9 Setting WebCenter Application Properties

This chapter includes the following sections:

• Section 9.1, "Setting Application Properties for WebCenter Spaces"

• Section 9.2, "Setting Application Properties for WebCenter Portal Applications"

• Section 9.3, "Specifying the BPEL Server Hosting WebCenter Spaces Workflows"

• Section 9.4, "Configuring Search Crawlers for WebCenter Applications"

• Section 9.5, "Setting Search Parameters for WebCenter Applications"

• Section 9.6, "Choosing a Channel for Notification Messages in WebCenter Applications"

• Section 9.7, "Enabling RSS News Feeds in WebCenter Applications"

• Section 9.8, "Controlling Last Page Accessed Behavior in WebCenter Spaces"

• Section 9.9, "Exposing WebCenter Spaces Templates From a Previous Release"

Audience

The content of this chapter is intended for Fusion Middleware administrators (users granted the Admin role through the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console). See also, Section 1.8, "Understanding Administrative Operations, Roles, and Tools".

9.1 Setting Application Properties for WebCenter Spaces

The WebCenter Spaces home page (in Fusion Middleware Control) is your starting place for configuring WebCenter Spaces deployments. Just like any other J2EE application, you can configure ADF, MDS, security policies and roles, and so on, from here. You can also configure WebCenter service connections, external applications, and portlet producers for WebCenter Spaces. To access this page, see Section 6.2, "Navigating to the Home Page for WebCenter Spaces".

Additionally, there are several application-level settings for configuring Space-related workflows and Oracle SES search crawling in WebCenter Spaces. Application settings are described in the following sections:

• Section 9.3, "Specifying the BPEL Server Hosting WebCenter Spaces Workflows"

• Section 9.4, "Configuring Search Crawlers for WebCenter Applications"

• Section 9.5, "Setting Search Parameters for WebCenter Applications"

• Section 9.6, "Choosing a Channel for Notification Messages in WebCenter Applications"

• Section 9.7, "Enabling RSS News Feeds in WebCenter Applications"

• Section 9.8, "Controlling Last Page Accessed Behavior in WebCenter Spaces"

• Section 9.9, "Exposing WebCenter Spaces Templates From a Previous Release"

9.2 Setting Application Properties for WebCenter Portal Applications

The J2EE Application Deployment home page (in Fusion Middleware Control) is your starting place for configuring WebCenter Portal application deployments developed with Oracle WebCenter Framework. Just like any other J2EE application, you can configure ADF, MDS, security policies and roles, and so on, from here. You can also configure WebCenter service connections, external applications, and portlet producers. To access this page, see Section 6.3, "Navigating to the Home Page for WebCenter Portal Applications".

Additionally, there are several application-level settings for configuring Space-related workflows and Oracle SES search crawling in WebCenter Spaces. Application settings are described in the following sections:

• Section 9.4, "Configuring Search Crawlers for WebCenter Applications"

• Section 9.5, "Setting Search Parameters for WebCenter Applications"

• Section 9.6, "Choosing a Channel for Notification Messages in WebCenter Applications"

• Section 9.7, "Enabling RSS News Feeds in WebCenter Applications"

See also, Appendix A, "Tuning Oracle WebCenter Performance".

9.3 Specifying the BPEL Server Hosting WebCenter Spaces Workflows

WebCenter Spaces uses the BPEL server included with the Oracle SOA Suite to host internal workflows, such as Space membership notifications, Space subscription requests, and so on. To enable workflow functionality inside WebCenter Spaces, a connection to this BPEL server is required.

Note:

WebCenter Spaces workflows must be deployed on the SOA managed server that WebCenter Spaces is configured to use. See also, "Back-End Requirements for WebCenter Spaces Workflows" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle WebCenter.

To configure a connection to the WebCenter Space workflows:

1. Login to Fusion Middleware Control, and navigate to the home page for WebCenter Spaces.

   See Section 6.2, "Navigating to the Home Page for WebCenter Spaces".

2. From the WebCenter menu, choose Settings > Application Configuration.

   Figure 9-1 Choosing the BPEL Server Where WebCenter Spaces Workflows are Deployed

   
   

3. From the Connection Name dropdown, choose the name of the connection you require.

   The connections on offer are those currently configured for the Worklist service in WebCenter Spaces.

