What's New

Emory University initiates OpenEAI PeopleSoft Web Service work based on its proof-of-concept work - August 18, 2009
PeopleSoft Web Service Collaboration Proposal Posted (now superceded by this page) - June 17, 2009

Background

Many institutions use PeopleSoft and would like to expose data and business logic in PeopleSoft to other authorized applications using standard Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) technology. The goals of the project are to:

start quickly and produce tangible results in 2009
develop and adhere to a consistent technical approach and integration method
collaborate under the aegis of the OpenEAI Project to encourage other institutions using PeopleSoft to use and contribute to the software

In this way they will accrue re-usable value in exposing this data over the many years they will use PeopleSoft and want to integrate other applications with it.

The PeopleSoft Web Service will perform the following types of functions:

Publish events that occur within PeopleSoft to external systems and IT infrastructure. For example, a PeopleSoft user may create a new financial account which a department or external vendor needs to know to validate financial transactions. The Web Service will publish a notification event for such online events in PeopleSoft.
Consume notification events from other systems. For example, an external provider of purchase order or invoice information like Sciquest may send notifications of new or updated purchase orders or invoices. The Web Service will consume these notification events and apply the new and updates purchase orders and invoices to PeopleSoft.
Handle requests from other applications to query, create, update, and delete PeopleSoft data. For example, a conflict of interest management system may send requests for person and employee information to PeopleSoft to pre-populate its forms when faculty complete their conflict of interest reporting.
Perform requests to query, create, update, and delete data in external systems on behalf of PeopleSoft. For example, when customizing a Human Resources hiring process, it may be appropriate to have PeopleSoft query an external identity service to determine if the organization already knows a new hire and has already issued identification before creating a new person and employee record with new identifiers.

The collaboration will consist of the following types of activities:

Completing the technical design of the PeopleSoft Web Service Framework based on the design and work already completed at Emory
Documenting the technical design and technical processes of exposing PeopleSoft data to the Web Service for all types of actions and events listed above
Publishing the designs and documentation
Implementing and maintaining the PeopleSoft Web Service Framework
Exposing new PeopleSoft data to the PeopleSoft Web Service Framework
Releasing the software for others to use and enhance