JSF Portlet Bridge and WebCenter

I did a post a while back on JSF Portlet Bridge that I will now revise, because things are not quite like I thought they were.

Let's say that your organization has an Oracle Portal 10g install. Then let's say you want to start integrating ADF Faces apps that were generated from JDev 10g. (That would be Apache Trinidad in JDev 11g parlance). Here is what you would want to do: install your ADF apps on a 10.1.3.4 Oracle App Server. Let's say you did not have the WebCenter license of any kind. Then you would need to add some kind of generic web page with an iframe on it that called out to the ADF Page. That would be your option.

But let's say you had the minimal, or "Services" WebCenter License (I believe that is priced by CPU-core count.). Then you can deploy your ADF Faces apps to that same 10.1.3.4 after you have doctored it up. By doctored it up I mean the following:
1. Install SOA 10.1.3.1
2. Apply patchset 10.1.3.4
3. Create new oc4j in EM. Call it wsrp2
4. Install portlet-server-install.jar
5. PER NOTE: Note 752220.1 Java.Lang.Noclassdeffounderror: Javax/Xml/Soap/Soapelement Deploying Standalone Application
cd $ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/wsrp2/config
vi server.xml

6. Start container. (opmnctl startproc process-type=wsrp2)
7. Deploy application. NO ERROR


A few notes about this process above:

• You can get the portlet-server-install.jar by looking at the following:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/webcenter/pdk.html

http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/webcenter/portlet_download.html

(http://download.oracle.com/otndocs/tech/webcenter/files/pdksoftware.zip)

Oracle Portlet Container and PDK-Java 10.1.3.2

• Your Oracle Portal installation will need to be up to date. So that means at least your Portal Repository needs to be at 10.1.4.0...but then you will have a work-around because your images will not work right. It is best if you upgrade to 10.1.2.3 on your iAS and 10.1.4.2 on your Portal Repository and do all the pertinent patches...and there are a few! But they are documented.
• At this point there will still be some CSS-related issues that are documented in an Oracle bug. (7968131) I am gathering this case is not being worked too hard, though.

So then you can consume your "produced", portletized ADF apps just fine. They work pretty darn well, too!

Apparently, though, JSF Portlet Bridge is not supported by Oracle for Apps that you deploy to the OC4J 10.1.2.x -- which is Portal 10g's current iAS platform until Portal 11g comes out.

doing battle with WSRP, Part II

Had a great session with Oracle technical support over the trouble I have been having with portletizing ADF Faces. The analyst mapped out an upgrade path for me which will solve all my problems; he demonstrated on his upgraded scenario using ias 10.1.2.3 (instead of my 10.1.2.0.2), and using Portal repository 10.1.4.2, plus the mandatory updates (instead of my 10.1.4.0), and also if I am going to deploy to OAS 10.1.3.4, that I make sure I have applied the web center jar file that WSRP-enables your particular OC4J instance that you have designated for exposing ADF apps via WSRP.

If I do all this, he demonstrated that the same ear I was having problems with, worked like a champ! YAY.

(The SR is 7381737.994 if you need it for reference. If you cannot access it, please leave a comment for this blog entry, and I will see if our situations are similar enough to warrent further action.)

What forum is best for answering Oracle Portal-JSF integration questions?

WebCenter Framework Oracle Technet forum

The above URL is the WebCenter Framework forum on the Technet forums. This is the place that Peter Moskovits and similar people review and comment, and the place where questions get answered of the kind I have been dealing with lately.

I read the overview of WebCenter and I guess I did not realize that portal-JSF integration was synonymous with "WebCenter", but I think it is for some reason...

I hope it helps you.

ADF/Portal interview with Peter Moskovits

The company I am with and I interviewed Peter Moskovits, and got some questions answered we had about migration path of Oracle Portal 10g users and how to integrate the changing versions of ADF, which version of WSRP to use in which case, etc. Here are part of the minutes to the meeting:

Peter started with an overview of the Oracle products and product direction. Peter noted that Portal technology is a decade older than ADF technology, so efforts to merge them are challenging. Peter mentioned that there are a couple of kinds of portlets at work here: PDK Java Portlets, and WSRP/JSR168 Portlets. The latter is where the future is. In each case each technology offers something the other does not have, so Oracle promotes both. With Portal you have features such as runtime customization, reusable portlets, and content integration. So you can include portlets into ADF using WebCenter technology, or you can bring ADF portlets over and consume them WSRP 1.0 or 2.0 using JSF Portlet Bridge technology.

