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.
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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.