Introduction

This tutorial shows you how to configure Page and Field Configurator, PeopleTools Notifications Administration, User Preferences, and the Notification Composer Framework to use change tracking and deliver notifications.

This tutorial is posted after the Change Tracking Notifications feature was generally available with Financials and Supply Chain Management (FSCM) Update Image 52 (November 2024) and Human Capital Management (HCM) Updated Image 51 (January 2025). This tutorial may not reflect subsequent updates to Page and Field Configurator, PeopleTools Notification Administration, and Notification Composer.

• FSCM Update Image 48 (July 2023) and HCM Update Image 47 (September 2023) enhances Change Tracking capability in Page and Field Configurator (PFC). This functionality allows you to track changes made by users. This enhancement allows you to see details of a change to a field, which includes who made the change, when the change was made, the before and after values, and the user’s entry mode. This information is stored in log tables and available to view as Related Content on the transaction and in the Change Tracking Insights, which is available in FSCM Update Image 50 (March 2024) and HCM Update Image 49 (May 2024). The Page and Field Configurator Video Feature Overview provides an example of this functionality with narration. 
• FSCM Update Image 49 (December 2023) and HCM Update Image 47 (September 2023) introduces Notification Composer, which provides administrators a guided process for configuring notifications and alerts to users through email, in-app messages, or text messages.
• FSCM Update Image 52 (November 2024) and HCM Update Image 51 (January 2025) enhances Page and Field Configurator Change Tracking to integrate with Notification Composer. When a user changes information on a page, a notification detailing the change can be sent to a distribution list.

Overview

Delivering Notifications When Users Make Changes to Information

This example shows an In-application (In-app) Notification Alert for changes made to a field, by Kenneth Schumacher, for an award in the Grants Management product.

 

The Alerts panel displays the context of the change. Click the link to open the Change Tracking Summary page, which provides the detail of what was changed. The Change Summary includes this information:

• Date and time of the change.
• Field that was changed.
• Change type (a field value was added, updated, or deleted).
• New and previous value.
• Username who made the change.
• Comments and attachments related to the change.
• Technical details.
• User mode if the component uses correction functionality.
• Drill down link that takes you to the transaction page where the change was made.

You can also notify users through an email, which includes a link to the Change Tracking Summary page. Use Notification Composer to configure the message content for all notification channels (in-app, email, and text).

The details of the change are stored in change tracking log tables, and you can display the change summary as Related Content on classic and fluid pages.

In the example below, the Changes grid allows you to enter comments that explain the change, and add attachments. Use the Technical Details icon to display the record and field that was changed, as well as the key values for the record that was changed. For security reasons, fields that store sensitive or personal information, and have been masked using Page and Field Configurator functionality, display as asterisks in the change detail log.

To use change tracking and deliver notifications you must configure Page and Field Configurator, PeopleTools Notifications Administration, User Preferences, and the Notification Composer Framework. 

Change Tracking Analytic Insights

Change Tracking Analytic Insights allow you to access change tracking information across components. The following sample visualizations show how you can group changes into categories, which allows you to filter changes by:

• Product
• Component
• User
• Date and Time
• Record
• Field
• User Entry Mode

The underlying queries for the dashboard include descriptions for component, record, and field, which provides a functional description of what has changed. The visualization grid shows details from the change tracking tables, which is similar to the Change Summary available through Related Content.

 

 
The remainder of this tutorial details the steps required to create change tracking configurations and related notifications.

Task 1: Setting Up Page and Field Configurator

See PeopleSoft online documentation: Enterprise Components > Working with Page and Field Configurator

Use the PFC Change Tracking Admin role to access this functionality.

 

Step 1 - Select the fields for change tracking for each PFC sequence and apply criteria if required.

All field-based criteria and role-based criteria that is available for Standard and Masking configuration types are available for the Change Tracking configuration type.

The example below tracks changes to several fields in the Award Profile in Grants Management including Award Status, Award Type, Start and End Dates, and more. In addition, you can select the Notify Users check box to generate a notification when someone changes a field or adds an award.

Step 2 - Select a Notification Event at the sequence level.

Notification Events are created using Notification Composer. The event identifies who receives the notification, and the content of the message. The Notification Event is selected at the PFC sequence level, which allows you to generate different notifications for the component at the sequence level or use the same notification event across the component. You can use the same notification event across multiple components depending on your needs. 

Not all changes require notification. In fact, whether a change should create a notification can be determined in the criteria, at the field level. For example:

• A change in a budget amount, which is over a configured value may need to be tracked and require a notification. However, a small change to a budget amount may need to be tracked, but does not require a notification.

