10 Managing Oracle WebCenter Services

This chapter provides an overview of managing Oracle WebCenter services in WebCenter applications. It also explains the back-end repositories required for the various services.

Audience

The content of this chapter is intended for Fusion Middleware administrators (users granted the Admin or Operator role through the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console). For more information, see Section 1.8, "Understanding Administrative Operations, Roles, and Tools." Opens a new window

10.1 Introduction to Managing Services

WebCenter exposes collaborative, social networking, and personal productivity features through services, which, in turn, expose subsets of their features and functionality through task flows. Task flows provide reusable functionality that may expose all or a subset of the features available from a particular service.

Always use Fusion Middleware Control or the WLST command-line tool to review and configure back-end services for WebCenter applications.

Note:

Most changes that you make to WebCenter services configuration, through Fusion Middleware Control or using WLST, are not dynamic so you must restart the managed server on which the WebCenter application is deployed for your changes to take effect. For more information, see Section 8.2, "Starting and Stopping Managed Servers for WebCenter Application Deployments." Opens a new window

Table 10-1 Opens a new window lists where data for WebCenter services is stored. It may be helpful to know what services are impacted when repositories are unavailable.

Some WebCenter services store connection metadata in the MDS repository. Changes that you make to WebCenter applications, post deployment, are stored in MDS as customizations. For more information, see Section 1.3.5, "WebCenter Configuration Considerations."For more information, see Section 10.1.1, "Setting Up the MDS Repository."
Some WebCenter services require a c onnection to a database schema where relevant information (such as relationship mapping) is stored. For more information, see Section 10.1.2, "Setting Up Database Connections."
Some WebCenter services require a connection to an external data repository (such as a content server, a presence server, or a mail server) where relevant information is stored. For more information on setting up those connections, see the chapter for that service.

Table 10-1 WebCenter Services Data Repositories

WebCenter Service	Description	Metadata Repository	WebCenter or Activities Database Schema	External Repository	For More Information
Activity Graph	Leverages collective intelligence to benefit search and social applications		Activities schema		Section 10.1.2, "Setting Up Database Connections"
Analytics	Enables you to display usage and performance metrics for your portal application		Activities schema	X	Section 10.1.2, "Setting Up Database Connections" Chapter 13, "Managing the Analytics Service"
Announcements	Provides the ability to post announcements about important activities and events to all authenticated users	X		X	Section 10.1.1, "Setting Up the MDS Repository" Chapter 14, "Managing the Announcements and Discussions Services"
Discussions	Provides the ability to create threaded discussions, posing and responding to questions and searching for answers	X		X	Section 10.1.1, "Setting Up the MDS Repository" Chapter 14, "Managing the Announcements and Discussions Services"
Documents	Provides content management and storage capabilities, including content upload, file and folder creation and management, file check out, versioning, and so on	X	WebCenter schema - for documents (including wikis and blogs) that want to include comments and Activity Stream	X	Section 10.1.1, "Setting Up the MDS Repository" Section 10.1.2, "Setting Up Database Connections" Chapter 11, "Managing Content Repositories"
Events	Provides the ability to create and maintain a schedule of events relevant to a wider group of authenticated users	X		X (Personal Events)	Section 10.1.1, "Setting Up the MDS Repository" Chapter 15, "Managing the Events Service"
Instant Messaging and Presence (IMP)	Provides the ability to observe the status of other authenticated users (online, offline, busy, or away) and to contact them instantly			X	Chapter 16, "Managing the Instant Messaging and Presence Service"
Links	Provides the ability to view, access, and associate related information; for example, you can link to a document from a discussion		WebCenter schema		Section 10.1.2, "Setting Up Database Connections"
Lists	Provides the ability to create, publish, and manage lists	X	WebCenter schema		Section 10.1.1, "Setting Up the MDS Repository" Section 10.1.2, "Setting Up Database Connections"
Mail	Provides easy integration with IMAP and SMTP mail servers to enable users to perform mail functions, such as reading messages, creating messages with attachments, replying to or forwarding messages, and deleting messages	X		X	Section 10.1.1, "Setting Up the MDS Repository" Chapter 17, "Managing the Mail Service"
Notes	Provides the ability to "jot down" and retain bits of personally relevant information Note: This service is available only in Oracle WebCenter Spaces.	X			Section 10.1.1, "Setting Up the MDS Repository"
Notifications	Provides a means of subscribing to services and application objects and, when those objects change, receiving notification across one or more messaging channels				Chapter 18, "Managing Subscriptions and Notifications"
People Connections	Provides social networking capabilities, such as creating a personal profile, displaying current status, and viewing other users' recent activities		WebCenter schema		Section 10.1.2, "Setting Up Database Connections"
Personalization	Enables you to deliver content within your application to targeted application users based on selected criteria				Chapter 19, "Managing WebCenter Personalization"
Polls	Enables you to survey your audience (such as their opinions and their experience level), check whether they can recall important information, and gather feedback		WebCenter schema		Section 10.1.2, "Setting Up Database Connections"
Recent Activities	Provides a summary view of recent changes to documents, discussions, and announcements	X			Section 10.1.1, "Setting Up the MDS Repository"
RSS	Provides the ability to access the content of many different web sites from a single location—a news reader	X			Section 10.1.1, "Setting Up the MDS Repository"
Search	Provides the ability to search services, the application, or an entire site (This includes integrating Oracle Secure Enterprise Search for WebCenter searches.)	X		X	Section 10.1.1, "Setting Up the MDS Repository" Chapter 21, "Managing Oracle SES Search in WebCenter"
Tags	Provides the ability to assign one or more personally-relevant keywords to a given page or document	X	WebCenter schema		Section 10.1.1, "Setting Up the MDS Repository" Section 10.1.2, "Setting Up Database Connections"
Worklists	Provides a personal view of business processes that require attention	X		X	Section 10.1.1, "Setting Up the MDS Repository" Chapter 22, "Managing the Worklist Service"

