In the Spaces application, a series of WebCenter Portal services expose portal, team collaboration, and social features through various task flows. Some services, such as Lists, are ready to use out-of-the-box and require no further configuration. Other services, such as Discussions and Mail, require connections to external back-end servers, and additional configuration within Spaces to get things up and running.
This chapter describes how to enable, disable, and configure WebCenter Portal services in the Spaces application. It does not describe how to set up connections to back-end servers—this is a job for your Fusion Middleware Administrator. For details, see "Getting the Spaces Application Up and Running" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.
This chapter includes the following sections:
Section 6.2, "Configuring Discussion Forum Options for the Spaces Application"
Section 6.3, "Configuring Send Mail Notifications for the Spaces Application"
Section 6.4, "Configuring People Connections Defaults for the Spaces Application"
See also Chapter 5, "Configuring Global Defaults."
This chapter is intended for Spaces administrators with the Manage Configuration
permissions.
Additional permissions are required to manage portlet producers and external applications for the Spaces application, that is, you must have the appConnectionManager
role.
In the Spaces application, a series of services expose portal, team collaboration, and social features through various task flows. Some services, like Tags, are available and work out-of-the-box, but other services, such as Mail, require connection to an external back-end server. Table 6-1 describes the services available in WebCenter Portal.
Table 6-1 WebCenter Portal: Services
Service | Description | For More Information |
---|---|---|
Activity Graph |
Leverages collective intelligence to benefit search and social applications. |
|
Analytics |
Enables you to display usage and performance metrics for your Framework application. |
|
Announcements |
Provides the ability to post announcements about important activities and events to all authenticated users. |
|
Discussions |
Provides the ability to create threaded discussions, posing and responding to questions and searching for answers. Also provides an effective group communication mechanism for important activities and events. |
|
Documents (includes Wikis and Blogs) |
Provides content management and storage capabilities, including content upload, file and folder creation and management, file check out, versioning, and so on. |
|
Events |
Provides the ability to create and maintain a schedule of events relevant to a wider group of users. Events are published to all authenticated users. |
|
Instant Messaging and Presence (IMP) |
Provides the ability to observe the status of other authenticated users (whether online, offline, busy, or away) and to contact them instantly. |
Chapter 64, "Working with the Instant Messaging and Presence Service (IMP)" |
Links |
Provides the ability to view, access, and associate related information; for example you can link to a solution document from a discussion thread. |
|
Lists |
Provides the ability to create, publish, and manage lists. Users can create lists from prebuilt structures or create their own custom lists. |
|
|
Provides easy integration with IMAP and SMTP mail servers to enable users to perform simple mail functions such as reading messages, creating messages with attachments, replying to or forwarding existing messages, and deleting messages. |
|
Notes |
Provides the ability to "jot down" and retain quick bits of personally relevant information. Note: This service is available only in Oracle WebCenter Portal: Spaces. |
|
Notifications |
Provides a means of subscribing to services and application objects and, when those objects change, receiving notification across one or more selected messaging channels. |
Chapter 39, "Setting Up Your Personal Subscriptions and Notifications" |
People Connections |
Provides social networking capabilities, such as creating a personal profile, displaying current status, and viewing other users' recent activities. |
|
Personalization |
Enables you to deliver content within your application to targeted application users based on selected criteria. |
|
Polls |
Enables you to survey your audience (such as their opinions and their experience level), check whether they can recall important information, and gather feedback. |
|
RSS |
Provides the ability to access the content of many different web sites from a single location—a news reader. |
|
Recent Activities |
Provides a summary view of recent changes to documents, discussions, and announcements. |
|
Search |
Provides the ability to search services, the application, or an entire site. (This includes integrating Oracle Secure Enterprise Search for WebCenter Portal searches.) |
|
Tags |
Provides the ability to assign one or more personally relevant keywords to a given page or document. |
|
Worklist |
Provides a personal, at-a-glance view of business processes that require attention (including a request for document review, and other types of business process that come directly from enterprise applications). |
The following services require a connection to an external data repository (such as a content server, a presence server, a discussions server, a mail server) where relevant information is stored.
Analytics
Announcements
Discussions
Documents, including wikis and blogs
Events
Instant Messaging and Presence (IMP)
Search (for Oracle SES adapter)
Worklist
Some services require a connection to a database schema where relevant information (such as relationship mapping) is stored.
Activity Graph
Analytics
Documents (for documents, wikis and blogs that want to include the comments and Activity Stream)
Links
Lists
People Connections
Polls
Tags
The Fusion Middleware Administrator is responsible for managing connections to external servers and also maintains the database schema and Metadata Service (MDS) repositories where application data, specific to Spaces, is stored. For details, see "Maintaining the Spaces Application" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.
When a valid connection exists, the associated service becomes available. If you want to verify whether a service, such as Mail, is available in the Spaces application, check:
Associated task flows display in the Resource Catalog.
Existing task flows function as expected.
Space moderators can choose whether to enable or disable that service in their space through the space administration settings.
When a back-end server is not configured, intentionally or otherwise, the Spaces application cannot offer features or functionality related to that service:
Associated task flows are not available in the Resource Catalog.
Existing task flows display a message indicating that the service is currently unavailable.
Service is not listed, as available, to space moderators through the space administration settings.
Reporting Temporary Issues with WebCenter Portal Services
When a service is temporarily unavailable, report the issue to the Fusion Middleware Administrator. The Fusion Middleware Administrator can use Enterprise Manager to investigate, diagnose, and solve issues relating to services. See also "Navigating to the Home Page for the Spaces Application" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.
Hiding Task Flows When Services Unavailable
Most WebCenter Portal services are optional. If you decide not to offer a particular service in the Spaces application, temporarily or permanently, consider removing any associated task flows that display, by default, out-of-the-box. For more information, see Chapter 7, "Administering Portal Pages ."
Enabling and Disabling Services for a Particular Space
Moderators can enable or disable available services within their space. See Section 53.10, "Managing Space Services."
Discussion forums allow members to capture, share, and preserve content that is relevant to their project or community goals.
As administrator, you are responsible for setting discussion forum options for the entire application through Spaces Administration pages (Figure 6-1).
Figure 6-1 Setting Discussion Forum Options
From here you configure discussions-related setting, as well as access discussions server administration pages:
Section 6.2.1, "Accessing the Discussions Server Admin Console"
Section 6.2.2, "Specifying Where Discussions and Announcements are Stored on the Discussions Server"
Section 6.2.3, "Choosing How Many Discussion Topics to Save In Space Templates"
Note:
The Fusion Middleware administrator maintains the connection between the Spaces application and the discussions server. If you are experiencing issues with this connection, report the problem to the Fusion Middleware administrator. See also "Registering Discussions Servers" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.
For convenience, you can access the discussions server's Admin Console, a Web-based tool for configuring and managing discussion forums, from the portal's administration settings. In the discussions server's Admin Console, you can navigate all categories and forums and edit their properties, create new categories and forums, as well as set cache, security, and various other properties for the discussions server.
Open the portal's administration settings.
For details, see Chapter 4, "Accessing Spaces Administration Pages."
Click Configuration, Services, and then select Discussions.
Click Forum Administration.
Enter your discussions server administrator Username and Password.
Note:
If the Forum Administration link does not work, it could be because single sign-on or HTTPS is configured. Your system administrator must specify a public external URL (using the linkURL
property).
Administrators can change the root category (on the discussions server) under which all Spaces discussions and announcements are stored.
The default system root category is suitable in most cases but you can choose a different location. This might be useful when Spaces is connected to a discussions server that is hosting discussion forums for multiple applications.
