| Oracle® Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.5.0) Part Number E12405-15 |
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| Oracle® Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.5.0) Part Number E12405-15 |
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View PDF |
In WebCenter Spaces, subscriptions and notifications provide users with a means of subscribing to the types of services and application objects in which they have a particular interest. Consequently, users receive timely notice of the changes that affect their subscribed services and objects from their selected messaging channels.
See Also:
For more information, see the section, "What You Should Know About Subscriptions and Notifications," in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.Notifications administration provides a means of creating and, potentially, enforcing application-wide defaults for application-level subscriptions and specifying a connection type that identifies the server that will handle notification delivery.
This chapter steps through the process of performing these administrative tasks and provides information about how to set and get Notifications messaging configuration details using WLST commands.
Always use the Fusion Middleware Control or WLST command-line tool to review and configure back-end services for WebCenter applications. Any changes you make to WebCenter applications, post deployment, are stored in MDS metadata store as customizations. See Section 1.3.5, "WebCenter Configuration Considerations."
Note:
Most changes you make to WebCenter services configuration, through Fusion Middleware Control or using WLST, are not dynamic. For your changes to take effect, you must restart the managed server on which the WebCenter application is deployed. See Section 8.2, "Starting and Stopping Managed Servers for WebCenter Application Deployments."This chapter includes the following sections:
WebCenter Spaces users set their personal Subscriptions preferences through the WebCenter Spaces Preferences dialog. Before this happens, the WebCenter administrator can set default values that determine the application-level subscription options that are available to all users and whether those defaults can be changed.
This section provides an overview of Subscription defaults and steps you through the process of setting default values.
This section includes the following subsections:
Section 18.1.1, "What You Should Know About Subscription Defaults"
Section 18.1.3, "Setting Subscriptions Preferences in WebCenter Spaces"
Administrator-level Subscription preferences are set in a custom XML file that you create and then use to supersede the file that is provided for this purpose out of the box (notification-service-settings.xml). The settings in the custom XML file are analogous to the application-level subscriptions settings available to users through Subscription Preferences in the WebCenter Spaces application (for more information, see the section, "Setting Application-Level Subscriptions," in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.)
Each setting provides three attributes:
id—for specifying the service ID:
oracle.webcenter.peopleconnections.connections, the Connections feature of the People Connections service
oracle.webcenter.peopleconnections.wall, the Message Board feature of the People Connections service
oracle.webcenter.peopleconnections.kudos, the Feedback feature of the People Connections service
oracle.connections. community, Space membership management
subscription-enabled—For specifying the default value for the preference option: true or false
Tip:
Rather than enabling or disabling the entire subscription capability, the
subscription-enabled attribute merely sets the initial state of the preference option. For example, if subscription-enabled="true", then the associated subscription option is checked by default in the WebCenter Spaces Preferences dialog. If subscription-enabled="false", then the associated subscription option is not checked by default in the dialog.end-user-configurable—For enabling users to change the established default or preventing users from doing so: true or false
These attributes work together to determine the initial state of the General Subscriptions tab on the Subscriptions panel in the WebCenter Spaces Preferences dialog (Figure 18-1).
Figure 18-1 General Subscriptions Tab on the Subscriptions Panel
Table 18-1 illustrates the effect of custom administrator-level subscriptions settings on the appearance of the General Subscriptions tab.
Table 18-1 Effect of Administrator Defaults on Subscriptions Preferences
| subscription-enabledFoot 1 | end-user-configurable | Option in Preferences |
|---|---|---|
|
True |
True |
Rendered normally, checkbox is checked |
|
True |
False |
Grayed out, checkbox is checked |
|
False |
True |
Rendered normally, checkbox is clear |
|
False |
False |
Hidden, checkbox is hidden |
Footnote 1 Rather than enabling or disabling the entire subscription capability, the subscription-enabled attribute merely sets the initial state of the preference option. For example, if subscription-enabled="true", then the associated subscription option is checked by default in the WebCenter Spaces Preferences dialog. If subscription-enabled="false", then the associated subscription option is not checked by default in the dialog.
Tip:
In Table 18-1, the most typical scenario for most notifications is depicted in row three.Table 18-2 lists the types of actions that can trigger an application-level notification and associates them with their related service ID.
Table 18-2 Application-Level Activities that Can Trigger Notifications
| Activity | Related Service ID |
|---|---|
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A user sends you an invitation to connect |
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Your Space role changes, for example, from participant to moderator |
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You are added as a member of a Space |
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Your Space membership is removed |
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A user posts a message to your Message Board |
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A user likes your post on another user's Message Board |
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A user comments on your post on another user's Message Board |
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A user posts feedback for you |
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To set defaults for application-level Subscription preferences:
Navigate to a directory with a path that contains /oracle/webcenter/notification, and create the folder custom.
