A Portal to a Portal

WebSphere Portal 6.1.5 and Web Application Integrator

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:29:00 +0000

One of my IBM US colleagues, Richard Robbins, hit a problem with the Web Application Integrator portlet and WebSphere Portal 6.1.5 / 6.1.3.0.

He was following one of my earlier blog posts, Using Web Application Integrator to integrate Lotus Quickr Services for WebSphere Portal into WebSphere Portal, to integrate Quickr 8.1.1 into WebSphere Portal 6.1.5, but was finding that the WAI JavaScript was not being injected into the Quickr page header, even though he'd added the JS to the header.jsp on the Quickr server.

Thanks to a quick turnaround on a PMR with IBM Support, Richard was able to identify that he was missing a crucial fix for WP615, reported in this APAR PM09151, which states: -

Error description

Web App Integrator needs to be able to support theme policy and multiple levels on integration.

Problem summary

Changes to the WAI theme to keep backward compatability for the new and previous WAI portlet.

Problem conclusion

This fix has been packaged with PM09187 and is found on FixCentral here:

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg1PM05947

There are also similar fixes for 6.1.0.1 and 6.1.0.2.

With the fix applied, and the page configured to use the default Portal 6.1 theme ( rather than the new enhanced Page Builder theme ), all worked according to plan.

Will test at some point but hopefully this'll help others out in the meantime ...

Thanks, Richard, much appreciated ...

Support Content Highlights for IBM WebSphere Portal/ Web Content Management (March 2010)

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:49:00 +0000

This document contains links to new information and current key technical support documents for IBM WebSphere Portal and IBM Lotus Web Content Management (WCM) that are frequently requested or identified by IBM as valuable. This is key information to help you derive the most value from software licenses, find answers to common questions, and work through current issues that might affect your environment.

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/nflsblog.nsf/dx/SuCH-WPWCM-Mar10

Webinar: Web Content Management for Banking with IBM and Ephox

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:30:00 +0000

Saw this from Adrian Sutton via the power of Twitter, so thought I'd share it here as well: -

Webinar: Web Content Management for Banking with IBM and Ephox

Banks and financial institutions must create and manage information on corporate Web sites and trading communities using open, standards-based tools. Further, those sites need to integrate with existing Web infrastructures and backend databases. Using real-world examples, we will discuss how Web sites in the Banking Sector are using Lotus Web Content Management with Ephox EditLive! to include data from back office systems, integrate with other Web applications, and custom tailor information to individuals through personalization.

During the webinar you will see how users leverage integrated workflow management for various initiatives to improve content development, quality control, and publishing. This approach allows organizations to focus on providing an interactive user experience for each customer touch point. In turn, this is achieved by using a single content management solution that works across multiple initiatives to save development time and reduce resources.

We will show the newest features available in EditLive! and IBM Lotus Web Content Management including a sneak preview of the new WebRadar tool that helps web content administrators and project managers identify, monitor and fix problems with their web content processes via workflow reports, charts and mass updates.

http://blog.ephox.com/weblog/2010/02/webinar-web-content-management-for-banking-with-ibm-and-ephox.html

WebSphere Portal 6.1.0.2 and Lotus Domino 8.5

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:05:00 +0000

here is a document that I pulled together last year showing how to use the WebSphere Portal ConfigWizard to hook Domino LDAP in as a Federated Repository.

Will get around to writing up same for WP615 and also for the ConfigEngine scripts, which I'm getting to love more and more ...

Tonight, a blogger saved my life ( well, metaphorically speaking )

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 21:58:00 +0000

After a number of years out on loan, an old IBM Ideascan USB scanner came back into my life, and after a few weeks of dust-gathering, I decided to pull it into use for a particular project on which we were working.

Trouble is - I bought the scanner back in the 90s and it was a Windows-only device, and I don't use Windows any more ( as most readers will know ).

No problems, I thought, the Mac will just recognise it .... #FAIL, the Mac did not recognise the scanner, and a Google search didn't suggest a short-term solution.

Thankfully, I have a number of PCs running Ubuntu. I plugged in the scanner and .... no joy there either.

Thankfully, a further Google search led me to George Notaras' blog G-Loaded Journal which, in a few simple steps, showed me how to add support for the scanner, using the Viceo drivers, which I was able to add to the stock SANE tool that Ubuntu uses for scanning etc.

