Integrating 'Web Application Bridge' in WebSphere Portal

Integrating the Web Application Bridge (WAB) with IBM WebSphere Portal 8.0

The Web Application Bridge-WAB is a feature built on top of WebSphere Portal and WebSphere Application Server, which is used to integrate Web-based content providers, such as the Microsoft® SharePoint 2007 server, with WebSphere Portal using HTML iFrames and reverse proxy technology.

WAB is used to integrate web-based content with websphere portal.

WAB consists of four major components :
-> Web Application Manager portlet.
This component is used to provision, update, export, and delete the site XML descriptor file.
-> Web Dock portlet.
Shows the content that is fetched from backend sites on a portal page.
-> Engine component.
Contains the system logic necessary to handle and orchestrate the other components of the  
                        WAB.
-> Reverse proxy component.
Handles HTTP-based communication with the backend sites.

Flow :
(1) The Web browser sends an HTTP request to the virtual Web application installed on the WebSphere Portal Server.

(2) The virtual Web application repeats the request to the Content Provider on behalf of the Web browser. Selected HTTP headers, cookies, POST data, etc.
   may be forwarded from (1).

(3) The content provider generates a response to (2) and sends it back to the virtual Web application.

(4) The virtual Web application repeats the response generated by the Content Provider in (3) to the Web browser. Selected HTTP headers, cookies, etc. may
   be forwarded from (3).


Process for integrating 'Web Application Bridge' in WebSphere Portal 8 with other site/content

To Integrate WAB we require to configure two portlets, they are
1.Virtual Web Application Manager and
2.Web Dock Portlet

Assume we are integrating 'www.ndtv.com/photos' site

1. Goto WebSphere Portal Administration-->Portlet Management-->Virtual Web Application Manager
2. Create a Category by clicking on 'New' and selecting 'Application Category'
3. Create a Component by clicking on 'New' and selecting 'Application Component'
4.I. In 'Basic' tab provide details of site we are trying to render like;
URI -- HTTP
HOST -- www.ndtv.com (this can be full qualified name or IP Address)
Context Root -- /photos
Display name for Application and Application Portlet -- any name for application
Description -- short description
Category for Application Portlet -- Select the category you just created from dropdown

4.II. In 'Connection' I havent changed any thing as per my requirement.
4.III. In 'Authentication' tab,
Select type - 'HTTP', scheme - 'BASIC', releam - 'www.ndtv.com'
and specify parameter; user-agent -- HEADER, INBOUND, PROPAGATE and save it.
4.IV. In 'Localization' tab I havent changed any thing as per my requirement.

Finally Save 'Virtual Web Application Manager'.

5. Now Create a new page from ManagePages to configure 'Web Dock Portlet'.
6. Before configuring 'Web Dock Portlet' we have to set following parameters for the page through advance options.
Parameter Name : resourceaggregation.profile
Parameter Value : profiles/profile_full.json
7. Configure 'Web Dock Portlet' for the page and apply standared skin.
8. Now goto 'Edit Share Settings' and provide following details;
URL : /photos
Scheme : HTTP
Host : www.ndtv.com
Height : 900
Width : 1050
and rest as per your requirement
9. Now goto 'Personalize' and provide credentials

Thats it...Your www.ndtv.com/photos site will be render in 'Web Dock Portlet'.

Ref : http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/portalwiki.nsf/dx/Integrating_the_Web_Application_Bridge_%28WAB%29_with_IBM_WebSphere_Portal_8.0_A_step-by-step_guide

Creating Custom Layout for Page in IBM WCM

1. Connect to webDAV - http://localhost:10039/wps/mycontenthandler/dav/fs-type1/
2. Copy 'customLayout' folder from 'layout-templates' to local drive.
3. Changed the 'customLayout' folder name to your layout name which you want to provide.
4. Change the icon.gif to your icon. (This is for showing  image for look)
5. In 'metadata' folder --> 'localized_en.properties' file, change 'title' to your layout folder name.
6. Copy the updated folder back from local drive to layout-template.
7. Now you can see your custom layout on portal (You may need to re-login if it doesn’t work) at Actions--
    >EditPage-->Customize-->ChangeLayout.
8. In webDav, in your layout folder that you created, change layout.html and layout.css files as per your
    client requirement.
9. Now goto Actions-->Edit page-->change layout-->select your layout-->save.
10. Now your layout will apply to the page, to this add webcontentviewer portlet.

