Introducing Oracle WebCenter Oracle WebCenter Spaces

1-2 Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrators Guide for Oracle WebCenter Oracle WebCenter provides an open and extensible solution that allows users to interact directly with services like instant messaging, documents, content management, discussion forums, wikis, blogs, and tagging directly from within the context of a portal or an application. These tools and services empower end users and IT to build and deploy next-generation collaborative applications and portals. This section describes Oracle WebCenter components and architecture in the following sections: ■ Section 1.2, Oracle WebCenter Architecture ■ Section 1.3, Oracle WebCenter Topology ■ Section 1.4, Oracle WebCenter Spaces ■ Section 1.5, WebCenter Portal Applications

1.2 Oracle WebCenter Architecture

Oracle WebCenter comprises the following components shown in Figure 1–1 : ■ WebCenter Portal Framework ■ Oracle Application Development Framework ■ WebCenter Spaces ■ Oracle Composer ■ WebCenter Services ■ WebCenter Discussion Server ■ WebCenter Analytics ■ WebCenter Activity Graph ■ WebCenter Personalization Server ■ Portals ■ Composite Applications Introduction to Oracle WebCenter Administration 1-3 Figure 1–1 Oracle WebCenter Architecture

1.2.1 WebCenter Portal Framework

Injects portal capabilities into ADF, including: ■ Run-time application customization you can make in-place changes to WebCenter Portal applications using Oracle Composer without re-deploying the application ■ Support for JSR-168 and JSR-286 standards-based WSRP portlets, and PDK-Java portlets ■ Content integration through JCR JSR170, to content repositories such as Oracle Content Server, Oracle Portal, and file systems ■ Oracle JSF Portlet Bridge, which lets you expose JSF pages and Oracle ADF task flows as standards-based portlets

1.2.2 Oracle Application Development Framework

Application Development Framework ADF is a productivity layer that sits on top of JSF and provides: ■ Unified access to back ends such as databases, Web services, XML, CSV, and BPEL ■ Data binding JSR 227 connecting the user interface with back-end data controls ■ Over 100 data-aware JSF view components ■ Native component model that includes task flows ■ Fine grained JAAS security model

1.2.3 WebCenter Spaces

Built using JSF, Oracle ADF, WebCenter Portal Framework, WebCenter services, and Oracle Composer, WebCenter Spaces provides: ■ A browser-based platform for creating enterprise portals, multiple sites and communities. 1-4 Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrators Guide for Oracle WebCenter ■ Spaces, a rich team collaboration platform. ■ A Home Space for each user, providing a private work area for storing personal content, keeping notes, viewing and responding to business process assignments, emailing, and so on. The focus of a Home Space is personal productivity. ■ Threaded discussions, blogs, wikis, worklists, announcements, RSS, recent activities, search, and more.

1.2.4 Oracle Composer

Oracle Composer provides: ■ Ability to perform run-time application and user customization in-place in your browser ■ A rich, intuitive user experience where you can: – Browse and add resources, such as task flows and portlets, to pages – Re-arrange page layout – Set page and component properties – Contextually wire components

1.2.5 WebCenter Services

Table 1–1 lists WebCenter services available in WebCenter Spaces and other WebCenter Portal applications. WebCenter services provide: ■ Seamless integration with enterprise-level services ■ Thin adapter layer to abstract back-end services. For example: – Content adapters: Oracle Content Server, and Oracle Portal. Table 1–1 WebCenter Services Services A Through N Services P Through W Analytics Page Announcements People Connections Discussions Personalization Documents includes Wikis and Blogs Polls Events 2 RSS 1 1 RSS news feeds are available from WebCenter Spaces only. The RSS Viewer task flow is available in both WebCenter Spaces and WebCenter Portal applications. Instant Messaging and Presence IMP Recent Activities Links Activity Graph Lists 2 Search Mail Tags Notes 2 2 WebCenter Spaces only. Worklist Introduction to Oracle WebCenter Administration 1-5 – Presence adapters: Oracle WebLogic Communication Server OWLCS, Microsoft Live Communications Server and Microsoft Office Communications Server ■ Back-end systems represented by a unified connection architecture ■ User interface to services presented through rich task flow components

1.2.6 WebCenter Discussion Server

Oracle WebCenter Discussion Server provides the ability to integrate discussion forums and announcements into your applications.

1.2.7 WebCenter Analytics

Oracle WebCenter Analytics enables users to view various user activity reports, for example: ■ Login data ■ Page views ■ Portlet views ■ Document views ■ Search metrics ■ Page response data ■ Space usage

1.2.8 WebCenter Activity Graph

Oracle WebCenter Activity Graph enables users to analyze various statistics collected by WebCenter Analytics. The output of a WebCenter Activity Graph analysis is the collected similarity scores for objects and users, which are used to give recommendations. The scores are stored in the WebCenter Activity Graph database.