The actual blog thread is here: -

Viceo Backend for SANE with libusb support

One thing; using scanimage, I did see: -

scanimage: WARNING: read more data than announced by backend (2979990/2977443)

with a similar message appearing when I used xsane.

Nice one, George, that saved another bit of kit from going in the skip ...

Configuring IBM Tivoli Access Manager SSO for IBM Lotus Connections 2.5

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:51:00 +0000

My IBM colleagues, En Hui Chen and Chao Feng Yang, have produced a potentially very useful document showing how IBM Tivoli Access Manager for e-Business ( aka TAMeB ) can be used to secure Lotus Connections, via a "front-end" reverse web proxy server.

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/documentation/d-ls-lc25tamsso/

This is especially relevant to me as I'm about to embark on a project using TAMeB and LC ( and Portal and Quickr ) together, and I'm also presenting a piece on TAMeB etc. to the upcoming WebSphere User Group meeting at IBM Bedfont next week - Thursday 18 March, which is nice.

Creating and updating blogs in ... WebSphere Portal Express 6.1.5

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 07:05:00 +0000

Having spent some time playing around with the new blog and wiki templates in WP/WCM 6.1.5, one of my clients asked how a non-administrative user could create new blogs and add comments to existing blogs.

I realised that, in my limited exposure to the new components ( which are a very clever combination of portal page automation - creating new pages and adding components via a very nice GUI - and Lotus WCM content and resource libraries ), I'd done everything as the wpsadmin ID, which isn't particularly useful outside of my own Ubuntu-based demonstration environment.

Therefore, I dug into things a little bit more, and wrote up the following: -

In order to meet the requirement of a non-admin user creating/editing blogs, you'd need to add the required additional users/groups to the Editor role of the WCM library that forms the basis of the blog itself.

As an example, I created a new page called My Blogs, and then used the Blog Template library to create a blogging site called Blog-o-matic ( I did this via the Edit Page -> Customise -> Add Blog Library dialogue, as the portal administrator - wpsadmin ).

This allowed me to create blogs within the library, and add posts and comments. Other users could see the page/blog library/blogs/comments, but weren't able to create their own blogs etc.

Therefore, as wpsadmin, I navigated to the Administration page, and selected Portal Content -> Web Content Libraries and then clicked the Set Permissions button. From the Resource Permissions page, I then hit the Edit Role button for the Editor role and, in my case, added the "group" All Authenticated Portal Users to that role.

This means that any portal user can now log in, access the My Blogs page, create a new blog, view and comment upon other people's blogs etc.

Depending upon your requirements, you may want to restrict the usage of certain blogs to certain user groups ( in LDAP ) rather than using All Authenticated Portal Users.

And it looks sweet ..

And here's a screenshot, by popular demand :-

Lotus Mobile Connect on Linux and DNS

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:16:00 +0000

Whilst helping out a friend, Mike, with a Lotus Mobile Connect on Ubuntu issue, I realised that I'd never actually written the solution up.

Mike was connected, via LMC to a VPN within the company network, whilst being connected to the intranet via a wired connection. All was well, apart from the fact that he was then unable to log in to the Sametime server that's on the intranet.

When we checked, it appeared that the LMC connection was updating the DNS name resolution ( on Linux, this is driven by the /etc/resolv.conf file ).

The solution ?

a) Disconnect from LMC
b) Open a command prompt
c) Navigate to the directory - /home/<USERNAME>/.wclient
d) Edit the file - connX.conf - where X is the number of the LMC connection needing change e.g. 0 for the first connection, 1 for the second connection etc.
e) Change GatewaySuppliesDNS=1 to GatewaySuppliesDNS=0
f) Save the file and reconnect via LMC

Having done this, Mike was able to connect to the VPN'd hosts via LMC whilst also connecting to Sametime, Notes etc. via the normal intranet.

Seemples !!

WebSphere Portal Search Engine is generating the wrong URLs for Web Content Management (WCM) content

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:27:00 +0000

Saw this Flash this morning, and noted that it's relevant to a few portal projects on which I am currently working: -

Abstract

In the search result, content item links are shown as: http://<hostname>:<port>/wps/mypoc/!ut/p/digest!mIH31snIw5RzMY1Ixn23lQ/wcm/path:%252FWeb_Content%252FHelp%252FWebsite%252FMessages%252FSend+New+Message#

Before the upgrade to version 6.1.5/6.1.0.3, content links are shown as: http://<hostname>:<port>/wps/wcm/myconnect/Web_Content/Help/Website/Messages/Send+New+Message#

This /wps/mypoc/ is not recognized

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21421842

Lotus Connections: Troubleshooting ...