   Ensure that you choose the connection that points to the SOA instance in which WebCenter Spaces workflows are deployed. If that connection is not listed you must create it. To define the connection, see Section 22.4, "Setting Up Worklist Connections".

4. Click Apply.

5. Restart the managed server on which WebCenter Spaces is deployed to effect this change.

   See Section 8.2, "Starting and Stopping Managed Servers for WebCenter Application Deployments".

9.4 Configuring Search Crawlers for WebCenter Applications

Post deployment, administrators can configure search crawlers for their WebCenter application. WebCenter Spaces and WebCenter Portal applications can both use Oracle Secure Enterprise Search (SES) or WebCenter's own search adapters. Search crawler configuration for WebCenter Spaces is slightly different to other WebCenter Portal applications, so ensure that you follow the appropriate documentation for your application.

WebCenter Spaces

Out-of-the-box, WebCenter Spaces uses its own WebCenter Search service for searching and returning WebCenter Spaces content. If preferred, you can use Oracle Secure Enterprise Search (SES) to search and return unified results for most WebCenter Spaces resources, including documents, discussions, announcements, Spaces, lists, pages, wikis and blogs. To set up Oracle SES searching, see Section 21.6, "Configuring Oracle SES to Search WebCenter Spaces Applications".

WebCenter Portal Applications

By default, WebCenter Portal applications are configured to use Oracle SES crawlers. If you do not want to use Oracle SES you can specify that WebCenter's own search adapters are used instead. For details, see Section 21.5, "Configuring Oracle SES to Search WebCenter Portal Applications".

9.5 Setting Search Parameters for WebCenter Applications

Post deployment, administrators can fine-tune search settings to suit their WebCenter application. For example, you can set suitable search timeouts and specify how many search results to return and display.

Note:

The following steps describe how to set search parameters using Fusion Middleware Control. You can set the same options using WLST commands, for details, see "setSearchConfig" in Oracle Fusion Middleware WebLogic Scripting Tool Command Reference.

To set search parameters using Fusion MIddleware Control:

1. Login to Fusion Middleware Control, and navigate to the home page for your WebCenter application:

   Section 6.2, "Navigating to the Home Page for WebCenter Spaces".

   Section 6.3, "Navigating to the Home Page for WebCenter Portal Applications".

2. From the WebCenter menu, choose Settings > Application Configuration.

3. Configure Search Settings as required.

   Element	Description
   Oracle Secure Enterprise Search Data Group	Specify the Oracle SES data group in which to search. If no value is provided, then everything in the Oracle SES instance is searched.
   Execution Timeout (ms)	Enter the maximum time that a service is allowed to execute a search (in ms).
   Executor Preparation Timeout (ms)	Enter the maximum time that a service is allowed to initialize a search (in ms).
   Results per Service - Saved Search Task Flows	Enter the number of search results displayed, per service, in a Saved Search task flow.
   Results per Service - Search Page	Enter the number of search results displayed, per service, for searches submitted from the main search page. Users can click Show All if they want to see all the results.
   Number of Saved Searches in Search Page	Enter the number of saved searches displayed in the Saved Search list (on the main search page).

   
   

4. Click Apply.

5. Restart the managed server on which WebCenter Spaces is deployed to effect this change.

   See Section 8.2, "Starting and Stopping Managed Servers for WebCenter Application Deployments".

9.6 Choosing a Channel for Notification Messages in WebCenter Applications

In WebCenter applications, users can subscribe to services and application objects in which they have a particular interest and are subsequently notified of changes and updates that affect their subscribed services and objects.

Notification messages can be routed through a BPEL server or a mail server and it is the system administrator's job to configure the channel that is used. For more information, see Section 18.2, "Setting Up a Notifications Connection Type".

9.7 Enabling RSS News Feeds in WebCenter Applications

If your WebCenter applications uses a proxy server, you must configure proxy server details to enable RSS news feeds. For more information, see Section 20.3, "Setting Up a Proxy Server for External RSS News Feeds".

9.8 Controlling Last Page Accessed Behavior in WebCenter Spaces

Administrators can use the webcenter:rememberLastAccessedPage property in webcenter-config.xml to control whether and how long WebCenter Spaces remembers the last page a given user accessed within a Space. You can choose whether last page accessed information persists within a given session, across sessions, or not to remember.

Out-of-the-box, whenever you navigate to a Space, the first page of that Space always displays, that is the last page the user accessed is not remembered.

