| Oracle® Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle WebCenter 11g Release 1 (11.1.1) E10148-02 |
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| Oracle® Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle WebCenter 11g Release 1 (11.1.1) E10148-02 |
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This chapter describes how to expose Oracle WebCenter Spaces functionality in a custom WebCenter application, using WebCenter Spaces APIs. Through these APIs, you can create group spaces, manage group space membership, retrieve group space information, and more, from your custom WebCenter applications.
The chapter also describes how to expose information from other applications, such as custom WebCenter applications in WebCenter Spaces.
This chapter includes the following sections:
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Note: Custom-built task flows that implement group space APIs (described in this chapter) can be deployed on custom WebCenter applications, but you cannot deploy them to WebCenter Spaces. To find out how to build task flows for WebCenter Spaces that include calls to local group space APIs, refer to the whitepaper "Extending WebCenter Spaces" on the Oracle Technology Network. |
Audience
This section is intended for developers who want to expose WebCenter Spaces functionality in their custom WebCenter applications. or who are building custom applications that will be integrated with WebCenter Spaces.
WebCenter Spaces is a Web-based application, built using the Oracle WebCenter Framework, WebCenter Web 2.0 services, and Oracle Composer, that offers the very latest technology for social networking, communication, collaboration, and personal productivity. Figure 10-1 shows the WebCenter Spaces home page.
Out of the box, WebCenter Spaces offers a configurable work environment that enables individuals and groups to work and collaborate more effectively. The application is a self-service solution for managing individual and group interactions. It also provides intuitive tools that allow business users to come together and share information by adding pages and resources such as documents, charts, reports, portlets, business applications, Web 2.0 services, and other ADF resources or views.
WebCenter Spaces provides two work environments within a single application: personal spaces and group spaces. Personal spaces provide each user with a private work area for storing personal content, keeping notes, viewing and responding to business process assignments, maintaining a list of online buddies, and performing many other tasks relevant to his or her unique working day. Group spaces support discrete work areas organized around an area of interest or a common goal.
In WebCenter Spaces, group spaces support the formation and collaboration of project teams and communities of interest. Group spaces bring people together in a virtual environment for ongoing interaction and information sharing—in essence, forming a social network. Figure 10-2 shows an example of a group space.
Figure 10-2 An Oracle WebCenter Group Space
Structurally, group spaces are comprised of pages, many of which are dedicated to a particular service. For example, a Documents page provides a central library for uploading, organizing, and managing group content. A Lists page provides the means to create and publish multicolumn lists. A Search page includes features for saving searches and managing search results. In addition to these and other default pages, a group space supports custom pages created by authorized users. Page creation is easy with a wide selection of predefined layouts. With little effort, users can provide pages neatly tailored to the unique needs of their team or community. For more information about group spaces, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
WebCenter provides various services that group spaces can use to offer a wide variety of functionality in support of group objectives. For example, a Documents service provides features for uploading and managing content; a Discussions service provides features for creating, managing, and participating in discussion forums. Some other examples of these services include Events, Lists, Announcements, and Search. These services are what helps to make group spaces a productive, collaborative working environment. Services expose subsets of their features and functionality through task flows. A task flow is a reusable view that may expose all or a subset of the features available from a particular service. For example, a Recent Documents task flow provides a subset of the functionality offered through the Documents service by listing documents that have recently been opened, added, or affected in some way.
To help users get group spaces up and running quickly, they can be based on out-of-the-box templates. These templates provide the optimal structure for supporting the two main types of group space. Use the Group Project template for group spaces where each member potentially comes from a different department but all members contribute toward reaching a common goal. Use the Community of Interest template to help create a group space for a community of people joining together to collaborate, create content, share ideas, and so on. Additionally, WebCenter Spaces allows users to turn any group space into a template, so they can design group spaces to suit specific audiences and offer them up as templates for others to use. For information about creating templates, see "Creating Your Own Group Space Templates" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
WebCenter Spaces can consume portlets from any WSRP or Oracle PDK-Java portlet producer if the producer is registered first. Therefore, any portlets you create for custom WebCenter applications can be used in WebCenter Spaces too. For more information, see the "Managing Portlet Producers" chapter in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
While using your custom WebCenter application, users may encounter situations where a group space would be useful to help them complete a particular task. In such cases, it would be much less disruptive to remain within the context of the current application, rather than having to switch to the WebCenter Spaces application. To this end, WebCenter Spaces provides access to a subset of its group space functionality through several APIs. Using these APIs, you can integrate powerful group space functionality into your custom WebCenter application.
You can use WebCenter Spaces APIs to:
Create and manage group spaces and templates. You can create and delete group spaces, and add custom attributes. For more information, see Section 10.2.4.1, "Managing Group Spaces and Templates."
Manage group space membership. You can add and remove group space members. For more information, see Section 10.2.4.2, "Managing Group Space Membership."
Retrieve group space and template information. For example, you can retrieve the WebCenter Spaces URL or the URL of a specific group space. You can also retrieve group space and group space template metadata. For more information, see Section 10.2.4.3, "Retrieving Group Space and Template Information."
WebCenter Spaces APIs are contained within several classes. Table 10-1 lists the different classes and describes the purpose of the APIs within each class.