Oracle recommendations:
Choose a category that is dedicated to this Spaces application. There may be conflicts when multiple Spaces applications share the same root category.
Do not switch the root category after the Spaces application is up and running. If you change the root category, then all the discussion forums under the old root continue to work, but you cannot use the Links service to create links to discussions or announcements stored in the old category.
You can retain existing discussions in a space template saved with the data copy option. For example, on the Administration - Configuration - Services - Discussions page, enter the number (between 1 and 25) of most recent topics and replies to be copied over to the template.
Space templates support single or multiple forums under the root category that you specify. With some templates, one forum is created automatically under the root category for each new space based on that template.
To specify where discussion forums are stored:
Open Spaces Administration.
For details, see Chapter 4, "Accessing Spaces Administration Pages."
Click Configuration, Services, and then select Discussions.
Specify an appropriate Root Category for storing discussions.
Click the Find icon to view the categories available and then select the most appropriate location.
To create a new category for this application, click Create Category. You must have system administrator permissions on the discussions server to create new categories.
Click Apply to save the settings.
Administrators can limit how many recent topics and replies are copied to space templates. As copying large amounts of data has performance implications, there is an upper limit of 25 topics/replies. If you prefer not to include any recent topics/replies in space templates, specify zero.
Open Spaces Administration.
For details, see Chapter 4, "Accessing Spaces Administration Pages."
Click Configuration, Services, and then select Discussions.
Specify an appropriate number of Topics and Replies to save in space templates.
Click Apply to save the settings.
Administrators are responsible for setting mail options through Spaces administration (Figure 6-2).
From this page, you can assign the mail client for the "Send Mail" feature. This feature allows application resources to send mail directly from them, with the Send Mail icon (Figure 6-3).
For example, from an announcement, users can click the Send Mail icon to open a mail window prepopulated with information including the announcement text, author, date created, and location. They can edit and add to the mail, as necessary. The way the mail window is prepopulated depends on the resource sending it. For example, from a wiki, Send Mail opens a mail window prepopulated with the name of the wiki, the size, who created it and when, who modified it and when, and a URL link to the wiki.
Within a space, the mail can be addressed to all members of the space. Space moderators (and anyone granted the Manage Configuration
permission on the space) set this through the Services page in the administration settings. See Section 53.10.2, "Configuring the Mail Distribution List for a Space."
If the number of recipients is so large that the mail cannot be prepopulated with the addresses, then you must set up a distribution list for the space. Alternatively, your administrator could create an account on the mail server for each space (for example, called "space name
moderator”) for sending mail to all space members.
For all Send Mail notifications throughout the Spaces application, you can choose to use the local mail client, such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird, or WebCenter Portal's own Mail service. The local mail client is the default. The Send Mail feature does not require the Mail service, that is, if the Mail service is not yet configured, you can still use the Send Mail feature with your local mail client. Administrators can specify whether users may override the default mail client setting. For more information, see Section 67.1.1, "Configuring the Send Mail Feature."
Notes:
With some browsers, Send Mail notifications are garbled for many non-English languages. When multibyte characters are encoded (required for the "mailto:" protocol), the URL length exceeds the browser limit. As a workaround, configure the Send Mail feature to use WebCenter Portal's Mail service instead of the local mail client.
The system administrator maintains the connection between the Spaces application and the mail server. If you experience issues with this connection, report the problem to the administrator. See "Registering Mail Servers" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.
Users do not need to specify credentials when sending mails using WebCenter Portal's Mail service when shared credentials are configured for the external application that is associated with the mail server connection.
To enable shared mail connections in Spaces:
Confirm that Spaces is using WebCenter Portal's Mail service to send mail.
Open Spaces Administration.
Click Configuration, Services, and then select Mail.
Ensure that Default Mail Client for 'Send Mail' is set to WebCenter Portal's Mail Service.
See also Section 6.3, "Configuring Send Mail Notifications for the Spaces Application."
Ask the Fusion Middleware administrator to set up a mail connection that uses an external application configured with the shared credentials and record the mail connection name.
For details, see "Managing the Mail Service" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.
Open the space where shared mail credentials are required and specify the name of the shared mail connection.
For details, see Section 53.10.5, "Configuring a Shared Mail Connection for a Space."
This section describes how to set application defaults for the People Connections service. You must be a Spaces administrator or granted Application-Configure
and Manage People Connections
permissions to set any of the application-wide properties described here.
This section includes the following subsections:
Section 6.4.1, "What You Should Know About Administering the People Connections Service"
Section 6.4.3, "Configuring the People Connections Service for Spaces"
Section 6.4.5, "Troubleshooting Issues with the People Connections Service"
People Connections administrative settings are useful for controlling all users' initial views of People Connections features, including:
Activity Stream—A streaming view of user activity
Connections—An organically formed community of users who share a greater level of information with each other than with the unconnected
Profile—A summary of user information, such as contact information, job position, chain of management, and the like
Message Board—A feature for posting and receiving messages
Feedback—A feature for posting and receiving feedback
Use the People Connections administrative settings to enforce the values you specify or to enable users to override these values with their own People Connections Preferences (for more information, see the chapters covering specific features of the People Connections service, available in Part IX, "Organizing Your Collaborative and Social Networking Environment").
Setting default values on the Spaces Administration page affects all users' views of People Connections features. There are a few levels at which these values can be set, and they are subject to an order of precedence:
Administrative settings affect all users' views of People Connections features.
Preferences settings affect the view of the user who sets them, and they override administrative settings.
Settings on a particular task flow affect just that task flow instance, and they override Preference settings:
Values set in edit mode (application customization) affect all users' views of the task flow instance.
Values set in view mode (user customization) affect only that user's view of the task flow instance, and they override application customizations in that user's view.
No special set up is required to enable users to access People Connections services. The People Connections service uses the WebCenter Portal repository, installed with WebCenter Portal: Spaces, to store information.
For Profile information, all but three attributes are stored and read from the LDAP identity store that is configured for the Spaces application. There are three exceptions: the Profile photo, expertise, and the Publisher status message. These are stored with other Spaces data in the WebCenter Portal repository.
See Also:
For information about Spaces and the LDAP identity store, see "Configuring the Identity Store" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.
This section steps you through the process of setting application-wide values for People Connections features. It includes the following subsections:
To access People Connections administrative settings:
Open Spaces Administration.
For details, see Chapter 4, "Accessing Spaces Administration Pages."
Click Configuration, Services, and then select People Connections.
Alternatively, use the following URL, and then select People Connections:
http://host:port/webcenter/spaces/admin/services
Tabs with the names of People Connections features appear to the right (Figure 6-4).
Figure 6-4 Configuration Settings for the People Connections Service
Activity Stream provides a means of publishing and tracking users' application activity. Activity Stream configuration settings specify from which users and services activities are streamed, who can see a user's streamed activities, and whether liking and commenting is available on each streamed activity (Figure 6-5).
Figure 6-5 Configuration Options for Activity Stream
Who can view a user's activities and the types of activities tracked depend on Activity Stream configuration. Table 6-2 lists the types of activities that may be tracked by Activity Stream.
Table 6-2 Activities Tracked by Activity Stream
Service | Tracked Activities | Scope | Activities Shared or Private |
---|---|---|---|
|
Space |
Shared with other space members |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home space |
Shared with invitor and invitee's connections |
|
|
Space |
Shared with other space members |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home space |
Shared with whomever is permitted to view such activities (for more information, see this section and Section 36.2, "Setting Message Board and Feedback Preferences." |
|
|
Space |
Shared with other space members |
|
|
Home space |
Shared with whomever is permitted to view such activities (for more information, see this section and Section 36.2, "Setting Message Board and Feedback Preferences." |
|
Pages |
|
|
|
|
Home space |
Shared with whomever is permitted to view such activities (for more information, see this section and Section 33.3, "Setting Profile Preferences." |
|
|
Space |
Shared with other space members |
|
|
Space |
Shared with other space members |
|
|
|
|
Activity Stream configuration falls under the following categories:
People—For determining whose activities to show, either the current user's or both the current user and the user's connections.
