People Soft FAQ's
People Soft FAQ's
People Soft FAQ's
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Tell me about yourself? (try to hold your response to 2 minutes) What do you know about our company? Why should we hire you? What can you do for us that someone else can't? What do you look for in a job? What skills and qualifications are essential for success in the position of ______? How long would it take for you to make a meaningful contribution? How does this assignment fit into your overall career plan? Describe your management style. What do you believe is the most difficult part of being a supervisor of people? Why are you looking for a new career? How would your colleagues describe you? How would your boss describe you? How would you describe yourself? What do you think of your present or past boss? What were the five most significant accomplishments in your last assignment? What were the five most significant accomplishments in your career so far? Can you work well under deadlines or pressure? How much do you expect if we offer you this position? Why do you want to work for us? What other positions are you considering? Have you kept up in your field with additional training? What are your career goals? What are your strong points? What are your weak points? How did you do in school? What position do you expect to have in 2 to 5 years? If you took the job what would you accomplish in the first year? What was wrong with your current or last position? What kind of hours are you used to working or would like to work? Do you have your reference list with you? (Remember don't give it out unless it is asked for). Can you explain your salary history? What questions didn't I ask that you expected? Do you have any question for me?
1. What are the basic characteristics of a business unit? A business unit is an organizational entity that maintains its own transaction data. It's associated with a specific application; i.e., you can have General Ledger Business Units, Inventory Business Units, Billing Business Unit, etc. The number of business units you have should reflect your corporate structure. 2. What kind of information is stored by SetID? By business unit? SetID: control table information such as structures, descriptions, codes, processing rules .
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Business Unit: transaction data; i.e., sales orders, inventory stock, invoices, vouchers, payments, assets, journal entries. 3. What are the two ways you can define a Set ID? By adding a business unit, you automatically create a Set ID with the same name. By adding a independent Set ID through the Utilities window. 4. What is a Record Group? Why do we have Record Groups? A logical grouping of functionally related control tables and views. Record Groups exist to 1) save you time. With Record Groups TableSet sharing can be accomplished quickly and easily instead of requiring an enormous amount of setup for each control table, and 2) to act as a safety net. Record groups ensure that that TableSet sharing is applied consistently across all related tables and views in your system. 5. Why might you want to share TableSet information? Consistency across business units, less table setup during implementation, less table maintenance when operational 6. The Effective Date is a field on a row within a table. What does the Effective Date do? (1) Determines when information goes into effect. (2) Classifies information into a time category (3) Determines how the actions of Update, Update/Display All, and Correction work. 7. What should you do when you want to inactivate an effective-dated row? Insert a new effective dated row and mark it as inactive. This preserves your history. Chapter 3 Answers 1. Where do you set up the tables that are used by all PeopleSoft Financial applications? In Define Business Rules, Define General Options. 2. What is the Detail Calendar used for? Is it the same for each Financial application? To determine the accounting period in which a transaction belongs. Each application can use a different calendar. 3. Where do you specify the default business unit and TableSet ID for an operator? (and where do the defaults appear?) Operator Preferences panel. Defaults appear on dialog boxes and panels for table entry and transaction data entry. 4. What are the fields that make up the chart of accounts (or accounting structure) called in PeopleSoft? Give some examples of these fields. Which are required? ChartFields. Account, Department, Product, Project. Account, Currency Code and Statistics Code are required. You can choose not to use the others in our demo system, or you can create new ones of your own. 5. What is the difference between Absolute and Relative years and periods? Absolute TimeSpans will extract the year(s) and period(s) specified. Relative TimeSpans will extract years and periods as follows: 0 = current period/year, +1 = next period/year, -1 = previous period/year, etc. 6. What is the calendar used for in TimeSpans? To determine the value of Current Period. Chapter 4 Answers *1. What is the purpose of a Run Control? To store report/process parameters so you will not have to enter the data each time you want to run the report/process.
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2. Can you save report output to a file and print it simultaneously? No. If you print the output it is not saved in a file. If you send the output to a file it is not printed. You do have the option of sending the file to a printer if you want a hard copy. 3. How often is the Process Monitor panel updated? You can change this under Options, Refresh. The default is 30 seconds. 4. How do you delete a process instance from the Process Monitor? Double-click on the process instance line. The process instance would have to have a status of Error, Canceled, Successful or Unsuccessful in order for you to delete it. Chapter 5 Answers 1. Where are trees used in PeopleSoft General Ledger? ChartField summarization and maintenance, nVision reporting, summary ledgers, allocations, and consolidations. 2. What is a detail value? An individual ChartField value or range of values attached to a node at the end of a branch. 3. If you add a ChartField to your Chart of Accounts, how do you link it to the Tree Manager? Add a tree structure for that ChartField to the Tree Structure Table. 4. What are the three keys that uniquely identify each tree? Set ID, name, and effective date. 5. How do you specify which ChartField will be used when defining the tree? Select a Structure ID in the Tree Definition panel. 6. What are Strictly Enforced levels? Trees using Strictly Enforced levels cause a node's position in the hierarchy (as defined by the levels in the level bar) to be tied to its horizontal position in the tree. 7. How is a tree with No Levels different from a tree with levels? In trees with no levels, nodes are used to represent the summarization structure without respect to levels, and the nodes can be freely moved up or down the tree. 8. What are three ways to move nodes on a tree? Use the Cut and Paste from the Edit menu or the Tool Icons, or drag the node with your mouse. 1) How a Component Interface works? It is an integration tool. Useful for inbound purpose. Means we can enter data from other application to people soft database through component like user entry. 2) How a worklist is attached? Create activity with step, event, and worklist. Create business process. Create our worklist record by taking the first six fields of the PSWORKLIST record. add the additional fields which we want to go with workflow. give the business process name in worklist properties. map the fields in worklist properties. you write the people code in key field of the record we put in our page(workflow event). 3) What a Project does? COLLECTION OF OBJECTS. USEFUL FOR EXPORT FROM ONEDATABASE TO ANOTHER DATABASE, FOR UPGRADATION.
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4) What is the difference between the Upgrade and Development? DEVELOPMENT INVOLVES CUSTMISE OR CREATE NEW OBJECTS USING PEOPLETOOLS. MOVE THE OBJECTS FROM ONEDATABASE TO ANOTHER DATABASE IS UPGRADED IRRESPECTIVE OF VERSIONS.
5) How the new record is populated in the PeopleSoft Query? Using tree manager you must create a query access tree. add the record. give the securiy. 6) How are the Inputs given for SQR? ASK,INPUT RUN TIME VARIABLES 7) How are the Inputs given to the SQR when run through the Process Scheduler? THROUGH RUNCONTROL TABLES. USING SQCS, IF YOU ARE USING EXISTING RUNCONTROL TABLES. WRITE A NEW PROCEDURE OR CREATE NEW SQC IF YOU ARE CREATING A NEW RUN CONTROL TABLE. 8) How are the Security is given to a Page. for an User? USING MAINTAIN SECURITY. GO - PEOPLE TOOLS -- MAINTAIN SECURITY --- USE -- PERMISSION LIST -- UPDATE DISPLAY GOTO PAGES AND SELECT MENU WHERE YOUR PAGE GIVEN AND CLICK THE BUTTON YOU CAN GIVE THE SECURITY. 9) How are the Eff Dated tables query wriiten. 10)What are Page Controls. There are three type of controls are there. 1) Aesthetic controls 2) Data entry controls 3) Command and process controls 11) What are the TableEdits? Three types of edits are there. 1) yes/no edit 2) prompt table with no edit 3) prompt table edit 4) TRANSLATE TABLE EDIT 5) REQUIRED 6) REASIONBLE DATE 12) Parent Child Relationship. In the child table it should contain all the key fields of parent record and it can contain additional key fields. in properties of the child record mention the parent record name. 13) Scroll bars in a Page THESE SCROLL BARS WE CAN USE ONLY IN WIDOWS ENVRONEMNT. 14) Scroll Area in a Page. CAN WE USE IN INTERNET APPLICATION.
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15) How are the effective dated data is populated in a page. It depends on type of component action we are choosing (update , update/displayall , correction) 16) How the Imports are done from Flat Files.(By using SQR) By Using the file commands 17) How the Crystal Reports are used with People soft. USING PEOPLETOOLS PEOPLESOFT ODBC CONNECT WITH PEOPLESOFT DATABASE. SO THAT WE CAN ACCESS QUERIES IN QUERY TOOL. SELECT QUERIES ACCORDING TO OUR REQUIREMENT THEN CREATE CRYSTAL. CREATE/USE EXISTING RUN CONTROL TABLES, PAGE, COMPONENT THEN ASSIGN TO MENU FROM WHICH YOU ARE RUNING. SCHEDULE THE CRESTAL REPORT USING PROCESS SCHEDULER MANAGER, SPECIFY RECORD FIELDS TO PASS FIELDS VALUES TO THE PROMPTS OF QUERY USING IN CRYSTAL. 18) What are the Reports you have created in Payroll by what? 19) What happens if the People Code is written in both Component Level and Component Record Level? Only component record level people code will execute. 20) How many levels of Scroll can be there in Page Three ( 0,1,2,3 levels). 21)How are the Application Engine programs written? Using SQL , PEOPLECODE. 22)What are the sections in Application Engine? "MAIN" is only one compulsory section in application engine.if we are using the AE as application library then there will not be MAIN section.we can create any number of sections in our AE object. 23)What are the actions in the Application Engine? 1)do-select 2)do-while 3)do-when 4)do-untill 5)sql 6)peoplecode 7)log message 8)call section 24)what are search keys and alternate search keys pertaining to peoplesoft As Peoplesoft is a normalized database search keys are used to retrieve the data. alternate search key is used as search key EVEN IT IS NOT A KEY FIELD. for ex: emplid is search key and empname is an alternate search key.