Note:

If webcenter:rememberLastAccessedPage is set to NEVER, the Login setting determines the first page that users see when they login to WebCenter Spaces. For details, see "Choosing a Default Start (or Landing) Page" in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.

To define last-page-accessed behavior for WebCenter Spaces:

1. Export the latest webcenter-config.xml from MDS.

   For example:

   exportMetadata(application='webcenter', server='WC_Spaces', toLocation='/tmp/mydata', docs='/oracle/webcenter/webcenterapp/metadata/mdssys/cust/site/webcenter/webcenter-config.xml.xml')
   

   The webcenter-config.xml file is created the first time you configure "General" settings through WebCenter Spaces administration. See also, Appendix A, "webcenter-config.xml".

2. Open the file in a text editor and enter the following:

   <webcenter:rememberLastAccessedPage>value</webcenter:rememberLastAccessedPage>
   

3. For value, enter one of the following values:

   • NEVER—Never remember the last accessed page and, instead, display the first page for the Space. This is the default.

   • WITHIN_SESSION—Remember the last accessed page within the current session, but not across sessions.

   • ACROSS_SESSION—Always remember the last accessed page.

4. Save and close webcenter-config.xml.

5. Import the updated webcenter-config.xml file to WebCenter Spaces.

   For example:

   importMetadata(application='webcenter', server='WC_Spaces', fromLocation='/tmp/mydata', docs='/oracle/webcenter/webcenterapp/metadata/mdssys/cust/site/webcenter/webcenter-config.xml.xml')
   

9.9 Exposing WebCenter Spaces Templates From a Previous Release

WebCenter Spaces provides several templates for building Spaces, including Team Site, Portal Site, Document Exchange, and more. For details, see "Working with Space Templates" in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.

Previous releases of WebCenter Spaces supplied a different template set, namely Basic, Community Of Interest, and Group Project. While Oracle considers these templates deprecated, you can expose them in your WebCenter Spaces application as follows:

1. Log in to SQLPlus as DBA or another administrative user to the WebCenter database.

2. Execute one or more of the following commands:

   • To expose the Basic template:

     insert into WC_SPACE_HEADER values 
     
     ('webcenter', 'sdfcd3cd3_8a53_4a7c_872f_74de46969cef','Basic','Basic','Template for a Space with minimal initial content',
     
     'Y','N','N','N','N','N','N','N',1,'/oracle/webcenter/space/metadata/spacetemplate/Basic/images/wc_blank_icon.png',
     
     '/oracle/webcenter/space/metadata/spacetemplate/Basic/images/wc_blank_logo.png','Blank','system','30-OCT-09 12.00.00.000000000 AM',
     
     'weblogic','30-OCT-09 12.00.00.000000000 AM','','','','Y',0,0,1);
     

   • To expose the Community of Interest template:

     insert into WC_SPACE_HEADER values 
     
     ('webcenter', 's5dd6d6b3_7f5f_4f1c_8ee6_ce305469f1b3','ProjectSpace','Group Project','Template for a Space based on completing a project',
     
     'Y','N','N','N','N','N','N','N',1,'/oracle/webcenter/space/metadata/spacetemplate/ProjectSpace/images/wc_prj_icon.png',
     
     '/oracle/webcenter/space/metadata/spacetemplate/ProjectSpace/images/wc_prj_logo.png','project,group,team','system','30-OCT-09 12.00.00.000000000 AM',
     
     'weblogic','30-OCT-09 12.00.00.000000000 AM','','','','Y',0,0,1);
     

   • To expose the Group Project template:

     insert into WC_SPACE_HEADER values 
     
     ('webcenter', 'sb175bdde_4cb8_4da8_bcdb_eff13e59da2d','CommunityOfInterest','Community of Interest','Template for a Space based on a common interest',
     
     'Y','N','N','N','N','N','N','N',1,'/oracle/webcenter/space/metadata/spacetemplate/CommunityOfinterest/images/coi_icon.png',
     
     '/oracle/webcenter/space/metadata/spacetemplate/CommunityOfinterest/images/coi_logo.png','community','system','30-OCT-09 12.00.00.000000000 AM',
     
     'weblogic','30-OCT-09 12.00.00.000000000 AM','','','','Y',0,0,1);
     

The templates are available immediately. You are not required to restart WebCenter Spaces.