Tip:
The directory structure can start or end with any directory or directories, as long as it has/oracle/webcenter/notification/custom in the path.In the custom folder, or in any subdirectory under /oracle/webcenter/notification/custom/, create the file notification-service-settings.xml.
In the XML file, enter values for all application-level subscription options.
Example 18-1 provides sample content for an application-wide subscription preferences setting file and an example of each required option.
Example 18-1 Sample Subscriptions Settings XML File
<notification-service_settings xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/webcenter/notification"> <subscription-settings> <service id="oracle.webcenter.peopleconnections.connections" subscription-enabled="true" end-user-configurable="false"/> <service id="oracle.webcenter.peopleconnections.wall" subscription-enabled="false" end-user-configurable="true"/> <service id="oracle.webcenter.peopleconnections.kudos" subscription-enabled="false" end-user-configurable="true"/> <service id="oracle.webcenter.community" subscription-enabled="true" end-user-configurable="true"/> </subscription-settings> </notification-service_settings>
Note:
If an option is not provided, the default valuesfalse/false are assigned for the service.Run the WLST command importMetadata(), and import the directory content into your metadata store.
See Also:
For information about running WLST commands, see Section 1.13.3.1, "Running Oracle WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST) Commands." For information about theimportMetadata() command (and other WLST commands), see the section, "importMetadata," in Oracle Fusion Middleware WebLogic Scripting Tool Command Reference.For example:
wls: /wc_domain/serverConfig> importMetadata(application='webcenter', server='serverName', fromLocation='directoryPath', docs='/**')
Where:
application is the name that identifies your WebCenter Spaces application
serverName is the name of the server on which the WebCenter Spaces application is running
directoryPath is the directory path under which oracle/webcenter/notification/custom/<any_sub_dir_after_this>/notification-service-settings.xml is located.
For example, if the directory path to notification-service-settings.xml is /scratch/mydir/oracle/webcenter/notification/custom, enter /scratch/mydir for directoryPath.
docs identifies the content to be imported, in this example, the path and files that fall under directoryPath.
Table 18-3 describes the effect of various combinations of settings for the service ID oracle.webcenter.peopleconnections.connections.
Table 18-3 Effects of Subscription Configurations for Connections
| subscription-enabled | end-user-configurable | Effect |
|---|---|---|
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true |
true |
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true |
false |
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false |
true |
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false |
false |
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Footnote 1 This is the out-of-the-box default
Table 18-4 describes the effect of various combinations of settings for the service ID oracle.webcenter.peopleconnections.wall.
Table 18-4 Effects of Subscription Configurations for Message Board
| subscription-enabled | end-user-configurable | Effect |
|---|---|---|
|
true |
true |
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true |
false |
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false |
true |
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false |
false |
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Table 18-5 describes the effect of various combinations of settings for the service ID oracle.webcenter.peopleconnections.kudos.
Table 18-5 Effect of Subscription Configurations for Feedback
| subscription-enabled | end-user-configurable | Effect |
|---|---|---|
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true |
true |
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true |
false |
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false |
true |
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false |
false |
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Table 18-6 describes the effect of various combinations of settings for the service ID oracle.webcenter.community.
Table 18-6 Effect of Subscription Configurations for Spaces Management
| subscription-enabled | end-user-configurable | Effect |
|---|---|---|
|
true |
true |
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true |
false |
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false |
true |
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false |
false |
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Individual users set their own subscription preferences in the WebCenter Spaces Preferences dialog. Two Preferences panels are provided for this purpose:
Subscriptions, where users subscribe to be notified about actions occurring with their Space memberships and the People Connections service (Connections, Message Board, and Feedback) and view and remove their Space- and object-level subscriptions
Messaging, where users access controls for configuring their preferred messaging channels and filters (BPEL connection types only)
See Also:
For more information see the sections, "Establishing and Managing Your Messaging Channels and Filters," and " Setting Application-Level Subscriptions," in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.This section provides an overview of messaging connection types, describes prerequisites that must be in place before you can define a connection type, and steps you through the process of setting a connection type for Notifications. It includes the following subsections:
Section 18.2.1, "What You Should Know About Connection Types"
Section 18.2.3, "Setting the Connection Type for Notifications Using Fusion Middleware Control"
Section 18.2.4, "Setting the Connection Type for Notifications Using WLST"
The Notifications connection type determines the messaging channels that are available to users when they configure their own messaging preferences for Notifications in WebCenter Spaces.
