WebSphere Experience

Liferay 6.0.3 in WebSphere Application Server

2010-07-22T03:25:00.000-07:00

Install-Instructions for Liferay 6.0.3. deployed in WebSphere Application Server 6.1.0.31:

1. Download liferay 6 war file from sourceforge (Link)
2. Download liferay 6 dependency files from sourceforge (Link)
[3. Setup portal-ext.properties within the war-File (e.g. for JDBC-Settings or Context)]
4. Deploy the liferay 6 war in WebSphere Application
5. Copy hsql.jar and portal-service.jar to /WEB-INF/lib
6. Copy portlet.jar to any location on the Application Server
7. In WebSphere Administrative Console go to "Enviroment > Shared Libraries"
8. Create a new Shared Library which points to the portlet.jar from the dependencies of liferay (copied to server in step 6)
9. In Administrative Console goto "Servers > Application Servers > > Java and Process Management > Class Loader
10. Create a new Class Loader with Class Load Order "Classes loaded with application class loader first"
11. After creating the Class Loader click on it and create a "Shared library references "
12. Click "Add" and chose the newly created Shared Library
13. Save and Synchronize changes
14. Restart

Increase LTPA Timeout

2009-11-13T02:33:00.000-08:00

New web techniques like RAP or AJAX are designed for "long user sessions".

In WebSphere a user session is limited by several timeouts like:

-JSession-Timeout
-LTPA-Timeout

If you need to increase the Session-Timeout to very large values (like 8 h) you maybe suffer on some side effects of the LTPA-Token Security technologie.

A LTPA-Session has a fixed timeout which is defined in Security > Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure >Authentication mechanisms and expiration.

Every time a user is logging in, in a web app the LTPA Token timeout is extended or reused.
The desision if a LTPA timeout is reused ore renewed can be influenced by setting a cacheMaxTimeout-Value for the JVM.
If the LTPA-Timeout is lower than this cacheCushionMax-Value a new LTPA-Session (with new Timeout) is created. If the LTPA-Timeout is higher than the cacheCushionMax-Value a "old" LTPA-Session (with "old" LTPA-Timeout) will be reused.

For more information see this link:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?fdoc=aimwps&rs=2307&uid=swg21320747

Web-Form-Portlet for Liferay (5.2.3) deployed in WebSphere 6.1

2009-07-09T05:24:00.000-07:00

To deploy the external "offical" plugin "web-form-portlet" several steps need to be done first.

1. Create a web-form-portlet.war
1.1 Extract the web-form-portlet content (jars, jsps,...) from a tomcat-bundle of liferay (located in: "Liferay-Root\tomcat-6.0.18\webapps\web-form-portlet)
1.2 Create a new Dynamic Web Project in Eclipse and add the extraced content to it (tutorial here).
1.3. Create the folder /WEB-INF/classes/META-INF and add the ext-spring.xml.
1.4 Add the ibm binding files ibm-web-bnd.xmi and ibm-web-ext.xmi to /WEB-INF/
1.5 Extract the portlet-container.jar from your liferay-installation (/lib/ext) and add it to /WEB-INF/lib.
1.6 Edit the /WEB-INF/web.xml and add

<context-param>
<param-name>com.ibm.websphere.portletcontainer.PortletDeploymentEnabled</param-name>
<param-value>false</param-value>
</context-param>

below the </display-name>-Tags.
1.7 Export the web-form-portlet-application as a war-file

2. Deploy the web-form-portlet
2.1 go to the administrative console of websphere and navigate to "Applications > Enterprise Applications"
2.2 Deploy the web-form-portlet as an normal web-applicaton or as a module of your liferay-application (tutorial included in this post). Use the context-root web-form-portlet.
2.3 Start the web-form-portlet-application
2.4 Wait for liferay to detect the portlet (sometimes a restart is needed)

3. Add the web-form-portlet with the "Add application"-menu.

Hints:
1. Download a working web-form-portlet.war here (working on my installation :-).

2. If there are any problems, you can try to
2.1 Upload the war-file into the plugin installer portlet (control panel)
2.2 Get the generated WAR-File (generated from plugin installer portlet/hot deployment routine) and try the deployment again.

3. My /"WebSphere-System-Root"/lib/ext contains
xml-apis.jar 194.205 19.05.2009 21:00 -a--
xalan.jar 3.078.601 19.05.2009 21:00 -a--
postgresql.jar 448.141 19.05.2009 21:00 -a--
portal-service.jar 1.786.637 19.05.2009 20:58 -a--
portal-kernel.jar 525.263 19.05.2009 20:58 -a--
mysql-connector-java-5.1.6-bin.jar 703.265 05.03.2008 17:27 -a--
mysql.jar 536.609 19.05.2009 21:00 -a--
mail.jar 356.519 19.05.2009 21:00 -a--
liferay-icu4j.jar 5.671.439 19.05.2009 20:18 -a--
jutf7.jar 12.299 19.05.2009 21:00 -a--
jtds.jar 294.726 19.05.2009 21:00 -a--
jta.jar 13.236 19.05.2009 21:00 -a--
jms.jar 25.998 19.05.2009 21:00 -a--
hsql.jar 643.806 19.05.2009 21:00 -a--
container.jar 98.372 19.05.2009 21:00 -a--
activation.jar 55.932 19.05.2009 21:00 -a--

4. My /"WebSphere-System-Root"

/java/jre/lib/ext contains

portlet.jar 48.725 19.05.2009 21:00 -a--
PD.jar 1.148.187 29.06.2009 11:44 -a--
jdmpview.jar 251.574 29.06.2009 11:53 -a--
JawBridge.jar 15.661 29.06.2009 11:53 -a--
jaccess.jar 50.129 26.06.2009 14:46 -a--
iwsorbutil.jar 8.289 29.06.2009 11:53 -a--
indicim.jar 65.709 29.06.2009 11:53 -a--
ibmspnego.jar 41.146 26.06.2009 14:46 -a--
ibmsaslprovider.jar 64.506 26.06.2009 14:46 -a--
ibmpkcs11impl.jar 261.848 29.06.2009 11:53 -a--
ibmpkcs11.jar 83.819 29.06.2009 11:53 -a--
IBMKeyManagementServer.jar 475.560 29.06.2009 11:53 -a--
ibmkeycert.jar 232.590 29.06.2009 11:53 -a--
ibmjceprovider.jar 903.078 29.06.2009 11:53 -a--
ibmjcefips.jar 240.130 29.06.2009 11:53 -a--
ibmcmsprovider.jar 206.636 29.06.2009 11:53 -a--
healthcenter.jar 18.812 29.06.2009 11:53 -a--
gskikm.jar 1.110.163 29.06.2009 11:53 -a--
dtfj-interface.jar 16.696 29.06.2009 11:53 -a--
dtfj.jar 347.872 29.06.2009 11:53 -a--
CmpCrmf.jar 183.719 26.06.2009 14:46 -a--

Oracle 11 g with WebSphere 6.0

2009-06-04T03:45:00.000-07:00

Officially the Oracle 11g JDBC driver no longer support Java 1.4 (which is used by WebSphere 6.0).
But you can use an Oracle 10g driver to access databases on an Oracle 11g database server from WebSphere Application Server 6.0.2 .
But some prerequisite need to be fullfiled:

WebSphere Fixlevel 6.0.2.29 or above needs to be installed
The datasource custom property oracle9iLogTraceLevel needs to be "null" or blank

Link:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=180&uid=swg21314477

Examples for security vulnerabilities of web applications

2009-06-02T23:58:00.000-07:00

Last week i found a quite good PDF about security vulnerabilities of web applications .
Its a Document from IBM for their software AppScan. Which is a security-scanner for web-apps.
The doc contains several examples (e.g.: for cross-site-scripting, SQL Injection, Failure to Restrict URL Access, Improper Error Handling, ...).

Download it here:
http://eichelgartenweg.googlepages.com/107647_may_06appscan_final.pdf
[or google for it]

Generate a (new) SSL Certificate for https [IBM HTTP Server]

2009-05-11T04:36:00.001-07:00

[FOR HTTPS/SSL BETWEEN CLIENT AND WEBSERVER]
To generate a new CA-Signed SSL-Certificate for use with the IBM HTTP Server you need to start the iKeyman-Utility first. The iKeyman is the Key Management Tool from IBM.

1. Navigate to the /bin-directory of your IHS-Installation
2. execute

./ikeyman

to open the Key Management Tool
3. Use "Key Database File > Open" to open your password-protected Key-Database

4. After the Key-Database is loaded switch to "Personal Certificate Requests" (under "Key database content").
5. Click New and fill out the certificate request dialog. Depending on your CA-Provider (VeriSign,...) you may need to fill out the dialog in a special way (VeriSign demands the common name to be the domain)

6. Click "OK" to save the certificate request in a file.
7. now you need to provide the content of the certificate request file to your Ceritifcate Authority (e.g.: VeriSign). You will receiving a new certificate file from them.
8. If you received the certificate switch back to "Personal Certificates" (under "Key database content").
9. Click Receive and navigate to the certificate file. Click Ok to import the certificate file.

10. Open the httdp.conf-File of your IHS and replace the SSL-Cert-Name (new one will be displayed after the import of the new certificate in iKeyman). Usally the SSL-Cert is definded within a virtual host:
Example:

<VirtualHost "ip-adress":443>
ServerName www.test.com
SSLEnable
SSLClientAuth 0
SSLServerCert ihssslcert
AllowEncodedSlashes On
<Directory "/">
Options Indexes MultiViews
Order allow,deny
Allow from all

</Directory>

DocumentRoot /usr/IBM/HTTPServer/www-doc-root/
</VirtualHost>

11. Restart the IHS-Server (/bin/apachectl stop --> /bin/apachectl start)

WebDAV Access for Liferay deyployed in a WebSphere Server

2009-04-29T03:36:00.000-07:00

Enable WebDAV-Access to Liferay 5.2.2 deployed in WebSphere is quite easy.
1. Deploy Liferay 5.2.2
2. Download the liferay-portal-tunnel-web-5.2.2.war from Liferay's Sourceforge Folder.
3. After downloading the war-File you need to deploy it into the SAME JVM with Liferay 5.
4. Restart the JVM
5. Create a new Folder in a Document Library-Portlet and click "Access from my desktop"
6. Copy the URL

7. Create a new network resource in Windows. Use this Tutorial http://jakarta.apache.org/slide/xp.html
Hint:
You can also use JackRabbit without Liferay in order to enable WebDAV with WebSphere.