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25)What are the values stored in xlatTABLE TRANSLATE FIELD VALUES. 26)What is the purpose of STDDAPI.SQC To update the program status in the process monitor 27)What does the xlat**.sqC do. This is used to retrieve the long name and short name of the translate values 1) Categorization of tools A) B) C) D) Development Tools Integration Tools Administration Tools Reporting and Decision Support Tools
Development Tools Application Designer Portal Technology People Code Application Engine People Soft Workflow Globalization Integration Tools Integration Tools PS Application Messaging PS Component Interface PS Business Interlinks Administration Tools PSIA Security Data Management PeopleSoft Upgrade Reporting and Decision Support Tools Process Scheduler PS Query PS nVision Cube Manager Tree Manager Crystal Reports 2) People Soft Internet Architecture The PeopleSoft Internet Architecture is comprised of a variety of components ranging from the browser to the database server, including the following: Web Browser Web Server Application Server Batch Server Database Server Web Browser : The web browser is the primary means by which end users and even administrators access PeopleSoft applications and administrative tools. You need to make sure that on each workstation a currently
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supported browser is installed. Other than that, you don't need to install anything else, such as applets or connectivity software, on the workstation running the browser. Web Server : A Java-enabled web server is required to support browser transaction requests and the application messaging technology. You install on the web server a collection of PeopleSoft Java servlets designed to handle a wide range of PeopleSoft transactions. Application Server : The application server is the core of the PeopleSoft Internet Architecture; it executes business logic and issues SQL to the database server. The application server consists of numerous PeopleSoft services and server processes that handle transaction requests. The application server is responsible for maintaining the SQL connection to the database for the browser requests as well as the Windows Development Environment. PeopleSoft uses TUXEDO to manage database transactions, and Jolt, TUXEDO's counterpart, to facilitate transaction requests issued from the Internet. Both TUXEDO and Jolt are products of BEA Systems. Database Server : The database server houses your database engine and your PeopleSoft database, which includes all of your object definitions, system tables, application tables, and data. The database server must be running one of the supported RDBMS/operating system combinations. The relationship between a database server and an application server is a one-to-many model. That is, a single database server can have multiple application servers connecting to it. The database server simultaneously handles the application server connections, Development Environment connections, and batch programs running against it. Batch Server : The batch server, or batch environment, is where you have Process Scheduler installed and configured, and it is the location where many of your batch programs run, such as Application Engine programs. In most situations this is also where you have your COBOL and SQR executables installed.
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Purpose of Search Key Search keys are the high-level keys for the row of data you are accessing. They uniquely identify a data. A Search dialog box is dynamically build based on the Search Key and Alterative Search Key. They allow us to perform partial searches. Alternative Search Key do not uniquely identifies rows of data, they generally provide more intuitive access to data.FQSK(Fully Qualified Search Key) uniquely identifies a single row on the table. How are Parent/ Child Tables created Breakdown of data based on a single field that occurs multiple times results in a Parent/Child relationship. A Child table must have all the key fields of the parent table in the same order plus at least one additional key field. Steps to build a child record definition Identify the parent record. Open the parent record definition. Clone the parent to the child record definition. Delete all non-key fields. Add at least one additional key field to the child. Add any additional non-key field to the child. Add the parent record name to the Use tab in the child's Record properties dialog box. Assign a prompt table edit to the key fields, which prompts to the parent record where the key field first appears. Save the child record definition. Build the child table. Differences between Prompt and Xlat tables?
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Prompt table stores a predefined set of valid values that are available to users during the data entry process. Users may be restricted to entering only those values/ the values may be provided as a suggestion. Translate table stores a predefined set of valid values that are available to users during the data entry process. To prompt faster data access, the translate table is stored on the client in Cache files. Each db has only one Translate table. 6) Effective Date Concept with an example Effective Dating creates a historical record of all changes made to data stored in a table. Applying the effective date function to a prompt table ensures that you maintain both historical and future data while providing users with data prompts that are valid at the time of data entry. Inserting a row into an effective-dated table causes the existing information to be copied into a new row that is identified by the system date. Differentiate among History, Future and Current rows of data Each row in an effective-dated table is categorized as Future, Current and History. Future -- The effective date of the data row that is greater than the system date. Current The effective date of the data row that is closest to, or equal to, the system date without being a future date. History The effective date of the data row that is less than the current data row. Steps of Application Customization in Application Designer There are Nine Steps for Application Customization i. Design the Application ii. Define New fields iii. Create the Record definition iv. Build the SQL table v. Create the Panel/Page definition vi. Define the Panel group/Component vii. Define the Menu definition viii. Enable Security ix. Test the Application In the above Steps from 1-7 we will use Application Designer and for 8th step we use Security Administration 9) What are the table Edits for a field There are four table edits for a field Translate Table Edit Prompt Table Edit Yes/No Table Edit Prompt Table with no Edit What are the scroll area conditions and what does it control? A page can have up to three scroll levels (1-3) besides Level 0. Scroll bars starts at Occurs Level 1. A Scroll bar can control only one record definition. This means all fields that follow the scroll bar in the panel order must be from the same record definition, unless they are related fields. All fields controlled by a scroll bar assume the same occurs level as the scroll bar. Two scrollable areas that reside on the same occurs level, dependent to the same higher level are referred as siblings. Pages cannot contain an occurs level greater than 3. People Soft has no restrictions on how many scroll bars can be created at each occurs level, only the number of occurs levels.
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What are the different levels on a page and what are their purposes? A page can have up to three scroll levels (1-3) besides Level 0. Any field not controlled by a scroll bar is a Level 0 field. Search keys should be Level 0 fields, and any field that depends only on a search key is also at Level 0. What is a relative field and how it is configured? A Relative field contains information derived from the Display Control field that can be displayed on the page. It is also known as related display field. A Display Control field identifies a field from another table, typically a prompt table or the XLATTABLE. A Related field must be display only. A Display Control field can be editable or display only. What does a search record control, and why is it important to a component? A Search Record controls two very important aspects of how an application functions. It determines which values we can enter to retrieve data from the database to populate a component, as well as which fields appear in the list box. We use search dialog boxes, based on fields in the search record, to request data from the database server. The application data table associated with the search record provides the data that populates the list box. Search records are assigned to applications on panel group definitions in the Application Designer. When an operator selects a menu item, people tools accesses the component definition to determine the search record. It then looks at the Use attributes of the search record definition to determine what should appear in the dialog box. How can you determine the appropriate actions for component? ADDUsed to add search keys. UPDATE/DISPLAYUsed on every page. UPDATE/DISPLAY ALLUsed with effective-dated panels only. CORRECTIONUsed with effective-dated panels only Add-- Used to add a new high level key, such as a new employee ID or a new customer Update/Display -- we can retrieve the rows of current,future and insert current,future and update future rows of data Update/DisplayAll -- we can retrieve the rows of history,current,future and insert current,future and update future rows of data Correction -- we can retrieve the rows of history,current,future and insert history,current,future and update history,current,future rows of data Data Entry-- Not supported in PeopleSoft Internet Architecture
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15) What are the layers of security provided in People Soft? People Soft security includes: Operator Security Operator Security controls who has access to PeopleSoft application, when that access is granted, and the level of authorized functionality within each application. Operator security is established using Security Administrator. Object Security Row-level Security Row-level security is implemented using SQL views to control the rows of data that can be accessed by each other. Field-level Security Field-level security restricts user access to specific data fields. Field-level security can be implemented by assignment PeopleCode to the restricted fields of a data record or by placing restricted fields on panels to which not all users have access.
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16) When do you gain A. Access to a new menu items added to your security definition? B. Access to new menu items added to a previously authorized menu? Couldnt understand the question 17) When can there be two occurs level 1 records on a page or in a component? The occurs level of any scroll bar depends on how its primary record definition relates to that of the existing scroll bares. If the data in a second scroll bar does not depend on the data from the first scroll bar, the second scroll bar has an occurs level of 1 then it has two occurs level 1 records on a page. 18) Which fields are on a page are occurs level zero fields? A page can have up to three scroll levels(1-3) besides level 0. Any field not controlled by a scroll bar is a Level 0 field. Search keys should be Level Zero fields, and any field that depends only on a search key is also at Level zero. What are the tables classifications in People soft databases? People Soft Database consists of 3 major sets of tables a) System Catalog Tables -- System Catalog Tables stores indexes and physical characteristics of tables, views and columns. The DBMS uses these tables to optimize performance. People Soft uses MS SQL Server technology. b) People Tools Tables -- People Tools Tables stores object-related data pertaining to the online processing of the system and the activities that occur when data is imported into a People Soft database. Updates to objects, such as records, panels, and menus, result in entries to the People Tools tables. The names of People Tools tables typically begin with Ps(no underscore) c) Application Design Tables -- Application Design Tables contain data created by the user. People Soft Application Data table names begin with PS_. What are the ordering rules for page elements? We dont know the answer. PEOPLE SOFT FAQ
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1. What is an ERP? It is a process of integrated flow of Information, which binds on the organization together.
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A Collection of software programs, utility scripts and (reports, messages, Cobol SQL statements, database tables and) data that provide the frame work for creating, using and modifying people soft applications. OR People tools provides built in business functionality and maintains the capability that directly increase productivity and simplify system design. 5. What does Application Designer mean? It is an integrated development environment that is used to develop People soft applications. 6. Functionality of Application Designer? The following are the uses of Application Designer. 1. Design and create database tables. 2. Design on-line panels 3. Controlling on-line processing flow. 4. Create application windows and menus 5. Providing security for the database. 7. Difference between Two-tier and Three-tier architecture? Incase of three-tier architecture an application server is connected between the end) and the client (front end). Incase of two-tier architecture the server is directly connected to the client. database server (Back
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7. View tabs Development tools / Upgrade 12. What is MDI? Multiple Document Interface having an option to open multiple windows at the same time. But only one window can be activated at a time.
13. What is Morphing? The Application designer uses an approach of morphing, or dynamically transforming the menus and toolbars to edit the definition in the active window. 14. How is data stored, retrieved, manipulated and processed in People soft applications? People soft is a table-based system. A database for a people tools application contains three major sets of tables 1. System catalog tables; it stores physical attributes of tables and views. (e.g. Sys, Columns, Sys tables) 2. People Tools tables; it contains information that you define using People Tools (e.g. PSRECDEFN, PSPNLDEFN, PSMENUDEFN) 3. Application Data Tables; Store the actual data users enter and access through People Soft application windows and panels. (E.g. PS_ < RECORDNAME>) 15. What is SQL Talk? SQL Talk is an interface to Peoplesoft database.
17. Define a Field? Fields are basic building blocks in People soft and can be used in application when they are added to atleast one record. Fields are globally defined. 18. What are the various Field attributes? The commons filed attributes are: 1. Data type 2. Field name 3. Long name 4. Short name 5. Formatting 6. Help context number 7. Translate values stored in separate table (XLATTABLE). 19. Define Field properties? Fields are 1.Globally defined 2 2.Reusable components and can be shared across multiple record definitions 3.Changes to the Field properties affects all the records that includes the field. 20. Elaborate on Field types? Field Type Char Long Char Number Sign Number Date Description It is an alphanumeric field of fixed length It is an alphanumeric field of Variable length A positive numeric field of fixed length A positive or a negative numeric field of fixed length Built-in Date Length 1 to 100 characters 1 to 2000 (Oracle backend) 18 (decimal position cannot exceed 18) 18 (decimal position cannot exceed 18) 10
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Time Date Time Sub record Image Built-in Time Windows default Built-in Date Time It is group of fields Store images onto the data base in the user defined Stored in raw binary format. Raw binary format format uses Hex notation. Unit of Storage is KB.
