Monday, July 17, 2006

PeopleSoft Version Control

Two Months! That is the time since I’ve not posted on this blog! The reasons are here. And as stated I was busy with a lot of things. I was looking into my blog today and thought I’ll contribute something!

Version Control has been a big problem and this is a follow up to the post. I started coding the application from where I left the last time around (took 3 precious hours out of my routine.). The application completed as of today will help you in the following ways…

Firstly, when there is an enhancement which must be made to my existing PeopleSoft application. I intend to it on my DEV environment. (Let’s forget about TEST and other environments and try looking into what the application can do.) I identify the (on-line (just laughed out loud…remembered what Nietzche said “the parenthesis is for donkeys.” – That was not intended to abuse anybody)) objects which will be part of the enhancements and insert it into a project in development.

Secondly, I modify the objects in my DEV. After this I use the application which will run a PeopleSoft project compare and create a report of all the changes that will be made to production as a result of this enhancement - The compare reports will be available as HTML (8.46 supports this feature) and sorted according to the date (i.e. inside the folder marked with the date of . Now, to take a snapshot of the objects in PRD I must use the application which will take a snapshot of all the objects in the DEV project from PRD. The effort saving is that I do not have to identify and insert the objects into a PRD project.

Thirdly, the application will migrate the project from DEV to PRD.

Lastly, the application will allow the user to “Restore” the system back to a specific date (At the on-line object level). When I choose 01-JAN-2006, the application will apply all the snapshots starting from today to 01-JAN-2006 (In the reverse order) and hence I do not have to worry about identifying each of these snapshots from my file server in the specific order.

I intend to do a couple more things like – Define a path DEV --> TEST --> PRD and make sure the users do not skip any of these. The second feature will be object locking.

If you would like to test this application reach me on my mail. (n e x t r e v o l u t i o n i n e r p @ y a h o o . c o m)

The various things that I’ve been up to are far from over and will give everybody an update shortly.

2 comments:

Amr Malik said...

Sounds like the "Stat!" product by Quest. Even though it was a bit clunky from what I remember.

It would be nice if Peoplesoft published the API's it uses to do project creation, compared, builds etc in its own apps (Change Assistant or Upgrade assistant for example).

I've thought about doing something similar the round -about way by inserting the objects into project tables and then dms'ing them out.

Obviously, Nietzsche wouldn't have been a big fan of Lisp((*)) (or McCarthy for that matter) :)

PS-GUY said...

NOOOOOO!!!!!!

*.blogspot.com has been blocked in India. I've not been able to do anything (Or atleast that's what the government thinks that it could do!). I am using google analytics to post this comment! Techie's get thru most barriers wouldn't the bureaucrats realize this.


---> Amar,

You guessed it right "Stat". My idea is not to compete with Quest. The reason is to provide an alternative (Fact whatever I offer would definitely be cheaper - effort involved is just mine.).

But I would like to put my hand to my heart and say that Quest Stat or Newmerix Automate Change would be better for organizations willing to invest. For others however this could be an option. They could buy the complete source code from me and support it the way they intend.

And most of the driving logic written in the application relies heavily on PeopleSoft delivered products.

As always I would give the basic logic driving the application in a later post. For now, I'm willing to share the application with others to give me inputs and feedback.

If anybody intends to give the application a shot, send me an email at the usual yahoo id.

Thanks.