Oracle WebCenter provides a set of Oracle WebCenter services that expose social networking and personal productivity features for inclusion in WebCenter applications. Some of these services, such as Worklist and Search, rely on back-end components. This chapter describes how to install such back-end components and integrate them with Oracle WebCenter.
This chapter includes the following sections:
Section 5.2, "Back-End Requirements for the Instant Messaging and Presence (IMP) Service"
Section 5.3, "Back-End Requirements for the Documents Service"
Section 5.7, "Back-End Requirements for the Worklist Service"
Section 5.8, "Back-End Requirements for WebCenter Spaces Workflows"
WebCenter services help to create a dynamic and interactive environment for users. These services can be integrated into WebCenter applications—both WebCenter Spaces and WebCenter Portal applications.
All WebCenter services rely on a database for their functionality. To integrate any WebCenter service into your WebCenter applications, you must ensure that a supported database is available with the MDS schema. For information about:
Supported databases, refer to the following link:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/ias/files/fusion_certification.html
Installing a database and creating schemas, see Chapter 2, "Installing Oracle WebCenter."
In addition to a database, certain WebCenter services rely on a back-end component. To enable application developers or users to integrate such service into applications, you must perform the following tasks:
Install the back-end component
Configure the back-end component, if required
Set up a connection to the back-end component
Table 5-1 describes WebCenter services and lists the back-end component, if any, required for each service.
Table 5-1 Back-End Requirements for WebCenter Services
| Service | Description | Back-End Component Required in Addition to a Supported Database with MDS Schema | Connection Configuration |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Provides suggestions of people that users may be interested in connecting with, based on their existing connections and shared interaction with objects within the application. |
Oracle WebCenter Activity Graph Engines, Oracle WebCenter Analytics Collector, and a supported database containing the |
Connection required. Connection automatically configured for WebCenter Spaces if conditions are met. For information, see Section 4.7, "Working with Oracle WebCenter Activity Graph Engines." |
|
|
Displays usage and performance metrics for WebCenter Portal applications. |
Oracle WebCenter Analytics Collector, and a supported database containing the |
Connection required. |
|
|
Enables users to post, personalize, and manage announcements. |
Oracle WebCenter Discussions, and a supported database containing the |
Connection required. Connection automatically configured for WebCenter Spaces if conditions are met. For information, see Section 4.3, "Working with Oracle WebCenter Discussions." |
|
|
Provides the ability to create and participate in threaded discussions. |
Oracle WebCenter Discussions, and a supported database containing the |
Connection required. Connection automatically configured for WebCenter Spaces if conditions are met. For information, see Section 4.3, "Working with Oracle WebCenter Discussions." |
|
|
Documents |
Provides content management and storage capabilities, including content upload, file, folder, wiki and blog creation and management, file check out, file versioning, and so on. |
A content repository such as Oracle Content Server 11g or Oracle Portal 11g |
Connection required. Connection automatically configured for WebCenter Spaces if conditions are met. For information, see Section 5.3.1.3, "Oracle Content Server 11g - Integration." |
|
Events |
Provides personal and Space-specific calendars that users can use to schedule meetings, appointments, or any other type of team get-together. Note: This service is available only in WebCenter Spaces. |
A supported database containing the For personal events, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 |
Connection required for personal calendars, but not for Space calendars. |
|
Instant Messaging and Presence (IMP) |
Provides the ability to observe the online presence status of other authenticated users (whether online, offline, busy, or idle), and to contact them instantly. |
Microsoft Live Communication Server 2005 |
Connection must be created manually. |
|
Provides the ability to view, access, and associate related information; for example, you can link to a solution document from a discussion thread. |
A supported database, containing the |
No separate connection required. |
|
|
Enables users to create, publish, and manage lists. Note: This service is available only in Oracle WebCenter Spaces. |
A supported database containing the |
No separate connection required. |
|
|
|
Provides easy integration with IMAP and SMTP mail servers to enable users to perform simple mail functions such as viewing, reading, creating, and deleting messages, creating messages with attachments, and replying to or forwarding existing messages. |
A mail server based on IMAP4 and SMTP, such as Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 |
Connection must be created manually. |
|
Provides the ability to "jot down" and retain quick bits of personally relevant information. Note: This service is available only in Oracle WebCenter Spaces. |
A supported database containing the |
No separate connection required. |
|
|
Provides online social networking tools for creating, interacting with, and tracking the activities of one's enterprise connections. |
A supported database containing the |
No separate connection required. |
|
|
Delivers targeted content based on both user and application context. |
Oracle WebCenter Personalization Server |
Connection required. Connection automatically configured for WebCenter Spaces if conditions met. For information, see Section 4.8, "Working with Oracle WebCenter Personalization Server." |
|
|