21 What is Translate Table? A translate table is a prompt table that serves as data dictionary to store values for fields need individual prompt tables of their own. that Dont
24. What are the different modes that get activated with Effective date? What is their utility?
The different modes that get activated with effective date record are Update/Display, Update/Display all the correction mode. Modes Update/Display Update/Display All Correction History / /+ Current / / /+ Future /+ /+ /+
25. History date Vs past Date? Past date - Within 30 days of current date is called Past date. History date - Above 30 days of current date is called History Date. 26. What is a record? A Group of non-repetitive fields is called a record. 27. How many types of records are there? There are six types of records
1. SQL table - Corresponding physical SQL table in the database we create with build option. 2. SQL View It is not a physical SQL table on the database, it gives the replicate of joined tables. It is 3. 4. 5.
used for security and faster access. Dynamic View It is actually stored in the form of SQL view text and is executed at runtime. It uses the built in indexes. Whereas normal view is executed and stored in the database. Derived/Work record - It is a temporary workspace to be used during on line panel processing and is not stored in the database, therefore derived work records are not built. They cannot be seen in the update/display mode. Once the panel is cancelled it is removed from the buffer. Sub Records A group of fields commonly used in multiple records.
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28. What are the naming conventions used in People Soft? The following are the naming conventions. Type of record SQL Table SQL View Dynamic View Derived / Work record Sub record Query View Work list SQR Report Audit Information Naming convention TL VW DVW WRK SBR QVW WL R AUDIT
29. How many types of Displays are there in the tool bar? 1. Field Display - It shows the filed attributes (fieldname, Type, Len, Format, H, Shortname, Long name 2. Use Display - It shows key related characteristics and default values for the fields (Field name, type, direction indicates, search key, list, system indicates, audit, H, default values) 3. Edit Display - It shows the auditing options available for the fields (field name, type required , edit, prompt table, reasonable date, people code) 4. People code display - It shows the different events and the user can choose required event to write people code. 30. Explain briefly about record properties? KEY: A field, which uniquely identifies each row, is known as a key to the record. 1. According, to the key field, we will search and retrieve data from the database. 2. This will not allow duplicate and not null values. 3. It is a primary key 4. It allows multiple keys 5. Maximum keys allowed in a record is 15 6. It should be placed at the top of the record definition. Duplicate Order Key: 1. 2. It provides a way of ordering data in the table when the duplicate values are allowed. It will create index for the column. However the index can be disabled.
Alternate Search key: 1. It identifies the field as a key that provides an alternative path into table data. 2. Due to alternate search key the system becomes slow, because database index will be created when SQL creates the tables, so it will consume the disk space. 3. It allows duplicate values. 4. Alternate search will be seen in the search dialog box when update/display mode is selected. Descending order key: It is used to retrieve data in the form of 3-2-1 or C-B-A and normally it is used in Effective date.
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31. What is ordering key? The following way we have to arrange the fields 1. Field with primary key and search box. 2. Field with primary key 3. Field with duplicate order key. 32. Define Scroll? How many types of scrolls are there? A Scroll is used to enter multiple rows and retrieve multiple row data. There are two types of scrolls: 1. Nested scrolls For each repeating data and for each entry with other set of repeating set of data is called a nested scroll. Maximum 3 nested levels are allowed. The nested scrolls share same high level keys. 2. Independent scrolls At each scroll level a maximum of 15 screen be included.
33. Define Occurs Level? Occurs level specifies the level of a scroll bar relative to any other scroll bars on a panel. The following are the occurs level at each nested scroll bar. The primary scroll bar in a set of nested scroll bars has an occur level 1 A Secondary scroll bar has an occurs level of 2, which means it is subordinate to scroll bar 1.The third scroll bar has an occurs level of 3, which means it is subordinate to scroll bar 2. 34. What are the types of controls that can be placed on the panel? There are three types of controls: 1. Aesthetic Control: It is used to organize the information on the panel and it is not associated with the database. There are 4 types of aesthetic contents. A) Text B)Frame C) Group box D) Static image. 2. Data entry control: It is used to offer different way to enter and maintain the information. There are 7 types of Data entry controls. A) Edit box B) Drop down list box C) Long edit box D) Check box E) Radio button F) Sub-panel image. 3. Function and data processing control: It adds command and maintains level of information on the command. There are 6 types of data processing controls A) Command push button B) Process push button C) Secondary panel D)Scroll bar E) Grid control F) Tree. 35. Define Sub-panel and Secondary panel? Sub-panel : It is a predefined, preside group control, which will appear in more than one panel. (Utility: if you have group of controls, such as address coasts, which you use on multiple panel definition, you can save those panel control groups on sub- panel) Secondary Panel: An invisible control that associates a secondary panel with a primary panel. (Utility: Secondary panels are used to gather or display supplemental information related to the object that appears in a primary panel) 36. Explain about display control field and related display control field? Display control field: It is controlling the field in some other record. Related control field: It is controlled by display control field. 37. What is panel group? Explain in brief about panel group? Panel group is the bride between panel and menu. A panel group is a set of panels That should be processed as if it is one panel.The panel group represents a complete business transaction because all the Information goes together. The group must be stored in the database as a single Unit of work. At runtime, we are opening and saving panel group not individual Panels. 38. Define a Menu? How many types of Menus exist? Menus are used to navigate the application (Menu is a window to the application)
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There are two types of menus:
1. Standard menu: It appears in the menu bar of a People soft application. 2. Popup menu: Allows the user to navigate related information in other areas of application by right clicking
on a panel or panel control. 39. How many types of securities are available in People soft? There are 6 types of securities: 1. RDBMS Security 2. Network security 3.Operator security 4. Object security 5.Tree level security 6. Query security (row level security) 40. Define security administrator? Security administrator is used to control and access the various People soft menus. 41. How many types of security administrator profiles? Define? There are three types of Security administrator profiles: 1. Access Profile: It is an RDBMS ID. It provides the necessary Ids and password for behind-the-scene process. 2. Class Profile: It is defined to organize the users into groups with common access rights or privileges. 3. Operator Profile: It is commonly referred as a Operator Ids or operator having associated sign on passwords. 42. What is Set ID or Table Set? Set ID shares common control table values. 43. Define Object Security? The Security profile which is created as an operator security to restrict access to People soft data. 44. Define Object Group? It is a collection of one or ore objects that form a logical group for security purpose. 45. What are the steps involved in developing a conversion strategy? The following are the steps involved: 1. Setting Operational Goals. 2. Timing 3. Developing and testing data load routines 4. Mapping your data 5. Performing conversion analysis 6. Evaluating source data 7. Evaluating Target Table. 46. What operations can Import Manager perform? Import Manager provides a mechanism for converting data from existing files to your People soft application data tables. Record definitions are foundations for Import Manager. 1. Field formats and editing: Import manager is used to upload file data from a designated source file into your application database. The source file containing data to be imported must be a fixed length ASCII file (. DAT FILE) 2. SQL Inserts: The Import manager performs only SQL inserts. This means that new rows of data with a unique key can be inserted into SQL table. Updates to an existing row of data cannot be done through import manager. 3. SQL commit: The SQL commit takes place at the end of each import load. If the import stops before the end-of-life, none of the new rows of data will be written to the database. 47. Will the import manager write data values to the target table if it encounters key values in the source table?
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NO If the utility encounters key values on the source file, error message is flashed and the rows will not be written to the database. To overcome this problem, we will have to enable by pass key value control in the Import manager. 48. Options available to run Import Manager? The following options are available to run import manager. 1. Edit: Read through the rows to imported and processes an edit report of the Results. No data is written to the database. 2. Load: Writes rows of data to the database and automatically prints an edit report Summarizing the result. 3. Compare: Reserved for future use. It currently has the same functionality as an Edit. 49.Import Manager Vs Data Mover? Import Manager An Import manager is used to import Data (row-by-row) data from ASCII Text file (.DAT ) into application Tables (People soft tables) In Import manager, only files can be Transferred. (I.e. Import data from The current database to the People Soft application) Data Mover Data mover is used to import as well as export from one database to another database, across operating systems.
In case of Data Mover, we can transfer from one RDBMS to another RDBMS.
50. Define Data Move? Data Mover is People Tool that provides a convenient way to: 1. Transfer application data between People soft data tables 2. Move People soft database across Operating systems and database plat forms. 3. Create release specific archives of People soft database or individual People soft records. 4. Execute SQL statements against any People soft database, regardless of the underlying operating systems or database plat form. 5. Control database security and access. 51. What is the usage of Data mover? Data mover is used to create edit and run scripts. These scripts may include any combination of SQL commands and Data mover commands for exporting and importing database contents. 52. What is Trace SQL? Trace SQL logs a variety of information about SQL activity called from People tools and from batch COBOL on a client or server. OR SQL Trace records information about the actual API (Application Process Interface) Calls both our GUI (Graphic User Interface) and COBOL Programs send to the Database. This tool is useful for debugging SQL Note: While operating with the Data Mover utility, the trace option should be disabled. Use SET NO TRACE statement to disable the SQL Trace.
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53. What is BOOTSTRAP MODE? When the Data Mover is launched using the Data base Access ID and Pass word, it is called BOOTSTRAP MODE. Typically, using Bootstrap mode is necessary for database loading, because there are no People soft security tables established yet. It is also helpful for accomplishing other security-related tasks, such as running Grant_Users and Encrypt_password scripts. In Bootstrap mode the following commands are not valid export, rename and replace View. 54. Explain the types of commands in the Data Mover? A Data Mover script can contain two types of commands. 1. Data Mover commands: Used to export and import database information and to otherwise modify database. Also, used to control script execution, call other Data Mover files and to enter commands. 2. SQL commands: These include both standard and non-standard SQL commands and are used to modify the database. 55. What is SQR? Features of SQR? *SQR (Structured Query Reports) is a programming language used in data processing and data reporting. SQR program can execute multiple queries.* Features: 1. More flexible 2. Scalability for Client and Server architecture. 3. Multiple platform portability 4. Multiple RDBMS portability 56. What is a FLAG? It is an attribute given to programming for processing and generating output destination file. 57. What is difference between .LIS and .SPF file? . LIS (list file) is used for line printer execution. Normally it is used for printing cheques. .SPF file is portable format, this is used for all window based applications with any printer. Normally it is used for MSPAINT, Image, Graphics. 58. How many types of SQR files are there? There are 5 types of SQR files. 1. SQC: SQC program files contain commonly included procedures that are called by other SQR programs. 2. . LIS when an SQR reports generate output it is sent to a file with an. LIS extension. 3. . LOG: SQR.LOG file is the output file used by People soft. This file contains all information such as errors and displays statements. That is output to the terminal during the execution of SQR. 4. . MAX: SQR does not dynamically allocate memory. The default program allocations (which were coded for lower DOS memory) usually have to be increased for complex SQR programs. Note: People soft uses a .MAX file to increase any SQR parameter where default is not adequate for the program. There is one main .MAX file for processing under SQR W (windows) called ALLMAXES.MAX 5. SQT: These program files are precompiled SQR programs. As a People soft 5+ there are no delivered precompiled SQR programs.