Spaces—For determining whether to show activities from all available spaces or just the Home space.
Service Categories—For selecting the services from which to report activities and enabling users to override these default selections in their personal preferences or preventing users from overriding.
Privacy—For selecting who may see the current user's activities.
Comments and Likes—For enabling users to comment on a posted activity and express a liking for a posted activity
To configure Activity Stream for all users:
Access People Connections administrative settings as described in Section 6.4.3.1, "Accessing People Connections Administrative Settings."
Click the Activity Stream tab to bring it forward.
Expand the People node, and select whose activities to show:
Only Me—Show only the current user's activities in his or her view of the Activity Stream.
Me and My Connections—Show the current user's activities and the activities of that user's connections in his or her view of the Activity Stream.
No Personal—Omit all activities streamed from Home spaces in the current user's view of his Activity Stream.
Expand the Spaces node, and select to show activities from:
All Spaces—All spaces to which the user has access
My Spaces—All spaces of which the user is the moderator
No Spaces—Only the Home space
Expand the Service Categories node, and select the services from which to publish activity.
Note:
The activities of services that are not selected are still tracked, but they do not appear in the Activity Stream. If you select to show the service activities at some later point, all of the activities that occurred when the service was not selected now appear in the Activity Stream.
Table 6-2 lists the activities tracked by the Activity Stream.
Optionally, select Allow Owner Override to enable users to override a setting for a given service through their personal preferences.
Deselect this check box to prevent users from overriding the application defaults you set here.
Expand the Privacy node, and specify who can view the current user's activities as well as whether the user can override this setting in their personal preferences.
Table 6-3 lists and describes each option.
Table 6-3 Activity Stream Privacy Options
Option | Description |
---|---|
Allow all of my activities to be viewed by |
Specify who can view another user's activities Select from:
|
Allow Owner Override |
Enable users to override the application default settings using their own People Connections Preferences (for more information, see Section 35.2, "Setting Activity Stream Preferences"). |
Expand the Likes and Comments node, and specify whether liking and commenting are allowed:
Select Enable comments on objects in the Activity Stream to enable users to comment on a given Activity Stream item. Deselect the check box to prevent users from commenting.
Select Enable others to like objects in the Activity Stream to enable users to express a liking for an Activity Stream item. Deselect the check box to prevent users from commenting.
Tip:
Users can like and comment on streamed items that include objects. For example, users can like or comment on "Jack has updated doc.xml," but cannot like or comment on "Jack and Jill are now connected."
For additional information about liking and commenting, see Chapter 37, "Liking, Commenting On, and Sharing Objects."
Click Apply to save your configuration settings.
Connections configuration involves specifying who can view another user's connections and whether users accept invitations to connect automatically (Figure 6-6).
Figure 6-6 Configuration Settings for Connections
To configure Connections:
Access People Connections administrative settings as described in Section 6.4.3.1, "Accessing People Connections Administrative Settings."
Click the Connections tab to bring it forward.
Table 6-4 lists and describes each option.
Table 6-4 Connections Configuration Options
Option | Description |
---|---|
Grant View Access to |
Classes of users to whom to grant automatic view access to a user's connections The users you select can view and interact with another user's connections. Select from:
|
Allow Owner Override |
Option to allow or prohibit users from overriding the administrator View access setting:
|
Accept Invitations Automatically |
|
Click Apply to save your configuration settings.
Every authenticated user has a profile that displays personal information, such as the user's email address, phone number, office location, department, manager, direct reports, and so on. All but three attributes are stored and read from the LDAP identity store that is configured for the Spaces application. The three exceptions include the Profile photo and expertise and Publisher status messages.
Use administrative configuration settings for Profile to specify whether users are allowed to change their application passwords, which profile sections display, whether users are allowed to update their profile details, and the profile attributes that users may update (Figure 6-7).
Figure 6-7 Configuration Settings for Profile
Personal profiles are presented in four sections: Summary, Employee, Business Contact, Personal Information. Each section provides information related to the section heading. For example, Summary includes a collection of basic details, such as the user's name, email address, and office location.
In configuration settings, the access setting for the Summary section controls who can search for the user (for example, through global search, people pickers, and the searches one uses to find and invite other users to connect). For example, if Everyone is allowed to view the Summary section, then the user can be searched for by unauthenticated (public) users. If only Authenticated Users can view another user's Summary section, then only logged in users can search for the user. If None is the selected value for Who can view this section, then the user will not appear in search results.
The Summary section is the only Profile section for which the privacy setting cannot be changed by the end-user through Preferences (for more information, see Section 33.3, "Setting Profile Preferences"). It is controlled at a global level for all users through the settings described in this section.
It is the administrator's job to specify the information to show in each section and determine whether users are allowed to edit their profile data and their application password within the Spaces application.
To configure Profile:
Access People Connections administrative settings as described in Section 6.4.3.1, "Accessing People Connections Administrative Settings."
Click the Profile tab to bring it forward.
Table 6-5 lists and describes each option.
Table 6-5 Profile Configuration Options
Option | Description |
---|---|
Specify whether users are allowed to change their application password
|
|
Specify which Profile sections to show and whether users are allowed to update their profile details Set application defaults in the following table columns: Profile Section—Identifies the groups of information shown in a user profile. View Settings—Specify which users can view a particular profile section, and indicate whether users can change these defaults in their personal Preferences. View Settings for the Summary section control not only who can view summary details but also for whom the user appears in people search results. Set values for:
Can Edit—Select to enable users to edit the associated profile section of their own personal profiles; deselect to prohibit users from editing the associated profile section. This setting also controls whether an Edit link appears in the Profile task flow, but it does not affect the appearance of the Edit button on the default version of the My Profile About subpage. On the default version of the About subpage, the Edit button always appears, though you can use the other Profile administrative settings to prohibit users from actually changing any Profile details. |
|
Indicate the section attributes that users are allowed to edit by default Under Allow Update:
|
|
Profile Cache settings |
A means of enabling and configuring a cache for Profile details Provide values for:
Cache settings take effect once you restart the Spaces application. |
Click Apply to save your configuration settings.
Message Boards provide users with a means of viewing and posting messages to their connections. Configuration settings for Message Board provide controls for who can view and post messages, who can edit and delete the messages they leave, who can delete and change the visibility of messages they receive, and whether commenting and liking are available on each message (Figure 6-8).
Figure 6-8 Configuration Settings for Message Board
See Also:
For information about likes and comments, see Chapter 37, "Liking, Commenting On, and Sharing Objects."
To configure Message Board:
Access People Connections administrative settings as described in Section 6.4.3.1, "Accessing People Connections Administrative Settings."
Click the Message Board tab to bring it forward.
Table 6-6 lists and describes each option.
Table 6-6 Message Board Configuration Options
Option | Description |
---|---|
Grant View Access to |
Specify who can view Message Board messages.
|
Grant Post Access to |
Specify who can post Message Board Messages.
|
Allow Owner Override |
Specify whether users can override these administrative defaults.
|
Enable users to act on messages they post on other Message Boards |
Specify whether users are allowed to act on the messages they post.
|
Enable users to act on messages they receive from others |
Specify whether users can act on messages they receive from others
|
Enable commenting on messages from Message Board |
Specify whether users can comment on messages that are posted on a Message Board.
|
Enable liking of messages from Message Board |
Specify whether to enable users to indicate that they like a message.
|
Click Apply to save your configuration settings.
