An Oracle Red Paper

June 2013

Implementing PeopleSoft WorkCenters

Implementing PeopleSoft WorkCenters

Introduction ......................................................................................... 1
Disclaimer ....................................................................................... 1
Structure of This Red Paper ............................................................ 1
Related Materials ............................................................................ 2
Overview ............................................................................................. 3
Who Should Read This Paper? ....................................................... 3
Common Terms .............................................................................. 3
Implementing and Using PeopleSoft WorkCenters ............................. 4
WorkCenter Key Components ........................................................ 4
Paradigm Shift ................................................................................. 4
Considerations for Designing WorkCenters .................................... 5
Creating a New WorkCenter ......................................................... 10
Authors .............................................................................................. 14
Revision History ................................................................................ 14

Implementing PeopleSoft WorkCenters

Introduction
This red paper is a practical guide for technical users, installers, system administrators,
business analysts and programmers who implement, maintain, or develop applications for your
PeopleSoft system. In this red paper, we discuss guidelines on how to implement and
configure PeopleSoft WorkCenters.
Oracles Product Development team created this document to assist customers with real-life
issues and decisions that are necessary to consider when implementing PeopleSoft
WorkCenters. It discusses some of the most important scenarios your organization should
evaluate and plan for in during configuration and deployment.

Disclaimer
This material has not been submitted to any formal Oracle test and is published as is. It has
not been the subject of rigorous review. Oracle assumes no responsibility for its accuracy or
completeness. The use of this information or the implementation of any of these techniques is
a customer responsibility and depends on the customer's ability to evaluate and integrate them
into the customer's operational environment. While each item may have been reviewed by
Oracle for accuracy in a specific situation, there is no guarantee that the same or similar
results will be obtained elsewhere. Customers attempting to adapt these techniques to their
own environments do so at their own risk.
Information in this red paper was developed in conjunction with use of the products specified
and is limited in application to those specific hardware and software products and levels.
Oracle may have patents or pending patent applications covering subject matter in this
document. The furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents.

Structure of This Red Paper

This red paper provides guidance for PeopleSoft WorkCenters.

Implementing PeopleSoft WorkCenters

Oracle updates this document as needed so that it reflects the most current feedback from the
field. Therefore, the structure, headings, content, and length of this document may vary with
each posted version. To see if the document has been updated since you last downloaded it,
compare the date of your version to the date of the version that is posted on My Oracle
Support.

Related Materials
This paper is not a general introduction to PeopleSoft WorkCenters and is written for
experienced IT professionals with a good understanding of PeopleSoft. To take full advantage
of the information in this document, you should already have a basic understanding of
PeopleSoft applications.

This document is a supplement to the PeopleSoft FSCM 9.2: Application Fundamentals and
PeopleSoft FSCM 9.2: <application specific> documentation.
Note. Much of the information in this document may eventually be incorporated into
subsequent versions of the PeopleSoft documentation.
The following documentation discusses the WorkCenter common framework. Consult the
product specific documentation for product specific information.

PeopleSoft FSCM: 9.2 Application Fundamentals, Working with and Personalizing

WorkCenters

PeopleSoft FSCM 9.2: Enterprise Components, Setting Up Pagelets for WorkCenters and
Dashboards as a System Administrator

PeopleTools: Portal Technology

Implementing PeopleSoft WorkCenters

Overview
WorkCenters are designed for specific roles and provide a central area for users to access key
components within Financial and Supply Chain applications. They enable users to access various pages
and perform daily tasks without leaving the WorkCenter, which reduces the time used when navigating
through menus.
WorkCenters are delivered as empty components. It is the responsibility of the system administrator
from your organization, to design and create links so that users can view and access specific pages and
information. The goal of this document is to help the administrator with the decisions they must make
when configuring a WorkCenter.
This section includes the following topics:

Who should read this paper?

Common terms

Who Should Read This Paper?

The persons who should read this paper are those who are making decisions about the use and
configuration of PeopleSoft WorkCenters. This paper provides the following information:

Considerations for designing WorkCenters and the implication of design decisions.

How to configure WorkCenters, use system defined links and Filter Builder.

Creating a new WorkCenter.