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The SQR command supports several flags. Each flag begins with a dash (-). Flags with arguments must be followed directly by the argument with no intervening space. SQR Command-Line Flags Flag Description -A Causes the report output to be appended to an existing file of the user name -Bnn (Oracle,SYBASE CT-Lib) Indicates how many rows to buffer each time data is retrieved from the database. The default is 10 rows. -C Specifies that the cancel dialog box appear while the program. -CB (Callable SQR) forces the communication box to be used. -DEBUG (xxx) (Sybase) Causes lines preceded by #DEBUG to be compared. Without this flag, these lines are ignored. -E(file) Causes error messages to be directed to the named file, or to the default file report err. If no errors occur, no file is created. -F (file) (Directory) Overrides the default output file name program .lis -KEEP In addition to .LIS files, creates an .SPF file for each report that your program generates. - LOCK(RR]CS]RO]RL]XX] (SQL Base) Defines the types of locking (isolation level for the session. -NR (SQL Base) Specifies that the No Recovery mode is used when connecting to the database. -XCB Do not use the communication box. -XL Prevents SQR from logging on to the database. Programs run in this mode cannot contain any SQL statements. -XMB Disables the error message display so that a program can be run without interruption by error message boxes. -XP (SYBASE DB-Lib) Prevents SQR from creating temporary stored procedures. -XTB Preserves the trailing blanks in an LIS file. -ZIV Invokes the SPF viewer after generating program .spf file. Using this flag implicitly invokes the KEEP flag to create program .spf file. -ZMF(File) Specifies the full path and name of the SQR Error Message file. The Sqr err.dat located in the directory indicated by the SQR DIR environment Variable is the default. 60. How SQR Programs are evaluated and executed at different times? FIRST PASS: Or Compile stage. SQR processes the following components of the program. 1. All # include external source files (SQCs) are inserted into the source program. 2. All # commands are evaluated. 3. The setup section is processes including allocation and population of memory arrays created by the load-look up command. 4. Optimization of the SQL data access path is determined. 5. Checks syntax of SQR source program. SECOND PASS: Actual execution of the program source occurs starting at the begin Report stopping at the end-report. 1. Process data for the body section. 2. Senses page overflow or response to new-page command in code. 3. Process heading section 4. Process footing section 5. Writes entire page buffer to file. 61. How many types of SQR data elements are there? Columns, variables, Literal 62. What does SQR report structure(program) consists of or Types of sections in SQR
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Program? Report or Program Determines where SQR will begin and end execution of your report. People soft uses this section to control the flow of processing by calling procedures using the do command, thereby utilizing modular programming. Setup Section Contains commands which describe the general report characteristics (Note: the setup section is preprocessed and is automatically run before the program begins execution. This section can only include SQR commands. Programming section A Begin SQL: The SQL paragraph allows you to execute any non-select SQL Statement. B. Begin-Document-: Allows you to mix background text. With the data retrieved from the database. C. Begin-Select: Select paragraph is the heart of the SQR program. For each row of data retrieved from the query, acting as an implicit while loop may also process a set of commands there. Here you specify what columns of data to retrieve from the database. Other procedures may be referenced within a select paragraph, which in turn may contain other select paragraphs. Note: In begin select SQR requires that columns names be flesh to the left margin and SQR commands be indented. Heading Section Footing Section Procedure Section : A procedure is a list of commands or paragraphs which are processed when referenced by a corresponding do command. Procedure names must be unique. Procedures can contain regular SQR commands as well as three special kinds of paragraphs: A. SQL B. Document C. Select 63. Explain Print Function? The print command, is both explicit and implicit, is the focal point for formatting and processing. Explicit print is used to print database column referenced by its pseudonym (&column name) or a user defined variable. The Implicit print is only valid for database columns as they are retrieved in the select para. 64. What are positional co-ordinates? Printing in SQR is placing output on the page grid. Position syntax is used to define where to place data on the page within a given section. 65. Explain briefly about On-break processing? On-break option on columns will cause each column to break independently from each other. When a break occurs the following happens, After procedure are processed in descending sequence from the highest level to the level of the current break filed. 66. Difference between ASK V/S INPUT? ASK : It is requests the user for the value and substitutes the value during compilation. It is used only in the setup section. INPUT : It requests the user for the value at runtime. (i.e., at execution stage). It can be used anywhere in the programming section. Note: INPUT is mere efficient than ASK. 67. Define an Array? An Array can be defined to store intermediate results or data retrieved from the database. 68. Define Process Scheduler? It is an centralized tool that enables application developers, system administrators and application users to manage People soft batch process. Process Scheduler enables you to schedule running process and create job.
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69.Difference between Process and Job? Process: A process is a single task, program or routine (such as SQR reports or Batch Cobol) that runs either on client or server. Job: It is one or more process of the same or different type, which can run either in series or Parallel. (A group of process can be combined and run as process job) 70. What is a set ID or Table set? It is going share common control table values. 71. What is an object group? Collection of one or more objects that form a logical group for security purpose. 72. What is business Process Map? It is an alternative method for accessing panels or it is a graphical representation of a map. 73. What is an activity? It is a collection of logical steps. It represents specific transaction a user might need to perform. 74. What is a business Process? It is a collection of activities and it represents broad area functionality, categorizing the several activities. 75 What is a Process? A task involved by the system. 76. What is a process instance? It is a process number used to request process. 77. What is a process server agent? It is going to initialize, select and parse the program. 78. What is a command line parameter? The executable (.EXE) file is nothing but command line parameter. E.g. C:/SQLbin\SQL.exe. 79. What is Parameter List? It defines under what database, platform will the program. (Nothing but the meta-strings) 80. What is Application Upgrade? It is a migration of object from one database to another and updating other system components such as application software. 81. What is Mass change and explain the uses of Mass change? Mass change is a SQL generator you can use to develop and perform custom applications. Using mass change, a developer can set up a series of INSERT, UPDATE, OR DELETE SQL statements that the end user can execute to perform business functions. The overall structure of Mass change is similar to that of People soft Query Except that Query retrieves data from the database while mass change actually updates the database. The uses of Mass change are as follows. 1. It is used to perform high volume set oriented transactions. 2. Copy data from table or table 3. Archive table data (Archive means that the data does not have backup file and uses to update the values)
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82. Why use Mass change and why not SQL execute to update a record, which is not attached to the panel? The reason why Mass change is preferred over SQL exec is. 1. Two- Three Mass change program can work at a single time. 2. Data / information need not be defined in Mass change 3. Mass change can be used for file download upload. 83. What are the steps involved in Mass change? The following are the order of steps involved in Mass change. `1. Define type 2. Assign to template 3. Operator security 4.Mass change definition 84. What is Mass change group? Adding all Mass change into a group. (i.e., Multiple Mass change definitions can be executed simultaneously). 85. What is workflow? To an extent all the business processes defined using the Application designer involve workflow. However we usually reserve the term to refer to processes that involve multiple users and the routing of data between the users. People soft workflow tools help you build the routings into your computer systems. You use them to tie together the individual steps so that the system can help coordinate the activities. 86. How Workflow is controlled? It is controlled by Decision Point (it is graphically denoted by a (?)). Where user has to choose which activity is appropriate towards the next step. 87. What are the key fields used in Key list? 7 key fields used in a key list. They are as follows.. 1. Busprocname- (Business Process Name) 2. Activity name 3. Event name 4. Work list name 5. Instance Id 6. Transaction Id 7. Emplid Note: While defining the above fields in the record definition, a key has to be assigned in the record field properties. 88. What is routing in workflow? Transfer of roles / users 89. Why workflow is used and explains the advantage of workflow in People soft application? Workflow typically eliminates the job tasks associated with controlling paper flow, and frees people the once performed clerical functions to do more meaningful work. Tasks that dont require user involvement Tasks that involve non People soft users Tasks that several users work on together. 90. Define the components of workflow? There are 3 underlying components of workflow i.e., Rules, Roles, Routing.
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Rules Rules are your companys business practices captured in software. Rules determine what activities are required to process your business data. The rules are contained in policies and procedures documents. Roles Roles describe how people fit into the workflow. A role is a class of users who perform the same type of work, such as clerks or managers. Your business rules typically specify what user role needs to do an activity. Roles direct the work to types of people rather than to individuals. Identifying roes instead of individual users makes your workflow more flexible and easier to maintain. Roles remain stable even as people change jobs. Routings Routings connect the activities in the workflow. They are the systems means of moving information from one place to another, from one step to the next. Routings bring the flow into workflow. The network of routings creates a business process from what used to be isolated activities. Routings make it possible to deploy applications throughout the enterprise. They work through the levels and departments of an enterprise to bring together the role that are necessary to complete complex tasks. 91. What is a workflow processor? Workflow processor is a suite of online agents that run and control the workflow in your business processes. Once you define your business processes, you set up agents to do the work for you. Workflow processor consists of: Word lists, which are ordered lists of the work a person (or group of people) have to do. Application agents, which detect when a business rule has been triggered as users enter data into a People soft application. They evaluate who should action the new work instance (the role) and routes it to them (the routing) The message agent, which processes messages sent to People soft external systems, such as electronic mail systems, interactive voice response systems, kiosks, other workflow systems, even the internet. It provides an application-programming interface (API) that enables third-party systems to integrate with People soft applications. Database agents, which monitor the People soft database to identify items that need to enter workflow, such as overdue requisitions, scheduled performance reviews; departments that are over budget-any item you want to be alerted about. Workflow Administrator gives you the ability to access, monitor, analyze, and control workflow in your organization, which activities take the longest, which work lists are overloaded, and you can redesign work when an employee is out sick 92. What is a Tree? It is a People soft object that defines the grouping and hierarchical relationship between the values of database fields. It also specifies how the system groups together the values of the fields for the purpose of reporting and security access. Note: A particular tree is imported through out People soft system. Only one tree should be active throughout People soft system at a time. 93. What is a Tree Node (Unit)? It represents the group of detailed values that report to it. 94. What is a Tree level? It provides the short way to refer all nodes that share a single parent.
