Getting Started With PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal

This chapter discusses:

PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal integrations.
PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal implementation tasks.

PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal Overview

Reviewing all elements of the PeopleSoft portal offerings helps you better understand how the PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal fits within your own portal strategy. The PeopleSoft offerings focus on providing you with products that can be combined in multiple ways to produce the enterprise portal configuration that addresses your organization's requirements. The fact that the PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal and PeopleSoft business applications share a common PeopleTools technology base makes integration easy. While our portal packs provide this prepackaged integration to PeopleSoft applications, you can also integrate with any web-enabled application by using the PeopleTools integration technologies.

This section discusses each element in the overall PeopleSoft portal infrastructure:

PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal.
PeopleTools internet technology.
Application portal packs.

Note. This PeopleBook documents only the functionality of the PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal. Detailed documentation for PeopleTools internet technology and the application portal packs is delivered separately with respective products.

PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal provides a selection of out-of-the-box features that enable you to quickly implement the portal. You can deploy enterprise-wide access to internet-based applications, unstructured content, a searchable resource repository, and collaborative services through an internet browser.

Deploying PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal provides you with peace of mind, knowing that your software investment is protected against rapidly changing technology standards through our full-service support, maintenance, and upgrade programs.

PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal Homepage

The PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal Homepage aggregates a variety of content gathered from sources across an organization:

PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal homepage example

Users can configure their PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal homepages to display a variety of pagelets. Numerous pagelets are delivered with the Enterprise Portal product.

See Describing Enterprise Portal Pagelets.

These features are available on the PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal Homepage header:

Search	Submit a portal search request and access the Search page. See Performing Searches.
Home	Select to return to your PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal Homepage (My Page).
Worklist	Select to access your worklist. See Enterprise PeopleTools 8.48 PeopleBook: Using PeopleSoft Applications, “Using Workflow.”
Resource Finder	Select to access the Resource Finder - Advanced Search page, where you can perform detailed searches for resources in your enterprise and access relevant resource profiles. See Performing Advanced Resource Finder Searches.
MultiChannel Console	Select to launch the MultiChannel Console. See Enterprise PeopleTools 8.48 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft MultiChannel Framework, “Understanding PeopleSoft MultiChannel Framework.”
Add to My Links	Select to access the Add to My Links page, where you can add a My Link to the currently accessed component of your My Links collection. See Adding Currently Accessed Menu Items to My Links.
My Page	Select to access your PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal Homepage tab.
Guest	Select to access a sample tab that is configured for users that are not signed in. See Managing Guest User Accounts.
Investor	Select to access the Investor Portal Homepage tab. See PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal Solutions 9 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Investor Portal PeopleBook
Administration	Select to access the PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal Administration Homepage tab.

PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal Administration Homepage

The PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal Administration homepage displays homepage pagelets for Enterprise Portal functionality grouped by task:

PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal Administration homepage

These homepage pagelets display the same content as the homepages that are linked from the Enterprise Portal menu under Portal Administration:

Site Manager Center.

See Navigating in PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal Site Management.
Content Management Center.

See Understanding Enterprise Portal Content Management and Publication.
Branding Center.

See Navigating in Enterprise Portal Branding.
Context Manager Center.

See Navigating in Intelligent Context Manager.
Resource Finder Center.

See Navigating in Enterprise Portal Resource Finder.

Users can select which pagelets appear by personalizing content for their administration homepage tabs.

PeopleTools Internet Technology

All PeopleSoft applications are developed using PeopleTools application development technology. PeopleTools, an object-oriented development environment, allows for the rapid and efficient development of applications by storing application design as metadata. The PeopleTools development and runtime environment includes the basic technology features on which PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal is built.

PeopleSoft Application Portal Packs

Portal packs are predefined collections of pagelets that provide access to key data from PeopleSoft enterprise business applications. Each product line has various portal pack offerings. They supplement PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal by adding a selection of preintegrated application pagelets for placement on the homepage. After administrators register application pagelets in the PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal registry, or registries, and configure them to appropriate tabs, users manage which pagelets appear on their homepages by selecting the Personalize Content link on their homepages.

This diagram shows the components of the PeopleTools internet architecture:

The PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal, portal packs, and enterprise applications all use PeopleSoft internet architecture to provide a flexible portal strategy for your organization

PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal Integrations

PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal can integrate with all of the following:

PeopleSoft applications.
Non-PeopleSoft applications.
Third-party internet services.
Internet content.
Extranet content.
Intranet content.

PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal Implementation

PeopleSoft Setup Manager enables you to generate a list of setup tasks for your organization based on the features that you are implementing. The setup tasks include the components that you must set up, listed in the order in which you must enter data into the component tables, and links to the corresponding PeopleBook documentation.

Other Sources of Information

In the planning phase of your implementation, take advantage of all PeopleSoft sources of information, including the installation guides, table-loading sequences, data models, and business process maps. A complete list of these resources appears in the preface in the PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal Application Technology PeopleBook, with information about where to find the most current version of each.