Thanks,
MS

WCM Active Site Analytics

Portal Analytics is the process of Collecting, Processing, and Reporting portal usage data.

Using Portal Analytics you can collect data about the usage of your portal site and send that data to a service for analysis.

There are two main approaches for collecting analytics data:
1. Server side data of your portal site. This consists mainly of technical data internal to the portal.
2. Data about the behavior of your client users. You analyze this data by using Active Site Analytics.

To retrieve data from portal we write Scripts which are called Aggregators.

The aggregators typically submits the collected data to an external analytics service where the data is then recorded, processed, and formatted in the form of reports.

This aggregators are located in the PortalServer_root/doc/js-samples directory of your portal installation.

Portal supports several aggregator tags, like; asa.portlet.title etc...


Process for Active Site Analytics
1. Collecting analytics data
Before we can send data about user behavior in our portal to a service for analysis, we need to collect that data.
2. Displaying overlay analytic reports
Active Site Analytics show graphical statistics reports about individual portal resources, such as pages or portlets.
These reports are called Active Site Analytics overlay reports.
3. Analytics tags and site promotion


1. Collecting analytics data

The data for the analysis of user behavior is retrieved from markup embedded in the portal pages.
The data is represented as a 'microformat' in portal page. An example of such microformat is:
<span class="asa.portlet.title">My Portlet</span>

Portal supports several aggregator tags, like; asa.portlet.title etc...

The aggregator typically submits the collected data to an external analytics service where the data is then recorded, processed, and formatted in the form of reports.

Portal administrators can manage the aggregators. They can assign an aggregator to one or more portal labels or pages.

How to add an ASA aggregator to a portal page
- Goto webDAV-->js folder-->take the name of the aggregator file. ex:- asa_sample.js
- Goto Portal administration-->Manage pages-->Page(to set aggreator)-->Page properties-->Advanced
           options-->I want to set parameters -->Add Parameter and Value(aggregator file name)-->ok-->ok
*In the field New parameter, type a string that starts with 'asa_aggregator' or 'asa_dependency' . asa_aggregator are added to the page body, asa_dependency are added to the head.


2. Displaying overlay analytic reports

The overlay analytic reports are shown as a statistics graph on a portal page.
The statistics are generated as follows:
-> The data collected by the portal site analytics are collected and forwarded to your business partners for portal analytics.
-> Your business partner analyses and evaluates the portal data and sends back a report to your portal.
-> The portal then displays the report as the overlay graph.

To setup active site analytics overlay report on portal, we have to follow these steps:
1. Enable data collection. For example, you can do this by adding an Active Site Analytics aggregator to a portal page:
-> Access the IBM® Coremetrics® Web Analytics web site or contact your Coremetrics
                             representative.
-> Retrieve the appropriate aggregator file from Coremetrics.
-> Upload the aggregator file to your portal theme folder, for example, by using WebDAV.
-> Add Active Site Analytics aggregator to a portal page.
-> As a result of these steps, analytics data is sent from browsers of your portal users to the
                             Coremetrics data collection servers.
-> You can log on to Coremetrics and analyze the portal usage.

2. Enable inline display of Coremetrics reports by enabling overlay reports:
-> Establish trust with Coremetrics servers.
To display overlay analytic report we have to configure/activate overlay reports for our
                                site :
- Goto Admin console-->Resources-->Resources Environment-->Resource
                                           Environment Provider-->WP Config Services-->Custom Properties-->New
- Use the property name 'wp.proxy.config.urlreplacement.default_policy.1' and
                                           the value https://welcome.coremetrics.com/*
- If this name is already in use increment the counter of key.
- Apply and Save.
- Next, Import the Coremetrics certificate into your server truststore.
- Goto Admin console-->Security-->SSL certificate and key management--
                                           >SSL configurations-->NodeDefaultSSLSettings-->Key stores and
 certificates-->NodeDefaultTrustStore-->Signer certificates-->Retrive form Port,
                                          and fill the form with details
 'NodeDefaultSSLSettings' is for Stand-alone environment
 'CellDefaultSSLSettings' is for Portal Clustur environment
- For the host: welcome.coremetrics.com
 For the port: 443
 For the alias: coremetrics or another identifying string of your choice.
- Retrive Signer Information and Apply & Save.