Feedback provides a means of viewing and posting user feedback for other application users. Configuration settings for Feedback (Figure 6-9).
Figure 6-9 Configuration Settings for Feedback
Feedback configuration settings offer controls for identifying who can view, post, and delete feedback.
To configure Feedback:
Access People Connections administrative settings as described in Section 6.4.3.1, "Accessing People Connections Administrative Settings."
Click the Feedback tab to bring it forward.
Table 6-7 lists and describes each option.
Table 6-7 Feedback Configuration Options
Option | Description |
---|---|
Grant View Access to |
Specifies who can view the current user's Feedback
|
Grant Post Access to |
Specifies who can post user Feedback
|
Grant View Feedback Given Access to |
Specifies who can see the View menu to switch between Feedback Given and Feedback Received in a Feedback task flow
|
Allow Owner Override |
Specifies whether users can override these administrative defaults
|
Enable users to act on the feedback given to others |
Indicates whether users can delete the Feedback they post
|
Enable owner of the feedback to act on feedback posted by others |
Indicate whether to enable users to hide or show Feedback from another user.
|
Click Apply to save your configuration settings.
As the application administrator, you can use WLST commands to archive and restore data in the Activity Stream schema. The following commands are available:
archiveASByDate
—Archive Activity Stream data that is older than a specified date.
archiveASByDeletedObjects
—Archive Activity Stream data associated with deleted objects.
archiveASByClosedSpaces
—Archive Activity Stream data associated with Spaces that are currently closed.
archiveASByInactiveSpaces
—Archive Activity Stream data associated with Spaces that have been inactive since a specified date.
restoreASByDate
—Restore archived Activity Stream data from a specified date into production tables.
For more information, see the section, "Activity Stream," in Oracle Fusion Middleware WebLogic Scripting Tool Command Reference.
This section identifies the types of problems that may occur with each People Connections feature and provides suggestions for how to respond to them. It includes the following subsections:
Table 6-8 lists problems and responses for troubleshooting Activity Stream in Spaces.
Table 6-8 Activity Stream Errors and Responses
Problem | Response |
---|---|
Unexpected error or exception |
Contact Oracle Support Services. |
Connections exception is thrown |
Check the exception's detail for an explanation of the exception. |
Service Framework exception is thrown |
Check the exception's detail for an explanation of the exception. |
Settings exception is thrown |
Check the exception's detail for an explanation of the exception. |
Property value entered is not reflected in task flow |
An invalid value may have been entered for the task flow property. In such cases, the default value is used. Ensure that task flow properties have valid values. For more information, see the chapters covering features associated with the People Connections service in Part IX, "Organizing Your Collaborative and Social Networking Environment". |
Database exception in EclipseLink module |
Contact Oracle Support Services. |
Query exception in EclipseLink module |
Contact Oracle Support Services. |
Unable to publish analytics event |
Contact Oracle Support Services. |
Operation not supported |
Contact Oracle Support Services. |
Cannot retrieve user Profile information |
Contact Oracle Support Services. |
Check for valid repository failed |
Either the database is down or the WebCenter Portal repository is not installed. Check the exception's detail for an explanation of the exception, and respond accordingly. |
Activity exception during bulk publish |
Check the individual activity exception's detail for an explanation of the exception. |
Table 6-9 lists problems and responses for troubleshooting Connections in Spaces.
Table 6-9 Connections Errors and Responses
Problem | Response |
---|---|
Unexpected errors or exceptions |
Contact Oracle Support Services. |
User name null or blank |
Supply a valid user name. |
Could not find user name |
Supply a valid user name. |
Connection list name not specified |
An invalid value may have been entered for the task flow property. Ensure that task flow properties have valid values. For more information, see the chapters covering features associated with the People Connections service in Part IX, "Organizing Your Collaborative and Social Networking Environment". |
Insufficient privileges |
Contact the Spaces administrator, and request the required permission. |
Cannot invite oneself as a connection |
Supply a user name other than your own. |
Cannot invite a user who has been invited |
Wait for the invited user to act on your invitation. |
Cannot invite a user who has invited you |
Accept the invitation you have received from the user. |
Cannot invite a user to whom you are connected |
Supply a user name other than that of your existing connection. |
Table 6-10 lists problems and responses for troubleshooting Profile in Spaces.
Table 6-10 Profile Errors and Responses
Problem | Response |
---|---|
Unexpected errors or exceptions |
Contact Oracle Support Services. |
Personal status message cannot be changed |
Only you can change your personal status message. |
User cannot view Profile. |
Contact the Spaces administrator, and request the required permission. |
User cannot edit Profile. |
Contact the Spaces administrator, and request the required permission. |
User was not specified |
The supplied user name was null or blank. Enter a valid user name. |
Modifying property is not allowed |
The task flow property may be read-only. In this case, you cannot supply a value. |
Error getting an Instant Message address |
Contact the Spaces administrator. |
Error getting tag data |
Contact the Spaces administrator. |
Tried to upload an invalid image |
Try again with a valid image type. The file must have the mime-type image, and cannot have the extension |
Error instantiating object |
Contact the Spaces administrator. |
Error instantiating Profile |
Contact Oracle Support Services. |
Table 6-11 lists problems and responses for troubleshooting Message Board in Spaces.
Table 6-11 Message Board Errors and Responses
Problem | Response |
---|---|
Unexpected errors or exceptions |
Contact Oracle Support Services. |
Failed to create an instance of Message Board |
Make sure the user is logged in. |
Failed to persist Message Board message |
Contact Oracle Support Services. |
Failed to publish Message Board activity |
Verify the reason for the failure in the Activity Stream subsystem. |
Message Board message cannot be deleted |
The Spaces administrator must explicitly allow users to delete the messages they send. Contact the application administrator, and request the required permission. For more information, see Section 6.4.3.5, "Configuring Message Board." |
Message Board message cannot be updated |
Contact the Spaces administrator, and request the required permission. |
Message Board message cannot be added |
Message content is empty. Enter message content, and try again. Otherwise, contact Oracle Support Services. |
Message Board message cannot be hidden |
User does not have permission to hide the message. You can hide only those messages you receive, and not the ones you send. |
Failed to query preferences for Message Board |
Contact Oracle Support Services. |
Table 6-12 lists problems and responses for troubleshooting Feedback in Spaces.
Table 6-12 Feedback Errors and Responses
Problem | Response |
---|---|
Unexpected errors or exceptions |
Contact Oracle Support Services. |
Failed to create an instance of Feedback |
Make sure the user is logged in. |
Failed to persist Feedback message |
Contact Oracle Support Services. |
Failed to publish Feedback activity |
Verify the reason for the failure in the Activity Stream subsystem. |
Feedback cannot be deleted |
The Spaces administrator must explicitly allow users to delete the Feedback they post. Contact the application administrator, and request the required permission. For more information, see Section 6.4.3.6, "Configuring Feedback." Otherwise, contact Oracle Support Services. |
Feedback cannot be updated |
Contact the Spaces administrator, and request the required permission. |
Feedback cannot be added |
Feedback content is empty. Enter Feedback content, and try again. Otherwise, contact Oracle Support Services. |
Feedback cannot be hidden |
User does not have permission to hide the Feedback. You can hide only the Feedback you receive; you cannot hide the Feedback you give. |
Failed to query preferences for Feedback |
Contact Oracle Support Services. |
A portlet producer is the object that owns portlets and makes them available to applications. To make a portlet available in Spaces, you must register the portlet's producer with the Spaces application.