1.2.9 WebCenter Personalization Server

Oracle WebCenter Personalization Server enables you to deliver application content to targeted users based on selected criteria.

1.2.10 Portals

Portals provide a common interface a Web page to a personalized, single point of interaction with Web-based applications and information relevant to individual users or class of users. For information about creating portals, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Developers Guide for Oracle WebCenter.

1.2.11 Composite Applications

A composite application is an assembly of services, service components, wires, and references designed and deployed as a single application. For more information about composite applications, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrators Guide for Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite. 1-6 Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrators Guide for Oracle WebCenter

1.3 Oracle WebCenter Topology

This section describes Oracle WebCenter topology and configuration in the following sections: ■ Section 1.3.1, WebCenter Topology Out-of-the-Box ■ Section 1.3.2, WebCenter Managed Servers ■ Section 1.3.3, WebCenter Startup Order ■ Section 1.3.4, WebCenter Dependencies ■ Section 1.3.5, WebCenter Configuration Considerations ■ Section 1.3.6, WebCenter State and Configuration Persistence ■ Section 1.3.7, WebCenter Log File Locations

1.3.1 WebCenter Topology Out-of-the-Box

Oracle WebCenter installation creates a WebCenter Oracle Home under the Oracle Middleware Home directory and an Oracle Common Home directory, which contains WebCenter binaries and supporting files Figure 1–2 . Figure 1–2 Directory Structure of an Oracle WebCenter Installation The installation also creates a WebCenter domain base_domain, containing the administration server and several managed servers to host various WebCenter components. In Figure 1–3 , applications are shown in yellow, while the managed servers they run on are shown in brown. Introduction to Oracle WebCenter Administration 1-7 Figure 1–3 Oracle WebCenter Topology Out-of-the-Box Out-of-the-box managed servers host the following components: ■ WC_Spaces - Hosts WebCenter Spaces ■ WC_Portlet - Hosts WebCenter Portlets and WebCenter Pagelet Provider ■ WC_Collaboration - Hosts WebCenter Discussions and any additional WebCenter services that you choose to integrate ■ WC_Utilities - Hosts Activity Graph, Analytics, and Personalizations An optional fifth managed server an applications server can be used to run WebCenter Portal applications. When you create additional managed servers, they are provisioned with the appropriate libraries to enable them to draw upon the same external resources as WebCenter Spaces. For more information about managed servers, see Understanding Oracle Fusion Middleware Concepts in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrators Guide.

1.3.2 WebCenter Managed Servers

During Oracle WebCenter installation, the managed servers are provisioned with system libraries and Oracle ADF libraries. Table 1–2 lists the managed servers and the applications that run on them. 1-8 Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrators Guide for Oracle WebCenter

1.3.3 WebCenter Startup Order

When a managed server starts up, applications and libraries are started in the following order: 1. Oracle system libraries, known as the JRF libraries. 2. Oracle ADF libraries. 3. Instrumentation applications, such as Oracle DMS, and the Oracle Web Services Manager wsm-pm application. 4. WebCenter applications, shown in Table 1–2 . The startup order is also the order of dependency. If a dependent component does not deploy successfully, a later component may not function correctly. WebCenter application startup is not dependent on the availability of external services such as the discussions server, or other back-end servers. For details, see Section 1.3.4, WebCenter Dependencies.

1.3.4 WebCenter Dependencies

WebCenter applications use several external servers and services Table 1–3 . The Configuration column lists the type of information provided to Oracle WebCenter to configure or initialize the connection. The Access column lists the protocol used in run-time access of the service. Table 1–2 Oracle WebCenter Managed Servers and Applications Managed Server Applications Application Name WC_Spaces WebCenter Spaces WebCenter Spaces Online Help webcenter webcenter-help WC_Portlet OmniPortlet and Web Clipping WSRP Tools Pagelet Producer portalTools wsrp-tools pagelet-producer WC_Collaboration WebCenter Discussions Server owc_discussions WC_Utilities WebCenter Analytics WebCenter Activity Graph WebCenter Personalization Services analytics-collector activitygraph-engines wcps-services Table 1–3 Dependent Resources - Access Types External Server Service Configuration Access Analytics UDP access to the Analytics Collector UDP Activity Graph HTTP access to activity graph administration HTTP Discussions server HTTP access to discussions server administration SOAPHTTP Introduction to Oracle WebCenter Administration 1-9 Serverservice unavailability does not prevent WebCenter applications from starting up, although errors may display while the application is running. The only exception is the Oracle Metadata Repository MDS, as WebCenter applications do not work without it. WebCenter Spaces partially works without the WebCenter repository but only if it is a different physical database from the MDS repository. The WebCenter repository stores information for several services, including Events, Links, Lists, People Connections, Polls, and Tags, and these services do not work if the WebCenter repository is not available.