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95. What is a node? It is an individual branch of main level. 96. What is a Parent? A node, which has other nodes reporting to it. 97. What is a child? Lower level than its parent is called a child. 98. What is a sibling? A node, which is placed at the same level, is called sibling. 99. What is meant by category in Tree manager? High-level grouping under which you can organize your tree structure and tree definition. 100. Explain the various options to define a Tree? There are 2 options to define a Tree.. 1.Detailed Tree: used to gather information about the various parts of the tree. 2.Summary Tree: collection of detailed tree nodes. 101. What are the advantages of Tree Manager? The following are the advantages of a Tree Manager.. 1. By building a tree you can make rules centralized and can be used throughout the system. 2. Tree makes it easier to select the values you want to include in a report, ledger or security profile. 3. The main advantage in a tree is that it summarizes the rules visually and you can easily see as to now the values relate to each other. 102. What is an application reviewer? It is a tool, which is window, based and designed as an aid in debugging People code programs. It allows us to investigate processing errors and to set a break point in between programs. Note: People code works in data on the stacks. (Stacks store the internal machine execution numbers) 103. What are the important Cross-reference Reports in People soft? There are three important Cross-reference reports in People soft.. 1. XRF PCFL (Cross reference people code to field) 2. XRF FLPC (Cross reference field to People code) 3. XRF PNPC (Cross reference panel to People code) 104. What is a Query Tool? Query tool is a powerful tool for defining database queries in an easy-to-use graphical environment. You can extract the precise data you want using visual representation of People soft database. 105. Enlist the uses of Query tool? The following are the uses of Query tool.. 1. It is used to simplify SQR statements 2. It can be used to generate one-time adhoc queries or queries used repeatedly. 3. It provides security for queries. 4. Query tool can be used to generate Pnvision and Crystal reports. 106. Explain briefly the types of queries? There are 3 types of Queries
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Search for records. Many of the search dialog boxes in People soft applications enable you to open Query and create a query based on the search record definition. This option enables you to search for records based on sophisticated search criteria. This type of query is called a search query. Determine who to forward information to. You can write queries that People soft Work flow uses to determine who to send e-mails, forms, or work list entries to. This type of query is called a role query> User defined queries (adhoc query) is used to generate reports in the user defined format. 107. Explain briefly about the Database tab and Query tab? When you click the database tab, you see a list of available record definitions (or record components). You can view these records as either a tree of access groups or as an alphabetical tree of records to which you operator ID has access. When you click the Query tab, you see all the components used in the current query (such as record components, field components, prompts, expressions, and so on. 108. What is an Access Group in a Query tool? Access groups provide a way for you to logically organize the record components to control security access within Query. It is not a physical representation of your database. The record components shown are those that the operator has been granted access to. 109. Explain briefly about Crystal Reports? With Crystal Reports Pro from Seagate software, you can generate attractive reports. Crystal reports builds directly on queries you create in People soft Query. Crystal reports pro for windows are a report formatter that helps you to generate clear and easy to read printed reports containing data from your People soft applications. You can generate standard reports we have already created and saved in Crystal, or create your own custom reports. Generating formatted output in Crystal involves two steps. First you create and save queries in People soft Query then you create report definitions in Crystal to format the fields (columns) used in the queries. Once you have created and saved the report definitions, you can print reports that are easy to read and understand. You can generate reports in a variety of different formats, including ASCII files, Microsoft Word documents and spread sheets. 110. What are the types of layers in Crystal reports? There are 4 types of layers in Crystal Reports. They are.. 1. Report Header - In this, we will write title, date, and logos of the company. 2. Page Header Used to write column headings. 3. Detail Contains database column values. 4. Page Footer Used to write page numbers and address. 111. What is Application Engine? It is the tool, which performs, background SQL processing against our application data tables. It is an alternative for COBOL, SQL or SQR Programs. Other tools such as query tool and mass change generate SQL. 112. What are the parts of Application Engine? Application Engine consists of 4 parts. 1. Application: It is a set of SQL statements. 2. Steps: It is the smallest unit of work committed in an application. 3. Sections: Comprises of 1 or more steps 4. Statements: SQL statements like update, insert, delete or select are issued. 113. What is the advantage of using Application Engine? The following are the advantages of using Application Engine..
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Encapsulation Unlike applications developed using COBOL or SQR, Application Engine applications reside completely within your database. With Application Engine, there are the programs to compile, no statements to store, and no need to directly interact with the operating environment in use. You can build, run and debug your applications without existing People Tools. Effective Dating Application sections are effective dated-meaning you can activate/deactivate a section as of a particular date. This enables you to archive sections as you modify them, instead of destroying them. In the future if you decide to revert to a previous incarnation of a section you can simply reactivate it. SQL / Meta-SQL Support In addition to writing your SQL within Application Engine, you can also copy SQL statements into Application Engine from SQL talk or any other SQL utility with few if any changes. RDBMS platforms have many differing syntax rules especially in regard to date, time and other numeric calculations. For the most part you can work around this problem using Meta-SQL which Application Engine supports. This language was created to handle different RDBMS SQL syntaxs by replacing them with a standard syntax, called Meta-strings. With in Platform specific sections You can also have the ability to call generic portions of SQL statements by using the & CLAUSE function. This means you can write your generic SQL portions just once, and reference them from your different platform versions. Set Processing Support Set processing is a SQL technique used to process groups (or sets) of rows of one time rather than one at a time. Application Engine is particularly effective of processing these types of applications. Object Orientation Unless designed to anticipate changes in field attributes. COBOL applications may need to be modified when things change. If a developer increases a fields length, then it may need to be changed in every instance where the COBOL program uses this field as a bind or select variable. This can require a good bit of effort. And, if not handled properly, a change like this can cause confusing errors. For example, if the length of a field in the COBOL is wrong, it may work fine, or you may get an error, or the field may get truncated. One of the corner stones of People soft functionality is Application Designer. Because of the way it works, most field attributes (type, length and scale) can be specified once, globally. If the field is used on more than one record, it has the same attributes in each of these records. PORTABILITY You can use Data Mover to import/export your applications. This means that you can export an application(s) into a file, and attach it to an e-mail message. Then, the recipient can simply use the IMPORT feature of Data Mover, and the application is ready to run. 114. What is a Cache Record? The Cache record (or cache) is a physical People soft record, keyed by process instance that must be created and maintained by the Application Engine developer. This record defines the fields that an application uses to pas values from one SQL statements to another. You retrieve cache field values by the Application Engine and BIND function; you assign cache values using & SELECT. 115. What is unique about panels, which refer to view as opposed to physical tables? Panels that refer to views in People soft are not used for insert, update or delete. All fields on these panels are display only.
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116. How search records are used? Search records are used to search, retrieve and filter data. Search records also define the structure of the dialog box. 117. Where are the search records assigned? Search records are assigned to a panel group in a menu. 118. Does the search record for a panel has to be the same as the record being Accessed on the panel? Why or Why not? The search record for the panel does not have to be the same as the record being Accessed on the panel because the search record is used to search for and or Filter the search key. 119. How can a search record dialog box be suppressed? A search record dialog box can be suppressed by assigning a search record that does not have search key. 120. What do search views delivered by People soft do besides displaying the dialog Box? Search views delivered by People soft are used to implement row level security as well as display a dialog box. 121. What do you need to do to modify the search views? To modify a search view, we need to change the record definition and recreate the underlying SQL view. 122. When would you have to alter the tables and modify the panels, in the process Of modifying search records? You need to alter tables and modify panels, when you modify a search record to include a new field. 123. When will there be two occurs level records in a panel group? If you are referring to two different record definitions that share a same high-level key then two-level onescroll bar can be displayed as stacked scroll bars. 124. In what order does the application processor fill buffer for the panel group? The application processor uses occurs level in the panel group to fill the buffer. 125.Differentiate Error V/s Warning statements in People code? The error statement issues a message and the condition causing the error must Be corrected before proceeding. The warning statement issues a message and The user can proceed without changing any values. 126. Where can you run Jobs? The process scheduler can run jobs on the client or a server machine. 127. What restrictions are placed on multi-process jobs? A multi process jobs can only be scheduled to run on a server. 128. List the three output destinations available through the Process Scheduler? You can direct the output to a printer file and windows screen. 129. Where do you set up default operator / class options for Process Monitor? In operator security, using change, process profile. 130. What are the advantages of incorporating Table set ids into People soft applications? Table set Ids allow you to share sets of values (codes) in the same prompt table.
