More on Messages

The UK P45 App Engine writes a message to the log if it thinks it can't find Tax details for a given employee. Based on what the message was telling us (set 17135,541 since you ask) I disagreed that no tax details existed, however I wanted to check the code to see how the App Engine makes the decision to issue the message. Normally I'd run a find in PeopleCode and SQL looking for the message set and number* - but this produced nothing.

Baffled, I asked on of the techy guys - he pointed out that App Engine can have a step that writes to the log - and so it proved. Unfortunately, neither I nor he knows a simple way to search for such a message as it's neither PeopleCode nor SQL at least not as the search understands it.

* Top tip - when searching PeopleCode for an error/warning message, insert a space after the message set and comma - so 17135,541 becomes 171, 541 - for reasons best known to itself PeopleCode adds the space.

Update - The client has a PeopleSoft/Oracle Service Request logged for this fault.

Big Fish, Small Pond

If you are a customer of large organisation, the relationship you have with that supplier is a function of your relative importance to them. My recent experiences dealing with two suppliers to my current project have highlighted this very clearly.

To one supplier my client is a large and valued customer. Asking them to work on their product to accomodate some of the vaguaries of a larger organisation has been met with refreshing response. They agreed to make some changes at no cost because they recognise the value of these in making the product saleable to other large organisations.

On the other hand, asking our larger supplier to incorporate a few features (and a few fixes!) from packages costing less than one hundreth of what the customer paid for this one has been met with a total lack of interest and "works as designed" response. They know that clientco is "trapped" with the package and so they have no need to bother spending anything on keeping them happy.