SQL
There is one question which keeps coming to my mind, Are my thoughts wise or rotten? The answer to which is still not known, but I use this blog to document all that which comes to my mind about an ERP product. Another important reason is that if someday I start building my ERP it should at least be satisfactory to myself.
The PSQuery is a very good application to develop your queries; but I’m not satisfied with it. When I want to create a query which will select all the employee names from person table with some criteria, the steps to be performed are:
New Query
Select PERSON from the list of tables.
Select NAME from PERSON table
Go to the criteria tab and provide my criteria
Simple isn’t it? A simpler solution would be, allowing me type “SELECT NAME FROM PS_PERSON WHERE blah-blah”. The SQL tab provided by PSQuery is non-editable. The reason is, once I build the query following PeopleSoft PSQuery standards then the application will know how to construct the SQL from my definition, this is non-geek. PeopleSoft answer to the non-geek community. This is where the geek community should be addressed, it would be wonderful if the SQL tab is editable and allows me to directly type the SQL and then constructing the Query objects (Query objects refers to PeopleTools data for each query) from my SQL statement.
Although the Application Designer has become an integral part of every Technical Consultant, the geek interface for this is still missing. I know how to create a table using SQL and Application Designer (I agree that most of us do know this), but wouldn’t it be better if I could do this,
New Record
From SQL
Type in the SQL – “CREATE….”
The Application Designer must parse this statement and create the field definition. (I know I’m missing a lot of pieces here…read on)
Then create the record definition
When the Application Designer tries to create the first field it would get the basic information (Field name, Field type and length) but there are other properties which will be needed by the Application Designer to complete the creation of field, it includes Labels, Formats, the option of creating translates in a few cases, description and chartfield. The Application Designer must prompt the user to provide these inputs which cannot be found in the SQL. If a Field name does not fulfill the criteria set by PeopleSoft for fieldnames it could prompt the user to change the fieldname and set the cursor on that field in the SQL. The record creation will include the complexity of index creation, but this should not be an issue if we follow the same pattern as prompting the user for key information or allowing him to type the “CREATE INDEX” SQL.
2 comments:
Do you want to go back to the place where you came from?
I understand your concern with PS Query as it is difficult to create queries with complex SQL's. But, it was not meant for geeks/developers; but meant for sophisticated users who I think do not bother to write complex SQL's.
I do not really understand why should the developer be prompted for all those properties when it is easy to entere them on a single screen.
anonumous,
he he... this was the exact feeling which I had when I thought about it initially.
It is good to have everything on a single screen but think about Application Designer populating all the fields with all the info found on the CREATE SQL and waiting for you to fill in the extra information...this is what I meant. It will just save me couple of clicks to say, New Field1 --> Creation Steps. New Field2 --> Creation Steps...
I guess you can see what I'm pointing to. Whatever App Designer delivers is too good, but extra features don't hurt.
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