Creating user-defined My Work Links.

Common Terms
The following table provides definitions for some of the common terms that are used in this guide.
TABLE 1 COMMON TERMS

TERM

DEFINITION

BU

PeopleSoft Business Unit

Pagelet Area

This is a collection of application-defined pagelets that contain links, task lists, and other content. This
area is part of the PeopleTools framework but the pagelet content is defined by individual needs for the
WorkCenter. In WorkCenters, the pagelet area is displayed on the left.

Transaction Area
Links Pagelet

This is to the right of the pagelet area, where search results or components are displayed.
This is a common pagelet that contains links to PeopleSoft Components and links to external URLs.
This typically contains the links that a user needs to do their daily work.

Implementing PeopleSoft WorkCenters

TABLE 1 COMMON TERMS

TERM

DEFINITION

My Work Pagelet

This I s a common pagelet that contains links to application-designed results pages or to existing
components. The pagelet can contain four types of links: system-defined, links to events and
notifications alerts, user-defined links. or worklist links.

Queries Pagelet

This is a common pagelet that contains links to queries (public or private) that are added by the
administrator (public queries) or the end-user (public or private queries). The Queries pagelet may
also contain links to pivot grids.

Reports & Processes

This is a common pagelet that contains links to PeopleSoft Components, primarily reports and

Pagelet

processes, and links to external URLs. This typically contains the links that a user needs to do their
daily work.

Implementing and Using PeopleSoft WorkCenters

This section discusses:

WorkCenter Key Components

Paradigm shift

Considerations for designing WorkCenters

Tasks to configure a WorkCenter

Creating a new WorkCenter

WorkCenter Key Components

The delivered WorkCenters are built on a common tools and applications framework. WorkCenters
have a configurable pagelet area and you can control the pagelets that are displayed in this area. There
are four common pagelets that can be configured for each WorkCenter. They are the My Work, Links,
Queries and Reports & Processes pagelets. The links contained in the pagelets drive the search actions
and transaction area content. The pagelets are configurable at the administrator and optionally at the
user level.
The transaction area displays components or the results of search actions. The transaction area is
displayed in the WorkCenter to the right of the area occupied by the pagelet area. Selecting a link in
one of the four common pagelets renders the link results in the transaction area.

Paradigm Shift
WorkCenters are a new approach to managing work. The structure of the WorkCenter makes it easy
for a user to manage both their daily tasks and the interruptions that invariably occur. For example, a
user is in the middle of entering a voucher (transaction area) and gets a phone call from a vendor
asking for payment information. They are able to launch an inquiry in a new window, answer the

Implementing PeopleSoft WorkCenters

payment question, and then return to the transaction area where they can continue working on the
voucher. All of this can occur without having to navigate using the main menu.
WorkCenters can be configured to deliver an intelligent, personal workload to users. My Work systemdefined links deliver filtered data to each user who sees only data that is relevant to them. Rather than
having to search for work items, the appropriate items are pushed to the user when the My Work link
is selected.
WorkCenters are flexible and can be configured for your work environment. They are not limited by
role or by product and can be configured by functional area if that is your need.

Considerations for Designing WorkCenters

This section discusses:

Assessing functional needs

Leveraging system-defined links

Using Filter Builder

Securing links

Securing filter values

Allowing user personalization

Assessing Functional Needs

Before you begin configuring any of the delivered WorkCenters, it is important to assess how you
allocate work as this drives how you configure your WorkCenters and how you define My Work
filtering. Each of the 10 delivered WorkCenters is owned by a specific PeopleSoft product but the
configuration process is flexible so each can be configure any way you choose.
The first task is to assess how you allocate work. A WorkCenter can combine functions and can also
serve many user roles. Links to existing components use PeopleTools security so users only see links
to which they have permission. For links that do not have PeopleTools security (My Work, Queries),
you are able to set link security by User ID, permission list and/or role from within the WorkCenter
configuration. This way, you can assign access for many users to a WorkCenter and those users only
see links to which they have permission.
Two of the delivered WorkCenter shells are the Billing WorkCenter component and the Receivables
WorkCenter component. If you have those functions combined in your business, you might want to
configure a single Billing/AR WorkCenter rather than having separate product WorkCenters. If the
functions are not combined, you can have a single WorkCenter and segregate access to links with the
provided security features.
Leveraging System-Defined Links