Enables users to create, edit, and take online polls. With polls, users can survey their audience (such as their opinions and their experience level), check whether they can recall important information, and gather feedback on the efficacy of presentations. |
A supported database containing the |
No separate connection required. |
|
|
Provides a summary view of recent changes to documents, discussions, and announcements. |
None |
No separate connection required. |
|
|
Provides the ability to publish content from other WebCenter services and external sources as news feeds in the RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 formats. RSS news feeds are available from WebCenter Spaces only. The RSS Viewer task flow is available in both WebCenter Spaces and WebCenter Portal applications. |
None |
No separate connection required. |
|
|
Search |
Provides the ability to search tags, services, an application, or an entire site. WebCenter searches can be extended to external content repositories by connecting WebCenter applications to Oracle Secure Enterprise Search (Oracle SES) |
No separate back-end component required if Oracle Search services adapters are used to search WebCenter objects. To search external repositories outside of Oracle WebCenter, Oracle SES 10.1.8.2 updated with latest patch sets, or Oracle SES 11g updated with latest patches is required. |
No separate connection required for Oracle Search service adapters. Connection required for Oracle SES. |
|
Provides the ability to assign one or more personally relevant keywords to a given page or document, making those items more easily discoverable in search results. |
A supported database containing the |
No separate connection required. |
|
|
Worklist |
Provides a personal, at-a-glance view of business processes that require attention. These can include a request for document review and other types of business process that come directly from enterprise applications. |
Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) server |
Connection required. Connection automatically configured for WebCenter Spaces if conditions listed in Section 4.2, "Working with WebCenter Spaces" are met. |
The Instant Messaging and Presence (IMP) service relies on a back-end communication server. You can configure any of the following servers as the communication server for the IMP service:
Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007
Microsoft Live Communications Server (LCS) 2005
Oracle WebLogic Communications Services (OWLCS) 11g
Note:
Oracle WebLogic Communications Services (OWLCS) 11g is available only for development and evaluation purposes, and is not meant for the production environment.You can download OWLCS from Oracle Technology Network (OTN) at:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/owlcs/index.html
This section includes the following subsections:
For information about installing Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005 or Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, refer to the relevant Microsoft documentation.
For detailed OWLCS installation instructions, see Oracle WebLogic Communication Services Installation Guide.
Consider the following for configuring a communication server for the IMP service:
To use Microsoft OCS 2007, you must install the Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API (UCMA) 2.0 SDK, and the Oracle RTC Web service for Microsoft OCS 2007. For information, see the section "OCS - Configuration" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
To use Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005, you must install and configure the Microsoft RTC API v1.3, and the Oracle RTC Web service for Microsoft LCS 2005. For information, see the "LCS - Configuration" section in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
For information about configuring OWLCS, see the section "OWLCS - Configuration" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
After installing and configuring your communication server, you must set up connections to the communication server to enable integration of the IMP service with WebCenter applications. For information about setting up IMP service connections for WebCenter Spaces or WebCenter Portal applications, see the "Registering Instant Messaging and Presence Servers" section in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
Ensure that Oracle WebCenter and your communication server are configured to use the same external LDAP-based identity store. If not, you must manually synchronize user entries between the Oracle WebCenter and communication server environments.
The Documents service provides content management and storage capabilities for WebCenter applications. To use the Documents service, you must have a content repository at the back end that contains the documents you want to manage. Oracle WebCenter supports content integration with the following external repositories:
Oracle Content Server
Oracle Portal 11g
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 Service Pack 2
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) version 3 Service Pack 2
This section includes the following subsections:
Oracle WebCenter supports the following versions of Oracle Content Server as external content repositories:
For WebCenter Spaces - Oracle Content Server 11.1.1.4.0 or later
For WebCenter Portal applications - Oracle Content Server 10.1.3.5.1, 11.1.1.4.0 or later
Note:
Oracle strongly recommends that you use Oracle Content Server 11.1.1.4.0 or later as your content repository to take advantage of the new content management features. If you use Oracle Content Server 10.1.3.5.1, you will have access only to a subset of features. For information, see the table "Oracle WebCenter Features Supported by Oracle Content Server 10.1.3.5.1 and 11g" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Patching Guide."This section includes the following subsections:
Oracle Content Server 11g is installed as a part of Oracle Universal Content Management (Oracle UCM). Oracle UCM is a product of Oracle Enterprise Content Management Suite, which is an Oracle Fusion Middleware component. You must install Oracle Content Server 11.1.1.4.0 or later to use it as a content repository for Oracle WebCenter.