This section includes the following subsections:
Section 6.5.1, "What You Should Know About Registering Portlet Producers"
Section 6.5.2, "Registering Portlet Producers Through Spaces Administration"
Section 6.5.3, "Editing Portlet Producer Registration Details"
Section 6.5.5, "Working with the Producer Registration Task Flow"
To be able to register and manage portlet producers in the Spaces application, a user must be assigned the AppConnectionManager
role. By default, users with the Administrator
role in Spaces are assigned this role; and therefore, administrators can configure portlet producers.
You can grant any other user this capability through Fusion Middleware Control or using the WLST command grantAppRole
. For example, the following grantAppRole
WLST command grants the AppConnectionManager
role to the user monty
.
grantAppRole(appStripe='webcenter', appRoleName='AppConnectionManager', principalClass='weblogic.security.principal.WLSUserImpl', principalName='monty')
For more information about this command, see the section "grantAppRole" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware WebLogic Scripting Tool Command Reference.
To register portlet producers through Spaces Administration, you must have the following roles and permissions:
AppConnectionManager
role—Enables you to manage portlet producers. See the section "Granting Application Roles Using Fusion Middleware Control" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.
Application - Manage Configuration
permission—Enables access to the Spaces Administration page. See Chapter 24, "Managing Users, Roles, and Permissions."
You can register portlet producers in Spaces through Spaces Administration. You can also add the Portlet Producer task flow to any page to enable users with administration privileges to register portlet producers.
This section includes the following subsection:
A WSRP producer is a remote portlet producer that communicates with the consumer application through Web Services for Remote Producers (WSRP). Portlets built using the JSR 286 standard are deployed to WSRP producers.
When you register a WSRP portlet producer, you provide basic information that describes the producer's operational parameters. This information is used by the Spaces application to communicate with the producer and with the portlets through the producer.
Oracle WebCenter Portal: Framework supports both WSRP 1.0 and WSRP 2.0 producers. The WSRP 2.0 standard, among others, provides support for inter-portlet communication and export and import of portlet customizations. You can leverage the benefits of WSRP 2.0 while building standards-based JSR 286 portlets.
To register a WSRP producer for use in Spaces:
Open Spaces Administration.
For details, see Chapter 4, "Accessing Spaces Administration Pages."
Click Configuration, then Services.
Under Services & Providers, click Portlet Producers.
From the menu bar, click Register.
In the Register Portlet Producer page, in the Name and Type section, enter basic information for the portlet producer. See Table 6-13.
In the Portlet Producer URL section, enter connection details for the WSRP producer. See Table 6-14.
Table 6-14 WSRP Portlet Producer Registration - Portlet Producer URL
Field | Description |
---|---|
WSDL URL |
Enter the registration URL for the WSRP portlet producer. The syntax varies according to your WSRP implementation. For example, possible URL formats for a portlet deployed to the Oracle WSRP container include: http://host:port/context_root/portlets/wsrp2?WDSL http://host:port/context_root/portlets/wsrp1?WSDL http://host:port/context_root/portlets/?WSDL where:
In Spaces, only v2 WSDLs are supported for Oracle WebLogic Portal Producers. |
Use Proxy? |
Select if the Spaces application and the remote portlet producer are separated by a firewall and must use an HTTP proxy for communication. If selected, enter values for Proxy Host and Proxy Port. |
Proxy Host |
Enter the address for the proxy server. Do not prefix |
Proxy Port |
Enter the port number on which the proxy server listens. The default port is |
In the Advanced Configuration section, specify additional information for the WSRP producer. See Table 6-15.
Table 6-15 WSRP Portlet Producer Registration - Advanced Configuration
Field | Description |
---|---|
Default Execution Timeout |
Enter a suitable timeout for design time operations. For example, the maximum time the producer may take to register, deregister, or display portlets on pages in the Spaces application. The default is Individual portlets may define their own timeout period, which takes precedence over the value specified here. |
In the Security section, from the Token Profile dropdown list, select the type of security token to use for the identity propagation/assertion. The other fields in this section vary depending on the security token selected. See Table 6-16.
The security token with the propagated or asserted user information is represented as an XML element in the SOAP header. The security token and the SOAP message body are then digitally signed to prove the authenticity of the SOAP message origin from the Spaces application. The Spaces application supports six types of security tokens: WSS 1.0 Username Token Without Password, WSS 1.0 Username Token With Password, WSS 1.0 SAML Token, WSS 1.0 SAML Token With Message Integrity, WSS 1.0 SAML Token With Message Protection, and WSS 1.1 SAML Token With Message Protection.
Table 6-16 WSRP Portlet Producer Registration - Security
Field | Description |
---|---|
Token Profile |
Select the type of token profile to use for authentication with this WSRP producer:
|
Token Profile (Cont.) |
|
Recipient Alias |
Specify the key store alias that is associated with the producer's certificate. This certificate is used to encrypt the message to the producer. Valid for: WSS 1.0 SAML Token With Message Protection, WSS 1.1 SAML Token with Message Protection and WSS 1.0 Username Without Password. |
Default User |
Enter a user name to assert to the remote producer when the user is not authenticated with the Spaces application. When unauthenticated, the identity anonymous is associated with the application user. OWSM does not currently support the propagation of an anonymous identity, so you must specify an alternative identity here. Keep in mind though, that in this case, the Spaces application has not authenticated the user so the default user you specify should be a low privileged user in the remote producer that is an appropriate identity to use for showing public content. For example, you may want to create a guest account in the identity store for this purpose. If the user has authenticated to the application, then the user's identity is asserted rather than the default user. The remote WSRP producer must be set up to accept this information. You must also add a grant to the policy store as described in the section "Adding a Grant to the Policy Store for a Mapped User Identity" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal. Valid for: WSS 1.0 SAML Token With Message Integrity, WSS 1.0 SAML Token With Message Protection, WSS 1.0 SAML Token, WSS 1.1 SAML Token with Message Protection and WSS 1.0 Username Without Password. |
Associated External Application |
If this producer uses an external application for authentication, use the Associated External Application dropdown list to identify the application. An external application is required to support producers using the security option WSS 1.0 Username Token With Password. The external application stores and supplies the user credentials. See also Section 6.6, "Registering External Applications." Valid for: WSS 1.0 Username With Password only. |
Click Test to verify that the server details you provided are correct.
If the server is contactable, a success message is displayed. If the server is down or the host information is incorrect or no longer valid, a connection failure message is displayed.
Note:
The test performs a simple server (host/port) PING test. To verify whether the producer is accessible, access the producer's test page in your browser. For more information, see the section "Testing WSRP Producer Connections" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.
Click Ok.
When you register a PDK-Java portlet producer, you provide basic information that describes the producer's operational parameters. This information is used by the Spaces application to communicate with the producer and with the portlets through the producer.
To register an Oracle PDK-Java portlet producer for use in Spaces:
Open Spaces Administration.
For details, see Chapter 4, "Accessing Spaces Administration Pages."
Click Configuration, then Services.
Under Services & Providers, click Portlet Producers.
From the menu bar, click Register.
In the Register Portlet Producer page, in the Name and Type section, enter basic information for the portlet producer. See Table 6-17.
Table 6-17 PDK-Java Portlet Producer Registration - Name and Type
Field | Description |
---|---|
Producer Name |
Enter a unique name to identify this portlet producer registration within the Spaces application. The name must be unique across all connection types within the application. |
Producer Type |
Select Oracle PDK-Java Producer. |
In the Portlet Producer URL section, enter connection details for the Oracle PDK-Java producer. See Table 6-18.
