Change Assistant 8.56 Installation Changes

Dan Iverson

Starting in Change Assistant 8.56, a new file is used to track the installations of Change Assistant, C:\Windows\PeoplesoftCA.txt. While Change Assistant 8.55 let us install multiple versions at the same time, 8.56 now tracks which your Change Assistant installations.

C:\Windows\PeoplesoftCA.txt

1 8.56.05  c:\psft\ca\hr025-8.56.05
2 8.56.05  c:\psft\ca\hrtst-8.56.05

The Change Assistant installer scripts set the path for the file. On Windows, is uses the WINDIR environment variable and on Linux it generates a temporary folder.

if isWin() :
  winpath = os.environ['WINDIR']
else :
  winpath = tempfile.gettempdir()

The C:\Windows location doens’t seem like the best place to store this file though. C:\Windows is for Windows files, not for vendor configuration. I’d like to see this stored in a better location, like C:\ProgramData\Peoplesoft.

If you run into errors when installing Change Assistant, especially in early releases of 8.56, try deleting the PeoplesoftCA.txt file. Earlier versions of Change Assistant used this format of the file (this is from Change Assistant 8.56.03):

INSTALL_PATH=c:\psft\ca\hr024-8.56.03

There are multiple ways to install Change Assistant with 8.56.

1. tools_client\setupPTClient.bat on the PeopleSoft Image
2. Use the setup.bat file under PS_HOME\setup\PsCA

3. Silent Install option:

   .\silentInstall.bat c:\psft\ca\hr025-8.56.05 NEW NOBACKUP
   .\silentInstall.bat c:\psft\ca\hcmpum UPGRADE NOBACKUP
   

A few changes to the installation process:

1. Installing an older version of Change Assistant will error if the PeoplesoftCA.txt has a newer version in it.
2. The PeopleTools Installation Guide for 8.56 references the installer as setup\PsCA\installCA.exe, but in the latest 8.56.05 client tools that file does not exist.
3. Instead, there is a setup.bat script to perform the installation.
4. At OpenWorld, we heard that 8.56 included Change Assistant for Linux but you had to look for it. Now we have a setup.sh script for Change Assistant on Linux.
5. The installation process is powered by Python, not an installation wizard. This follows suit with the DPK changes and supports multiple platforms.