Enable Client certificate authentication with IBM HTTP Server and WebSphere

2009-04-21T06:08:00.000-07:00

If you want to provide client cert autentication for web apps deployed in WebSphere Application Server 6.1 you first need to edit the web.xml of the application.
You need to add a security-constraint:

<security-constraint id="SecurityConstraint_Test01">
<web-resource-collection id="WebResourceCollection_TestOZ01">
<web-resource-name>Test</web-resource-name>
<description/>
<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
<http-method>GET</http-method>
<http-method>PUT</http-method>
<http-method>HEAD</http-method>
<http-method>POST</http-method>
<http-method>DELETE</http-method>
<http-method>OPTIONS</http-method>
</web-resource-collection>
<auth-constraint id="AuthConstraint_CognosOZ02">
<description/>
<role-name>Tester</role-name>
</auth-constraint>
</security-constraint>
<login-config id="LoginConfig_1">
<auth-method>CLIENT-CERT</auth-method>
<realm-name>Testrealm</realm-name>
</login-config>
<security-role id="SecurityRole_MIS01">
<description/>
<role-name>Tester</role-name>
</security-role>

After that you need to create a new virtual host in your ibm http server config.
To do that edit the httpd.conf

<VirtualHost <ip-adresse>:443>
ServerName www.yourvh.host.com
SSLEnable
SSLClientAuth 2
SSLServerCert <name of cert in key-db>
<Directory "/">
Options Indexes MultiViews
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
SSLClientAuthRequire o="<needed dn>"
</Directory>

RequestHeader set HTTPS %{HTTPS}e
RequestHeader set SSL_CIPHER %{SSL_CIPHER}e
RequestHeader set SSL_CLIENT_CN %{SSL_CLIENT_CN}e
RequestHeader set SSL_CLIENT_DN %{SSL_CLIENT_DN}e

DocumentRoot /usr/IBM/HTTPServer/www-doc-root2/
</VirtualHost>

Then you need to add the root-cert of the certificate you want to use for authentification to the key-database of your ibm http server.
1. Open the IBM Key Management utility ((i)keyman) and add the root-cert (e.g. o=host.com). Use the same name like in the httpd.conf (<name of cert in key-db>)
2. Save the changes to the key-database
3. Restart your IBM HTTP Server

After that edit the virtual host settings in WebSphere. In the administrative console go to Enviroment > Virtual Hosts and add the new Virtual Host (e.g.: Certificate Host) with its Host aliases.

The plugin-cfg.xml of your IBM HTTP Server should now be automatically updated with a new Virtual Host entry.

Web service cache [client sided]

2009-03-30T04:46:00.000-07:00

To enable a client side cache for web service requests (in a WebSphere client) you need first to activate the dynamic cache service and servlet caching (see post before).
Then you need to create a cachespec.xml

<cache>
<cache-entry>
<class>JAXRPCClient</class>
<name>http://"your-url":9080/service/"your service"</name>
<cache-id>
<component id="hash" type="SOAPEnvelope"/>
<timeout>60</timeout>
</cache-id>
</cache-entry>
</cache>

and place it into the WEB-INF-Folder of your client app.
The cachespec.xml above is configured to compare the different requests through a HASH-Value (which is calculated for every request).
This is the easiest way to implement a client web service cache.
For more infos visit this site.

Setup Web service cache [server sided]

2009-03-20T03:33:00.000-07:00

In this post i will explain how to use the web service server cache in WebSphere Application Server 6.1.

1. First you need to active the dynamic cache service and servlet caching in WebSphere via the administrative console
1.1. Navigate to Servers > Application servers > "your server" > Container services > Dynamic cache service
1.2 Activate "Enable service at startup" and click "OK" and "Save" to apply this setting.
1.3 Navigate to Servers > Application serves > "your server" > Web Container Settings > Web container
1.4 Activate "Enable servlet caching" and click "OK" and "Save" to apply this setting.
1.3 Restart server

2. Deploy the dynamic cache monitor to get a view of current state of the dynamic cache service
2.1 Locate the CacheMonitor.ear under "WebSphere-System-Root"\installableApps\
2.2 Deploy the ear-File (standard context root: cachemonitor)

3. Add a cachespec.xml (and the cachespec.dtd (located at /"websphere-sys-root"/properties) to your webservice project (Folder WEB-INF/)
3.1 The cachespec.xml should look like this:

<cache>
<cache-entry>
<class>webservice</class>
<name>"service name"</name>
<sharing-policy>not-shared</sharing-policy>
<cache-id>
<component id="Hash" type="SOAPEnvelope" />
<timeout>420</timeout>
</cache-id>
</cache-entry>
</cache>

"service name" = e.g. /services/Repository
3.2 (Re-)deploy the Web service application

Hint:
A sample cachespec-file can be found at "WebSphere-System-Root"/properties

Hint 2:
To enable web service cache through a Web services gateway (WSGW) see this link.

Generate a .NET Web service client for a Java EE Web service

2009-03-10T08:50:00.000-07:00

[BETA] :-)
One of the advantages of Web services is the interoperability.
Thus its possible to use a .NET-Client for a Web services written in Java.
Just the WSDL is needed.

1. Install the newest Mircosoft .NET SDK
2. Locate the wsdl.exe in the .NET SDK-Installation (e.g. C:\PROGRA~1\Microsoft.NET\SDK\v2.0\Bin)
3. Execute

"SDK-Location (bin)"\wsdl.exe "Your WSDL-File"

4. You should now see a "your service"Client.cs - File. The .cs-File is the source code for the web service client proxy. These code/methods is/are used to access the web service.
5. To access the web service you need to instantiate the proxy client in your client code

YourService proxy = new YourService ();

To call the needed methode use something like

String result = proxy.findItem("123454");

5. To compile the C-Sourcecode without your IDE locate csc.exe in of the .NET SDK-Installation (e.g. C:\PROGRA~1\Microsoft.NET\SDK\v2.0.50727)
6. Execute

"SDK-Location"\csc.exe /t:exe /r:System.Web.dll,System.XML.dll,System.Web.Services.dll "your client code file" "proxy client code file"

7. You should now have a EXE-File of the client.

8. Test IT!

Enable SSL between WebServer (plugin-in) and the WebSphere Application Server

2009-02-20T01:42:00.001-08:00

To setup a new SSL-Connection between a IBM HTTP Server (IHS) and your WebSphere Application Server (6.1) a (self-signed) CA SSL certificate has to be propageted to all involved servers.

When setting up a IHS via the administrative console SSL between IHS and WebSphere AppServer should be enabled by default.

1. First take a look at your plugin-cfg.xml of your IHS installation and search for the entry <Property Name="keyring"...>

This tags defines the location of the Key-Database for the secure connection between your IHS and your AppServer.

2. In administrative console of WebSphere go to Servers > WebServers > "your webserver" > Plugin-in properties

On this page all necessary entries should be done automatically. To re-copy the default plugin-in.key to your IHS press "Copy to Webserver key store directory".

3. Restart your IHS

###############################################################

To manually setup SSL between IHS and WebSphere first locate the plugin-key.kdb on your AppServer. Than copy over the plugin-key.kdb to the IHS into the specified location (get location form picture above). Then edit the plugin-cfg.xml of the IHS (see tag from step 1). Then restart your IHS and your WebSphere instance.

Setup a CMS workflow in Liferay 5.2.1

2009-02-10T00:29:00.000-08:00

Sometimes there is a need to sperate/limit the cms permissions for some users.

These users can be an article editor or an article approver.

Create editor role:

1. Sign in as administrator (e.g. test@liferay.com/test)

2. Go to Control panel > Roles

3. Create a regular editor role

4. Click Action > Define permissions > Add Portlet Permission

5. Select Web Content

6. You will get a complete list of all avaiable permissions. Select the permissions you want to assign to the editor role.

Create approver role:

1. Sign in as administrator (e.g. test@liferay.com/test)

2. Go to Control panel > Roles

3. Create a regular editor role

4. Click Action > Define permissions > Add Portlet Permission

5. Select Web Content

6. You will get a complete list of all avaiable permissions. Select the permissions you want to assign to the editor role.

Assign members to roles

1. Sign in as administrator

2. Go to Control panel > Roles

3. Click Action > Assign member on the role you want to edit

4. Select the users and click "Update Associations" (->Avaiable)

Activate Versioning

1. Add to portal-ext.properties:

journal.article.force.increment.version=true

2. Restart Liferay/server

3. Test IT!

Mail settings

1. Edit portal-ext.properties

#
# Configure email notification settings.
#

#These adress should be a approver mail box

#If a article is created a mail will be send to this adress (from article creators address)

#If the article is approved a mail will be send from these address to the article creator)
journal.email.from.name=Web Content Workflow
journal.email.from.address=
journal.email.article.approval.denied.enabled=true
journal.email.article.approval.denied.subject=com/liferay/portlet/journal/dependencies/email_article_approval_denied_subject.tmpl
journal.email.article.approval.denied.body=com/liferay/portlet/journal/dependencies/email_article_approval_denied_body.tmpl
journal.email.article.approval.granted.enabled=true
journal.email.article.approval.granted.subject=com/liferay/portlet/journal/dependencies/email_article_approval_granted_subject.tmpl
journal.email.article.approval.granted.body=com/liferay/portlet/journal/dependencies/email_article_approval_granted_body.tmpl
journal.email.article.approval.requested.enabled=true
journal.email.article.approval.requested.subject=com/liferay/portlet/journal/dependencies/email_article_approval_requested_subject.tmpl
journal.email.article.approval.requested.body=com/liferay/portlet/journal/dependencies/email_article_approval_requested_body.tmpl
journal.email.article.review.enabled=true
journal.email.article.review.subject=com/liferay/portlet/journal/dependencies/email_article_review_subject.tmpl
journal.email.article.review.body=com/liferay/portlet/journal/dependencies/email_article_review_body.tmpl

2. Restart Liferay/server

Liferay 5.2.0/5.2.1/5.2.2/5.2.3 on WebSphere 6.1

2009-01-28T05:06:00.000-08:00

(Should work with WebSphere 7 too)

The new Liferay-Versions 5.2.x can be downloaded here.

