Understanding Homepages and Dashboard Pages

Classic homepages and dashboards are PeopleSoft pages that aggregate and display pagelets that share some common or similar purpose. Tiles are the PeopleSoft fluid user interface equivalent of pagelets. Therefore, similar to classic homepages and dashboards, fluid homepages and dashboards aggregate tiles that share some common or similar purpose. Homepages and dashboards provide quick access to useful information by presenting concise but feature-rich pagelets or tiles to the user. These pagelets and tiles can vary in function and complexity, enabling users to see not only an overview, but to drill into the data to access more granular and detailed information.

In these topics, the terms homepage and tabbed homepage are used interchangeably. In addition, the terms dashboard and dashboard page are used interchangeably.

Note: The labels of system-defined homepages and dashboards are translatable; however, personalized labels of homepages and dashboards are not translatable—this applies to personal fluid homepages as well as the personalized labels of fluid homepages, fluid dashboards, classic homepages and classic dashboards.

Note these points about homepages:

  • Homepages appear immediately after users sign in to PeopleSoft applications or when the user clicks the Home link or button.

  • PeopleSoft applications can include definitions for one or more homepages.

    If multiple classic homepages are defined, each displays beneath the portal header as a tab. On a fluid homepage, additional homepages do not display as tabs, but are available from a drop-down selector at the top of the page.

  • If you enable personalization, users can personalize homepages. The system stores each user's homepage personalizations in the PSPRUHDEFN (which is updated when a user personalizes the homepage), PSPRUHTAB, and PSPRUHTABPGLT tables.

You manage homepage definitions by using the Structure and Content component. Rarely should anyone other than the portal administrator have access to Structure and Content since access to this component gives any user unrestricted access to the entire portal registry. The location in the portal registry differs between classic and fluid homepage definitions:

  • Classic homepage definitions reside in the Portal Objects > Homepage > Tabs folder.

  • Fluid homepage definitions reside in the Fluid Structure Content > Fluid Homepages folder.

Note these points about dashboard pages:

  • Dashboards are a type of homepage that have been designated as operational dashboards through a content reference attribute.

  • Dashboards do not appear automatically after sign in; instead, you access a dashboard by clicking a content reference link, which you can configure to appear anywhere in the menu structure.

  • PeopleSoft applications can have multiple dashboards.

  • If you enable personalization, users can personalize dashboards. Similar to homepages, the system stores each user's dashboard personalizations in the PSPRUHDEFN (which is updated when a user personalizes the dashboard), PSPRUHTAB, and PSPRUHTABPGLT tables.

  • WorkCenter dashboards are a special class of dashboards that can be deployed as target content in a WorkCenter.

    Note: WorkCenter dashboards are available on classic WorkCenters only.

Unlike homepages, to create and manage dashboards, you do not need access to the Structure and Content component. You can use the Manage Dashboard Pages component. No access to the portal registry is necessary. By eliminating the need to access the portal registry to manage dashboard pages, your PeopleSoft application offers increased flexibility of administration and decreased chance of down time due to portal registry mismanagement errors.

Note: When you use the Manage Dashboard Pages component to create new dashboard pages, the system automatically registers the dashboard as a homepage in the portal, places the content reference in the correct folder, and selects the Operational Dashboard check box. No functionality has been removed from the Structure and Content pages; you can also use them to manually create and manage definitions that you specify as dashboards.

Fluid homepages and dashboards share many characteristics of their classic counterparts:

  • They are equivalent in function to their classic counterparts.

  • They are managed in the same manner as their classic counterparts

  • Their definitions stored in the portal registry accessed through the Structure and Content component.

Note: Fluid homepages can be configured as required or optional; classic homepages cannot be.

The following table summarizes which features are available on classic homepages, classic dashboards, fluid homepages, and fluid dashboards.

Feature

Classic Homepages

Classic Dashboards

Fluid Homepages

Fluid Dashboards

Display pagelets, including remote pagelets

Y

Y

N

N

Display tiles, including remote tiles

N

N

Y

Y

Support administrator configuration

Y

Y

Y

Y

Allow user personalization

Y

Y

Y

Y

Support access to similar definitions (homepages or dashboards) directly from the current definitions

Y

N

Y

N

Support enhanced tile functionality (larger tile sizes, autosize, resizable, and interactive tiles)

N

N

Y

Y

Support merged definitions across a cluster

Y

N

Y

N