Use one of two possible connection types:
BPEL Server provides three messaging channel options to users: mail, texting (SMS), and Worklist
Mail Server delivers notification messages exclusively through a mail server that is configured for the WebCenter Spaces application
Selection of a BPEL server presupposes that you have established a connection with a BPEL server in which the User Messaging Service (UMS) is available. For information about connecting to a BPEL server, see Chapter 22, "Managing the Worklist Service."
When the WebCenter Spaces application has setSpacesWorkFlowConnectionName set up, the Manage Configuration button becomes available on the Messaging panel in the WebCenter Spaces Preferences dialog.
Tip:
It is expected that the same connection you use forsetSpacesWorkFlowConnectionName is used for Notifications, provided you use the BPEL Server for notifications.See Also:
For more information, see the section, "Establishing and Managing Your Messaging Channels and Filters," in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.Selection of a mail server presupposes that you have established a connection with a mail server. Additionally, the external application associated with the mail server connection must contain shared credentials. For information about connecting to a mail server, see Chapter 17, "Managing the Mail Service."
When Mail Server is the selected connection type, the Manage Configuration button on the Messaging panel in the WebCenter Spaces Preferences dialog may or may not be grayed-out. This depends on whether you have set up spacesWorkFlowConnection. But, regardless, when Mail Server is the selected connection type, if clicking the Manage Configuration button for Messaging preferences opens User Messaging Preferences, any changes you make are ignored.
Before you can define a connection type for Notifications, you must take the steps and consider the information provided in the following subsections:
Installation requirements associated with Notifications change according to the type of connection you plan to select for Notifications messaging.
If you plan to use the User Messaging Service (UMS) through your BPEL connection for Notifications messaging, you should know that only the mail driver is installed by default. To make use of SMS and Worklist messaging channels, you must install drivers for these as well. For information about installing SMS and Worklist drivers for UMS, see the chapter "Configuring Oracle User Messaging Service," in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite.
If you plan to use the Mail service for Notifications messaging, no Notifications-specific installation is required, but the Mail service must be configured as described in Chapter 17, "Managing the Mail Service."
Configuration prerequisites for Notifications also depend on the connection type you plan to select for Notifications messaging.
If you plan for users to have messaging channel options—mail, texting (SMS), and Worklist—a connection to a BPEL server must be in place. Notifications uses the SOA installation for supporting multichannel notifications through the User Messaging Service (UMS). UMS is installed as a part of the SOA domain. Out of the box, only the email driver is configured. The SMS driver is available, but must be deployed. For the Worklist channel, the SOA domain must be extended through the Worklist driver extension template. For more information see Chapter 22, "Managing the Worklist Service," and the chapter "Configuring Oracle User Messaging Service," in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite.
If you plan that users will always and only be notified through their mail, a connection to a mail server must be in place. Additionally, the external application associated with the mail server connection must contain shared credentials. For more information, see Chapter 17, "Managing the Mail Service."
There are no security considerations specifically associated with Notifications.
To specify a Notifications message connection type with Fusion Middleware Control:
Log in to Oracle Fusion Middleware Control and navigate to the home page for WebCenter Spaces.
For more information, see Section 6.2, "Navigating to the Home Page for WebCenter Spaces."
From the WebCenter menu, choose Settings > Application Configuration.
On the Application Configuration page, scroll down to Notifications (at the bottom of the page), and select a connection type to use for outbound notifications: either BPEL Server or Mail Server.
The next step depends on the selected connection type:
If you select BPEL Server:
From the Connection Name list, select the name you provided for the BPEL server when you set up that connection.
In the Sender Mail Address field, enter a mail address from which all Notifications messages are sent. The sender mail address must match at least one driver that is configured to send messages from a corresponding domain.
In the Sender SMS Address field, enter the four- to six-digit number that is used by the User Messaging Server (UMS) as the driver from which all Notifications messages are sent. The sender SMS address must match at least one driver that is configured to send messages from a corresponding domain.
If you select Mail Server, select a mail connection from the Connection Name list.
Save your changes.
Restart the managed server on which the portal application is deployed to make your configuration changes take effect.
Use the WLST command setNotificationsConfig to configure the connection type used for notifications. For command syntax and examples, see the section, "setNoticationsConfig," in the Oracle Fusion Middleware WebLogic Scripting Tool Command Reference. See also, "getNotificationConfig," in the same guide.