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:52:00 +0000

Some very useful Lotus Connections troubleshooting resources from Rainier Varilla's excellent blog "RV has Parked!" here: -

Lotus Connections: Troubleshooting

along with a wealth of other useful Lotus content.

Interesting problem with Sametime Unified Telephony under Lotus Notes 8.5.1 FP1 on Apple Mac OSX

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:16:00 +0000

Following an uninstall/reinstall of Lotus Notes 8.5.1 FP1 on my Macbook Pro, I started hitting this error message: -

"Your Sametime computer phone has failed to initialize and is temporarily unavailable"

when trying to use the softphone feature of Lotus Sametime Unified Telephony.

This had been working perfectly for months, so I was a little bit miffed.

However, thanks to some useful forum postings by other sufferers, I was directed to this Technote: -

Softphone TLS initialization problem after updating to Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 6

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21416964

This suggests that there is a Java-related issue with a certificate file, cacert, and directs one to update the file using the keytool command.

Once done ( with Notes STOPPED ), all now appears to be well.

Having pinged this to a few other Mac users, who were suffering with the same problem. Hopefully it'll fix it for them, Jim ....

Steps to configure Portal v 6.1.x with SQLServer 2005 property extension database

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:34:00 +0000

Serendipitously, this turned up just before my team and I start work on a Portal <-> SQL Server implementation: -

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/portalwiki.nsf/dx/Steps_to_configure_Portal_v_6.1.x_with_SQLServer_2005_property_extension_database

Good timing, or what ?

Configuring single sign-on for IBM Lotus Connections in the Kerberos environment

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:59:00 +0000

Thanks to my colleague, Stuart Crump, for sharing this: -

In this article, we discuss the configuration of a Kerberos-based single sign-on solution from a Microsoft® Windows desktop to IBM® Lotus® Connections running on IBM WebSphere Application Server.

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/library/connections-kerberos/index.html

This dovetails nicely with a similar Wiki post that I'd shared a few weeks back: -

Configuring Microsoft Windows single sign-on for IBM Lotus Connections

http://www.davehay.f2s.com/2010/01/configuring-microsoft-windows-single.html

It's good to share ...

IBM Support Tools portlet for Lotus WCM

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:51:00 +0000

Saw this posted today: -

The IBM Support Tools portlet for Lotus WCM provides an assortment of tools that are useful in troubleshooting content related issues.

This portlet includes tools to view the JCR repository for WCM content, run an xpath query and view results, and directly execute various support jsps. These tools are commonly provided by support on a case to case basis to gather information specific to customer environment and content. With this portlet installed on the WCM system, it will help expedite the troubleshooting process.

The portlet is available for V6.0.1.X and V6.1.X of WebSphere Portal and can only be used on Portals that have WCM installed on them.

https://greenhouse.lotus.com/plugins/plugincatalog.nsf/assetDetails.xsp?action=editDocument&documentId=512B2F643E9A98F9852576CB00604AA6

JDBC weirdness with WebSphere Application Server 6.1 ...

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:51:00 +0000

Whilst installing and configuring Lotus Connections 2.5, I hit a weird problem with the Blogs service, which refused to start properly.

The SystemOut.log showed a series of database-related SQL errors, which indicated that WAS was not able to correctly authenticate against the back-end DB2 database.

I did the normal thing of logging into the DB2 server and running the commands: -

db2cmd
db2 connect to blogs user lcuser using passw0rd

which validated that the password was correct.

I then logged into the WAS admin console and navigated to Resources -> JDBC -> Data sources, selected the blogs JDBC datasource and clicked 'Test Connection'.

This failed with

java.sql.SQLException: ... Connection authorization failure occurred. Reason: Security mechanism not supported. ERRORCODE=-4214, SQLSTATE=28000DSRA0010E: SQL State = 28000, Error Code = -4214

I then navigated into Security -> Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure -> Java Authentication and Authorization -> J2C authentication data and re-keyed the password for the blogsJAASAuth alias, using the SAME password that I'd used earlier.

Having done this, the 'Test Connection' continued to fail.