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131. What fields should be at the tope of every search record definition that use table set Ids? SET ID is the field that should be at the top of every record definition that uses table set Ids. 132. What is a Record Group ID? A Record group ID is a group of record definitions that are Sharing the same set control field. 133. What do you determine using Table set Ids control information? Table set ID control information determines how the information should be shared. The Table set ID control panel defines which Table set Ids set control filed code will use for each record group. 134. What are the three types of Maps used by the navigator? The 3 types of Maps used by the navigator are.. 1. Business Process Map 2. Activity Map 3. Step Map
1.WHY SQR PROGRAMMING REQUIRES MORE LOGIC ? MORE LOGIC IS REQUIRED WHICH IS NOT POSSIBLE WITH GUI REPORT TOOLS. 2.WHERE THE DATABASE UPDATES ARE REQUIRED AS PART OF SQR PROGRAM? REPORTS+TABLE CHANGES 3.WHAT R THE SQR USES? FOR REPORTING,BACK GROUND SQL PROCESSING,INTERFACE OR FILE HANDLING 4.WHAT R THE SECTION'S IN SQR, WHICH SECTIONS ARE MANDATORY? BEGIN-PROGRAM,BEGIN PROCEDURE,BEGIN HEADER,BEGIN FOOTER,BEGIN SETUP. BEGIN-PROGRAM SECTION IS MANDATORY FOR SQR PROGRAM 5.WHAT R THE PARAGRAPHS WE R HAVING IN SQR AND IN WHICH SECTIONS WE CAN USE PARAGRAPHS? a.BEGIN SELECT---WE CAN USE IN BEGIN PROGRAM AND BEGIN PROCEDURE b.BEGIN SQL----BEGIN PROGRAM,BEGIN PROCEDUREAND BEGIN SETUP c.BEGIN DOCUMENT--BEGIN PROCEDURE,BEGIN PROGRAM 6.WHAT R THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF VARIABLES WE HAVE IN SQR? a.COLUMN VARIABLES(&) b.SQR VARIABLES STRING VARIABLES($) NUMERIC VARIABLES(#) DATE VARIABLES($) c.SQR LITERALS STRING LITERALS NUMERIC LITERALS DATE LITERALS d.SYSTEM VARIABLES e.SUBSTITUTION VARIABLES 7.WHAT R THE RUNTIME VARIABLES AND COMPILE TIME VARIABLES? a.SQR BIND VARIABLES(SQR RUNTIME VARIABLES) b.SUBSTITUTIONAL VARIABLES c.DYNAMIC QUERY VARIABLES
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8.WHAT R THE RUNTIME VARIABLES VARIABLES AVAILABLE IN SQR? a.INPUT 9.WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ASK AND INPUT? a.ASK WILL BE PROCESSED AT THE TIME OF COMPILE STAGE INPUT WILL BE PROCESSED AT THE TIME OF EXECUTION STAGE b.ASK WE CAN USE IN SET UP SECTION INPUT WE CAN USE IN ALL SECTIONS c.THERE IS NO DATATYPE AND FORMAT TYPE FOR ASK COMMAND INPUT WE CAN SPECIFY THE DATATYPE LENGTH AND FORMAT d.ASK WE CANNOT USE IN SQR REPORTS RUNNING FROM THE PEOPLESOFT ENVIRONMENT INPUT WE CAN USE IN PEOPLESOFT 10.WHAT R THE DEBUG COMMANDS WE R HAVING IN SQR? SHOW,DISPLAY NOLINE,DEBUG XXX(IS USED COMPULSARY IN COMMAND LINE FLAG),#DEBUG,#IF,#IF NDEFF,#ENDIFF
11.WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SHOW AND ENDIFF COMMAND? USING THE SHOW COMMAND I CAN SHOW MORE THAN ONE VARIABLE VALUES IN A SINGLE LINE. USING DISABLE COMMAND WE CANNOT BUT WITH USING DISPLAY COMMAND WITH NOLINE WE CAN SHOW IN THE SAME LINE. 12. WHAT R THE WAYS WE CAN INCREASE THE PERFORMANCE TUNING? LOAD LOOKUP, ARRAYS, MULTIPLE REPORTS, USING RUNTIME FILES (SQT), RUN ON THE SERVER 13. WHAT R THE DIFFERENT FILES WE USE IN SQR? .SQR, .LIS, .SPF, .SQT, .MAX, .LOG, .SQC 14. HOW TO DECLARE THE LOCAL VARIABLES? a. APPARENTLY WE HAVE TO SPECIFY AS LOCAL VARIABLE (LOCAL DATATYPE VARIABLENAME) b. IF U R USING THE VARIABLE IN LOCAL PROCEDURE THAT VARIABLE BECOMES LOCAL VARIABLE 15. HOW TO WRITE LOCAL PROCEDURE? APPARENTLY WE HAVE TO SPECIFY PROCEDURE AS LOCAL Eg: BEGIN PROCEDURE PROCEDURE NAME LOCAL IF THE PROCEDURE IS HAVING PARAMETERS (IT CAN BE INPUT OR OUTPUT) 16. WHAT R THE STEPS REQUIRED TO RUN SQR FROM PEOPLESOFT? a. WRITE THE SQR SOURCE PROGRAM b. MAKE IT AS API AWARE c. CREATE THE PAGE USING EXISTING RUN CONTROL TABLES OR NEW RUN CONTROL TABLES. d. SCHEDULE THE PROGRAM USING PROCESS SCHEDULER MANAGER 17. WHAT IS THE USE OF MAKING SQR PROGRAM API AWARE? WE CAN SEE THE STATUS OF OUR SQR PROGRAM IN PROCESS MONITOR 18. WHAT SQC'S WE R USING TO MAKE YOUR PROGRAMAS API AWARE? STDAPI.SQC 19. WHAT ARE PROCEDURES IN STDAPI.SQC? STDAPI-INIT
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STDAPI-TERM 20. WHAT SQC'S NORMALLY WE R USING IN THE SQR PROGRAM IN PEOPLE SOFT ENVIRONMENT? SETENV.SQC 21. WHAT R THE SQC'S R AVAIBLE TO REPRESENT DATE PROCEDURES? DATETIME.SQC, CURRENTDATE.SQC 22. ERROR HANDLING? ONERROR = SKIP/WARN/STOP (INSETUP SECTION) ONERROR = PROCEDURE (NAME) (PROCEDURE SECTION) 23. HOW DO U RETRIEVE 1000 ROWS OUT OF 100000 IN SQR SELECT? BEGIN-SELECT PARAGRAPH LOOPS= NN
24. DO U HAVE INCLUDED FILES (.sqc's) AT THE BOTTOM OF AN SQR PROGRAM? ans: yes --stdapi.sqc, curdttime.sqc, datetime.sqc,number.sqc readxlat.sqc,sqrtrans.sqc. 25. HOW DO U WRITE OUTPUT OF AN SQR REPORT TO AN EXCEL FILE? ans: GENERATE .CSV FILE 26. HOW DO U DEBUG THE SQR PROGRAMS? ans: show,display,-debug, #debug, #ifdef,#ifndef,#if 27. DIFFERENT SECTIONS IN SQR? ans: begin-procedure,begin-program, begin-setup,begin-heading,begin-footing 28. WHAT IS THE MAX LEVELS YOU CAN USE "ON BREAK" COMMAND OF SQR.? ans default is 30 which can be changed in sqr.ini and the max is 64k-1. 29. HAVE U DONE ANY MULTI LEVEL REPORTING USING SQR.? if multiple reports then a yes using declare-layout and declare-report and then using it in the procedure. if it is a multi-levels in on-break then a yes, while using on-break on more than one field and use order by clause in the begin-select 30. NAME SOME system VARIABLES IN SQR.? ans: $current-date,#sql-count,$sql-error,$sqr-database , #current-column,#current-line . 31. CAN U USE "ON-BREAK" COMMAND IF U R WRITING THE OUTPUT TO A FILE INSTEAD OF TO A PRINTER? ans: no we cannot use. 32. QUESTIONS ON THE INCLUDED ".SQC" FILES IN AN SQR REPORT/PROCESS...(LIKE FILES WHICH INTERACT THE PROCESS MONITOR FOR UPDATING STATUS)....? ans:stdapi.sqc 33. Difference between ask and input in sqr? Ask is used in setup section only ask is used only for windows and there is no data type. where as input can be used anywhere and datatype,format and length needed to be declared compulsary
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34. NAME SOME global VARIABLES IN SQR.? a all the user defined variables are global. 35. HOW DO U DEBUG THE SQR PROGRAM Ans : using show and display 36. WHATS ARE THE SQC U HAVE USED 37. HOW DO U RUN SQR FROM PEOPLE SOFT ENVIRONMENT?
38. WHAT IS LET, MOVE, SHOW, and DISPLAY? 39. WHAT IS SQT FILE? WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF SQT FILES? 40. WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF REPORTS U CAN GENERATE USING SQR 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. HOW DO WE INCLUDE SQR PROGRAM IN ANOTHER SQR PROGRAM? TELL ME ABOUT SQCS INVOLVING DATES? TELL ME ABOUT SQCS INVOLVING PRINTER? TELL ME ABOUT SQCS INVOLVING PAGESETUP? WHAT IS USE OF .INI FILES? IF I WANT TO USE SYSTEM COMMANDS WHICH SQC I HAVE TO USE? HOW DO WE RUN SQR IN PEOPLE SOFT ENVIRONMENT? WHAT IS DIFFERENCE BETN SHOW AND DISPLAY? HOW DO U DEBUG SQR PGMS? HOW DO U INCLUDE GRAPHS IN SQR SQR PGMS? CAN WE SEND SQR OUTPUT TO WORD DOCUMENT OR CRYSTAL REPORT? CAN WE USE ON-BREAK ON NUMERIC VARIABLES? SQC'S HOW CAN YOU MAKE SQR API-AWARE?
SQR Questions What is SQR used for ? Ans: It is a Reporting Tool for creating customised reports to be run from PeopleSoft panels for formatting reports, data transfer, data uploading/downloading etc. How SQR identifies where we keep sqr files (Path of SQR files)?
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Ans: It is specified in Configuration Manager. 3) Which SQC file is used for From Date and To Date. Ans: AskEfdt.sqc How do we Debug SQR ? Ans: a) by using #Debug, or #Ifdef Debugx #endif. using Show or Display command. How do you Optimise SQR ? Ans: a) You can optimise SQR by breaking big sql statements into simple sql statements. b) Using LoadLookup command. Using an Array or flat file instead of database tables. Examining Cursor Status by using -S flag while executing sqr. What is a difference between Ask & Input command ? Ans: Ask is a compile time substitute variable which is defined in Begin-Setup. It is used to take an input at compile time. For example you want to accept a printer from user at compile time. Input command is used to accept user input at runtime. How do we Convert Number to String in SQR ? Ans: Using Tochar function or even by assigning. #var is numeric, $var is string. How do you accept Date variable as an Input from a user ? Ans: Input $Fieldname type-date format dd/mm/yyyy How do you Fetch values from Arrays in SQR ? Ans: Get & Put is used for inserting values in array. How to find out Which SQL is running in SQR ? Ans: Using -S flag while executing SQR at runtime. What is Extract in SQR ? Ans: Extract copies a portion of string into a string variable & substring is to extract a string from a string variable.
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What are Open & Read functions of file opening in SQR ? Ans: Open Vendor.dat as 1 for-reading record=50:vary Open C:\sqrtemp\vendor2.txt as #1 for-writing record=93:FIXED If #filestat=0 (file opened successfully) Write #1 FROM $iSalVCode:3 End-If How do we Concatenate String in SQR ? Ans: Using Concat function or || as pipes. How do we work on Effective dated rows on SQR ? Ans: Write a subquery to get current effective date & then write an outer query for matching effective dated rows from a record. How do I Reference Global variable in a local procedure in SQR ? Ans: I can access Global variable with #_VariableName from local procedure. How do you Declare a local procedure in SQR ? Ans: Using Begin-Procedure <procedurename> local How do you Place a Date into Heading Section of SQR ? Ans Use Date-Time function in SQR & Page-Number. How do you trap Errors in SQR ? Ans: a) Using BEGIN-SELECT ON-Error=ErrorProcedureName b) In procedure display #SQL-Error to show ErrorNumber & $SQL-Error to display message. What the use of ON-Break in SQR ? Ans: Syntax: ON-Break Level=1 skiplines= 4 After = ProcedureName vcc Usage: It is used to group set of records for each level & break at each level. What is a syntax of LoadLookup ? Ans: It is declared in Begin-Setup. Syntax: Load-Lookup Name=<name> Table = <tablename> Key = <primarykey> Return_value = <FieldName> Where = FIELDNAME= <fieldname> What are the statements used in Begin-Procedure ? Ans: Begin-SQL, Begin-Select, Begin-Document etc.
