Run PS APP Engine Programs w Stat

Run PeopleSoft Application Engine Programs with Stat

Written By William R. HartStat Solutions ArchitectQuest Software

TECHNICAL BRIEF Run PeopleSoft Application Engine Programs with Stat

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Contents

Abstract .......................................................................................................................................................................... 2

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Formatting Notes ......................................................................................................................................................... 3

About the PeopleSoft Application Engine .................................................................................................................. 4

What is a PeopleSoft Enterprise Application Engine? ................................................................................................. 4

Application Engine Structure ....................................................................................................................................... 4

Example Application Engine Program ......................................................................................................................... 5

Creating a Post-Migration Step .................................................................................................................................... 6

Using Command-Line Parameters .............................................................................................................................. 6

Storing Parameters in Stat ....................................................................................................................................... 6

Creating the Post-Migration Step ................................................................................................................................ 7

Editing the Post-Migration Step ................................................................................................................................... 8

It’s All in the Interpretation ........................................................................................................................................... 9

Let’s Take It for a Spin ................................................................................................................................................ 10

About the Author ......................................................................................................................................................... 12


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Abstract This technical brief is written for Stat administrators of PeopleSoft ERP systems. It explains how to create and launch a Stat post-migration step that will run a PeopleSoft application engine process when that process is migrated from one environment to another.


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Introduction This technical brief is written for Stat administrators of PeopleSoft ERP systems. It explains how to create and launch a Stat post-migration step that will run a PeopleSoft application engine process when that process is migrated from one environment to another.

For some, these procedures can be a bit convoluted. However, we are seasoned PeopleSoft DBAs and PeopleSoft administrators. Remember: We are the courageous! We are the valiant! We are the Stat Administrators!

Formatting Notes In this document, local Stat or other application screen menus are displayed in the following format:

“Menu Name” > “Menu Name” > “Menu Name” > “Target Menu Item”

System output, keyboard input, and screen-related text are displayed in the Courier New font style.


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About the PeopleSoft Application Engine What is a PeopleSoft Enterprise Application Engine?

An application engine (commonly called an “app engine”) is a PeopleTool designed to help you develop background SQL processing programs. This tool is intended to be used by developers with knowledge of SQL, SQL tools, and PeopleTools. The application engine offers an alternative to writing COBOL or SQR programs for background SQL processing. While an application engine does not generate, parse, or understand SQL, it does execute SQL that you provide.

Application Engine Structure The diagram below shows the program structure of an application engine, as illustrated in Oracle's PeopleTools PeopleBook - PeopleTools 8.52: Application Engine:

Figure 1. Structure of an application engine


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Example Application Engine Program This paper applies to an application engine of any type and of any purpose. What’s important for us is that we want to ensure it is executed when it is migrated to the target environment.

Below is a sample app engine that we might want to execute when it hits our target environment:

Figure 2. Sample application engine program


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Creating a Post-Migration Step Using Command-Line Parameters Many PS admins are aware that, just like an SQR, you can kick off application engine processes using the command-line method. For those not familiar with the process and command-line variables, please refer to Oracle's People-Tools PeopleBook - PeopleTools 8.52: Application Engine. For a full list of app engine command-line parameters, see the PeopleSoft Application Engine Guide.

The command-line parameters that we will be using for our example are:

PSAE -CT dbtype -CD database_name -CO oprid -CP oprpswd -R run_control_id -AI pro-

gram_id -DEBUG(Y|N)

In addition, if your command-line options are stored in a text file, you can pass the file name as a command-line option: PSAE optfilename.

Storing Parameters in Stat

There are several ways we could set up our post-migration step within Stat. If we know we will be running the step often, it makes sense to create pre- and post-migration step parameters and store them with Stat.

To create these stored parameters, from the Stat main user interface, go to Maintenance > General > Pre/Post Migration Steps Parameters.

Use the “New” button to create as many of the command-line parameters as you would like to store, based on the PSAE command-line parameters you use on a regular basis. Below is a screen shot of the ones I’ve set up locally:

Figure 3. Storing command-line parameters in Stat


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Creating the Post-Migration Step Once you’ve set up any parameters you need, you can proceed to creating the post-migration step itself. From the Stat Main User interface, go to Maintenance > Service Domain > Post Migration Steps. Select the “New” Button to add a new record to the Post Migration Step Maintenance window.

