Customer Reviews

Essential Guide to PeopleSoft Development and Customization

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For many of us, attending PeopleSoft classes are a luxury. Often technical manuals are not available at work. Maybe you're in between jobs or assignments and want to polish up certain areas of expertise that you haven't had an opportunity to work with recently.

The Essential Guide does all this and more. I have taken PS 5.0 technical classes and worked with 7.5 for several years, but this is the first book that I have come across that fills the gaps on Tools I, II, Peoplecode, COBOL, and App Engine. You can't find this kind of information anywhere else. The only way to beat this book is to be able to sit down in a room with the original PeopleSoft developers.

The authors of this book are very technical and knowledgeable on the subject at hand. One in particular, Prakash Sankaran, has attended annually the PeopleSoft Conference where he has presented materials on Cobol, SQR, PeopleTools, and PeopleCode. In addition, he has presented materials at the PeopleSoft Northeast Regional User group meetings. He knows first hand the traps that developers encounter in customizing the application. PeopleSoft supplies the tools to use; this book supplies the tips and techniques to get the job done.

As soon as I heard about this book, I placed an order. I have read and re-read this book several times. The authors give expert advice. I use it often as supporting evidence. It is like having several experts at your fingertips.

This is not a re-hash of the PeopleSoft courses. It goes beyond. The tips are full of years of insight. Some of PeopleSoft's technical courses make you feel that you can customize all you want. This book give you practical tips to avoid many of the customization pitfalls. I know I went through many myself and learned a great deal. If I had this book on my first implementation, I could have avoided pitfalls by applying the tips in this book.

This book de-mystifies PeopleSoft's COBOL. The explanation is thourough and very readable. Previously, I thought of the COBOLs as black boxes. Now, I have a better understanding of how they work.

I think I will never finish reading the book as I keep getting more information from it. I think sometimes I am not ready to hear what is said until a later date. I really think this book is filling a void and will be greatly appreciated. It is a very insightful book.

The text is easy to digest, full of illustrations and sample code. Topics are discussed in detail, with no long and boring introductions. All chapters are summarized with a list of key points. I develop mostly for Financials and although the examples of this book are based on the HR application, it hasn't affected my understanding of the material at all.

I suggest having at least some exposure to Application Designer, PeopleTools to get the most out of this book. A PeopleTools I/II class will do. You may find that this book also serves better as a reference rather than as a textbook that you read from chapter 1 through the end. The book was divided in 7 independent parts. It is not strictly mandatory to read Part 4 on Customization to be able to read Part 5 on using SQR or Part 7 on App Engine.

The book includes the following major topics:
PeopleSoft architecture, development tools, data management tools, Operator Security, Application Designer, PeopleCode and the Application Processor, PeopleCode debugging, Tracing, the upgrade process (brief), SQR, Process Scheduler, App Engine and COBOL.

It also discusses some aspects of PeopleSoft 8, still in development at the time this book was written.

The appendixes include PeopleTools system tables, Operator Classes, PeopleCode built-in functions, App. Engine functions and App. Engine examples.

The book doesn't cover Query and nVision.

I highly recommend this book. Some of the material is also relevant to PeopleSoft 7.0 and 8.x

While nothing in this book, is not found in the PeopleSoft training material for the particular topic, it does put it into one compact book. The chapter on Cobol was the most of interest to me, because this information is hard to come by. I compared to the internal documentation given to PeopleSoft consultants, and found this book to be much better. My only question is, when will the PeopleSoft 8 version of this book be released. Also, more information on running PeopleSoft in the OS390 DB2 environment would be very good. I usually work in this area, since it is hard to find consultants that can perform in this arena, and the larger customers tend to use DB2 on big iron.

Lives up to expectations, but simply insufficient coverage of PeopleSoft 8, in current release. While the material is by no means outdated, the book does not adequately address issues and functionalities new to PS8, and may not be suitable for version 8 developers.

This is the book I've been waiting for! Finally a comprehensive, well-written book has been published that goes into tremendous detail on just about every aspect of PeopleSoft. The explanations are clear and concise, the extensive use of screen shots makes understanding the subject matter being discussed very easy, and the tips sprinkled throughout capture the key elements to remember. This book will help all developers, both as a training tool for the new developer and as a superb reference for the experienced pro who can always pick up a new trick here and there. This book is a 'must-have' for all PeopleSoft developers!

I really like this book, but I work with PS Financials. All examples are drawn from HR. Although I could usually draw the analogy to Financials, explanation of trees depended on having HR. Just a citation of what Financial panels, records, etc. fill the same role as those examples shown for HR would have been helpful.

I wish other PeopleSoft publications followed the high standards set by this book. The authors know their stuff, it is obvious. And this is a timely book for consultants who are involved with version 7.5 and are starting to think about 8.0. I have used 'SQR in PeopleSoft' as a reference for over a year, and this book will earn a place next to it on my bookshelf. I have been a PS consultant for 7+ years and look forward to more books of this caliber. (a side note: I do not know the authors and am not endorsing this book as a favor to them but to my fellow consultants.)

This books covers all what a PeopleSoft developer needs to know in this competitive environment. I like the simple and direct apporach followed by the authors. Their knowledge and expertice in this field is clearly evident.