Setting Up the Integration of External Data with PeopleSoft

Before you set up the integration of external data with PeopleSoft, you must decide whether SSL configuration for Logstash is required.

If you need to configure SSL for Logstash, see Configuring SSL for Logstash.

To set up the integration of external data with PeopleSoft, you must complete the following steps:

  1. Create a search definition for external data.

  2. Deploy the external data search definition.

  3. Specify a data source for the external data search definition.

  4. Build an index for the external data search definition.

To complete these steps, you may either use the External Data Source Setup navigation collection or the individual pages.

Use the External Definition page to create a new search definition for external data and to view a list of existing search definitions for external data. You could create a search definition for each functional area, for example, recruiting, job data, and so on.

Access the External Definition page by selecting PeopleTools > Search Framework > Deploy External Source Defns > External Data Source Setup, and from the left panel, choose External Data Search Defns and select the Add Definition or plus button.

Alternatively, you may select PeopleTools > Search Framework > Deploy External Source Defns > External Data Search Defns.

To create a new definition, select the Add Definition or plus button that displays the External Definition page.

This example illustrates the fields and controls on the External Definition page. You can find definitions for the fields and controls later on this page.

External Definition page

Field or Control

Description

Definition

Specify a name for the search definition.

Description

Enter a description.

Attributes

You use the Attributes section to specify the attributes which are available in the external data and are functionally relevant in the external data index. Attributes are fields that form a part of each document in the index of external data. You decide which attributes you want based on the functional information that you require in the index. These attributes can be obtained either from the external data or from PeopleSoft mapping to existing PeopleSoft fields.

Field or Control

Description

Target Attribute

Enter an attribute that is available in the external data that you want to include in the index.

Type

Choose a type for each attribute. The selected type is defined in the search engine as part of the index mapping.

Attribute Description

Enter a description for an attribute.

PeopleSoft Data Mapping

This section enables you to map some of the defined attributes with existing PeopleSoft fields. The purpose of PeopleSoft mapping is to provide fixed values per data source for each document indexed from a data source. The PeopleSoft mapping also helps to group all the documents for each data source with a specific attribute value stored in PeopleSoft.

Field or Control

Description

Search Definition

Choose a search definition that has the attribute that you want to map with the external data.

Search Attribute

Choose the attribute that you want to map.

Security

Field or Control

Description

No Security

Select to define no security restriction for a search definition's data. Anyone with access to the application can view the data for a search definition set to No Security. That is, the data is public to all users.

Source Level Security

Select to allow or restrict access to the entire search definition as per the specified user or role. That is, only specified users and roles are able to view data for that search definition.

Specify values for the following fields:

  • Type - Select user or role, that is, set the scope of the intended access restriction.

  • Name - Choose a role or user name.

  • Privilege - Select Deny or Allow, that is, set the restriction or access privilege.

For more information on source level security, see Setting Source Level Security.

Component Level

Select to associate component level security with the external data search definition, that is, users who have access to a component can view the data of the external data search definition.

Specify values for the following fields:

  • Market - Select a Market for the component.

  • Component Name - Choose a component to associate with the external data search definition.

  • Search Criteria - Enter any additional custom search criteria to be added automatically to the search engine search query. The search criteria should take the form ATTRIBUTENAME:VALUE and can use keywords and brackets. For example: PTSF_SBO_NAME:EP_AP_VENDOR & (-STATUS:PND)

For more information on search criteria, refer to Mapping Components to Search Definitions.

Use the Deploy External Search Defns page to deploy the external data search definition and create a placeholder in the search engine.

Access the Deploy External Search Defns page by selecting PeopleTools > Search Framework > Deploy External Source Defns > External Data Source Setup, and from the left panel, choose Deploy External Search Defns.

Alternatively, you may select PeopleTools > Search Framework > Deploy External Source Defns > Deploy External Search Defns.

This example illustrates the fields and controls on the Deploy External Search Defns page. You can find definitions for the fields and controls later on this page.

Deploy External Search Defns page

Field or Control

Description

Definition

Displays a list of external data search definitions.

Index Name

When you click the Create button, the name of the index for the specified external data search definition is generated. The naming convention is the name of the search definition with the database name appended to it.

Created On

Displays the day and time when the index was created for the specified search definition.

Count

Displays the count of documents in an index. On the Deploy External Search Defns page, the count is zero because the index for the search definition is not built. After an index is built, the number of documents in an index is displayed.

Create/Delete Index

Select the Create button to create a placeholder for the index in the search engine.

Select the Delete button to delete the index. The delete action only removes the index placeholder from the search engine; it does not delete the search definition.

Use the Data Source Definition page to specify the actual source of data. In this context, a data source represents the actual source of external data from which the required data is retrieved and indexed.

