App Designer, SQL Developer, and PeopleSoft's native web pages were built for changing PeopleSoft. They were not built for the research, audit, and monitoring that fills most admin and developer days. psLens covers that half of the job.
## The Old Way vs. psLens
| Task | Without psLens | With psLens |
| --------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Look up a record definition** | Open App Designer, navigate menus, wait for it to load | Type the name, see results in under a second |
| **Audit permission list access** | Write SQL against PSCLASSDEFN and PSAUTHITEM, format results manually | Run the Full Access report, get formatted findings |
| **Check if processes are failing** | Log in to PeopleSoft, navigate to Process Monitor, filter manually | Dashboard shows errors automatically with alerts |
| **Trace a user's security chain** | Manually navigate User > Roles > Permission Lists across multiple screens | Click through linked detail pages in psLens |
| **Share object definitions with your team** | Screenshot App Designer or copy-paste from queries | Export to Markdown, share anywhere |
| **Onboard a new team member** | "Here's App Designer, good luck" | "Here's psLens, search for anything" |
| **Monitor Integration Broker health** | Check IB Monitor pages manually, hope nothing was missed | Real-time alerts for errors, stalls, and abnormal traffic spikes |
| **Document PeopleSoft configuration** | Write SQL, export to spreadsheets, format manually | Export structured Markdown for docs, wikis, or AI tools |
| **Find why a batch job didn't run** | Dig through Process Monitor, query PSOPRDEFN, discover the operator account was locked | Locked OPRID alert fires immediately when a queued job has a locked operator account |
| **Prepare for an internal or external audit** | Manually pull permission lists, password ages, and node configs from the database | Run stale password, full access, and node security reports. Results are formatted, downloadable, and stored for 90 days |
| **Compare environments after a migration** | Manually compare project items across databases using SQL or App Designer | Project Compare report shows exactly what's in DEV vs. TEST vs. PROD |
## psLens vs. App Designer
psLens is not a replacement for App Designer. App Designer is the right tool for:
- Creating and modifying PeopleSoft objects (records, pages, components)
- Writing and debugging PeopleCode
- Building and deploying projects
- Managing data migration
**psLens is the right tool for everything else:**
- Researching object definitions and relationships
- Auditing security configuration
- Monitoring processes and Integration Broker
- Onboarding new team members
- Sharing PeopleSoft knowledge across teams
- Day-to-day production support
The key difference: App Designer requires a license, installation, and training. psLens runs in any web browser and is immediately useful to anyone on the team, including developers, analysts, managers, and support staff.
There is also a security dimension. For team members who only need to research metadata, App Designer grants capabilities far beyond what they need, including the ability to modify objects, run SQL, and connect directly to the database. psLens follows the principle of least privilege by providing read-only access through a web interface with no database connectivity. See [Reducing App Designer Access](/docs/use-cases/reducing-app-designer-access/) for why this matters.
## psLens vs. the Alternatives
A quick side-by-side against the two tools most PeopleSoft teams use today for research, auditing, and monitoring work.
| Capability |
App Designer |
Direct SQL |
psLens |
| Runs in a web browser, no client install |
✗ |
~ |
✓ |
| Read-only by design (safe for broad team access) |
✗ |
✗ |
✓ |
| No database credentials required for users |
~ |
✗ |
✓ |
| Sub-second search across all metadata objects |
✗ |
~ |
✓ |
| No knowledge of PeopleTools tables required |
✓ |
✗ |
✓ |
| Built-in audit & security reports |
✗ |
✗ |
✓ |
| Real-time alerts for Process Scheduler & IB |
✗ |
✗ |
✓ |
| Integration Broker volume anomaly detection |
✗ |
✗ |
✓ |
| Markdown export for docs, wikis, and AI tools |
✗ |
✗ |
✓ |
| Shareable deep-link URL for every object |
✗ |
✗ |
✓ |
| Cross-database project comparison |
~ |
~ |
✓ |
| Centralized audit trail of who accessed what |
✗ |
✗ |
✓ |
| Right tool for building & modifying objects |
✓ |
~ |
✗ |
| Right tool for writing & debugging PeopleCode |
✓ |
✗ |
✗ |
Legend:
✓ Strong fit ·
~ Possible but awkward or partial ·
✗ Not supported
## What Makes psLens Different
### Deep Linking
Every PeopleSoft object in psLens has a permanent URL. Link directly to a record, permission list, or component from Jira tickets, Slack messages, Confluence pages, or email instead of sharing screenshots.
### Markdown Export
Export any object definition to structured Markdown. Use it for documentation, team wikis, change requests, or feed it into AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude for analysis and code generation.
### Real-Time Alerts
Background checks run every few minutes and surface problems on the dashboard without anyone refreshing. Watched conditions include process failures, long-running jobs, and stalled Integration Broker messages.
### Browser-Based Interface
Runs in any web browser. No client installation or Java dependencies. VPN may still be required depending on your network setup.
### Audit-Ready Security Reports
Security audits ask the same questions every time: Who has excessive access? Are passwords being rotated? Are integration nodes secured? psLens has built-in reports that answer these questions. Run the report, hand the PDF to the auditor. Results are stored for 90 days so you can show trend data across audit cycles.
### Anomaly Detection
psLens baselines Integration Broker message volume over rolling windows and alerts when traffic spikes outside the baseline. A sudden 50% increase in IB pub/sub contract volume can indicate a runaway integration, excessive retries, or an upstream system misbehaving. You'll know about it in minutes, not after someone files a ticket.
## Ready to See It?
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