Table 10-1 WebCenter Spaces API Classes
| Class | Contains APIs for | More Information |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Creating and managing group spaces and templates Managing group space membership Retrieving group space information |
Section 10.2.4, "How to Provide Group Space Functionality in Custom WebCenter Applications" |
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Establishing context before calling the APIs |
Section 10.2.3.4, "Setting Up the Group Space Client Context" |
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Managing exceptions raised by the APIs |
Section 10.2.5, "How to Handle Exceptions Raised by WebCenter Spaces APIs" |
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Retrieving information about group space members |
Section 10.2.4.3, "Retrieving Group Space and Template Information" |
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Retrieving group space information |
Section 10.2.4.3, "Retrieving Group Space and Template Information" |
Group spaces have many different applications. From your perspective, as a custom WebCenter application developer, here are a couple of case studies describing scenarios where building and working with group spaces through the APIs might come in useful:
In a purchasing application, a purchasing manager may create a group space to discuss the suitability of a new supplier. For more information, see Section 10.2.1, "Case Study 1: Purchasing Application Uses a Group Space to Evaluate Suppliers."
In a Customer Support Center application, a support analyst may create a group space to collaborate with other users about a customer escalation. For more information, see Section 10.2.2, "Case Study 2: Customer Support Center Application Uses a Group Space to Discuss Customer Escalation."
Consider a purchasing application built using the Oracle WebCenter Framework. This application tracks suppliers, pricing, lead-time requirements, delivery time estimates, and performance history.
Users of the purchasing application must also be able to select and evaluate supplier candidates. Supplier evaluation is a collaborative process; it requires people from various areas of a company. For example, a design engineer and manufacturing representative must verify that an item being purchased meets the required technical specifications; a purchasing agent can negotiate prices, logistics and contractual issues; and a manager or executive has to approve the deal. How could the purchasing application initiate supplier evaluations?
Typically, the purchasing manager receives a purchase requisition from the manufacturing department. Sometimes the purchase order cannot be completed because the requisition cannot be delivered by the usual supplier in the time frame required by manufacturing. Therefore, a new supplier that can meet delivery and pricing requirements must be determined. The purchasing manager can add a candidate supplier into the system but the purchasing manager needs a way to organize and share information, and collaborate with people in and outside his team so that he can assess the supplier.
A group space would provide this collaborative environment. So the purchasing application includes a call to the createGroupSpace API, and this enables the purchasing manager to click a link (Create a New Group Space) that displays a Create Group Space dialog, directly from the purchasing application, as shown in Figure 10-3.
Figure 10-3 Purchasing Application Includes a Group Space Creation Link
When the purchasing manager clicks the link a custom dialog prompts him for some information. The purchasing manager enters a name and description for the group space, and also selects a template (Purchasing Projects) as shown in Figure 10-4. The Purchasing Projects template sets up the group space quickly so it is ready to use right away. For example, the template defines which services are required (events, a document library, and so on) and any custom pages that may be required. Because the APIs enable you to create your own Create Group Space dialog, you can apply your own look and feel and terminology.
Figure 10-4 Custom Create Group Space Dialog
In this scenario, the purchasing manager chooses the Purchasing Projects template from the template list. Another approach would be to have the purchasing application pass in a default template value. With this additional default, there would be one less thing (determining which template to use) for the purchasing manager to think about. You could even generate the name of the group space from the Supplier ID so that the purchasing manager would not have to enter any details at all. The group space could then be created with just the click of a link.
When the purchasing manager clicks OK, WebCenter Spaces displays the new Supplier Evaluation group space in WebCenter Spaces, as shown in Figure 10-5.
Figure 10-5 Supplier Evaluation Group Space
Figure 10-5 shows the Home page for the Supplier Evaluation group space, which includes an events calendar, documents the group may find useful, an area for announcements, and so on. Each of these areas was determined by the Purchasing Projects template. In addition a link to the purchasing application transaction instance from which the group space was created is also provided. Clicking this link (Add/Update Vendors) displays the screen Add/Update Vendor transaction for the supplier Shaker Distribution.
In WebCenter Spaces, the purchasing manager becomes the moderator of the group space automatically. The moderator can add content to the group space, initiate discussions, invite members, and collaborate with interested parties. Once consensus is reached regarding the supplier, the purchasing manager is can approve or reject the supplier concerned.
Consider a Customer Support Center application built using the Oracle WebCenter Framework that tracks customer calls and issues.
A support analyst is notified that a customer has escalated the service request that the analyst has been working on. The analyst knows that she can find a quicker resolution to the issue if she can involve other people from different areas of the company. For example:
The project manager whose team implemented the project can provide more in depth knowledge of the project.
An account manager who has been in constant touch with the customer can provide specific information about the implementation of the project at the customer site.
Another support analyst, who has worked on a similar escalation before, can provide information about how that escalation was resolved.
This problem can be solved collaboratively using a group space. The support analyst creates a group space from within the Customer Support Center application and adds the required members. These members are then notified and use the group space to start discussing the customer situation. The support analyst views their updates to the group space inside the support application, navigating to the group space whenever necessary to obtain more specific details. Based on the information she gets from the other members of the group space, she can diagnose the problem and offer the customer a solution very quickly.
Before you can use the WebCenter Spaces APIs you must ensure that the WebCenter Spaces application is up and running and that your project is set up correctly in JDeveloper.
This section includes the following subsections:
Setting Up the Custom WebCenter Application to Use WebCenter Spaces APIs
Securing the Connection Between the Application and WebCenter Spaces
If you want to use the WebCenter SpacesAPIs, the WebCenter Spaces application must be up and running.
