Customer Reviews

PeopleSoft Developer's Guide for PeopleTools and PeopleCode

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This book receives a single star, and it would have received less if it was possible. Very few people will get any value from reading this book.

The beginning of the book describes the many modules that PeopleSoft has in its HR product ignoring PeopleSoft's other product lines. About 5% of the book is spent on these descriptions. Maybe the author had to add some filler to make the minimum number of pages, but not too much.

There are few examples for the reader, and the existing examples are poor at best. On p134-142, the book shows the steps to place an HTML box on a page. None of the steps explain what, how, or why anything was done. A new user will not know what to click to complete the steps, and an intermediate or advanced user will have no use for this trivial example.

Debugging is mentioned and a method is described in the text (p. 208-209). But there is no mention of using the PeopleSoft debugger that would allow someone to step through the code line by line. This omission illustrates the author's lack of familiarity with major parts of the PeopleSoft development environment.

On p323-332, the author gives her example of how the Integration Broker can be used, yet fails to mention these steps are only valid for PeopleTools 8.47 and lower. PeopleTools 8.48 updated and changed many parts of the messaging system. No explanation is given for PeopleTools 8.48, so if you are at that version, you're on your own. Maybe the author isn't familiar with the latest 8.48 version despite the claim on the back of the book.

On p413, the book talks about how to run an SQR stating "The next illustration shows all the available fields that may need to be filled out depending on your setup." What goes in the fields is a mystery. I guarantee you need to know what to put in those fields if you want to execute an SQR.

Only a single author is shown on the cover, yet there are two authors mentioned in the text. Maybe the second author didn't want to receive cover credit for this mess.

This book provides a superficial overview of PeopleSoft's development environment, sprinkled with unusable examples. The best statement in the book is on p470: "Type your problem or error message directly into Google and search, which nine times out of ten will return just what you need." Save your time and money and follow that advice.

If you have been working with PeopleSoft for less than, say, 2 or 3 years the first half of the book will be very useful to you. The chapter on Advanced PeopleCode was quite good in my view and I learned a few things. This is coming from someone that has been using PeopleSoft for 11 years. XML Publisher is covered in some depth and has some good examples. I was surprised to find a reasonably good overview of Application Engine.

Overall likes:

1) The material is presented in a thoughtful, well written way that is easy for even non technical people to understand.
2) Some good sample code although it could have used some more.
3) Nice to see some information on COBOL, which for many of us has been a real black hole.

Overall dislikes:

1) Almost no coverage of Component Interface. This is a very useful tool and should have been given more attention.
2) PS Query is a good tool and very useful but I think that the author devoted too much space to it at the expense of other topics (see above).
3) I was hoping to be able to download some of the sample code that is presented in the book rather than having to retype it.

If you have used PeopleSoft for any length of time you know just how vast and complex it is. It is simply not possible to cover every topic in depth in 572 pages and I give the author credit for getting it mostly right. SQR In PeopleSoft is probably the best single topic book available for PeopleSoft and is a fantastic resource but it only covers SQR. This book covers SQR fairly well along with many other topics. If you are looking for a single book that covers everything then this is the one to get.

I've been a PeopleSoft Administrator/DBA for almost a decade now. I've taken a PeopleCode/AppEngine course at the beginning of my career, but have done almost no pure development since. For years I've been hoping that a well-written guide to development would come along to help me get into it more. I've pre-ordered this one the moment it's been announced, and after more than a year of giving it a chance this, sadly, I must say this is not that book.

Its faults are broad and systemic, not nitpicks: it is superficial, disorganized, glosses over important concepts while detailing marketing fluff, and all too frequently plain wrong - the worst sin of all in a technical guide. I'm frankly curious, and perhaps just a tad suspicious of all the 5-stars it has received.

First few chapters are PeopleSoft marketing material you could find on Oracle's main site. It's generously peppered with buzz-words: everything is "Scalable", "Integrated", "Managed", "Optimized". This is conceivably useful for somebody who's never heard of PeopleSoft, just to get them excited; they still won't get an idea of what any of these scalable, integrated, optimized things actually *do*, let alone how. Still, it only really covers HR modules, and superficially at that. Actual quote from the book, speaking of CRM & SQR: "I think that CRM is the exception here; I know that CRM has no COBOL, and I think that is true for SQR as well." Seriously?? An author from Oracle Press should take 10 seconds to ascertain if this is true or not. A technical book has no room for sentences like "I think this might be true, though maybe not". Figure it out, *then* start writing.