Before actually tearing ALL my hair out, I followed the advice of my mentor and yogi, Mr Stephen Hardison Esquire, and restarted the entire WAS infrastructure - clusters ( 3x ), node agent and deployment manager. However, ps auxw still showed that WebSphere JVMs were running, so I killed them with kill -9.

Having then restarted the deployment manager and node agent, I was able to SUCCESSFULLY test the JDBC connection and, when I restarted the clusters, Blogs came back up nicely.

The moral of the story - there's a possibility that WAS ( at least 6.1.0.23 ) somehow "caches" JDBC/JAAS passwords. If in doubt, bounce things, and see what happens ...

Remember, kids, YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY

Zooming around in Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:50:00 +0000

Having been back on Ubuntu 9.10 ( Karmic ) for a few weeks, I've been reacquainting myself with the loveliness that is Compiz.

This includes the ability to be able to zoom in and out of the virtual desktops, in a manner similar to that used in Spaces and Expose on the Mac.

For me, with a UK keyboard on a Thinkpad T60p, the magic keystroke is, by default, is [Windows] + [E], also known as [Super][E].

This zooms OUT like this: -

I can then select the required desktop, and hit the right-hand mouse button ( button 2 ) to zoom back in to the chosen one.

However, it gets better.

Compiz also includes the ability to zoom in: -

Again, for me, this is [Windows] + [Button4] which translates to the middle mouse button of the trackpoint on the Thinkpad keyboard.

Having done this, I wasn't sure how to zoom back out, and ended up struggling to restore my desktop.

Thankfully, a quick Sametime chat with my Hursley colleagues http://twitter.com/robhodges and http://twitter.com/spradders managed to save the day.

Having zoomed IN, the trick is to use [Windows] + [E] to return to the many desktops view, and then hit [Esc].

So, in conclusion, here's the magic keystrokes: -

Show MANY desktops        [Windows] + [E]
Go to a desktop                  Select and hit [button2] - right-hand mouse button
Zoom in                              [Windows] + [button3] - middle mouse button ( on Trackpad )
Zoom out                            [Windows] + [E] + [Esc]

When Two Worlds Collide - IBM WebSphere on Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:57:00 +0000

Following the shining example of one of my Hursley colleagues, Ben Fletcher, I've recently been using WebSphere Portal 6.1.5 on Ubuntu 9.10 ( Karmic Koala ) on a relatively old Thinkpad T60p.

***Caveat***

This is almost certainly NOT NOT NOT supported by IBM, so be warned :-)

The initial installation of WebSphere Portal Express was troublesome, in that the installer kept failing, with the error: -

/opt/IBM/WebSphere/PortalExpress/AppServer/bin/wsadmin.sh: 116: Bad substitution
which baffled me, until I read Graham Buckell's excellent blog posting here: -

http://www.torkwrench.com/2009/05/04/getting-websphere-portal-to-install-on-ubuntu/

which documents how to change the default shell from dash to bash e.g.

cd /bin
unlink sh
ln -s /bin/bash sh

At this point, I kicked myself because I'd had a similar problem with Tivoli Directory Integrator on Karmic, which I fixed and blogged about a while back: -

http://www.davehay.f2s.com/2009/12/shelling-out-on-ubuntu-910-karmic-koala.html
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/technology/epp/downloads/release/ganymede/SR2/eclipse-jee-ganymede-SR2-linux-gtk.tar.gz
Once I "cracked" this, I was off and running - only to run into a wall with WebSphere Portlet Factory Designer 6.1.5.

Again, the "Blogosphere" came to my rescue, with a pair of excellent articles from Ben: -

http://benfletcher.wordpress.com/2010/01/02/websphere-portlet-factory-6-1-5-on-64-bit-ubuntu-9-10/

http://benfletcher.wordpress.com/2010/01/03/iwidgets-on-ibm-mashup-center-via-websphere-portlet-factory

In essence, I downloaded and installed a nice shiny new copy of Eclipse 3.4.2 ( eclipse-jee-ganymede-SR2-linux-gtk.tar.gz ) from here: -

http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/technology/epp/downloads/release/ganymede/SR2/eclipse-jee-ganymede-SR2-linux-gtk.tar.gz

and expanded the TAR file ( tar xvzf ) to /usr/share ( thus creating /usr/share/eclipse ).

I then created a symbolic link to the Eclipse binary: -

cd /usr/bin
ln -s /usr/share/eclipse/eclipse .

