Oracle® WebCenter Framework Developer's Guide 10g (10.1.3.2.0) B31074-04 |
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About mode
A portlet mode that typically displays information such as copyright, version, and author of the portlet.
ADF
Application Development Framework. A range of technologies aimed at making Java EE application development faster and simpler for developers while at the same time taking advantage of proven software patterns to ensure that the developed application is scalable, performant, and the like.
API
Application Programming Interface. A set of exposed data structures and functions that an application can use to invoke services on an application object, such as a portlet.
authenticated user
A user who is logged into a WebCenter application. By default, an authenticated user can access public and secured information, such as pages and portlets.
Contrast with public users, who can access public content only.
authorization
The policies that define the access rights of an individual or group to a secured resource. This resource may be a page or component within a page.
authorized user
An individual who has access to a secured resource. For non-public resources, this individual is also an authenticated user.
caching
The act of storing frequently accessed information, typically Web pages, in a location where it can be accessed quickly to avoid frequent content generation.
See also expiry-based caching, invalidation-based caching, and validation-based caching.
check out/check in
A mechanism that enables a user to lock information, by checking it out, so that other users cannot modify that same piece of information. This prevents users from overwriting each other's changes. After making modifications, the user releases it by checking it back in, making it available again for other users to modify.
component developer
The developer who builds components (such as portlets, JavaServer Faces components, and Web services).
container
An application program or subsystem in which the program building block, known as a component, is run.
content integration services
Services provided by Oracle WebCenter Suite to enable developers to display content from a content repository, such as by creating data controls.
content repository
A specialized storage and management mechanism, such as author-based versioning, full textual searching, content categorization and attribution, and is optimized for storing unstructured information, which differentiates it from a data repository.
content repository data control
A data control sourced though a content repository. In a WebCenter application, you can create content repository data controls for the following content repositories: OracleAS Portal, Oracle Content Database, and third-party repositories supporting the Java Content Repository (JCR) standard, or your local file system.
credential provisioning page
A JSF (*.jspx
) page used for authenticating to an external application. At run time, the Credential Provisioning page displays login data fields consisting of the data fields specified through external application registration. Login information is passed to the producer, which in turn passes the login values to the external application. The application provides the producer with the requested portlets.
After authentication, the user's login credentials are preserved in a credential store, which subsequently supplies that information at future sessions. Unless his information changes, the user supplies his credentials only once.
credential store
A storage area that preserves the login credentials a user provides for authentication to an external application.
CSS
Cascading Style Sheet. A simple mechanism for ensuring a consistent look and feel or adding style, such as fonts, colors, and spacing, to Web documents.
Customize mode
A portlet mode that enables administrators to set the default values for portlet preferences for all users.
dashboard page
An easy-to-read user interface that organizes and presents metrics and key performance indicators related to business activity and business intelligence.
data control
A mechanism that provides an abstraction of the business service's data model. The ADF data controls provide a consistent mechanism for clients and Web application controllers to access data objects, collections, methods, and operations.
deployment profile
A file used in application deployment that specifies the following types of information:
The source files, deployment descriptors, and other auxiliary files that will be packages
The type and name of the archive file to be created
Dependency information
Platform-specific instructions
Other information
Oracle WebCenter Services provides a special deployment profile, the WebCenter application WAR deployment profile, that includes an option to export project metadata.
EAR
Enterprise Archive file. A Java EE archive file that is used in deploying applications on a Java EE application server. WebCenter applications are deployed using both a generic EAR file containing the application and the respective run-time customization and a targeted EAR file containing only the application for deployment to the application server. EAR files simplify application deployment by reducing the possibility of errors when moving an application from development to test, and test to production.
ECMA-262 specification
A standardization of scripting programming languages, such as ECMAScript and JavaScript.
ECMAScript
A scripting programming language, standardized by Ecma International according to the ECMA-262 specification. Frequently referred to as JavaScript or JScript, which are both extensions of the ECMA-262 specification.
Edit mode
A portlet mode that enables personalization of the portlet for each user, for each instance.
See also Edit Defaults mode.
