PeopleTools 8.57 | Getting Started with Custom Banner aka Company Info Configuration

A new feature was introduced in PeopleTools 8.57 that enables customers to create their own custom banner on top of and in addition to the existing "New User Interface" header consistently on Classic and Fluid.

This is achieved using the Branding Header definition that is configured in our Branding Theme definition.

More details on Header and Theme definitions can be found in PeopleBooks:
Branding Process Overview
Defining Headers and Footers

In the past (pre-8.57), the Branding Header definitions purely represented the Classic header area and we have always had to address the Classic and Fluid branding administration separately. Here is a note from PeopleBooks.

But in the case of the ComponyInfo element which is part of the DEFAULT_HEADER_FLUID header definition, it is a welcome exception wherein we can use a single configuration to handle both (Classic and Fluid).

Getting Started

This blog post will detail what it takes to configure a custom header using the Company Info configuration! The environment used for this post is a HCM 9.2 PUM Image 27 which was originally on PT 8.56.09 and upgraded to PT 8.57.01. The upgrade to 8.57 was administered using PeopleSoft Cloud Manager 7 running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure - Classic.

As I was getting started - wearing a 'good citizen developer' hat, I cloned the delivered theme (DEFAULT_THEME_FLUID) and header (DEFAULT_HEADER_FLUID) definitions. As shown in the next section, I created custom definitions CSK_THEME_FLUID and CSK_HEADER_FLUID respectively instead of modifying delivered definitions.

Custom Definitions and Branding System Options

PeopleTools > Portal > Branding > Define Headers and Footers

CSK_HEADER_FLUID: Clone of DEFAULT_HEADER_FLUID

PeopleTools > Portal > Branding > Assemble Themes

CSK_THEME_FLUID: Clone of DEFAULT_THEME_FLUID

PeopleTools > Portal > Branding > Branding System Options

Update Branding System Options to reference the custom theme.

Note: If there is any assignment on the 'Assign Branding Themes' page for the current portal (which is typically common in HCM 9.2 PUM images) as shown below, we need to be sure to update this configuration as well.

PeopleTools > Portal > Branding > Assign Themes

Update Default Theme for the current Portal (if assignment exists)

Updating the CompanyInfo Configuration

Now that we created custom definitions, we can update the CompanyInfo element to create our own custom header.

Demo

As we can see, the CompanyInfo Element can be updated using the Rich Text Editor provided in the Additional Options page. While there is an option to configure different content for Classic and Fluid, I am using the same content for the purpose of this example.

Testing the CompanyInfo element

Now that we configured our custom banner, we should be able to test this right away!

Demo

As we can see in the demonstration below, the custom banner "does not appear to"/will not work on Fluid Homepages or Fluid pages. But it works fine in Classic! 😥

Bug in CompanyInfo/Custom Banner functionality for Fluid

After going around in circles for a long time, I found that there is a hard-coding in the Branding App Package which is responsible for displaying the CompanyInfo element in Fluid. As you can see in the screenshot below, the code assumes that we are using the delivered DEFAULT_HEADER_FLUID definition. In our example, we cloned the delivered header and created our own custom definition called CSK_HEADER_FLUID. So, it will not pick up our custom definitions for Fluid! 😂

The following MOS Bug has been logged.

BUG 28844971: BRANDING FRAMEWORK CUSTOM HEADER COMPANYINFO FUNCTIONALITY ISSUE.

Fix to remove hard-coding

We can simply comment out the hard-coding and add code to use a SQLExec to dynamically pull the header definition name from the current theme configured on the Branding System Options! Here is a snippet of the App Class with the modification to the GetCompanyInfoHtml method.

PeopleCode for Reference

Demo after applying fix

As you can see from the video below, the Custom Banner (CompanyInfo element) now shows up on Classic and Fluid consistently. Also, notice that the delivered "Oracle" Logo which was previously present on the top left corner has been removed automatically on the Fluid Homepage! This is an exciting feature in the Branding framework. I hope this can be enhanced in the upcoming patches to obviously remove the hard-coding mentioned in this post and also extend this configuration to allow us to use an App Class! Imagine if we could write our own App Class to dynamically generate this Custom Banner instead of a static rich text value. 🎆🎉

Related Posts

PeopleTools 8.57 | Branding Administration Access and New Roles

PeopleTools 8.57 | Testing the New App Designer Utility Features

PeopleTools 8.57.01 is now generally available! Once I got an environment up and running on PT 8.57, I tested the latest enhancements to App Designer. Since this early .01 release is currently only available on Oracle Cloud, I thought I would share couple of my favorite features!

Database Name on the Header

It is about time! Certainly a very valuable feature to constantly remind us of the current database as we work. If we have multiple App Designer sessions open, it is quite easy to accidentally make changes in the wrong database!