I then ran the WebSphere Portlet Factory Designer installer, and dropped the WPF binaries into /opt/IBM/WebSphere/PortletFactory/Designer, and "told" the installer where to find Eclipse ( /usr/share/eclipse ).

However, it may have been my "faffing about" but Eclipse still didn't include the WPFD elements when I started it, so I had to perform some more "magic", by clicking Help -> Software Updates -> Add Site and add /opt/IBM/WebSphere/PortletFactory/Designer/eclipse as an installation location.

I'll add some screenshots of this later, but this allowed me to add the WPF features into Eclipse and, after a restart ( of Eclipse, not Ubuntu ! ), I was able to create a WPF project.

However, it was Ben's extra secrets that helped make this totally work: -

a) Adding the line: -

-Dorg.eclipse.swt.browser.XULRunnerPath=/usr/lib/xulrunner

to: -

/usr/share/eclipse/eclipse.ini

to give me: -

-showsplash
org.eclipse.platform
-framework
plugins/org.eclipse.osgi_3.4.3.R34x_v20081215-1030.jar
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5
-Xms40m
-Xmx512m
-XX:MaxPermSize=256m
-Dorg.eclipse.swt.browser.XULRunnerPath=/usr/lib/xulrunner

These effectively set run-time options, and the XULRunner "hack" avoids fatal messages such as: -

java.lang.RuntimeException: Widget disposed too early!

which is a pain.

b) Changing the way that Eclipse launches popup windows to use the older GTK method; this was achieved by "hacking" the environment via a shell script to start Eclipse: -

export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1
/usr/bin/eclipse

This allows Eclipse to launch windows of its own; without this, you'll find that certain processes will never complete, as the pop-up windows never show up.

So, that's it, we're mostly done.

One thing that did confuse me - I run WebSphere Portal as a root user ( via the sudo su command ), and was running Eclipse as my normal non-root user. This meant that, whilst I could create portlet projects, I couldn't deploy them to WebSphere Portal, and was seeing messages such as: -

creation was not successful for an unknown reason

Once I ran Eclipse as root, all was well.

Footnote: A chap called Curran ( who's based 10 minutes down the road from where I currently sit in Littleton, MA ) has blogged more about Eclipse in Ubuntu here: -

http://lifeofaprogrammergeek.blogspot.com/2008/04/eclipse-java-development-in-ubuntu.html

and has written a script which appears to allow me to start Eclipse as my normal non-root user, but use sudo to allow the Eclipse processes to run as root, which is far more elegant than my approach.

Will try it and report back ...

WebSphere Portal and Web Content Management 6.1.5 Information Center highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:50:00 +0000

Abstract

IBM Product Development and Product Support will host a Tech Exchange webcast about WebSphere Portal and Web Content Management (WCM) 6.1.5 Information Center highlights on Wednesday, February 17, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. US EST (3:00 p.m. GMT).

Content

IBM® Product Development and Product Support will host a Tech Exchange webcast about WebSphere Portal and Web Content Management (WCM) 6.1.5 Information Center highlights on Wednesday, February 17, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. US EST (3:00 p.m. GMT).
Webcasts are slide presentations by a single presenter followed by Questions and Answers related to the material covered, as time permits.

You can submit a question in advance by posting a new reply to the announcement at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=316304.

Schedule:
Date: Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Time: 10:00 - 11:30 a.m. US EST (3:00 - 4:30 p.m. GMT)
Webcast URL: https://www.lotuslive.com/en/join?schedid=5260580

For more information, please go here: -
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21418576

SQL5043N when starting DB2 UDB 9.5 on Windows

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:02:00 +0000

Had a strange error today, where DB2 UDB would not start on a Windows 2003 box, having created and set up a new instance.

In essence, we'd created a new instance owner/admin ID under the Windows OS ( Start > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Local Users and Groups > Users > Action > New User ) - this user was DB2ADMIN2 and was assigned membership of the DB2ADMNS group.

Having done this, we logged into Windows as this new user ( DB2ADMIN2 ), and created a new database instance: -

db2icrt DB2_2 -s ese -u db2admin2 -r 60010,60013

which assigns a port range of 60010-60013 to the new instance, of type Enterprise Server Edition.

Having done this, we added the line: -

db2c_DB2_2 50001/tcp

to C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\services.

This sets up port 50001 as the JDBC listener, which makes sense given that the first instance ( DB2 ) is listening on 50000.

