Objects on psLens

Projects

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

What It Is

Projects are PeopleSoft’s primary mechanism for grouping metadata objects together for migration between environments (e.g., from Development to Testing to Production). Every project definition is stored in PSPROJECTDEFN, and the items contained within a project are registered in PSPROJECTITEM.

Project Import

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

What It Is

Project Import lets you upload an XML export file of a PeopleSoft project (the .xml files exported from App Designer via Tools -> Copy Project -> To File).

Fields

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

What It Is

Fields are the atomic units of a PeopleSoft application. Every column on every page and every row in every table 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

What It Is

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 11 related-data panels (more than any other object type) covering pages, components, PeopleCode, queries, trees, prompt-table back-references, AE statements, project membership, and a live row sample.

SQL Objects

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

What It Is

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.

Pages

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

What It Is

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

What It Is

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

What It Is

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

What It Is

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

What It Is

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

What It Is

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

What It Is

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

What It Is

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

What It Is

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

What It Is

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.

Queries

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

What It Is

Queries are PeopleSoft’s end-user reporting tool — saved SQL queries that users run from the PSQUERY interface, with optional prompts, output formats, and scheduled distribution. Each query is stored in PSQRYDEFN and broken out across PSQRYRECORD, PSQRYFIELD, and other tables for the records and fields it touches. psLens consolidates the query header, the records used, the field list, project membership, and (via the related-data toggles) the query tree placement and security access.

Query Trees

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

What It Is

Query Access Trees are the security backbone of PeopleSoft Query — hierarchical groupings of records (PSTREEDEFN / PSTREENODE) that determine which records a Query author can build queries against. A permission list grants access to one or more access groups within a tree, and the Query Manager UI only lists records that fall under the granted nodes. psLens shows the tree’s full record hierarchy and the permission lists that authorize it, combining what you’d otherwise need to assemble from Tree Manager and Permission List security separately.

Nodes

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

What It Is

Nodes are the network endpoints of the PeopleSoft Integration Broker. Each external system, partner database, or other PeopleSoft environment that sends or receives messages is represented as a node (PSMSGNODEDEFN). The node carries connection settings (connector type, target URL, authentication mode) and is the unit referenced by every routing rule. psLens shows the node configuration, every routing that involves this node, the service operations granted to its default user, and an inventory of URI text configured against it.

Services

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

What It Is

A Service is the high-level container in the Integration Broker hierarchy: a logical grouping of related Service Operations (PSSERVICEDEFN). For example, a STUDENT_ENROLLMENT service might contain GET_ENROLLMENT, ADD_ENROLLMENT, and DROP_ENROLLMENT operations. The service itself carries metadata (description, owner, WSDL namespace) and acts as the access point for browsing operations together.

Service Operations

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

What It Is

A Service Operation is the actual message-exchange contract — the unit that defines what message type is sent, in which direction (async or sync), through which routings, and handled by which PeopleCode. Each operation belongs to a service and is stored in PSOPERATION with related metadata in PSOPRDESC, PSOPRROUTING, PSOPRHANDLER, and the security tables. psLens consolidates the full operation — versions, routings, handlers, caller nodes, security access from three angles, and live IB transaction history — into one page.

Messages

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

What It Is

A Message definition is the payload schema that a Service Operation carries. It defines the structure of the XML or JSON document exchanged between systems. Messages can be rowset-based (mapped to PeopleSoft records), nonrowset-based (free-form XML/JSON), container, or document. psLens reads PSMSGDEFN and the version-specific details from PSMSGSCHEMA, then surfaces the service operations that reference each message and the projects that own them.

Queues

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

What It Is

A Queue is an Integration Broker ordering construct. Async service operations attached to the same queue process serially in the order they arrived, while operations on different queues can run in parallel. Queues are also the unit where IB pauses (“Pause” status) when an administrator stops message processing for maintenance. Each queue is stored in PSQUEUEDEFN with a status (Run, Pause) and a partitioning configuration.

App Engines

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

What It Is

Application Engines (AE) are PeopleSoft’s batch processing framework. Unlike traditional COBOL or SQR programs, Application Engine programs are defined in PeopleSoft metadata tables (such as PSAEAPPLDEFN, PSAESECTDEFN, PSAESTEPDEFN, and PSAESTMTDEFN) and executed by the psae batch executable. They are commonly used for data processing, background calculations, integrations, and ETL processes.

Process Definitions

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

What It Is

Process Definitions define the batch programs, reports, and scripts that can be executed via the PeopleSoft Process Scheduler. They map a logical process name to an underlying program type (SQR, Application Engine, COBOL, Crystal, XML Publisher, etc.) and define how it executes, its parameters, and where its outputs are delivered.

Process Jobs

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

What It Is

Process Jobs (also called Job Definitions) are groups of one or more process definitions (or other jobs) bundled together to run as a single scheduled unit. A job executes its constituent processes in a defined sequence or in parallel, depending on the job definition.

Recurrences

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

What It Is

Recurrences define repeating schedule patterns used by the PeopleSoft Process Scheduler. Whenever a process or job is scheduled to run on a repeating schedule (e.g., daily, weekly, hourly), it is linked to a recurrence definition.

Server Definitions

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

What It Is

Server Definitions represent the Process Scheduler Servers that are defined inside PeopleSoft. These servers execute the batch processes (like Application Engines, SQRs, etc.) and manage scheduling recurrences and daemon processes.