System-defined links are My Work links that are developed by PeopleSoft and are available to you to
import into your WorkCenter configuration. There are over 130 system-defined links that are

Implementing PeopleSoft WorkCenters

delivered in PeopleSoft FSCM 9.2. Most of the links use filters to enable you to deliver personalized
content to your users. Many of the system-defined links display search results in application grids,
feature the ability to do multi-select actions, and run processes without going to a run control.
When you define a system-defined My Work link, you can import any of the system-defined links. You
can search by Object Owner ID to evaluate links that are specific to a product but you can import any
of the links. You can select the details link to view the information that the link selects.
In the example below, the record displayed in the grid is the record in which the search is based.
Unless you have a reason to override it, this is the record from which you select the filter fields. The
filter fields drive the selection of data that is displayed when accessing the My Work link.

Figure 001. Import My Work link

After you select a My Work link to import, you can choose to use an existing filter or add a new filter.
In some cases, multiple links use the same base (search) record so a single filter can be used. If you
choose to add a new filter, the system takes you to the filter builder where you can add the new filter.

Implementing PeopleSoft WorkCenters

Figure 002. Select filter for My Work Link

Using Filter Builder

Each system-defined link is associated with a base record that contains all the possible filter fields.
When you initially set up a filter for a My Work link, the easiest was to do so is to add the filter when
importing the link. To do this, select the Add Filter button when importing a My Work link in the
Configure Pagelets component. The system takes you to the Filter Builder where you can select the
filter fields to be used to deliver personalized content to your users.

Figure 003. Select filter for My Work Link

For each filter field, you have to determine several things:

On the Field Properties tab:

Select the filter field

Implementing PeopleSoft WorkCenters

When selecting the filter field, keep in mind that you may have performance issues if the field you
select is not indexed causing the search to return a large result set.

Prompt Table
The prompt table defaults from the record. If you have a security view, be sure that is the prompt
view that is to be used.

Required Flag
If the filter field is one that should always have a selection value, mark the field as required. This
ensures that the field cannot select all.

Restrict Operands
If the filter field is required, you may want to restrict the operands to an equal or an IN list.
This restricts the ability to use the between or other operands when entering filter values for this
filter field.

Figure 004. Select filter for My Work Link

On the IN Select Properties Tab:

Select the Search Field name that is to be used when the system retrieves the field values if the user
selects the IN operand.

Select the Search Field description that is to be used when the system retrieves the value descriptions
if the user selects the IN operand.

Securing Links

Links to existing components use PeopleTools security to control access. For other types of
WorkCenter links such as external URLs, My Work links, query links, or pivot grid links, you have the
option of making a link public or defining additional security. If you define a link as public, it means
that any user who has access to the WorkCenter also has access to the link. Otherwise, you can define
security by any combination of role, permission list, or User ID. Users who do not have security to a
link cannot see the link when they access the WorkCenter.
Securing Filter Values

Generally, its expected that users will control their own filter values according to the work they need
to perform. If needed, you can control the filter values and limit the search result to the search values

Implementing PeopleSoft WorkCenters

you define. For any filter, you can have a mix of permission levels where some users can set their own
filter values and some can be controlled by an administrator.
Allowing User Personalization

When configuring a WorkCenter, the administrator has the option to allow users to personalize their
view of any of the four common pagelets. There are two types of personalization and one, both, or
neither can be granted. One type enables users to personalize the pagelet display options, which
includes changing the display order of links, hiding links, and setting a link as the WorkCenter starting
page. The second type, which is available for the Links, Reports & Processes, and Query pagelet,
enables users to add their own links to a user-defined group. The two types of personalization can be
granted independently or together, and any personalization set applies to all users who have access to
the WorkCenter.
The personalization options for the Links pagelet are shown below.