But deployment in WebSphere 6.1 is still a bit tricky.

Steps:
1. Deploy the Liferay 5.2.x war-File (with dependencies)
2. Move portal-kernel.jar and container.jar to "WebSphere-System-root"/lib/ext
3. Move icu4j.jar (not needed in 5.2.2./5.2.3 - new file name: liferay-icu4j.jar) and portlet.jar to "WebSphere-System-root"/java/jre/lib/ext
4. Download the sun saw-api (saw-api.jar) or extract it from the dependencies (can be downloaded seperatly) and move it to /WEB-INF/lib
5. Setup Database-Connection either in portal-ext.properties or in ext-spring.xml
5.1 To setup the database in portal-ext.properties take a look at portal-impl.jar//portal.properties (chapter JDBC). With this setup Liferay 5.2 will use the apache common connection pool.
5.2 To use the connection pool of WebSphere you need to create a file called ext-spring.xml and place it into /WEB-INF/classes/META-INF. Download a sample ext-spring.xml file here.

########Liferay 5.2.0 only##########

6. For Liferay 5.2.0 only: deactivate the javascript fast load option in portal-ext.properties with this value

javascript.fast.load=false

It seems the fast load option (yui compression of JS/CSS files) is NOT correctly implemented (for WebSphere).

WORKAROUND:
Put theses files into /html/js

Edit JavaScript-Settings in portal-ext.properties

##
## JavaScript
##
javascript.barebone.files=\
\
#
# Self-packed files
#
\
barebone_packed.js
#
# Specify the list of everything files (everything else not already in the
# list of barebone files).
#
javascript.everything.files=\
\
#
# Self-packed files
#
\
everything_packed.js
JavaScript files.

javascript.barebone.enabled=true

javascript.fast.load=false

javascript.log.enabled=false

###############################################################

7. Restart your server.

Hint:
Its also possible to download the dependencies seperatly and then copy them to the lib-Folders of WebSphere.
Probably a change in class loader order will have same effect (Applications > Enterprise Applications > "your app" > Class loading and update detection)

MySQL and WebSphere Application Server

2009-01-05T08:32:00.001-08:00

WebSphere doesnt have a template for connections to MySQL-Databases.

To setup one, you need to create a JDBC-Provider first:
1. Go to Resources > JBDC > JDBC Provider > New to create a new Provider (Driver)
Enter in Step 1:
Database type: User-defindedImplementation class name: com.mysql.jdbc.jdbc2.optional.MysqlConnectionPoolDataSource

Enter in Step 2:
Path to MySQL-Driver-File (can be downloaded here)

Finish the creation in Step 3 (Summary) with "Finish".

Data source:
1. To create a data source for this JDBC Provider go to Resources > JDBC > JDBC Provider > "YOUR JDBC PROVIDER" > Data sources > New

Enter in Step 1:
Your desired Data source name
Your desired JNDI-Name (e.g. jdbc/LiferayPool)

Enter in Step 2:
No changes

Finish the creation in Step 3 with "Finish"

2. Go to Resources > JDBC > data sources > "your data source" > custom properties
Create these properties:
user = "database user"
password = "database user password"
serverName = "database server name/ip"
databaseName = "name of database"

Save and synchronize to finish the setup.

Client Authentication with User Certificates

2009-01-02T03:18:00.000-08:00

If you are creating your own self signed user certificates (with you own CA) you can easily edit the httpd.conf of your IBM HTTP Server to use these certificates for a restriced access.
After adding a prober CA root cert (see this post)

open the httpd.conf and edit (one) your virtual host(s)

<VirtualHost <ip-adress>:< port>
ServerName <server name>
SSLEnable
SSLClientAuth 2
SSLServerCert <ssl server cert>
<Directory "/" >
Options Indexes MultiViews
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
SSLClientAuthRequire <your ca root dn>
</Directory>

RequestHeader set HTTPS %{HTTPS}e
RequestHeader set SSL_CIPHER %{SSL_CIPHER}e
RequestHeader set SSL_CLIENT_CN %{SSL_CLIENT_CN}e
RequestHeader set SSL_CLIENT_DN %{SSL_CLIENT_DN}e

DocumentRoot /usr/IBM/HTTPServer/www-doc-root2/
</VirtualHost>

Add SSLClientAuth 2 for a required client authentification.
Add SSLClientAuthRequire <your ca root dn> to a directory (/ for all directories).
Example: SSLClientAuthRequire o="ibm.com"

Set HTTP Response Header Cache-Control and enable mod_cache for higher performance

2008-12-10T05:12:00.000-08:00

To enable the ability of caching of pictures open the httpd.conf of your IBM HTTP Server and add following lines

LoadModule headers_module modules/mod_headers.so

Header add Cache-Control "public, max-age=432000, post-check=172000"

</Location>

These lines enable the module mod_headers.so and are setting a Cache-Control header. A Cache-Control header enables clients, webservers and proxys to cache pictures.

Adding the Cache-Control-Header is very useful for older Liferay-Versions.

To enable a IBM HTTP Server to cache those pictures add additionally these lines:

LoadModule cache_module modules/mod_cache.so

LoadModule mem_cache_module modules/mod_mem_cache.so

CacheEnable mem /

MCacheSize 4096

MCacheMaxObjectCount 100

MCacheMinObjectSize 1M

CacheMaxObjectSize 2048

</IfModule>

Link to sample httpd.conf

Enable g-zip for IBM HTTP Server

2008-11-26T05:45:00.000-08:00

In order to deflate the content served form a IBM HTTP Server (IHS) it is possible to enable the g-zip-option in httpd.conf to compress the traffic between a client and a IHS.

To enable g-zip add this lines at the bottom of httpd.conf:

# compress everything but images
LoadModule deflate_module modules/mod_deflate.so
DeflateFilterNote Input instream
DeflateFilterNote Output outstream
DeflateFilterNote Ratio ratio
# log some info
#LogFormat '"%r" %{outstream}n/%{instream}n (%{ratio}n%%)' deflate
#CustomLog logs/deflate_log deflate
# Insert filter
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
# Netscape 4.x has some problems...
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html
# Netscape 4.06-4.08 have some more problems
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip
# MSIE masquerades as Netscape, but it is fine
BrowserMatch \bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html
# Don't compress images
SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \
\.(?:gifjpe?gpngexe)$ no-gzip dont-vary

Link to sample httpd.conf

To enable mime-types exiplict look at this sample file

Link to sample httpd.conf (Version 2)

Links:

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/TIPS0288.html?Open

Form Login for WebSphere Application Server 6.1

2008-11-19T05:45:00.000-08:00

To enable a form based login (instead of a Basic Authentification) edit the web.xml of the application and add a login configuration:

<login-config id="LoginConfig_1"><auth-method>FORM</auth-method><realm-name>Example Form-Based Authentication Area</realm-name><form-login-config id="FormLoginConfig_1"><form-login-page>/login.jsp</form-login-page><form-error-page>/error.jsp</form-error-page></form-login-config></login-config>

The login.jsp contains the login form (ibm example):

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"><html><META HTTP-EQUIV = "Pragma" CONTENT="no-cache"><title> Security FVT Login Page </title><body><h2>Form Login</h2><FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="j_security_check"><p><font size="2"> <strong> Enter user ID and password: </strong></font><BR><strong> User ID</strong> <input type="text" size="20" name="j_username"><strong> Password </strong> <input type="password" size="20" name="j_password"><BR><BR><font size="2"> <strong> And then click this button: </strong></font><input type="submit" name="login" value="Login"></p>
</form></body></html>

the error.jsp contains an error message (ibm example):

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"><html><head><title>A Form login authentication failure occurred</head></title><body><h1><b>A Form login authentication failure occurred</h1></b><p>Authentication may fail for one of many reasons. Some possibilities include:<ol><li>The user-id or password may be entered incorrectly; either misspelled or thewrong case was used.<li>The user-id or password does not exist, has expired, or has been disabled.</ol></p></body></html>

So whats going on (example):

1. User is trying to access http://example.com/app/index.html

2. User get redirected to http://example.com/app/login.jsp

2.1 WAS creates a cookie called WASReqURL which contains the whished path (Value: http[s]://[:Port]/app/index.jsp)

3. User types in user-id and passwort and submits the login credentials

3.1 WAS reads the WASReqURL-Cookie and redirects the the requested path (http://example.com/app/index.html).

3.2 If the credentials are wrong WAS redirects the user to http://example.com/app/error.jsp

It is possible to edit the WASReqURL-Cookie to change the redirect path after a successful login.

Steps:

1. Read cookie Value:

String url ="";
String text = "";
String newurl = "";
//Get all cookies
Cookie[] cookies = request.getCookies();
for (int index=0; index <= cookies.length; index++) {
String cookieName = cookies[index].getName();
if ("WASReqURL".equals(cookieName)) {
//If WASReqURL-Cookie is found, get the value and cancel for-loop urlwithoutlogging = cookies[index].getValue();
break;
}
}

2. Set a new WASReqURL-Cookie

Cookie wasrequrlcookie = new Cookie("WASReqURL",newurl));
response.addCookie(wasrequrlcookie);

Links:

IBM Info Center

Enable SSL (HTTPs) for IBM HTTP Server

2008-11-11T00:47:00.000-08:00

To enable SSL on a IBM HTTP Server (Client -> IHS), you need to generate a proper certificate first.

