4 Getting Started with WebCenter Portal Components

After you have installed the required WebCenter Portal components, you may need to configure them to get them up and running and ready for use. This chapter outlines the configuration tasks that you may need to perform.

This chapter includes the following sections:

Section 4.1, "WebCenter Portal Components and Managed Servers"
Section 4.2, "Working with Oracle WebCenter Portal: Spaces"
Section 4.3, "Working with Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server"
Section 4.4, "Working with Oracle WebCenter Portal's Portlet Producers"
Section 4.5, "Oracle WebCenter Portal's Pagelet Producer"
Section 4.6, "Working with Oracle WebCenter Portal's Analytics Collector"
Section 4.7, "Working with Oracle WebCenter Portal's Activity Graph Engines"
Section 4.8, "Working with Oracle WebCenter Portal's Personalization"
Section 4.9, "Working with Custom Managed Servers"
Section 4.10, "Working with Oracle WebCenter Services Portlets"

4.1 WebCenter Portal Components and Managed Servers

When you install WebCenter Portal, the components that you choose to install are deployed to various default managed servers. Table 4-1 lists the managed server and the port number on which WebCenter Portal components are deployed.

Table 4-1 WebCenter Portal Components and Managed Servers

Component	Managed Server	Port
Oracle WebCenter Portal: Spaces	`WC_Spaces`	8888
Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server	`WC_Collaboration`	8890
Oracle Portlet Producers	`WC_Portlet`	8889
Oracle WebCenter Pagelet Producer	`WC_Portlet`	8889
Oracle WebCenter Activity Graph Engines	`WC_Utilities`	8891
Oracle WebCenter Personalization	`WC_Utilities`	8891
Oracle WebCenter Analytics Collector	`WC_Utilities`	8891
Custom Portal managed server	`WC_CustomPortal`	8892
Custom Services Producer managed server	`WC_CustomServicesProducer`	8793

4.2 Working with Oracle WebCenter Portal: Spaces

Oracle WebCenter Portal: Spaces is a web-based application that offers the very latest technology for social networking, communication, collaboration, and personal productivity. To access the Spaces application, start the WC_Spaces managed server. Then, log on to Spaces as an administrator using the following URL format:

http://host:port/webcenter

Where, host:port refers to the host name and port number of the system where Spaces is installed. By default, Spaces is installed on port 8888.

While creating your WebCenter Portal domain, if you specified any user other than weblogic as the domain administrator, you must manually grant the administrator role to that nondefault user for Spaces. For information, see the section "Granting the Spaces Administrator Role" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.

Spaces supports automatic service configuration for certain WebCenter Portal services. Every time you start Spaces, it tries to automatically create connections for certain WebCenter Portal services, unless they already exist. So, you do not need to manually create certain connections. Table 4-2 lists the services for which Automatic Service Configuration is implemented.

Table 4-2 Connections Automatically Configured for Spaces

Component/Service	Default Connection Name
Discussions and Announcements services	`WebCenterSpaces-Discussions`
Documents service	`WebCenterSpaces-ucm`
Pagelet producer	`WebCenterSpaces-PageletProducer`
Preconfigured portlet producers	`wc-OmniPortlet` `wc-WebClipping` `wc-WSRPTools`
Worklist service and Spaces workflows	`WebCenterSpaces-Worklist`

For Spaces connections to be automatically configured, the following general conditions must be met:

Spaces and the target component must be installed in the same domain.
The managed server of the target component must have an explicit listening address. If its listening address is empty or null or "localhost", then it must have a system associated to it that has an explicit address. For information about listening address, see "Configure Managed Servers" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Creating Domains Using the Configuration Wizard.
The target component must not be deployed to a cluster.
You must start the managed servers associated to the WebCenter Portal services first. Then, start the WC_Spaces managed server.

If the target component has already been automatically configured on application startup, it will not be configured again regardless of the result (Fail or Success). Automatic connection configuration of a service fails if the target component does not pass the target component-specific rules. If the automatic configuration fails for a specific component, then you must manually configure the service. For information, refer to the required target component-specific section in this chapter.

If required, you can disable the auto-configuration feature by setting the following Java property:

-Dwebcenter.spaces.disableAutoConfigure=true

You can set this Java property in two ways. You can add the property to JAVA_PROPERTIES in domain_home/bin/setDomainEnv.sh (on UNIX) or domain_home\bin\setDomainEnv.cmd (on Windows). Alternatively, you can append it at the end of the script when starting up the WC_Spaces managed server. For example:

domain_home/bin/startManagedWebLogic.sh WC_Spaces -Dwebcenter.spaces.disableAutoConfigure=true

For information about getting started with Spaces, see the "Getting the Spaces Application Up and Running" chapter in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.

