Step-by-Step Cluster Guide for IBM WebSphere Portal v7.0.0

Just got this link for Creating cluster in WebSphere Portal V7.0.

Step-by-Step Cluster Guide for IBM WebSphere Portal v7.0.0

Where to learn WebSphere Portal Administration

As WebSphere Portal moving into the new version with more facilities and functionality, more it's getting attention as a robust technology and more people want to know about it and learn about this product as a technology.

I can see that in IBM forums and different communities where people are showing there eagerness about this product and want to find out how they can start learning it. For those enthusiasts, I have prepared some useful links to start with. This is mainly a WebSphere Portal administration know how but you can still get a fare amount of idea on WebSphere Portal as a product.

1. WebSphere Portal Infocenter : This is a one stop shop for you. You will get everything here. It's updated frequently to cover all the necessary updates the product might have for you. http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wpdoc/v6r1/topic/com.ibm.wp.ent.doc_v615/welcome_main.html
2.  WebSphere Portal Family Wiki : Wiki covers all the learning resources as well as case studies and best practices. http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/portalwiki.nsf
3. WebSphere Portal Product Documentation Site: This site contains all the relevant documentation for the product version wise.                             http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/zones/portal/proddoc.html#v70proddocwiki
4. WebSphere Portal Developerworks Forum : You can exchange you knowledge with some of the experts here and can post your query about the product. http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=168
5. WebSphere Portal Developerworks Zone :                                                              http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/zones/portal/
6. IBM WebSphere Portal Channel on YouTube :  IBM WebSphere Portal YouTube channel provides demos and videos to help you get the most out of WebSphere Portal. http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/portalwiki.nsf/dx/IBM_WebSphere_Portal_channel_on_YouTube
7. Resources for IBM WebSphere Portal Administrators and Developers: http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/portalwiki.nsf/xpViewCategories.xsp?lookupName=Resources%20for%20WebSphere%20Portal%20administrators%20and%20developers

Hope I have covered most of the resources link which can give good reference to the product. You can always add in to make it more compiled list.

WebSphere Portal Server V7.0 is out

Today, IBM has released WebSphere Portal Server V7.0 officially and made it available through passport advantage site. I am going to download it this weekend and will try to get some hands-on with new features. :) Anybody wants to have some useful links for WPS 7.0, I have made it available right here.

Download : You can download it from passport advantage site.

Download document : http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24026527

Hardware & Software requirements : http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27019556#Red%20Hat%20Enterprise%20Linux%20%28RHEL%29%20AS/ES

Product documentation : http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/zones/portal/proddoc.html

Guide for basics of LDAP

I have come across this really useful document on basic LDAP concepts. Anybody who needs to have basic understanding about the LDAP and it's architecture can take benefit from this document published in developerworks site.

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/tivoli/library/t-ldap01/index.html#N10070

Integrating Facebook pages with business portals

This demonstration shows you how companies can create pages and applications to establish customized and personalized presences on Facebook. This demonstration uses the Open Financial Network and the Banking template as an example scenario.

Here is a link for the DEMO. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy29PQgovsw

Cleared Test 955 IBM WebSphere Portal 6.1 Deployment and Administration

It's a great feeling after clearing my first certificate in IBM Websphere Portal after being in this technology for almost over 5 years. Last week I appeared for the test and cleared it with score of 95 which is great relief. Planning to give one for content management as well in near future.

How to attach default skin to Theme using xmlAccess

Today, I encountered a really interesting problem reported by my ex-colleague. While working on the portal, accidentally he has removed skins which are attached to default theme of the portal. Now this has resulted in him not able log in to the portal.This is due to no portlet display because of the skin being deleted.
When he tried log in using direct portal url which bypasses the log in portlet he found out the pages are there but portlets are not rendered while clicked on those pages. He was not even get back to the default settings using themes and skins page from the administration section.

Solution to this problem is getting back the default settings for the themes/skins using xmlAccess.
To resolve this we followed below steps.

1. We exported the complete portal configuration using xmlAccess. For this we have used sample ExportRelease.xml which comes with default portal installation. This can be found under [Portal_server_root]/doc/xml-samples. Here is a command to do that

./xmlaccess.bat -in C:/Program Files/IBM/WebSphere/PortalServer/doc/xml-samples/ExportRelease.xml -user wpsadmin -password wpsadmin -url http://localhost:10038/wps/config -out wpsserver_config.xml

2. Open the exported file, which in this case wpsserver_config.xml and find the entry which starts with theme action="update" active="true" default="true". Add a parameter defaultskinref="K_NO2UF4I1186E1026H4BLVI00E6" to it. Here value for the defaultskinref is the ID of the skin which is deployed in your environment. This will be a default skin to your theme. You can fine skins in the same xml file. Find using skin action="update" text.

3. Once updated and saved, import this xml file to your portal server using xmlAccess. Here is a command for it.

xmlaccess.bat -in C:/updatedXML/wpsserver_config.xml -user wpsadmin -password wpsadmin -url http://localhost:10038/wps/config

That's it. We are able to access portal as it was before the problem. :)