How to restore WebSphere Portal back to the out-of-the-box security configuration

One of my colleague was engaged in an assignment this week where he needed to revert back the existing security with LDAP to out-of-the-box security (File repository). Here are the steps which we followed to complete this task.

We are using portal 6.1. So, we need to install the required patch for this task. We installed PK73815 and update the Portal configuration. You can down load this APAR from the IBM fix central.

• Modify the wkplc.properties file for the following changes. Add this properties at the end fo the file.
  

# The realm name to be used. A realm with this name will be created.
restore.file.realm=federatedRealm
restore.file.delimiter=/

# Portal and WAS admin UID (short name) and password
restore.file.primaryAdminId=adminUID
restore.file.primaryAdminPassword=adminPWD

# CN of portal admin group (short name)
restore.file.primaryPortalAdminGroup=adminGroupCN

• Make sure that your WAS admin password and your Portal admin password are populated in wkplc.properties file.
• Start Websphere Application Server and Websphere Portal server before running the task.
• Navigate to the /opt/ibm/WebSphere/wp_profile/ConfigEngin directory. Run the following command from here.
  wp-restore-default-repository-configuration
• The wp-restore-default-repository-configuration task allows you to return to the default VMM setup with a federated file repository. The task will create a new realm, delete all existing repositories, and configure a file repository in VMM.
• If you want the admin user to be added to the admin group, restart both the servers and run the following command from /opt/ibm/WebSphere/wp_profile/ConfigEngin
  wp-restore-default-repository-add-group-member

This process will revert back your repository back to out-of-the-box security.

References:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=688&ca=portall2&uid=swg21368395

How to provide anonymous access to your web content

It's sometimes so frustrating to see that some thing which you have already done once is giving you a hard time doing again.

This is exactly what I faced today. I have configured anonymous access to the web content for my site and have configured Web Content Viewer portlet for anonymous access in my devl environment. But when I tried the same thing today in Production, it's just not working. After so many tries looking for the solution what I found, is a small mistake which cost me dearly.

This has again inspired me to put this thing on papaer to make my life easy. So, for all you people out there who are also into such kind of scenarios, here is a quick note on how to assign anonymous access to web content.

Steps:

1. Create a copy of the "Web Content Viewer" portlet and rename it to whatever name you like.
2. Add "Anonymous Portal User" into the user role of the portlet.
3. Add "Anonymous Portal User" into the user role of your content library.
4. If point -3 doesn't suits to your access policy, then atleast make sure that you need to have user access for "Anonymous Portal User" on every item in the path to the current content item. i.e. library/site/site area/content item and ofcourse on the Authoring Template and presentation Template.
5. Modify the Edit Shared Settings in the portlet and configure the content item to be displayed.

Hope this helps to some extent when you really need it. :)

Learning WebSphere Portal Enable, Extend, and Express 6.1 for Administrators

It's been quite a while since I blog . Busy with ongoing assignments and of course my wedding is around the corner. :)

For the people who are more aligned towards portal administration rather than development, here is collection of all the details/know-how which will be handy while working. This is a one stop shop for administrator.

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/portalwiki.nsf/dx/learning_portal_for_administrators

WebSphere Portal and Lotus Web Content Management performance tuning guides and supplemental content

While googling for some other help on Websphere Portal, I found this article/technote from IBM which is must for Portal specialist working on improve performance of the portal and it's various components.

Here is the link for that.

How to check the version of the Websphere Portal Server

Generally it sound very trivial task to get the version information about the Websphere Portal installed in your environment, but let me tell you some times it's not. :)

Last week I wasted few mins in the middle of my configurations just to find out what exactly the version and the patch history for my installed portal server.

So, for all who are working on portal installation/configurations, I am writing fews steps here to find out the exact version and patch history for installed portal server along with many more details.

1. Check out the systemOut.log file for your portal server in /opt/ibm/WebSphere/wp_profile/logs/WebSphere_Portal.
WebSphere Portral writes the current version information and details bout fixes applied to this fiel at the time of startup.
2. /opt/ibm/WebSphere/PortalServer/bin/WPVersionInfo.sh : This command will write current version information on console. This will give you the information about the fixpacks installed on your server also.