See Also:
For information about how to run WLST commands, see Section 1.13.3.1, "Running Oracle WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST) Commands."Note:
Updates to this configuration are stored in the MDS repository. For configuration changes to take effect, you must restart the managed server on which the application is deployed. For more information, see the section, "Starting and Stopping WebLogic Managed Servers Using the Command Line" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide.The notification messages that users receive through Worklist or Mail have a default format for content and content presentation. As the application administrator, you can instead create and apply custom templates to provide your own formats for notification messages.
This section provides information about creating a custom template for notifications messages. It includes the following subsections:
Section 18.3.1, "What You Should Know About Overwriting Default Notification Templates"
Section 18.3.2, "Overwriting a Default Notifications Template"
You can go through MDS using WLST commands to customize the layout and content of subscription-based notification messages by overwriting the files defaultTemplate.xml and defaultTemplate_rtl.xml—when right-to-left language support is required.
See Also:
For information about running WLST commands, see Section 1.13.3.1, "Running Oracle WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST) Commands."You can create your own version of these xml files, editing the CSS styles for tables (label, value, background) and footers (note). You can move such tags as <payload> and <group-space-footer> to change the layout. To modify the content of these tags, you can edit the CDATA section within <html-format>.
Note that the tag <text-format/> should always be present and empty. You can use the tag <custom> to add additional content, where the enclosed <html-format> with CDATA contains the new HTML content and <text-format/> remains empty.
Example 18-2 and Example 18-3 illustrate the default content of notification message template files. You can use these to formulate your custom files.
Note:
The default content of these files is very similar. The differences appear under the<style> tag, where alignment—either right or left—is specified.Example 18-2 Default File defaultTemplate.xml
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<notification-template xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/webcenter/notification">
<!-- The CSS Style of the Notification -->
<style>
<text-format/>
<html-format>
<![CDATA[
<style type="text/css">
.title {font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold;
white-space:nowrap;}
.label {text-align:right; margin-left:30px;
padding-right:10px; white-space:nowrap;}
.value {text-align:left; margin-right:20px;
padding-left:10px; white-space:nowrap;
width:100%;}
.note {font-size:0.8em; color:#999999}
.background {background-color:#fcfcfc}
</style>
]]>
</html-format>
</style>
<!-- The Subject line of the Notification -->
<subject>
<message-key>NOTIFICATION_SUBJECT</message-key>
</subject>
<group-space-subject>
<message-key>GROUP_SPACE_SUBJECT_SUFFIX</message-key>
</group-space-subject>
<!-- Actual srvc-specific data. Provided/Overridden by srvc template -->
<payload>
<text-format/>
<html-format/>
</payload>
<!-- Any generic/common footer to appear after service-specific payload -->
<!-- Group Space footer - if applicable -->
<group-space-footer>
<text-format/>
<html-format>
<![CDATA[
<p>
<a href="<token>groupSpaceUrl</token>" target="_blank">
<message-key>GO_TO_SPACE</message-key> <token>
groupSpaceName</token>
</a>
</p>
]]>
</html-format>
</group-space-footer>
<!-- Unsubscribe footers -->
<unsubscribe-footer>
<text-format/>
<html-format>
<![CDATA[
<hr/>
<p class="note">
<token>unsubscribeMessage</token>
</p>
]]>
</html-format>
</unsubscribe-footer>
</notification-template>
Example 18-3 Default File defaultTemplate_rtl.xml
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<notification-template xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/webcenter/notification">
<!-- The CSS Style of the Notification -->
<style>
<text-format/>
<html-format>
<![CDATA[
<style type="text/css">
.title {font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold;
white-space:nowrap;}
.label {text-align:left; margin-right:30px;
padding-left:10px; white-space:nowrap;}
.value {text-align:right; margin-left:20px;
padding-right:10px; white-space:nowrap;
width:100%;}
.note {font-size:0.8em; color:#999999}
.background {background-color:#fcfcfc}
</style>
]]>
</html-format>
</style>
<!-- The Subject line of the Notification -->
<subject>
<message-key>NOTIFICATION_SUBJECT</message-key>
</subject>
<group-space-subject>
<message-key>GROUP_SPACE_SUBJECT_SUFFIX</message-key>
</group-space-subject>
<!-- Actual srvc-specific data. Provided/Overridden by srvc template -->
<payload>
<text-format/>
<html-format/>
</payload>
<!-- Any generic/common footer to appear after service-specific payload -->
<!-- Group Space footer - if applicable -->
<group-space-footer>
<text-format/>
<html-format>
<![CDATA[
<p>
<a href="<token>groupSpaceUrl</token>" target="_blank">
<message-key>GO_TO_SPACE</message-key> <token>
groupSpaceName</token>
</a>
</p>
]]>
</html-format>
</group-space-footer>
<!-- Unsubscribe footers -->
<unsubscribe-footer>
<text-format/>
<html-format>
<![CDATA[
<hr/>
<p class="note">
<token>unsubscribeMessage</token>
</p>
]]>
</html-format>
</unsubscribe-footer>
</notification-template>
To overwrite an existing xml file to customize notification message formats:
Create a custom XML file with the name defaultTemplate.xml (or defaultTemplate_rtl.xml, for right-to-left language template).