Steps to generate self-signed-certificate for https traffic:

1. Open /<ihs-root>/bin/ikeyman

2. Select CMS as type and specify a file name and a location for the certificate file

3. When prompted for a password type in your desired password.

4. Click Create > New Self-Signed Certificate in iKeyman. Type in your desired values.

5. Exit iKeymen.

6. Verify that all needed files (3-4 files) are generated in your certificate location.

After generating a self-signed-certificate the IHS needs to be configured to use SSL.

1. Open /<ihs-root>/conf/httpd.conf

2. Add following line to load the SSL module. Add these line add the end of the Load Modules section.

LoadModule ibm_ssl_module modules/mod_ibm_ssl.so

3. Add a virtual host to enable SSL.

Link to example file

4. Save and restart the HTTPs Server (/<ihs-root>/bin/apachectl)

Troubleshooting 1:

If SSL isnt working check the Virtual Host defined in your WebSphere Server.

1. In Administrative Console go to Virtual > default host > Host Aliases and check if port 433 is defined.

To setup SSL between IHS and a WebSphere-Server see:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/v6r0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.websphere.express.doc/info/exp/ae/tsec_httpserv.html

Troubleshooting 2:

Perhaps you need to update the default plugin key files.

1. In Administrative Console go to WebServer > <webserver-name> > Plugin properties

2. Click "Copy to Web server key store directory" to override the old default certificates.

3. Restart the IHS and try again

Bug in Fixpack 6.1.0.19 for WebSphere Application Server

2008-10-27T01:30:00.000-07:00

After installing the fixpack 6.1.0.19 a NullPointerException occurs in some applications.
This is a know bug (PK72336).
This Bug causes:

[9/17/08 16:44:05:508 CDT] 0000003a SystemErr R Exception in thread "WebContainer : 3" java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.NullPointerException
[9/17/08 16:44:05:508 CDT] 0000003a SystemErr R at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.runEventProcessingL oop(ResultHandler.java:793)
[9/17/08 16:44:05:508 CDT] 0000003a SystemErr R at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler$2.run(ResultHandler .java:873)
[9/17/08 16:44:05:508 CDT] 0000003a SystemErr R at com.ibm.ws.util.ThreadPool$Worker.run(ThreadPool.j ava:1473)
[9/17/08 16:44:05:508 CDT] 0000003a SystemErr R Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.ibm.io.async.AsyncFuture.completed(AsyncFuture .java:111)
at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.complete(ResultHand ler.java:195)
at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.runEventProcessingL oop(ResultHandler.java:743)
at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler$2.run(ResultHandler .java:873)
at com.ibm.ws.util.ThreadPool$Worker.run(ThreadPool.j ava:1473)

[9/17/08 16:44:05:508 CDT] 0000003a SystemErr R at com.ibm.io.async.AsyncFuture.completed(AsyncFuture .java:111)
[9/17/08 16:44:05:508 CDT] 0000003a SystemErr R at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.complete(ResultHand ler.java:195)
[9/17/08 16:44:05:524 CDT] 0000003a SystemErr R at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.runEventProcessingL oop(ResultHandler.java:743)
[9/17/08 16:44:05:524 CDT] 0000003a SystemErr R ... 2 more

Or:
[24.10.08 12:00:47:493 CEST] 000000b5 SystemErr R Exception in thread "WebContainer : 13" java.lang.NullPointerException
[24.10.08 12:00:47:493 CEST] 000000b5 SystemErr R at com.ibm.ws.tcp.channel.impl.NioSocketIOChannel.attemptWriteToSocketUsingNIO(NioSocketIOChannel.java:160)
[24.10.08 12:00:47:493 CEST] 000000b5 SystemErr R at com.ibm.ws.tcp.channel.impl.SocketIOChannel.attemptWriteToSocket(SocketIOChannel.java:763)
[24.10.08 12:00:47:493 CEST] 000000b5 SystemErr R at com.ibm.ws.tcp.channel.impl.WorkQueueManager.attemptIO(WorkQueueManager.java:628)
[24.10.08 12:00:47:493 CEST] 000000b5 SystemErr R at com.ibm.ws.tcp.channel.impl.WorkQueueManager.workerRun(WorkQueueManager.java:979)
[24.10.08 12:00:47:493 CEST] 000000b5 SystemErr R at com.ibm.ws.tcp.channel.impl.WorkQueueManager$Worker.run(WorkQueueManager.java:1064)
[24.10.08 12:00:47:493 CEST] 000000b5 SystemErr R at com.ibm.ws.util.ThreadPool$Worker.run(ThreadPool.java:1473)

To fix this exceptions see the link above or navigate to Application Servers > <your_app_server> > Web container > Custom properties > New

Name: com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.channelwritetype
Value: sync

Restart your app server

PHP portlet in Liferay 5 running on WebSphere Application Server 6.1

2008-10-13T05:36:00.001-07:00

Liferay supports portlets with php content. The deployment of these portlets in Tomcat is quite easy.
The deployment of a PHP portlet in Liferay 5 on a WebSphere Server is a bit more difficult.

1. Download the sample_php_portletWAS.war. Its a enhanced version of Liferays original php portlet. The WAR contains all needed files.

2. Move the portal-kernal.jar from <Liferay_root>/WebINF/lib to <WebSphere-System-Root>/lib/ext (or to any other class loading position which is higher then the Liferay 's class loader order).

3. Deploy the php portlet
3.1 In administrative console go to Applications > Enterprise Applications.
3.2 Select the Liferay 5.x App and click "Update"
3.3 Select "Replace or add a single module"
3.4. Select the sample_php_portletWAS.war and specify the context root and the module path.
Also you need to select "Show me all installation options and parameters".
3.5 Click "Next" to start the deployment process
3.6. On step 2 you need to map the server to the sample_php_portlet. Choose the server where Liferay 5.x is deployed.
3.7. On step 7 its nesessary to define the context path again
3.8. Start the deployment (Click "FINISH" and "SAVE")
4. Restart the server
5. Sign in to Liferay and add the "sample_php_portlet"

More information about the deployment of Liferay portlets in WebSphere can be found here

WebSphere Application Server 7

2008-10-13T05:01:00.000-07:00

WebSphere Application Server 7 was released last Friday (10.10.2008).
Some informations can be found here:

https://www14.software.ibm.com/iwm/web/cc/earlyprograms/websphere/wasndv7/player.html

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/woolf?entry=websphere_application_server_v7_available

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/library/techarticles/0809_alcott/0809_alcott.html

Download the trail here (need to sign in):
https://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/iwm/web/reg/pick.do?lang=en_US&source=was60&S_CMP=rnav&S_TACT=105AGX28&codePage=UTF-8

Liferay 5.1.2 with WebSphere 6.1 [Temp fix]

2008-10-07T00:02:00.001-07:00

Liferay 5.1.2 contains a new spring version. While start up of app server an error occurs.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader initWebApplicationContext Context initialization failed
java.lang.TypeNotPresentException: Type javax.annotation.Resource not present
...
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: javax.annotation.Resource
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To fix this error you need to download the geronimo-annotation_1.0_spec-1.1.1.jar of the Apache Geronimo project and copy it to /Web-INF/lib.
See this post for a complete tutorial of deploying Liferay in WebSphere.

Hint:
In Liferay 5.1.2 contains still some crazy bugs like wrong virtual hosts and lazy db connections i do not recommend it for production (with websphere)
Change log

Update: To Fix the wrong virtual host settings go to Enterprise Admin > Settings and replace "localhost" with your virtual host (appserver).

How to compare 2 LDAP-Directories

2008-10-02T01:49:00.000-07:00

The comparison of the LDAP-Directories is a bit harder as it sounds.
The biggest problem is the lack of tools to do this research.
Finally i found i tool a called ldapcmp. It seems its quite old but it works under Windows XP.

How to:
1. Download the SUN LDAP C SDK (you need to register) - Platform: Windows 95 4.0 for XP
2. Extract the zip file
3. Copy the ldapcmp.exe from \tools to \lib
4. Execute the ldapcmp.exe with your parameters

The SUN LDAP C SDK also contains the useful tool ldapsearch

The available parameters can be found here

Replace a SSL Certificate

2008-09-23T05:55:00.000-07:00

After i explained how to disable the auto generation of certificates in this post, i now want to explain how to replace an certificate manually.
1. In the administrative console go to Security > SSL certificates and key management > Manage endpoint security configurations
2. Select the node where you want to repleace the ssl certificate (under Inbound)
3. Click "Manage certificates"
4. Select the default certificate and click "Create a self-signed certificate"
5. Fill out the General properties values (compare with expired certificate)
6. Click "OK" and Save the changes
6. Go to Security > SSL certificates and key management > Manage endpoint security configurations > Select the node where you want to replease the ssl certificate (under Inbound) > Manage certificates
7. Select default and click "Replace"
8. You can now choose which certificate will replace the old certificate, normally its the newly created one. Do not select "Delete old certificate after replacement" and "Delete old signers".
9. Click "OK"
10. Select the old certificate and delete it (click "Delete")
11. Click "OK" and save the changes

Liferay and WebSphere SSO (simplistic)

2008-09-15T06:10:00.001-07:00

Since Liferay is providing CAS (Central Authentication Service) support its possible to access Liferay through WebSphere SSO (LTPA tokens) login credentials.
So what to do?
I can not post all of our source code because of "some security" issues :-)
Steps:
1. Edit portel-ext.properties (or portal-impl.jar//portal.properties)
1.1 Add/Edit the CAS configuration lines
##
## CAS
##
cas.auth.enabled=true
#
cas.import.from.ldap=false
#
cas.login.url=/portal/cas-web/login
cas.logout.url=/portal/html/common/was_logout.jsp
cas.service.url=/portal/c/portal/login
cas.validate.url=/portal/cas-web/proxyValidate

The bold lines say Liferay where to login or logout

2. Create Java-Classes for decrypting the WebSphere LTPA-Token
Have a look at these examples
http://blog.offbytwo.com/2007/08/21/working-with-lightweight-third-party-authentication-ltpa/
http://offbytwo.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/bitsandpieces/LTPAUtils/

and copy them to WEB-INF/classes/<class path> (or pack them into a jar-file)

3. Add AutoLogin-Classes (Step 2) to portal-ext.properties

auto.login.hooks=<class to decrypt ltpa token>,com.liferay.portal.security.auth.CASAutoLogin,...