Figure 005. Personalization Options

When you configure a pagelet or edit an existing configuration, the changes are not available to users
until you select the Activate Links Settings button. This button runs an AE process that makes the
changes available to users who have not personalized their configuration. If you allow users to
personalize their pagelet options, make configuration changes, and then push those changes to the
users, then the update process does not overwrite the display options for the users. Link additions and
deletions are pushed to the user and if there is a change to displaying My Work link counts, these are
also pushed.
Configuring a WorkCenter

To configure a WorkCenter, you must complete these tasks:

Assess how you allocate work and plan the number of WorkCenters you need.

Evaluate My Work links and filter fields that are system-defined.

Configure the Links and Reports & Processes pagelets:

Determine the level of user personalization.

Define link groups.

Add menu items.

Add external URLs and set security by role, user ID, or permission list.

Implementing PeopleSoft WorkCenters

Configure the Queries pagelet:

Determine the level of user personalization.

Define link groups.

Add public queries and pivot grids, and set security by role, user ID, or permission list.

Configure My Work pagelet:

Determine the level of user personalization.

Define link groups.

Add system-defined links, alerts links, and worklist links.

For system-defined links, define or select the filter ID to be used with each link.

If users cannot set their filter values, then set values for each user who needs access to systemdefined links.

Creating a New WorkCenter

If you have used all the available WorkCenter shells and need to create a new one, you can create your
own WorkCenter by following the steps outlined in this section.
1.

Create a WorkCenter shell

The first step in creating a new WorkCenter is to create a shell. To do this, you need to create a
new component. You can clone one of the product WorkCenter components or create your own.
2.

WorkCenter starting page

In order for your component to process the starting page that was selected in the configuration,
you must add the FSPC_ADM_STRT_SEC secondary page to the main page of your component.
You can also use the standard FSPC_WELCOME_SBP welcome subpage if you wish.

10

Implementing PeopleSoft WorkCenters

Figure 006. WorkCenter starting page

Add the following code to your component PreBuild PeopleCode to support the starting page
feature. The PeopleCode can be copied from the BI_WORKCENTER component.

Figure 007. BI_WORKCENTER prebuild PeopleCode

3.

Register the component

Register this component as a WorkCenter.

Navigate to PeopleTools, Portal, Structure and Content

11

Implementing PeopleSoft WorkCenters

In the Template Name field, select PTAL_APP_LANDING_PAGE_TEMPLATE.

Figure 008. Register the WorkCenter component

4.

Create a WorkCenter page

Navigate to the PeopleTools, Portal, WorkCenter, Manage WorkCenter Pages.

Select the Create New WorkCenter Page hyperlink.
On the Configure WorkCenter Page page, enter a WorkCenter Label and create the groups that
will show as tab names in the pagelet area of your WorkCenter.

12

Implementing PeopleSoft WorkCenters

Figure 009. Configure WorkCenter page

To use the common framework pagelets, in the Pagelet Types column, select Homepage
Pagelet.
In the Pagelet Name field, add any of the following pagelets:
o

My Work:

EOFSPC_MYWORK_PGLT

Links:

EOFSPC_MYLINK_PGLT

Reports & Processes:

EOFSPC_RPTPRCS_PGLT

Queries

EOFSPC_QUERY_PGLT

13

Implementing PeopleSoft WorkCenters

5.

Create the WorkCenter ID

Now, you are ready to configure your pagelet content.

Navigate to Enterprise Components, WorkCenter/Dashboards, Configure Pagelets component
and create a configuration for your WorkCenter. Reference the WorkCenter you created in the
above step in the WorkCenter groupbox as shown below. If you need your pagelets to run inside
a Dashboard, then specify the Dashboard as well. A given WorkCenter or Dashboard can only be
associated to one configuration at a time. For example, if you try to associate a WorkCenter that is
already associated to a different configuration, then you will receive an error when you try to save
this component.
From this point, you can configure your WorkCenter pagelets.

Figure 010. Configure WorkCenter pagelets

Authors
Ellen Blakey

Revision History
TABLE [X]. REVISION HISTORY

DATE

CHANGE

April 2013

Created document.

14

[Implementing WorkCenters]

Copyright 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is provided for information purposes only and the

June 2013

contents hereof are subject to change without notice. This document is not warranted to be error-free, nor subject to any other

Author: Ellen Blakey

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