To verify that WebCenter Spaces is up and running:
Start WebCenter Spaces. The URL is:
http://host:port/webcenter
You do not need to log in.
Verify that the WebCenter Spaces Web service is up and running. The URL is:
http://host:port/webcenter/SpacesWebService?WSDL
You should see a page similar to the one shown in Figure 10-6. If you do not see this page, contact your Fusion Middleware administrator.
For more information about setting up WebCenter Spaces, see the "Getting WebCenter Spaces Up and Running" chapter in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
Before you can call the WebCenter Spaces APIs in your custom WebCenter application, you must ensure that your application contains the correct libraries and that there is a connection to the WebCenter Spaces Web service.
To set up your application to use the WebCenter Spaces APIs:
Start JDeveloper.
In the Application Navigator, expand the application for which you want to provide group space functionality.
The application should be based on the WebCenter Application template.
Right-click the view-controller project and choose Project Properties.
Select Libraries and Classpath.
Check that the following libraries are available in your project, adding any as necessary:
ADF DVT Faces Runtime
ADF Model Generic Runtime
ADF Model Runtime
JAX-RPC Client
JAX-WS Client
JAXB
Oracle JEWT
WebCenter Spaces Client
JDEV_HOME/jdeveloper/modules/oracle.adf.model_11.1.1/adfm.jar
JDEV_HOME/jdeveloper/modules/oracle.xdk_11.1.1/xml.jar
Click OK.
In the Application Resources panel of the Application Navigator, right-click Connections and choose New Connection > URL.
In the Name field, enter SpacesWebServiceEndpoint.
In the URL Endpoint field, enter the WebCenter Spaces Web service URL:
http://host:port/webcenter/SpacesWebService
Click OK.
The connection information is added to the connections.xml file in the application's META-INF directory, for example:
C:\JDeveloper\mywork\mySpacesApplication\.adf\META-INF
If the connections.xml file does not exist, it is created.
Open the connections.xml file and verify that the code shown in Example 10-1 appears:
Example 10-1 WebCenter Spaces Web Service Endpoint URL Connection
<Reference name="SpacesWebServiceEndpoint"
className="oracle.adf.model.connection.url.HttpURLConnection">
<Factory className="oracle.adf.model.connection.url.URLConnectionFactory"/>
<RefAddresses>
<XmlRefAddr addrType="SpacesWebServiceEndpoint">
<Contents>
<urlconnection name="SpacesWebServiceEndpoint"
url="http://host:port/webcenter/SpacesWebService"/>
</Contents>
</XmlRefAddr>
</RefAddresses>
</Reference>
If you need to set the WebCenter Spaces Web service endpoint at runtime, you can use the setGroupSpaceWebServiceEndpoint API (Example 10-2). You can write a wrapper API that takes the endpoint as a parameter and then calls setGroupSpaceWebServiceEndpoint, passing the parameter. An exception is raised if the endpoint is already set in connections.xml.
Before using the WebCenter Spaces APIs in your custom WebCenter application, you must ensure that the communication between the application (the consumer) and WebCenter Spaces (the producer) is secure. This is so that the identity of the user invoking the APIs is propagated to WebCenter Spaces in a secure manner where the integrity and confidentiality of the communication is maintained.
To do this, the WebCenter Spaces APIs use a policy of SAML based token passing with message protection. Your administrator must create a Java keystore and update the credential store so that WebCenter Spaces can verify the authenticity of the security tokens received from your application. You must then register this keystore and update the credential store using JDeveloper.
For information about the steps that the administrator must perform, see "Securing WebCenter Spaces for Applications Consuming Spaces Client APIs with WS-Security" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
Before You Begin
Obtain the following from your administrator:
Consumer keystore to use to secure the connection. This is a .jks file (for example, consumer.jks).
Consumer public alias key stored in the keystore (for example, consumer).
Password of the consumer public alias key (for example, mypassword1).
Producer public alias key stored in the consumer keystore (for example, producer). This is the alias specified by the administrator when importing the trusted certificate of the producer.
Consumer keystore password (for example, mypassword2).
To secure the connection:
Copy the keystore to the file system where your custom WebCenter application is running, for example:
domain_home/config/fmwconfig
Open the jps-config.xml file and configure the keystore created by your administrator (Example 10-3).
Example 10-3 Keystore Instance in jps.config.xml
<!-- KeyStore Service Instance -->
<serviceInstance name="keystore" provider="keystore.provider"
location="./consumer.jks">
<description>Default JPS Keystore Service</description>
<property name="keystore.type" value="JKS"/>
<property name="keystore.csf.map" value="oracle.wsm.security"/>
<property name="keystore.pass.csf.key" value="keystore-csf-key"/>
<property name="keystore.sig.csf.key" value="enc-csf-key"/>
<property name="keystore.enc.csf.key" value="enc-csf-key"/>
</serviceInstance>
You can use Fusion Middleware Control to specify the keystore location if you prefer. For more information see "Registering the Keystores" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
Take a backup of cwallet.sso.
Open a command line prompt.