Note:

You cannot directly start or stop the Spaces application from Oracle WebLogic Server Administrator Console. You must start or stop the WC_Spaces managed server to which the Spaces application is deployed.

4.2.1 Verifying Services are Configured with Automatic Service Configuration

To verify that service connections are automatically configured for the Spaces application when you start the managed servers:

Access the Oracle Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control Console using the following URL format: http://host_name.domain_name:port_number/em

For example: http://myhost.mycompany.com:7001/em
Enter a valid administrator User Name and Password details for the farm, and click Login.
Navigate as follows in Enterprise Manager Console:

farm_wc_domain > WebCenter > Portal > Spaces -> webcenter

The Spaces application home page displays a WebCenter Portal menu.
From the WebCenter Portal menu, select Settings, and then Service Configuration.
Select the different services and confirm that the services that support Automatic Service Configuration are configured.

Figure 4-1 shows the portlet producer connections configured for the Spaces application.

Figure 4-1 Automatic Service Configuration for Spaces

Description of "Figure 4-1 Automatic Service Configuration for Spaces"

4.3 Working with Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server

Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server provides the ability to integrate discussion forums and announcements into your Framework applications and the Spaces application. It is deployed to the WC_Collaboration managed server. You can choose to install Oracle WebCenter Discussions while installing WebCenter Portal or later by extending your WebCenter Portal domain, as described in Chapter 3, "Configuring Oracle WebCenter Portal."

To access Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server:

Start the managed server WC_Collaboration.

For information, see "Starting and Stopping Oracle Fusion Middleware" in Oracle Application Server Administrator's Guide.
Go to the following URL:
```
http://host:port/owc_discussions
```
Where, host:port refers to the host name and port number of the system where Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server is installed. By default, Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server is installed on port 8890.

Note:
You cannot directly start or stop Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server from Oracle WebLogic Server Administrator Console. If you want to start or stop the discussions server, you must start or stop the managed server, WC_Collaboration.

The default domain administrator created for WebCenter Portal is also the administrator for the Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server. While creating a domain, if you specify any user other than weblogic as the domain administrator, that user is granted all the domain administrative rights. After creating the domain, you must manually grant the administrator role to that nondefault user for the discussions server. For information, see section "Granting Administrator Role for Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.

To prepare Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server to work with WebCenter Portal, perform the following tasks:

Enable the WS-Security trusted authentication for Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server, depending on your topology. In a simple topology, the discussions server is in the same domain as Oracle WebCenter Portal: Spaces and consequently no extra keystore configuration is needed since the keystore configured for the WebCenter Portal domain is used for the Discussions service as well. However, for production environments you must protect the Discussion service Web Service end points with an OWSM policy and configure the discussions server connection settings.

WS-Security establishes a trust relationship between your WebCenter Portal applications and WebCenter Portal's discussions server so that your application can pass the user identity information to the server without knowing the user's credentials. For information, see section "Discussions Server - Security Considerations" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.
Register a connection to WebCenter Portal's discussions server.

For information, see the "Registering Discussions Servers" section in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.
Note:
For Spaces, you may not need to manually register a connection to Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server. When you start the Spaces application, a connection named WebCenterSpaces-Discussions is automatically configured and set as the default connection, unless it already exists, if the following conditions are met:
- Spaces and Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server are within the same domain.
- The WC_Collaboration managed server has an explicit listening address or has a system associated to it with an explicit address.
- Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server is not deployed to a cluster.
- The user granted the Administrative role exists.
For more information, refer to Section 4.2, "Working with Oracle WebCenter Portal: Spaces."

4.4 Working with Oracle WebCenter Portal's Portlet Producers

Oracle Portlet Producers provides several preconfigured portlet producers. When you install Oracle Portlet Producers, the WC_Portlets managed server gets created, and the following applications are deployed to the server:

portalTools - Supports OmniPortlet and Web Clipping
wsrp-tools - Supports WSRP Tools

To access preconfigured portlet producers, you can use the following URLs, depending on the preconfigured portlet producer you want to access:

OmniPortlet and Web Clipping portlets
```
http://host:port/portalTools
```
WSRP Tools
```
http://host:port/wsrp-tools/
```

Where, host:port refers to the host name and port number of the system where Oracle Portlet Producers is installed. The default port number is 8889.

To work with the preconfigured portlets available in WebCenter Portal, you must:

Start the WC_Portlet managed server.

