Technical Note: Managing Sun Java System Portal Server 7.1 Update 1 Blog Portlet

Configuring the Blog Portlet

This sections contains the following:

Use Cases

The Blog portlet has the following use cases. These use cases are accomplished through a combination of the portlet's edit mode and the configMode portlet preference.

Admin configured

The portlet is configured by the portal administrator and can not be configured by the user. The admin configured mode expects that the portal administrator has configured the portlet for a group of portal users. For example, a portal administrator can add and configure the Blog portlet in an Access Manager role, giving all users with that role access to post to a shared weblog. No provisioning is performed. It is up to the portal administrator to ensure that the weblog server resources (weblog and weblog user account) exist.

This mode is configured by disabling the portlet's edit mode. If the portlet cannot be edited, the user cannot personalize the portlet in any way. By default, Blog portlet's deployment descriptor enables edit mode. To turn it off, set the value of the isEditableByMimeType property to false for Blog portlet's display profile provider.

For example:

$ cat blogportlet-noedit.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE DisplayProfile SYSTEM "jar://resources/psdp.dtd">
<DisplayProfile version="1.0" priority="0">
	<Properties/>
	<Channels/>
	<Providers>
		<Provider name="__Portlet__blogportlet.BlogPortlet"
		 class="com.sun.portal.providers.portletwindow.PortletWindowProvider">
			<Properties>
				<Collection name="isEditableByMimeType" advanced="true">
					<Boolean name="text/html" value="false"/>
				</Collection>
			</Properties>
		</Provider>
	</Providers>
</DisplayProfile>
$ /opt/SUNWportal/bin/psadmin modify-display-profile -u amadmin -f /tmp/pw 
-g -p portal1 -m blogportlet-noedit.xml

All of the other configuration modes assume that the portlet is editable.

Manual configured

The portlet is configured directly by the user. The user can point to an existing weblog with an existing weblog account. No provisioning occurs. The manual configured mode allows the user to enter the weblog APP entries URL and their weblog user account credentials into a simple form. The user can personalize the Blog portlet to point to any weblog they wish.

This mode is configured is by making the portlet editable, and by setting the configMode preference (see Portlet Preferences) to manual.

Wizard configured

The portlet is configured by the user, walking them through a wizard to gather the various parameters. The weblog is provisioned based on the user's input. In wizard configured mode, when the user edits the portlet, they are walked through a series of questions and forms. The purpose is to allow them to choose an existing weblog user account or create one, and choose an existing weblog or create one. As opposed to the manual configuration mode, the wizard configured mode allows the user to enter a weblog handle only and not the weblog APP entries URL. The implication is that in wizard configured mode, users cannot vary the weblog server, only the weblog handle within the administrator configured weblog server.

This mode is configured by setting the configMode preference to wizard. This mode assumes that the portal administrator has configured valid APP and AAPP URLs into the portlet. Both are required. If not set, this mode will not be accessible and will default back to manual.

Wizard-user-only configured

The wizard-user-only configured mode is the same as wizard configured mode, but the user is only allowed to provision a weblog user, not a weblog. The wizard-user-only configured mode is the same as wizard configured mode, except that the weblog-related steps in the wizard are skipped; the user can only enter an existing weblog user account, or create a new one. They cannot change the weblog handle, or create a new weblog.

This mode is configured by setting the configMode preference to wizard-user-only. When used in conjunction with Portal Server software's community feature, Blog portlet must be set up in wizard-user-only configured mode.

Configuring Search

Weblog entries that are posted or modified by the Blog portlet are indexed into Portal Server's search server and Roller's embedded search engine (Lucene). Posts that are made or modified directly on the Roller server are not indexed into Portal Server's search engine; they are only indexed into Roller's embedded search engine. Portal Server's search server can be made to crawl the Roller server, but the indexes will not be protected and segregated per community. Search functionality can be disabled by resetting the searchUrl portlet preference. See Portlet Preferences for more information.

Configuring Security

This sections contains the following:

APP and AAPP Endpoints

Enabling the APP and AAPP endpoints in Roller should be carefully considered. Communication with these requires an unencrypted user name and password to be passed over the network (for HTTP basic authentication).

The AAPP endpoint allows removal or modification of any weblog or user account on the server. The APP endpoint allows removal or modification of any weblog entry or resource for which the authenticating user has access. If unencrypted credentials are a concern, consider running SSL on the Roller APP and AAPP endpoints.

Password Storage

APP and AAPP passwords are stored in Blog portlet's preferences. These passwords can either be stored in plain or DES 56-bit encrypted strings. If the portlet preference encryptedPasswords is set to true, then the portlet assumes that passwords are encrypted, otherwise it assumes plain passwords.

The default setting is plain passwords, encryptedPasswords=false. If encrypted passwords are enabled, the value for the APP user password is encrypted automatically as it is submitted by the user from the portlet's user interface. If passwords are entered directly, then they must be manually encrypted. Passwords can be entered directly by editing the portlet preferences in the Portal Server management console, or by editing the preferences in the community template role display profile.

