PeopleTools

These days I am trying to make sense of PeopleSoft technologies, my first impression was that everything is closely tied to database, the code, application data, the system data all resides in a database. The PeopleSoft IDE has two ways to connect to database one is directly though ODBC in case of MSSQL server. Another is through application server.

Here's what I got from one of the PeopleTools PeopleBook

A database for a PeopleTools application contains three major sets of tables:

• System Catalog tables store physical attributes of tables and views, which your database management
system uses to optimize performance.
• PeopleTools tables contain information that you define using PeopleTools.
• Application Data tables house the actual data that your users enter and access through PeopleSoft application
pages.

Every time that you create a new definition using PeopleTools, the system inserts rows of data into various PeopleTools tables. The entries in these tables determine the online processing of the system and what happens during imports. PeopleSoft maintains the structure of these tables. You maintain data in the PeopleTools tables related to definitions that you create or adapt using PeopleTools. The PeopleTools tables can be viewed in the PPLTOOLS project using the PeopleSoft Application Designer.

To create the application data tables that store the rows of data that your users manipulate:

1. Create a record definition.
In doing so you determine the structure of the table, the characteristics of the fields, and any online processing that you want to occur behind the scenes when a user enters data.

2. Apply the SQL Create option to build the SQL table in which your application data will reside based on a subset of parameters in your record definition. During this process, the system automatically gives the application data table the same name as your record definition, prefaced with PS_.

Enterprise PeopleTools Categories

This framework divides the PeopleTools technologies, tools, and utilities into four categories:

• Development Tools.
• Administration Tools.
• Analytic Tools.
• Integration Tools.
• Life Cycle Management Tools.