Edit Defaults mode
(JSR 168 portlets only.) A portlet mode that enables personalization of a JSR 168 portlet. Edit_defaults mode is a display mode for the JSR 168 portlet's properties. In a WebCenter application, the edit_defaults mode displays on the portlet's Actions menu as the Customize command.
See also Edit mode.
EL
Expression Language (EL) provides a short-hand way of working with Web application data by providing operators for retrieving and manipulating application data residing in a Java EE Web container. In a WebCenter application, EL expressions are encapsulated in the characters "#{" and "}" and typically come in the form #{object.data} where object represents any Java object or ADF component placed in the Java EE Web container's page, request, session, or application's scope.
expiry-based caching
A caching method that uses a retention period to specify how long the item is valid in the cache before a refresh is required. When there is a request for the item beyond the retention period, it is refreshed in the cache.
See also invalidation-based caching and validation-based caching.
external application
Applications in the Oracle WebCenter Suite that provide a means of accommodating applications external to the Oracle WebCenter Suite that require user authentication.
FPA
Federated Portal Adapter. A module in the portal instance (written in both Java and PL/SQL) that receives SOAP messages for a PDK-Java producer, parses the SOAP, and then dispatches the messages to a database producer as PL/SQL procedure calls. In effect, the FPA makes a database producer behave exactly the same way as a PDK-Java producer, enabling users to distribute their database producers across database servers. All remote producers can be treated as PDK-Java producers, hiding their implementation (database or Web) from the user. The most common use is to share database producer s (including page groups) owned by one portal instance among other portal instances and WebCenter applications.
Full Screen mode
(PDK-Java portlets only.) A portlet mode that provides more content than can be shown in the portlet when it is sharing a page with other portlets.
HA
High Availability. A collection of solutions to ensure that your applications meet the required availability to achieve your business goals, eliminating single points of failure with no or minimal outage in service.
HTML
Hypertext Markup Language. A format for encoding hypertext documents that may contain text, graphics, and references to programs and other hypertext documents.
HTTP
Hypertext Transfer Protocol. The underlying format, or protocol, used across the Web to format and transmit messages and determine what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands. HTTP is the protocol typically used between Oracle Application Server and its clients.
IDE
Integrated Development Environment. A visual application development tool containing editors, debuggers, screen painters, object browsers, and the like.
infrastructure administrator
The administrator responsible for the Oracle Application Server infrastructure used by the WebCenter application. The infrastructure administrator's tasks would include such things as configuring Oracle Identity Management and Oracle Application Server High Availability Solutions, as well as configuration of production content repositories.
initialization parameters
The parameters initialized upon the start-up of a standard JSR 168 portlet. Initialization parameters provide an alternative to JNDI (Java Naming and Directory Interface) variables. Use initialization parameters instead of JNDI to configure the behavior of all of the different components of the portlet—for example, servlets and other portlets—in a compatible way. In Oracle WebCenter Suite, initialization parameters are entered into the portlet.xml
file.
invalidation-based caching
A caching method where an item remains in the cache until it is explicitly invalidated. For example, a user may update an item, requiring the item in the cache to be invalidated. The next time there is a request for the invalidated item, it is refreshed in the cache.
See also expiry-based caching and validation-based caching.
J2SE
Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition. A platform that enables application developers to develop, deploy, and manage Java applets and applications on a desktop client platform such as a personal computer or workstation. J2SE not only defines API standards, but also specifies the deployment of enterprise applications, thus enabling application server administrators to perform the deployment regardless of the vendor of the J2SE server.
See also OC4J.
JAAS
Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS) is a Java package that enables applications to authenticate and enforce access controls upon users. JAAS is designed to complement Java 2 security and implements a Java version of the standard Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) framework. This enables an application to remain independent from the authentication service, and supports the use of custom authentication modules.
JAAS extends the access control architecture of the Java 2 Security Model to support subject-based authorization. It also supports declarative security settings, in deployment descriptors, instead of being limited to code-based security settings.
JAR
A Java archive file. JAR files contain the class, image, and sound files for a Java application or applet. JAR files may also be compressed.
