Understanding Change Packages

Once you have your change project completed, you create a change package in Application Designer. Change packages are used to enable:

• PeopleSoft developers to package software updates and any prerequisites associated with PeopleSoft application updates.

• You to package your own system customizations into a change project, which is then used by the Change Packager and Change Assistant when migrating from one release or one environment to the next.

The process of using a change package is to:

1. Create a new project adding all new items for the application changes to the database for the update, identifying the project as a change project and setting the appropriate update IDs and prerequisites, if applicable.

2. Define the file reference definition(s), if necessary, for the individual files that need to be packaged with the project and the file type code.

   Note: Only projects that contain physical files (such as SQR or Excel files) need to include a file reference definition.

3. Generate the change package, which copies the project to a file, generates a Change Assistant template and documentation, creates the Data Mover scripts for non-managed objects, and packages the referenced files.

4. Manually update the Change Assistant template, if necessary, that is generated by the Change Packager.

5. Finalize the change package using the Finalize Change Package option, which performs validations on the package and produces the zip file.

   The zipped archive files contain the change project and all its associated files.

6. Test the newly created change package.