WebCenter WSRP Producer for .NET – Video Series

The PS3 version of the WSRP Producer for .NET (install guide) is available for download.

The Oracle WebCenter WSRP Producer for .NET provides a means for developers and administrators to service-enable new and existing ASP.NET applications through the Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP) standard. It also unlocks Web Parts to standards based portals by exposing them directly as WSRP components. Now enterprises can take advantage of departmental resources directly.

Product manager, Bob Fraser posted a 2-minute overview of the WSRP Producer for .NET. In addition to Bob’s intro, here are a few more demos as well.

Developer Overview

SharePoint Document Library

SharePoint Wiki Library

WebLogic Portal: WSRP Interoperability with the WebCenter Framework Using the JSF Portlet Bridge

Federated Portals Guide – WSRP Interoperability with the WebCenter Framework: This is a very useful part of the WLP documentation discussing the steps you need to take to consume WSRP 2.0 portlets, including the WebCenter Social Computing Services exposed as portlets.

Topics covered:

• Installing the Patch Set
• Consuming WLP Portlets in WebCenter Framework and Oracle Portal Applications
• Consuming WebCenter Framework Portlets in WebLogic Portal
• Configuring Security
• Interportlet Communication Considerations
• Consuming Oracle ADF Faces Rich Client Component Portlets

New White Paper: Exposing WebCenter Services Task Flows as WSRP Portlets and Ensemble Pagelets

We have a new technical white paper published on OTN, written by one of our senior developers, Ken Young, that covers what it takes to expose the WebCenter Social Computing Services (discussions, email documents, etc.) through WSRP 2.0 for consumption in third party portal products. The white paper, titled Exposing WebCenter Services Task Flows as WSRP Portlets and Ensemble Pagelets comes with a sample project that makes it easy for you to follow the steps.

The screenshot below shows consuming the mail and document library task flows in Oracle Portal.

Oracle Portal, WebLogic Portal, WebCenter Interaction (ALUI) customers – this white paper is for you all!

WebLogic Portal 10.3 Patchset Supporting Interoperability with WebCenter 11g

We just released a new Patch Set Update 10.3.1.0.1 for WebLogic Portal 10.3 which enables interoperability with WebCenter 11g via WSRP 2.0. This patch set allows you to consume the WebCenter Social Computing Services (aka: WebCenter Web 2.0 Services) components and task flows in WebLogic Portal, by leveraging the Oracle JSF Portlet Bridge (JSR 301). Also, you can build new capabilities with Oracle ADF and WebCenter and surface them in WebLogic Portal.

This patch is the technical enabler required for interoperability, and it provides variety of product fixes as well. For important information, please see these sections of the Release Notes.

Our plan is that future WebLogic Portal 10.3 patches will be issued on top of Patch Set Update 10.3.1.0.1, so it’s critical that customers install this patch.

Live WebCast: Consuming PeopleSoft Pages Using WSRP in WebCenter

The Fusion Middleware Best Practice Center organized several Web casts addressing our applications customers. The one on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 sounds especially interesting, covering WSRP interoperability between PepoleSoft and WebCenter: Consuming PeopleSoft Pages Using WSRP in WebCenter.

In addition to the Web cast, PeopleSoft customers may find the Adding a PeopleSoft Portlet to a WebCenter Application tutorial useful as well.

And another exciting one: the Consuming PeopleSoft Portlets with Style blog entry covers how the consumer application’s look and feel can be preserved and managed when using WSRP.

Build the Coolest WebCenter Application Ever – in 60 Minutes

Before Oracle OpenWorld 2008 kicks off in a week’s time in San Francisco, I plan to post a couple of highlights from the WebCenter space. This is the first one in the series.

At a conference of this size, one of the toughest challenges is how to best spend your time, what is really worth attending. My number 1 pick is hands down the WebCenter hands-on session. You get a chance to see and touch the product, experience it first hand, and last but not least get a chance to talk to people who build it: you can meet the WebCenter curriculum team.

When and Where?

Sunday, September 21, 2:30pm-3:30pm, Marriott, Golden Gate C1
Tuesday, September 23, 11:30am-12:30pm, Marriott, Golden Gate C1
Tuesday, September 23, 5:30pm-6:30pm, Marriott, Golden Gate C1

So – what is this year’s hands-on all about? It’s a brand new application built especially for the OOW WebCenter hands-on session that has one key objective: to impress you in less than an hour. The scenario is very original, quote from the hands-on document:

El Piju – Company Profile: Natural building is all about achieving sustainability through the use of minimally-processed, plentiful, and renewable resources as well as recycled or salvaged materials that produce healthy living environments. El Piju is your company for environmentally sensitive design and expert guidance on locating the resources you need to construct your sustainable home for the 21st century. What is your vision for your home or office? Let our team of ecologists, architects, and engineers help you make that vision a reality.
The El Piju application provides you with information about the company’s use of natural building materials and related projects. Once authenticated, you can select any of the construction materials used by El Piju, specifically, adobe, cob, cordwood, rammed earth, or straw bale, and access information about it. Search for articles, photographs, and other resources for that natural building material. Do you have a technical question or simply want to read what others have to say? El Piju’s site includes a discussion forum for each construction type. The application also includes a portlet that displays pictures with captions to provide visual examples of each building material. Browse through the pictures in the portlet by clicking the thumbnails.

How cool is this!

From a technical perspective, here are the topics covered in the hands-on session:

• Documents
• Discussions
• Tags
• Links
• Search
• Oracle Composer
• Portlets
• Inter-component communication

And last, but not least, the screen shot of the application.