Java EE
Also known as Java EE 5. Java Enterprise Edition 5 Platform. A platform that enables application developers to develop, deploy, and manage multitier, server-centric, enterprise-level applications. The Java EE platform offers a multitiered distributed application model, integrated XML-based data interchange, a unified security model, and flexible transaction control. You can build your own Java EE portlets and expose them through Web producers.
See also OC4J.
JavaScript
A scripting language developed by Netscape that enables generation of portlets that introduce dynamic behavior in otherwise static HTML. This language is compliant with the European Computer Manufacturing Association's ECMA-262 specification (ECMA-262 standard). An alternative name for this EMCA-262 language is ECMAScript.
JCR 1.0
Java Content Repository 1.0. Also known as JSR 170. It proposes a standard access and interaction API for content repositories, much like JDBC does for databases.
JSF
JavaServer Faces (JSF) is a new standard Java framework for building Web applications. It simplifies development by providing a component-centric approach to developing Java Web user interfaces. JSF offers rich and robust APIs that provide programming flexibility and ensures that applications are well designed with greater maintainability by integrating the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern into its architecture. As JSF is a Java standard developed through Java Community Process, development tools like Oracle JDeveloper are fully empowered to provide easy to use, visual, and productive development environments for JSF.
JSF JSP
JavaServer Faces JavaServer Page. JSF JSPs differ from plain JSPs through their support of Oracle ADF Faces components for the user interface and JSF technology for page navigation. JSF JSP pages leverage the advantages of the Oracle Application Development Framework (Oracle ADF) by using the ADF Model binding capabilities for the components in the pages.
JPS
Java Portlet Specification. Standardizes how components for portal servers are to be developed. This specification defines a common portlet API and infrastructure that provides facilities for personalization, presentation, and security. Portlets using this API and adhering to the specification will be product-agnostic, and can be deployed to any portal product that conforms to the specification. See also JSR 168.
JSP
JavaServer Pages. An extension to servlet functionality that provides a simple programmatic interface to Web pages. JSPs are HTML pages with special tags and embedded Java code that is executed on the Web or application server. JSPs provide dynamic functionality to HTML pages. They are actually compiled into servlets when first requested and run in the servlet container.
See also JSP tags.
JSP tags
Tags that can be embedded in JSPs to enclose Java code. These tags use the <jsp:
syntax and enclose action elements in the JSP with begin
and end
tags similar to XML elements.
JSR 168
Java Specification Request (JSR) 168. Defines a set of APIs for building standards-based portlets using Java. Portlets built to this specification can be rendered to a portal locally or deployed to a WSRP container for rendering portlets remotely. For more information, see http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=168
.
key store
A storage area that contains the private key that is used to sign a WSRP portlet producer's security assertions and to select the signature key alias that corresponds to the private key to be used for signing.
MDS
Oracle Metadata Services. A core technology of the Application Development Framework. MDS provides a unified architecture for defining and using metadata in an extensible and customizable manner.
middle tier
Part of the Oracle Application Server architecture that handles HTTP user requests by forwarding them to the appropriate portal database or producer and manages caching of content.
MVC
Model-View-Controller. A classic design pattern often used by applications that need the ability to maintain multiple views of the same data. The MVC pattern hinges on a clean separation of objects into one of three categories: models for maintaining data, views for displaying all or a portion of the data, and controllers for handling events that affect the model or views. Because of this separation, multiple views and controllers can interface with the same model. Even new types of views and controllers that never existed before, such as portlets, can interface with a model without forcing a change in the model design.
navigation parameter
Parameters in a WSRP container that map to the render parameters with the same name in JSR 168 portlet code. Navigation parameters are exposed by the portlet to the consumer. The consumer stores and manages parameter values and sends them on every invocation to the portlet. Navigation parameters are a WSRP version 2 feature.
OC4J
Oracle Containers for J2EE. The Java EE server component of Oracle Application Server written entirely in Java that executes on the standard Java Development Kit (JDK) Virtual Machine (Java VM). It includes a JSP Translator, a Java servlet container, and an Enterprise JavaBeans (JB) container.
OmniPortlet
A component of Oracle WebCenter Suite that enables you to inject portal-like capabilities, such as portlets, content integration, and customization, into your Oracle ADF Faces applications.
Oracle ADF Faces
Oracle ADF Faces is a rich set of user interface components based on the new JavaServer Faces JSR (JSR 127). Oracle ADF Faces provide various user interface components with built-in functionality, such as data tables, hierarchical tables, and color and date pickers, that can be customized and reused in an application.
Oracle Application Server Portal
A component of Oracle Application Server used for the development, deployment, administration, and configuration of enterprise class portals. OracleAS Portal incorporates a portal building framework with self-service publishing features to enable you to create and manage information accessed within your portal.
Oracle Single Sign-On
A component of Oracle Application Server that enables users to log in to all features of the Oracle Application Server product suite, as well as to other Web applications, using a single user name and password. OracleAS Portal is integrated with Oracle Single Sign-On as a partner application and delegates authentication to it.
Oracle Content Database
A consolidated, database-centric content management application that provides a comprehensive, integrated solution for file and document life cycle management. Oracle Content Database (Oracle Content DB) runs on Oracle Application Server, a JCR adapter for accessing content, and Oracle Database. It provides a scalable content management repository. Oracle Content DB also offers a comprehensive set of Web services that developers can use to build and enhance content management applications.
Oracle Drive
A native Windows application that lets users use Windows Explorer, Microsoft Office, and other Windows applications to access content in Oracle Content Database, and enables access to Oracle Application Server Portal. Oracle Drive displays files and folders in Oracle Content DB as a mapped drive in Windows Explorer. Oracle Drive provides an effective offline solution that lets users edit files on their computers when offline, and then synchronize with the server when they reconnect.
Oracle Enterprise Manager
Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g is a component of the Oracle Application Server that enables administrators to manage Oracle Application Server services through a single environment.
Oracle HTTP Server
The Web server component of Oracle Application Server, built on Apache Web server technology and used to service HTTP requests. It is the part of the middle tier that handles requests between the Web and Oracle Application Server Portal. Extensions to the Oracle HTTP Server support Java servlets, JSPs, Perl, PL/SQL, and CGI applications.
Oracle Internet Directory
Oracle Internet Directory is Oracle's LDAP V3 compliant LDAP server. It is used by Oracle Application Server as the default repository provisioning users and groups.The repository for storing Oracle Application Server Portal user credentials and group memberships. By default, the Oracle Single Sign-On authenticates user credentials against Oracle Internet Directory information about dispersed users and network resources. Oracle Internet Directory combines LDAP version 3 with the high performance, scalability, robustness, and availability of the Oracle database.
Oracle JDeveloper
Oracle JDeveloper is an integrated development environment (IDE) for building applications and Web services using the latest industry standards for Java, XML, and SQL. Developers can use Oracle JDeveloper to create Java portlets.
Oracle WebCenter Framework
A set of features provided by Oracle WebCenter Suite that augments the Java Server Faces (JSF) environment by providing additional integration and run-time customization options It is the basis of the Oracle WebCenter Suite, and supports the creation and execution of context-rich applications, which can come in the form of human interaction, files and documents, or a clear representation of where the user is within a complex work process. It includes such features as:
Portlet support
JSF portlet bridge
Search Framework
customizable components
Oracle WebCenter Services
A suite of services included in the Oracle WebCenter Suite that enables you to enhance your Oracle ADF Faces applications with WebCenter application capabilities, such as portlets, content integration, and customization. Includes design time extensions to Oracle JDeveloper to make it easier to build WebCenter applications. The services include:
communication services
Oracle WebCenter Suite
A suite of services that enables you to build WebCenter applications. Oracle WebCenter Suite reduces the front-end labor historically required to bring necessary business components to the user by capitalizing on the notion of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). The suite includes a wide range of plug-and-play products, tools, and services that make it easy to build the applications your users need. Oracle WebCenter Suite includes:
Mobile Services
Portlet Pack
OTN
Oracle Technology Network. The online Oracle technical community that provides a variety of technical resources for building Oracle-based applications. You can access OTN at http://www.oracle.com/technology/
.
page parameter
A parameter that enables your page to take values through its URL. Page parameters are defined using the <parameter>
tag at the top of your PageDef.xml
. You can bind page parameters to your page variables.
page variable
A variable that binds your public portlet parameter to the page. Page variables are defined within the <variableIterator>
of your PageDef.xml
. One page variable can be bound to multiple public portlet parameters.
PDK-Java
Java Portlet Developer Kit. The development framework used to build and integrate Web content and applications with Oracle WebCenter Suite. It includes toolkits, samples, and technical articles that help make portal development simple. You can take existing Java servlets, JSPs, URL-accessible content and Web services and turn them into portlets. It is typically used by external developers and vendors to create portlets and services.
portal
A common interface (that is, a Web page) that provides a personalized, single point of interaction with Web-based applications and information relevant to individual users or class of users.
Portal Tools extension
An extension available through the Oracle JDeveloper Update wizard that installs a standalone Oracle Containers for J2EE application server (OC4J), preconfigured producers, and several prebuilt portlets, including OmniPortlet, the Web Clipping portlet, and the Rich Text portlet.
portlet
A reusable, pluggable Web component that typically displays portions of Web content. Portlets are the fundamental building blocks of a portal page. Using the Portlet Builder, you can easily create your own portlets. OracleAS Portal also provides several ways to build portlets programmatically and to integrate any kind of Web content. Portlets may be implemented using various technologies, such as Java, JSPs, Java servlets, PL/SQL, Perl, ASP, and so on. The PDK-Java covers the standard-based portlet development options that Oracle WebCenter Suite provides.
portlet mode
The ways by which a portlet can be called to display information. These methods include:
Predeployment Tool
A utility for WebCenter applications that helps you configure your target system with the new producer registrations you have added to your application in Oracle JDeveloper. You must run this utility before deploying your application. You can also use this utility after deployment to migrate metadata from stage to production, such as for exporting and importing your customizations. This tool also enables you to define the MDS repository location to enable run-time customizations to be migrated.
private parameter
A portlet parameter that is known only to the portlet itself and has no connection to the page on which the portlet resides.
Contrast with public parameter.
producer
A producer communication link between portlet consumers (such as a WebCenter application or a portal). When the portal renders a portal page, it calls the producer of each portlet on the page, which in turn executes their portlets and returns the results in the form of portlet content. A producer can contain one or more portlets. A portlet can be contained by only one producer.
Oracle WebCenter Suite supports two types of producers:
Oracle PDK-Java producers: Deployed to a Java EE application server, which is often remote and communicates through Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) over HTTP.
Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP): A Web services standard that enables the plug-and-play of visual, user-facing Web services with portals or other intermediary Web applications. Being a standard, WSRP enables interoperability between a standards-enabled container based on a particular language (such as JSR 168, .NET, Perl) and any WSRP portal. A portlet (regardless of language) deployed to a WSRP-enabled container can be rendered on any portal that supports this standard. Oracle WebCenter Suite supports a preliminary version of WSRP 2.0.
programmatic portlets
Portlets constructed in a non-declarative manner using APIs. Also referred to as hand- or manually coded portlets.
proxy server
A proxy server typically sits on a network firewall and enables clients behind the firewall to access Web resources. All requests from clients go to the proxy server rather than directly to the destination server. The proxy server forwards the request to the destination server and passes the received information back to the client. The proxy server channels all Web traffic at a site through a single, secure port; this enables an organization to create a secure firewall by preventing Internet access to internal computers, while enabling Web access.
public parameter
A portlet parameter that is known to the page and bound to it by way of a page variable.
Contrast with private parameter.
public user
A user who can access, but is not logged into, a WebCenter application. A public user can view any page that has been marked as public, but cannot personalize or edit any content, or view pages that have any form of access control.
Contrast with authenticated user.
Reverse Proxy Server
A server process that hides the physical location of internal servers by exposing the servers as a single public site. Requests to the public site are routed to the appropriate internal server.
Rich Text portlet
A portlet, based on the WSRP standard, offering browser-based rich text editing at run time on a deployed Oracle ADF JavaServer Faces JSP. The Rich Text portlet is provided through the Portal Tools extension.
service ID
A PDK-Java producer's unique identifier. PDK-Java enables you to deploy multiple producers under a single adapter servlet. Different producers are identified by their unique service IDs. A service ID is required only when a service ID/producer name is not appended to the URL endpoint.
servlet
A Java program that usually runs on a Web server, extending the Web server's functionality. HTTP servlets take client HTTP requests, generate dynamic content (such as through querying a database), and provide an HTTP response.
SES
Secure Enterprise Search (SES) provides an easy-to-use, Internet-search-like user experience for public and secure sources. Based on crawling agents, the search can include structured and unstructured, public and secure content. Secure Enterprise Search is part of the Oracle WebCenter Suite.
Shared Screen mode
A portlet mode that renders the body of the portlet and enables you to display a portlet on a page that can contain other portlets. Every portlet must have at least a Shared Screen mode.
See also View mode.
Show Details Page mode
A portlet mode that provides full-browser display of the portlet. For example, a portlet in Show Page mode could be limited to displaying only the ten most recently submitted expense reports, while the same portlet in Show Details Page mode could show all submissions.Contrast with Show Page mode.
Show Page mode
A portlet mode that provides a smaller portlet display to enable space for additional portlets and other objects in the browser window. For example, a portlet in Show Page mode could be limited to displaying only the ten most recently submitted expense reports, while the same portlet in Show Details Page mode could show all submissions.
Contrast with Show Details Page mode.
URL
Uniform Resource Locator. A compact string representation of the location for a resource that is available through the Internet. It is also the format Web clients use to encode requests to Oracle Application Server.
validation-based caching
A caching method that uses a validation check to determine if the cached item is still valid.
Contrast with expiry-based caching and invalidation-based caching.
View mode
(JSR 168 portlets only.) A portlet mode that enables you to display a JSR 168 portlet on a page that can contain other portlets. It is the only required mode for JSR 168 portlets.
See also Shared Screen mode.
WAR
Web application archive file. This file is used in deploying applications on a Java EE application server. WAR files encapsulate in a single module all of the components necessary to run an application. WAR files typically contain an application's servlet, JSP, and JSF JSP components.
Web clipping
A feature that enables page designers to collect Web content into a single centralized portal. It can be used to consolidate content from hundreds of different Web sites scattered throughout a large organization.
Web Clipping portlet
A browser-based declarative tool that enables you to integrate any Web application with your WebCenter application. It is designed to give you quick integration by leveraging the Web application's existing user interface. You can drag and drop Web Clipping portlets on to a *.jspx
page.
WebCenter application
An ADF application that combines Web content, portlets, and collaborative services for the end user. Administrators can customize the WebCenter application based on their roles and skill levels in the organization.
WebCenter application administrator
The administrator responsible for maintaining the WebCenter application. This administrator performs tasks such as implementing the branding for the WebCenter application, making new content available, modifying pages, and granting and revoking privileges.
WebCenter application developer
The developer who plans, builds, and maintains a WebCenter application using the Oracle Application Development Framework, Oracle JDeveloper, and the Oracle WebCenter Suite.
WebCenter application end user
The WebCenter application end user is the run time user of the WebCenter application, who accesses pages, portlets, and content, and personalizes portlets (assuming the appropriate privileges).
WebCenter Extension for Oracle JDeveloper
An extension available through the Oracle JDeveloper Update Wizard that installs the necessary libraries, templates, wizards, and dialogs needed to build and deploy WebCenter applications in Oracle JDeveloper.
WSRP
Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP) is a Web services standard that enables the plug-and-play of visual, user-facing Web services with portals or other intermediary Web applications. Being a standard, WSRP enables interoperability between a standards-enabled container based on a particular language (such as JSR 168, .NET, Perl) and any WSRP portal. A portlet (regardless of language) deployed to a WSRP-enabled container can be rendered on any portal that supports this standard. Oracle WebCenter Suite supports a preliminary version of WSRP 2.0.
XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is an open standard for describing data using a subset of the SGML syntax.
XSL
Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) is the language used within stylesheets to transform or render XML documents.