While installing Oracle Content Server, it is recommended that you also install Oracle Inbound Refinery (Oracle IBR). Oracle IBR is a conversion server that manages file conversions. It also provides thumbnail functionality for documents and images and storyboarding for video. You can use Oracle IBR to convert content items stored in Oracle Content Server. If IBR is not installed, thumbnails or renditions in WebCenter applications do not display.
For information about how to install Oracle Content Server and Oracle IBR, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Enterprise Content Management Suite.
Note:
Oracle Content Server and IBR must be installed in the same domain. Oracle recommends that you install Oracle Content Server and IBR in the same domain as Oracle WebCenter. When they are installed in the same domain, no additional configuration is required to use an external LDAP authentication provider.You must configure Oracle Content Server to prepare it as an external content repository for Oracle WebCenter.
By default, Oracle Enterprise Content Management Suite uses the Oracle WebLogic Server embedded Lightweight Directory Application Protocol (LDAP) server. In a production system, Oracle Enterprise Content Management Suite applications must use an external LDAP authentication provider rather than the default embedded LDAP server. Therefore, you must reassociate your Oracle Content Server's identity store with an external LDAP-based identity store.
For information about the mandatory and optional tasks involved in Oracle Content Server configuration, see the "Oracle Content Server 11g - Configuration" section in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
Note:
If Oracle WebCenter and Oracle Content Server are installed in the same domain, no additional configuration is required for using an external LDAP authentication provider. Authentication provider configuration is applicable to an entire domain.If Oracle WebCenter and Oracle Content Server are installed in separate domains, they must be configured to use the same external LDAP authentication provider. Hence, ensure that you reassociate Oracle Content Server with the same identity store LDAP server as Oracle WebCenter.
To use Oracle Content Server as a content repository, you must create a repository connection. For WebCenter Spaces, a repository connection is automatically configured and set as the default connection, if it does not already exist. The connection is configured at application startup if the general conditions specified in Section 4.2, "Working with WebCenter Spaces" are met. However, the connection is not configured if the Server Socket Port or the user granted the Administrator Role cannot be found.
For information about how to register content repositories and manage repository connections, see the "Managing Content Repositories" chapter in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
Oracle Portal offers a complete and integrated framework for building, deploying, and managing enterprise portals.
This section includes the following subsections:
To use Oracle Portal 11g as a content repository for your WebCenter applications, you must install it. For information, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Portal, Forms, Reports and Discoverer.
Oracle Portal must be up-to-date with all the latest patches. For additional information about patches, see the product release notes. See also Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle Portal.
To integrate Oracle Portal content into your WebCenter applications, you must set up content repository connections to Oracle Portal. For information about how you can register content repositories and manage connections for WebCenter Spaces and WebCenter Portal applications, see the "Managing Content Repositories" chapter in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
You can install and configure Microsoft SharePoint as an external content repository for Oracle WebCenter. This section describes the installation and integration requirements for using Microsoft SharePoint. It contains the following subsections:
Oracle WebCenter supports the following Microsoft SharePoint versions:
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 Service Pack 2
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) version 3 Service Pack 2
Refer to the appropriate Microsoft SharePoint documentation for installation information.
To support Microsoft SharePoint as a content repository for WebCenter Portal applications, you must install Oracle WebCenter Adapter for Microsoft SharePoint on the target managed server to which you plan to deploy your applications. For information, refer to the "Installing Oracle WebCenter Adapter for Microsoft SharePoint" section in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
In a development environment, to be able to create a WebCenter Portal application that uses Microsoft SharePoint as a content repository, application developers must first install Oracle WebCenter Adapter for Microsoft SharePoint into JDeveloper. Then they must register a connection to the Microsoft SharePoint server for their application. For information, see the "Installing the Oracle WebCenter Adapter for Microsoft SharePoint" and "How to Create a Content Repository Connection Based on the Oracle WebCenter Adapter for Microsoft SharePoint" sections in Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
Post deployment, you can manage WebCenter Portal applications' Microsoft SharePoint connections by using WLST commands. To manage these connections, you must install WLST command scripts. For information, see the "Installing WLST Command Scripts for Managing Microsoft SharePoint Connections" and "Managing Microsoft SharePoint Connections Using WLST" sections in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
Note:
To enable Microsoft SharePoint connections in WebCenter Spaces, read the whitepaper "Integrating the SharePoint 2007 Adapter with WebCenter Spaces" available on Oracle Technology Network athttp://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/webcenter/overview/index.html.The Events service, which is available only in WebCenter Spaces, provides group calendars and personal calendars. To provide the group calendar functionality, the Events service does not require any separate back-end component. To support personal calendars, the Events service relies on Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. For information about Microsoft Exchange Server installation, refer to its product documentation.
