Understanding Forms Routings

With PeopleSoft Application Designer, you can implement routings, which transfer data from one step in a business process to another. One type of routing is a forms routing. With a forms routing, the system takes data from a PeopleSoft page that the user is working on, enters it into a third-party form, and mails the completed form to designated users by means of the forms product’s mail capabilities.

Note: You can also integrate electronic forms software so that users can send forms to PeopleSoft applications using PeopleSoft Component Interfaces.

To design a forms routing, you map the fields in a PeopleSoft page to the fields in the form that it wants to generate. When a user triggers the forms routing, the system copies the data from the page fields to the corresponding form fields, then sends the form.

PeopleSoft applications communicate with the forms software using PSFORMS.DLL. To integrate a forms product with PeopleSoft applications, create a version of PSFORMS.DLL that supports the function calls that the PeopleSoft application uses to generate and send forms.

The function descriptions describe the function calls that PeopleSoft applications make to PSFORMS.DLL and the responses that it expects to the calls.

Because PSFORMS.DLL should work at any installation, don’t build in any site-specific information, such as the name of the forms server and database that the PeopleSoft applications access. For site-specific information, add entries to the Microsoft Windows registry. PSFORMS.DLL can read the entries to identify the forms server, database, and any other site-specific information that it needs.

Note: PeopleSoft supports any VIM- or MAPI-compliant email package. No further development is necessary.