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21) What is a difference between Begin-Select & Begin-SQL ? Ans: BEGIN-SELECT has only one SQL statement. BEGIN-SQL can have any number of DML statements & it can also have PL- SQL statements for oracle & each statement should end with double semi colon (;;). 22) Can Multiple Columns be retrieved in LoadLookup command in SQR ? Ans: Yes, it has to be joined by a double pipe symbol ( || ). 23) Which SQC tells you that some Job is completed ? Ans: Eoj.sqc tells you about that. 24) Which SQC is responsible for system memory allocations ? Ans: AllMaxes.max How do you control the number of iterations or fetch records firing SQL statement in SQR. Ans: By using Begin-Select Loops=<number> statement. What SQCs you have written while customisation. Ans: How do you Enter a line in an SQR ? Ans: Print - (y,x,100) FILL How do you know in SQR on which cursor position you are residing ? Ans: #Cursor-pos How do you Use XLATT table in SQR ? Ans: a) Include ReadXlat.sqc. b) Put values into $fieldName, $fieldValue c) Call procedure read-translate-table d) Get $XLATLongName & $XLATShortName from XLATTABLE of PeopleSoft database. How do you Define arrays in SQR ? Ans: Syntax: #define array-size 50 Begin-Setup CREATE-ARRAY NAME=<arrayname> SIZE=<size> FIELD=<fieldname>:<DataType>:<Size> End-Setup How do you differentiate printing a database column & any other variable in a select statement ? Ans: Database fields should start with the 1st column. Indent other print statements with at least one column right. How do you print a document/letter using SQR ? Ans: Using Begin-Document, End-Document in a procedure. Call this procedure before From Clause in Begin-Select to print for each record. What is a difference between EDIT & Format in SQR ? Ans: EDIT is used for formatting while printing & Format is used while Input specially for date. How do you put a blank line in Begin-Document End-Document ? Ans: Using .b What is STOP QUIET used for in SQR ? Ans: Stops execution of SQR & come out of it.
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How do you refer to a Constant in SQR ? Ans: A constant is referred in curly braces { }. How do you Execute SQR using Process Scheduler ? Ans : a) Include some RunControl panel having OperatorID & RunCntlID. b) This panel includes PRCSRUNCNTRL table & RUNCNTRL table having OperatorID & RunCntlID. c) Add your own input fields to this RunControl record & also drag drop it onto your panel. d) Write PeopleCode OPRID = %OperatorID; in RowInit event of OPRID field. Write procedure into SQR code which would have an SQL statement to fetch you fields from RUNCNTL table. Remark all input fields. Execute this procedure in else part of If $prcs_process_instance = which means that this sqr is to be executed from Process Scheduler. How to Avoid double declaration of an SQC file ? Ans: To check this write all procedure of an SQC in the following : #Ifdef <constant> #define <constant> <write all procedures of an sqc file> #endif What Commands are used to show Output on Screen of an SQR at runtime ? Ans: Display & Show are the commands for that.
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Difference between SQR/Crystal/nVision ? SQR Report Crystal Report NVision Report GUI It does not provide GUI interface to create reports. It provides GUI Interface for creating reports. It provides GUI Interface for creating reports. Interface writing. Uploading/Downloading data from flat file to PS & vis-a-versa. Cannot be used for Interface writing. Cannot be used for Interface writing. Programming Language SQR language for reporting is a programming language in which you can create your own SQCs libraries for reusability & also you can hold intermediate data for processing etc. You cannot write complex programs, at the most you can use few If-Else statements based on the data fetched. You cannot hold intermediate data.Only prints reports based on PSQueries. Excel Specific Output SQR Report output can be on text file, word document etc. Crystal Report output can be of any type. It provides output only for Excel spreadsheets. What are the Common Flags used for SQRs ? -A : Causes reporting output to be appended to an existing file of the same name. -C : Cancel dialog box appears so that user can terminate the program. -DEBUG: Used in conjunction with #debug command to display additional information when troubleshooting SQR programs. -E : Specifies that an error file be created and allows you to specify the filename. -I : Location of *.SQC or other include program files. -F : Specifies a file or directory where the *.lis file should be created, instead of in the default location. -O : Filename for the log file. -RS : Creates a runtime version of your SQR. Creates a file with the *.sqt extention. PeopleSoft does not use runtime SQR programs. -M :SQR configuration file. Used to modify default SQR properties(AllMaxes.max) -PRINTER : Causes printer type to be specified. -S :Displays the status of the all cursors at the end of the run. This is used for troubleshooting SQR programs. -Tnn : Specifies you to run SQR in test mode for the specified(nn) number of pages. -CB : Forces communication box. -XCB :Do not use communication box. Request for input will be made in Windows dialog boxes. 42) How can I suppress display of the SQR banner line when running SQR ? Ans: Use the -XB flag. 43) Are SQR commands and variables case sensitive ? Ans: No. Commands can be spelled with any case combination. The SQR variable $string is equivalent to $STRING. 44) Do SQR programs require a .sqr extension? Do SQR runtime files require a .sqt extension ? Ans: SQR programs do not require a .sqr extension. SQR runtime files require a .sqt extension. 45) Can a .sqt file be "de-compiled" into the original SQR code ? Ans: No. This is not possible. 46) What is the limit for SQR command line length on PC/Windows ?
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Ans: The limit is 128 characters. This is a PC limitation not an SQR limitation.You may want to have the SQR BINW directory on your PATH so that the full pathname to the SQRW executable is not needed. Arguments can be put into a report argument file that is specified with @file on the command line. 47) Can I set the current page number in an SQR program ? Ans: Yes. Move the desired value to the SQR variable #page-count. 48) What is the maximum record length for the OPEN command ? Ans: The maximum is 32K bytes (32767). 49) How can I read in variable length delimited fields from a sequential file ? An example format would look like this: field1|field2|field3|... Ans: Instead of reading a record into individual fields, read the entire record into one field and then use the SQR unstring command to separate the delimited fields. Example : begin-report open 'test.dat' as 1 for-reading record=80:vary while 1 read 1 into $record:80 if #end-file break end-if unstring $record by '|' into $field1 $field2 $field3 ... show $field1 ' ' $field2 ' ' $field3 ... end-while close 1 end-report 50) How can I insert a null value into a numeric field in the database ? I tried not giving a #variable a value but that did not work, 0 was inserted. Ans: When doing the insert, list only the fields for which a value is known. All other fields will get the null value. 51) If I get a duplicate key warning message when SQR loads a lookup table, will the lookup table still work correctly. Ans: No. Use of a lookup table is dependent on not having duplicate keys. 52) How can I find out if rows are selected by a BEGIN-SELECT paragraph? Can I use the SQR variable #sqlcount? Ans: #sql-count indicates the number of rows affected by a DML statement (insert, update, or delete). It cannot be used for a BEGIN-SELECT paragraph. The solution is here below: begin-procedure main1 move 0 to #count ! This is optional unless main1 is called more than once begin-select column1 column2 column3 add 1 to #count from table1 end-select if #count > 0 show 'Number of rows selected was ' #count edit 999 else show 'No rows selected' end-if end-procedure main1
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53) What is the value used with -C flag of BEGIN-SELECT? Ans: BEGIN-SELECT -Cflag (Oracle, Ingres, SQL Base) - sets query buffer size. If the value of the -C flag is up to 256 it is in kilobytes, any number over 256 is in bytes only.For Oracle the default is set by the context_area parameter in the init.ora file - the default is 4096. 54) Can I write a matrix report in SQR ? Ans: Yes. Example of a SQR cross-tab (matrix) report Example: Begin-Setup Page-Size 60 133 declare printer type = postscript orientation = landscape line-size = 8 char-size = 6 End-Setup
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55) Can I use 'dynamic column names' in Begin-Select (versions prior to v3.0)? Ans: Yes, see following workaround. This SQR report will actually write another SQR code with column names supplied by the user and execute it. Note that in SQR Version 3.0, dynamic columns are directly supported. Example: begin-procedure main move 'DEPTNO' to $col1 ! You might use INPUT here to prompt the user move 'ENAME' to $col2 ! to enter the column and table names instead. move 'EMP' to $tab move 'sqrout.sqr' to $sqrpgmnam let $syscmd = 'sqr '||$sqrpgmnam||' user/password' move 100 to #flatfileid open $sqrpgmnam as #flatfileid for-writing record=132 write #flatfileid from 'BEGIN-REPORT' write #flatfileid from ' DO MAIN' write #flatfileid from 'END-REPORT' write #flatfileid from 'BEGIN-PROCEDURE MAIN' write #flatfileid from 'BEGIN-SELECT' write #flatfileid from $col1 ' (+1,1)' write #flatfileid from $col2 ' (,30)' write #flatfileid from 'from ' $tab write #flatfileid from 'END-SELECT' write #flatfileid from 'END-PROCEDURE MAIN' close #flatfileid call system using $syscmd #status display 'Status of call is ' noline display #status end-procedure 56)How can I prevent the printing of the empty page at the end of every .LIS file? Ans: Delete the last line in the .LIS file through an editor or this can be automated with CALL SYSTEM USING command which would execute the following SQR code.This program reads an ASCII file, removes the last line (the line having the Form Feed) from it and writes the output to another ASCII file. 57) In BEGIN-SELECT do the FROM and WHERE clause have to be aligned to the left margin ? Ans: No. Only the selected columns have to be.