You must prepare Microsoft Exchange Server for working with Oracle WebCenter. You must also create a connection to the mail server. For information about configuring Microsoft Exchange Server, refer to the "Managing the Events Service" chapter in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
The Mail service relies on a mail server, such as Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, that supports IMAP4 and SMTP protocols. To install a mail server, refer to the documentation of the mail server you wish to use.
To enable WebCenter users to access the Mail service from within a WebCenter application, it is essential that users created on the mail server correspond with the users created in the identity store used by Oracle WebCenter. For information about configuring a mail server, see the "Mail Server - Configuration" section in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
To enable WebCenter users to access mail within a WebCenter application, you must register the appropriate mail server. For information about how to register a mail server and set up connections for WebCenter Spaces and WebCenter Portal applications deployed to a managed server, see the "Registering Mail Servers" section in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
The Search service does not rely on any separate back-end component to search for the content created by other WebCenter services within WebCenter applications. However, if you want to extend WebCenter searches to include external content repositories, you must install Oracle Secure Enterprise Search (Oracle SES). Oracle SES provides a crawler-based service that can search a multitude of sources, structured and unstructured, in a variety of file formats, indexed or real-time.
With WebCenter Portal applications, Oracle SES is set as the default search crawler automatically. With WebCenter Spaces applications, you can override the WebCenter search adapters and use Oracle SES. This provides a faster, more unified search experience across most WebCenter objects.
This section contains the following subsections:
Supported Oracle SES versions include 10.1.8.4.x and 11.1.2.
This section contains the following subsections:
To install Oracle SES 10.1.8.4.x:
Install Oracle SES 10.1.8.2.
For information about how to install Oracle SES 10.1.8.2, refer to the Oracle Secure Enterprise Search Online Documentation Library 10g Release 1 (10.1.8.2) available here on OTN:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/search/oses/documentation/ses-096384.html
Install the Oracle SES 10.1.8.4.0 patch set.
To do this, download patch 7514463 from http://support.oracle.com.
Install the Oracle SES RSS Connector 10.1.8.4.4 patch set.
To do this, download patch 9022819 from http://support.oracle.com.
Note:
Check the Release Notes for the latest information about the required patches from Oracle SES. See Oracle Fusion Middleware on Oracle Technology Network (OTN) athttp://www.oracle.com/technetwork/index.html.Oracle SES 11.1.2 is available on the Oracle WebCenter companion CD.
To install Oracle SES 11.1.2:
Install Oracle SES 11.1.2.
For information, refer to the Oracle Secure Enterprise Search Online Documentation Library 11g Release 1 (11.1.2) available here on OTN:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/search/oses/documentation/ses-096384.html
Install the patch for Oracle Connector resource bundle 11.1.2.0.1. For this, download patch 10085593.
Note:
You can download patches fromhttp://support.oracle.com.Install the patch for Oracle XML connector 11.1.2.0.2. For this, download patch 10070215.
Install the patch for Oracle Database connector 11.1.2.0.2. For this, download patch 10070226.
Note:
Check the latest Release Notes for information about the required Oracle SES patches. See Oracle Fusion Middleware on Oracle Technology Network (OTN) athttp://www.oracle.com/technetwork/index.html.For information about configuring Oracle SES, see the "Oracle SES - Configuration" chapter in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
For information about registering connection to Oracle SES, see the "Registering Oracle Secure Enterprise Search Servers" section in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
The Worklist service relies on the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) server, which is a component of Oracle SOA Suite. To make the Worklist service available in Oracle WebCenter, you must install Oracle SOA Suite. For information, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite.
To enable integration of the Worklist service with WebCenter applications, you must register a connection to the BPEL server. For WebCenter Spaces, the connection is automatically configured on application startup if the conditions described in Section 4.2, "Working with WebCenter Spaces" are met.