In the example shown below, PSPDB is the database name of my HCM 9.2 PUM Image (upgraded to 8.57.01).

Property Window for Page Design

This is a fantastic feature which makes page design in PeopleTools - App Designer far more intuitive. It is very similar to some of the popular IDEs such as Eclipse. This feature will drastically reduce the number of mouse clicks required to view/set/update page field properties!

PeopleTools 8.57 | Branding Administration Access and New Roles

Most of you know that PeopleTools 8.57 is generally available on Oracle Cloud. I used a trial account to install a PUM image (HCM 9.2 PI 27 - PT 8.56) on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure - Classic (OCI-C) using PeopleSoft Cloud Manager 7. Once I got the HCM PUM image up and running, I upgraded it to PeopleTools 8.57.01!

The first thing I noticed while accessing some of the existing (pre-PT 8.57) Branding pages is that I was getting a new (strange) security error. Strange because I was accessing these pages as PS user.

Here are some example pages where we will run into this error:
PeopleTools > Portal > Branding > Branding Objects
PeopleTools > Portal > Branding > Define Headers and Footers

'Secure Branding Administrator' Role

This error occurs even if we already have access to the previously known "all powerful" roles such as 'Portal Administrator' and 'PeopleSoft Administrator' which should usually give us full access to Portal functionality. In PeopleTools 8.57, there is an additional/new role called 'Secure Branding Administrator' which is used to control access to certain Branding pages. This condition is hard-coded on the Component SearchInit PeopleCode as shown below in this example.

'Secure Branding Administrator' Role

Once we add this role to the required users, they should be able to view the affected Branding pages.

'Company Info Administrator' Role

Once we get past this security error, I am assuming most Branding admins would want to review the much awaited 'Company Info' feature in PT 8.57.

PeopleBook: Configuring a Custom Banner

If we follow the steps described in PeopleBooks and try to find the 'CompanyInfo' element in the DEFAULT_HEADER_FLUID header definition, it is nowhere to be seen. We can see that the element is referenced in the order property of pthdr2container as shown below. Yet we cannot see the 'CompanyInfo' which should be the second element under DEFAULT_HEADER_FLUID after ptdropdownmenu and before pthdr2container.

In PT 8.57, there is a new delivered role called 'Company Info Administrator' which is required for us to be able to view and configure the 'Company Info' element. As shown below, we can see the CompanyInfo element after adding the 'Company Info Administrator' role to the user in question.

'PeopleTools SVG Administrator' Role

Lastly, if we want the ability to upload SVG images using the Rich Text Editor (RTE) that is provided in the 'CompanyInfo' element's Additional Options page, then we must have access to a new delivered role called 'PeopleTools SVG Administrator'.

Uploading a SVG image using the Rich Text Editor without 'PeopleTools SVG Administator' Role will generate the following error.

Bug with 'PeopleTools SVG Administrator' Role

While testing the SVG image upload feature via the Rich Text Editor available on the CompanyInfo element - 'Additional Options', in some cases, I found that we could upload a SVG without any issues even if we did not have access to 'PeopleTools SVG Administrator' role.

When I dug into the code, I found this security check condition is case sensitive! 😂

This means that if we upload a SVG image with a capitalized or mixed-case extension (e.g.: CSK_LOGO_32.SVG instead of CSK_LOGO_32.svg), we can simply bypass the security check. I created a MOS SR related to this topic and the following Bug has been logged!

BUG 28818544 - E-SEC USER WITHOUT THE PEOPLETOOLS SVG ADMINISTRATOR CAN STILL ADD .SVG IMAGES

Using Role Alias Functionality instead of using Delivered Roles

For many PeopleSoft customers, it may not be an ideal practice to add/use delivered roles in a production environment. Generally speaking, most customers rightly avoid using delivered roles and rather create cloned versions of them to eliminate any impact during upgrades/patches. This is a great approach except when we constantly run into scenarios as described in this blog where delivered roles are hard-coded in PeopleCode by Oracle/PeopleSoft developers. In such circumstances, we have no choice but provision the hard-coded delivered roles. The other alternative is to customize the hard-coding and replace it with a custom role (which is also not ideal!).

Starting with PeopleTools 8.55 there is a hugely understated security feature that was introduced to address this problem. It is called the 'Role and Permission List Aliases' functionality and for what it is worth does not get the necessary air time. Using this functionality, instead of provisioning the delivered roles to end users, we can simply configure a custom role alias(es) to the delivered role which will workaround the hard-coding in PeopleCode!

More Information on this topic is available in this PeopleBook Reference:
Using Role and Permission List Aliases