Table 6-18 PDK-Java Portlet Producer Registration - Portlet Producer URL
Field | Description |
---|---|
URL Endpoint |
Enter the Oracle PDK-Java producer's URL using the following syntax: http://host:port/context_root/providers where:
|
Service ID |
Enter the unique identifier for this producer. PDK-Java enables you to deploy multiple producers under a single adapter servlet. Producers are identified by their unique service ID. A service ID is required only if the service ID is not appended to the URL Endpoint. The service ID is used to look up a file called |
Use Proxy? |
Select if the Spaces application and the remote portlet producer are separated by a firewall and must use an HTTP proxy for communication. If selected, enter values for Proxy Host and Proxy Port. |
Proxy Host |
Enter the address for the proxy server. Do not prefix |
Proxy Port |
Enter the port number on which the proxy server listens. The default port is |
Associated External Application |
Select the relevant external application if one of this producer's portlets requires authentication. |
Establish Session? |
Select to enable a user session when executing portlets from this producer. When sessions are enabled, they are maintained on the producer server. This allows the portlet code to maintain information in the session. Message authentication uses sessions, so if you specify a shared key, you must also select this option. For sessionless communication between the producer and the server, do not select this option. |
In the Advanced Configuration section, specify additional information for the PDK-Java producer. See Table 6-19.
Table 6-19 PDK-Java Portlet Producer Registration - Advanced Configuration
Field | Description |
---|---|
Default Execution Timeout |
Enter a suitable timeout for communications with the producer, in seconds. For example, the maximum time the producer may take to register, deregister, or display portlets on pages. The default is Individual portlets may define their own timeout period, which takes precedence over the value specified here. |
Subscriber ID |
Enter a string to identify the consumer of the producer being registered. When a producer is registered with an application, a call is made to the producer. During the call, the consumer (Spaces in this instance) passes the value for Subscriber ID to the producer. If the producer does not see the expected value for Subscriber ID, it might reject the registration call. |
Shared Key |
Enter a shared key to use for producers that are set up to handle encryption. The shared key is used by the encryption algorithm to generate a message signature for message authentication. Note that producer registration fails if the producer is set up with a shared key and you enter an incorrect shared key here. The shared key can contain between 10 and 20 alphanumeric characters. This key is also used when registering a producer using the Federated Portal Adapter (FPA). The Shared Key is also known as the HMAC key. |
Click Test to verify that the server details you provided are correct.
If the server is contactable, a success message is displayed. If the server is down or the host information is incorrect or no longer valid, a connection failure message is displayed.
Note:
The test performs a simple server (host/port) PING test. To verify whether the producer is accessible, access the producer's test page in your browser. For more information, see the section "Testing Oracle PDK-Java Producer Connections" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.
Click Ok.
This section describes how to register a Pagelet Producer using Spaces Administration.
To register a pagelet producer for use in Spaces:
Open Spaces Administration.
For details, see Chapter 4, "Accessing Spaces Administration Pages."
Click Configuration, then Services.
Under Services & Providers, click Portlet Producers.
From the menu bar, click Register.
In the Register Portlet Producer page, in the Name and Type section, enter basic information for the pagelet producer. See Table 6-20.
Table 6-20 Pagelet Producer Registration - Name and Type
Field | Description |
---|---|
Producer Name |
Enter a unique name to identify this pagelet producer registration within the Spaces application. The name must be unique across within the application. The name you specify here appears in Composer under the Mash-ups >Pagelet Producers folder (by default). |
Producer Type |
Select Pagelet Producer. |
In the Portlet Producer URL section, enter connection details for the pagelet producer. See Table 6-21.
Table 6-21 Pagelet Producer Registration - Portlet Producer URL
Field | Description | Producer Type |
---|---|---|
Server URL |
Enter the URL of the WebCenter Portal's Pagelet Producer. The URL must include a fully-qualified domain name. Use the following syntax: protocol://host:port/pagelets For example: In the Spaces application, if the Pagelet Producer URL is protected by OAM, the URL to the pagelet catalog must be excluded (mapped directly without access control), or the catalog will appear to be empty when using REST. The pagelet catalog URL is: |
Pagelet |
Click Test to verify that the server details you provided are correct.
If the server is contactable, a success message is displayed. If the server is down or the host information is incorrect or no longer valid, a connection failure message is displayed.
Note:
The test performs a simple server (host/port) PING test.
Click Ok.
In Spaces Administration, you can access and revise many of the registration details provided for a portlet producer.
To edit portlet producer registration details:
Open Spaces Administration.
For details, see Chapter 4, "Accessing Spaces Administration Pages."
Click Configuration, then Services.
Under Services & Providers, click Portlet Producers.
Select the portlet producer that you want to edit.
From the menu bar, click Edit.
Edit the producer registration properties as required:
WSRP Producers
Oracle PDK-Java Producers
Pagelet Producers
You cannot edit the Producer Name or Producer Type.
Note:
While it is possible to edit the value of the WSDL URL or URL Endpoint, for example, if the producer port has changed, you can point to a different producer only if the new producer has access to the preference store of the old producer, or if the preference store of the old producer has been migrated to that of the new producer. For more information, see the section "Migrating Portlet Preferences" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.
When you have changed all the necessary settings, you can click Test to verify that the server details you provided are correct.
If the server is contactable, a success message is displayed. If the server is down or the host information is incorrect or no longer valid, a connection failure message is displayed.
Note:
The test performs a simple server (host/port) PING test.
When you are done, click Ok.
If you no longer want to use a particular producer in Spaces, you can deregister the producer. When you deregister a producer, registration data is removed from both the Spaces application and the remote producer:
Spaces - The producer connection is deleted and producer metadata is also deleted.
Remote producer - Portlet instances are deleted (not the portlets themselves).
Portlet instances are not removed from Spaces pages. In place of the portlet, users see a "Portlet unavailable" message.
To deregister a portlet producer:
Open Spaces Administration.
For details, see Chapter 4, "Accessing Spaces Administration Pages."
Click Configuration, then Services.
Under Services & Providers, click Portlet Producers.
Select the portlet producer that you want to remove.
From the menu bar, click Deregister.
To manage portlet producers through the Producer Registration task flow, you must have the following roles and permissions:
AppConnectionManager
role—Enables you to manage portlet producers.
View Page
permission—Enables access to the page containing the task flow. See Section 26.1, "Setting Access on a Page Through Page Properties."
This section includes the following subsections:
Section 6.5.5.1, "Adding the Producer Registration Task Flow to a Page"
Section 6.5.5.2, "Registering Producers Through the Producer Administration Task Flow."
To add a Producer Registration task flow:
Go to the page where you want to add the task flow, and open it in Composer.
For more information, see Section 18.1, "Entering and Exiting Composer."
In Composer, click the Add Content button to open the Add Content dialog.
In the Add Content dialog, open Portlets.
In the Portlets folder, open Administration.
In the Administration folder, click the Add link next to the Producer Registration task flow. This adds the task flow to the page.
Click Close to exit Add Content dialog.
When you have added the Producer Administration task flow to your page, you can register any portlet producer as described in the following tables in Section 6.5.2, "Registering Portlet Producers Through Spaces Administration":
The Producer Registration task flow has associated properties, which users with sufficient privileges can access through the Component Properties dialog in Composer (Figure 6-10).
Most properties are common to all task flows, and the method for accessing task flow properties is the same from task flow to task flow. Common task flow properties and how to access them are discussed in Section 18.6, "Modifying Page Components."
Figure 6-10 Producer Registration Task Flow Component Properties
Changes to the properties on the Display Options, Style, and Content Style tabs affect the appearance and behavior of the task flow. These properties are common to all task flows. For more information, see Section 18.6.4, "Working with Component Display Options" and Section 18.6.6, "Working with Style and Content Style Properties."
