Federated Portals Guide

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Adding Remote Resources to the Library

The WebLogic Portal Administration Console lets you locate producers and add their remote resources to the Portal Resources Library. Remote resources can include books, pages, and portlets. When a remote resource is added to the Library, it becomes available to you to incorporate into a portal desktop.

Tip: This chapter assumes that you are familiar with the Portal Resources Library and how to use it to assemble WebLogic Portal desktops. For detailed information on the Library and on assembling portals using the Administration Console, see the Portal Development Guide. This chapter also assumes you are familiar with basic federated portal concepts and terms, such as producer, consumer, and WSDL. For detailed information on federated portals, see What are Federated Portals? and Federated Portal Architecture.

This chapter explains how to locate producers and incorporate their remote resources into the Portal Resources Library. The chapter includes these sections:

 

Introduction

You can use the WebLogic Portal Administration Console to locate remote producers, discover the resources they offer, and add them to the Portal Resources Library. After a remote resource, such as a book, page, or portlet, is added to the Library, you can add the resource to a desktop just as you would a local book, page, or portlet.

The primary advantage of remote books and pages is that they act as containers for other remote resources. For example, a producer can offer a remote book that contains several remoteable pages, each of which contain multiple remoteable portlets. When you consume that book, the remoteable pages and portlets it contains are consumed as well, with no additional steps.

Tip: The term remoteable refers to a book, page, or portlet that is deployed in a producer application and that is offered as remote. Producer application developers decide whether or not books, pages, and portlets they create are offered as remote. For detailed information on creating remoteable pages and books in a producer application, see Offering Books, Pages, and Portlets to Consumers.

After you consume a remote book or page, an administrator can edit it using the Administration Console. For example, an administrator can add other portlets, books, or pages to the remote book or page. Remember that such changes are not reflected back to the producer; therefore, after a remote book or page is modified on the consumer, it can become inconsistent with the original book, page, or portlet in the producer application.

To add remote books, pages, and portlets to the Library:

  1. Locate and add the producer in which the remote resources are deployed.
  2. If necessary, register the producer.
  3. Add remote books, pages, and portlets to your Portal Resources Library.

After the remote resources are in the Library, you add them to your portal desktop as you would any other book, page, or portlet.

 

Adding a Producer

To consume remote resources, such as portlets, books, and pages that are deployed in a producer, you need to first add the producer to your Portal Resources Library. After you add a WSRP-compliant producer to the Portal Resources Library, you can make that producer’s remoteable resources available for consumption by your portal.

During registration, the producer stores information about the consumer and returns a handle to the consumer. Registration is an optional feature described in the WSRP specification. A WebLogic Portal complex producer implements this option and, therefore, requires consumers to register before discovering and interacting with portlets offered by the producer. See Complex Producers for more information.

Tip: In the WebLogic Portal Administration Console, producer registrations are scoped to individual consumer web applications. Because there can be multiple consumer web applications in an enterprise application, it is possible that a given producer will need to be registered multiple times within an enterprise application (that is, registered for each consumer web application in which it is used).

To locate and register a producer using the Administration Console:

  1. Expand the Library node in the Portal Resources tree and select Remote Producers, as shown in Figure 17-1.
    2. Figure 17-1 Selecting Remote Producers


    Selecting Remote Producers

  2. In the Browse Remote Producers window, select Add Producer, as shown in Figure 17-2. The Add Producer wizard appears.
    3. Figure 17-2 Select Add Producer


    Select Add Producer

  3. In the Add Producer wizard, select a producer. To do this, pick from one of the following options, as shown in Figure 17-3, and click Search.
    4. Figure 17-3 Find Producer


    Find Producer

    • Provide Producer WSDL URL – This option lets you specify a producer directly by entering its WSDL URL. For example: 
      • http://myhost:7001/producerWebProject/producer?wsdl
    • Producer Name or Metadata Contains – This option lets you search for producers by name or with metadata associated with the producer. Metadata includes keywords and description text that were entered when the producer was added to the UDDI registry. The WebLogic Portal default UDDI registry is searched unless you specify a different one by selecting it from the Search In dropdown menu.
    • Portlets from Producer Contain – This option lets you search for portlets by name. This information is located through a UDDI registry. The WebLogic Portal default UDDI registry is searched unless you specify a different one by selecting it from the Search In dropdown menu. This search returns a list of portlets that contain the search string in their names.
      • Tip: The previous two options are only available if you have configured the consumer to use the UDDI search features. For information on configuring the consumer for UDDI, see Publishing to UDDI Registries.