4. Add was_logout.jsp to specify the cas-logout-path (see step 1)
Content (example):

5. Create new Sign in portlet or edit the delivered sign in portlet
Content of view.jsp (example):

<% if (!themeDisplay.isSignedIn()) { %>

<%-- /* <form action="<portlet:renderURL windowState=">"><portlet:param name="struts_action" value="/mnet_sso_login/sso_forward"></portlet:param>" method="post" name="<portlet:namespace>fm"> */ --%>
fm">

<table class="login-table">

<tbody><tr>
<td style="padding-bottom: 10px;">
<liferay-ui:message key="login">
</liferay-ui:message></td>
<td>
<input name="j_username" class="form_input" type="text">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding-bottom: 10px;">
<liferay-ui:message key="password">
</liferay-ui:message></td>
<td>
<input name="j_password" class="form_input" type="password">

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
</td>
<td>
<input class="form_button" name="" type="submit">submit" value="<liferay-ui:message key="sign-in">">
</liferay-ui:message></td>
</tr>

</tbody></table>

</portlet:namespace>
<% } %>

6. Add Login-config to web.xml
...
<login-config>
<auth-method>FORM</auth-method>
<realm-name>PortalRealm</realm-name>
<form-login-config>
<form-login-page>/c/portal/j_login</form-login-page>
<form-error-page>/portal/web/guest/login/error</form-error-page>
</form-login-config>
</login-config>
...

Thats it

Workflow:
User logs in > LTPA-Token cookie is created by WebSphere > Custom AutoLogin-Class is called > Custom AutoLogin-Class reads Cookies > Custom AutoLogin-Class decrypts LTAP-Token from Cookie > Custom AutoLogin-Class returns credentials array
Example:
credentials[0] = String.valueOf(user.getUserId());
credentials[1] = user.getPassword();
credentials[2] = boolean.TRUE.toString();
> Liferay accepts login

Change tablespace in oracle dumps

2008-09-08T06:32:00.001-07:00

If you downloaded an oracle dump from Liferay's download site and want you want to import this dump into your Oracle-based Liferay DB you will receive several errors if your tablespace isnt "SYSTEM". To fix the tablespace just open the dump file (.dmp) with an text editor like Notepad++, UltraEdit or Wordpad. You will see some strange symbols. This is because no text editor can display the CLOB entries in the dump. Normal SQL-statements are visible.
So you just have to repleace the string "TABLESPACE "SYSTEM"" with "TABLESPACE "<your_tablespace>"".
The import now will complete without errors.

IFrame Web-Application for use with Liferay

2008-09-01T04:05:00.000-07:00

In Liferay its possible to implement several portals in one installation/deployment using (open) communities. Unfortunatly the URLs of these (open) communities are something like

http://www.<Host>.com/<context of liferay deployment>/web/140012/start

To "hide" these URL you can use a iFrame-Web-Application which is running under a more suitable context (like: "/jobs").

Download an EAR-File of an example application here.

The EAR-File contains an index.jsp. In this file you have to edit the source-declaration in the iframe-tag (src).

The IBM WebSphere nomenclature

2008-09-01T03:03:00.000-07:00

The WebSphere nomenclature is sometimes i bit confusing.
In this post i will explain the mostly used terms.

Cell:
A Cell is a logical group of all nodes and there deployment manager.
Node:
A node is a group of profiles. Typically one node represents a physical server.
However its possible to install/run more than one node on a physical server (through profiles).
Node agent:
A Node agent is managing a node. The node agent is needed to access the applications.
JVM (App server):
A JVM (Java Virtual Machine) is a Java-Process containing the installed applications.
Deployment Manager (Dmgr):
A Deployment Manager manages the node agents. A Dmgr-Profile contains the configuration for the entire management domain (cell).
The Administrative console runs inside the Dmgr. If the dmgr is down the applications are still avaiable over the respective node agents.

Install and start an application using wsadmin

2008-07-17T06:13:00.001-07:00

Copy the application ear-file to <WAS_PROFILE_ROOT>/installableApps

1. Open wsadmin (with jython)
1.1 Go to "WebSphere_Profile_Root"/bin
1.2 Execute

wsadmin.sh(.bat) -lang jython

1.3 Enter UserID/Password (if promted)

2. Define needed cell and node variables
2. Execute

cell=AdminConfig.list('Cell')
cellname=AdminConfig.showAttribute(cell,'name')
nodes=AdminConfig.list('Node',cell)
nodename=AdminConfig.showAttribute(nodes,'name')
-----------------------------------
(Alternative:
e.g.: nodename=NAME_OF_NODE)

3. Install application
3.1 Execute

AdminApp.install('../installableApps/<NAME_OF_EAR_FILE>',['-appname <NAME_OF_APPLICATION>'])

4. Save changes
4.1 Execute

AdminConfig.save()

5. Define application manager variable

5.1 Execute

appManager=AdminControl.queryNames
('type=ApplicationManager,cell='+cellname+',
node='+nodename+',process=,*')

5.2 To print out variable execute

print appManager

6. Assign application to variable
6.1 Execute

app=AdminControl.queryNames
('type=Application,cell='+cellname+',node='+nodename+',
process=,J2EEName=,*')

6.2 To print out variable execute

print app

7. Define application name to variable
7.1 Execute

appName=AdminControl.getAttributes(app,'name')

7.2 To print out variable execute

print appName

8. Start application
8.1 Execute

AdminControl.invoke(appManager, 'startApplication',appName)

Hint:
It is easier to use administrative console :-)

<APP_SERVER_NAME>= Name of server (JVM) where the application is deployed
<NAME_OF_APPLICATION> = Name of the application (not the ear-files name)

Links:
Install applications [IBM]
Start applications [IBM]

Stop and uninstall an application using wsadmin

2008-07-17T03:14:00.001-07:00

Before the application can be unsinstalled it must be stopped.
Steps:

1. Open wsadmin (with jython)
1.1 Go to "WebSphere_Profile_Root"/bin
1.2 Execute

wsadmin.sh(.bat) -lang jython

1.3 Enter UserID/Password (if promted)

2. Define needed cell and node variables
2. Execute

3. Define application manager variable

3.1 Execut

appManager=AdminControl.queryNames
('type=ApplicationManager,cell='+cellname+',
node='+nodename+',process=<APP_SERVER_NAME>,*')

3.2 To print out variable execute

print appManager

4. Assign application to variable
4.1 Execute

app=AdminControl.queryNames
('type=Application,cell='+cellname+',node='+nodename+',
process=<APP_SERVER_NAME>,J2EEName=<NAME_OF_APPLICATION>,*')

4.2 To print out variable execute

print app

5. Define application name to variable
5.1 Execute

appName=AdminControl.getAttributes(app,'name')

5.2 To print out variable execute

print appName

6. Stop application
6.1 Execute

AdminControl.invoke(appManager,'stopApplication', appName)

7. Uninstall application
7.1 Execute

AdminApp.uninstall(appName)

8. Save changes
8.1 Execute

AdminConfig.save()

Hint:
It is easier to use administrative console :-)

<APP_SERVER_NAME> = Name of server (JVM) where the application is deployed
<NAME_OF_APPLICATION> = Name of the application (not the ear-files name)
Links:
Stop Application [IBM]
Uninstall Application [IBM]

Setting up an external environment for Liferay 5.0.1 [Windows]

2008-07-15T23:43:00.000-07:00

To setup an ext-environment (or: development environment) for Liferay 5 you will need following files:
Ant
Jikes
Java JDK (1.5 and 1.6 will work)
Liferay 5.0.1 source
Liferay 5.0.1 Tomcat-Bundle

First you need to install/unpack Apache Ant, Jikes and the Java JDK.
Also you need to set the system variables ANT_HOME, JIKES_HOME, JAVA_HOME to the correct folders.
1. Create following folder for the external enviroment
1.1 ROOT (c:/ext)
1.2 EXT (c:/ext/portal)
1.3 SRC (c:/ext/src)
1.4 TOMCAT (c:/ext/tomcat)
2. Unpack the downloaded Liferay files
2.1 Unpack Liferay 5.0.1 source to SRC
2.2 Unpack Liferay 5.0.1 Tomcat-Bundle to TOMCAT

3. Create release property file
3.1 Go to SRC and create a file called

release."WINDOWS_USER_NAME".properties

(e.g: release.Administrator.properties)
3.2 Open file and enter

lp.ext.dir=EXT

(e.g: lp.ext.dir=c:/ext/portal)

4. Run ant compile to create files for EXT
4.1 Open command promt and go to SRC
4.2 Execute

ant clean start build-ext

4.3 The compiled files will be moved to EXT

5. Create appserver property file
5.1 Go to EXT and create a file called

app.server."WINDOWS_USER_NAME".properties

(e.g: app.server..Administrator.properties)
5.2 Open file and enter
app.server.type=tomcat
app.server.tomcat.dir=TOMCAT
(e.g: app.server.tomcat.dir=c:/ext/tomcat)

6. Run ant deploy to deploy files in Tomcat
6.1 Open command promt and go to EXT
6.2 Execute

ant clean deploy

6.3 The deployed files will be moved to TOMCAT/"LIFERAY_ROOT"

Optional:
Create Eclipse projects for external enviroment
1. Open Eclipse (workspace: ROOT)
2. Create new java project called src from existing project (path: SRC)
3. Create new java project called portal from existing project (path: EXT)
4. Open Ant-View (Window > Show View > Ant)
5. Drag & Drop build.xml from src-project into the ant view (on the right)
6. Drag & Drop build.xml from portal-project into the ant view (on the right)

Very useful link:
Liferay Wiki

Show all JNDI-entries

2008-07-15T01:42:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you need to get all entries in the JNDI-namespace (JNDI=Java Naming and Directory Interface). In order to do this you can use the script dumpNameSpace.sh (.bat).
Just execute dumpNameSpace.sh
The script is located in the bin-folder of the profile-root.