Access the Data Source Definition page by selecting PeopleTools > Search Framework > Deploy External Source Defns > External Data Source Setup, and from the left panel, choose Define External Data Sources.

Alternatively, you may select PeopleTools > Search Framework > Deploy External Source Defns > Define External Data Sources.

This example illustrates the fields and controls on the Data Source Definition page. You can find definitions for the fields and controls later on this page.

Data Source Definition page

Field or Control

Description

Data Source Name

Specify a name for the data source.

Search Definition

Select an external data search definition to associate with the data source definition.

If you’re creating a data source for intermediate processing, you do not associate a search definition with it.

Input

In the Input and Header sections, the fields that appear are based on your selection of data source type.

Field or Control

Description

Data Source Type

Select a type for the data source.

Valid options for type are:

  • File - A CSV file that contains the actual data.

  • URL - A REST end point to which a request is made and it provides data as a response.

File Type

The File Type field appears when you select File as data source type.

Note: CSV is the only supported file type.

File Name

The File Name field appears when you select File as data source type.

All external CSV files should be placed in the psftappdata folder under <LOGSTASH_HOME>. Any generated files are also saved to this folder.

Specify the absolute path of the CSV file.

Method

The Method field appears when you select URL as data source type.

Choose the type of HTTP request that needs to be issued.

Valid options for method are:

  • GET

  • POST

  • PUT

URL

The URL field appears when you select URL as data source type.

Specify the path of the external data. The path should not be absolute; it should be relative. Path should be relative to <LOGSTASH_HOME>/psftappdata.

Header

Field or Control

Description

Body

The Body field appears when you select URL as data source type.

This field contains the JSON request for the POST and GET methods.

Proxy

Specify the proxy server details for REST API connection.

Additional Options

Specify any additional connection parameters.

Filters and Transformations

This example illustrates the fields and controls on the Filters and Transformations section of Data Source page. You can find definitions for the fields and controls later on this page.

Filters and Transformations section

In the Filters and Transformations section, the fields that appear are based on your selection of type.

Field or Control

Description

Type

Specify the type of data transformation that you want to achieve.

  • External - Select external if a data source is created for intermediate processing, that is, the data source is created to generate data which needs to be processed further before sending to the search engine.

  • PeopleSoft - Select PeopleSoft if you’re mapping the data source with an external data index.

External Attributes

The External Attributes section appears when you select External as the type.

Field or Control

Description

Split Fields

You need to specify split fields when you select URL as the data type.

You indicate a field from the data source, which requires a split.

When a request is made to the REST end point specified in the URL type, it returns a response containing JSON documents. These JSON documents can be nested or hierarchical in nature. If the data you require is under a parent node, then you need to use the split fields option to obtain the children under the parent node.

For example, in a product data source, the information related to a product is under a parent node called itemSummaries. To obtain the information of sub-products (children) under the parent node for further mapping, you need to split the field.

Allowlist

Use this field to limit or filter the data from the data source that is passed to the search engine. Enter comma separated values in this field.

If you do not enter any values here, all data from the data source will be passed to the search engine.

External Search Definition Attributes

The External Search Definition Attributes section appears when you select PeopleSoft as the type.

Field or Control

Description

Split Fields

You need to specify split fields when you select URL as the data type.

You indicate a field from the data source, which requires a split.

When a request is made to the REST end point specified in the URL type, it returns a response containing JSON documents. These JSON documents can be nested or hierarchical in nature. If the data you require is under a parent node, then you need to use the split fields option to obtain the children under the parent node.

For example, in a product data source, the information related to a product is under a parent node called itemSummaries. To obtain the information of sub-products (children) under the parent node for further mapping, you need to split the field.

Data Source Attribute Mappings

In this section, you map the attributes of the external data search definition to the attributes of the data source. The attributes of the external data search definition associated with this data source are displayed enabling you to map these attributes to the attributes of the data source.

Field or Control

Description

Target Attribute and Type

Contains the attributes and its type from the external data search definition that you associated with the data source.

These values cannot be edited here.

Source Attribute

As part of the mapping of the external data search definition with the attributes of data source, if you need to map any nested fields under a split attribute, the mapping can be done using the split field as described in the previous section. For example, to map the field, Title, under itemSummaries, you should enter it as [itemSummaries][title] in the Source field.

Fixed Value

The Fixed Value column enables you to specify a value that meets your requirements. For example, for the City source attribute, you want information only about San Francisco, so you should specify San Francisco in the Fixed Value column.

Suggestions

When you select the suggestions icon, it displays the attributes from the actual data source, which you can choose for the Source Attribute column.

PeopleSoft Mappings

Use the PeopleSoft Mappings section to map a specific value from the data source to the PeopleSoft attribute. The mapping from the external data search definition, which you associated with this data source, is displayed here.

Field or Control

Description

Search Definition

The search definition defined in the PeopleSoft Mapping section of the external data search definition is displayed here.

