4
Syndication Server Administration

This chapter provides a brief overview of the Syndication Server Manager for Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) used for Syndication Server administration tasks.

4.1 Syndication Server Manager for Oracle Enterprise Manager

Syndication Server Manager, a Web-based administration tool available through Oracle Enterprise Manager lets you administer Oracle9iAS Syndication Server. Syndication Server administration tasks are organized into the following management tasks:

• Managing Subscribers (applications)

• Managing Subscriptions

• Managing Content Providers

• Managing Schedulers

• Managing Gateway Contexts

• Managing Global Properties

• Managing Events

• Managing Content Provider Execution Properties

Figure 4-1 provides an overview of the Syndication Server management tasks that can be performed, and the relationship among some of these tasks. In addition, the relationship of some tasks performed at runtime, such as creating subscriptions and schedulers, are shown to provide a better understanding of how Syndication Server works, along with some of the required packages needed to register content providers and subscriber applications.

Each of these tasks is described in more detail in Section 4.1.1 through Section 4.1.8.

Figure 4-1 Overview of Oracle9iAS Syndication Server Manager for OEM

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4.1.1 Managing Subscribers (Applications)

From the Subscribers window, you can:

• Edit subscriber properties

• Manage content providers

• Manage subscriptions

• Register a subscriber

• Delete a subscriber

Figure 4-2 shows a flow diagram of the Manage Subscriber tasks that you can perform from the Subscribers window.

Figure 4-2 Flow Diagram of the Manage Subscriber Tasks

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4.1.2 Managing Subscriptions

From the Subscriptions window, you can:

• Search for subscriptions by subscriber ID or content provider ID and enter the search criteria

• View subscriptions

• Edit subscriber properties

• Edit content provider properties for that subscription

• Delete a subscription for a selected subscriber

Figure 4-3 shows a flow diagram of the Manage Subscription tasks that you can perform from the Subscriptions window.

Figure 4-3 Flow Diagram of the Manage Subscription Tasks

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4.1.3 Managing Content Providers

From the Content Providers window, you can:

• Edit the following content provider properties:
  • Content provider name

  • Content provider description

  • Content provider postal address

  • Content provider e-mail address

  • Content provider telephone number

• Register each content provider

  You must register each content provider using the Register Content Provider wizard available on the Content Providers window.

• Delete registered content providers

Figure 4-4 shows a flow diagram of the Manage Content Provider tasks that you can perform from the Content Providers window.

Figure 4-4 Flow Diagram of the Manage Content Provider Tasks

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4.1.4 Managing Schedulers

After Syndication Server approves a subscription, it creates a scheduler (a DBMS_JOB instance residing in an Oracle database) for each delivery rule that has the delivery mode set to push and sends it to the scheduler.

Information for each scheduler includes:

• Scheduler ID -- The ID of the scheduler.

• Subscription ID -- The ID of the subscription.

• Content Provider ID -- The Universal Unique Identifier (UUID) or ID assigned to the content provider at registration time.

• Notification URL -- The Syndication Server URL used to listen for the scheduler.

• Subscriber PUSH URL -- The URL of the subscriber to which content is pushed.

• Next Awake Date -- The next date and time when the scheduler will be triggered.

• Status (broken) -- The status (No or Yes) indicating whether or not the scheduler is broken. Yes means the scheduler is broken and could not schedule and execute the task for which it was created.

• Creation Date -- The date when the scheduler was created.

• Interval (sec) -- The time interval in seconds between scheduled deliveries of content.

Figure 4-5 shows a flow diagram of the Manage Scheduler tasks that you can perform from the Schedulers window.

Figure 4-5 Flow Diagram of the Manage Scheduler Tasks

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4.1.5 Managing Gateway Contexts

A gateway context represents a content provider's connection with all its properties to a content provider instance. Each content provider registers all of its content services with one content provider instance, which is defined by its gateway context. For better performance and load balancing, a content provider should register its content services with different content provider instances, that is, it should consider using different Gateway Context IDs.

Gateway Context Properties include the following information:

• Gateway Context ID

• Service User Name

• Service User Password

• Service Driver -- for example, the Direct Driver -- oracle.ds.driver.DSDirectDriver.

• Connection URL

  Enter a connection URL using the following syntax:

  jdbc:oracle:oci8:@<tns-name-entry-to-where-content 
  provider-instance-is-installed>
  
  

  or

  jdbc:oracle:thin@<your-host-name>:<your-port-number>:<tns-name-entry-to-wher
  e-content-provider-instance-is-installed>
  
  

  The connection URL represents your database transport network service name (tnsname) or service identifier for using either the oci8 driver or the thin driver. This connection URL connects you to the instance to where the content provider registers all of its content services.

• Connection Pool Size -- The default is 5.

Figure 4-6 shows a flow diagram of the Manage Gateway Contexts tasks that you can perform from the Gateway Contexts window.

Figure 4-6 Flow Diagram of the Manage Gateway Contexts Tasks

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4.1.6 Managing Global Properties

The Syndication Server global properties that you can manage include:

• HTTP_CERT_PATH -- The directory containing the Oracle Wallet certificates for handling secure transactions.