/"WebSphere_Profile_Root"/bin/dumpNameSpace.sh(.bat)

Its possible to limit the output to a cell or a node. All avaiable parameters can be viewen here.

Add a portlet to Liferay (deployed via WebSphere's admin console)

2008-07-09T05:24:00.000-07:00

Also see this post

In this post i try to descripe how to deploy a portlet in liferay's portlet container using the administrative console of a WAS 6.1 installation.
I will use the sample-jsp-portlet for demonstration.
Steps:
1. Stop Liferay / Server
2. Copy portal-kernel.jar to "WebSphere_System_Root"/lib/ext/
3. Restart Liferay / Server
4. Edit the web.xml of your portlet-war-file.
4.1. Add following entries (for sample-jsp-portlet):

<web-app>
<display-name>sample-jsp-portlet</display-name>
<listener>
<listener-class>com.liferay.portal.kernel.servlet.PortletContextListener</listener-class>
</listener>
<context-param>
<param-name>com.ibm.websphere.portletcontainer.PortletDeploymentEnabled</param-name>
<param-value>false</param-value>
</context-param>
<servlet>
<servlet-name>sample_jsp_portlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.liferay.portal.kernel.servlet.PortletServlet</servlet-class>
<init-param>
<param-name>portlet-class</param-name>
<param-value>com.liferay.sample.jsp.portlet.JSPPortlet</param-value>
</init-param>
<load-on-startup>0</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>sample_jsp_portlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/sample_jsp_portlet/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<taglib>
<taglib-uri>http://java.sun.com/portlet_2_0</taglib-uri>
<taglib-location>/WEB-INF/tld/liferay-portlet.tld</taglib-location>
</taglib>
</web-app>

Link to complete Web.xml for sample-jsp-portlet

Hint: Use Winrar to edit the web.xml in the war-file.

4.2 Edit the portlet.xml

4.2.1 Edit portletName-Tag to

<portlet-name>sample_jsp_portlet</portlet-name>

5. Deploy the portlet via administrative console of WebSphere.
5.1 Go to Enterprise applications > "Select your Liferay application" > Click "Update" > Select " Replace or add a single module"
5.2. Browse to the edited portlet-war-file.
5.3 Set "Specify the path beginning with the installed application archive file to the module to be replaced or added." to the portlet's name (in this case: sample-jsp-portlet).
5.3 Set the context path to a correct value (in this case i used: sample-jsp-portlet).

5.4. Click "Next" to start the deployment dialogs
5.5. Click through all deployment steps (change context path to "sample-jsp-portlet" (Step 7)).
5.6. Click "Finish" to deploy the portlet.
6. The portlet will be installed to the liferay-folder and can be added via the "Add application"-menu in Liferay (perhaps you have to restart Liferay/the server).

Download the complete sample-jsp-portlet for websphere here.

Special thanks to "Mate".
Links:
Liferay Forum Posts
IBM PK34915

Add an additional language to Liferay

2008-07-04T00:56:00.001-07:00

Adding an additional language to Liferay is not so difficult as it sounds.
For demonstration i will add the "language" en_GB (English for Great Britain)
to Liferay (5).

All supported locales can be viewed here (Java EE - Standard!!).
Technical description here

Following steps have to be proceeded:
1. Add the new language Code to "LIFERAY_ROOT_PATH"/WEB-INF/classes/portal(-ext).properties
##
## Language
##
locales=ar_SA,ca_AD,ca_ES,zh_CN,zh_TW,cs_CZ,nl_NL,en_US,
en_GB,fi_FI,fr_FR,de_DE,el_GR,hu_HU,it_IT,ja_JP,ko_KR,
nb_NO,fa_IR,pt_BR,ru_RU,es_ES,sv_SE,tr_TR,vi_VN

2. If you add an completly new language you need to add an language-xx.propteries (xx=new language) file to /WEB-INF/lib/portal-impl.jar//content. In this case (en_UK) it is not nessary to add a new file because english (en) is already defined.

3. Add an Language-Image to your theme (in classis-theme: /images/language/en_GB.png)

4. Restart Liferay

Add a portlet to Liferay 5 (deployed in Liferay's Portlet Container)

2008-07-03T02:34:00.000-07:00

In this post i will discribe the manual deployment of portlets in WebSphere.
To get some information about the auto deployment of portlets in WebSphere, check out this post.
Manually installation of a portlet in liferays portlet container isnt an easy think but its doable.
I try to explain the procedure with an simple (self created) sample (non-struts) JSP-Portlet.

The portlet just prints out:
Hello - username - how are you?
Download it here

Steps:
1. Copy the JSP-Files of the portlet to "liferay_folder"/html/portlet/welcome/
("welcome" is the portlet name)
2. Add an <portlet>-entry to WEB-INF/portlet-custom.xml

<portlet>
<portlet-name>welcome</portlet-name>
<display-name>Welcome to Liferay 5</display-name>
<portlet-class>com.liferay.portlet.JSPPortlet</portlet-class>
<init-param>
<name>view-jsp</name>
<value>/portlet/welcome/view.jsp</value>
</init-param>
<expiration-cache>0</expiration-cache>
<supports>
<mime-type>text/html</mime-type>
</supports>
<resource-bundle>com.liferay.portlet.StrutsResourceBundle</resource-bundle>
<security-role-ref>
<role-name>guest</role-name>
</security-role-ref>
<security-role-ref>
<role-name>power-user</role-name>
</security-role-ref>
<security-role-ref>
<role-name>user</role-name>
</security-role-ref>
</portlet>

3. Add an entry to WEB-INF/liferay-portlet.xml

<portlet>
<portlet-name>welcome</portlet-name>
<struts-path>mnet_welcome</struts-path>
<restore-current-view>false</restore-current-view>
<private-request-attributes>false</private-request-attributes>
<ajaxable>false</ajaxable>
</portlet>

4. Add an entry to WEB-INF/liferay-display.xml

5. Add an entry to the language-xx.property-files (located in WEB-INF/lib/portal-impl.jar)
5.1 Open portal-impl.jar//content/language-"your needed region codes".properties (Hint: use Winrar)
5.2 Add an entry for the portlet title

javax.portlet.title.welcome=Welcome

5.3 Add an entry fot the category name

category.ownportlets=Own portlets

5.4 Save portal-impl.jar

6. Restart server

7. After the restart it's possible to add the welcome-portlet via the "Add Application" menu

If you want to deploy a struts portlet you have to additionally edit the struts-config.xml and the tiles-def.xml.

If you downloaded a portlet form liferay.com its a bit easier.
Open the downloaded war-file and take a look at the delivered xml-files.
These files just contain the additional entries needed for this portlet.
Copy these entries and paste them in the xmls located in your liferay installation.
Also extract all resources (classes,jars, jsps) to the corresponding folder.
Restart the server and thats it.
Picture (maybe it helps :-) :

Alternative:
Use an ext-enviroment and choose websphere as app-server

Links:
http://wiki.liferay.com/index.php/How_to_create_a_simple_portlet

Deploy Liferay 5 in WebSphere Application Server 6.1

2008-07-01T06:05:00.000-07:00

For the latest install guides click here
#####################################################

Several problems need to be solved before Liferay 5 works correct in WAS 6.1.
Steps for installation:
1. Add ibm-web-bnd.xmi and ibm-web-ext.xmi to the WEB-INF-folder in the Liferay 5 WAR-file. (These files determinate that WAS is compiling Liferay 5 with JRE/JDK 1.5).
2. Create the Liferay 5 datasource (jdbc/LiferayPool - take a look at this post)
3. Deploy Liferay 5 WAR-File (with dependencies)
4. Move the JAR-files icu4.jar and portlet.jar from "Liferay-Root-Path"/WEB-INF/lib/ to /"WebSphere System Root"/java/jre/lib/ext (or change class load order :)
5. Somehow the WAS JSP-Compiler doesn't accept a JSP-Print-Tag (<%=... %>)
which contains quotes or double quotes (' or "). So you need to rewrite/replace some JSP-Files.
Current list of not working JSP-files:

../html/portal/layout/edit/common.jspf
../html/portlet/tagged_content/display_full_content.jsp
../html/portlet/enterprise_admin/edit_organization_profile.jspf
../html/portlet/enterprise_admin/edit_role_permissions_resource.jsp
../html/portlet/enterprise_admin/organisation_action.jsp
../html/portlet/enterprise_admin/user_group_action.jsp
../html/portelt/rss/configuration.jsp
../html/portlet/wiki/page_iterator.jsp
../html/portlet/calender/edit_event.jsp

You can download the correct JSP-Files here. This step seems not to be necessary in Liferay 5.1.2.

6. For Liferay 5.1.2 geronimo-annotation_1.0_spec-1.1.1.jar (contained in apache geronimo) needs to be added to /Web-INF/lib [Temp fix - not for production - some spring releated database errors still occure in Liferay 5.1.2]

7. Edit the jdbc data source for higher load (especially for Oracle Databases)
7.1 In administrative console go to Resources > JDBC > Data sources > jdbc/LiferayPool > Connection pool properties
7.2 Adjust the connection properties for your needs

Guideline:
Connection Timeout -> decrease
Maximum Connections -> increase dramatically
Minimum Connections -> 1
Reap time -> decrease
Unused timeout -> decrease dramatically
Aged timeout -> 0

8. For Liferay 5.1.2 you need to go to Enterprise Admin > Settings and adjust the virtual host value

Enable session failover in clusters

2008-06-30T02:09:00.000-07:00

Sometimes its necessary to synchronize the whole session between two (or more) cluster members. Especially when some important attributes are stored in the session (search,...).
WebSphere offers an option called "Session Replication" to avoid the lost of a session because of a crashed Cluster Member.

First you need to setup a replication domain for the cluster
1.1. Go to Enviroment > Replication domains > New
1.2. Type in the name of the replication domain and click OK
1.3. Save & synchronize changes

Now its possible to setup the session replication
2.1. Go to Application servers > "ClusterMember1" > Web container > Session management > Distributed environment settings
2.2 Click Memory-to-memory replication
2.3 Select your newly created replication domain and "Both client and server" as replication mode
2.4 Click OK
2.5 Save & synchronize changes

Repeat this steps (2.1 -> 2.5) for every Cluster Member.