This field is read-only.

Search Attribute

The search attribute defined in the PeopleSoft Mapping section of the external data search definition is displayed here.

This field is read-only.

Mapping Value

Map a specific value from the data source to the PeopleSoft attribute.

For example, the EP_AP_VENDOR search definition contains the VENDOR_NAME_SHORT attribute. For this attribute for the vendor, XYZ, the value stored in PeopleSoft is XYZ01. You should enter this value, XYZ01, in the Mapping value column. This value is added to all the search engine documents which are indexed and obtained from the XYZ data source.

Suggestions

Displays the values from the selected search attribute, which you can choose for the Mapping Value column.

If an external search definition, which is mapped to an external data source, is updated, then the updated data automatically reflects on this page.

Output

In the Output section, you specify where the data source output should be stored.

Field or Control

Description

Output Type

Select an output type based on your requirement.

  • Search engine - Save the external data to the search engine.

  • File - Select File for data sources created for intermediate processing.

If you select File, the following two fields—Codec and File—are displayed.

Codec

The Codec field corresponds to the codec setting of the Logstash file output plugin.

The external data that is sent as input requires to be transformed in order to ensure that it has all the necessary attributes to be used in PeopleSoft. The following sample code shows the transformed data.

%{[categories][id]},https://api.myproducts.io/newproducts/categories/%{[categories][id]}?api-version=2018-10-18&Subscription-Key=c455d00cb0f64e238a5282d75921f27e

Output gets transformed from:

"id" : "6642",
            "name" : "Prepared Foods",
            "type" : "1",
            "_links" : [
                {
                    "href" : "/newproducts/categories/6642?api-version=2018-10-18",
                    "rel" : "self",
                    "type" : "GET"
                }
            ]
        }

To:

6642,https://api.myproducts.io/newproducts/categories/6642?api-version=2018-10-18&Subscription-Key=c455d00cb0f64e238a5282d75921f27e

For more information on the codec setting, refer to Logstash documentation, which is available on www.opensearch.org.

File

Specifies the location of the file.

Test External Data Source

This section enables you to check the REST end point request and response.

Field or Control

Description

Request

Specify a request to test the data source.

Response

Displays the REST end point response.

Submit

When you click Submit, the REST end point request is initiated.

Use the Manage External Search Index page to control the indexing of data from the defined data sources using Logstash. The page lists the existing data sources and enables you to schedule the index build process or immediately start or stop the indexing process.

Access the Manage External Search Index page by selecting PeopleTools > Search Framework > Deploy External Source Defns > External Data Source Setup and from the left panel choose Manage External Search Index.

Alternatively, you may select PeopleTools > Search Framework > Deploy External Source Defns > Manage External Search Index.

This example illustrates the fields and controls on the Manage External Search Index page. You can find definitions for the fields and controls later on this page.

Manage External Search Index

Field or Control

Description

Data Source Name

Specifies the data sources that you added on the Data Source page.

Definition

Specifies the external data search definition that you associated with a data source.

Index Name

Displays the index name for the specified external data search definition. The index name is generated when you deploy the search definition.

Count

Indicates the document count for each search definition.

Created On

Indicates the day and time when the index was built.

Schedule

Enables you to set up the time and frequency of the indexing process.

The Schedule Definition page is described later in this topic.

Start/Stop

When you select Start, Logstash initiates the indexing process as per the schedule you’ve set.

When you select Stop, Logstash aborts the indexing process.

Scheduling the Indexing Process

Use the Schedule Definition page to specify the time and frequency of the indexing process, which is performed by Logstash. The scheduling information is stored in the Logstash configuration file. After setting the time and frequency schedule, you must select the Start button (on the Schedule Definition page) that initiates the indexing process as per the schedule.

Access the Schedule Definition page by selecting the calendar icon on the Manage External Search Index page.

This example illustrates the fields and controls on the Schedule Definition page. You can find definitions for the fields and controls later on this page.

Schedule Definition page

Field or Control

Description

Schedule At

Specify the date and time when you want the index process to commence. The Schedule page provides you the flexibility to specify the exact minute to commence the indexing process.

The time and frequency options are mutually exclusive. When you schedule the date and time for the indexing process, the other two frequency options are not considered and vice versa.

Repeat Hourly

Specify to repeat the indexing process by the number of hours, for example, you can set it to repeat every four hours.

Repeat Weekly

Specify to repeat the indexing process on a specific day of the week and the indexing process repeats every week on the specified day.

Note: The default schedule for indexing is one minute. If you do not set the time or frequency, the system runs the indexing process after one minute from the time you press the Start button. It runs only once after one minute and does not repeat.

Note: After you’ve set the schedule and saved it, ensure that you select the Start button. The Start button initiates the indexing process as per the schedule.