Navigate to the directory where JDeveloper is installed, for example:
C:\Jdev\jdeveloper\common\bin
Run the following command:
In Windows: wlst.cmd
In Linux: ./wlst.sh
Run:
connect('admin_user', 'admin_password', 'host:port')
Where:
admin_user is the user name for the administrator of the server on which the application is running (for example, weblogic)
admin_password is the password for the administrator (for example, weblogicpwd1)
host:port is the server on which the application is running
Run the following commands:
createCred(map="oracle.wsm.security", key="enc-csf-key", user="alias", password="key_password", desc="Enc Password") createCred(map="oracle.wsm.security", key="sign-csf-key", user="alias", password="key_password", desc="Enc Password") createCred(map="oracle.wsm.security", key="keystore-csf-key", user="keystore-csf-key", password="keystore_password", desc="Keystore password")
Where:
alias is the consumer public alias key in the keystore
key_password is the password for the public key
keystore_password is the keystore password
You can obtain this information from your administrator, as detailed in the "Before You Begin" section.
If you need any additional help to run these commands, see the "createCred" section in the Oracle Fusion Middleware WebLogic Scripting Tool Command Reference.
You can use Fusion Middleware Control to update the credential store if you prefer. For more information see the "Securing WebCenter Spaces for Applications Consuming Spaces Client APIs with WS-Security" section in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
Restart the server on which your application is deployed, and then your default server.
Before calling any of the WebCenter Spaces APIs in your application code, a few setup steps are required.
To set up the group space client context
Domain-wide configuration settings are used when you call WebCenter Spaces APIs from an application deployed on WebLogic Server (WLS), unless you specifically choose to override them. To override or set security configuration parameters, use the APIs provided by the GroupSpaceWSContext class.
In particular, you must set the SAML issuer name and the public key alias for WebCenter Spaces, which are required for data encryption. If the WebCenter Spaces Web service endpoint is not set in the connections.xml file, you can set this too.
For example:
GroupSpaceWSContext context = new GroupSpaceWSContext();
context.setEndPoint("endPointUrl");
context.setSamlIssuerName("samlIssuer");
context.setRecipientKeyAlias("producer");
groupSpaceWSClient = new GroupSpaceWSClient(context);
Where:
endPointUrl is the WebCenter Spaces Web service endpoint, for example, http://server.example.com:8912/webcenter/SpacesWebService).
samlIssuer is the issuer URI of the SAML Authority issuing assertions for this SAML Asserting Party (for example, http://www.example.com/webcenter)
producer is the public key alias for WebCenter Spaces, for example, wcspaces.
You can obtain this information from your administrator, as detailed in the "Before You Begin" section.
For a full list of the APIs provided by the GroupSpaceWSContext class, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware WebCenter Group Spaces Java API Reference.
Initialize the group space client by passing the context. For example:
GroupSpaceWSClient client = new GroupSpaceWSClient(context);
Once you have initialized the client, check everything is set up correctly by calling:
getWebCenterSpacesURL();
If the correct URL is returned, everything is set up correctly and you can start using the group space APIs.
The WebCenter Spaces APIs enable you to perform commonly used group space operations within a custom WebCenter application. Most of these APIs are provided by the GroupSpaceWSClient class. The APIs can be grouped into three main categories:
Table 10-2 lists the APIs in the GroupSpaceWSClient class.
Table 10-2 APIs for Performing Common Group Space Operations
| Group Space API | Category | Description |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Managing Group Spaces and Templates |
Creates a new group space based on a template. See Section 10.2.4.1.1, "Creating a Group Space." |
|
|
Managing Group Spaces and Templates |
Creates one or more custom attributes for a group space. See Section 10.2.4.1.2, "Creating a Custom Attribute." |
|
|
Managing Group Spaces and Templates |
Permanently removes a group space from WebCenter Spaces. See Section 10.2.4.1.4, "Deleting a Group Space." |
|
|
Managing Group Spaces and Templates |
Creates a new group space template based on an existing group space. See Section 10.2.4.1.3, "Creating a Group Space Template." |
|
|
Managing Group Space Membership |
Adds a group space member with a specific role. See Section 10.2.4.2.1, "Adding Members to a Group Space." |
|
|
Managing Group Space Membership |
Invites a list of users to become members of a group space. See Section 10.2.4.2.2, "Inviting Users to Join a Group Space." |
|
|
Managing Group Space Membership |
Revokes group space membership. See Section 10.2.4.2.3, "Removing Members from a Group Space." |
|
|
Managing Group Space Membership |
Retrieves all the roles for a given group space. See Section 10.2.4.2.4, "Retrieving Role Information." |
|
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Retrieving Group Space and Template Information |
Retrieves a list of group spaces for a given query string. See Section 10.2.4.3.1, "Retrieving a List of Group Spaces." |
|
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Retrieving Group Space and Template Information |
Retrieves a list of public group spaces for a given query string. See Section 10.2.4.3.2, "Retrieving a List of Public Group Spaces." |
|
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Retrieving Group Space and Template Information |
Retrieves information (metadata) about the group space. See Section 10.2.4.3.3, "Retrieving Group Space Metadata." |
|
|
Retrieving Group Space and Template Information |
Retrieves information (metadata) about a group space given the group space's GUID. See Section 10.2.4.3.3, "Retrieving Group Space Metadata." |
|
|
Retrieving Group Space and Template Information |
Retrieves a list of group space templates for a given query string. See Section 10.2.4.3.4, "Retrieving a List of Group Space Templates." |
|
|
Retrieving Group Space and Template Information |
Retrieves information (metadata) about the group space template. See Section 10.2.4.3.5, "Retrieving Group Space Template Metadata." |
|
|
Retrieving Group Space and Template Information |
Retrieves information (metadata) about the group space template given the template's GUID. See Section 10.2.4.3.5, "Retrieving Group Space Template Metadata." |
|
|
Retrieving Group Space and Template Information |
Retrieves the WebCenter Spaces URL. See Section 10.2.4.3.6, "Retrieving the WebCenter Spaces URL." |
|
|
Retrieving Group Space and Template Information |
Retrieves a group space URL. See Section 10.2.4.3.7, "Retrieving a Group Space URL." |
Use the following WebCenter Spaces APIs to manage your group spaces:
createGroupSpace
setCustomAttribute
createGroupSpaceTemplate
deleteGroupSpace
Before you begin
Before using any of these APIs, you must complete all the steps listed in Section 10.2.3, "How to Set Up Your Custom WebCenter Application to Use the WebCenter Spaces APIs."
