Customizing HRMS Security

Customizing
Dont settle for security that doesnt meet you business needs.
B Y

S H A N N O N

W H I T L E Y

Vanilla row level security works great

if you can partition your data based on

departments. However, for many
companies, department security just
doesnt meet their needs. Some
companies have suffered with no
security at all, and many try to force
themselves into using department
security. One company actually recoded
all of their departments just for
PeopleSoft. In that case security
worked perfectly, but the DEPTID field
had to be parsed every time the true
department was required in a query,
report, or interface.

Dont be afraid to
customize PeopleSoft
security when needed,
because the alternatives can
be much more painful.
PeopleSoft row level security is really
not all that complicated. If you
understand database views, then you
can see how PeopleSoft uses views to
limit the data in online searches and
queries. Row level security consists of
several views attached to components,
records, or menus. Although the overall
security package can be intimidating at
first, the individual security views
should be easy to manage. Dont be
afraid to customize PeopleSoft security
when needed, because the alternatives
can be much more painful.
In many companies, location security is
often needed instead of department

security. In this article, Ill describe how

to use delivered views and pages to
implement security by location. As an
added bonus, Ill keep the existing
department tree and have the ability to
limit views by department and/or
location. Both forms of security were
handy in a recent project where I had
two sets of users with different security
needs: HR Administrators work in the
local offices and need to view employee
data by location, while Directors need
access to data in specific departments
across all locations.
In order to walk with me through the
next few steps, youll need to recall
where row level security views are
implemented in PeopleSoft. From your
PeopleTools training you probably
remember that search records are
attached to components. The Search
Record (See Figure 1) on the component
properties page contains the name of
your row level security view. This
search record provides security for

V P 1 O N L I N E . C O M

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HRMS Security
online use only. Query
security is managed at the
record level. On the record
properties page, look for the
Query Security Record (See
Figure 2). Are the security
views for online security and
query security much different?
Not really. Separate views are
often used because PSQuery
cant handle future-dated rows
very well. In some cases, it
returns duplicate entries.

FIGURE 1
Component Properties

For performance reasons, Ive

always implemented a form of
custom security called Fast
Views, and in particular, I
utilize Fast Security 2. It was
a necessity in my earlier
experiences with Sybase, and more
recently, it has become a standard way
to improve system response time. Fast
Views will help simplify the
customization process when you add
location security.

Watch out for a bug in the

application engine job,
HR_FASTVIEW...
Last time I checked,
Resolution ID #200728424
was still unresolved

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Fast Views are a PeopleSoft-approved

security customization. There is a
section in PeopleBooks on
implementing Fast Views, so I wont go

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F E B

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into great detail here. Ill show you the

SQL for the custom security views, but
youll want to read the PeopleBooks to
understand the Fast Views concepts.
PeopleBooks will teach you about Fast
Views and show you how to schedule
the application engine job that will keep
your Fast Views up-to-date. Although
PeopleSoft provides instructions on
using the views and tables, youll still
need to pay close attention to every
patch and upgrade to avoid wiping out
your security changes. Dont worry, the
benefits far outweigh the maintenance
hassles.
Although the PeopleBooks are very
thorough when it comes to the Fast
Views, there are two important tips that
I need to provide to you so that your
implementation will go smoothly: