Definitions on psLens

Fields

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Fields (PSDBFIELD) are the fundamental, individual data elements in PeopleSoft—like an employee ID, first name, date of birth, or monetary amount. Think of a field as an individual column in a spreadsheet or a single entry box on a form. Every database table column and page control across PeopleSoft is built on top of a field definition. psLens reads field definitions from PSDBFIELD (and field labels from PSDBFLDLABL) and stitches them together with the rest of the metadata so you can see, in one place, everywhere a given field is used.

Records

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Records are PeopleSoft’s table/view definitions — every database table, SQL view, derived/work record, and dynamic view is registered in PSRECDEFN. psLens reads the record definition plus its field list from PSRECFIELD and stitches it together with everywhere the record is referenced in pages, components, PeopleCode, queries, projects, and trees. The Records page has 12 related-data panels covering pages, components, PeopleCode, queries, trees, prompt-table back-references, AE statements, COBOL SQL statements, project membership, and a live row sample.

SQL Objects

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

SQL Objects are the PeopleSoft application’s standalone SQL artifacts — view definitions and other named SQL fragments stored in PSSQLDEFN / PSSQLTEXTDEFN. Unlike a record’s automatically-generated DDL, these are SQL bodies the developer hand-wrote and PeopleSoft keeps versioned with the rest of the metadata. psLens pulls the source SQL plus the related record (when the SQL object is a view tied to a record definition) so you don’t switch into App Designer to read the SQL.

File Layouts

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

File Layout definitions (PSFLDDEFN) map structured flat files, CSVs, fixed-position files, and XML documents to PeopleSoft rowsets and record structures. PeopleTools Object Type 31 definitions store file format specifications in PSFLDDEFN, segment hierarchies in PSFLDSEGDEFN, and field attributes in PSFLDFIELDDEFN. Batch processes and PeopleCode programs query these definitions at runtime to parse inbound files or render outbound data extracts.

Pages

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Pages are the visual screens users interact with in PeopleSoft: the panel definitions from PSPNLDEFN and the per-control bindings from PSPNLFIELD. psLens shows the full control list (every field, label, group box, and subpage on the page), the underlying records each control reads from, and the rest of the metadata graph hanging off the page: which components include it, which PeopleCode is attached, which projects contain it.

Components

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Components (called panel groups in older PeopleTools versions) are the user-facing transactions of a PeopleSoft application: a search page plus an ordered set of detail pages that share a single save action. psLens reads PSPNLGROUP / PSPNLGRPDEFN and links the component up to its menus, portal navigation paths, exposing component interfaces, the underlying record hierarchy, and the full PeopleCode event tree.

Component Interfaces

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Component Interfaces (CIs) are PeopleSoft’s programmatic façade over a component. They expose component properties as get/set properties and component events as callable methods, so integration code can drive the same business logic the UI uses. psLens reads PSBCDEFN for the CI header, PSBCITEM for the property/key list, and PSBCMETHODS for the methods. It also runs two consistency checks against the underlying component to catch the most common breakage: properties that no longer map to a valid record field, and required fields the CI doesn’t expose.

Menus

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Menus are PeopleSoft’s classic navigation containers. Each menu (PSMENUDEFN) holds a set of bars, each bar a set of items (PSMENUITEM), and each item points to a component the user can launch. Even in a Fluid-dominant world, classic menus matter for security: Permission List authorizations are granted on menu/component pairs, so understanding which menu owns a component is fundamental to access analysis.

Content References

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Content References (CREFs) are entries in the PeopleSoft Portal Registry — the data structure that drives the menu tree, breadcrumbs, and navigation collections users see in PIA. Each CREF is identified by a portal/object name pair stored in PSPRSMDEFN and can be either a folder (a navigation container) or a content reference (a launchable target, usually a component, but also iScripts, external URLs, and homepage pagelets). psLens shows the CREF’s URI target, the full ancestor walk back to the portal root, every system and custom attribute, and the permission lists that have been granted access.

Message Catalogs

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Message Catalog is PeopleSoft’s centralized store of user-facing text. Every MsgGet() call, error dialog, warning, and translated label resolves to a message set + message number pair stored in PSMSGCATDEFN. psLens lets you browse messages by set number, jump directly to a specific set/number, or search by message text. Each message gets a dedicated detail page with its severity, text, explanation, and a usage analysis that finds where it is referenced in PeopleCode and SQL.

Application Packages

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Application Packages are PeopleSoft’s object-oriented PeopleCode container — packages hold sub-packages and classes, classes hold methods and properties. They are the standard way to write reusable PeopleCode in PeopleSoft applications. psLens walks the package tree (PSPACKAGEDEFN, PSPACKAGEITEM, PSPCMPROG) and shows the full class hierarchy plus a reverse index of where the package is used: by service operation handlers, by other PeopleCode, and in which projects.

URL Definitions

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

URL definitions are PeopleSoft’s centralized store of named URL strings. Instead of hard-coding https://example.com/... inside PeopleCode, developers define a URL object (PSURLDEFN) and reference it by name with GetURL("MY_URL"). This keeps environment-specific endpoints (file servers, integration partners, image hosts) out of the code. psLens lets you browse the catalog so you can see every URL the application uses in one place.

HTML Definitions

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

HTML definitions are PeopleSoft’s catalog of HTML fragments, JavaScript snippets, and template bodies stored in PSCONTDEFN. Anything a page or report needs to embed — a JavaScript helper, an email body template, a custom Fluid grid layout — is normally stored as a named HTML object and pulled into PeopleCode with GetHTMLText(). psLens shows the full content of the definition so you can read what the application is actually injecting at runtime.

Style Sheets

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Style sheet definitions are PeopleSoft’s stored CSS objects (PSSTYLEDEFN) — the cascading style sheets that drive Classic and Fluid UI rendering. Tools, themes, branding overrides, and per-page substyle sheets all live here. psLens shows the full CSS body so you can read what rules a specific style sheet contributes without extracting it through App Designer or scraping rendered HTML.

Change Control & Object Locks

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

PeopleTools Change Control & Object Locks

In PeopleSoft development environments, PeopleTools Change Control prevents simultaneous modifications to application metadata objects by allowing developers to check out and lock definitions (e.g. Records, Pages, Components, PeopleCode, App Engines, Component Interfaces).

psLens automatically inspects system-wide Change Control configuration (PSCHGCTLDEF) and active checkout locks (PSCHGCTLLOCK) whenever you view definition metadata or related project associations.

How psLens Displays Object Lock Status

When inspecting any PeopleSoft definition in psLens (such as a Record, Page, Component, or Field), the Included in Projects panel surfaces Change Control state in real-time: