WebLogic Platform ISV Partners' Guide
About BEA Partner Support
This chapter includes the following topics:
Partner Support Resources
BEA provides a rich set of resources to support our partners enrolled in the Partner Program. These resources are organized in the following categories:
For comprehensive information about all partner resources and benefits, enrolled partners can access the BEA Partner Program Guide at the following URL:
ftp://pdownload:BUY_ME@ftpna2.bea.com/pub/program/BEA_Partner_Program_Guide.pdf
Partner Enablement Resources
Partner enablement resources are designed to help new partners get started in their relationship with BEA, and to remain connected with the variety of tools, training, news, and partner events available. Resources include the following:
- Welcome kit
- Product sales training, including the partner Webinar series that encompass technical, business development, sales, and marketing topics.
- PartnerNet—BEA's portal to partner services. This password-protected, partners-only site, available at the following URL, contains the latest information about BEA's Partner Program:
http://partnernet.bea.com
- Partner Response Center—The comprehensive partner information and business support hotline, offering direct 5x9 telephone or email assistance with identifying resources to answer questions or providing information. Also acts as a conduit for technical support.
- Discounts on instructor-led, open enrollment technical education courses
- PartnerFlash, a monthly email newsletter that delivers partner news, such as how BEA is engaging its partners in successful businesses, and other updates
- Partner sales toolkit, and more
Software Development Resources
BEA's software development resources for partners include the software bundle and support described in Using the Partner Software Bundle, and also the following:
- Validation program—A framework for verifying the technical readiness of partner solutions that complement BEA's platform. The BEA Validation Program verifies that partner applications meet a well-defined set of BEA approved integration requirements, and that the partner applications have been tested against these requirements.
- Workshop Controls and Extensibility Program—Designed to assist BEA partners build, test, distribute, and market their custom controls and IDE extensions. The Controls and Extensibility Program provides a community and set of resources for partners to distribute and market their custom controls and IDE extensions via Premier Component Gallery, hosted at the BEA dev2dev Web site, and Component Source.
(For more information about developing custom controls, see Creating and Packaging WebLogic Workshop Java Controls.)
- Software Updates—Unlimited access to the BEA Download Center, where you can download the latest BEA products for evaluation purposes. During your membership term, you can also download BEA product updates. You can access the Download Center directly from PartnerNet or from eSupport.
- BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1 SP3 Evaluation Guide—An easy-to-use guide that provides a comprehensive, hands-on introduction to the BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1. More information about this document, and instructions for downloading it, are available at the following URL:
http://dev2dev.bea.com/products/wlplatform81/technicalguides/evalguide81.jsp
Sales and Marketing Resources
The Partner Program's sales and marketing resources provide the tools and resources to help partners gain access to new markets and develop new business opportunities, and develop new business opportunities. Resources include:
- BEA Partner Solutions Catalog, an online partner locator tool where customers, prospects and BEA sales can learn about BEA partners and their solutions.
- BEA Partner Program logo, for branding usage with partner software products
- Marketing toolkit
- Relationship managers, lead registration, and sales incentive programs
Support Resources
The support resources available to partners include the following:
- Technical support hotline, which provides 5x9 developer-level phone support for help with technical problems encountered while developing with, implementing, or using BEA's products.
- BEA eSupport, BEA's online technical support Web site. Within the eSupport Web site, partners can submit online support requests, find the answers to the most commonly asked technical support questions, and can search the BEA support knowledge base using AskBEA, BEA's natural language search engine. The eSupport Web site is located at http://support.bea.com/.
- Community Forums—Local user groups and online discussion forms, led by BEA developer relations engineers and BEA WebLogic developers world-wide, are available to partners to answer questions and provide advice and support. To join an online discussion forum, visit the following URL:
http://newsgroups.bea.com
- Access to e-docs online product documentation, BEA's comprehensive online product documentation site for all BEA products. Documentation includes release notes, supported platforms, and detailed installation, configuration, development, and administration information for all products. The e-docs Web site is located at the following URL:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/index.html
- BEA dev2dev Online Portal—Developer-centric site that offers development tips and tools, sample code, newsgroups, and a host of Java community services to help with your development efforts and shorten the time it takes to learn and use the latest BEA technologies. The dev2dev online portal is available at the following URL:
http://dev2dev.bea.com
Upgrading WebLogic Platform
Periodically, BEA releases a service pack or a rolling patch for WebLogic Platform:
- A service pack is an update to an existing release that provides bug fixes and minor product enhancements. Typically, a service pack does not replace an installation of WebLogic Platform or its components; instead, it changes and expands the installation.
- A rolling patch is an update to an existing release that provides bug fixes between service packs.
Note: For the purposes of this document, we assume that your customers have valid BEA support contracts.
When you distribute software that is either bundled with WebLogic Platform or layered on top of it, you also need to provide a mechanism for keeping your customers informed about the various versions of WebLogic Platform, including service packs and rolling patches, for which your software is supported.
Before you establish customer support policies for your software, know the answers to the following questions about WebLogic Platform:
- Are all service packs and rolling patches for the current release of WebLogic Platform supported by your software product? Make sure you clearly identify the versions of WebLogic Platform for which you certify your product.
- Which service packs or rolling patches of WebLogic Platform do your customers need in order to use your product? How do you communicate this information to your customers? For example, do you send customers email or post the information to a Web site?
- When you distribute software that includes a specific version of WebLogic Platform or one of its components:
- Do you include all the service packs and/or rolling patches required by your customers in the WebLogic Platform distribution that is part of your product?
- How will you handle future service packs and rolling patches that need to be added to your customers' installations?
One solution is to simply redistribute your software, along with the latest version of WebLogic Platform. Another approach is to include, in your software package, instructions for upgrading the WebLogic Platform software. Find the solution that works best for you and your customers.
- Do you want to take responsibility for distributing updates to WebLogic Platform?
BEA provides update mechanisms such as the Download Installer Web site and the Smart Update tool. For information about these utilities, see Installing Service Packs and Rolling Patches in the Installing BEA WebLogic Platform.
Note: As of WebLogic Platform 8.1 Service Pack 2, the license.bea file that you generate and distribute, as described in Using an ISV Redistribution License, will continue to be valid for any customers who later use the Upgrade Installer to upgrade their installations with service packs for WebLogic Platform. As a result, customers who install your distribution of the initial release of WebLogic Platform 8.1 can later use the Upgrade Installer to install Service Pack 2 without obtaining a new license.
If, however, you provide an upgrade to your existing customers by supplying a whole new version of WebLogic Platform that includes a service pack, then you must generate a new license.bea file and include it in your distribution.
