By now you have probably heard about Drop Zones being put on the top and bottom of almost all of the fluid pages in HCM, and that putting customizations into drop zones means that going forward those customizations are treated as configuration when you uptake any changes to that object that PeopleSoft delivers, saving you time and effort since you don’t have to re-apply those customizations.

You’re probably asking yourself “why is PeopleSoft writing about Drop Zones again?”  What’s worse is that it’s a 2-part series!

I wanted to let you know that there is something new in the world of Drop Zones.  In Image 34 we introduced the first drop zones on classic pages in HCM.  PeopleSoft delivered drop zones on the following foundation tables:

  • Business Unit
  • Company
  • Department
  • Establishment
  • Job Code
  • Job Family
  • Pay Group
  • Location
  • Salary Grade
  • Salary Plan

Before you run out and start moving all of your customizations to these drop zones there are a few things that you should know:

  • Drop Zones for Classic Plus (and thus Classic) are only available with PeopleTools 8.58
  • For the most part, the drop zones on classic plus pages will be at, or near, the bottom of the page.  The reason for this is because classic plus pages do not reclaim “white space”.  What this means is that if we put a drop zone at the top of a page there would always be a blank space at the top of the page if you did not put anything in it. 
  • We have only delivered drop zones on key classic foundation tables where we have had reports of customers often customizing.  If there are other classic pages where you think a drop zone would be useful please submit it to the Ideas Space via the My Oracle Support Community.

For those of you who aren’t yet convinced to use drop zones this is what FTI Consulting, a new winner of the Feature Innovator Award, had to say about their implementation of drop zones: 

“Without this feature we would have to customize the delivered fluid page and add our field to it. Each such customization adds to the work while applying new features from PUM images or during upgrades. Drop zones has substantially decreased this work thus helping us to manage and maintain custom code effectively.”

If you have already made the decision to use drop zones, the following are some resources to use for more information:

Drop Zones Video Feature Overview: 

Using Drop Zones to Isolate Customizations on the PeopleSoft Technology Blog:  https://blogs.oracle.com/peopletools/using-drop-zones-to-isolate-customizations

Drop Zones for Classic Pages on the PeopleSoft Technology Blog:  https://blogs.oracle.com/peopletools/drop-zones-for-classic-pages

Don’t miss Part 2 where we will look at Drop Zone Pages, where they are used, and how to use them.