PeopleSoft App Designer: You Don't Have to Search the Entire Database to Find that String in PeopleCode

For Spring/Summer Financial Aid awarding here at BYU, we have had a strange problem with some students not being able to accept or decline their awards, due to the fact that a hyperlink on the Accept/Decline page was not being enabled as we'd expected it to be. Discouraged at this news, I prepared myself for a marathon search through the entire database to find out where the link behind DERIVED_FA_SS_1.AID_YEAR_LINK was being disabled. At the same time I resigned myself to a fate of not being able to accomplish any of the tasks that I had hoped to check off my list today.

But then I stumbled upon something really cool, by reason of which I need to apologize for the many times I've cursed App Designer under my breath. It turns out that I was cursing only due to my ignorance.

I have known about Edit -> Find Definition References on App Designer's menu for a long time, but what I didn't know is what I can do with list of definition references that App Designer finds for me. Here's how to accomplish a day-long task in less than an hour (your mileage may vary):

1. Create a new, blank project.

2. Open the object (in my case I discovered by looking at the page that the field DERIVED_FA_SS_1.AID_YEAR_LINK was supplying the hyperlink) and Select Edit -> Find Definition References from the App Designer menu.

3. Click on the first definition reference in the resulting list. Scroll to the bottom of the list and, while holding the Shift key down, click on the last definition reference in the list. (See Figure 1. Click to enlarge.)

4. Right-click on the highlighted list and select "Insert into Project..." from the pop-up menu. Save your project.

5. Now that you have in one project every object in which your target object is referenced, you can much more quickly find what you want to know about that object. In my case I wanted to know where its "enabled" property was being set.

6. I named my temporary project "MY_TEMP_PROJECT". I selected Edit - Find In... from the App Designer menu. I specified enabled in the "Find What:" box, and MY_TEMP_PROJECT in the "Project:" box.

I still had to do some searching, but the effect of my approach was to reduce the code to be searched from the size of a haystack to the size of one fistful of hay.

It wasn't much longer until I was able to find exactly where (and, from a technical perspective, why) the hyperlink was being disabled.

I don't claim to be a PeopleSoft Financial Aid expert, so I have now turned over my findings to the people here at BYU who are. And now, I still might be able to finish a few things off my original to-do list for today!!