Consuming WSRP Portlets Oracle Fusion Middleware Online Documentation Library

25 Managing External Applications 25-1 25 Managing External Applications An external application is any application that implements its own authentication process. Specifically, it is an application that does not take part in your WebCenter applications single sign-on process. System administrators can use Fusion Middleware Control or the WLST command-line tool to register and manage external applications for WebCenter application deployments. Application administrators can also register and manage external applications at runtime through out-of-the-box administration pages or using external application task flows. All external application changes that you make for WebCenter applications, post deployment, are stored in the MDS repository as customizations. This chapter includes the following sections: ■ Section 25.1, What You Should Know About External Applications ■ Section 25.2, Registering External Applications ■ Section 25.3, Modifying External Application Connection Details ■ Section 25.4, Testing External Application Connections ■ Section 25.5, Deleting External Application Connections 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. See also, Section 1.8, Understanding Administrative Operations, Roles, and Tools.

25.1 What You Should Know About External Applications

If your WebCenter application interacts with an application that handles its own authentication, you can associate that application with an external application definition to allow for credential provisioning. In doing so, you use an external application definition to provide a means of accessing content from these independently authenticated applications. Note: External application configuration is dynamic. Configuration changes are immediately reflected in the WebCenter application; it is not necessary to restart the application or the managed server. 25-2 Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrators Guide for Oracle WebCenter To replicate a single sign-on experience from the end users perspective, the external application service captures the user name and password, and any other credentials for the external application, and supplies it to the WebCenter service or application requiring the credentials. The WebCenter service or other application then uses this information to log in on behalf of the end user. This username and password combination is securely stored in a credential store configured for the WebLogic domain where the application is deployed. The user provides login credentials when prompted, and these credentials are mapped to the WebCenter application user and stored in the credential store configured for the domain. The credential store subsequently supplies that information during authentication to the external application. Unless the external applications credentials change, the user supplies the credentials only once as the mapped information is read from the credential store for future requests. The external applications that are to be used by a WebCenter Portal application can be specified before deployment through a wizard in Oracle JDeveloper, or after deployment through Fusion Middleware Control Console Figure 25–1 or using WLST commands. Post-deployment, external applications specified at design time in JDeveloper display automatically. However, after deployment you must reprovision design-time shared and public credentials using Fusion Middleware Control or WLST commands. For information, see Chapter 28, Configuring the Identity Store, and Chapter 29, Configuring the Policy and Credential Store. Note: When logging in to an external application, if you clear the Remember My Login Information check box, then the credentials provisioned for that user session are lost in the event of a failover in a high availability HA environment. You are prompted to specify the credentials again if you try to access the external application content in the same user session. Note: In WebCenter Spaces, you can register external applications using the External Application task flow available by default, or you can add a task flow to register and manage your applications. For information about registering external applications using External Application task flows in WebCenter Spaces, see the sections Registering External Applications Through WebCenter Administration and Working with the External Application Task Flow in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Users Guide for Oracle WebCenter.