Weblog for the AMIS Technology corner
Posts tagged WebCenter
Book Review: Oracle WebCenter 11g PS3 Administration Cookbook by Yannick Ongena
Nov 13th
A few months back, in August, I received an electronic copy of the book: “Oracle WebCenter 11g PS3 Administration Cookbook” by Yannick Ongena (Packt Publishing, 2011). I promised you then you write a review on it and now I finally deliver on that promise.
Main conclusion: if you want to get started with WebCenter 11g, this book will help you take your first steps on many of the most important areas of Web Center (Portal). The recipes in the book provide clear instructions on getting things going. Where the Web Center documentation can be a little overwhelming – the Web Center Developer’s Guide has 69 chapters and presumably over 1500 pages of content – Yannick’s book is clear, straightforward and easy to follow.
I am not exactly sure about the intended reader for the book. The title and Yannick’s introduction mention Administration and a technical person responsible for administration. Many recipes however discusses topics and tasks I would associate with developers. So presumably both administrators and developers will benefit from the book. Note that the traditional roles of developer, administrator and end user are not as clearly defined with Web Center Portal: business or end users can take a lot of control over the portalat run time, potentially performing tasks traditionally associated only with developers. However, many run time activities are probably to complex for ordinary business users – so a technically skilled person who is typically active at run time in the run time environment is looked at to help out. In comes the administrator. Even though that may not be the usual Middleware Administrator turned DBA but more of a portal & content administrator. Well, that is for each organization itself to figure out. The persons responsible for creating the WebCenter portal, editing it at run time and taking care of its infrastructure and environment will all benefit from this book.
Manage Agility through Manage-ability – Introducing Design Time at Run Time in Oracle Fusion Middleware
Nov 10th
Below is my presentation from the OGH DBA, SOA & BPM Day on November 8th. My talk was about achieving instant agility with application, through the ability to manipulate behavior and look & feel of applications at run time. And also to provide various flavors – parallel versions – of the application through customization.
Oracle Fusion Middleware has built-in infrastructure to provide run time agility as well as customization. This infrastructure is commonly referred to as ‘design time at run time’ (and lately also the Fusion Extension Platform). It is based on MDS (meta data services) Repository and a bunch of run time, WYSIWYG tools: the composers.
To make agility work through design time at run time, it is adamant that organizations clearly define the roles and the process associated with it. And finding staff to play the role of ‘run time application editor’ will not be easy.
(Slides for) Instant Agility in Oracle Fusion Middleware through Design Time @ Run Time (Oracle Open World 2011)
Oct 7th
Agility is about ability to adapt. Enterprises need to quickly respond to changing circumstances and requirements. Agility is a state of mind (“embrace change”) that must be supported by process and technology. This session will demonstrate how Fusion Middleware provides a substantial dose of instant agility through its design time @ run time facilities. Application Management evolves into Application Composition as BPM and SOA Suite applications allow run time editing of business logic, human tasks and process definitions. Likewise, ADF applications, especially when integrated with UCM and WebCenter, support run time editing of content, page composition and even security, data sources and visualizations – even customized per user group.
This presentation introduces the concept of Design Time at Run Time, the benefits it may offers and the consequences it may (or will) have on an organization. The various run time edit hooks are discussed as well as the underlying architecture based on MDS and the future roadmap.
FatWire integrated into WebCenter as WebCenter Sites for Web Experience Management
Aug 13th
The recently announced acquisition of FatWire by Oracle is leading to interesting new options for customers looking for dynamic, interactive, multi-channel & device end user facing web sites – ideally with integration with enterprise systems. FatWire does most of the former and the WebCenter platform along with other FWM products provide the latter.
FatWire will be folded into WebCenter – as WebCenter Sites – to be integrated with other areas in WebCenter – such as Content (pka UCM), Connect (Social Networking capabilities) and Portal (typically internal-facing enterprise portal) and indirectly SOA Suite and BPM for Web Services and (perhaps) Business Processes in which external users can also perform tasks.
Configuring WebCenter 11g R1 PS3 with remote UCM Content Server
Jan 22nd
It took me a while. I have read through at least a dozen different articles. Probably did many things that in hindsight were not necessary. But at last I got it to work: my ADF + WebCenter application is running and contacting the UCM Content Server that runs on a different (Virtual Machine) and actually displaying content.
If for no other purpose than my own future reference, I have listed here the steps I went through. Only then will I be able to relax and start enjoying the weekend…
The start situation consists of a server (virtual machine) with WLS 11g (PS3) and UCM (PS3) installed. A second server contains JDeveloper 11g PS3 with the WebCenter extensions. A new WebCenter Portal application is created in this JDeveloper environment. My desire: to add UCM based content to this application.
Here are the steps:
Having users create Polls in your (and their) ADF/WebCenter application – at run time
Jan 21st
The Patch Set 3 release of Oracle Fusion Middleware hit the streets a few days back. For many of the FMW components, this release is one that fixes bugs, stabilizes, provides better integration and perhaps adds a feature or two. Nothing major really. However, for WebCenter this Patch Set 3 is pretty substantial, in terms of new functionality! Especially when it comes to ‘design time @ run time’ and the availability of services around social networking and collaboration as well as content integration, PS3 is quite impressive. In a recent article I demonstrated one of the PS3 Design Time at Run Time features: ‘create data controls at run time’: http://technology.amis.nl/blog/10555/webcenter-11gr1-ps3-design-time-at-run-time-with-a-vengeance-introducing-run-time-data-controls-and-data-visualizations.
