Drop Zones are one of the latest tools added to PeopleSoft to help users configure their content to meet business needs. PeopleSoft delivers several tools that let you change the system to meet your needs without making it difficult to apply maintenance and adopt new features. Other tools like Event Mapping, Page & Field Configurator, Forms and Approval Builder let you configure and extend your PeopleSoft system.

Event Mapping lets users extend and/or modify delivered business logic to provide custom processing. Page & Field Configurator helps you change the appearance or behavior of delivered fields on a page, and Forms and Approval Builder lets users build and maintain custom pages, requests, and processes that are currently outside of PeopleSoft.

In addition to these great tools, it’s time for users to get a better understanding of what Drop Zones are, how they can be used, and how organizations can benefit from using them.

What Are Drop Zones?

Drop Zones are pre-defined areas on a Fluid page. You can use them to embed custom content directly on a transaction page rather than placing the content in a separate window or in the related content frame.

With PeopleTools 8.57, Drop Zones let you add new fields to delivered pages to capture additional data for future processing. This will not affect the lifecycle management process of your PeopleSoft application.

PeopleSoft adds standard Drop Zones to the top and bottom of Fluid pages. Additional Drop Zones can also be strategically added to the middle of a page. You can request additional Drop Zones for your application through the My Oracle Support community webpage by entering your request on the Ideas page.

Use Cases

Your company can use Drop Zones in a number of ways. You can use them to add text or instructions to a page. For example, you may want to add a statement to certify the correctness of time on the Fluid Timesheet page. You could also use them to add data entry fields to a page. You can even add fields to provide additional information on a page.

How to Configure a Drop Zone

In the example shown in the video below, a custom subpage is added to the bottom Drop Zone on the Payment Request page. Configuring a Drop Zone can be done through these simple steps:

1. Create your custom Fluid content. You can use an existing subpage or create a new one.
2. Identify the Drop Zone that you want to use.
3. Preview the page in Fluid to make sure you have the correct Drop Zone.
4. Open the Configure Drop Zones page to configure the Drop Zone with the custom subpage.
5. Select the component where you’ll add the custom content.
6. Search for and add the subpage to the identified page.
7. Test the page to ensure that the content and the page work as expected.

Key Takeaways

It’s important to note that you can only enable Drop Zones on Fluid pages, and they are not available on Fluid grids. To get the most value from them, it’s recommended that you only use Drop Zones that are delivered by PeopleSoft. Your developers can add custom content to them through configuration.

Drop Zones require PeopleTools 8.57 or above. Additionally, in PeopleTools 8.57.03 and below, a Drop Zone cannot be nested deeper than three levels.

Benefits of Drop Zones

Your organization benefits when you use Drop Zones on an application page. They minimize the ongoing maintenance costs of customized Fluid pages. The Compare Report considers the changes to be configurations rather than customizations.

The content that you include in Drop Zones is in line with the delivered prompt fields and is context-sensitive. Any record or field included as part of the custom content becomes part of the Component Buffer. When you save the Fluid page data, the custom content in the Drop Zone is also saved. The content fits in seamlessly and is indistinguishable from delivered content on the Fluid page.

Drop Zones are delivered to most available Fluid pages. There are a few exceptions including legislative pages, search pages, subpages, and pages where a high degree of configuration is already available. Drop Zones will also be included on future Fluid pages.

Ultimately, Drop Zones give you more options to help PeopleSoft meet all of your business needs while minimizing the cost of customizations. For more information, visit www.peoplesoftinfo.com.

Additional Resources

If you’re looking for more PeopleSoft content, join us at RECONNECT 19, the premier deep-dive PeopleSoft focused event of the year! The event will take place July 16-18 in Rosemont, Illinois. Register by June 19 to take advantage of Early Bird prices!