What's New?

The following topics introduce the new and changed features in Oracle WebCenter Portal 11g Release 1, and provide pointers to additional information:

System Requirements and Specifications

For system and platform-specific information for Oracle Fusion Middleware products for 11g Release 1, refer to Oracle Fusion Middleware System Requirements and Specifications. That guide describes how to find out what is certified and how to verify the requirements of the certification. As system administrator, you perform these tasks before installing Oracle WebCenter Portal.

New and Changed Features for 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.9.0)

In addition to numerous bug fixes, WebCenter Portal 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.9.0) includes the following new and changed features:

  • Support for running WebCenter Portal in both local and cloud environments:

    • Portal on-premise: WebCenter Portal deployment in a customer data center.

    • Oracle Private Cloud: provisioning and running WebCenter Portal on Oracle MWaaS; that is, using Oracle EM Cloud Control.

    • Oracle Public Cloud: provisioning and running WebCenter Portal on Oracle Java Cloud Service (JCS).

  • Support for migration of the WebCenter Portal and Portal Framework application content from the Folders_g folder service to the FrameworkFolders folder service. See Appendix H, "Migrating Folders_g to FrameworkFolders."

  • Support for migration of a Portal Framework application as a portal to WebCenter Portal. See Appendix I, "Migrating a Portal Framework Application to WebCenter Portal."

  • Support for upgrading a pre-11.1.1.8.0 portal to the current release. See the "Upgrading a Pre-11.1.1.8.0 Portal" section in Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal.

  • Addition of the childCreation property for the Show Detail Frame component to specify when the children (contents) of the Show Detail Frame component are created, thus reducing processing time. See childCreation in the "Attributes of a Show Detail Frame Component" table in Developing Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle JDeveloper.

  • Support for image renditions in Content Presenter display templates. See the "Using Image Renditions in Content Presenter Display Templates" section in Developing Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle JDeveloper.

New and Changed Features for 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.8.3)

WebCenter Portal 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.8.3) includes the following new and changed features:

  • Support for four new page templates that provide efficiency and performance enhancements over the existing page templates. See "New Page Templates."

  • Support for the FrameworkFolders component that provides a scalable, high-performing folder service from Oracle WebCenter Content as an alternative to Folders_g. See "FrameworkFolders Support."

New Page Templates

Four new page templates provide efficiency and performance improvements over the existing page templates. The files included are:

  • Four page templates: Skyros Side Navigation v2, Skyros Side Navigation (Stretch) v2, Skyros Top Navigation v2, and Skyros Top Navigation (Stretch) v2

  • One skin: Skyros v2

    This is the preferred skin for the new page templates. Do not attempt to use the new Skyros v2 skin with existing page templates. Likewise, do not attempt to use the new page templates with the existing skins.

  • Two task flows: Portal Side Navigation and Portal Top Navigation

    These task flows implement the navigation in the page templates, either in a side pane or as tabs along the top of a portal. The styling of the navigation in these task flows relies on the CSS in the skin file available in this patch. If you want to use these task flows in a page template that uses a different skin, be aware that the navigation may not look as expected due to CSS mismatches in the skin. However, if you copy and paste the navigation sections from the new Skyros v2 skin source code into your skin source code, you can achieve the expected results.

With WebCenter Portal 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.9.0), these files are pre-installed, and you will see them on the Shared Assets page, which is available if you have the permissions of the Administrator or Application Specialist role:

Asset Type File Names
Page Templates pageTemplate_Skyros_Side_Navigation_Stretch_v2.ear

pageTemplate_Skyros_Side_Navigation_v2.ear

pageTemplate_Skyros_Top_Navigation_Stretch_v2.ear

pageTemplate_Skyros_Top_Navigation_v2.ear

Skins skin_Skyros_v2_Skin.ear
Task Flows taskFlow_Portal_Side_Navigation.ear

taskFlow_Portal_Top_Navigation.ear


Perform the following steps to use the new page templates:

  1. To set a new default page template for pages in the Home portal and all new portals (when the portal's template does not specify that a particular page template must be used), see Section 43.3.1, "Choosing a Default Page Template."

  2. To change the page template used by an individual portal, see the "Changing the Page Template for a Portal" section in Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal.

  3. To change the preferred skin used by a page template, see the "Setting the Preferred Skin for a Page Template" section in Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal.

For more information, see the "Working with Page Templates" chapter in Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal and the "Developing Page Templates" chapter in Developing Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle JDeveloper.

FrameworkFolders Support

Previously, Oracle WebCenter Portal supported only Folders_g. WebCenter Portal 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.8.3) enables new installations of Oracle WebCenter Portal to be integrated with FrameworkFolders. Existing installations of Oracle WebCenter Portal patched to 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.8.3) must continue to use Folders_g.

The FrameworkFolders component provides a scalable hierarchical folder interface for accessing and organizing repository content, and is the recommended enterprise folder service for Content Server.