The contents of the Events tab depend on the events supported by the task flow. For more information, see Section 18.6.7, "Working with Component Contextual Events."
The Child Components tab displays all of the components contained within the current component. It provides controls for rearranging, showing, and hiding child components. Not all components contain children. So you may find this tab devoid of content. For more information, see Section 18.6.5, "Working with Child Components."
All properties on Display Options tab provide access to an Expression Language (EL) editor, which you can use to select or specify a variable value instead of a constant value. Click the Edit icon next to a property field to open the editor. For more information about using the editor and for descriptions of common EL expressions, see Appendix B, "Expression Language (EL) Expressions."
Note:
Wherever you enter EL on the generic Display Options tab in the Component Properties dialog, the entry is automatically validated. If the EL syntax is invalid, an error appears and the value is neither applied nor saved. Generic Display Options are those cataloged in Table 18-1.
EL validation is not performed on non-generic display options.
An external application is any application that implements its own authentication process. Specifically, it is an application that does not take part in your Spaces single sign-on process. If Spaces interacts with another application that handles its own authentication, you can associate Spaces with an external application definition to allow for credential provisioning. In doing so, you use an external application definition to provide a means of accessing content from these independently authenticated applications. The WebCenter Portal services such as, Mail, IMP, Documents, portlet producers associate external applications with their connections to use the user credential management feature and to connect and access content from these independently authenticated applications.
You can manage external applications through the Services tab in the Spaces Administration page, the External Application task flow, and the Application Navigator task flow. These features are discussed in details in the following subsections:
Section 6.6.1, "What You Should Know About External Applications"
Section 6.6.2, "Registering External Applications Through Spaces Administration"
Section 6.6.3, "Working with Task Flows for External Applications"
To be able to register and manage external applications in Spaces, a user be assigned the AppConnectionManager
role. By default, users with the Spaces Administrator
role are assigned this role; and therefore, administrators can configure external applications.
You can grant any other user this capability through Fusion Middleware Control or WLST command grantAppRole
. For example, the following grantAppRole
WLST command grants the AppConnectionManager
role to the user monty.
grantAppRole(appStripe='webcenter', appRoleName='AppConnectionManager', principalClass='weblogic.security.principal.WLSUserImpl', principalName='monty')
For more information about this command, see the section "grantAppRole" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware WebLogic Scripting Tool Command Reference.
See also "Granting Application Roles Through Fusion Middleware Control" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.
To register external applications through Spaces Administration you must have the following roles and permissions:
AppConnectionManager role - Enables you to manage external applications. See also "Granting Application Roles Through Fusion Middleware Control" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.
Application - Manage Configuration permission - Enables access to the Spaces Administration page.
To register an external application for use in the Spaces application:
Open Spaces Administration.
For details, see Chapter 4, "Accessing Spaces Administration Pages."
Click Configuration, then Services.
Under Services & Providers, select External Applications.
To register a new external application, click Register (Figure 6-11).
Figure 6-11 Registering External Applications
External application options display (Figure 6-12).
Figure 6-12 Configuring External Application Connections
Enter a unique name for the external application and a display name that Spaces users working with this external application will see.
See also Table 6-22.
Table 6-22 External Application Connection - Name
Field | Description |
---|---|
Application Name |
Enter a name to identify the application within the Spaces application. The name must be unique (across all connection types) within the Spaces application. For example: Note: Once registered, you cannot edit the Application Name. |
Display Name |
Enter a user friendly name for the application that Spaces users will recognize. Spaces end-users working with this external application will see the display name you specify here. The display name must be unique across all external applications within Spaces. For example: If you leave this field blank, the Application Name is used. |
Enter login details for the external application.
For details, see Table 6-23.
Table 6-23 External Application Connection - Login Details
Select the authentication method used by the external application.
For details, see Table 6-24.
Table 6-24 External Application Connection - Authentication Details
Field | Description |
---|---|
Select the form submission method used by the external application. Select from one of the following:
The Authentication Method specifies how message data is sent by the browser. You can find this value by viewing the HTML source for the external application's login form, for example, |
Specify additional login fields and details, if required.
For details, see Table 6-25.
Table 6-25 External Application Connection - Additional Login Fields
Field | Description |
---|---|
If your application requires additional login criteria, expand Additional Login Fields. For example, in addition to user name and password, the Lotus Notes application requires two additional fields - Host and MailFilename. Click Add to specify an additional field for the login form. For each new field, do the following:
Click Delete to remove a login field. |
Specify shared and public user credentials, if required.
For details, see Table 6-26.
Table 6-26 External Application Connection - Shared User and Public User Credentials
Field | Description |
---|---|
Indicate whether this external application enables shared user credentials, and specify the credentials. Select Enable Shared Credentials, and then enter User Name and Password credentials for the shared user. When shared credentials are specified, every user accessing this external application, through Spaces, is authenticated using the user name and password defined here. Users are not presented with a login form. Because users do not need to define personal credentials of their own, external applications with shared credentials are not listed in the external application's change password task flows such as My Accounts (see also Section 38.7, "Providing Login Information for External Applications".) |
|
Indicate whether unauthenticated users (public users) may access this external application. Select Enable Public Credentials, and then enter User Name and Password credentials for the public user. When public credentials are specified, public users accessing this external application through Spaces public pages are logged in using the user name and password defined here. If public credentials are not specified, public users will see an authorization error indicating this external application is not accessible to public users. |
Click OK to register the application.
To register external applications through an external application task flow you must have the following roles and permissions:
AppConnectionManager role - Enables you to manage external applications. See also "Granting Application Roles Through Fusion Middleware Control" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.
View Page permission - Enables access to the page containing the task flow. See also Section 26.1, "Setting Access on a Page Through Page Properties."
This section includes the following subsections:
Section 6.6.3.1, "Adding an External Application Task Flow to a Page"
Section 6.6.3.2, "Registering External Applications Through the External Application Task Flow"
Section 6.6.3.3, "Adding an Application Navigator Task Flow to a Page"
Section 6.6.3.5, "Setting External Application Task Flow Properties"
Section 6.6.3.6, "Using the External Application - Change Password Task Flow"
Note:
External applications links exposed in the Application Navigator task flow are not automatically removed when an external application is deleted. To prevent unsuccessful access attempts, administrators are advised to remove links to unavailable applications.
To add an External Application task flow:
Go to the page where you want to add a task flow, and open it in Composer.
For more information, see Section 18.1, "Entering and Exiting Composer."
In Composer, click the Add Content button to open the Add Content dialog.
In the Add Content dialog, open Portlet Administration, as shown in Figure 6-13.
Figure 6-13 Add Content dialog - Portlet Administration
In the Portlet Administration folder, click the Add link next to the External Application task flow.
In the Add Content dialog, click Apply. This adds the task flow to the page, as shown in Figure 6-14.
Figure 6-14 External Application Task Flow in a Page
Once you have added the External Application task flow to your page, you can register any external application as described in the following tables in Section 6.6.2, "Registering External Applications Through Spaces Administration":
The Application Navigator task flow enables centralized access to frequently used Web applications. Once links to your applications are set up, you simply click links to launch your day-to-day applications, and if necessary, supply your user name and password information.
Other users may not want to see all the applications offered through the Applications Navigator. If this is the case, individuals may personalize their view to show only those applications they want to access.
The Applications Navigator can launch different types of application:
External Applications - Web-based, external applications that perform their own user authentication.
Task Flows - Built-in task flows specific to WebCenter Portal: Spaces. Any of these can be launched directly from the Applications Navigator.