      Checkpoint: Search results are displayed in the Producer(s) Found list.

  4. Select the producer you wish to add from the Producer(s) Found list, as shown in Figure 17-4.
    5. Figure 17-4 Selecting a Producer


    Selecting a Producer

  5. If you want to view a list of portlets hosted by the producer, select the View producer’s portlets before adding producer checkbox, as shown in Figure 17-5.
    6. Figure 17-5 View Producer’s Portlets Checkbox


    View Producer’s Portlets Checkbox

  6. Click Next.
  7. If the View Producer Portlets dialog appears, click Next. This dialog, shown in Figure 17-6, appears only if you selected the View producer’s portlets before adding producer checkbox. This dialog simply lists the portlets hosted by the selected producer to help you decide if you want to add the producer or not.
    8. Figure 17-6 View Producer’s Portlets


    View Producer’s Portlets

  8. In the Enter Producer Properties dialog (Figure 17-7), enter or select:
    • A name for the producer – (Required) This name is used by the consumer to identify the producer.
    • Vendor and description information – (Optional) Use these fields to enter optional metadata.
    • Store Registration Properties – (Optional) If you select this option, the registration properties that you enter in the Add Producer dialog are stored on the consumer. It is recommended that you select this option. For detailed information on this option, see Storing Registration Properties.
      • Figure 17-7 Enter Producer Name


      Enter Producer Name

  9. Click Add Producer to go to the Register dialog.
  10. In the Register dialog, enter the registration information, if any is required. In the example shown in Figure 17-7, a property set called “Favorite vegetables” was defined on the producer. The dialog requires the user to enter value(s) from that property set. The value(s) entered here are validated on the producer and are used to determine which resources this consumer is entitled to retrieve. For detailed information on consumer entitlement, see Consumer Entitlement.
    11. Figure 17-8 Enter Registration Properties (Sample)


    Enter Registration Properties (Sample)

  11. Click Add Producer. The Summary dialog appears, as shown in Figure 17-9.
    12. Figure 17-9 Summary Dialog


    Summary Dialog

  12. Click Finish.

Checkpoint: Now that you have located and added a producer, you can view and select portlets, books, and pages to add to the consumer from that producer, as explained in the following sections.

 

Adding a Remote Portlet to the Portal Library

If you have added a producer that contains a remoteable portlet, you can add that portlet to your Portal Resources Library. After the remote portlet is added to the Library, you can incorporate the portlet into a page in your portal desktop.

There are two ways to incorporate remote portlets into a portal using the Administration Console:

To add a remote portlet to your Portal Resources Library directly:

  1. Open the WebLogic Portal Administration Console.
  2. If you haven’t done so, locate and add the producer that contains the remote portlet(s) that you want to add to your portal. The procedure for adding a producer is explained in Adding a Producer.
  3. In the Portal Resources tree, open the Library > Remote Producers folder, and select the producer that contains the remote portlet that you want to use, as shown in Figure 17-10.
    4. Figure 17-10 Selecting a Producer


    Selecting a Producer

  4. In the producer window click the Selected Portlets tab, as shown in Figure 17-11.
    5. Figure 17-11 Selected Portlets Tab


    Selected Portlets Tab

  5. In the Browse Selected Portlets panel, click Add Portlets, as shown in Figure 17-12.
    6. Tip: If the producer offers a large number of portlets, use the Search feature to narrow the selections. For instance, you can search for all portlets that begin with “a,” and only those portlets will show up in the Browse Selected Portlets table.
    Figure 17-12 Add Portlet Button


    Add Portlet Button

  6. In the Add Portlets dialog, select the remote portlet(s) that you want to add to the Library, and click Add to move the selected portlets to the Portlets To Add column, as shown in Figure 17-13.
    7. Figure 17-13 Selecting Portlets to Add


    Selecting Portlets to Add

  7. After moving the portlet to the Portlets To Add column, click Save. The portlets you added appears in the Library under the Portlets folder, as shown in Figure 17-14.
    8. Figure 17-14 Remote Portlets Added to the Library


    Remote Portlets Added to the Library

The added portlets also appear in the Browse Selected Portlets table in the producer’s Selected Portlets tab, as shown in Figure 17-15.