This article discusses another interesting piece of functionality that hands over control to run time administrators, content editors and perhaps even end users: the Polls Service. Through the Polls Service, surveys or polls can be created at run time. Questions can be defined, the results can be analyzed and administration facilities are provided – such as when the poll opens and closes and making sure that a user cannot take the poll multiple times. To use the Polls Service, a Data Source connecting to the WebCenter database schema needs to be set up (same as for many of the WC Services).
An example of a poll, created at run time, is shown below:
This article demonstrates how a default Portal Framework Application – with absolutely no design time coding applied – is enhanced at run time through the creation of a poll. This poll surveys the interests and opinions of employees of the company about the yearly company outing – always a hotly debated topic.
OOW 2009: Experiences with Oracle WebCenter 11g: Implementing SOA with a User Interface
Oct 14th
One of the sessions I am (co-)presenting at Oracle Open World 2009 is on ‘applying the concepts of SOA to and achieving the SOA objectives with User Interfaces’. What goes for SOA and typical programmatic (web)services can be applied to User Interface components to a large extent. Decoupling – cross location, cross technology, cross development team and deployment unit – and reusing based on clear interface definitions and encapsulation of implementation is also available for user interface development.
Our presentation – I am copresenting with my colleague Peter Ebell – introduced the SOA concepts and objectives and demonstrates the application of SOA to the UI, using first Portlets and then ADF Task Flows. Subsequently we introduce WebCenter – as the portlet-infrastructure for ADF and also as the real life example of the notion of reusable, independently developed user interface components. We will discuss the nature of the contract you define for such reusable UI services (parameters, events – inbound and outbound) and demonstrate the steps you have to go through to make it work. Finally we will go into ‘how to add a user interface to a SOA implementation’- or: when does a SOA artefact need a user interface.
You can find the presentation below, embedded from slideshare. You can also download the demo applications we use for this session.
Installing WebCenter 11g – Design Time and Run Time (and on Linux)
Jul 31st
Getting started with WebCenter 11g, released on July 1st 2009, is quite easy. What you have to do exactly depends on the environment you work in, the bits and pieces in WebCenter that you want to make use of and the other FMW components that are part of your technology stack. Note that most of the installation steps you have to go through for WebCenter 11g are the same as for SOA Suite 11g – both involve WebLogic 11g, the Repository (Creation Utility against an 11g database) and the creation of a dedicated domain on WebLogic.
If all you are looking for is fiddling around with WebCenter in an isolated development environment, there is a lot you can do by simply adding the WebCenter plugin to JDeveloper 11g (11.1.1.1.x). With the plugin installed, you can work with (most) WebCenter Services, ,most of the WebCenter Composer and Framework facilities – including run time page customization and consuming portlets. Just go to the Help Window in JDeveloper, select the Check for Updates option and select the WebCenter 11g extension to be installed. A JAR of some 150 Mb or so is downloaded, JDeveloper is restarted, the integrated WebLogic Server is extended with WebCenter functionality and you are ready for some WebCenter development.
You can also download the zip-file with the WebCenter extension for JDeveloper directly from the page at: http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/jdev/101/update/fmw_products.xml. You can then install the extension using the option ‘local file’ and selecting the zip file.
A very useful article was published yesterday by George Maggessy on the installation of WebCenter 11g on a Linux box – see http://georgemaggessy.blogspot.com/2009/07/installing-webcenter-suite-11g-on-linux.html. He explains – and demonstrates through many screenshots – what the steps are (by and large the same as on Windows by the way) and what choices you have to make during the installation process.
Oracle WebCenter 11g – Foundation for Oracle Fusion Applications and possibly your ADF applications or Enterprise 2.0 Portal as well
Jun 24th
I have had a sweet spot for Oracle WebCenter for quite some time now. As early as 2007 I already did a presentation at ODTUG on WebCenter (10g). One of my main conclusion at the time was that while the product showed a lot of potential, it was certainly not ready for prime time. After that presentation, a guy came up to me, thanked me for the presentation then told me he was a product manager for WebCenter – and agreed with most of the things I had said. That was my first encounter with Peter Moskovits. Today, two years later, the situation has changed quite dramatically. WebCenter has evolved, as had ADF which is the foundation for WebCenter, and WC is now one of the cornerstones for Oracle Fusion Applications. WebCenter 11g is like the swan that started out as the ugly duckling. Well worth a look.
I was in a presentation today by Peter Moskovits and Christina Kolotouros, titled: A Marriage Made in Heaven – Enterprise 2.0 and ADF. They touted it as Part 2 of Steve Miranda’s talk on how Fusion Applications were built (see: http://technology.amis.nl/blog/5645/oracle-fusion-applications-it-is-for-real-and-impressive-too ). In this presentation, they explained the architecture of WebCenter, demonstrated the use of some of the essential facilities and clarified how the product can be incorporated in your own ADF development efforts.
WebCenter implements the (runtime) customization & personalization requirements, allows consumption of 3rd party external portlets (that also bridge technologies), provides many Web 2.0/E2.0 Services (Blog, Wiki, Content Integration, Tagging, Linking, Email/VOIP/IM integration, …) and Community Workspaces; Search and Recent Activities.
WebCenter lives on top of ADF which in turn adds productivity to ‘plain’ JSF – through rich components, declarative and visual development and especially the data controls and complex databindings they provide to tie business services based on various technologies to the rich components. It adds functionality in a number of steps to the ADF foundation.