Here is an example of that.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IBM WebSphere Portal Product Installation Status Report
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Report at date and time 2009-07-14T06:45:01-05:00

Installation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Product Directory /opt/ibm/WebSphere/PortalServer
Version Directory /opt/ibm/WebSphere/PortalServer/version
DTD Directory /opt/ibm/WebSphere/PortalServer/version/dtd
Log Directory /opt/ibm/WebSphere/PortalServer/version/log
Backup Directory /opt/ibm/WebSphere/PortalServer/version/backup
TMP Directory /tmp

Installation Platform
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name IBM WebSphere Portal
Version 6.1

Technology List
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MP installed
WCM installed

Installed Product
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name IBM WebSphere Portal MultiPlatform
Version 6.1.0.1
ID MP
Build Level wp6101_115_01 2008-11-15
Build Date 11/15/2008

Installed Product
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name IBM Lotus Web Content Management
Version 6.1.0.1
ID WCM
Build Level Build 119.2
Build Date 2008/11/13 at 16:44:38 EST

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Installation Status Report
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. There are other two commands also which will help generate the report in html format for version information. They are /opt/ibm/WebSphere/PortalServer/bin/genVersionReport.sh and genHistoryReport.sh.

PumaEnvironment Usage in WebSphere Portal 6.1

PumaAdminHome is deprecated as of WebSphere Portal 6.1 onward. A recommended approach is to use PumaEnvironment.

From WP 6.1 onward, PumaAdminHome is deprecated. One might need a way to use the PumaEnvironment interface to execute a PUMA query. Using PumaEnvironment, one can make a PUMA query without Puma having to make any check on access control.

Read More.

How to reset the administrator's password in the file registry

If you forget your WebSphere Application Server administrator's password and/or your WebSphere Portal administrator's password, and your administrative users are stored in the file registry, how can you reset the forgotten password in the file registry?

Here is the way how you can achieve this.

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=688&context=SSHRKX&dc=DB560&dc=DB520&uid=swg21392427&loc=en_US&cs=UTF-8&lang=en&rss=ct688websphere

New security APIs in WebSphere Portal

Got this nice article from developerWorks website and boy this just happened at the right time. We are looking for the simillar kind of functionality in our ongoing project and this article would really help us understanding and extending the login service and authentication filters in portal security implementation.

One of our senior portal specialist has done some in depth research and accumulated quite a good knowledge base.

Here is the link for article.

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/library/techarticles/0905_buchwald/0905_buchwald.html

Javadoc for WebSphere Portal V6.0, V6.01 and V6.1

While searching internet for some other stuff I found this useful links for portal developers who might be interested in some kind of tweaking. :)

Here is a central location for all javadocs related to Websphere portal.

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/library/specs/0608_wp6javadoc.html

IBM Rational Application Developer Version 7.5 Portal Toolkit: Part 2.

Web 2.0 portal development support for features in IBM WebSphere Portal Version 6.1

In continuation of the previous post. IBM® WebSphere® Portal Version 6.1 introduces new features, such as client-side aggregation, Friendly URLs, and static page aggregation. WebSphere Portal V6.1 provides new themes, which include a Web 2.0-based theme. IBM® Rational® Application Developer Version 7.5 provides the tooling support for these new features. This article describes these features and tools

Click here to get more details on this article.

IBM Rational Application Developer Version 7.5 Portal Toolkit: What's new in IBM Rational Application Developer V7.5 Portal Toolkit: Part-1

What's new in IBM Rational Application Developer V7.5 Portal Toolkit

I just got this really helpful article from IBM which is the first in a five-part series. It provides an overview of the new features of IBM® Rational® Application Developer Version 7.5 Portal Toolkit. It delves into how the Rational Application Developer V7.5 Portal Toolkit lets you leverage the new capabilities introduced with WebSphere Portal V6.1

Click here to get the full article.

WebSphere Portal trace setting for VMM

Currently I am working on Custom Repository configuration with Portal 6.1. While writing my own adapter for this I felt need for enabling trace setting for VMM so that I can troubleshoot.

I have spent little more time then I thought of because of little information on net. Below is the attributes needs to be set for VMM trace on the portal which will generate a trace.log file in
wp_profile_root\logs\WebSphere_Portal\trace.log

com.ibm.ws.security.*=all:
com.ibm.websphere.wim.*=all:
com.ibm.wsspi.wim.*=all:
com.ibm.ws.wim.*=all

You can also find out the comprehensive list of trace setting for the portal here.

New configuration parameters for Remote Rendering Portlet (RRP) in WCM

IBM has just released a technote describing two new configuration parameters used for the Remote Rendering Portlet (RRP) in IBM Web Content Management (WCM) 6.0.1.4 and 6.0.1.5.
(1) wcm.rrp.connect-timeout-in-milliseconds
A time-out value in milliseconds that is used when opening a connection to the remote WCM content server.

(2) wcm.rrp.read-timeout-in-milliseconds
A time-out value in milliseconds that specifies the time-out when reading from the input stream when a connection is established to the remote WCM content server.

