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Oracle has introduced several new features in its last few PeopleSoft application releases. This has, undoubtedly, improved these applications tremendously. For instance, when Fluidic Pages was introduced in 8.54 Tools, it caught the attention of the enterprise application world at one go. Such developments have also paved incremental enhancements across all enterprise applications, with Oracle not leaving any stone unturned when it concerns PeopleSoft.
The PeopleSoft Fluid User Interface is a brand new, dynamic and evolving PeopleTools technology. It enables PeopleTools to give customers a quick access to information that helps to describe and understand this new technology, and further leads to an increased awareness and recognition of the product.
The PeopleSoft Fluid UI enables users to access PeopleSoft applications on a variety of mobile devices like phones, tablets, desktops, laptops, etc.
In fact, PeopleSoft applications that have been specifically developed and enabled for fluid display appear dynamically on mobile devices depending on the device type and the screen size. The Fluid UI detects the type of device a user is using to access an application. After that, the responsive design helps the browser to resize automatically depending on the size of a device.
The Fluid UI uses the same physical architecture as classic PIA applications (web server, app server etc.). However, the technique used for designing the pages and components is different. Also the response is based on the screen size of a particular device.
Currently, Oracle’s delivered fluidic pages are limited to Employee Self Service and Manager Self Service but the functionality may be extended to the transaction pages too in the future.
Image 1:
Example 1: Fluid page displayed on a laptop or tablet
Image 2:
Example 2: Fluid page on a smartphone displayed in the landscape mode
In this screenshot, you can see that the page automatically shrinks to fit the screen size of the device. The elements are closer and the grid displays only the most critical columns.
Image 3:
Example 3: Fluid page displayed on a smartphone in the portrait mode
Benefits of Fluid UI:
• Fluid technology is device independent | Allows viewing of PeopleSoft pages on mobile devices
• Responds basis user device type
• Configurable and can be personalized | Mobile role-based homepage
• Mobile navigation bar quickly takes users anywhere within PeopleSoft
• Greater flexibility with enhanced usage of CSS, JavaScript and HTML5
• Eliminates the need to implement Fluidic pages from scratch | Classic UI pages can be converted to Fluid pages
Converting classic PIA applications for Fluid UI deployment:
Converting classic pages to fluidic pages isn’t a quick, single button job. Instead, the process needs substantial effort to design and develop the required fluid pages. Following are the steps involved in this process:
Step 1: Create the Fluid component
Step 2: Create the Fluid page
Step 3: Add Fluid pages to the Fluid component
Step 4: Update PeopleCode references
Step 5: Update, remove and / or redesign unsupported controls
Step 6: Enable Search pages
Step 7: Adjust and finalize layout
Step 8: Implement responsive and adaptive behavior
According to Gartner, 40% of the active customers are on, or moving to, the most current PeopleSoft release (9.2) while 95% of the active PeopleSoft customers are on Release 9.0 or higher. The features and benefits of the latest release are prompting many customers to make the upgrade.
PeopleSoft 9.2, along with the latest release of PeopleTools 8.55, provides users with an array of new mobile features such as Fluid Dashboards, Fluid Master / Detail Pages, and a new Activity Guide Framework. Responsive and adaptive design is a key factor of our daily work, and PeopleTools 8.55’s introduction of a new Tile Wizard makes the creation of these important navigational elements and processing of ‘building blocks’ much simpler. Tiles automatically resize based on the content they display, the size of the device being used, and the orientation of the mobile device.
In a nutshell, PeopleSoft 9.2 provides you a new user experience with a wide array of product functionality, while helping to reduce total cost of ownership at the same time.