For information about any BPEL server prerequisites and for manually setting up BPEL connections, refer to the "Managing the Worklist Service" chapter in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
For WebCenter users to be able store and retrieve tasks from a BPEL server, it is essential that their user names exist in the identity stores used by Oracle WebCenter and Oracle SOA. You can achieve this by creating identical user names in both the identity stores or by using a shared LDAP-based identity store for Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication. SSO authentication enable users to log in once and seamlessly navigate between WebCenter applications and BPEL applications without having to log in to each application separately. For information about setting up an external shared LDAP-based server, see Section 3.3, "Setting Up an External LDAP-Based Identity Store."
WebCenter Spaces provides several prebuilt workflows that handle Space membership notifications, Space subscription requests, and so on. WebCenter Spaces workflows rely on the BPEL server, which is a component of Oracle SOA Suite.
Table 5-2 describes the tasks that you must perform to enable the WebCenter Spaces workflow functionality in WebCenter Spaces.
Table 5-2 Tasks for Enabling WebCenter Spaces Workflows
| Task | Mandatory/Optional? | Documentation |
|---|---|---|
|
1. Install Oracle SOA Suite |
Mandatory |
For information, see Section 5.8.1, "Oracle SOA Suite - Installation" |
|
2. Extend the SOA server domain with the |
Mandatory |
For information, see Section 5.8.2, "Oracle SOA Server - Extending the Domain" |
|
3. Configure WS-Security to secure Web Service calls between Oracle SOA and Oracle WebCenter |
Mandatory |
For information, see Section 5.8.3, "Oracle SOA and Oracle WebCenter - WS-Security Configuration" |
|
4. Register a connection with the BPEL server |
Mandatory, if not automatically configured |
For information, see Section 5.8.4, "Oracle WebCenter - Configuring the BPEL Server Connection" |
Note:
For WebCenter users to be able store and retrieve tasks from a BPEL server, it is essential that their user names exist in the identity stores used by Oracle WebCenter and Oracle SOA. You can achieve this by creating identical user names in both the identity stores or by using a shared LDAP-based identity store for Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication. For information about setting up an external shared LDAP-based server, see Section 3.3, "Setting Up an External LDAP-Based Identity Store."To support workflows, WebCenter Spaces relies on the BPEL server, which is included with Oracle SOA Suite. For information about how to install Oracle SOA Suite, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite.
WebCenter Spaces workflows are deployed to an Oracle SOA server. To prepare a SOA server for workflows, you must extend the domain in which Oracle SOA is installed, with the template oracle.wc_composite_template_11.1.1.jar. The template is located at the following path in your Oracle SOA installation:
ORACLE_SOA_HOME/common/templates/applications/oracle.wc_composite_template_11.1.1.jar
For information about how to extend a domain, follow the instructions in the section "Extending WebLogic Domains" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Creating Domains Using the Configuration Wizard guide.
WebCenter Spaces Web services, deployed to Oracle WebCenter, facilitate communication between WebCenter Spaces and the SOA server. You must secure these Web service calls. To do this, set up WS-Security on the SOA server and WebCenter Spaces.
For information, see the "Configuring WS-Security" chapter in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
When you start WebCenter Spaces, a BPEL server connection named WebCenterSpaces-Worklist is automatically configured, if it does not already exist. However, automatic configuration takes place only if the conditions specified in Section 4.2, "Working with WebCenter Spaces" are fulfilled.
The WebCenterSpaces-Worklist BPEL connection is configured to be shared by the Worklist service and WebCenter Spaces workflows. This enables users to see the assigned membership-related workflow items and notification subscriptions in their worklist component.
If a BPEL connection is not configured automatically, you must create it manually. As a best practice, for WebCenter Spaces workflows, you must use the same BPEL connection that has been set as the active connection for the Worklist service.
To configure a BPEL server connection for WebCenter Spaces workflows:
Register a BPEL server connection with the SOA server instance on which WebCenter Spaces workflows are deployed. For information, see the "Registering Worklist Connections" section in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
Ensure that this BPEL connection is set as the active connection for the Worklist service. For information, see the "Activating a Worklist Connection" section in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
It is recommended that the Worklist service and WebCenter Spaces workflows use the same BPEL connection.
Set the BPEL connection for WebCenter Spaces workflows in WebCenter Spaces Applications Settings. For information, see the "Specifying the BPEL Server Hosting WebCenter Spaces Workflows" section in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.