-> Optional: Set up security for overlay reports.
- You can administer which users can view overlay reports.
- To do this, you use the virtual resource OVERLAY_REPORTS having USER
                                           role assigned.

-> Configure your Coremetrics user ID.
- To access the IBM® Coremetrics® Web Analytics system, you have to store
                                           user information in a Credential Vault slot.
- If you do not do this, the portal overlay reports cannot show data from the
                                          Coremetrics system.
- To configure this we require,
Coremetrics client ID
Coremetrics user name
Coremetrics authentication key.
- Goto admin-->access-->credential vault-->add vault slot, and fill the portlet
                                           with details
- name : com.ibm.portal.asa.coremetrics.slot
 shared user ID : coremetrics_user_name#coremetrics_client_id

-> Display overlay reports by choosing Show Portlet Reports or Show Page Reports.
- To enable overlay statistics, the user opens the page actions menu and selects
                                           either Show Portlet Reports or Show Page Reports.
- When the user clicks a report type in the actions menu, the display reports
                                           setting is persisted in the navigational state.
- This means that the user can now navigate through the portal and view statistics
                                           on every page that the user visits.
- To disable overlay statistics, the user opens the page actions menu again and
                                           clicks the menu item Close Analytics Reports.

-> Optional: Customize the overlay report by providing additional configuration parameters.

3. Optional: To further customize the tagging of your site, assign site promotions to pages and portlets as required.


Ref :
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/portalwiki.nsf/xpDocViewer.xsp?lookupName=IBM+WebSphere+Portal+8+Product+Documentation#action=openDocument&res_title=Analyzing_portal_usage_data_wp8&content=pdcontent

Thanks,
MS

In WebSphere Portal how to Export and Import WebContent Library ?

We can export the contents of a web content library to disk and import this data into another web content server. With this process we can make a backup copy of a web content library, and can also be used to move data between servers. But this function cannot be used to send updates, deletes and moves. It is only suitable for populating new items.

1. Exporting and importing a web content library versus syndication.

    This feature does not replace the syndication feature. Although this feature can be used to transfer data between servers, it is a manual process and is not meant to be used for regular updates between servers. Syndication is instead used to automatically keep two or more servers synchronized. Also, whereas syndication can be used to send updates, deletes and moves, the import feature is only suitable for populating new items.

2. Limitations of exporting and importing a web content library.

    Saved versions of items are not exported. Only the current version of each item is exported.
    Children are only exported and imported when the parent is successfully exported and imported.
    If an item exists on the target server with the same path, name and ID, then the item is overwritten.
    Library and item level access controls are left unchanged when a library is exported and imported. You need to run the member fixer tool on the imported library to fix references to missing users and groups.You cannot import an item if an item on the target server has the same ID but a different parent than the item being imported.

3. Disabling JCR text search :

    It is recommended you disable JCR text search indexing on your WebSphere® Portal server before exporting or importing large libraries to reduce the load on the database during export and import. Edit the wp_profile_root/PortalServer/jcr/lib/com/ibm/icm/icm.properties file and set the jcr.textsearch.enabled property to false. After the file is updated, restart your server for the changes to take effect. When you have completed exporting or importing your library you must then enable JCR text search again. It can take some time to rebuild the indexes when you re-enable JCR text search indexing.

4. Exporting and importing large libraries :

    When importing web content libraries, a temporary directory is used to store the library files during the upload process. If the size of the uploaded files exceeds the available disk space for the temporary directory, the import operation fails. When uploading large libraries, ensure that there is sufficient disk space to accommodate the import. The location of the temporary directory is specified by the jcr.binaryValueFileDir property in the wp_profile_root/PortalServer/jcr/lib/com/ibm/icm/icm.properties file.
    When exporting or importing large libraries, increase the total transaction lifetime timeout and the maximum transaction timeout of your server to 360 seconds through the WebSphere Application Server administrative console. To change these settings, go to Servers > Server Types > WebSphere application servers > portal_server > Container Services > Transaction Service

Export Process :
----------------------
1. Log in to the IBM® WebSphere Application Server administration console on the source server.
2. Goto, Resources -> Resource Environment -> Resource Environment Providers -> WCM WCMConfigService -> Custom properties.
3. Create or update the export properties.
1. export.directory = ${USER_INSTALL_ROOT}/PortalServer/wcm/ilwwcm/system/export (default location of exporting files)
2. export.libraryname = Lib_1;Lib_2;Lib_3 (ex : SourceLibrary; which library to be exported)
3. export.singledirectory = true/false (If set to true, multiple libraries are written into a single directory specified by the export)

Note: You must restart your server any time you change these settings.

