WebLogic Platform Tour Guide

Getting Started

Welcome to the BEA WebLogic Platform Tour!

The BEA WebLogic Platform Tour introduces you to the main features of BEA WebLogic Platform and provides a launching point to get you started developing and integrating your own applications.

To get started using the WebLogic Platform Tour, review the following sections:

Introducing the WebLogic Platform Tour

The WebLogic Platform Tour illustrates how to build and integrate applications, using a sample business scenario to provide business context. In this sample scenario, Avitek, a major vendor of electronic office equipment, has developed a corporate intranet using WebLogic Platform. The corporate intranet enables employees and managers to view employee information and manage office equipment purchases.

The WebLogic Platform Tour shows how these functions can be simplified by building two systems—the Employee Information system and Office Equipment Order Management system—and integrating them into a sample intranet portal application using WebLogic Platform.

Figure 1-1 WebLogic Platform Tour: The Avitek Corporate Intranet

WebLogic Platform Tour: The Avitek Corporate Intranet

WebLogic Platform Components

WebLogic Platform provides an integrated set of components: a J2EE-compliant application server with development, integration, and portal frameworks built on top of it.

Figure 1-2 WebLogic Platform Components

WebLogic Platform Components

The WebLogic Platform components are described in the following table.

Table 1-1 BEA WebLogic Platform Components

This component...	Provides...
WebLogic Workshop	Integrated development, deployment, and run-time environment for building WebLogic Platform applications
WebLogic Portal	Framework for building and managing enterprise portals
WebLogic Integration	Framework for developing and integrating applications and business processes from within and across the enterprise
WebLogic Server	Solid foundation for rapidly developing, deploying, and managing e-business applications
WebLogic JRockit	High-performance JVM optimized for server-side performance and scalability.

For more information, see the complete set of WebLogic Platform 8.1 documentation at the following URL:

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E13196_01/platform/docs81/index.html

Integrated Application Solution

The WebLogic Platform Tour demonstrates an integrated application solution, combining multiple standalone applications. The WebLogic Platform Tour consists of two applications that were developed using WebLogic Workshop Platform Edition:

e2ePortal—Defines the Avitek intranet portal and Employee Information system.
e2eWorkflow—Defines the Office Equipment Order Management system.

The following figure provides an architectural view of the WebLogic Platform Tour.

Figure 1-3 Architectural View of the WebLogic Platform Tour

Architectural View of the WebLogic Platform Tour

The following table defines the WebLogic Platform Tour components in more detail.

Table 1-2 WebLogic Platform Tour Integrated Application Solution

Component	Description	Application Integration
Avitek Intranet Portal	Enables Avitek employees to access the corporate intranet.	Intranet portal developed using WebLogic Portal: Provides a composite view of component applications, information, and business processes for specific portal audiences. Integrates with the WebLogic Server security realm to provide secure access. Employs Java page flows to determine the user's path through the pages and the associated data. Employs custom Java controls developed using WebLogic Workshop to coordinate access to multiple databases and invoke a business process.
Employee Information	Enables users to view their employee profiles.	WebLogic Workshop database control simplifies access to employee profiles in the employee information database.
Office Equipment Order Management	Enables employees to order office equipment.	WebLogic Integration business process management: Directs the lifecycle of an office equipment order. Enables user interaction with business process using Worklist user interface. Employs built-in Java controls developed using WebLogic Workshop that simplify access to business logic or enterprise resources.

Component

Description

Application Integration

Avitek Intranet Portal

Enables Avitek employees to access the corporate intranet.

Intranet portal developed using WebLogic Portal:

Provides a composite view of component applications, information, and business processes for specific portal audiences.

Integrates with the WebLogic Server security realm to provide secure access.

Employs Java page flows to determine the user's path through the pages and the associated data.

Employs custom Java controls developed using WebLogic Workshop to coordinate access to multiple databases and invoke a business process.

Employee Information

Enables users to view their employee profiles.

WebLogic Workshop database control simplifies access to employee profiles in the employee information database.

Office Equipment Order Management

Enables employees to order office equipment.

WebLogic Integration business process management:

Directs the lifecycle of an office equipment order.

Enables user interaction with business process using Worklist user interface.

Employs built-in Java controls developed using WebLogic Workshop that simplify access to business logic or enterprise resources.

Business Scenario

John Smith has just accepted a position with Avitek. He needs to verify that his employment information on file is correct. He also needs to order some new office equipment. He can accomplish both tasks through the Avitek corporate intranet.

Log in to the Avitek corporate intranet.

You log in to the Avitek corporate intranet as new employee John Smith.

View employee information.

When you log in to the Avitek intranet portal as an employee, your employee profile is presented in the Employee portlet.

Order office equipment.

This task is a two-step process:

As John Smith, you submit an order for a new laptop.

As the manager, Rachel Burns, you log in and approve the order for a new laptop for John Smith.

Once approved, you can track the delivery status of the order.

During the WebLogic Platform Tour, you complete each of these steps, assuming the roles of the Avitek employee and manager, as required.