3. Restart all Cluster Members

Problems with WebSphere Update Installer

2008-06-25T00:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday i just wanted to update my testing enviroment to WAS 6.1.0.17.
Iin order to do that i just wanted to install the Update Installer 6.1.0.17.
I executed the install-script an nothings happens. Nice.
In the end i detected an error on the JDK/JRE shipped with the Update Installer.
Error message:

/opt/WebSphere/UpdateInstaller61017_install/JDK/jre.pak/repository/package.java.jre/java/jre/bin/java: cannot execute binary file

I couldnt really determinate the problem, but i managed to launch the Update Installer with another JRE.

/"WAS_SYSTEM_ROOT"/java/jre/bin/java -cp /"UPDATE_INSTALLER_PATH"/UpdateInstaller/setup.jar -Xms48m -Xms384m run -options /"UPDATE_INSTALLER_PATH"/UpdateInstaller/responsefile.updiinstaller.txt -silent

For Installation i used a responsefile and the silent install mode. Our 64bit-System doesnt support the Install-GUI of the UpdateInstaller.
To run the Update Installer i executed

/"WAS_SYSTEM_ROOT"/java/jre/bin/java -cp /"UPDATE_INSTALLER_PATH"/update.jar -Xms48m -Xms384m run

I didnt mangage to find the "problem" on the delivered JDK/JRE. Probably there is someting wrong with the CLASSPATH.

Update:
Problem conclusion:
Replace the JRE-folder ("UPDATE_INSTALLER_PATH"/java/jre) with a jre-folder of a old Update-Installer-Installation.
Here you can download a working jre-folder
Part 1
Part 2
You need Winrar to unpack.

Update 2 (new):
Seems like IBM removed the Intel Intanium 64 Bit version of the Update Installer.
Only the Linux for AMD/Intel 64 Bit version is available at the moment.

Increase the performance of Liferay

2008-06-23T03:13:00.001-07:00

This is my first post considering the portal application Liferay.

How to increase performance:
1. Activate servlet-caching in WebSphere Application Server (see post below)

2. In portal(-ext).properties set

javascript.fast.load=true
theme.css.fast.load=true
velocity.engine.resource.manager.cache.enabled=true

3. Disable JavaScript
If you are using Liferay as an guest user, JavaScript is not nessarly needed.
3.1 Disable Ajax-Portlets
3.1.1 Open WEB-INF/liferay-portlet.xml and and add the tag ajaxable to every portelt entry

<portlet>
<portlet-name>1</portlet-name>
<icon>/html/portlet/mail/icon.png</icon>
<struts-path>mail</struts-path>
<preferences-unique-per-layout>false</preferences-unique-per-layout>
<preferences-owned-by-group>false</preferences-owned-by-group>
<use-default-template>false</use-default-template>
<restore-current-view>false</restore-current-view>
<maximize-edit>true</maximize-edit>
<private-request-attributes>false</private-request-attributes>
<private-session-attributes>false</private-session-attributes>
<render-weight>0</render-weight>
<ajaxable>false</ajaxable>
<header-portlet-javascript>/html/portlet/mail/packed.js</header-portlet-javascript>
<css-class-wrapper>portlet-mail</css-class-wrapper>
</portlet>

3.1.2. Open /html/themes/"your theme"/portal-normal.vm and replace the code line

#js ($js_main_file)

with

#if ( $is_signed_in )

#js ($js_main_file)

#end

3.1.3 Test it .-)

4. Have a look at
http://wiki.liferay.com/index.php/Performance

Using the same JNDI-Name for different applications

2008-06-23T02:24:00.000-07:00

Sometimes its nessesary to install the same application twice on one application server cell (or even node).
If this applications are using the same JNDI-Name (like jdbc/LiferayPool) but another Database, you can separate these resource-declarations with the Scope-option in WebSphere.

Problem description:

Assumption:
The Applications are installed on different application servers (JVMs).

1. Go to Resources > JDBC > Data sources
2. Select the application server (JVM) on which for the jdbc-resource corresponding application is installed.

3. Click New to create the JDBC-Resource under this Scope.

4. Repeat this step for the other JDBC-Resource (select the application server of the other application).

Result description

This option is useful for applications like Liferay.

Rebuilding an application EAR-File

2008-06-10T00:33:00.000-07:00

Sometimes its nessesary to extract an application and to (re)-build an EAR-File which can be deployed on another Application Server.
Tools needed: Eclipse WTP

1. Copy the application-folder to your local harddrive
2. Start Eclipse WTP and create an new project
2.1 Select File > New > Project... > Dynamic Web Project
2.2 Enter a project name
2.3 Select "Add project to an EAR" and click "New"
2.4 Enter a project EAR name (e.g. "original project name (2.2) + ear)
2.5 Click "Finish" in EAR-Window
2.6 Click "Finish" in Project-Window
3. Add the application files to the project
3.1 Drag an drop the files located in the WAR-folder of the application to folder "Webcontent" in the project.
3.2 The project should now look like this4. Build EAR-File
4.1 Right-Click Project > Export > Export... > EAR-File
4.2 Select destination of the EAR-File and Click "Finish"

Increase performance of applications with servlet caching

2008-06-03T05:21:00.000-07:00

WebSphere Application Server (Version 5,6,6.1) provides the servlet caching option to increase the performance of applications. If servlet caching is enabled, the servlet output will be held in RAM of the physical application server. As an result clients can be served faster. In my tests i noticed a performance increase about 50 percent.
So how to enable servlet caching?
1. In administrative console go to
Application servers > "Server name" > Container services > Dynamic cache service
and set "Enable service at server startup" to true.

2. Go to
Application servers > "Server name" > Web container and enable servlet caching for this application server
3. Restart the application server

Note:
More RAM-Space is needed to cache the output.
Servlet output will be cached in RAM during first invocation of JSP/Servlet.

Reinstall Admin Console (isclite)

2008-06-02T23:06:00.001-07:00

If administrative console is broken or was accidentally uninstalled (happens typically in base-version of WAS), re-deployment (reinstall) of console-application can be done with jython script deployConsole.py located in bin-folder.
1. First a clean removal of the old admin-console deployment is nessacary

"System-folder"/bin/wsadmin.sh -lang jython -f deployConsole.py remove

2. Now reinstall of administrative console (isclite) will complete without errors (hopefully)

"System-folder"/bin/wsadmin.sh -lang jython -f deployConsole.py install

3. Take a look at /"profile-root"/config/cells/"cell name"/nodes/"node name"/applications/isclite.ear/deployments/isclite/deployment.xml
3.1 Check if the <deploymenttargets>-Tag points to the correct server.
4. Take a look at /"profile root"/config/cells/"cell name"/nodes/"node name"/serverindex.xml
4.1 Check if the <deployedapplications>-Tag for application isclite
is mapped to the correct server (server1 in base version of WAS).

Now the administrative console should work again.

Add an additional application server (JVM) to WAS 6.1 - Base version

2008-05-30T03:30:00.000-07:00

In "WebSphere WAS 6.1 Base Version" only one application server is available (server1).
Via administrative console an additional server CAN NOT be created.
However there are alternative ways to do this.
1. Use wsadmin command line tool (start it with .../bin/wsadmin.sh(.bat))

1.1 Use following command to define the Node which you want to add an application server

set node [$AdminConfig getid /Node:"NODE NAME"/]

1.2 Use this command to create an application server

$AdminTask createApplicationServer "NODE NAME" {-name "AppServer-Name" –templateName default}

1.3 Save changes with

$AdminConfig save

2. Hack the properties of administrativ console
2.1 Go to \profiles\config\cells\"cell name"\nodes\"node name"\
2.2 Open node-metadata.properties
2.3 Change the property com.ibm.websphere.deployed.features from com.ibm.ws.base_6.0.0.0,
com.ibm.ws.express_6.0.0.0,
com.ibm.ws.j2ee_6.0.0.0,
com.ibm.ws.uddi_6.0.0.0,
com.ibm.ws.wsgateway_6.0.0.0
to
com.ibm.ws.base_6.0.0.0,
com.ibm.ws.express_6.0.0.0,
com.ibm.ws.j2ee_6.0.0.0,
com.ibm.ws.nd_6.0.0.0,
com.ibm.ws.uddi_6.0.0.0,
com.ibm.ws.wsgateway_6.0.0.0
2.4 Save file and restart servers
2.5 New ApplicationServers can now be created via administrative console

Note: Not all added menu items will work. Some background scripts aren't provided in WAS Base Version (e.g. Add Webservice gateway instance)

Startup behavior of an application

2008-05-14T01:57:00.000-07:00

When you need to disable the auto-start option of an application go to "Enterprise Applications > Name of Application > Target specific application status", select Application Server and click "Disable Auto Start".

To adjust the startup order go to "Enterprise Applications > Name of Application > Startup behavior" and adjust to Startup order by changing the field-value.
Applications with lowest value are started first.
Applications with the same value are not startet in an specific order.

Update an WebSphere Installation

2008-05-02T02:09:00.000-07:00

Tools needed:
IBM UpdateInstaller
Grapical User Interface (Display-variable)

In order to use the IBM UpdateInstaller a Grapical User Interface recommanded (I used Exceed. KDE, GNOME will work too)

Steps:
1. Install IBM Update Installer
1.1 Download all necessary Updates on IBMs Update Site (use Update Wizard)
1.2 Copy all files to WebSphere-Server
1.3 Go to Update Installer-Directory and run install
1.4 Update Installer Installation GUI starts
1.5 Click through dialogs and install IBMs Update Installer

2. Run Update Installer
2.1 Go to install-directory of Update Installer
2.2 Run update.sh
2.3 Click through dialogs and select as directory the WebSphere System directory (not the profile directory).
2.4 Select directory of maintance packages and run installation

WebSphere licensing

2008-04-28T03:47:00.000-07:00

How does IBM licence WebSphere?
Well thats an good question :-).
Right now they are using Processor Value Units. Which means every core of an CPU is an Processor (hehe). So if you have an Dual-Core-CPU you need to licence two processors.
Not enough: Every CPU-Type needs different amount of Value Units.
Strangely IBM-CPUs are rated highest.
The Price for an WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment Value Unit is ~155 $.
Not a cheap amusement.
Hint:
Click for PVU Calculator
Add an WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment to your shopping cart to calculate correct licence costs.