Populate the custom file with your revised version of one of these default files.
Overwrite the original file, placing the custom file where the absolute path to the file contains the namespace oracle/webcenter/notification/custom.
For example:
/tmp/repository/oracle/webcenter/notification/custom/template/defaultTemplate.xml
Upload the custom file into the WebCenter MDS repository by running the importMetadata() WLST command.
For example:
importMetadata(application='webcenter', server='WC_Spaces',
fromLocation='template-file-location',
docs='/oracle/webcenter/notification/custom/template/defaultTemplate.xml')
The template-file-location points to the directory under which the fully qualified custom file is located. The fully qualified custom file is typically placed under the directory structure equivalent to its namespace. For example, consider a file that is created under the following namespace:
/tmp/repository/oracle/webcenter/notification/custom/template/defaultTemplate.xml
In such a case, the fromLocation is /tmp/repository because the remaining sub-directory consists of the namespace for the XML file. The namespace must have at least the path /oracle/webcenter/notification/custom.
See Also:
For information about theimportMetadata() command (and other WLST commands), see the section, "importMetadata," in Oracle Fusion Middleware WebLogic Scripting Tool Command Reference.Restart the portal application.
In general, Notifications depends on the underlying Mail or BPEL connection to be valid when the administrator sets it. If these connections prove to be valid, then, by extension, the Notifications connections requirements are met.
Tip:
For information about testing Mail connections, see Section 17.9, "Testing Mail Server Connections."Problem
No notifications are received.
Solution
If the log indicates that the Notification Sender is not configured, then it means the service is unable to find the connection to use.
Ensure that Notifications is configured to use either a valid BPEL or MAIL connection. This can be verified through the getNotificationsConfig() WLST command (see Section 18.2.4, "Setting the Connection Type for Notifications Using WLST") or through the Fusion Middleware Control user interface (see Section 18.2.3, "Setting the Connection Type for Notifications Using Fusion Middleware Control").
Problem
Notifications is configured (BPEL or MAIL) correctly, but still no notifications.
Solution
Notifications relies on a valid BPEL or MAIL connection. Run the respective connection validations and troubleshooting scenarios as described in Chapter 17, "Managing the Mail Service," or Chapter 22, "Managing the Worklist Service."
Problem
MAIL or BPEL connections are set up appropriately, but still do not receive notifications.
Solution
Notifications are generated based on user subscriptions. Apart from notification for invitations to connect, which is configured out of the box, other notifications are generated only when a user has specifically subscribed. Ensure that the user has created subscriptions through his or her personal Preferences or through Space- or object-level subscriptions. For more information, refer to the section, "Subscribing at the Application, Space, and Object Level," in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
Problem
Users have set up their subscriptions, but still receive no notifications.
Solution
Depending on how it is configured, Notifications delegates the delivery of notifications to BPEL/UMS or the Mail service. For the Mail service, ensure that the user's email address is configured. For UMS, look in Fusion Middleware Control under the Message Status section of User Messaging Service. Here you see the status of each outgoing message from UMS. For more information, see the chapter "Monitoring Oracle User Messaging Service," in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite.
For UMS, this problem could also mean that the configuration of the sender on the WebCenter side does not match or find a corresponding driver on the UMS side. Ensure that the sender address (domain) allows UMS to match at least one driver for outbound messages.
For the Mail service, ensure that the mail connection points to a shared connection as described in Section 18.2.1, "What You Should Know About Connection Types."
Problem
For UMS configurations, users receive notifications on some channels but not on others.
Solution
This is most likely due to the way the user's messaging channels and filters are configured. For more information, see the section, "Establishing and Managing Your Messaging Channels and Filters," in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
Problem
For UMS configurations, only mail-channel notifications are delivered, the Worklist channel does not work.
Solution
Ensure that the SOA domain is extended with the Worklist driver template as described in the chapter "Configuring Oracle User Messaging Service," in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite.
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