Eventually, we start getting to intro to development. Core concepts like Component Processor, idea of Panel/Page, security, interfaces, are glossed over, again in marketing words. An experienced developer new to PeopleSoft will be frustrated by the lack of depth. A newbie might not even know that crucial things are being poorly explained - until deeper into the book they feel bewildered because they lack the core concepts and ideas.

What made me eventually discontinue reading the book after ~250 pages or so, is the sheer number of errors & inaccuracies that I've encountered. Having worked on the infrastructure side of the PeopleSoft for years, I know for a fact many of the things that are written in this book are plain wrong - this happens as frequently as once per page in the (relatively) more dense parts. As a result, I have no faith in the correctness of the book in respect to things I *don't* know much about. Every time I've returned to the book with determination to make it through despite poor organization and over-excited fluff-speak, to gleam what knowledge I can from it, I would encounter more errors: in the end, I'd rather forgo it, than risk learning things *wrongly*.

The more recent PeopleSoft book, Tips & Techniques, seems much more useful, as is the older "PeopleSoft for the Oracle DBA". They appear to be written by battle-hardened technology veterans who have learned through their experience, and dispense their practical wisdom in a structured, no-nonsense way. This title is a fluffy, inaccurate, superficial and shallow companion that you are better off avoiding.

It's very difficult to write a comprehensive book about an ERP product. The book must cover all of the functionality and still provide valuable insights.

In this case the author has done an excellent job covering the major areas of PeopleSoft, and most important, explain how a standard PeopleSoft implementation has be extended for customized functionality.

This is a real world book and the code examples from COBOL were an especially nice touch.

A needed book not well done.

There are some glimpse of insight in there, but you will have trouble finding them.

There are also errors.

This technical manual is my go-to book for programming reference. It is organized in a logical format, which makes it helpful in finding what is needed to use in everyday technical problem-solving. I would recommend this manual to any level programmer.

I've been working on Psoft on and off for a few years as a developer. The problems I've experienced is that I never get enough time with the application to retain any of what I've learned. My time is divided between various programming languages, environments, and applications all of which eventually seem to mesh into a big ball of similarity. This book helped me immensely in wrapping my head around the structure of Psoft and all those bits and pieces that you never have time to learn while deadlines loom overhead and projects continue to pile up. It was an easy to read book with comprehensive examples. The only draw back I have is on my Kindle it is difficult to see the pictures even when enlarged (I'm using the 3rd generation 6" Kindle). I imagine the pics will look better on the larger Kindle. That being said, all in all I feel I got more then my moneys worth with this book.

I disagree with several of the other reviewers. With a title like PeopleSoft Developer's Guide for PeopleTools and PeopleCode, this book should be for technical people who will write code in a PeopleSoft environment. This book fails to deliver there. The examples are not well constructed or explained. Many of them seem very specific to the author's experience and may not translate well to a more general audience.

Another commenter has given specific examples (with page numbers) of some of the failings of this book. I agree with those problems. I imagine the book was delayed because it was so bad, and it was cleaned up just enough to get published.

Because the book focuses on so many examples from websites, I would recommend readers cut out the middlewoman and go straight to the those sites. Oracle makes PeopleBooks freely available on the web (just google PeopleBooks). You would be far better off skipping this book and learning from those free web resources. With the economy the way it is, this will save you about $45.

I have been working with PeopleSoft for over 20 years. This book is not intended to give the reader deep technical knowledge of PeopleSoft. It's purpose is to give the non-technical reader an overview of the technical side of PeopleSoft and it does a great job of doing that.

I had this book in my shopping cart for a long time. It was supposed to come out at the end of 08 and it didn't, and even though I was a little dissapointed about the delay, I though that maybe the delay would result in a better product. Boy, was I wrong. Almost 50 of the first pages of the book consist of screenshots and a small paragraph describing PeopleSoft modules, as if these modules could be described in a paragraph. Then the book attempts to describe PeopleTools which might be the best part of the book (hence the two stars). Other topics are covered VERY lightly, perhaps aiming to meet a contractual commitment than to give a clear explanation. For instance, debugging is covered in TWO pages and both pages talk about how useful WinMessage is as a debugging tool.

I own The Essential Guide to PeopleSoft Development and Customization and I would not hesistate to recommend it over this one, even considering that the former is based mostly on PeopleSoft 7.5.

Save your money or buy The Essential Guide or just use Google.