Regarding Portlet Bridge licensing…Peter says that there are two kinds of licensing for WebCenter: a WebCenter services license (meant mostly for developers) and a suite license (to get everything). The services license would be cheaper also than the suite license. If the Portlet Bridge was the only part of WebCenter that you were using, it sounded like you should get WebCenter Services license which is cheaper. The Portlet Bridge enables communication with OAS/OC4J 10.1.3.4 to obtain exposed portlets through WSRP portlet producer. If we are using 10g portal (OAS 10.1.2.0.2/Portal 10.1.4), we would need to use WSRP 1.0 (I have a question out to Peter to know if we could use ADF Faces (10g) PPR features with WSRP 1.0 or not).

Peter acknowledged that if you had to use OAS 10.1.2.0.2/Portal 10.1.4 that you would be much better off if you deployed your portletized 10g ADF Faces apps to OAS 10.1.3.4, and then consumed them with the 10.1.2.0.2 server with WSRP 1.0; rather than deploying directly to OAS 10.1.2.0.2 and having to dumb your 10g ADF Faces app down from 10.1.3.x down to 10.1.2 technology (J2EE 1.3/JDK 1.4 from J2EE 1.4/JDK 1.5).

We should not deploy portlets with the SOAP provider if we are using ADF; we should use the JSF Portlet Bridge. SOAP was only for Struts applications.

Peter and Jay both let me know that deploying a 10g ADF program was no big deal: a 3-step process, that was well documented in the 10g WebCenter Developer’s Guide.

Oracle Portal? Oracle WebCenter? Oracle WebLogic Portal? huh?

I have reviewed these documents. I have some thoughts about them...
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/weblogic/portal/files/wlp_10gr3_sod.pdf

http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/ias/portal/pdf/oracle_portal_sod_r11.pdf


Oracle Portal, Oracle WebLogic Portal, and Oracle WebCenter Suite are all sepparate offerings/product suites. Portal products are extensions of their respective app servers (OAS, and Oracle WebLogic), which are geared toward developing portals -- sites and pages which display and allow interaction with other sites and pages -- portlets.

WebCenter Suite includes the following items:
WebCenter Framework -- a JDev extension to help you do more Web 2.0, BI, and SOA stuff.
WebCenter Services -- I am guessing these are either the enabling libraries the the above JDev extension, or maybe they are sepparate program, or perhaps even web services.
WebCenter Interaction -- a development team collaboration suite (formerly BEA Aqualogic User Interaction)
WebCenter Anywhere -- wireless services (hardware? local or remote/hosted?) that let you get alerted to events generated by your webcenter apps, or interact with them, using various portable devices (blackberries, etc.)

I am also reading another document to round out my understanding of web center: http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/webcenter/pdf/owcs_10132_standards.pdf

So we ask the questions: What about all of our Portal work? Is it integratable? Are they planning on merging/phasing out/replacing Portal?

After reading the WebLogic Portal and Oracle Portal statements of direction above, I am under the impression that Oracle is doing what Oracle does best: obtaining/promoting competing products, and letting them fight to the death. It looks to me that the Oracle Portal longevity is being promoted a bit more than the Oracle WebLogic Portal product (suite)...but the documents seem to like both products and highlight aspects of both that are being highly praised and integrated, and also other parts that are being sifted out. I think both documents point to a future time when the portal products will be part of a larger product suite...perhaps WebCenter.

After reading these, I come away feeling assured that there is probably going to be continuing support for these products, and that any integration or communication between the portal world and the WebCenter/ADF/application world is going to be supported -- we will probably have to end up choosing which integration method makes the most sense.

Also I feel that Oracle sees Web 2.0 as an evolution of Portal-type thinking. Vedy interestink...hmmmm....