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Portal-to-Go Tools

This document describes the tools you can use to develop and maintain Portal-to-Go. Topics include:

• Overview

• Development Tools

• Portal-to-Go Server Utilities

Overview

Portal-to-Go provides tools to help you create, manage, and deliver mobile services. These tools include visual interfaces for developing and managing repository objects, and utilities for managing the server and deploying Portal-to-Go.

Development Tools

Portal-to-Go provides the following visual development tools:

• Service Designer

• Web Integration Developer

• XML Editor

Service Designer

The Service Designer is a visual interface for implementing and managing Portal-to-Go. You use the Service Designer to create and modify Portal-to-Go objects, including users, adapters, transformers, and services.

The Service Designer provides a tree view of the Portal-to-Go repository. The tree shows Portal-to-Go object classes, such as adapters and transformers, as folders, or branch nodes. It shows instances of those classes, such as the WML 1.1 transformer, as objects, or leaf nodes. For performance reasons, the default tree view in the Service Designer does not display more than 100 objects of any type. This, however, can be configured in the ptgsd.properties file.

The following sections describe basic tasks you can perform in the Portal-to-Go Service Designer.

Starting the Service Designer

When you start the Service Designer, the Log In dialog appears. The Log In dialog includes fields for the location, the Portal-to-Go user name, and password. In the location field, you specify the URI (Universal Resource Identifier) of the repository that you want to develop. You can connect to the repository either directly (called in-process communication) or through the Portal-to-Go server (using RMI). The value you enter in the Location field determines the connection mode.

Note: The in-process connection is deprecated. You should use RMI.

In-Process Connection

To connect directly to the repository, you must include the JDBC connect string of the database repository in the System.properties file on the development machine. Specify the connect string as the value of the db.connect.string property. Then, when logging into the repository from the Service Designer, you enter "ptgdb://" in the Location field. The Service Designer ignores any text that follows this string.

Important: The Service Designer has its own System.properties file. When the Service Designer connects to the server that Portal-to-Go is installed on, it looks for the System.properties file that is in the directory structure of Portal-to-Go. Therefore, you should set the path so that the Service Designer goes to that file and not to its own System.properties file. This requires that you have the Portal-to-Go server classes in the JVM used by the Service Designer. In this case, the Service Designer still connects to the repository directly using JDBC protocol. The JDBC connect string is stored in the System.properties file and cannot be changed from the Service Designer user interface. The other option is to delete the Service Designer's own System.properties files (on the server and the client) and replace each with a copy of the Portal-to-Go System.properties file that is in the directory structure of Portal-to-Go on the server.

RMI Connection

To connect to the repository through the Portal-to-Go server, the RMI listener must be running on the Portal-to-Go server. By default, the RMI listener is started when you start the Portal-to-Go server.

In the Location field of the Log In dialog, enter the URI of the Portal-to-Go server in any of the following formats:

• rmi://hostname:port/servername

• rmi://hostname:port

• rmi://hostname

• rmi://:port/servername

• rmi://:port

• //hostname:port/servername

• //hostname:port

• //hostname

• //:port/servername

• //:port

• hostname:port/servername

• hostname:port

• hostname

• :port/servername

• :port

The default port number and server name are:

• Port: 2008

• Server name: PanamaServer

You can modify these defaults in the oracle.panama.core.admin.Rmi.properties file. The System.properties file identifies the default RMI listener used as follows:

locator.request.daemon.classes=oracle.panama.core.rmi.server.ServerImpl 

Creating Objects

You can create an object in the Service Designer as follows:

1. In the repository tree, highlight the class node of the type of object that you want to create, or the folder in which you want to create the object.

2. Right-click the class or folder. A pop-up menu appears with menu items for creating objects.

3. Click the appropriate menu item for creating the new object.

The Service Designer then presents a form, or a sequence of forms, that lets you configure the object. You can navigate through the forms by clicking the Next or Previous button. When you finish configuring the new object, click the Finish button. This creates the object in the repository.

Modifying Objects

When you highlight an object in the repository tree, the right panel displays the object's properties. If an object has more than one property panel, you can navigate between panels by clicking the tabs at the top of the panel.

You can modify an object by making changes directly to the properties in the panel. To save your changes, click the Apply button. This saves the changes you have made to any of the object's panels, not just the current panel.

To cancel the changes you have made to an object since last saving, click the Revert button. This restores the object to its prior state. If you make changes to an object, but click on another object in the repository before clicking Apply, the changes to the object do not take effect.

Deleting Objects

To remove an object from the repository:

1. Highlight the object in the tree view and right-click.

2. In the pop-up menu, select the menu item for deleting the object.

3. Confirm the action.

You cannot delete an adapter used by a master service. If you delete a master service that is referenced by aliases, Service Designer deletes the aliases as well.

Flagged Objects

Flagged objects appear in red type in the repository tree. Portal-to-Go flags objects that are specified as not valid or not visible. Specifying an object as not valid or not visible prevents its use. You may choose to disable an object, for example, while it is under development or testing.

Finding Users

To modify a user in the Portal-to-Go repository, you must first return the user as a result of a search query. The user query form, which appears when you select Users in the repository tree, lets you query users by name or external ID. The external ID is a user's unique identifier, such as an account or telephone number, in an external provisioning system. Clicking the Find button with the search field empty returns all users.