Add JAX-RPC-Handler to WebService (Gateway Instance)

2008-04-24T00:43:00.000-07:00

In this post i try to explain how to add an JAX-RPC-Handler to an Webservice Gateway Instance.
As you can see in the picture i posted below an JAX-RPC-Handler is connected to an Inbound or Outbound-Port of an WSGW-Instance. JAX-RPC-Handlers are commonly used for logging a Webservice.
Note to Mediations:
Mediation is are not specified to an WebService.
Mediations are connected to message destination. This enables mediations to log the message queues.

1. In Admin-console go to Service Integration > Webservices > JAX-RPC Handlers > New

Name: Name of Handler
Classname: "Classpath of your handler class"

your handler class(es) should be stored in "Websphere System directory"/lib/ext/"your class structure"

2. Go to Service Integration > Webservices > JAX-RPC Handler List > New
Fill out the form and move your handler class to right field.
3. Add JAX-RPC-Handler to Inbound-Port of WS-Gateway Service
3.1 Go to Service Integration > Buses > "Your Bus" > Inbound Services > "your inbound service" > Inbound ports > "Your inbound port"
3.2 Select JAX-RPC-Handler List from drop-down-menu and click "OK"

How to create an WebService-Gateway in WebSphere Application Server 6.1

2008-04-23T07:33:00.000-07:00

In this post i try to explain how to implement an Webservice Gateway in WebSphere Application Server 6.1.
To created and manage Webservice Gateways over administrativ console the Websphere Network Deployment Licence is needed.
The following picture shows how an Webservice Enviroment should look like in the end.

Note: JAX-RPC-Handlers and Mediations will be configured in another post (see above)
Steps:

1. Installation of SDO Repository
1.1 Ensure that Server/Node is started
1.2 Locate installSdoRepository.jacl (probably in bin-directory)
1.3 Change to bin-directory of profile and execute

wsadmin -f "location of installSdoRepository.jacl" -createDb

to create the SDO-Repository (storage for WSDL-Definitions,..)

1.4 Locate sibwsInstall.jacl(probably in util-directory)
1.5 Execute

wsadmin -f "Location of sibwsInstall.jacl" INSTALL_RA -nodeName "Name of Node" -installRoot "Location of System"

to install the Resource Adapter (used to invoke Web services)

1.6 Execute

wsadmin -f "Location of sibwsInstall.jacl" INSTALL -nodeName "Name of Node" -installRoot "Location of System"

to install the SIBWS-Application (SIBWS= Service Integration Bus Web Services)

1.7 Execute

wsadmin -f "Location of sibwsInstall.jacl" INSTALL_HTTP -nodeName "Name of Node" -installRoot "Location of System"

to install the HTTP-Channel-Applications (needed for accessing an Web Service)

What we created:
We installed all necessary application (components) for creating a WebService Gateway.
In the next Steps we will associate these applications with Endpoint Listeners.

2. Create and configure SIB
2.1 In administrative console go to Integration > Buses
2.2 Create an new Bus
2.3 Add an Server/Cluster as an Bus Member to newly created Bus (Bus > Bus Member > Add)
2.4 Create End Point Listener
2.4.1 In admin console go to Servers > Application Servers > "Server which was added as Bus Member" > Additional Properties > Endpoint Listener
2.4.2 Click "New" to create Endpoint Listener

Name: SOAPHTTPChannel1
Binding: SOAP over HTTP
URL-ROOT: "URL of Bus Member Server"/wsgwsoaphttp1
WSDL servering URL: "URL of Bus Member Server"/wsgwsoaphttp1/wsdl

2.5 Connect End point listener to SIB
2.5.1 Go to newly created End point listener > Connection Properties > New
2.5.2 Select newly created Bus
2.6 Restart server(s) to start message engine
2.6.1 Perhaps an authenticate error occurs. In this case you need to create a J2C Authentication data entry an associate it to the message engine (Panel: Integration > Buses > "Bus name" > Security for bus "bus name" > Inter-engine authentication alias) . J2C data should contain the credentials of the primary Websphere admin (wasadmin).

3. Create an Webservice Gateway Instance for your WebService Application
3.1 Go to Service Integration > Buses > "Bus Name" > Web Service Gateway instances > New

Name: "name of wsgw"
Gateway namespace: com.ibm.ws."busname".wsgw1
Default Proxy WSDL URL: "URL of Bus Member"/sibws/proxywsdl/ProxyServiceTemplate.wsdl

3.2 Go to Service Integration > Buses > "Bus Name" > Web Service Gateway Instances > "name of wsgw" > Gateway services > New
This is were you need the WSDL of your Webservice application (which have to be installed first).
3.2.1 Select WSDL-defined web service provider
3.2.1 Fill out Step 1 with your Gateway Service Name
3.2.2 Fill out Step 2 with your WSDL location (URL)
3.2.3 Go through other steps (no input needed) and click "Finish"

Edited: 01.07.2008
Adapted from WAS 6.0

Export / Import LTPA-Keys for Single Sign On (SSO)

2008-04-23T01:03:00.000-07:00

Sometimes its necessary to implement an SSO-Enviroment over different WebSphere-Cells (e.g. Production-Cell and Acceptance-Cell). To do this both cells need the same LTPA-Keys.
The synchronization of LTPA-Keys can be done over Admin-Console.

1. To Export LTPA-Keys from a Cell navigate to
Security > Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure > Authentication mechanisms and expiration.

2. Fill out the import/export-Form at the bottom of the pageand click "Export keys". The LTPA-Keys will be exported to the specified directory. (The Keys will be password protected.)

3. Copy the exported ltpa.jceks-File to other the Cell (do not override ltpa.jceks of this cell).

4. Take a look at ltpa.jceks-File of this cell and note the file-size.
File is located in /"websphere"/"dmgr"/config/cells/"cellname"/ltpa.jceks

5. To import the LTPA-Keys to other Cell navigate to
Security > Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure > Authentication mechanisms and expiration.

6. Fill out "Cross-cell Single sign on"-From and click "Import keys"

7. File size of ltpa.jceks-File of this Cell should now be increased.
Sometimes nothing happens to file size of ltpa.jceks-File and Cross-cell SSO will not work (WAS-Bug).
In this case just repeat the import.

8. Restart servers/node

Add an stand alone profile to Dmgr with addNode-Command

2008-04-22T00:15:00.001-07:00

Sometimes you want to add an stand alone profile/node to an existing Deployment Manager. In order to do this use the addNode-Command.
1. Change to /bin-Directory of the profile you want to add.

2. run addNode-Command

addNode.sh(.bat) "Dmgr_Hostname" -username "dmgradmin" -password "dmgradminpassword"

3. If addNode-Command was successfull, an message like this one should appear

Node XXX has been successfull federated

WebSphere Rapid Deployment

2008-04-21T02:51:00.000-07:00

Hi, now i got something special for you. Rapid Deployment in Websphere Application Servers (WRD).
WRD allows you to deploy applications automatically (like Tomcat/JBoss).
WRD is usefull in test enviroments.
I do not recommend it for Production Enviroment.

Link:
Click
here you got an quite good IBM Education PDF:
Click [REMOVED] Sorry :-(

HINT:
WRD will not work in clusters

IBM Support Toolbar

2008-04-21T02:09:00.000-07:00

Hi i just found this. Maybe its interessting for someone:
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/support/toolbar/

its an Support-Toolbar for IE and Firfox.
I tried it and its OK. Not more not less.

Federate an Application Server - Profile to Dmgr

2008-04-21T00:55:00.001-07:00

We can easily create an Application-Server-Profile and federate it directly to an Dmgr

First we need an reponse-file:
-------------------------------
create
templatePath=/home/waslocal/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profileTemplates/managed
profileName="NAME OF PROFILE"
profilePath=/home/waslocal/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/p2
hostName="HOST NAME OF MACHINE"
nodeName="NODE NAME"
dmgrHost="HOST NAME OF DMGR"
dmgrAdminUserName=wasadmin
dmgrAdminPassword=MyAdminPassword
enableService=false
startingPort=11100
-------------------------------

then we can execute

manageprofiles.bat -repsponse "PATH_TO_RESPONSE_FILE"

After a few minutes the newly created Profile (Node) should appear in "System administration > Nodes" in the Dmgr-Console

How to Create an Dmgr-Profile

2008-04-21T00:38:00.002-07:00

So, how to create an Deployment-Manager-Profile.
First of all you need an response-file like this one:
-------------------------
create
templatePath=C:/Program Files/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profileTemplates/dmgr
profileName=Dmgr
profilePath=C:/Program Files/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/Dmgr
nodeName=dmgrNode
winserviceCheck=false
enableAdminSecurity=true
adminUserName=wasadmin
adminPassword=MyAdminPassword
defaultPorts
--------------------------

now you can easily create an dmgr with mangeprofiles.bat / mangeprofiles.sh.

mangeprofiles.sh -response "PATH_TO_RESPONSEFILE"

After this, you can start the dmgr

startManager.bat / startManager.sh

Thats it :-)

Disable auto-generation of LTPA Keys

2008-04-20T02:05:00.001-07:00

In a sso-enviroment this option could be a source of problems.
Websphere is configured by default to automatically generate new LTPA Keys every 12 weeks.
This caused some problems in our sso-enviroment.
Here is an link to this issue:
Click

here another one (PPT):
Click

Hint:
backup your config-directory.
LTPA-Keys are stored in this file
/"websphere"/"dmgr"/config/cells/"cellname"/ltpa.jceks

First Post

2008-04-18T10:32:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

in this blog i want to share my experience with websphere application servers.

In addition i want to share my Liferay (an OpenSource-Portal-Software) experience.