10.1.1 Setting Up the MDS Repository

Some WebCenter services store information in the Metadata Service (MDS) repository. To enable these services in WebCenter applications you must configure the MDS repository. For information, see Section 7.1.5, "Creating and Registering the Metadata Service Repository." Opens a new window

10.1.2 Setting Up Database Connections

Many WebCenter services store information in the WebCenter repository, which is a database with the WebCenter schema installed. For example, with the Links service, relationship mapping information, such as what object is linked to what other object, is stored in the database. The WebCenter schema is included with the product.

For WebCenter Portal applications, you must set up a database connection to the WebCenter repository. This database connection can be of type JDBC Data Source or JDBC URL.

Note:

For WebCenter Spaces, a WebCenter repository is configured out-of-the-box, and repository connection does not require reconfiguration.

See Also:

"Setting Up a Database Connection" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle WebCenter for information on creating the connection and installing the schema
Section 7.1.6, "Deploying the Application to a WebLogic Managed Server" for data source considerations when deploying your application to a production environment
Chapter 37, "Managing Export, Import, Backup, and Recovery of WebCenter" for information on backing up and migrating this information

Depending on the connection type used in an application, do one of the following:

Create a global data source, if the application does not include an application-level data source with password indirection. For information on creating global data sources, see the section, "Creating a JDBC Data Source" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Configuring and Managing JDBC for Oracle WebLogic Server.
Map the connection credentials, if the application uses an application-level data source with password indirection. The password is set through the Oracle WebLogic Administration Console on the Credential Mappings tab under Security. If you change the password for an indirect data source on the Connection Pool tab under Configuration, then it has no effect. For more information on credential mapping, see "JDBC Data Sources: Security: Credential Mapping" under the section "Creating a JDBC Data Source" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Configuring and Managing JDBC for Oracle WebLogic Server.
Merge the information stored in application credential store with that of the global application store, if the application uses a JDBC URL connection. For more information on credential migration behavior, see the section, "Configuring the Credential Store" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Security Guide.

In a typical business scenario, applications are deployed to different managed servers, and multiple databases are used as repositories for the applications. The repository that you use in a development environment is different from that in a production environment, and therefore, when migrating WebCenter Portal applications from development to production, you must reconfigure the database connection.

When a repository connection is reconfigured, the local datasource file and the *-jdbc.xml file in the WEB-INF directory of the WAR file are updated with the new connection details. However, the JNDI Name and data source name remain the same. If you change the JNDI Name for any reason, then you must also update the adf-config.xml file. The JNDI name must be of the form jdbc/connection-nameDS. For example, if the application has a connection name connection1, then the JNDI name is jdbc/connection1DS.

10.1.3 Setting Up External Application Connections

When a WebCenter service interacts with an application that handles its own authentication, you can associate that application with an external application definition to allow for credential provisioning.

The following WebCenter services permit the use of an external application to connect with the service and define authentication for it:

Documents
Events
Instant Messaging and Presence
Mail
RSS Viewer (when using a secured RSS feed)