Running out of Superlatives for the new 8.60 Search Framework

There's a killer feature in PeopleTools 8.60 and it's related to the amazing discovery I wrote about here.   I think it's the best feature in 8.60.

Do you ever play that game where you can only pick one?   

• What's the best movie ever? 
• What's the best food ever?  
• What's the best railway engine?  

For some, these might be tough questions. For others they might be really easy.  (BTW for me it's Star Wars IV,  Roast Lamb and the British Class 43 diesel ).   It's not to say that other films, food and engines aren't any good... it's just that the rules of the game are "what is the best".  It requires a singular answer and so... you have to pick one.

Oracle PeopleSoft India SIG - Bangalore

In February this year I had the privilege of attending the Oracle PeopleSoft India SIG at the Oracle offices in Bangalore. It was at this event in talking with customers and the completely brilliant PeopleTools engineering team that I think it dawned on me what this killer feature is in PeopleTools 8.60.

PeopleTools 8.60 was released in October 2022 (initially on OCI via Cloud Manager).   All the links to information on 8.60 can be found here https://blogs.oracle.com/peoplesoft/post/peopletools-860  There's some great new features and enhancements including Configurable Search, new Redwood Branding Theme, parameterised CSS styles, enhancements to Application Services Framework,  Lifecycle Management and Notifications Framework and much much more.  All the new features and enhancements can be found in the PeopleTools New Features Overview MOS Doc ID 2897533.1.

Hidden away on page 19 of the New Features document is, in my opinion, the killer feature of this PeopleTools release.   In highlighting this I'm in no way suggesting that all the other new features don't have any value but in the rules of the game "what is the best".... I have to pick one.  And, trust me, this is a killer feature.

Here it is.....

Fluid Components now support

Standard Search Pages

Standard search Pages have been the power behind PeopleSoft (Classic) applications since time began.   A Component is a collection of one or more Pages and Pages contain a primary record at Level 0 and up to 3 levels of multi-row, hierarchical, related data below that.  This hierarchy of data is displayed in Scroll Areas and Grids and these data structures are driven by the single row of data selected from the Standard Search Record.  The end user searches for the Primary Row in a Standard Search page using defined keys (e.g. Employee, Purchase Order, Student, and thousands of other business entities) and the amazing Component Processor automatically populates the Level 0 and related data across all the Pages automatically.   It's one of the most powerful concepts in PeopleSoft application development and why PeopleSoft developers are highly productive and can produce applications that have a consistent feel to them.   

Over the years this was how PeopleSoft developers built Classic applications and how customers also built their own Custom applications. And, customers did indeed build lots of Classic applications to meet their specific business requirements or to extend existing functionality.   It's a key reason why today so many PeopleSoft customers like PeopleSoft and why they want to keep investing in it. 

And then in 2014 along came Fluid in PeopleTools 8.54 .   A new responsive user interface that could handle any size browser from cell phone, tablet to desktop.

But, we've got a rich set of Custom Pages all written using Classic Components.  Our users like them and need them but they also like the benefits of a modern looking, responsive UI like Fluid. Classic Components easily support Standard Search pages and the powerful multi level Component Buffer described above.  However, Fluid Pages don't have Standard Search support and have to be re-engineered to use Pivot Grids or a custom built search page.  Oracle wrote about this conversion process in a Red Paper in 2015.  

PeopleTools 8.60 now supports Standard Search Pages for Fluid Components.  

The journey might go something like this flow chart below.

Not being able to easily and quickly convert my custom built Classic pages to Fluid because of the major re-engineering required has been, for some, a major blocker to adopting Fluid delivered applications.    Users don't want some of their apps Fluid and some Classic.  Even with the helpful Classic Plus stylesheet my pages might look like a bit more like Fluid but they don't behave like them.

Now that Fluid supports Standard Search Pages I believe it will pave the way for a greater Fluid adoption.   With a Fluid set Component you just need to set a Search Record as you would with Classic Components and on the Fluid tab set the Search Page Type = Standard and Enable Configurable Search checkbox.

Enable Standard Search Page for a Fluid Component

Just my view.  What do you think?  Is this your Killer Feature of PeopleTools 8.60?