This section includes the following subsections
Use the createGroupSpace API to create a group space that is based on an existing group space template.
To use this API, specify:
The internal name of the new group space. This name can contain spaces.
A display name for the new group space.
A description of the group space. Although this is not mandatory, we recommend that you provide a description to help users identify the group space's purpose.
The name of the group space template you want to use. This should be the internal name of the template, not the display name. For example, the internal names for the built-in templates are Basic, CommunityOfInterest, and ProjectSpace.
Optionally, you can provide a comma separated list of keywords to help users locate the group space in searches.
Example 10-4 creates a group space with the name Databases that is based on the CommunityofInterest template. The example also specifies two search keywords (databases and Oracle).
Example 10-4 Creating a Group Space
//create the group space
GroupSpaceWSMetadata gsMetadata =
client.createGroupSpace("Databases", "Databases" "A community for people interested in databases", "databases, oracle", "CommunityofInterest");
//print the group space GUID to provide confirmation of creation
System.out.println("GUID: " + gsMetadata.getGuid());
For an example of how to provide custom attributes for a new group space, see Section 10.2.4.1.2, "Creating a Custom Attribute."
Every group space comes with built-in attributes such as name, description, date created, icon, and so on. In addition, you can define custom attributes that store additional information (metadata) that is unique to the group space and its characteristics.
Use the setCustomAttribute API to specify a custom attribute for a group space. To use this API, specify the name of the group space and a name, description, type, and value for the custom attribute.
Example 10-5 creates the Databases group space and then creates a custom attribute for that group space. The attribute is named Vendors, with the description List of vendors. It takes string values of Oracle and IBM.
Example 10-5 Creating a Custom Attribute
//create the group space
client.createGroupSpace("Databases", "Databases", "A community for people interested in databases", null, "CommunityofInterest");
//create the custom attribute
client.setCustomAttribute("Databases", "Vendors", "List of vendors", "java.lang.String", "Oracle, IBM");
Use the createGroupSpaceTemplate API to create a group space template based on an existing group space. To use this API specify a name, display name, and description for the template, and the name of the group space to use to create the template.
Example 10-6 creates a group space template based on the Databases group space.
Example 10-6 Creating a Group Space Template
GroupSpaceWSMetadata templMetadata =
client.createGroupSpaceTemplate("DatabasesTemplate", "Databases Template",
"A template based on the Databases group space", "Databases");
//print the template GUID to provide confirmation of creation
System.out.println("GUID: " + templMetadata.getGuid());
Use the deleteGroupSpace API to permanently delete a group space from WebCenter Spaces. To use this API, specify the name of the group space to delete. The API returns a boolean value to indicate whether the deletion was successful.
Example 10-7 deletes the group space with the name Databases. The example uses the boolean value returned by the API to print a message about the success or failure of the operation.
Use the following group space APIs to manage group space membership:
addMember
inviteMember
removeMember
getRoles
Before you begin
Before using any of these APIs, you must complete all the steps listed in Section 10.2.3, "How to Set Up Your Custom WebCenter Application to Use the WebCenter Spaces APIs."
This section includes the following subsections:
Use the addMember API to give users group space membership and assign the new members to a group space role. To use this API, specify the name of the group space, and a list of users. The list must contain objects of type GroupSpaceWSMembers that specify the user name and the role to give that user in the group space.
You must specify a valid user name that exists in the WebCenter Spaces identity store. For the role, choose one of the default roles (moderator, participant, viewer) or one of the custom group space roles (if any). To retrieve a list of the available roles for a group space, use the getRoles API. For more information, see Section 10.2.4.2.4, "Retrieving Role Information." For more information about roles, see the "What You Should Know About Group Space Roles and Permissions" section in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
Example 10-8 adds users (of type GroupSpaceWSMembers) named Pat and Vicki as members of the Databases group space with viewer and participant roles respectively.
Example 10-8 Adding Members to a Group Space
//create the list of users
List addMem = new ArrayList();
//create the GroupSpaceWSMembers objects
GroupSpaceWSMembers mem1 = new GroupSpaceWSMembers("pat", "viewer");
GroupSpaceWSMembers mem2 = new GroupSpaceWSMembers("vicki", "participant");
//add the GroupSpaceWSMembers objects to the list of users
addMem.add(mem1);
addMem.add(mem2);
//add the users to the group space
client.addMember("Databases", addMem);
//print a list of members to confirm the new members were added
GroupSpaceWSMetadata memMetData = client.getGroupSpaceMetadata("Databases");
for (GroupSpaceWSMembers mems: memMetData.getMembers())
{
System.out.println(mems.getMember());
System.out.println(mems.getRole());
}
Use the inviteMember API to invite users to become members of a group space. To use this API, specify the name of the group space and a list of users to invite. The list must contain objects of type GroupSpaceWSMembers that specify the user name and the role to give that user in the group space. An invitation to join the group space is sent to each user, and each user can then accept or reject that invitation.