1.3.5 WebCenter Configuration Considerations

The main configuration files for WebCenter applications are listed and described in Table 1–4 . Both these files are supplied within the WebCenter application deployment .EAR file. WebCenter applications and portlet producers both use the Oracle Metadata Services MDS repository to store their configuration data; both access the MDS repository as a JDBC data source within the Oracle WebLogic framework. The MDS repository stores post deployment configuration changes for WebCenter applications and portlet producers as application customizations. MDS uses the original deployed versions of adf-config.xml and connections.xml as base Oracle Content Server Documents Socket connection to the Administration Server. HTTP access is required only if the Oracle Content Server must be accessed outside WebCenter. JCR 1.0 over socket or HTTP Instant Messaging and Presence server HTTP access to instant messaging and presence server administration SOAPHTTP Mail server IMAPSMTP server IMAPSMTP Personal Events server HTTP access to calendar services SOAPHTTP Personalization server JBDC access to the personalization server JDBC REST Portlets HTTP location of provider WSDLs SOAPHTTP Search server HTTP access to search server HTTP Worklist HTTP access to BPEL server SOAPHTTP MDS and Schemas JDBC JDBC Table 1–4 Oracle WebCenter Configuration Files Artifact Purpose adf-config.xml Stores basic configuration for Application Development Framework ADF and WebCenter application settings, such as which discussions server or mail server the WebCenter application is currently using. connections.xml Stores basic configuration for connections to external services. Table 1–3 Cont. Dependent Resources - Access Types External Server Service Configuration Access 1-10 Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrators Guide for Oracle WebCenter documents and stores all subsequent application customizations separately into MDS using a single customization layer. When a WebCenter application starts up, application customizations stored in MDS are applied to the appropriate base documents and the WebCenter application uses the merged documents base documents with customizations as the final set of configuration properties. For WebCenter applications that are deployed to a server cluster, all members of a cluster read from the same location in the MDS repository. Typically, there is no need for administrators to examine or manually change the content of base documents or MDS customization data for files such as adf-config.xml and connections.xml, as Oracle provides several administration tools for post deployment configuration. If you must locate the base documents or review the information in MDS, read Appendix A, WebCenter Configuration . To find out more about WebCenter application configuration tools available, see Section 1.13, Oracle WebCenter Administration Tools. While WebCenter applications store post deployment configuration information in MDS, configuration information for portlet producers and Oracle WebCenter Discussions Server is stored in the file system or the database see Table 1–5 . Oracle WebCenter Discussions Server The Oracle WebCenter Discussions Server stores configuration information in its database. Additionally, it stores startup configuration information in DOMAIN_HOMEconfigfmwconfigserversWC_COLLABORATIONowc_discu ssions. This directory contains jive_startup.xml, jive.license files, and a logs directory containing log files for the discussions server instance.

1.3.6 WebCenter State and Configuration Persistence

WebCenter applications run as J2EE applications with application state and configuration persisted to the MDS repository. User session information within the application is held locally in memory. In a cluster environment, this state is replicated to other members of the cluster. Application customizations within a portlet or service environment are persisted by that service. Out-of-the-box, Oracle portlets, any custom portlets you build, and Oracle WebCenter Discussions Server, all have their own database persistence mechanisms. Note: Oracle does not recommend that you edit adf-config.xml or connections.xml by hand as this can lead to misconfiguration. Table 1–5 Oracle WebCenter Configuration Location Application Configuration Stored in MDS Configuration Stored in File System Configuration Stored in Database WebCenter Spaces Yes No No WebCenter Portal applications Yes No No Portlet producers No Yes No Discussions server No Yes Yes Introduction to Oracle WebCenter Administration 1-11 WebCenter Analytics WebCenter Analytics is stateless. Requests received by Analytics Collectors are executed immediately. Any in-transit state, such as a request initiated by a WebCenter application or a request processed by the Analytics Collector, is not guaranteed. WebCenter Activity Graph WebCenter Activity Graph consists of two components: ■ Activity Graph service - does not maintain any in-memory state. The Activity Grpah task flows query the Activity Graph database and display results as a list of recommendations. State is updated by the following: ■ Task flow configuration parameters ■ Personalization settings ■ Not-interested feature The first two are built on the standard Oracle ComposerOracle ADFMDS framework, which manages the state. The last is a feature where the user can indicate that they are not interested in a particular recommendation. This input is persisted synchronously in the database. ■ Activity Graph Engine - runs a batch data analysis process that updates tables in the database transactionally. Although the engine does not support clustering or failover, it can recover from failure. Administrators use the Activity Graph Scheduler to set up and monitor the nightly schedule. The results of the analysis the recommendations are presented through the Activity Graph task flows. The Activity Graph Engine is a singleton application that has a background thread that wakes up periodically to check if it is time to run the nightly job, which can last several hours. The schedule is persisted in the database. If the managed server fails, the job continues when the managed server next starts up. WebCenter Personalization Server WebCenter Personalization Server is a stateless RESTful application. All state is managed in the client requests.