New and Changed Features for 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.8.0)

WebCenter Portal 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.8.0) included the following new and changed features:

  • Terminology changes:

    Prior Releases 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.8.0)
    WebCenter Portal: Spaces WebCenter Portal
    space portal
    space template portal template
    resource asset

  • End-User Experience

    • Updated profile user interface that includes improved organization of profile information, click to edit, and clear profile photo functionality. See the "Managing Your Profile" chapter in Using Oracle WebCenter Portal. Additional documentation for the rich user profile is referenced under Portal Builder, Administration, and Development Environment.

    • Improved search experience (supported with Oracle SES 11.2.2.2) that includes faceted search and document thumbnails. See the "Searching for Information" chapter in Using Oracle WebCenter Portal.

  • Portal Builder

    • Simplified portal creation that includes in-place page creation. See the "Creating and Building a New Portal" chapter in Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal.

    • Redesigned portal edit and administration user interface (Portal Builder) that consolidates tasks into fewer steps. See the "Editing a Portal" and "Administering a Portal" chapters in Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal.

    • Simplified page creation and editing: Web (for editing) and Data (for managing) views, inline resource catalog (with support for component drag-and-drop onto a page), and Select view. See the "Working with Portal Pages" part in Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal.

    • Automatic update of portal navigation as new pages are created. See the "Creating a Page or Subpage in an Existing Portal" section in Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal.

    • "Lazy provisioning" of tools—WebCenter Portal configures the back-end server at first use of a tool rather than at portal creation to speed the successful creation of a new portal. See the "About Creating a New Portal" section in Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal.

    • Hierarchical page support (subpages). See the "Creating Pages or Subpages in a Portal" section in Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal.

    • Rich user profile that consolidates information from multiple profiles (OSN, HCM, LDAP, and so on). See the "Adding Profiles to a Portal" chapter in Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal. Additional documentation for the rich user profile is referenced under End-User Experience, Administration, and Development Environment.

    • Device Settings that control how your portal pages render on different devices, such as smart phones, tablets, and desktop browsers. Page variants can be created to target and optimally render a portal on specific groups of devices like iOS phones, iOS tablets, and others. See the "Administering Device Settings in a Portal" section, the "Managing Device Groups for a Portal" chapter, and the "Creating a Page Variant for a Device Group" section in Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal. Additional documentation for mobile support is referenced under Administration and Development Environment.

    • Responsive Content Presenter templates that provide an example of how you can use Content Presenter and CSS3 media queries to produce a responsive layout that adjusts to the width of the browser (for example, on smart phones, tablets, and desktop browsers). See the "Using Responsive Templates" section in Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal. Additional documentation for mobile support is referenced under Development Environment.

  • Administration

  • Development Environment

    • Rich user profile that consolidates information from multiple profiles (OSN, HCM, LDAP, and so on). See the "Working with People Connections" part in Developing Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle JDeveloper. Additional documentation for the rich user profile is referenced under End-User Experience, Portal Builder, and Administration.

    • Developers can use Expression Language (EL) to retrieve information about Device Settings. Device Settings control exactly how your portal pages render on different devices including smart phones, tablets, and desktop browsers. See the "EL Expressions Related to Device Settings" section in Developing Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle JDeveloper. Additional documentation for mobile support is referenced under Portal Builder and Administration.

    • Responsive Content Presenter templates provide an example of how you can use Content Presenter and CSS3 media queries to produce a responsive layout that adjusts to the width of the browser (for example, on phones, tablets, or personal computers). See the "Using Responsive Templates" section and the "Extending Responsive Templates" section in Developing Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle JDeveloper. Additional documentation for mobile support is referenced under Portal Builder.

    • Simplified custom shared library development and deployment. WebCenter Portal provides a new JDeveloper template that enables you to build custom components, such as task flows, data controls, and managed beans and deploy them in shared libraries directly to the WebCenter Portal server. See the "Developing Components for WebCenter Portal Using JDeveloper" chapter in Developing Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle JDeveloper.

  • Restructured documentation library according to personas and their roles in WebCenter Portal:

    • Administering Oracle WebCenter Portal (this guide) covers information needed by a system administrator who fields requests from IT employees and business users to set up new machines; clone or back up existing applications systems and databases; install patches, packages, and applications; and perform other administration-related tasks.

    • Using Oracle WebCenter Portal covers information needed by a knowledge worker who typically uses WebCenter Portal to contribute and review content, participate in social interactions, and leverage the Home portal to manage her own documents and profile.

    • Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal covers information needed by an application specialist who works in Portal Builder to create and administer portals, their structure (hierarchy of pages, navigation, security), and their content (components on a page, layout, behavior, and so on).

    • Developing Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle JDeveloper covers information needed by a developer who primarily works with JDeveloper to provide support for both portals and ­WebCenter Portal Framework applications.

    For more information, see "Who's Who."