The PIA (PeopleSoft / PeopleTools Internet Architecture) consists of a variety components including: web, application, search, database, and process scheduler servers as well as Integration Broker. These components can be deployed on a single real or virtual server but are most typically deployed in isolation for reasons of performance and scalability.
Web Server Like traditional web-based applications, web servers are used within the PIA to provide HTML-based documents for browser-based clients. Supported web server options have changed over time, and as of PeopleTools 8.59, PeopleTools applications are deployed only using
Oracle WebLogic Server. Unlike traditional web-based applications, the Java-based software deployed in the web servers contains no application logic, purely presentation logic. In the PIA, all application logic is deployed at the application server layer.
Application Server The application server, or “app server,” is the tier between the web and database layers. This layer is primarily responsible for receiving requests from the web server and issuing SQL to the database. The app server is built on
BEA Tuxedo technology, and as such, is responsible for maintaining
transaction isolation and
database connection pools in PeopleTools applications. Using Tuxedo, PeopleTools app server domains are created as a collection of processes servicing specific needs and clients in addition to web server requests. Within a domain, several types of related programs can be launched, including remote call
COBOL, Application Engine, and BI Publisher programs.
Process Scheduler Server Like the app server, the process scheduler server, or "scheduler" or "batch server" is built on BEA Tuxedo and is deployed as a collection of processes designed to launch and schedule various programs types. Such processes form a process scheduler domain and are used to execute COBOL,
SQR,
Crystal Reports, Application Engine, nVision, BI Publisher, and many other types of batch programs. Unlike the app server, the scheduler does not return HTML to the web server for delivery to the client browser. Rather, the scheduler simply executes programs and posts logs and reports to the web server for user retrieval.
Database Server The
database server contains all application data as well as all metadata associated with various PeopleTools object types. It also contains many PeopleCode-based application scripts and programs that both the application and process scheduler servers execute. As PeopleTools is built to operate on many database platforms, database specific constructs (like
stored procedures) and programming languages (like
PL/SQL) are not traditionally used. Alternatively, developers write Meta-SQL, and the app or scheduler servers translate such into the proprietary SQL for the related database technology.
Search Server Based on predefined search indexes, the search server returns search results for consumption in the client's web browser. For 9.2 applications running PeopleTools 8.62, the search server technology is a forked version of the
Elastic stack.
Integration Broker Integration Broker is another major server component of PeopleTools. Making use of the PIA web and app servers, Integration Broker sends and receives data via web service-based APIs. While adhering to standards-based web service standards - such as XML-based SOAP and JSON-based RESTful
web services - Integration Broker also provides a simple proprietary XML-based standard (known as PSCAMA) for PeopleTools-based applications to exchange data both
synchronously and asynchronously. ==Application Designer==