Background

• Over the weekend of 5-7 July 2019, upgrades to certain UP systems were undertaken to enhance aspects of “single sign-on” between the UP Portal and other systems.
• Part of the reason for undertaking this enhancement was to prepare the institution’s systems for the future planned release of a new UP mobile application (i.e. a UP “app” for your cellphone)
• However, the upgrades done over the above-mentioned weekend will immediately affect the way in which certain UP systems function.
• And hence there are specific steps that users will need to follow in order for these UP systems to behave correctly after this weekend’s upgrades.

These steps are detailed below:

Step 1: Clear Cache

So, on Monday 8 July 2019 (or the first time you access the UP Portal after this date), please ensure that your first step is to “Clear Browser Cache”. Guideline instructions of how this is done can be found at: https://www1.up.ac.za/cs/gf/uppr147568

The reason this is necessary is because the PeopleSoft suites of systems in use at UP (PeopleSoft Campus Solutions [Student] suite, Human Resources [HCM] suite, Financial [FSCM] suite and CRM suite) all store certain information in the cache and cookies of every user’s browser in order to optimise the user’s experience. 

However, it is essential after this upgrade that users of the UP Portal and/or any PeopleSoft suite “clear the cache and cookies” of the web browsers that they normally use to access the UP Portal /systems - because the information currently stored in your browser’s cache will be inconsistent with the requirements of the upgraded PeopleSoft systems.

Step 2:  Delete any stored “Browser Favorites/Bookmarks” used to reference any UP PeopleSoft system

Should you have previously “bookmarked” any hyperlinks/urls for any UP PeopleSoft system for any reason, you are advised to manually delete these “Bookmarks” from your browser – because, after this upgrade, these bookmarks will no longer facilitate access to these bookmarked systems. 

(It is further recommended that you do not bookmark any of these system links going forward because these links change from time to time – and you may end up not being able to access systems in future due to outdated references)

Step 3:  Note the change in behavior of browser tabs when closing applications invoked from the UP Portal

Going forward (after this upgrade) should you:

• Have successfully entered your user credentials to access the UP Portal, and
• Selected one on the PeopleSoft portlets, e.g. to access the (PeopleSoft Campus Solutions) Student Centre or Faculty Centre, or to access the PeopleSoft HCM suite, in which case this selected application would have opened in a second browser tab, and
• Then clicked on the icon within the PeopleSoft suite that shows “Three dots vertically under one another”, and
• Selected the “Sign Out” option

then you will not only be signed out of the PeopleSoft Application tab where you were working, but you will also be signed out of the entire UP Portal (and any other applications to which you have navigated). In short, the enhanced “single sign-on” functionality also activates “single sign-off”.

Note: Should you have opened a number of applications from the UP portal (each application on own tab) and subsequently used the “Sign Out” option on any of these to close all your sessions, then although signed out of all of these, the various browser tabs will still be open and visible to you. Should you then attempt to re-initiate connection via any of these tabs, you will again be presented with the UP login page for signing onto the application again.

To summarise, if you are in the UP Portal (on one tab) and you have opened a PeopleSoft application from the UP Portal (which Peoplesoft application is now visible in a second tab), then should you wish to exit specifically from that PeopleSoft application only, i.e. without also closing the UP Portal tab, then simply click the “X” on the PeopleSoft tab that you wish to close, i.e. do not navigate (via the 3 dot icon) to the PeopleSoft “Sign Out” link.