For information, see "Starting and Stopping Oracle Fusion Middleware" in Oracle Application Server Administrator's Guide.
Register the required preconfigured portlet producers.

For information about portlet registration, see the "Managing Portlet Producers" chapter in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.

If you want to secure your portlet producers, refer to the chapter "Configuring Security for Portlet Producers" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.
Note:
For the Spaces application, you may not need to manually register connections to preconfigured portlet producers. When you start Spaces, a connection is automatically configured if the following conditions are met:
- Spaces and Oracle Portlet Producers are in the same domain.
- The WC_Portlet managed server is running.
- The WC_Portlet managed server has an explicit listening address or has a system associated to it with an explicit address.
- Oracle Portlet Producers is not deployed to a cluster.
For more information, refer to Section 4.2, "Working with Oracle WebCenter Portal: Spaces."

After you have registered preconfigured portlet producers, application developers or Spaces users can add portlets to their application pages.

4.5 Oracle WebCenter Portal's Pagelet Producer

Oracle WebCenter Portal's Pagelet Producer (previously called Oracle WebCenter Ensemble) provides a collection of useful tools and features that facilitate dynamic pagelet development.

Pagelet Producer is deployed to the WC_Portlet managed server. To access Pagelet Producer, use the following URL:

http://host:port/pagelets/

Where, host:port refers to the host name and port number of the system where Pagelet Producer is installed. The default context root is pagelets, but Pagelet Producer can be deployed to any location of your choice.

For example:

http://myhost.com:8889/pagelets/

To access the Pagelet Producer console, use the following URL: http://host:port/pageletadmin

All post deployment connection configuration is stored in the Oracle Metadata Services (MDS) repository. Pagelet Producer stores all configuration data on a separate partition in the MDS schema of RCU. Typically, this schema is installed as part of the WebCenter Portal installation. This configuration data does not conflict with data that belongs to other services. When you deploy the Pagelet Producer domain template, Configuration Wizard prompts for connectivity information to the database in which the schema has been created. The names that the Pagelet Producer expects are:

Datasource Name: mds-PageletProducerDS
JNDI name: jdbc/mds/PageletProducerDS
MDS partition name: pageletproducer

To work with Pagelet Producer:

Start the WC_Portlet managed server.
Register the Pagelet Producer for Framework applications and the Spaces application. For information, see the "Managing the Oracle WebCenter Pagelet Provider" chapter in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.

You can also access the Pagelet Producer using the JavaScript or REST API.
Note:
For the Spaces application, you may not need to manually register a connection. When you start the Spaces application, a connection named WebCenterSpaces-PageletProducer is automatically configured and set as the default connection, unless it already exists, if the following conditions are met:
- Spaces and Pagelet Producer are in the same domain.
- The WC_Portlet managed server has an explicit listening address or has a system associated to it with an explicit address.
- Pagelet Producer is not deployed to a cluster.
For more information, refer to Section 4.2, "Working with Oracle WebCenter Portal: Spaces."

4.6 Working with Oracle WebCenter Portal's Analytics Collector

Oracle WebCenter Portal's Analytics Collector supports the Analytics service that enables users to display usage and performance metrics for WebCenter Portal applications. The Analytics service requires the Analytics schema (ACTIVITIES) to be installed. By default, Analytics Collector is installed on the WC_Utilities managed server on port 8891.

Out-of-the-box, the Analytics Collector is configured to receive events using installation defaults. However, Spaces is not configured to send events to the Analytics Collector. If you want to collect usage and performance metrics for the Spaces application (or any Framework application) you must register the Analytics Collector and enable event collection. If Activity Graph is installed, the ACTIVITIES schema cannot be shared across applications.

To work with Oracle WebCenter Portal's Analytics Collector:

Start the WC_Utilities managed server.
Register an Analytics Collector for your applications. For information, see the "Managing the Analytics Service" chapter in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.

4.7 Working with Oracle WebCenter Portal's Activity Graph Engines

Oracle WebCenter Portal's Activity Graph Engines enables users to analyze various statistics collected by Analytics. The output of an Activity Graph analysis is the collected scores for objects and users, which are used to give recommendations. The scores are stored in the Activity Graph database. Activity Graph Engines is installed as an application on the WC_Utilities managed server.

To access Activity Graph Engines, use the following URL:

http://host:port/activitygraph-engines

The default port number for Activity Graph is 8891.