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58) How to use the -F command line flag for multiple reports ? Ans: Lets look at the following example. The program "ex20a.sqr" creates 3 reports. Example: sqr ex20a tutorial/secret -Flabel.lis -Fletter.lis -Flisting.lis 59) In the above example, what would be the names of the SPF files if we use a -keep command line flag ? Ans: The names will be: label.spf letter.s01 listing.s02 60) How many DECLARE-PRINTER commands can a program have ? Ans: At the most, one for each printer type (lp, hp, ps) for each report plus one declaration for 'default-lp', one for 'default-ps' and one fordefault-hp'. SQR will produce an error message if you declare two hp printers for the same report (or two ps printers, etc.). SQR will issue an error if you define 'default-ps' twice, etc. 61) Do I have to have the DECLARE-LAYOUT before a DECLARE-REPORT that uses it? Ans: No, you can have them in any order. 62)How do I have different reports generate output for different printers in the same program ? Ans: You have to place an appropriate USE-PRINTER-TYPE after the corresponding USE-REPORT. For example: Example: begin-program use-report listing use-printer-type ps use-report labels use-printer-type hp use-report form_letter use-printer-type lp do main end-program 63) What's the effect of the -PRINTER command line flag in a multiple report program? Ans: It overrides the printer type for all the report. 64) How can unique temporary file names be generated in SQR ? Ans: One technique is to combine the report name (minus the extension) with the system process ID. The SQR pre-defined variables $sqr-report and #sqr-pid are used. The following example will create a temporary file named techtip1234.tmp for program techtip.sqr ran as process ID 1234. The temporary file is deleted at the end of the procedure. 65) How can I reset the page number that is printed with the PAGE-NUMBER command? Ans: Move the desired value to the #PAGE-COUNT reserved variable. For example: move 1 to #page-count. 66) How do I right justify a text string ? Ans: Use the LPAD function of the LET command to add blanks to the start to the string. For example: let $s = lpad($s, 80, ' ') 67) Standard SQCs Askftd.sqc - This asks from/thru date for reporting of heading Askaod.sqc - Procedure to call is Ask-As-of-Date CurDtTim.sqc - Gets the Current Date Time from System
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DateTime.sqc - Convert date from system format calling InitDate-Time procedure to set format. DateMath.sqc - Converts Native Date format to YYYY-MM-DD. Eoj.sqc - determines End of job for an SQR report. FSHdg01.sqc,FSHdg04.sqc - for Standard Headers for PS Financials. Number.sqc - Provides Number related Functions Opsys.sqc - Operating system settings. PrcsApi.Sqc - Used in Process Scheduler SQR Programs, to get Run control parameters RDBMS.sqc - Database Settings. These files uses #DEFINE command to set the variables. ReadXlat.sqc - Read the Translate Table for the desired values (Very Important) Reset.sqc - Used for Footing Section that prints End-of-Report. SetEnv.sqc - Sets Environment for Country, Printer-Paper, Language, Date, Platform specific parameters, It also contains Opsys.sqc, RDBMS.sqc Setup01.sqc - This is generally called from Begin-Setup section for Portrait Size Setup02.sqc - This is generally called from Begin-Setup section for Landscape Size STDHDGTR.sqc - Performs Language Conversion STDHDG01.sqc - Provides Standard heading for language conversion StdApi.sqc - Gets Std API calls Trancntrl.sqc - Purpose is to COMMIT, ROLLBACK etc. across DB platforms Convertcurrency.sqc AllMaxes.max - It is used for dynamic memory allocations before the execution of SQR.
68) What is Declare-Layout <layoutname> used for ? Ans: It is used for defining Page Layout & includes Paper Size, Margins in Begin-Setup. Such as Left-Margin = 1, Top-Margin=1. 69) What is Master Detail Report ? Ans: Report where tables with one to many relationships are involved. Project, Tasks, Resources, Efforts. On-Break Level =1 etc. 70) How do you run SQR Report from DOS Prompt using a Batch File ? Ans: C:\FDM75SU\sqrbinw\SQRW.EXE c:\sqrtemp\%1.sqr EPDMO/SYSADM/SYSADM -Ic:\FDM75SU\sqr\ <IncludeFile Path> -Mc:\FDM75SU\sqr\AllMaxes.max -Oc:\SQRTEMP\sqr.log(LogFile) -Fc:\sqrtemp\%1.lis(Output File) -ZIFc:\FDM75SU\sqr\Pssqr.ini -lockrl REM -XCB (do not display Communication Box) 71) What is a Syntax for using SQC's in SQR ? Ans: #include 'setenv.sqc'. 72) What is #, $, & used for ? Ans: #Numeric, $String, and &Database field values. 73) How to print current date in SQR ? Ans: Print $current-date (1,1) EDIT DD/MM/YYYY or use internal function or DateNow for current date & time. 74) How to Define Constant & its usage in Begin-Select: Ans: #define MAX_LABEL_LINES 10
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75) Functions (Most commonly used) Ans: Isnull- Returns a value of 1 if source_val is null, otherwise returns a value of 0. Instr- Returns the numeric position of sub_value in source_value or 0 if not found. Length- Returns the number or characters in source_value. Lpad- Pads the source_value on the left to a length of length_value using pad_value and returns the result. Ltrim- Trims characters in source_value from the left until a character is not in set_value and returns the result. Nvl- Returns y_value if the x_value is null, otherwise returns x_value. Example: let $city = nval(&city, -- not city -) Round(#avg_length,0) Substr- Extracts the specified portion of source_value. To_char- , To_Number, String-This creates a string, Opposite of this is Unstring Extract-Copies a portion of a string into string variables generally used in file manipulations. Example: EXTRACT $area_code from &home_phone 0 3 Print is most commonly used stmt. Show and Display are also used Evaluate Example: EVALUATE<variable> WHEN = <value> WHEN = <value> WHEN-OTHER <default SQR command(s)> END-EVALUATE SQR provides internal, reserved variables with values maintained & updated by SQR. #Current-Line : Current physical line on a page $Current-Date : Current date time on the local machine when sqr is running. #Current-Column : Current column on page. #Page-Count : Current page number (can be reset). #End-File : set to 1 if end of file occurs. #Return-Status : value returned to operating system when sqr exits. #Sql-Count : The # of rows affected by an SQL DML statement. #Sql-Status : Status value from database after each query is compiled/executed. This value is database dependent. $Sqr-Database: The database type for which SQR was compiled. Valid values are ORACLE, INGRES, DB2, INFORMIX, SQLBASE,SYBASE and ODBC. $Sql-Error: Text message of error returned from DBS. $Sqr-Locale : The name of the current locale being used. #Sqr-pid: The process ID of the current SQR process. $sqr-platform: The hardware/operating system type for which SQR was compiled. Valid values are WINDOWS, VM,MVS,WINDOWS-NT, UNIX, VMS. $sqr-program: The name of SQR program file. $sqr-ver: The text string shown with -ID flag. Mostly used Format commands in SQR: CENTER: Center text EDIT: uses masks to control the format of the output FILL : fills the specified length with characters specified. ON-BREAK: allows you to specify an action/procedure in tabular reports when break occurs in the value of the field. BEGIN-SETUP includes following commands: Ask : Prompts the user for substitution variable. BEGIN-SQL : Begins an SQL paragraph. CREATE-ARRAY: Creates an array of fields to store and process data DECLARE-CHART: Defines attributes of a chart.
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DECLARE-IMAGE: Defines the type, size and source of an image. DECLARE-LAYOUT: Defines attributes of a report layout. DECLARE-PRINTER : Overrides the printer defaults. DECLARE-PROCEDURE DECLARE-REPORT: Defines reports and their attributes. DECLARE-VARIABLE : Allows user to explicitly declare a variable name. LOAD-LOOKUP : Loads columns into an internal array. USE : Overrides default database (Sybase and MSSQLServer only) SQR consists of 5 Sections: Report or program Setup Heading Footing Procedures Processing sequence of SQR Compile Stage All #Include external source file (SQCs) are inserted into the source. All #commands are evalueated. The #DEFINE text substitution variables are placed into the program source. The SETUP section is processed, including allocation and population of memory arrays created by the LoadLookup and Array commands. Work buffers are allocated. Optimization of the SQL data access path is determined. Syntax of SQR source program is checked. Execution Stage Processes data for the Body section Processes HEADING section Processes FOOTING section Writes entire page buffer to file. What is Process Monitor used for ? Ans: A centralized utility allowing you to monitor the status of process requests that you have submitted, by displaying a list of currently logged requests waiting to be processed. From this list you can view the active list of Process Scheduler Servers and stop their execution depending on your level of security. What is the only required section of a SQR Program ? Ans: The only required section of SQR program is BEGIN-PROGRAM with its corresponding END-PROGRAM. How does SQR calculate the number of rows available for the body of the page ? Ans: The rows available to the body of your report are calculated from the rows defined in PAGE-SIZE minus the number of rows reserved by the BEGIN-HEADING and BEGIN-FOOTING sections. How do you make a zero value blank on a report ? Ans: Print #varname (+1, 1, 10) EIDT bbb9 What types of SQR variables are read only ? Ans: Database column variables and most internal reserved SQR variables are Read Only. What is the difference between the parameters for the EXTRACT command versus the LET/SUBSTR command ? Ans: The EXTRACT command uses the offset 0 as the first position. The LET/SUBSTR command uses 1 as the first position. What is the BREAK command used for within a WHEN clause of the EVALUATE command ? Ans: The BREAK command ends the EVALUATE at that point.
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What must you remember to program into a WHILE loop ? Ans: You must increment your WHILE loop counter. What are the restrictions governing where a GOTO label can be placed ? Ans: GOTOs and their labels must be in the same Section or Paragraph. Labels must be left justified and GOTO label must end with Colon(:) What SQC is found in every PeopleSoft SQR program ? Ans: SetEnv.sqc What SQC files are commonly included in almost all PeopleSoft SQR programs? Ans: CurDtTim.sqc, Number.sqc and Reset.sqc. Which SQC file should be modified to include your standard company heading ? Ans: xxHDG01.sqc where xx is for either HR for Human Resource or FN for Financials. What are the most common uses of SQC files ? Ans: a) Setup Section b) Standard Headings Footing Section User prompts Get related data Process Scheduler processing Which SQL command is not allowed in the BEGIN-SQL paragraph ? Ans: SELECT What will happen if you do not include an ON-ERROR=procedure in a BEGIN-SQL if your program encounters an SQL error or warning ? Ans: SQR program will abort. Which table stores the translated static report values ? Ans: The Strings Table. How does SQR provide you the ability to verify that a file was opened successfully ? Ans: f you assign a numeric variable to the STATUS=in a file OPEN, you may check the numeric variable after the OPEN. If the OPEN fails, this variable will contain -1. What restricts the size of LOAD-LOOKUP memory arrays ? Ans: Available memory. What PeopleCode must be on all Run Control Records ? Ans: On the PRCSRUNCNTL record, the RowInit on OPRID and the SaveEdit on RUN_CNTL_ID. What type of variable does the INPUT command use ? Ans: The INPUT command always inputs into a TEXT variable. Where should you place user prompts for non-Process Scheduler execution ? Ans: In the Init-Report procedure, in the following code: If $prcs_process_instance= !prompts go here End-If What PeopleSoft tool is used to change the value of your SQR environment variables ? Ans: The Configuration Manager.
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What procedures are defined in PRCSAPI.SQC & PRCSDEF.SQC ? Ans: PRCSAPI.SQC : Get-Run-Control-Parms(), Get-Process-Language(), Update-Prcs-Run-Status(). PRCSDEF.SQC: Define-Prcs-Vars() This procedure will define and initialize the various process scheduler variables.