Next, click “Custom Command”, enter a name for your step (such as “Run App Engine Cmd Line”, and then select “PeopleSoft Proprietary Objects” and “App Engine Program (PS V7/8)”. Last, click the “Apply” button to save your changes. Below is an example of the step I created:

Figure 4. Example post-migration step


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Editing the Post-Migration Step Once the step is saved, the “Define Command” button will be enabled. Click this button to edit the post-migration step. You will see two boxes, one for specifying your parameters and one for seeing the results of Stat interpreting them. Initially, the screen values on both boxes will be blank.

At this point, most of the next few steps are a matter of either double-clicking the Stat pre- or post-migration parame-ters you set up earlier, or entering in the required values to run PS app engine’s command-line mode.

Figure 5. Editing the post-migration step

The following are some of the key parameters in the figure above:

• Outlined in purple is the PS_SERVER_CFG. If you do not have the system variable PS_SERVER_CFG value set on your environment, you will want to set that variable at runtime.

• We set up a “PSAE” Stat parameter (in yellow) to hold the run location of the PS app engine program (psae.exe). When we select it from the list above and double-click it, Stat places the parameter into our post-migration step command as “%%PSAE%%”. The double percent signs tell Stat that these are variables that need to be interpret-ed at runtime.

• The %%AEDBTYPE%% parameter, wrapped in orange, is interpreted as –CT <DBTYPE>. Since I am running Oracle, my stored parameter becomes “–CT ORACLE”.

• The last command-line variable passed (outlined in blue) is the app engine debug parameter. I set it to yes in my stored parameter, so it will be equal to: AEDBUG = “-DEBUG Y”


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It’s All in the Interpretation Once you’ve entered all the values or command-line parameters that you want for the new post-migration step, click the “Interpret Command” button on the right. Stat will run an analysis on the values and convert the associated parameters with the actual values. Since this is a test – it is not being executed during runtime – we will expect to see one or two null values where there’s no data as of yet.

You should see something similar to the following in the lower right box:

Figure 6. Results of clicking the Interpret Command button

You can see above that the values that we added as parameters are now interpreted as the stored values and replaced on the right side.

If you compare Figure 5 and Figure 6 above, you will see how the color-coded parameters are interpreted and resolved in the “Interpret Command” window.

• The purple text is hardcoded and will appear every time this call is run; it is the Set PS_SERVER_CFG call.

• The yellow PSAE value is interpreted to the full path of “P:\PT8.52\bin\client\win86\PSAE.exe”.

• The orange AEDBTYPE value is interpreted to the database type value of “-CT ORACLE”.

• The blue AEDBUG value is interpreted to the app engine debug Y/N value of “-DEBUG Y”

On the last line in Figure 6 above, you will notice that the “-CD” parameter is set to <Null>. If you look back at the command entry, that value is set as text “-CD” and then %%TARGET_DB_NAME%%. If this was being called at runtime, and we were migrating this to our HRPROD environment, then Stat would interpret is as “-CD HRPRD”.


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Let’s Take It for a Spin If we create a new CSR, add an application engine program to it, save it, and migrate it, we should see the following.

When the migration completes, Stat will review the objects that were migrated and act accordingly. For example, if DMS scripts were included, they will be executed as required. If there are SQL Scripts that need to be executed, they too will be executed, if that’s how we’ve set up our Stat environment to react to them.

For our app engines, when it’s time to run them, we will see the following:

Figure 7. Running the app engine


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For our valid run, we will replace the parameters as required and let the app engine execute. All values will be passed out to the psae executable and the app engine will be executed within its own command shell window.

The following image shows the successful execution of our app engine program:

Figure 8. Success message

We ran the call with the “CMD /K” beginning parameter, which tells the command window to stay open when

execution completes so that we can review the output. We could have left off the “/K” parameter, and the window would have closed on completion of the app engine call.


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About the Author William R. Hart is a Solutions Architect with Quest Software specializing in the Stat application change management product. William has years of software engineering experience with PeopleSoft, ASP, Java, HTML, and various other programming languages.

William has authored numerous technical and business-focused whitepapers in his years at Quest. Many of these whitepapers are available on the Stat user community. In addition, Stat user interface videos are also available on Quest Software’s YouTube page at QuestSoftware_StatforPSoft.

William resides in Palm Harbor, FL with his wife, two children, two dogs, two cats, and other various creatures that tend to come and go in their lives.

http://communities.quest.com/community/stat

http://www.youtube.com/user/questsoftware#g/c/66835DEFE2034010


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Run PS APP Engine Programs w Stat