Figure 17-15 Table Displays Added Portlets

Table Displays Added Portlets

Tip: When you add a remote portlet to the Library, it is placed in the Portlets folder. This is the same folder where local portlets appear. WebLogic Portal treats the remote portlet exactly as if it were a local portlet.

Checkpoint: You can now add the portlet to a page in your desktop. For details on adding Library resources to a desktop, see the WebLogic Portal Development Guide.

 

Adding a Remote Page to the Portal Library

If you have added a producer that contains a remoteable page, you can add that page to your Portal Resources Library. After the remote page is added to the Library, you can incorporate it into your portal desktop as if it were a local page.

This section explains how to add a remote page to your Portal Resources Library.

Tip: To be remoteable, the page’s Offer As Remote property must have been set to true when it was created and the page must include some content. A remote page can contain any combination of remote books and portlets. Books and portlets contained within a remote page must be offered as remote. By default, books, pages, and portlets are offered as remote. For more information on creating remoteable books and pages in a producer application, see Adding Remote Resources to the Library.
  1. Open the WebLogic Portal Administration Console.
  2. If you haven’t done so, locate and add the producer that contains the remote page(s) that you want to add to your portal. The procedure for adding a producer is explained in Adding a Producer.
  3. In the Portal Resources tree, open the Library > Remote Producers folder, and select the producer that contains the remote page that you want to use, as shown in Figure 17-16.
    4. Figure 17-16 Selecting a Producer


    Selecting a Producer

  4. In the producer window, click the Selected Pages tab, as shown in Figure 17-17.
    5. Figure 17-17 Selected Pages Tab


    Selected Pages Tab

  5. In the Browse Pages section, click Add Page, as shown in Figure 17-18.
    6. Figure 17-18 Add Page Button


    Add Page Button

  6. In the Add Page dialog, select the remote page that you want to add to the Library, and click Add Page. In Figure 17-19, the remote page is called Page 1.
    7. Figure 17-19 The Add Page Dialog


    The Add Page Dialog

Checkpoint: The remote page is added to the Library, as shown in Figure 17-25. You can now add the page to a desktop. For details on adding Library resources to a desktop, see the WebLogic Portal Development Guide.

Figure 17-20 Remote Page Added to Library

Remote Page Added to Library

 

Adding a Remote Book to the Portal Library

If you have added a producer that contains a remoteable book, you can add that book to your Portal Resources Library. After the remote book is added to the Library, you can incorporate it into your portal desktop as if it were a local book.

Tip: To be remoteable, the book’s Offer As Remote property must have been set to true when it was created, and the book must include some content. A remote book can contain any combination of remote pages and portlets. Pages and portlets contained within a remote page must be offered as remote. By default, books, pages, and portlets are offered as remote. For more information on creating remoteable books and pages in a producer application, see Adding Remote Resources to the Library.

This section explains how to add a remote book to your Portal Resources Library.

  1. Open the WebLogic Portal Administration Console.
  2. If you haven’t done so, locate and add the producer that contains the remote book(s) that you want to add to your portal. The procedure for adding a producer is explained in Adding a Producer.
  3. In the Portal Resources tree, open the Library > Remote Producers folder, and select the producer that contains the remote book that you want to use, as shown in Figure 17-21.
    4. Figure 17-21 Selecting a Producer


    Selecting a Producer

  4. In the producer window, click the Selected Books tab, as shown in Figure 17-22.
    5. Figure 17-22 Selected Books Tab


    Selected Books Tab

  5. In the Browse Books section, click Add Book, as shown in Figure 17-23.
    6. Figure 17-23 Add Book Button


    Add Book Button

  6. In the Add Book dialog, select the remote book that you want to add to the Library, and click Add Book. In Figure 17-24, the remote book is called My Remote Book.
    7. Figure 17-24 The Add Book Dialog


    The Add Book Dialog

Checkpoint: The remote book is added to the Library, as shown in Figure 17-25. You can now add the book to a desktop. For details on adding Library resources to a desktop, see the WebLogic Portal Development Guide.

Figure 17-25 Remote Book Added to Library

Remote Book Added to Library


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