Configuring WebCenter 11g R1 PS3 with remote UCM Content Server

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:

UCM side of things

Create user john in the WebLogic Server Console (myrealm) in the WLS 11g Domain in which the UCM managed server has been installed.

Connect to UCM – http://xp-vm:16200/cs – as user john, just to make this user known to UCM (see: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E14571_01/doc.1111/e10792/c03_security001.htm#BGBIBJCA)

Connect to UCM as the administrator (weblogic). Go to the Administration pane. Click on Admin Applets. Open the User Admin applet.

User John should be listed (at least when you uncheck the checkbox Use Filter). Change user John to a Local User (initially it is an External user), by clicking the Change button.

Click the Edit button for user john.

Assign Role admin to user john – just to see whether we can get it to (finally) work:

Go to the Accounts tab.

Award john the [all accounts] entry. This makes john a powerbroker user indeed! Now we should be able to get into UCM as john, should we not?!

Several more things seem to be required in order to make UCM Content Server accessible over the socket connection from a remote client (which the ADF/WebCenter application is from the perspective of UCM): edit the Content Server Configuration file, to add two entries:

The changes in this configuration file:

IntradocServerPort=4444
SocketHostAddressSecurityFilter=192.168.*.*|127.0.0.1

The first one defines the port on which the socket requests are expected. The second one specifies the IP addresses from which socket requests are allowed. The 192.168.*.* IP range includes the machine on which the ADF/WebCenter application runs.

ADF/WebCenter application

The ADF/WebCenter application – that is run locally on the Integrated WebLogic Server instance – should have ADF Security enabled. Additionally, user john has to be created as a valid user in this application:

and

if we want this user to be able actually edit pages or even create new ones, we should assign him a role or two.

Next, we need to configure the Content Repository connection:

the settings are:

Set as Primary Connection for Document Services: checked

RIDC Socket Type: socket

Server Host Name: xp-vm

Content Server Listener Port: 4444

Admin Username: john (the user that was created on the UCM environment in both WLS and UCM Content Server)

Admin Password: weblogic1 (the password defined in WLS Console)

Also note that for Authentication I have picked Identity Propagation.

Running the ADF/WebCenter application

Run the application. Login as user john.

The click on the Administration link. Click on the Service tab.

The content repository can now be navigated, inspected and manipulated from the web application’s administration console.

The same information is available as in the UCM Web UI:

User john can now edit the Home page and inject some content from the UCM Content Server:

click the Add Content button:

The Resource Catalog browser appears.

Click on the folder Content Management. Click on Add Content Presenter. Close the Catalog Browser.

The page appears with the new Content Presenter.

Click on the edit icon for the Content Presenter – make sure you click on the correct edit icon!

The Content Presenter Configuration dialog appears. This is where you specify which content – from the UCM Content Server – should be presented.

Select Contents under Folder as the Content Source. Click on the Browse button and select the image folder.

Click on the Template Tab.

Select the Carousel View. The click on the Preview tab.

Click the Save button.

We return to the Editing Page situation:

Click on the Close link to leave the page editor. Now we return to to normal view mode – this is what all normal users of the application would see:

Now john adds more content to the image folder in UCM Content Server:

Select file, provide details and Check In:

Upon refreshing, the Home page in the Web Application will also contain this new content:

Resources

Blog by Kyle Hatlestad – Mixed authentication and authorization in UCM 11g – http://blogs.oracle.com/kyle/2010/12/mixed_authentication_and_autho.html

White Paper on WebCenter and UCM by Yannick Ongena – http://www.contribute.be/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=a74a3b57-5f0f-4062-bfb9-3f0c47d94902&groupId=10234

Andrejus Baranovskis Blog – UCM and ADF/WebCenter integration – http://andrejusb.blogspot.com/2010/12/oracle-universal-content-management-11g.html

Discussion Thread on OTN Forum Webcenter 11g and Content Managment Server – http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=950934&tstart=0

UCM Documentation – System Administration Guide for Content Server – http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E14571_01/doc.1111/e10792/c03_security001.htm#BGBIBJCA

WebCenter 11g PS3 Documentation Home – http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17904_01/webcenter.htm

WebCenter 11g PS3 – User Guide – Content Presenter http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17904_01/webcenter.1111/e10149/content_cp.htm#BABEHJAD