2.2 Prerequisites for Internet Connectivity

As one of their primary functions, portals collect content from a variety of sources. Because most of the application processing takes place on the application server, it is important that this machine establishes connectivity to a variety of systems.

If you do not establish the following connectivity points before the PeopleSoft Portal Solution installation, the time necessary to complete a task may lengthen and may keep certain portal features from working properly.

PeopleSoft Interaction Hub delivers a great deal of functionality that relates to internet-based content, for example, the Feed Reader pagelet. This functionality relies upon issuing HTTP requests by way of Integration Broker on the application server. The following provides some scenarios in which you can test HTTP requests and responses from your application server. Before you begin a PeopleSoft Portal Solutions installation, verify the following:

• From a browser on the application server, access an internet website such as http://www.oracle.com/applications/portals/enterprise/enterprise-portal.html. This should successfully display the corresponding web page.

• If a browser is not available on your application server (such as on some UNIX machines), you can try an alternative test by using TELNET to establish a connection to an external system. This should be done for both HTTP (for example, port 80) and SSL (for example, port 443).

  For example, you can use: TELNET www.peoplesoft.com:80

• Review your web configuration for the ports specified for HTTP and SSL.

  Note:

  This is not as reliable a test, because it does not actually test an HTTP request and response.