• PUSH_HANDLER_URL -- The Web-based handler or HTTP URL that accepts notifications from schedulers for push content delivery.

• OSS_EMAIL_SERVER -- The e-mail server URL configured to send the assigned Universal Unique ID (UUID) to the registrant.

• OSS_LOGGING_LEVEL -- The level of detail to capture in logging events. Levels are 0: Terse, 1: Verbose, and 2: Trace.

• proxySet -- The flag that indicates whether the proxy server is enabled or disabled. Values are true or false.

• OSS_LOGGING_ENABLE -- The switch that indicates whether system logging is enabled or disabled. Values are true or false.

• OSS_ADMIN_EMAIL -- The e-mail URL for the sender field in the notification e-mail.

• OSS_EVENTQUEUE_HOSTURL -- The Oracle database URL to where the event message queue resides.

• OSS_PUSH_GWCTXTX_ID -- The gateway context ID used for executing push content delivery within Syndication Server.

• proxyPort -- The proxy server port. The default is 80.

• proxyServer -- The proxy server URL based on your own configuration.

Figure 4-7 shows a flow diagram of the Manage Global Properties tasks that you can perform from the Global Properties window.

Figure 4-7 Flow Diagram of the Manage Global Properties Tasks

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4.1.7 Managing Events

Event information includes:

• Timestamp -- The timestamp of the event.

• Type of event -- Currently only one type of event occurs: OSS_EV_LOGGING.

• Consumer ID -- The Universal Unique ID (UUID) of the consumer.

• Consumer description -- A description of the consumer operation.

• Service ID -- The name of the Syndication Server service, if applicable.

• Message type -- The type of message logged, such as CATALOG, REQUEST, PULL, ONSUBSCRIBE, and CANCEL.

• Status -- The status of the event, SUC means it was successful or FAIL means it failed.

Events are logged at three levels depending on first, whether the OSS_LOGGING_ENABLED global property is set to true or enabled, and second, the level of logging specified for the OSS_LOGGING_LEVEL global property, which is:

• 0 =TERSE

  This is the minimal level of logging Syndication Server events and returns the status of the event as SUC (successful) or FAIL (failed).

• 1 = VERBOSE

  This logs major steps of Syndication Server events, including the event status as successful or failed, and any warning messages that were generated.

• 2 = TRACE

  This is the most detailed level of logging of Syndication Server events and returns the major steps of Syndication Server events, including the event status as successful or failed, any warning messages that were generated, and detailed trace information to help debug problems.

Figure 4-8 shows a flow diagram of the Manage Events tasks that you can perform from the Events window.

Figure 4-8 Flow Diagram of the Manage Events Tasks

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Before you start the event listener daemon to begin listening for Syndication Server events, you must enable system logging from Manage Global Properties so these events can be written to the log file. Set OSS_LOGGING_ENABLE to true to enable system logging, then start the event listener daemon. To start the event listener daemon, run the following command:

In UNIX:
$ORACLE_HOME/syndication/bin/ossmon -u dsgateway -e start
In Windows:
$ORACLE_HOME\syndication\bin\ossmon -u dsgateway -e start

The event listener daemon displays the following information as it starts up:

Oracle Syndication Server Monitor Starting up...
OSS_EV_LOGGING: Init of Oracle AQ...
OSS_EV_LOGGING: Init of Oracle AQ... Done.
OSS_EV_LOGGING: Monitor added.
OSSEvM.init: All Monitors initialized
Inside run() WHILE-Loop
Oracle Syndication Server Starting up... Done.
Right before Dequeue...

4.1.8 Managing Content Provider Execution Properties

You can manage the following content provider execution properties:

• Internet access from within a firewall

• Content provider response caching

• Debug logging level

Internet Access

If you are accessing the Internet from within a firewall, select Access the Internet using a proxy server, then enter the address of your proxy server and its port number.

Content Provider Response Caching

Caching is enabled or disabled for all packages at the content provider execution level. Note that this setting takes precedence over any response caching parameters set in the package.

To cache all responses in the Oracle database at the execution level, select Enable caching for all content provider responses.

Caching is done by storing content provider responses indexed by their corresponding content provider requests. When performing cache lookup operations, a full XML comparison is made between the incoming request and the requests used to index the responses. During this comparison, white space differences can be ignored or noted. Choosing to ignore white spaces implies a looser match and therefore a more frequent use of the cache, thereby increasing performance from the application's perspective.

To ignore white space in service requests or more frequent use of the cache, select Ignore white spaces in content provider requests for cache lookup operations.

Debug Logging Level

To select the level of debug logging you want written to the Web server log file, go to the pull-down menu and make a selection. The options are:

• No logging

• Minimal logging -- returns the status of service execution as successful or failed

• Track major steps of service execution -- returns the status of service execution as successful or failed, the major steps of service execution, and any warning messages that were generated

• Track detailed steps of service execution -- returns the status of service execution as successful or failed, the major steps of service execution, any warning messages that were generated, and detailed trace information to help debug problems

Figure 4-9 shows a flow diagram of the Manage Content Provider Execution Properties tasks that you can perform from the Content Provider Execution Properties window.

Figure 4-9 Flow Diagram of the Manage Content Provider Execution Properties Tasks

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