ERP Associates, Inc.

So what does a PeopleSoft techie need to know to survive and thrive in the coming years as the applications evolve to the Fusion architecture? Here are my best guesses:

XML
Since just about everything communicates via XML, it would be a good idea to understand some basic XML concepts, like how XML is structured, how you can transform it with XSLT files, etc.

JDeveloper
JDeveloper is Oracle’s standards-based integrated development environment. It’s a great Java editor/debugger, and it includes plug-ins for doing advanced programming like creating web pages, talking to the database, creating BPEL process flows, etc.

Java
Java is the common programming language that will be used across the architecture. ‘Nuff said.

Web Services
If you know what an EIP is, you have a good idea what a web service is. Any application message or even component interface can be implemented as a web service. Start thinking in terms of web services, and design new applications and interfaces as web services. You’ll be way ahead of the game.

BPEL Process Manager
BPEL Process manager is part of JDeveloper. It’s part workflow designer, part web service orchestrater. In a nutshell, it allows you to design interfaces and business processes by combining web services and manual interactions along with decision criteria.
• Part of JDeveloper
• Workflow Designer
• Allows web services and human interactions to be combined into a logical process flow

XML Publisher
Not sure if this one has been released yet, it’s clear that XML Publisher will be part of the core reporting toolset for the Fusion application and a great feature in future PeopleTools releases.

Other things to track
There are several areas you should read about and keep up with because they’ll be changing your world to some extent sooner or later:

• Oracle Enterprise Manager for PeopleTools Administration
• Oracle Identity Management will be woven throughout all of the applications. It would be good to have an idea about how Oracle manages your identity and single signon.
• Oracle’s Analytic applications and approaches, like Data Hubs and reporting tools.
• Oracle Discoverer is an OLAP + Relational reporting tool that is easy enough to use for most end users. I believe this will be part of the application going forward.
• Business Objects Enterprise toolset will be bundled with PeopleTools and will be used extensively in PeopleSoft 9. Not sure if these tools will make it to the Fusion application.

If you're looking for a book to help outline some of the existing tools, good luck -- there aren't many out just yet. I purchased Oracle Application Server 10g Web Development at the conference this year. It covers JDeveloper, Application Server Portal and J2EE development. At the same time, it covers components like Oracle Forms which will be obsolete in Fusion. Although I haven't read it, Business Process Execution Language for Web Services sounds interesting -- it covers both Oracle BPEL Process Manager and Microsoft BizTalk Server.