Ensure that the Application Navigator task flow is included in the Resource Catalog you will use for your page. The Application Navigator task flow is not available in the Resource Catalog by default. To add this task flow to your Resource Catalog, follow the steps described in Section 16.3.1.2, "Adding Resources" and select Task Flows from the library. The Task Flows option in the Add Resource Catalog Item dialog includes the Application Navigator task flow, as shown in Figure 6-15.
Consider the points described in Section 6.6.1, "What You Should Know About External Applications."
To add an Application Navigator task flow:
Go to the page in which you want to add a task flow, and open it in Composer.
For more information, see Section 18.1, "Entering and Exiting Composer."
In Composer, click the Add Content button to open the Add Content dialog.
In the Add Content dialog, select Application Navigator, as shown in Figure 6-16, and click the Add link.
Figure 6-16 Add Content - Application Navigator
In the Add Content dialog, click Apply.
This adds the task flow to the page, as shown in Figure 6-17.
Figure 6-17 Application Navigator Task Flow in a Page
Section 6.6.3.4, "Making External Applications Available through the Application Navigator Task Flow" describes how to add links to frequently used applications or task flows.
Use the Application Navigator to display links to external applications registered with Spaces and also links to any of the built-in task flows.
Some users may not want to see all the applications offered through the Applications Navigator. If this is the case, individuals may personalize their view to show only those applications they want to access.
To expose an application or task flows through the Applications Navigator:
In the page in which you added the Application Navigator task flow, click Edit applications (wrench icon) available for the task flow.
If you do not have edit privileges you will not see this icon.
To add a link to an application, select the folder where you want the link to appear, and then click the green Add icon.
To add a new folder, click the New icon. To create a subfolder, expand the parent folder first.
Navigate to the external application or task flow you require, and click its associated Add link.
To navigate to a previously registered external application, expand the External Applications node, and then expand the required application.
Only registered external applications which have a Login URL defined appear in this list. If the application you want is not listed, ask your Spaces administrator to register the application for you. See also Section 6.6.3.2, "Registering External Applications Through the External Application Task Flow".
To navigate to a task flow, expand the WebCenter Task Flows node. If necessary, expand one or more subfolders to access the required task flow.
If you are not sure of the exact name, enter a full or partial search term in the Search box, and then click Find to search for the application. Application names matching your search criteria are displayed.
An information message displays indicating whether the application link was successful.
Click OK to dismiss the message box.
To add another application, repeat steps 4 and 5.
Click OK to return to the Edit Applications dialog.
The selected application(s) appears within your chosen folder. From here, you can change the display name for the application link and set other display-related properties.
To edit link details for an application, highlight the row in the table and then click the Edit icon.
The Edit Application Link dialog opens.
Edit the link display properties, as required.
For details, see Table 6-27, "Application Link Properties":
Table 6-27 Application Link Properties
Property | Description |
---|---|
Name |
Enter the link text that Spaces users will click to launch the application. |
Location |
(Read-only) Displays the internal name for the application or task flow. |
Open Behavior |
Select how the application displays when users click the link:
|
Type |
(Read-only) Displays the link type: EXTAPP - External application or TASKFLOW - WebCenter task flow |
Icon |
Associate an icon with the application. Enter a full qualified URL or a relative URL that specifies the location of a valid icon. The icon displays alongside the link in the Application Navigator. For best results, select an icon that is 16 x 16 pixels. |
Created On |
Shows when the link was created. |
Last Visited On |
Shows the last time a user clicked the link. If a link is not used very often or at all, you might consider removing it from the Application Navigator. |
Locked |
Indicate whether users are allowed to show/hide the link. Select Locked to prevent users from showing/hiding the link. Deselect Locked to let the user decide whether the link displays in their personal view. Individuals users can show or hide the link depending of whether they need access to the application from the Sidebar. |
Visible |
Indicate whether users see a link to this application in the Applications pane. Select Visible to show the link. Deselect Visible to hide the link. |
Click OK to save.
Click Close to dismiss the Edit Application Link dialog.
If you choose not to lock application links, other users, including yourself, can hide/show links in the Application Navigator task flow by clicking Personalize applications (pencil icon), as shown in Figure 6-18.
The External Application task flows have associated properties, which users with sufficient privileges can access through the Component Properties dialog in Composer (Figure 6-19).
The properties are common to all task flows, and the method for accessing task flow properties is the same from task flow to task flow. Common task flow properties and how to access them are discussed in Section 18.6, "Modifying Page Components."
Figure 6-19 External Application Task Flow Component Properties
Changes to the properties on the Display Options, Style, and Content Style tabs affect the appearance and behavior of the task flow. These properties are common to all task flows. For more information, see Section 18.6.4, "Working with Component Display Options" and Section 18.6.6, "Working with Style and Content Style Properties."
For the Change Password task flow, there is an additional Parameters tab that provides an option to render the Apply button to allow users to change their password from the current page. For more information, see Section 6.6.3.6, "Using the External Application - Change Password Task Flow."
The contents of the Events tab depend on the events supported by the task flow. For more information, see Section 18.6.7, "Working with Component Contextual Events."
The Child Components tab displays all of the components contained within the current component. It provides controls for rearranging, showing, and hiding child components. Not all components contain children. So you may find this tab devoid of content. For more information, see Section 18.6.5, "Working with Child Components."
All properties on the Parameters and Display Options tabs provide access to an Expression Language (EL) editor, which you can use to select or specify a variable value instead of a constant value. Click the Edit icon next to a property field to open the editor. For more information about using the editor and for descriptions of common EL expressions, see Appendix B, "Expression Language (EL) Expressions."
Note:
Wherever you enter EL on the generic Display Options tab in the Component Properties dialog, the entry is automatically validated. If the EL syntax is invalid, an error appears and the value is neither applied nor saved. Generic Display Options are those cataloged in Table 18-1.
EL validation is not performed on non-generic display options.
The External Application - Change Password task flow does not render an Apply button with which to update passwords by default. However, if you are adding this task flow to a Spaces page, the Apply button is needed for the task flow to be functional. To change the default behavior, the External Application - Change Password task flow provides an additional parameter that provides an option to render the Apply button. When the Apply button is rendered on the page to which the task flow has been added, users can then change their password for the associated external application directly from that page. Note that rendering the Apply button is only required for Spaces as the option is turned off by default. For Framework applications these steps are not required.
To set the Render Apply in WebCenter Portal: Spaces option:
Add the Change Password task flow to a page, such as the My Accounts page, as described in Section 6.6.3.1, "Adding an External Application Task Flow to a Page."
Check that you have registered the external application as described in Section 6.6.3.2, "Registering External Applications Through the External Application Task Flow."
Navigate to the page for the task flow and click the Pages and Spaces Actions icon and select Edit Page from the dropdown list.
Figure 6-20 Pages and Spaces Actions Menu
Click the task flow's Edit (wrench) icon.
The Component Properties: Security - External Application dialog appears (see Figure 6-21).
Figure 6-21 Component Properties: Security - External Application Dialog
On the Parameters tab, select the Render Apply in WebCenter Portal: Spaces option and click OK.
The Apply button is now rendered on the page (see Figure 6-22).
Click Save to save the page.
To delete an external application:
Open Spaces Administration.
For details, see Chapter 4, "Accessing Spaces Administration Pages."
Click Configuration, then Services.
Under Services & Providers, select External Applications.
Select the name of the external application you want to remove, and click Deregister.
Note:
If you also manage external applications through the Application Navigator task flow, ensure that you manually remove the external applications links added through this task flow, to prevent unsuccessful access attempts.