Which Version Number Corresponds To Which PeopleTools Object?

Recently somebody asked me "Our “CRM” values in PSLOCK and PSVERSION are growing tremendously and we don’t know why. We will be opening a case with Oracle but … do you know what that “CRM” value is related to? We are not using the CRM product in our PeopleSoft installation."
There is some documentation on the Oracle Support website, but it is not exhaustive and may not be completely up to date.

• E-AD: What is OBJECTTYPENAME in PSVERSION and PSLOCK for? (Doc ID 664848.1)  contains a document that lists the object type names and the PeopleTools table they relate to.  This document was originally published in 2013 and relates to PeopleTools 8.49.
• E-AD: What Tables Are Associated With The New Objecttypenames In PSVERSION In PT 8.50? (Doc ID 1278867.1) lists the new object types in PeopleTools 8.50.

The page in the PTRef utility that describes the relationship of version numbers to PeopleTools tables is one of the few static pages in the tool.  I have now updated it with the information in the above Oracle support notes, but there are other version numbers.
In the previous blog post, I showed how to increment version numbers before updating PeopleTools objects.  I knew RDM (the Record Definition Manager) is the OBJECTTYPENAME for PSRECDEFN because I worked that out by tracing Application Designer while it saved a record change.  That remains the only completely reliable way to determine the relationship.
However, version number matching is also a useful technique, though when it does not provide a completely definitive answer, it dramatically cuts down the amount of work then necessary.
I have written a little PL/SQL code, that is delivered with PTRef, that extracts the maximum version number for each PeopleTools table in PeopleSoft (other than the PS%DEL) tables and stores it on a working storage table (I used the PLAN_TABLE because it is always there on an Oracle database).  Then you can compare the version number on PSLOCK/PSVERSION with the maximum version on the PeopleTools object.
If the version number is 1, you can’t do the match because the version number has never been incremented, at least since it was last reset by the VERSION application engine.
If the version is only updated occasionally you may have some trouble with duplicate matches. In my example, 3 tables have a maximum version number of 80, while only one version number is 80.

RECNAME                   MAX        CNT
------------------ ---------- ----------
PSAEAPPLDEFN               80       3504
PSMSGNODEDEFN              80         78
PSOPRVERDFN                80       1468

I would guess that OPRVM matches PSOPRVERDFN, and the above support notes confirm this, but otherwise, you would have to check that manually with trace.

OBJECTTY    VERSION
-------- ----------
OPRVM            80

Higher version numbers are easier to match because they are less likely to have duplicate matches.
So to return to the original question, what is CRM?  In my sample system, version numbers CRM and SCATM are both 3.

OBJECTTY    VERSION
-------- ----------
CRM               3
SCATM             3

However, only PSCONTDEFN has a maximum version of 3.

RECNAME                   MAX        CNT
------------------ ---------- ----------
PSCONTDEFN                  3       7567

Again not a perfect match, but again Oracle Support Note 664848.1 confirms that CRM corresponds to PSCONTDEFN.  CRM stands for Content Registry Manager.
So the question now becomes what is updating the content definitions, and hence increasing the version number?  It turned out to be an entity registry synchronisation process that was run daily.
It is perfectly legitimate for many updated rows on the PeopleTools table can be given the same version number.  The version number does not need to be incremented again for each row being updated, but then the row-level locks on PSVERSION and PSLOCK created by their updates must be held until the update on the PeopleTools table is committed.  That can increase contention on the version number update.  The alternative is to commit after each update and then increment the version numbers again.  Many PeopleSoft processes do exactly that, and it can, in turn, lead to massive increase in some version numbers.

Announcing the Co-Operative PeopleTools Table Reference

Update 20.6.2019: I have published on Github the code used to generate the PeopleTools Table reference described here.  The element of co-operation is should be easier via updates to the metadata scripts in Github.  See blog post PeopleTools Table Reference Generator.

I have created a reference to the PeopleTools tables and views on my website. 

In the course of my work on PeopleSoft, I spend a lot of time looking at the PeopleTools tables. They contain meta-data about the PeopleSoft application. Much of the application is stored in various tables that are maintained by Application Designer. Some tables provide information about the Data Model. Others contain configuration data that is maintained via PeopleTools components in the PIA.

Many of my utility scripts query information from PeopleTools tables and some also update them. Of course, that is strictly not supported, but if you understand how the tables fit together it can be done relatively safely.  So, it is very helpful to be able to understand what is in these tables.

In PeopleSoft for the Oracle DBA, I discussed some of the PeopleTools tables that are of regular interest. I included the tables that correspond to the database catalogue, and I discussed what happens during the PeopleSoft login procedure, submission of process requests to the Process Scheduler and PS/Query. The tables that are maintained by the process scheduler are valuable because they contain information about who ran what process when, and how long they ran.

I am not the only person to have started to document the PeopleTools tables on their website or blog, most people have picked a few tables that are of particular interest. However, I want to tackle the problem in a slightly different way. There are over 3000 PeopleTools tables and views (as defined by the PeopleTools object security group in PSOBJGROUP). Tackling all of them manually would be a monumental task.

Nevertheless, I do want a complete reference. So, I have written code to dynamically generate a page for each PeopleTools table and view, and I have put as much information about these records as I can find in the PeopleTools tables themselves. Reference to related objects, including objects referenced in the text of views, appear as links to those pages.

I have started to manually add my own annotation to the generated pages.  So far I have only added descriptions to a few tables (marked with an asterisk). However, I would like to make this a collaborative project, and I have already had updates to some pages.

• There is a page for each PeopleTools table and view. If you save that page, add descriptions, and return it to me, I will upload it to the site.
• You can also add links to related websites and blog pages to your entries.
• Please put your name and, if you wish, a link to your website to the bottom of the pages you author.
• Let me know if you think you have found a mistake. 

I hope you find it useful.