When the Activity Graph Engines template is deployed, the Configuration Wizard prompts for connectivity information to the database in which the schema has been created. The names that the Activity Graph Engines expects are:

Datasource Name: ActivitiesDS
JNDI name: jdbc/ActivitiesDS

To work with Oracle WebCenter Portal's Activity Graph Engines:

Start the WC_Utilities managed server.
Register an Analytics Collector for your applications. For information, see the section "Registering an Analytics Collector for Your Application" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.

For more information, refer to the "Managing the Activity Graph Service" chapter in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.

Note:

"Analytics and Activity Graph can be used only by a single application within a domain, whether it is the Spaces application or a Framework application. If Activity Graph is not installed, the ACTIVITIES schema may be shared across applications. However, if Activity Graph is installed, the ACTIVITIES schema cannot be shared.

4.8 Working with Oracle WebCenter Portal's Personalization

Oracle WebCenter Portal's Personalization enables you to deliver application content to targeted users based on selected criteria. It is installed as an application on the WC_Utilities managed server, on port 8891.

Customer applications access Personalization remotely over HTTP using RESTful services. The WebCenter Portal's Personalization contains the Conductor and Property Service. The Conductor contains and runs units of work called scenarios. The Property Service uses Java REST APIs to store and retrieve properties about a user, such as their age or gender.

To access Personalization server's Property Service, use the following URL:

http://host:port/wcps/api/property/resourceIndex

Where, host:port refers to the host name and port number of the system where Oracle WebCenter Portal's Personalization is installed.

To access Personalization server's Conductor, use the following URL:

http://host:port/wcps/api/conductor/resourceIndex

To work with Oracle WebCenter Portal's Personalization:

Start the WC_Utilities managed server.
Register a connection to the Oracle WebCenter Portal's Personalization. This involves registering the Conductor and Properties connections. For information, see the "Managing WebCenter Personalization" chapter in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.
Note:
For the Spaces application, you may not need to manually register a connection. When you start Spaces, the following Conductor and Properties connections are automatically configured if they do not exist already: Conductor-WCPSSpaces and Properties-WCPSSpaces. These connections are created if the following conditions are met:
- Spaces and Oracle WebCenter Portal's Personalization are in the same domain.
- The WC_Utilities managed server has an explicit listening address or has a system associated to it with an explicit address.
- Oracle WebCenter Portal's Personalization is not deployed to a cluster.
For more information, refer to Section 4.2, "Working with Oracle WebCenter Portal: Spaces."

4.9 Working with Custom Managed Servers

Application developers can use Oracle JDeveloper to develop Framework applications and Portlet Producer applications. To enable deployment of these applications, you must create custom managed servers as described in Section 3.2.3.2, "Extending a Domain to Create Custom Managed Servers." No additional configuration is required to work with these custom managed servers.

Note:

Oracle does not recommend deploying Framework applications or Portlet Producer applications to the Administration Server or any of the default managed servers created during the installation of WebCenter Portal.

For Framework applications and Portlet Producer applications, you must run the RCU to create the WebCenter schema. Note that this schema is separate from the WebCenter schema used by the Spaces application. For information about the WebCenter Portal services that require the WebCenter schema, see Table 5-1. For information about how to create schemas, refer to the "Creating Schemas" section in Oracle Fusion Middleware Repository Creation Utility User's Guide.

4.10 Working with Oracle WebCenter Services Portlets

Oracle WebCenter Services Portlets is a preconfigured, out-of-the-box producer that enables application developers to expose WebCenter Portal service task flows as WSRP portlets or pagelets in the following applications: Oracle Portal, Oracle WebLogic Portal, and Oracle WebCenter Interaction. WebCenter Services Portlets includes the following task flows as portlets: Document Manager, Content Presenter, Blogs, Discussion Forums, Announcements, Lists, Polls Manager, Take Polls, and Worklist. Most of the services included in WebCenter Services Portlets require connections to back-end servers to be fully functional. For example, the Documents service requires a connection to an Oracle WebCenter Content repository.

To work with WebCenter Services Portlets:

Start the WC_Portlet managed server.

For information, see "Starting and Stopping Oracle Fusion Middleware" in Oracle Application Server Administrator's Guide.
Ensure the required back-end components are installed, and configure back-end connections for the required WebCenter Portal services.

For information, see Chapter 5, "Preparing Back-End Components for WebCenter Portal Services."
Configure security for WebCenter Services Portlets. For information, see the "Securing a WSRP Producer" section in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.

For more information about configuring WebCenter Services Portlets, see the section "Configuring WebCenter Services Portlets" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal. For information about consuming WebCenter Services Portlets in applications, see the section "Consuming WebCenter Services Portlets" in Oracle WebCenter Framework Developer's Guide.