PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal 9.0

Implementing PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal Solution requires a thorough understanding of the portal concepts, architecture as well as pertinent terminology that relates to PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal.

Portal provides an aggregated content from all systems in the enterprise. The rationale behind portal is to provide a one-stop shop for an enterprise where all relevant functions and content are available on the portal page. Most Enterprise Portal would provides the following feature – Multi-tab HomePage, Search, Content Management, Security, Notification, Personalization, Syndicated News, Web Services, Single Sign-On, Web Access, Web Services and Links.

PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal is a full functional portal platform that provides personal homepage, allows search capabilities, allows content management, provides enterprise navigation and provides template control. PeopleSoft offers the following portal products;

• Customer



• Supplier



• Employee



• Partner

The Enterprise Portal consist of portal features, pagelets and applications. The picture below shows a typical PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal page.

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Understanding PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal Host Database Versus Content Provider Databases

To implement PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal, you need to configure a portal host database. The Enteprise Portal (PA) database is the host database. PeopleSoft application databases that contains the transaction content are called Content Provider databases. An example of your Content Provider database would be your DEMO848 database. Not to be confused with Enterprise Portal (PA) database which host your Enterprise application.

Configuring Enterprise Portal 9.0

The requirement for configuring Enterprise Portal 9.0 is similar to configuring a new PeopleSoft application system or demo database in Financial, Human Capital or EPM environments.

1. Set-up a separate PS_HOME on the file server (Unix or Windows). Enterprise Portal 9.0 requires PeopleTools to be on 8.48 and higher. The installed PeopleTools used by Enterprise Portal (PA) database and the installed PeopleTools product used by any additional application database cannot be the same. You must have a separate PS_HOME directory for your Enterprise Portal (PA) database.



2. Create the Enterprise Portal (PA) database on the O/S of your choice. It is advisable to create a full demo database.



3. Set-up Enterprise Portal (PA) database Application Server.



4. Set-up Enterprise Portal (PA) database Process Scheduler.



5. Set-up Enterprise Portal (PA) database web server. Make sure you configure Authentication token domain when you create the PIA site for Enterprise Portal (PA) database. This is required for Single Sign-On to the Content Provider database. If you successfully configure Enterprise Portal your screen should look similar to this.
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6. Set up the default Portal Registry definition. The Enterprise Portal (PA) database can contain only a single default portal. The Enterprise Portal database is delivered with the default portal of EMPLOYEE. Change this to the portal of your choice. To do this, navigate the following path on the Enterprise Portal (PA) PIA site. PeopleTools > Portal > Portal Definition. A list of available portal name is displayed. Select the portal of your choice and save



7. Configure Single Sign-On. This is a very critical step as SSO is required to seamlessly sign-on to different PeopleSoft applications. The following shows how to configure SSO in PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal :

I. Add Content Provider URI path to the portal database

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II. Rename and Configure Password Authentication for the Default Local Node in the PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal

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III. Configure Authentication Password in the Enterprise Portal (PA) database

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IV. Configure the Enterprise Portal Default Local Node in the Content Provider Database

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V. Trust the Enterprise Portal Default Local Node in the Content Provider Database

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VI. Configure Authentication password in the Content Provider database (This is for the PA default node)

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VII. Configure Enterprise Portal URI Text in the Content Provider

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8. Bounce the Enterprise Portal (PA) application server and web server

9. Login to your Enterprise Portal (PA) application and test SSO. To test SSO, click the PeopleSoft link on the left and select the content provider database you configured in Step IV

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Caveats

You might get the following error when you click on your content provider link on your portal page:

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If that is the case, you need to point to your LOCAL_NODE in the Portal Content Reference page. Navigate the following path to point the Portal Content Reference to your LOCAL NODE: Portal > Structure and Content > Portal Administration > Test > Single Sign-On . On the Content Reference section, click the edit link for the content provider database of your choice. Make sure Node Name field is pointing to the LOCAL_NODE of your Enterprise Portal (PA) database :

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Navigate the following path to point the Portal Content Reference to your LOCAL NODE – Portal > Structure and Content > PeopleSoft . Click the edit link for the content provider database of your choice. Make sure you are substituting the LOCAL NODE name on the portal URL field with your LOCAL NODE name :

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10. Bounce the Enterprise Portal (PA) application server and clear cache.

11. Log back into the application (PA) and click on the PeopleSoft link on the left. Click on the Content Provider database you configured earlier and you should be able to seamlessly login to the Content Provider database without prompting for password.

Sometime in the future, I'll delve into configuring portal pagelets and customizing your portal page.