web development experts.

The second course, Fluid 2, teaches developers the techniques used by Oracle and modern web developers to build both responsive and adaptive user experiences through Fluid. This course is definitely level 2. Students will learn advanced topics such as how to use modern CSS frameworks for responsive design and how to create dynamic tiles for intelligent homepages.

Prerequisites? Experience. The entry requirements for Fluid 1 are intentionally low. The first half, day one, will be in the browser. No PeopleTools experience is required to use a browser. System analysts will benefit greatly from this half of the course. The second half, day two, is exclusively in Application Designer. In day two, students will build Fluid pages using Application Designer. Experience building Classic pages, records, and components is required. I have found there are a lot of non-developers with experience building and examining Classic pages, records, and components. That qualifies.

Students attending Fluid 2 are expected to have experience building Classic and Fluid pages in PeopleTools as well as experience working with Records, Fields, and PeopleCode.

Normally PeopleTools 1, PeopleTools 2, and PeopleCode would be prerequisites for learning Fluid. This is true. Anyone learning Fluid should have this experience. But often I find that people with relevant experience avoid registering for courses because they haven’t checked a specific training requirement box. Do not discount your on the job training experience.

I have scheduled two multi-day events and I encourage you to register as soon as possible. To ensure a quality experience, class size is limited. There has never been a more important time to learn Fluid!

• Register for Fluid 1 offered September 20 - 21 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM Pacific
• Register for Fluid 2 offered September 27 - 28 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM Pacific

Are you interested in hosting on-site training for your organization? For more information on these or other courses, please feel free to send a request to info@jsmpros.com.

Here are the full course abstracts:

Fluid 1

Technology Overview

• Why Fluid? Learn the history and purpose of Fluid

Hands on: Reviewing elements of Fluid

• Fluid banner
• Navigation bar
• Fluid homepages (also known as Landing pages)
• Tiles
• Transaction pages

Working with Fluid Homepages and Dashboards

• Understanding Fluid homepages
• Hands on: Personalizing Fluid homepages
• Hands on: Creating and managing personal and public Fluid homepages
• Hands on: Managing Fluid system settings
• Hands on: Creating and managing Fluid dashboards
• Understanding the role of the Portal Registry in Fluid homepages

Working with Tiles and Tile Wizard

• Understanding Tiles and the Tile Repository
• Hands on: Creating tiles
• Hands on: Managing Fluid Attributes of Content References
• Hands on: Creating tiles with the Tile Wizard
• Understanding the role of the Portal Registry in Fluid tiles

Creating Fluid Pages

• Understand the differences between Classic and Fluid
• Learn key design concepts such as Phone-first, Responsive, and Adaptive design and how they relate to Fluid
• Hands on: Creating Fluid page definitions (standard and two-column)
• Hands on: Using page and field Fluid-specific attributes

Working with Fluid Components

• Understanding Fluid components
• Hands on: Creating Fluid components
• Hands on: Configuring Fluid Content References

Working with Search Pages

• Understand Fluid search options
• Hands on: Implement real-time Component search through Pivot Grids
• Hands on: Implement real-time Component search through custom search Pages
• Hands on: Implement keyword Component search through the Search Framework

Fluid 2

Advanced Fluid Page Design

• Understand the role of CSS in Fluid and responsive design
• Hands on: Working with different Fluid page types
• Hands on: Using Oracle-delivered Fluid CSS classes
• Understanding CSS Flexbox
• Hands on: Creating custom CSS classes
• Hands on: Using CSS frameworks
• Hands on: Using Fluid adaptive design with subpages

Using PeopleCode in Fluid Applications

• Learn about and use Fluid-specific PeopleCode functions, design patterns, and best practices

Advanced Tiles and Tile Wizard

• Hands on: Creating static and dynamic tiles using a variety of technologies
• Hands on: Dynamic tiles and the Tile Wizard

Understanding Fluid Definitions and Metadata

• Understand delivered Fluid managed definitions, the building blocks of Fluid
• Understand Fluid metadata such as Tile Wizard metadata

Event Mapping in Fluid

• Hands on: Learn how to extend delivered Fluid components without changing Oracle’s code