4. Open a command prompt on the source server and goto 'wp_profile_root/ConfigEngine' and run 'export-wcm-data' command;
1. ConfigEngine.bat export-wcm-data -DWasPassword=password -DPortalAdminPwd=password   -- for windows
2. ./ConfigEngine.sh export-wcm-data -DWasPassword=password -DPortalAdminPwd=password  -- for unix
3. ConfigEngine.sh export-wcm-data -DWasPassword=password -DPortalAdminPwd=password    -- for i/os

Note : If you get error of unable to delete .sql database, check permissions

Note:
1. You can override the export.directory property defined in the WCM WCMConfigService service by using the -Dexport.directory parameter. For example:
  export-wcm-data -Dexport.directory=c:\export
2. You can override the export.singledirectory property defined in the WCM WCMConfigService service by using the -Dexport.singledirectory parameter.
  For example: export-wcm-data -Dexport.singledirectory=false saves the exported libraries under different directories.
3. You can override the export.libraryname property defined in the WCM WCMConfigService service by using the -Dexport.libraryname parameter. For
  example: export-wcm-data -Dexport.libraryname=libraryname
4. To ensure that your exported libraries can be successfully imported, do not change the names of any of the folders or files within the exported data.

Import Process :
----------------------
1. Log in to the IBM® WebSphere Application Server administration console on the source server.
2. Goto, Resources -> Resource Environment -> Resource Environment Providers -> WCM WCMConfigService -> Custom properties.
3. Create or update the export properties.
1. import.directory = this is the path of the directory where you kept exported directory.i.e ${USER_INSTALL_ROOT}/PortalServer/wcm/ilwwcm/system/export

Note: You must restart your server any time you change these settings.

4. Open a command prompt on the source server and goto 'wp_profile_root/ConfigEngine' and run 'import-wcm-data' command;
1. ConfigEngine.bat import-wcm-data -DWasPassword=password -DPortalAdminPwd=password   -- for windows
2. ./ConfigEngine.sh import-wcm-data -DWasPassword=password -DPortalAdminPwd=password  -- for unix
3. ConfigEngine.sh import-wcm-data -DWasPassword=password -DPortalAdminPwd=password    -- for i/os

Note:
1. You can override the import.directory property defined in the WCM WCMConfigService service by using the -Dimport.directory parameter. For example:
  import-wcm-data -Dimport.directory=c:\import\Lib1

Ref Url :
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/portalwiki.nsf/dx/Exporting_and_importing_a_web_content_library_wcm7



Thanks,
MS

What is the difference between WebSphere Portal and WebSphere Portal Express ?

As far as Portal functionality is concerned, both Portal and Portal Express are identical. You'll install the same Portal in both cases.

The actual differences are limited to the license and the bundle you get. 

Portal Express was designed to be an out of the box production ready environment for smaller businesses. It's a different license package from "WebSphere Portal Enable or Portal Extend". It installs and configures DB2 out of the box (as opposed to Derby for Portal Enable/Extend). Also the license forbids clustering with Express.

The major differences between the two are:

1. The licenses and CD bundle
2. Express installs/configures DB2 out of the box; Portal installs/configures Derby
3. Express license forbids clustering; Portal license does not

For more details on Express, visit this link:
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/genservers/portalexpress/


Difference between IBM® WebSphere® Portal Extend and IBM WebSphere Portal Enable?

WebSphere Portal Enable and WebSphere Portal Extend are the same, with the only difference being that WebSphere Portal Extend versions come bundled with the Lotus® Collaborative Components (including Lotus Notes®, Sametime® and QuickPlace®).



Thanks,
MS