• A change in transaction status is tracked, but should only create a notification when the status changes to Closed or Inactive.

These examples are possible using field-level criteria that evaluates change amount, change percentage, and before and after values. System variables are available as criteria that allow you to create notifications when Correction mode is used to make a change.

Change Tracking Summary Page

Use the Change Tracking Summary page to view details of tracked changes. Access to this page is available on the transaction as Related Content and from a link in the notification. How you access the page and how you’ve configured PFC determines what information is displayed.

When you access the Change Tracking Summary page from a Notification:

• The Change Tracking Summary page is a fluid component and requires the EOCC9004 – PFC Change Tracking User permission list to access the component/page.
• The page includes details of the change. The amount of detail displayed is controlled by the Roles with Access to Change Summary grid on the Page and Field Configurator – Map to Portal Registry page. To view change tracking detail created by other users, your role must be listed, and the View Other Users Changes check box must be selected. If your role is not listed, you only see changes that you have made.
• If you have access to the component where the change was made, you can access the changed transaction by clicking the Drill Down to Transaction link on the Change Tracking Summary page. In cases where the component has multiple content references, the Drill Down to Transaction link is only available when Change Tracking Event Mapping page is configured to a single content reference.

When you access the Change Tracking Summary page as Related Content:

• You must have the EOCC9004 permission list to access the Change Tracking Summary component.
• The Change Tracking Summary renders as a fluid component or classic component depending on whether the changed component is fluid or classic.
• The page includes details of the change.

To view the Change Tracking Summary page from the Related Content link, your role must be listed in the Roles with Access to Change Summary grid, as shown below.

Use the Change Summary Access – Roles with Access to Change Summary grid to provide access to the Change Tracking Summary page, and determine which roles can view the details of the change.

Select the Activate Related Content button, at the bottom of the page, to display a history of changes as Related Content.

Record Group Tables

Overview of Record Group Tables

Your system stores change tracking detail in five separate change tracking log tables. These log tables are:

• Header Record
• Detail Record
• Sequence Record
• Attachment Record
• Attachment URL Identifier   

Ten sets of change tracking log tables are delivered to address performance and contention issues when the system updates these tables. Depending on the application that owns the component, the change tracking detail is stored in a particular set of tables called a Record Group.

There is a set of default Record Group Descriptions that align with each product pillar. You can only change this before the system writes change tracking information to the log table.

Five record groups are delivered that are not used. These record groups allow you to separate products and components to a different record group if required. If you have a component where you expect a large volume of change tracking data, you can configure that component to use one of the unused record groups and assign that record group in Page and Field Configurator.

All components have a 3-character product ownership ID in app designer. For example, the FGM Product ID in row 50 (see page shot below) is for Grants Management. The FGM product ID is mapped to the ESA Record Group and uses record group 2 tables. (see Select a Notification Event in Page and Field Configurator figure above). The change tracking log tables for the component are used by the system when the PFC configuration is added based on these setup tables.

(Optional) Modifying Record Group Tables

Use the Change Tracking Product Default page to map product ownership to a Default Record Group. 

Task 2: Setting Up PeopleTools Notifications

See PeopleSoft online documentation: Enterprise Components > Working with Notification Composer

Step 1 - Use the Notification Administration – Global Settings page to enable Notifications through PeopleTools.



Step 2 - Use the Notification Administration – Notification Settings page to create a PeopleTools Notification Name.

You don’t need a different PeopleTools Notification Name for every notification. Notification Names can be shared depending on requirements and use cases.

The primary purpose of the PeopleTools Notification Name is to:

• Manage how the notification is sent.
• Personalize individual preferences using My Preferences.
  If your organization optionally allows personalization for a notification, additional PeopleTools Notification Names may be needed to organize your notifications. This allows a user to clearly understand the notifications they are personalizing in My Preferences.
• Foster the organization of Notifications.
  Notifications are associated with a functional category, which helps to organize notifications generated in the system.

The PeopleTools Notification Name is the level presented to the user in their My Preferences page.  The following example displays the configuration to notify users of changes to an award profile in Grants Management.




Task 3: Setting Up User Preferences

See PeopleSoft online documentation: Enterprise Components > Working with Notification Composer

It is important to consider the level that you opt-in or opt-out when receiving a notification for a particular channel. This is managed using the My Preferences – Notifications page. If you need more detail and more choices, then create more notifications. The PeopleTools Notification Name is presented to the user under My Preferences.



Task 4: Setting Up the Notification Composer Framework

See PeopleSoft online documentation: Enterprise Components > Working with Notification Composer

Overview of Notification Composer Framework

The Notification Composer Framework is delivered in Enterprise Components and must be enabled in Installation Options.

