PeopleTools 8.61 - Search Improvements

PeopleTools 8.61 is GA on Cloud Manager and I'm excited to see what's in this release.

I've been tracking the release dates of PeopleTools for several years now and have calculated that the average number of days between each major PeopleTools release since 8.50 is on average 476.  As you can see from my data it's hovered around the 450 mark since the heady days of the first Fluid release of 8.54 .  I know.... sad isn't it.  (rumour has it I collect train numbers as well). 

All the PeopleTools GA dates, numbers of days between GA dates, the rolling average along with what I predicted the release to be and how many days adrift the prediction was can be found in the table below.

For those that like a graph, see below. This shows how over time our predictions get more accurate.

My predictions are in BLUE and the actual GA is in ORANGE.  The closer the dots the closer we were in my predictions.

   

WARNING:  It's just data !  It's not a commitment from Oracle and it's not guaranteed... but.... it does show a pattern that perhaps is not surprising to anyone involved in product development and release cycles.

A major PeopleTools release drops about every 15 - 16 months.

So what's in 8.61?

I love the new Configurable Search Framework introduced in 8.60.  This feature is a classic example of using PeopleTools to create PeopleTools.  I blogged a little about this incredible feature here

https://i-like-trains.blogspot.com/2022/12/peopletools-860-component-search.html 

and a spin off benefit here https://i-like-trains.blogspot.com/2023/04/running-out-of-superlatives-for-new-860.html

But.... with all new features there was a little regression issue introduced.  Most who upgraded to 8.60 noticed it straight away.  

Did you?

Well 8.61 has fixed it and you can see it in action in our new Version 1 PeopleTools 8.61 lab environment here. 

UPDATE 01Feb2024:  Apologies for not spotting that this issue was actually fixed in patch 08.  See Oracle Support Document 2938357.1 (E-PIA: Component Search Is Forcing Users To Click On The Search Results Even After Providing Specific Keys In The Search Field In 8.60 Tools ) can be found at: https://support.oracle.com/epmos/faces/DocumentDisplay?id=2938357.1


OK... so Oracle are just fixing something they broke in 8.60 but don't let this distract from a remarkable piece of PeopleTools engineering with some massive value add for our users.

Comments and thoughts welcome below as usual.



Comments