And if you’re looking for a special mission, try to find out the story behind the company’s name.

2 Easy Steps to Implement Inter-Portlet Communication with WSRP 2.0

One of the most mysterious topics of the portal world is inter-portlet communication. Some of you expressed interest in portlet technologies in an earlier poll, so here we go…

Before the 2.0 versions of the portlet standards were ratified (WSRP 2.0, JSR 286), inter-portlet communication could only be achieved with some sort of a hack. Typical implementations included vendor-specific extensions on top of the portlet standards (breaking inter-operability), or portlets using a shared store to exchange information, such as the session context or a database. All of these workarounds required a hacker attitude.

The easiest way to try out the concept is by using two of the sample portlets from the WSRP Sample Portlet Producer: the Parameter Form and Parameter Display portlets. Here are the introductory steps you need to take, that are not related to inter-portlet communication, and you may well be familiar with:

1. Start up the preconfigured OC4J. First, point your browser to http://localhost:6688. Then click on the Sample Portlets link (http://localhost:6688/portletapp/info).
   
2. Copy the WSRP 2.0 WSDL end point URL (you find it on the bottom of the page) to your clipboard: http://localhost:6688/portletapp/portlets/wsrp2?WSDL.
   
3. Create an application in JDeveloper, based on the WebCenter Application Template.
   
4. Register the WSRP Sample Producer with your application.
   
   
   
5. Create a new jspx page, and drop the Parameter Form and Parameter Display portlets onto the page.
   

It takes only two steps to set up inter-portlet communication – and this is the actual meat of this post.

1. Wire the two portlets, so the parameters entered in the parameter form portlet are passed to the parameter display portlet.
   1. Switch to the page definition of the page (invoke the context menu in the middle of the page, and select Go to Page Definition. If the page definition doesn’t exist yet, let JDeveloper create it for you.
      
   2. Locate the two portlets in the Structure Pane, and expand the Parameters section to see the three WSRP 2.0 navigational parameters that these portlets provide. Notice that the portlet parameters are mapped to page variables. All you need to do is make sure that the portlet parameters of the Parameter Form Portlet are mapped to the same page variables as the parameter of the Parameter Display Portlet.
   3. Confirm your changes by taking a look a the source of the page definition.
      
2. Configure partial page refresh, so the parameter form display portlet refreshes when a new parameter is submitted in the parameter form portlet.
   1. On your jspx page select the Parameter Display portlet and locate Partial Triggers attribute. Point to the id of the Parameter Form portlet, for example portlet1.
      

That’s it!

Now run the application and enter some values into the Parameter Form portlet.

Click the OK button. The Parameter Display portlet should refresh with partial page refresh (PPR).

“And the crowd goes wild…” [B.H.]

Oracle Portal 11g New Features

We’re about to post the updated Oracle Portal Statement of Direction on the Oracle Portal page on OTN. Oracle Portal 11g is part of Fusion Middleware 11g, and will be released at the same time, currently scheduled for the first half of calendar year 2009. Here is the summary of the planned new features in the 11g version:

• Oracle Portal 11g will be integrated with WebLogic Server.
• Extend support for open industry standards:
  • WSRP 2.0 (Web Services for Remote Portlets)
  • JSR 301 (Portlet Bridge for JavaServer Faces)
    • Build new portlets with JSF
    • Turn JSF pages and oracle ADF task flows into standards-based portlets
    • Bring existing JSF applications into Oracle Portal 11g
    • Available with Oracle WebCenter Suite
• Oracle Portal will be able to consume the Enterprise 2.0 services offered by Oracle WebCenter. These services include: Discussions, Wikis, Search, Presence, Instant Messaging, Email, and Document Library.
• Content integration
  • Expose content from 3rd party document management systems in Oracle Portal via portlets (using WSRP 2.0 and JSR 301).
  • Build portlets in JDeveloper that utilize JCR 1.0 (JSR 170) adapters to connect to content management systems.
  • Available adapters (with Oracle WebCenter Suite): Oracle Universal Content Management, Oracle Content DB, Oracle Portal, and file system. Additional adapters (Documentum, SharePoint, Lotus Domino) are available from our partners.
• Extend Core Portal Functionality
  • Omniportlet enhancements, including enhanced support for complex Web Services.
  • BPEL-based process content routing & approval
  • Support for new Document Type Declarations: HTML 4.01 Strict, XHTML 1.0 Transitional, and XHTML 1.0 Strict
• Streamline management and administration
  • Performance metrics available in Enterprise Manager interface
  • Improved Lifecycle Support — Export/Import
• Simplify and extend security
• Deeper integration with Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g

What can I do with the Technology Preview 4 of WebCenter?

Just got back from my long vacation from Europe. I had several emails in my inbox asking: What are the types of things I can and cannot do with the Tech Preview of WebCenter? Here are a couple of simple things you can try out and provide us feedback on:

• Portlet creation: build and deploy JSR 168 portlets
• Portlet consumption: Consume WSRP 1.0 and WSRP 2.0 portlets
• JSF Portlet bridge: JSR 301: Portlet Bridge Specification for JavaServer Faces reference implementation: expose JSF applications through WSRP
• Content integration: test the new and improved JCR level 1 and level 2 support using the file system adapter
• Runtime customization: build applications featuring Composer, which allows privileged business users to add new resources to the pages and re-arrange to contents of the page
• Web 2.0 services: tagging and linking

If it sounds promising, give it a try!

Also wanted to make a note of things you cannot test without back-end services, which have not been released as part of the preview: threaded discussions, wiki, blog, presence, instant messaging, WebCenter Spaces.