The Notification Composer uses a 3-step guided process to configure Change Tracking Notifications and includes these steps:

1. General Notification Information
2. Define Message Content
3. Review and Submit

In FSCM Update Image 52, when configuring a notification for the change tracking category, some steps were removed from the Compose Notification pages that were not necessary. You can also auto-generate a notification event.

Prerequisites to Creating a New Notification

Before creating a new notification, you must:

• Create the PeopleTools Notification Name.
• Create the Recipient User List.The Recipient User List can be a role, a role query, application class, or sql definition and must be registered ahead of selecting it using the Define User List page.
• Use the Define Business Process page to add a Business Process.The Business Process, Owner ID, and Notification Priority are functional classifications that allow the administrator and user to filter a list of notifications.

Creating a New Notification

Step 1 - Use the Installation Options – Overall page to select the Enable Notification Composer check box.


This check box should automatically be checked after applying updates in your environment.



After creating a notification, the Compose Notification search page includes several pieces of information to filter the list.



Step 2 - Select the Add Notification button to create a notification

          Note: Use the EONC_USER role to access Notification Composer, which includes permission list EONC1010.


Description of the illustration compose-notification.png

Step 3 - Select the Change Tracking notification category.

Step 4 - Enable the Create Notification Event option.

              Notification Events are required and they mirror the notification ID name.




An example of the General Notification Information step is shown below. The Notification Event that displays in the grid is auto generated after the Notification ID is created.
 
Description of the illustration general-notification-information.png



Step 5 - Use the Define Message Content step to identify the source of the message for each distribution channel.  
Options include Custom Text, Message Catalog, and Email Template.
 





Step 6 - Configure the message content for each source channel (In-App, Email, and Text).


The example below displays the use of the Custom Text option for an In-App message.


One of the nice things with the Custom Text option is that it does not require you to create a message catalog entry or an email template, which usually requires technical users who have access to PeopleTools pages. It’s also one less custom object to maintain and migrate. However, custom text content is not reusable across notifications and must be created and maintained manually for each notification.





Bind Variables


Bind variables are used in the message content and are identified by a ”%”.  Bind variables that are specific to change tracking can be included in your message.

The delivered bind variable for ‘%CHG_TRACK_COMPKEYS% allows you to display the keys for a transaction that is changed. The Award Profile example includes business unit and award ID. For other components, %CHG_TRACK_COMPKEYS% might display a Project ID, Journal ID, Asset ID, Employee ID or Vendor ID depending on the component that was changed.

You can add more bind variables to a message to tailor it to the individual component using a ‘%’ prefix. In the Award Profile example, you might include the Award Name, Award Type, or Award Status if this information is important to understand the context of the notification.

Identify the record and field to use for bind variables that are added to the message content and those that are not a delivered bind variable.  Bind variables should include fields at level zero in the component.

Note: There are size limitations for the In-App notification to properly display in the Notification - Alert panel. 




Step 7 - Configure the message content for an email.


In the example below, an email template was selected, which was created for use with change tracking.

The same set of delivered binds are available for all channels. Email templates can be reused across notifications.

Important! The %URL bind variable must be included in your email template and text message content if you want the recipient to access the Change Summary page using a link in the email or text. In the Binds grid, the Record Name and Field Name fields can remain blank for the %URL bind variable.




Step 8 - Use the Define Message Content – Text page to select a specific message set and number from the Message Catalog for a text message. 

          This option requires that you create your own message catalog entries.





Message Catalog


The Message Catalog is a PeopleTools feature that has many uses including Notification Composer. A sample message catalog entry is displayed below. If you want all recipients to receive a similar text in all notifications, regardless of the component, use a standard message catalog entry across notifications and eliminate the need to re-enter the same notification text across change tracking notifications. This streamlines setup and demonstrates consistency to notification recipients. If the desired message content varies across components, or you want to show additional content in the message specific to the component being changed, then create more message catalog entries or use the custom text option.






Step 9 - Review and Submit the Notification.



Step 10 - Use the Page and Field Configurator: Change Tracking page to select the Notification Event. After the notification ID and auto-generated notification event is created, they can be added in Page and Field Configurator.

You are now ready to test your system for this feature.

Related Links

The PeopleSoft Team continues to invest in configurable frameworks to use across your enterprise.

• Enterprise Components, "Working with Page and Field Configurator," Tracking Changes with Page and Field Configurator
• Enterprise Components, "Working with Notification Composer"

Acknowledgements

Author - Joseph Willever (Oracle PeopleSoft Product Manager)

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