You must specify a valid user name that exists in the WebCenter Spaces identity store. For the role, choose one of the default roles (moderator, participant, viewer) or one of the custom group space roles (if any). To retrieve a list of the available roles for a group space, use the getRoles API. For more information, see Section 10.2.4.2.4, "Retrieving Role Information." For more information about roles, see the "What You Should Know About Group Space Roles and Permissions" section in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
Example 10-9 invites users (of type GroupSpaceWSMembers) named Pat and Vicki to become members of the Databases group space with viewer and participant roles respectively.
Example 10-9 Inviting Users to Join a Group Space
//create the list of users
List inviteMem = new ArrayList();
//create the GroupSpaceWSMembers objects
GroupSpaceWSMembers mem1 = new GroupSpaceWSMembers("pat", "viewer");
GroupSpaceWSMembers mem2 = new GroupSpaceWSMembers("vicki", "participant");
//add the GroupSpaceWSMembers objects to the list of users
inviteMem.add(mem1);
inviteMem.add(mem2);
//invite the list of users to join the group space
client.inviteMember("Databases", inviteMem);
Use the removeMember API to revoke group space membership. To use this API, specify the name of the group space, and a list of users. The list must contain objects of type GroupSpaceWSMembers that specify the user name. To obtain a list of current group space members, use the getGroupSpaceMetadata API. For more information, see Section 10.2.4.3.3, "Retrieving Group Space Metadata."
Example 10-10 removes users (of type GroupSpaceWSMembers) Pat and Vicki from the membership of the Databases group space.
Example 10-10 Removing Members from a Group Space
//create the list of users
List remMem = new ArrayList();
//create the GroupSpaceWSMembers objects
GroupSpaceWSMembers mem1 = new GroupSpaceWSMembers("pat");
GroupSpaceWSMembers mem2 = new GroupSpaceWSMembers("vicki");
//add the GroupSpaceWSMembers objects to the list of users
remMem.add(mem1);
remMem.add(mem2);
//remove the users from the group space
client.removeMember("Databases", remMem);
//print a list of members to confirm the members were removed
GroupSpaceWSMetadata memMetData = client.getGroupSpaceMetadata("Databases");
for (GroupSpaceWSMembers mems: memMetData.getMembers())
{
System.out.println(mems.getMember());
System.out.println(mems.getRole());
}
Use the getRoles API to retrieve all the roles for a given group space. This is useful for determining which roles are available when adding or inviting members to a group space. Roles include the default roles (moderator, participant, viewer) as well as custom group space roles (if any). To use this API, specify the name of the group space.
Example 10-11 retrieves and displays role information for the Databases group space.
Use the following group space APIs to retrieve group space information:
getGroupSpaces
getPublicGroupSpaces
getGroupSpaceMetadata
getGroupSpaceMetadataByGuid
getGroupSpaceTemplates
getGroupSpaceTemplateMetadata
getGroupSpaceTemplateMetadataByGuid
getWebCenterSpacesURL
getGroupSpaceURL
Before you begin
Before using any of these APIs, you must complete all the steps listed in Section 10.2.3, "How to Set Up Your Custom WebCenter Application to Use the WebCenter Spaces APIs."
This section includes the following subsections
Use the getGroupSpaces API to obtain a list of group spaces that match a given query string. To use this API, specify a query string. A null value query string returns a list of all group spaces that are accessible to the current user.
The API returns group spaces that are accessible to the current user, up to a maximum of 500.
Example 10-12 returns a list of group spaces containing the string Database.
Example 10-12 Retrieving a List of Specific Group Spaces
List<String> allGroupSpaces = client.getGroupSpaces("Database");
Example 10-13 returns a list of all group spaces to which the current user has access. This is achieved by specifying a null query string.
Use the getPublicGroupSpaces API to obtain a list of public group spaces that match a given query string. To use this API, specify a query string. A null value query string returns a list of all public group spaces.
The API returns group spaces that are accessible to all users, even those who are not logged in to WebCenter Spaces, up to a maximum of 500.
Example 10-14 returns a list of public group spaces containing the string Database.
Example 10-14 Retrieving a List of Specific Public Group Spaces
List<String> allPublicGroupSpaces = client.getPublicGroupSpaces("Database");
Example 10-15 returns a list of all public group spaces. This is achieved by specifying a null query string.
Use the getGroupSpaceMetadata or getGroupSpaceMetadataByGuid APIs to obtain information (metadata) about a particular group space. This includes information such as the description of the group space, the name of the user who created it, the date on which it was last updated, and so on.
To use the getGroupSpaceMetadata API, specify the name of the group space. To use the getGroupSpaceMetadataByGuid API, specify the GUID of the group space. Note that while the group space name may be changed during the existence of the group space, the GUID always remains the same. You can obtain the GUID of a group space as follows:
getGroupSpaceMetadata("spaceName").getGuid();
Both APIs return a bean object that contains more APIs that you can then use for retrieving the group space metadata. These APIs are provided by the GroupSpaceWSMetadata class. Table 10-3 lists the APIs returned by the bean object:
Table 10-3 APIs for Retrieving Group Space Metadata
Example 10-16 retrieves the Description, Keywords, and Last Updated Date information for the Databases group space given the group space name.
