3 Administering User Communication Preferences

This chapter provides information for system administrators about configuring User Communication Preferences (UCP); and for developers about integrating their applications with UCP. It also provides information about business terms that are used during profile configuration.

You can configure profiles and manage user data using WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST). This chapter discusses the following topics:

• Section 3.1, "Managing Business Terms by using Oracle Enterprise Manager"

• Section 3.2, "Configuring Profiles by using Oracle Enterprise Manager"

• Section 3.3, "Managing User Data using WLST Commands"

3.1 Managing Business Terms by using Oracle Enterprise Manager

As mentioned earlier in this document, each filter condition is defined against a Business Term. UCP supports the business terms as listed in the table below. A business term consists of a name, a data type, and an optional description.

Table 3-1 lists the pre-defined business terms supported by User Communication Preferences.

Table 3-1 Pre-defined Business Terms for User Communication Preferences

Business Term	Data Type
Organization	String
Priority	String
Application	String
Application Type	String
Expiration Date	Date
From	String
To	String
Customer Name	String
Customer Type	String
Status	String
Amount	Number (Decimal)
Due Date	Date
Process Type	String
Expense Type	String
Total Cost	Number (Decimal)
Processing Time	Number (Decimal)
Order Type	String
Service Request Type	String
Group Name	String
Source	String
Classification	String
Duration	Number (Decimal)
User	String
Role	String
Subject	String
Service Name	String
Process Name	String
System Code	String
Error Code	String
Occurrence Count	Number (Decimal)

UCP supports two System terms listed in Table 3-2. System terms are pre-defined business terms. Administrators cannot extend the system terms. System terms are available for defining conditions though they are not managed here. The facts for System terms are automatically obtained based on the current time and user's time zone. Thus, unlike other business terms, during message processing, applications do not need to supply facts for System terms.

Table 3-2 System Terms Supported by User Communication Preferences

System Term	Data Type	Supported Values
Date	Date	Date is accepted as a java.util.Date object or string representing the number of milliseconds.
Time	Time	A 4-digit integer to represent time of the day in HHMM format. First 2-digit is the hour in 24-hour format. Last 2-digit is minutes.

3.1.1 Adding or Removing Business Terms

Oracle Enterprise Manager enables you to add or remove the business terms used to construct message filters in User Communication Preferences.

To add, modify, or remove business terms, you must open the User Messaging Server home page in Oracle Enterprise Manager and select Server Properties from the drop down menu as shown in the following figure.

Description of the illustration ''ums_server_properties.gif''

The Server Properties page appears as shown in the following figure. This page lists the existing business terms, and allows the user to add, modify, or remove business terms. All existing business terms are listed in the Messaging Preference Business Terms section.

Description of the illustration ''ns_addterm.gif''

3.1.1.1 Adding Business Terms

To add a business term to User Communication Preferences, perform the following tasks:

1. On the Server Properties page, click Add in the Messaging Preference Business Terms section. The Add Business Term page appears as shown in the following figure.

   
   Description of the illustration ''ns_businessterm.gif''
   
   

2. Enter a descriptive name for the business term.

3. Select a data type (string, decimal, or date).

4. Click OK. This will add a business term to User Communication Preferences.

3.1.1.2 Modifying a Business Term

To modify an existing business term, select the business term from the list and click Edit. After modifying the details, click OK to confirm.

3.1.1.3 Removing Business Terms

To remove a business term in User Communication Preferences, perform the following tasks:

1. Select the business term from the list.

2. Click Remove.

3. Click OK in the confirmation screen to remove the selected business term.

Note:

You must not remove a business term if it is being used in any filter, as this will cause errors.

3.2 Configuring Profiles by using Oracle Enterprise Manager

Multiple applications may consume a single instance of UCP services. However, not all applications might consume the same set of UCP features. To meet various requirements of different applications, UCP features are virtualized into profiles. This enables each application to target a specific profile that contains a subset of UCP features.

Each profile is identified by a profile ID. Oracle UCP service provides APIs for a client application to target to a profile, by specifying a profile ID. After upgrading, legacy applications consuming old UCP APIs, without profile ID, will target to a default profile sharing with other applications that targets to the default profile. It is recommended to migrate legacy applications to use latest APIs so that each application can target to a specific profile without sharing with other applications. For more information about UCP API, refer to User Messaging Service Java API Reference.

You can manage messaging preferences profiles using Oracle Enterprise Manager. This interface lists the existing configured profiles, and allows the user to add, modify, or remove profiles. To configure preference profiles, perform the following tasks:

1. Open the User Messaging Server home page in Oracle Enterprise Manager and select Server Properties from the drop down menu.

   The Server Properties page appears as shown in the following figure. All existing profiles are listed in the Messaging Preference Profiles section.

   
   Description of the illustration ''ums_pref_profiles.gif''
   
   

2. To add a new profile, click the Add icon in the Messaging Preference Profiles section. A dialog box appears as shown in the following figure. You must specify the configuration details to add a new profile.

   Click OK to save the new profile.

   
   Description of the illustration ''ums_add_profile.gif''
   
   

   You can define the profile features by selecting a Locale Source, availability of IDM and/or User Channels and a subset of Business Terms. UCP renders the web user interface based on the locale from three different locale sources, namely Client Browser, Identity Store and System Default. The Locale Source field provides a choice from two sources - Locale from Client Browser and, Locale from Identity Store. This determines the locale lookup sequence for the UI rendering. If Locale from Client Browser is selected, then the lookup sequence will be (1) Locale from Client Browser, (2) Locale from Identity Store and (3) System Default Locale. Otherwise, the sequence will be (1) Locale from Identity Store, (2) Locale from Client Browser and (3) System Default Locale. In each sequence, UCP renders the UI using the first supported locale.

   In the above figure, the check box for User Channel defines the availability of user defined channels for that particular profile. If the check box is selected, then the users are allowed to create User Channels from the UCP web user interface. The check box for IDM Channel determines the availability of auto-synced channels from Identity Store. Channels are the properties of users. These check boxes determine the visibility of channels for each profile.

   Each Profile encapsulates a subset of Business Terms listed under Selected Business Terms as shown in the above figure. In this example, only three terms - From, To, and Subject, are selected. To add more terms, select them from the Available Business Terms list on the left and click the right arrow (>) to move them to the Selected Business Terms list. Only selected Business Terms are available for users to define conditions for filters in a particular profile. This means that, on defining filter conditions only the selected Business Terms will be seen in the Attribute drop-down list in UCP web user interface.

3. To modify an existing profile, click the Edit icon in the Messaging Preference Profiles section. A dialog box appears as shown in the following figure. You must specify the configuration details to edit the profile.

   Click OK to save the profile.

   
   Description of the illustration ''ums_edit_profile.gif''
   
   

4. To remove the messaging preference profile, select the profile from the list of profiles and click Remove.

5. Click Apply to apply changes in the User Messaging Server instance. Restart the server for the changes to take effect.

3.3 Managing User Data using WLST Commands

UCP provides a command line scripting tool, Oracle WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST), for downloading user preferences data from the UCP repository to the specified XML file, for uploading user preferences data from an XML file into the UCP repository, or for deleting user preferences from the UCP repository.

For information about how to use WLST for uploading or downloading user preferences data, see "manageUserCommunicationPrefs" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Core Components WLST Command Reference. For information about how to get started with WLST, refer to section Getting Started Using the Oracle WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST) in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administering Oracle Fusion Middleware.