Click here for more details.

How to set the default authenticated or unauthenticated page

How can you change the page that displays by default for authenticated and/or unauthenticated users to IBM WebSphere Portal?

WebSphere Portal serves the page with the lowest ordinal number under a given context for which the user (authenticated or unauthenticated) has access. Therefore, you can control which page is served by changing order and access control through the Manage Pages portlet.

Find out more here.

Unable to create new user via Manage Users and Groups portlet

When you click New User in the Manage Users portlet in IBM WebSphere® Portal, the page simply refreshes. No error messages print out to the screen or the logs. You attempted to update the ManagePrincipals.war file on the Portal server but this has no effect on the issue.

Refer this link for more information : http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=688&context=SSHRKX&dc=DB560&dc=DB520&uid=swg21255881&loc=en_US&cs=UTF-8&lang=en&rss=ct688websphere

How to capture errors when saving a document using WCM API

How can you capture errors, if any, when you save a document using the Web Content Management API?
Using the workspace.save() method does not capture errors. To see how you can capture them click here.

WCM Open Mic call about API Best Practices on April 15, 2009

You are invited to attend an open topic Open Mic conference call on the topic of Web Content Management API Best Practices.

IBM Support is hosting an Open Mic conference call to discuss WCM V6.0 and V6.1 API Best Practices on Wednesday, April 15, 2009. The call will take place at 10:00 AM EDT (2:00:00 p.m. GMT, Wednesday April 15, 2009). The call will last 60 minutes. Please dial into the call 5 minutes before the scheduled start.

To submit a question in advance, please post a new reply to this topic.

Below are the call-in numbers for the conference calls:

Date: Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM (2:00 PM GMT)

North America, Toll free: 866-617-1526
North America, Toll: 210-795-0624
Confirmation Code: 5260580

WebSphere Portal WMM to VMM comparison- Continue

In case if you were not able to attend the webcast on the WebSphere Portal WMM to VMM Comparison, here is your one more chance to play it at your leisure...

http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=899&uid=swg27015481

You can also have the slide presentation in PDF format by clicking here.

Njoy.. :)

WebSphere Portal WMM to VMM comparison

Thursday I have attended a webcast from IBM regarding WebSphere Portal WMM to VMM comparison. Though I have joined bit late because of client meeting I did make sure to capture some of the screen shots of the presenation given. I must say it was very helpful session to understand the changes/modification made since WMM component in WPS 6.0.
Below are the screen shots of the presentation give, although they are not in complete.

Hope this might help you... :)

Co-existing Installations of WPS 6.1 on Linux

It had been a quite loaded last week for me. Currently working for one of our prestigious clients John Deere, I come across a requirement which is less common in today's portal infrastructure scenario across the organizations. Might be due to cost saving on hardware as well as software resources client wants to have two portal server 6.1.0.1 instances on single linux box with existing WAS. Looked nearly impossible on first attempt, we got it working after concentrated research on co-existing intallations.

Here I am making it quite easy for you by compiling them into following steps.

• Install the first portal instance on your linux box. Here is a link.
• Varify your installaton by hitting the portal URL as well as application console URL.
• Before installing second Portal Server instance make sure that all the applications on that linux box have been started so as to avoid any port conflicts.
• This second portal installation will be using an existing WebSphere directory with an existing instance of WebSphere Application Server.
• run the following command on the terminal.

./install.sh -console -W globalInstall.active=false -W was.undetectedWas="/opt/ibm/WebSphere" -W globalInstall.location=/opt/ibm/WCM -W wasLocationExistsSequence.active=false -W detectProfileAction.profileName="wcm_profile" -W detectProfileAction.profilePath=/opt/ibm/WebSphere/wcm_profile -W invalidProfileExit.active=false

Note: The directory that is specified for globalInstall.location cannot already contain an installation of Portal. If Portal exists in the desired directory, the EJPIC0054E exception occurs and a new unique directory (WCM in this case) must be used. However, even in this case, the existing installation of WebSphere Application Server can still be used with Portal. In addition, the directory specified by detectProfileAction.profilePath cannot exist prior to installation.

• Enter the appropriate values when prompted and check for the successfull installation.

Here is a technote from IBM which will help you in troubleshooting any problem you face during this procedure.

Build your WebSphere Portal and Lotus Web Content Management demos in the cloud with a no-charge developer edition

IBM is offering a developer server, at no charge, that includes WebSphere Portal Server and Lotus Web Content Management Standard Edition Developer - a combination of two products from IBM capable of delivering a complete portal that can aggregate multiple software solutions, including Web content and external feeds, to deliver a single, exceptional Web experience.