Stepping Through the WebLogic Platform Tour

Before starting the WebLogic Platform Tour, take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the following topics:

Starting the WebLogic Platform Tour

To start the WebLogic Platform Tour (if it is not already started), use one of the following options:

Select Take the end-to-end WebLogic Platform tour from WebLogic Platform QuickStart.

QuickStart provides quick access to the WebLogic Platform Tour and other samples, useful tools for accomplishing specific development tasks, and the online documentation. You can invoke QuickStart when you initially install WebLogic Platform.
To invoke QuickStart manually on Windows, choose BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1—> QuickStart from the Start menu.
To invoke QuickStart manually on UNIX, perform the following steps:

Open a command-line shell.

Go to the common/bin directory of the WebLogic Platform installation. For example:

cd bea/weblogic81/common/bin

Enter the following command:

sh quickstart.sh

From the Start menu, choose Start—> Programs—> BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1—> Examples—> WebLogic Platform—> Launch End-to-End Examples.
Manually invoke the WebLogic Platform Tour start script, as follows:

On Windows, invoke the startWebLogic.cmd script in the samples\domains\end2end directory of the WebLogic Platform installation.
On UNIX, invoke the startWebLogic.sh script in the samples/domains/end2end directory of the WebLogic Platform installation.

Open the WebLogic Platform Tour in WebLogic Workshop and start the server, as described in Starting WebLogic Workshop.

Once you start the WebLogic Platform Tour, the following events occur:

An instance of WebLogic Server is started in the end2end domain.

The WebLogic Platform Tour is deployed, as specified by the end2end domain configuration.

The WebLogic Platform Tour Web application is launched in a browser and you are prompted to log in to the Avitek intranet portal.

Starting WebLogic Workshop

The WebLogic Platform Tour demonstrates many of the features of BEA WebLogic Workshop Platform Edition—an integrated development environment for building WebLogic Platform applications. WebLogic Workshop's intuitive user interface lets you design your application visually, simplifying the development of Web, portal, and business process applications, web services, and more!

As you step through the WebLogic Platform Tour, you are prompted to open within WebLogic Workshop the applications and files that are related to the discussion to learn how they were developed.

Start WebLogic Workshop using the steps defined in the following table:

Table 1-3 Start WebLogic Workshop

To start WebLogic Workshop on...	Perform the following steps...
Microsoft Windows	From the Start menu, choose Start—> Programs—>BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1—>WebLogic Workshop.
UNIX	1. Log in to the target UNIX system. 2. Go to the `workshop` directory of the WebLogic Platform installation. For example: `cd bea/weblogic81/workshop` 3. Enter the following command: `sh Workshop.sh`

To start WebLogic Workshop on...

Perform the following steps...

Microsoft Windows

From the Start menu, choose Start—> Programs—>BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1—>WebLogic Workshop.

UNIX

1. Log in to the target UNIX system.

2. Go to the workshop directory of the WebLogic Platform installation. For example:

cd bea/weblogic81/workshop

3. Enter the following command:

sh Workshop.sh

The applications you develop in WebLogic Workshop are deployed to a running instance of WebLogic Server. Before you can compile, run, or debug an application, WebLogic Server must be running. The status of the server is reported by the changing colors of an icon at the bottom of the window:

When an instance of WebLogic Server is started, the Server icon is shown in green.

An instance of WebLogic Server was invoked, in the end2end domain, when you started the WebLogic Platform Tour. You can start and stop WebLogic Server from within WebLogic Workshop by choosing one of the following commands, respectively:

Tools—>WebLogic Server—>Start WebLogic Server
Tools—>WebLogic Server—>Stop WebLogic Server

To learn more about the features of WebLogic Workshop, see the WebLogic Workshop Help, as follows:

In WebLogic Workshop, choose Help—>Help Topics.
Navigate to e-docs at: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E13226_01/workshop/docs81/index.html

To conserve screen real estate, temporarily minimize the WebLogic Workshop window.

Tips for Taking the WebLogic Platform Tour

While taking the WebLogic Platform Tour, keep in mind the following tips:

Step through the instructions provided in "Step Through Tour" in the Doc Tour portlet of the running application to interact with the running sample and familiarize yourself with the WebLogic Platform features and its integrated application solution. Select the View Tour Steps button to display the current set of steps.
Review "What Occurred in the Sample" in the Navigation portlet of the running application to learn about the WebLogic Platform component interactions as you step through the sample.
View animated demos to learn more about how the sample application was built using WebLogic Workshop.

Note: To view the demos, you must have the Macromedia Flash 5.0 Plugin installed. The plugin can be downloaded, for free, from the Macromedia Download Center at the following URL: http://www.macromedia.com/downloads

Stopping the WebLogic Platform Tour

To stop the WebLogic Platform Tour, manually invoke the WebLogic Platform Tour stop script, as follows:

On Windows, invoke the stopWebLogic.cmd script in the samples\domains\end2end directory of the WebLogic Platform installation.
On UNIX, invoke the stopWebLogic.sh script in the samples/domains/end2end directory of the WebLogic Platform installation.