Example 10-16 Retrieving Group Space Metadata Using the Group Space Name
//get the exact name of the group space
List<String> myGroupSpace = client.getGroupSpaces("Databases");
//check that the API returns a single result
if(myGroupSpace.size() == 1)
{
//retrieve the metadata
GroupSpaceWSMetadata metadata = client.getGroupSpaceMetadata(myGroupSpace);
//get group space description
System.out.println("Description: " + metadata.getDescription());
//get group space keywords
System.out.println("Keywords: " + metadata.getKeywords());
//get the date the group space was last updated
System.out.println("Last Updated Date: "+ metadata.getLastUpdated().toString());
}
Example 10-17 retrieves the Display Name, Creator, and Last Updated Date information for the Databases group space given the group space GUID.
Example 10-17 Retrieving Group Space Metadata Using Group Space GUID
GroupSpaceWSMetadata metadata = client.getGroupSpaceMetadataByGuid("Guid");
//get group space display name
System.out.println("Display Name: " + metadata.getDisplayName());
//get the name of the user who created the group space
System.out.println("Created By: " + metadata.getCreatedBy());
//get the date the group space was last updated
System.out.println("Last Updated Date: " + metadata.getLastUpdated().toString());
Example 10-18 retrieves the Name, Description, Type, and Value for every custom attribute associated with the Databases group space.
Example 10-18 Retrieving Custom Attribute Metadata
//get the exact name of the group space
List<String> myGroupSpace = client.getGroupSpaces("Databases");
//check that the API returns a single result
if(myGroupSpace.size() == 1)
{
//retrieve the metadata
GroupSpaceWSMetadata metadata = client.getGroupSpaceMetadata(myGroupSpace);
//get list of custom attributes
List<CustomMetadata.Attribute> attributes = metadata.getCustomAttributes();
//get name, description, type, and value for each custom attribute
for(CustomMetadata.Attribute attribute: attributes)
{
System.out.println("Name :" + attribute.getName());
System.out.println("Description :" + attribute.getDescription());
System.out.println("Type :" + attribute.getType());
System.out.println("value.toString() :" + attribute.getValue().toString());
}
}
Example 10-19 retrieves a list of members of the Databases group space.
Example 10-19 Retrieving Membership Information
//get the exact name of the group space
List<String> myGroupSpace = client.getGroupSpaces("Databases");
//check that the API returns a single result
if(myGroupSpace.size() == 1)
{
//retrieve the metadata
GroupSpaceWSMetadata metadata = client.getGroupSpaceMetadata(myGroupSpace);
//get the list of members
for(String member: metadata.getMembers())
{
System.out.println("Member UID: " + member);
}
}
Use the getGroupSpaceTemplates API to obtain a list of group space templates that match a given query string. To use this API, specify a query string. A null value query string returns a list of all templates that are accessible to the current user.
The API returns templates that are accessible to the current user, up to a maximum of 500.
Example 10-20 returns a list of group space templates containing the string Interest.
Example 10-20 Retrieving a List of Specific Group Space Templates
List<String> allGroupSpaceTemplates = client.getGroupSpaceTemplates("Interest");
Example 10-21 returns a list of all group space templates to which the current user has access. This is achieved by specifying a null query string.
Use the getGroupSpaceTemplateMetadata and getGroupSpaceTemplateMetadataByGuid APIs to obtain information (metadata) about a particular group space template. This includes information such as the description of the template, the name of the user who created it, and so on.
To use the getGroupSpaceTemplateMetadata API, specify the name of the template. To use the getGroupSpaceTemplateMetadataByGuid API, specify the GUID of the template. Note that while the group space template name may be changed during the existence of the template, the GUID always remains the same.
Both APIs return a bean object that contains more APIs that you can then use for retrieving the group space template metadata. These APIs are provided by the GroupSpaceWSMetadata class. Table 10-4 lists the APIs returned by the bean object:
Table 10-4 APIs for Retrieving Group Space Template Metadata
| Group Space API | Description |
|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Returns a comma separated list of keywords used to describe the template. |
|
|
|
|
|
Example 10-22 retrieves the GUID, Description, and Created By information for the CommunityofInterest group space template given the template name.
Example 10-22 Retrieving Template Metadata Using the Template Name
GroupSpaceWSMetadata metadata = client.getGroupSpaceTemplateMetadata(myGroupSpaceTemplate);
//get the exact name of the group space template
List<String> myGroupSpaceTemplate = client.getGroupSpaceTemplates("CommunityofInterest");
//check that the API returns a single result
if(myGroupSpaceTemplate.size() == 1)
{
//retrieve the metadata -- get GUID
System.out.println("GUID: " + metadata.getGuid());
//get template description
System.out.println("Description: " + metadata.getDescription());
//get name of user who created the template
System.out.println("Keywords: " + metadata.getCreatedBy());
}
Example 10-23 retrieves the name of a group space template given the template GUID.
Use the getWebCenterSpacesURL API to obtain the URL of WebCenter Spaces.
Example 10-24 retrieves the URL of the currently running instance of WebCenter Spaces.
Use the getGroupSpaceURL API to obtain the URL of a specific group space. This is useful for when you want to construct a hyperlink for a group space or you have a relative URL that you need to make into an absolute URL. To use this API, specify the name of the group space.