1.3.7 WebCenter Log File Locations

Operations performed by WebCenter applications, portlet producers, discussion servers, and so on, are logged directly to the WebLogic managed server where the application is running: base_domainserversWC_ServerlogsWC_Server.log For example, WebCenter Spaces diagnostics are logged to: base_domainserversWC_SpaceslogsWC_Spaces-diagnostic.log You can view the log files for each WebLogic managed server from the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console. To view the logs, access the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console http:admin_server_host:portconsole, and click Diagnostics-Log Files . You can also view and configure diagnostic logs through Fusion Middleware Control, see Section 36.3, Viewing and Configuring Log Information. 1-12 Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrators Guide for Oracle WebCenter

1.4 Oracle WebCenter Spaces

Oracle WebCenter Spaces is a Web-based application, built using the Oracle WebCenter Framework, that offers the very latest technology for social networking, communication, collaboration, and personal productivity. Through a robust set of services and applications, WebCenter Spaces brings together everything you need to exchange ideas with others, keep track of your personal and work-related tasks, interact with your critical applications, and zero in on your own projects and interests—all within a single, integrated environment. Automatic Configuration for WebCenter Spaces Services Some services are automatically configured for WebCenter Spaces during the installation process. For details, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle WebCenter. Default connection names are listed in Table 1–6 . Configuring WebCenter Spaces PostInstallation To help you get started, see: ■ Chapter 2, Getting WebCenter Spaces Up and Running For information about administering WebCenter Spaces, see Accessing WebCenter Spaces Administration Pages in Oracle Fusion Middleware Users Guide for Oracle WebCenter.

1.5 WebCenter Portal Applications

You can develop WebCenter Portal applications using JDeveloper and deploy them to a custom WebLogic Managed Server. For information about developing WebCenter Portal applications, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developers Guide for Oracle WebCenter. To help you get started, see: ■ Chapter 4, Getting WebCenter Portal Applications Up and Running ■ Chapter 5, Maintaining WebCenter Portal Applications ■ Chapter 7, Deploying WebCenter Applications Table 1–6 Connections Automatically Configured for WebCenter Spaces WebCenter Service Component Default Connection Name Discussions and Announcements services WebCenterSpaces-Discussions Documents service WebCenterSpaces-ucm Pagelet producer WebCenterSpaces-PageletProducer Personalization service Conductor-WCPSSpaces and Properties-WCPSSpaces Preconfigured portlet producers wc-OmniPortlet wc-WebClipping wc-WSRPTools Worklist service WebCenter Spaces workflows WebCenterSpaces-Worklist Introduction to Oracle WebCenter Administration 1-13

1.6 Planning WebCenter Installations

Installing your WebCenter application requires a little bit of planning. Some of the questions to consider are: ■ What WebCenter components will be used? ■ How many users will access this deployment? ■ How can I provide high availability for my WebCenter enterprise deployment? ■ How can I secure WebCenter? For more information about planning a WebCenter installation, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle WebCenter, the Oracle Fusion Middleware Enterprise Deployment Guide for Oracle WebCenter, and the Oracle Fusion Middleware High Availability Guide.

1.7 Understanding the WebCenter 11g Installation

The out-of-the-box WebCenter topology is briefly described in Section 1.3, Oracle WebCenter Topology . Specific areas of the WebCenter topology are described in the corresponding chapters, for example, security-related aspects of the WebCenter topology are described in Chapter 27, Managing WebCenter Portal Application Security. For more information about Oracle WebCenter installation and postinstallation administration tasks, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle WebCenter. For postinstallation enterprise configuration, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware Enterprise Deployment Guide for Oracle WebCenter. For postinstallation high availability configuration, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware High Availability Guide. For postinstallation security configuration, see Chapter 27.2.5, Post-deployment Security Configuration Tasks.

1.8 Understanding Administrative Operations, Roles, and Tools

Oracle WebCenter provides several different tools with which to deploy, configure, start and stop, and maintain Oracle WebCenter applications. All these tools are described in Section 1.13, Oracle WebCenter Administration Tools. Your ability to perform WebCenter administration tasks depends on which Oracle WebLogic Server role you are assigned—Admin, Operator, or Monitor. Table 1–7 lists the Oracle WebLogic Server roles needed for common operations. These roles apply whether the operations are performed through Fusion Middleware Control, WLST commands, or the WebLogic Server Administration Console. Table 1–7 WebCenter Operations and Oracle WebLogic Server Roles Operation Admin Role Operator Role Monitor Role All WebCenter applications Start and stop Yes Yes No View performance metrics Yes Yes Yes View log information Yes Yes Yes