You can create, delete, or modify users by highlighting the user and clicking the Add, Delete, or Properties button.

Refreshing the Repository View

The Service Designer caches object information. If multiple Service Designer users work in the same repository concurrently, the object view for each user may not be up-to-date with the state of the repository. To retrieve the latest state of the repository, click the refresh icon on the toolbar.

Object Identifiers

Each object in the Portal-to-Go repository is identified by a unique object ID. You can see the object ID for an object by moving the mouse over the object. The object ID helps you to identify the object when you access the repository with another tool, such as the Portal-to-Go XML Editor.

Web Integration Developer

The Web Integration Developer is a visual interface for creating and testing WIDL services. The Web Integration adapter uses WIDL services to map Web content. You also use the Web Integration Developer to publish the WIDL interfaces to the Web Integration Server.

When you create a WIDL service, you parameterize a source page. You create input parameters for input elements, such as text fields and selection lists, and output parameters for returned content. The Web Integration adapter renders the Web content in one of the Portal-to-Go result formats. It converts the content according to the rules defined in the adapter. For example, record variables, which you can create in the Web Integration Developer, are data structures that assemble related variables in a group. The Web Integration adapter converts record variables into menu items, and assumes that the first element in a record is a linked name and the second is the target URL.

For more information on creating WIDL services and interfaces, see the Portal-to-Go Web Integration Developer User's Guide.

XML Editor

The Portal-to-Go XML Editor is a text editor that allows you to create, modify, and delete repository objects as XML elements. You should not attempt to use the XML Editor unless you understand the XML structure of the Portal-to-Go repository. Portal-to-Go does not validate the changes you make with the XML Editor. You should always back up your repository before modifying it with the XML Editor.

For more information on using the XML Editor, see "XML Editor" in Chapter 8, "Working with Portal-to-Go XML".

Oracle XML Parser

Portal-to-Go processes XML documents using the Oracle XML Version 2 parser. The parser supports the Document Object Model (DOM) and the Simple API for XML (SAX) interfaces. It supplements the DOM interface with extensions, which are detailed in the Portal-to-Go API Specification.

Portal-to-Go Server Utilities

Portal-to-Go provides these utilities for managing and deploying Portal-to-Go:

• LoadXml

• Xslt

• CopyObjects

• ResetPassword

LoadXml

The LoadXML utility allows you to import and export the Portal-to-Go repository as an XML file. The LoadXML utility makes it easier for you to deploy developed repositories. For more information on using the LoadXML utility, see "LoadXml" in Chapter 8, "Working with Portal-to-Go XML".

Xslt

The Xslt utility is a tool you can use to test stylesheets. Xslt uses the XML DOM parser and the XSL processor included with the Oracle XML processor. You can use Xslt to apply the stylesheets you create to any XML document.

Xslt, which is a command-line utility, reads from standard input and writes its results to standard output.

Synopsis

oracle.panama.util.Xslt [stylesheet]

Options

The Xslt utility takes the following option:

Option	Description
stylesheet	The XSL stylesheet that the utility applies to the XML document.

Xslt Example

java oracle.panama.util.Xslt mystylesheet.xsl < myxml.xml

CopyObjects

The CopyObjects utility allows you to copy services from one Portal-to-Go site to one or more other sites. You can use this utility, for example, to deploy services from a testing and development environment to production servers.

CopyObjects sends services to target servers as XML elements. It takes a folder object as a command-line argument. To copy a service, therefore, you must first place the service in a folder. When invoked, CopyObjects copies the folder and all its contents to the target Portal-to-Go sites you specify at the command-line.

Requirements

All source and target Portal-to-Go servers must have the Portal-to-Go RMI server running. For more information, see "RMI Server" in Chapter 12, "Integrating Portal-to-Go".

The basic configuration of adapters and transformers must be the same on the source and target servers. CopyObjects only sends services, links, and folders. It does not send configuration data.

Synopsis

oracle.panama.core.util.CopyObjects [-f folder] [-s source ][targets...]

Options

The CopyObjects utility takes the following options:

Option	Description
-f folder	The name of an existing folder in the source system.
-s source	The source Portal-to-Go server. Specify the source in the format: username/password@//hostname:port/servername
targets	The target Portal-to-Go servers. Specify targets in the format: username/password@//hostname:port/servername

CopyObjects Example

This example copies a folder and its content from a local server to production sites at m1 and m2.

java oracle.panama.core.util.CopyObjects \  
           -f /master/finance \  
           -s user/pw@//:2008/PanamaServer \  
              user/pw@//m1:2008/PanamaServer \  
              user/pw@//m2:2008/PanamaServer 

ResetPassword

The ResetPassword utility allows you to change a user's password. You can use this utility to recreate a user's password if it is forgotten. ResetPassword does not perform an authentication check.

Synopsis

oracle.panama.core.util.ResetPassword [username ][new_password ]

Options

The ResetPassword utility takes the following options:

Option	Description
username	The name of an existing user.
new_password	The new password for the user.

ResetPassword Example

This example resets the password of the user Scott to tiger.

java oracle.panama.core.util.ResetPassword scott tiger