Example 10-25 retrieves the URL of the Databases group space.
Example 10-25 Retrieving a Group Space URL
String myGroupSpaceURL = client.getGroupSpaceURL("Databases");
Example 10-26 prints a list of group spaces as hyperlinks.
Example 10-26 Printing a List of Group Spaces as Hyperlinks
//get the list of group spaces
List<String> spaces = client.getGroupSpaces("");
//print the list of group spaces as hyperlinks
for (String spaceName : spaces)
{
print("<a href =""" + client.getGroupSpaceURL(spaceName) + "">" + spaceName + "</a><br>");
}
To construct the URL of a particular group space page, retrieve the group space URL and then add the page information. For information about how to create pretty URLs for group space pages, see "Using Pretty URLs for WebCenter Spaces Pages" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
The GroupSpaceWSException class provides APIs for handling exceptions raised by the group space APIs.
Table 10-5 Group Space APIs in the GroupSpaceWSException Class
| API | Class | Description |
|---|---|---|
|
|
GroupSpaceWSException |
Composes the localized error message. |
|
|
GroupSpaceWSException |
Prints the exception and its back trace to the standard error stream. |
This section includes the following subsections:
Sometimes you may find that the default error messages provided by the APIs are not specific enough for your particular application. In these cases you can provide your own error messages.
Use the getLocalizedMessage API to compose application-specific error messages.
Example 10-27 shows a servlet that includes code to create a group space. If any exceptions are raised during the creation process, a localized message is printed.
Example 10-27 Printing a Localized Error Message
servlet1.java
doGet()
{
...
print("<b>Output</b>");
try
{
GroupSpaceWSClient client = new GroupSpaceWSClient(context);
client.createGroupSpace("Databases", "Databases, "A community for people interested in databases", "databases, oracle", "CommunityofInterest");
print("Successfully created group space");
}
catch(GroupSpaceWSException ex)
{
if(ex instanceof GroupSpaceNameNullException)
print(ex.getLocalizedMessage());
else if (ex instanceof GroupSpaceDescNullException)
print(ex.getLocalizedMessage());
}
...
}
For debugging purposes, it is often useful to see which errors ultimately led to the failure of a particular operation to discover the underlying cause of the problem. Use the printStackTrace API to list all the errors that caused a particular exception.
Example 10-28 prints the exception and all the errors leading up to it.
Example 10-28 Listing the Error Stack
servlet1.java
doGet()
{
...
print("<b>Output</b>");
try
{
GroupSpaceWSClient client = new GroupSpaceWSClient(context);
client.createGroupSpace("Databases", "Databases", "A community for people interested in databases", "databases, oracle", "CommunityofInterest");
print("Successfully created group space");
}
catch(GroupSpaceWSException ex)
{
ex.printStackTrace();
}
...
}
You can expose various enterprise applications inside WebCenter Spaces, including:
Custom WebCenter applications—applications developed using the WebCenter Framework.
Other portals in the WebCenter Suite—for example, Oracle Portal.
Oracle Applications Unlimited products—for example, E-Business Suite, Siebel, PeopleSoft, and JDEdwards.
Other custom applications—applications developed using non-Oracle platforms.
Technologies such as WSRP, Oracle JSF Portlet Bridge, ADF task flows, and WebCenter support for external applications, enable WebCenter Spaces to consume and present application data in a unified way. The following sections tell you how.
This section includes the following subsections:
You can expose custom WebCenter applications, built using the WebCenter Framework, as portlets and task flows in WebCenter Spaces:
Portlets: Web components that are deployed inside a container and generate dynamic content. For more information, see Chapter 27, "Overview of Portlets."
Oracle JSF Portlet Bridge: A technology that enables you to easily expose existing ADF applications and task flows as JSR 168 portlets. For more information, see Chapter 28, "Creating Portlets with the Oracle JSF Portlet Bridge."
Task flows: ADF navigational components that define the transition between states and activities using call methods on managed beans, evaluating an EL expression, and so on. For more information see, "Getting Started with ADF Task Flows" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Fusion Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework.
You can expose Oracle Applications Unlimited products, for example, E-Business Suite, Siebel, PeopleSoft, and JDEdwards, in WebCenter Spaces, using:
Web services and ADF: Enterprise applications like Siebel expose various web service interfaces. You can leverage these web service interfaces to build data controls, ADF task flows, and portlets that can be consumed in WebCenter Spaces.
Prebuilt portlets: Enterprise applications such as Oracle E-Business Suite ship portlets out of the box that you can register with WebCenter Spaces and consume in the same way as any other portlet.
You can expose web applications developed using non-Oracle platforms in WebCenter Spaces, as follows:
WebCenter support for external applications: External applications enable credential stores to pass mapped user identities to web applications that require their own authentication. For more information, see "Registering External Applications" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter and "Working with External Applications" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
Oracle Composer iframe-level integration: The Oracle Composer Web Page page style and component display any web page content, including pages from applications built using a different web technology. For more information, see "Working with Page Layouts, Styles, and Schemes" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
Raw HTML markup injection in Oracle Composer: The Oracle Composer HTML Markup layout component injects HTML or JavaScript snippets into WebCenter Spaces pages. You can use this component to display content from an external source. For more information see "Working with HTML Markup Layout Component Properties" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
OmniPortlet: A portlet that publishes data from various data sources using a variety of layouts. For more information, see Chapter 31, "Creating Portlets with OmniPortlet."