To encrypt a plain password, use the supplied command line utility class: com.sun.portal.app.blog.password.Password. For example, to encrypt a password:

export CLASSPATH=WEB-INF/classes:WEB-INF/lib/commons-codec-1.3.jar
java com.sun.portal.app.blog.password.Password -c encrypt 
-k WEB-INF/classes/passwords.key -d '<plain password>'

Note –

If the path for the passwords.key file is set, navigate to the directory where the blog portlet is deployed (such as, /space/appserver/domains/domain1/applications/j2ee-modules/blogportlet if the application server is installed in /space), and then, run the java command.

The resulting string printed to standard out can be used as aappUserPassword and appUserPassword preference values.

Portlet Preferences

This section describes Blog portlet's portlet preferences.

appUrl: Set this to the APP endpoint of the Roller server instance. If not set, the portlet will assume manual configuration mode, regardless of the configMode preference value. To set this, specify the HTTP or HTTPS URL, or the empty string. By default, this is set to http://localhost:8080/roller/roller-services/app.
appEntriesUrl: Set this to the APP entries URL of the weblog that the portlet should manage. This preference can either be configured by the portal administrator for a group of users (per organization, per role), entered directly by the user (in manual configuration mode), or derived from the appUrl and handle preferences (in wizard configuration modes). Blog provisioning will set this preference to point to the community weblog. To set this, specify the HTTP or HTTPS URL. By default, this is set to http://localhost:8080/roller/roller-services/app/entries/junkyard.
appUserName: Set this to a Roller user name that has author privileges on the weblog pointed to by the preference appEntriesUrl. This preference can either be configured by the portal administrator for a group of users (per organization, per role), entered directly by the user (in manual configuration mode), or gathered from the user (in wizard configuration modes). Blog provisioning will set this preference to point to the shared weblog user account for the community. To set this, specify the Roller user name. By default, this is set to jtb.
appUserPassword: Set this to the password of the user account pointed to by the preference appUserName. This preference can either be configured by the portal administrator for a group of users (per organization, per role), entered directly by the user (in manual configuration mode), or gathered from the user (in wizard configuration modes). Blog provisioning will set this preference to the generated, random password of the shared community weblog user account. The password can be plain or encrypted depending on the value of the encryptedPasswords preference. To set this, specify the Roller user password. By default, this is set to iplanet.
aappUrl: Set this to the AAPP endpoint of a Roller server instance. If not set, the portlet will assume manual configuration mode regardless of the configMode preference value. To set this, specify the HTTP or HTTPS URL, or the empty string. By default, this is set to http://localhost:8080/roller/roller-services/aapp.
aappUserName: Set this to a Roller user account name that has the admin role in Roller. By default, this is set to jtb.
aappUserPassword: Set this to a password that matches the user account set in the aappUserName preference. The password should either be plain or encrypted depending on the value of the encryptedPasswords preference. To set this, specify the Roller user password for the user specified in the aappUserName preference. By default, this is set to iplanet.
handle: Set this to the weblog handle of the weblog pointed to by the appEntriesUrl preference. This preference is only relevant when the portlet is in wizard or wizard-user-only configuration mode. It can otherwise be left blank. To set this, specify the Roller weblog handle. By default, this is set to junkyard.
configMode: Set this according to the desired configuration mode. This preference is set to wizard-user-only mode in the community templates. Values can be manual, wizard, or wizard-user-only. For more information, see Use Cases. By default, this is set to manual.
memberPermission: Set this to the role that should be given when user accounts are added as members to weblogs in wizard or wizard-user-only configuration modes. This preference is set to ADMIN in the community templates for the owner, and AUTHOR in community templates of the members. Values can be ADMIN, AUTHOR, or VISITOR. By default, this is set to AUTHOR.
userUrl: Set this to the user access URL of a Roller server instance. This preference is used to give end users a link to the Roller server instance. To set this, specify the HTTP or HTTPS URL By default, this is set to http://localhost:8080/roller.
searchUrl: Set this the URL of a Portal search server instance. If not set, the portlet will not index weblog posts. In the community template, the value of this preference is a token that is replaced when the community is created. To set this, specify the HTTP or HTTPS URL. By default, this is set to http://localhost/search1/search.
searchDatabase: Set this to the name of the search database to use to index blog entries. In the community template, the value of this preference is a token that is replaced when the community is created. Values for this must be a string. By default, this is set to blog.
encryptedPassswords: Set this to true to assume encrypted password storage, or false for plain password storage. See Configuring Security for more information. To set this, specify the boolean value of true or false. By default, this is set to false.
pageSize: Set this to the number of weblog entries to display per page. The value is an integer and by default, this is set to 8.
refreshInterval: Set this to the number of seconds to delay weblog content refresh. A value of 0 refreshes weblog content on every page refresh. A value of -1 means never refresh. When the user modifies weblog content through the portlet (post, edit, delete), the content is refreshed regardless of the refresh interval. The value is an integer and by default, it is set to 1200.