When exposing PeopleSoft business logic to external systems over Integration Broker—or supporting high-volume functional uploads—how you wrap your Component Interface determines whether your integration is resilient or brittle.
PeopleTools provides a wizard (PeopleTools > Integration Broker > Web Services > CI-Based Services) that can publish a Component Interface directly as a SOAP/REST web service (Get, Create, Update, UpdateData, Find).
While a Direct CI-Based Web Service can be clicked together in minutes for a quick prototype or a simple lookup (PTLOOKUP), avoid exposing Direct CI Web Services for complex transactional updates.
Why the Message + Application Class Handler pattern wins in production:
Create or Update/UpdateData. A custom handler can transparently attempt .Get() and fall back to .Create() (or vice versa) in a single operation.OnNotify) or high-volume integrations, your handler can write the inbound message to a staging table first and invoke the CI with full error capture, allowing administrators to fix and replay failed transactions inside PIA without asking the external system to resend.ExcelToCI) ArchitecturePeopleSoft delivers the Excel-to-Component Interface (ExcelToCI) utility (ExcelToCI2007.xlsm), which allows functional users to upload spreadsheet rows into PeopleSoft through a Component Interface without writing custom Application Engine programs.
Key architectural points when using ExcelToCI:
WEBLIB_SOAPTOCI on the Web Server, which invokes the SOAPTOCI Application Package / iScript on the App Server to instantiate your Component Interface dynamically.PSAUTHBUSCOMP) and the WEBLIB_SOAPTOCI web library.ExcelToCI at a sprawling delivered CI with 300 properties. Create a dedicated, stripped-down Component Interface that exposes only the 5 to 15 fields the functional user actually needs to upload.CIBase Wrapper Class (SetIfDifferent)When updating existing records through a Component Interface, assigning a property value that is already identical to the current database value can still trigger unnecessary FieldEdit/FieldChange processing or mark a row dirty. Wrapping your CI calls in a reusable base class provides a clean SetIfDifferent() helper and centralized PSMessages formatting:
class CIBase
method CIBase(&sCIName As string);
method SetIfDifferent(&oTarget As ApiObject, &sPropName As string, &vNewVal As any) Returns boolean;
method GetFormattedMessages() Returns string;
property ApiObject CI readonly;
private
instance ApiObject &oSession, &oCI;
end-class;
method CIBase
/+ &sCIName as String +/
&oSession = %Session;
&oSession.PSMessagesMode = 1;
&oSession.PSMessages.DeleteAll();
&oCI = &oSession.GetCompIntfc(@("CompIntfc." | &sCIName));
If &oCI = Null Then
throw CreateException(0, 0, "Failed to instantiate CI: " | &sCIName);
End-If;
end-method;
method SetIfDifferent
/+ &oTarget as ApiObject, +/
/+ &sPropName as String, +/
/+ &vNewVal as Any +/
/+ Returns Boolean +/
Local any &vCurrVal = &oTarget.GetPropertyByName(&sPropName);
If &vCurrVal <> &vNewVal Then
&oTarget.SetPropertyByName(&sPropName, &vNewVal);
Return True;
End-If;
Return False;
end-method;
method GetFormattedMessages
/+ Returns String +/
Local ApiObject &oMsgColl = &oSession.PSMessages;
Local ApiObject &oMsg;
Local integer &i;
Local string &sOut;
For &i = 1 To &oMsgColl.Count
&oMsg = &oMsgColl.Item(&i);
&sOut = &sOut | "(" | &oMsg.MessageSetNumber | "," | &oMsg.MessageNumber | ") " | &oMsg.Text | Char(10);
End-For;
&oMsgColl.DeleteAll();
Return &sOut;
end-method;GetPropertyByName and PropertyInfoCollection)Rather than hardcoding every property name when building generic Integration Broker handlers or diagnostic tools, you can inspect and set CI properties dynamically at runtime using PropertyInfoCollection, GetPropertyByName(), and SetPropertyByName():
/* Dynamically iterate all properties on a CI or Collection Item */
Local ApiObject &oPropInfoColl = &oCI.PropertyInfoCollection;
Local ApiObject &oPropInfo, &oChildColl;
Local integer &i;
Local string &sName;
For &i = 1 To &oPropInfoColl.Count
&oPropInfo = &oPropInfoColl.Item(&i);
&sName = &oPropInfo.Name;
If &oPropInfo.IsCollection Then
/* This property is a child Data Collection (Scroll/Grid) */
&oChildColl = &oCI.GetPropertyByName(&sName);
Else
/* Standard scalar property */
If Not &oPropInfo.IsReadOnly Then
Local any &val = &oCI.GetPropertyByName(&sName);
End-If;
End-If;
End-For;PeopleTools stores Component Interface definitions in two core metadata tables:
PSBCDEFN — Component Interface header table (BCNAME, PNLGRPNAME, MARKET, SEARCHRECNAME, ADDSEARCHRECNAME, DESCR).PSBCITEM — Component Interface item hierarchy (BCNAME, BCITEMNAME, BCITEMTYPE, BCPARENTNAME, RECNAME, FIELDNAME, READONLY).You can run the following SQL queries to audit your environment for broken or unindexed Component Interfaces:
-- 1. Find Component Interfaces whose underlying Component no longer exists
SELECT B.BCNAME, B.PNLGRPNAME, B.MARKET, B.LASTUPDOPRID, B.LASTUPDDTTM
FROM PSBCDEFN B
WHERE NOT EXISTS (
SELECT 1
FROM PSPNLGRPDEFN P
WHERE P.PNLGRPNAME = B.PNLGRPNAME
AND P.MARKET = B.MARKET
);
-- 2. Find Component Interfaces that have no Permission List security granted
SELECT B.BCNAME, B.PNLGRPNAME, B.DESCR
FROM PSBCDEFN B
WHERE NOT EXISTS (
SELECT 1
FROM PSAUTHBUSCOMP A
WHERE A.BCNAME = B.BCNAME
AND A.AUTHORIZEDACTIONS > 0
);
-- 3. Find CI properties with duplicate '_1' auto-generated names
SELECT BCNAME, BCPARENTNAME, BCITEMNAME, RECNAME, FIELDNAME
FROM PSBCITEM
WHERE BCITEMNAME LIKE '%\_1' ESCAPE '\'
ORDER BY BCNAME, BCPARENTNAME, BCITEMNAME;
Look up any record, field, page, or component, audit security, and monitor Integration Broker across every database — in seconds.
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Chris Malek is a PeopleTools® Technical Consultant with over two decades of experience. He is available for consulting engagements.
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