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PeopleTools 8.4x added an option in the PeopleCode function SendMail() for specifying the content-type. In PeopleBooks, what is immediately highlighted is the ability to format your emails using HTML by setting the content-type to text/html. What probably isn’t well known is that it is also possible to set the content-type to other MIME types such as multipart/related.

text/html alone will allow you to format the text of your message. But if you need to display an image such as a logo, <img> tags inside your html will need to link to images stored in a web server somewhere. Sometimes, this is not ideal. With multipart/related, you can embed images in your email messages.

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The PeopleCode SendMail() function is a quick and easy way to send emails from your PeopleSoft application. Unlike workflow routing and Notification classes, SendMail() provides the most functionality when it comes to sending emails. Over the newer releases, PeopleSoft has further added new capabilities to this function like overriding the content-type and sender details. However, the feature that I find the least used is the inclusion of file attachments. This is because in PIA, PeopleCode runs either on the Application server or the Batch server. The files that can be attached should be either 1) located on the server, or 2) accessed by the server through a network share. For this reason, most applications that use file attachments are Application Engine programs (running on the Batch server) that attach log files from within the server.

If you’ve used web-based email services like Yahoo, then you’ll find it a common feature to allow attachments to be uploaded by a user from his workstation and send those attachments with the email message. Is this possible in PeopleSoft’s internet architecture? The answer is yes, this article will show you how.

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Just picked this up from Brent’s blog. Niel Robertson has a very humorous take on Oracle’s previous update regarding Fusion: I Pity The Fool.

… strangely enough, every single timeframe slide that the Oracle team put up that night, still has 2008 as the delivery date. I’m guessing they are still working out the kinks in Fusion’s calendaring application.

The article is lengthy yet definitely worth a read. From a technical perspective, this article has articulated very well the challenges faced by the ambitious goal and what makes it highly improbable. Oracle’s push on discouraging customizations is a major area that is sadly misguided:

John Wookey: “We recommend you retire customizations.”

This is sort of like saying “We recommend you get rid of all fonts, bullet points, and coloring in every Word, Excel and PPT document you own. Just use our standard templates for everything”. I could expand on this topic for a long time but the net-net is that this is an unrealistic strategy. There is a reason why customers customize – it’s because everyone’s business is a little bit different. Oracle, it’s the whole reason they bought your software in the first place. Unless everyone gets together and agrees on how to run their businesses similarly, this will never, ever happen.

PeopleSoft officially supports a variety of enterprise databases, the most prominent of them are Oracle, DB2 and MSSQL. When PeopleSoft applications are delivered, one could readily assume they are tested intensively against these databases.

When developing PeopleTools customizations with SQL, do you think about whether the code being written will work for other databases as well? As a developer, the importance of this issue may not be apparent in your daily work. However, for your client or organization the long-term cost is vendor lock-in — making it more difficult and costly to switch database vendors when the need arises.

PeopleTools made it easy to code cross-platform SQL in your PeopleSoft applications, so there really is not much excuse for ignoring cross-platform compatibility issues further. There are 2 features in PeopleTools that are geared towards mitigating SQL cross-platform issues:

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When Oracle acquired PeopleSoft last year, perhaps the most striking announcement is the launching of Project Fusion — aiming to bring together the best of Oracle, PeopleSoft and JD Edwards into a single product! My first impression is one of skepticism. In fact, when SAP slams the endeavor as Project Confusion, I just casually nod in agreement. What compounds the confusion for me further is the existence of other projects also dubbed as Fusion but which sounds to be in much mature states.

In my exploring of podcasts recently, I stumbled across the Oracle Technology Network’s Techcast. There I found the episode titled Understanding Oracle Fusion Architecture and Fusion Middleware. This episode is already a few months old, taken at the Oracle OpenWorld’s Applications day, though I still recommend it to anyone looking a understand Fusion a little better.

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Technorati has just announced some service improvements. One thing I’ve noticed is the bumped up results for the peopletools keyword. The following are additional blogs I’ve found (in addition to what psguyblogger already mentioned):

• PeopleSoft Corner
• PeopleSoftGuys
• Elixir of Peoplesoft

Related Posts

• In search for PeopleSoft bloggers

The list of interesting PeopleSoft technical blogs seems scarce. A few months ago, I came across Grey Sparling PeopleSoft Expert’s Corner as a good resource for tips/concepts regarding PeopleSoft reporting tools. Just this week while signing up in technorati, another precious find is manalang.com.

Other interesting blogs but not too much into technical tips:

• The Enterprise System Spectator
• Diary of a PeopleSoft Expert: Implementing Oracle HRMS