Visit WebSphere Portal Family Wiki for more information.

Webcast: WebSphere Portal WMM to VMM comparison - 26 March 2009

IBM Support is hosting a Webcast and call on the topic of comparing the WebSphere Member Manager (WMM) for WebSphere Portal to the Virtual Member Manager (VMM). This presentation will take place on Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 10:00 AM US EST (3:00 PM GMT).

More details can be found at
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21372473

Redbook released for Managing WebSphere Portal 6.1 Environments

WebSphere Portal Family wiki has released a redbook for managing WebSphere Portal 6.1 environments. This document(wiki) provide information about how to set up a portal environment, including development, staging and production, and how to move changes through the system.

It's available on the WebSphere Portal wiki click here.

How to create 'Edit My Profile' link in custom theme

You may come across a scenario where you need to build a custome theme for the portal in which you need to hide the default lunch button and main menu. By doing this you found that "Edit My Profile" link normally accessed via the Launch button is also hidden.Therefore there is a need to display "Edit My Profile" link in the custom theme that displays at the top of each page.Link should also behave exactly the same way as the one in main menu.


Here are the steps you should follow to get the 'Edit My Profile' link working in your custom theme:

1. First you need to create a unique name for the portlet on selfcare page in portal.Use XMLAccess to export the selfcare page.


• Login to the portal with admin access and navigate to the Edit My Profile Page.


• There is an icon for exporting a page. Click on that.


• This will generate an XML file "pageExport.xml", save this on your system.


2. Update the file so that it has the basic format shown below. Delete the tags and add the uniquename attribute to the final tag as shown below in bold. Add nothing else; delete nothing else.
   
<br /> <component action="update" active="true" deletable="undefined" domain="rel" modifiable="undefined" objectid="7_UV9FQLI11G5GA026LUEL0D1OK0" ordinal="100" orientation="H" type="container" width="undefined"><br /><component action="update" active="true" deletable="undefined" domain="rel" modifiable="undefined" objectid="7_UV9FQLI11G5GA026LUEL0D1OK4" ordinal="99" orientation="V" type="container" width="undefined"><br /><component action="update" active="true" deletable="undefined" domain="rel" modifiable="undefined" objectid="7_UV9FQLI11G5GA026LUEL0D1OK2" ordinal="99" skinref="K_UV9FQLI11G5GA026LUEL0D10E1" type="control" width="undefined" uniquename="wps.t.Selfcare"><br /><portletinstance action="update" domain="rel" objectid="5_UV9FQLI11G5GA026LUEL0D1OK6" portletref="3_UV9FQLI11G5GA026LUEL0D1GQ5"><br /></component><br /></component><br /></component>


3. Save and close the file.


4. Open this xml file into the portal by navigating to Administration->WebSphere Portal->Portal Settings->Import XML->


Browse the xml file on your system and click on the import button. See for the message successfully imported.
5. Open the Default.jsp file in your custom theme in a text editor. In the appropriate place where your "Edit My Profile" link should appear, add the tags shown below.


• The contentNode attribute must contain the custom unique name of the 'Edit My Profile' page, i.e., "wps.Selfcare".


• The compositionNode attribute must contain the new custom unique name you just added via XMLAccess, i.e., "wps.t.Selfcare".
<portal-navigation:urlgeneration contentnode="wps.Selfcare" compositionnode="wps.t.Selfcare" portletwindowstate="Maximized" themetemplate=""><portal-navigation:urlparam type="render" name="ao" value="thm"><portal-navigation:urlparam type="render" name="OCN" value="ibm.portal.Home.Welcome"><a id="manageProfileLink" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=8193607375900156692&postID=5962854348205659357"><portal-fmt:text key="'link.selfcare'" bundle="'nls.engine'/"></portal-fmt:text></a></portal-navigation:urlparam>


6. Save and close Default.jsp. Test the new "Edit My Profile" link to confirm that it works as expected.


Note: This procedure will not work in a portlet. You need to use the URL generation services to create links in the portlet to the page or other portlets.

IBM Updates WebSphere Portlet Factory

IBM has released latest version 6.1.2 of Websphere Portlet Factory to bring enhancements that will allow developers to get Web 2.0 applications up and running quicker than before. It runs on all the major operating systems and runs on websphere application server 6 & 7.

More details can be found at http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs011309-story08.html

Download WCM 6.1 redbook

Here comes a really great resource for all of you working on or going to work on ILWWCM. I must thank my friend krishna bhupathi (Currently working in IBM - US) for providing such a valuable resource.

You can down load this redbook from the following link.

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/portalwiki.nsf/dx/pdfwikiwcm61