We then attempted to start the instance: -

set DB2INSTANCE=DB2_2
db2 update database manager configuration using SVCENAME db2c_DB2_2
db2set DB2COMM=npipe,tcpip
db2stop
db2start

Sadly, the latter command failed with: -

02/09/2010 17:32:34 0 0 SQL5043N Support for one or more communications protocols failed to start successfully. However, core database manager functionality started successfully.

A quick check with the command: -

netstat -aon | find "5000"

showed that the first instance was listening away happily on 50000, but that the second instance just did not want to start up on 50001.

After much faffing about, my instructor/colleague, Stephen Hardison, asked me to re-edit the C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\services file, using Notepad ( of course ), and add an extra Carriage Return (CR/LF) to the end of the file.

Having done this, and saved the file, we ran the commands: -

db2stop
db2start

and, c'est voila, the same netstat command showed that both 50000 *AND* 500001 were listening away merrily.

The moral of the story - don't use Notepad to edit files and ensure that there is an extra CR/LF at the end of the services file.

Simple when you know how :-)

Whitepaper - Driving adoption of Lotus Connections

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 07:51:00 +0000

Thanks to Stuart McIntyre for drawing my attention to this document: -

<snip>

Enterprise social software is gaining practical currency now as analysts' auspicious forecasts begin to be realized with the first wave of early adopters. This new class of software taps informal interactions and relationships among workers with complementary interests, skills, and knowledge, offering new ways to engage the collective intelligence of organizations towards achieving business ends. As such it represents an evolutionary advance in collaboration as a means to higher productivity and competitiveness.

The industry's first integrated suite of enterprise social software, IBM Lotus Connections, became available in June 2007. Featuring five Web 2.0-based components - Profiles, Blogs, Dogear (social bookmarking), Communities, and Activities — Lotus Connections provides a full palette of capabilities that help people find expertise and information and build new relationships based on business needs. Since coming onto the market, sales of this product have continued to be robust. And now there is a growing body of deployment tips and best practices new purchasers can employ to promote steady adoption and productive use of these tools in their own environments.

</snip>

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/news/driving_adoption.html

Resources for administrators and developers - WebSphere Portal 6.1.5

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:05:00 +0000

The Portal Wiki has a nice set of resources for administrators and developers, both of which are worth bookmarking, as useful sites to go visit when the need arises.

Creating External Facing Web Sites Using IBM WebSphere Portal

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:36:00 +0000

Whilst looking for something completely different ( a performance class for WebSphere Portal ), I found this recently published wiki article: -

This IBM Technote links to a wiki that addresses considerations for creating external facing Web sites by using IBM WebSphere Portal Version 6.1.5. The wiki focuses on areas related to external facing Web sites versus topics that might apply to only internal facing sites.

The wiki begins with a brief overview of the differences between internal and external facing Web sites. Then it provides an overview of the factors that contribute to successful Web sites. Next the wiki provides more technical content related to Web Content Management and Web 2.0 considerations. Next a discussion is presented about the various UI frameworks supported by WebSphere Portal and personalization for the user.

This wiki includes an extensive discussion related to search and the integration of search engines. In particular, Section 8 covers site analytics and optimization. The wiki concludes with information about mobile device support. In addition, this wiki includes examples, window captures, and code samples based on various scenarios.

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

Crazy Error: VMware Infrastructure Web Service at "http://localhost:8222/sdk" is not responding

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:08:00 +0000

A good tip from Kenny Smith that may well save your bacon - I have definitely had this problem in the past, but am not 100% sure that the suggested change to /etc/hosts fixed it for me but ...

http://blog.strongbackconsulting.com/2010/02/crazy-error-vmware-infrastructure-web.html

IBM WebSphere eXtreme Scale 6 by Anthony Chaves, my closing comments

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:53:00 +0000

As per my previous posts here and here, I completed this book a few days ago, and would summarise my review as follows. This is an excellent book that really digs into the depths of In-Memory Data Grids (IMDGs), with specific focus on the WebSphere product.

The book is broken down into discrete and logical chapters: -

Chapter 1 What is a Data Grid

A good overview of the overall Data Grid approach, with an explanation of the architecture, and its benefits when compared to relational databases and In-Memory Data Bases (IMDBs).

Chapter 2 The ObjectMap API

A deep dive into the core API behind the IMDG concept, with relevant Java code samples

Chapter 3 Entities and Queries

Using the SQL-like Query API to interact with the Data Grid

Chapter 4 Database Integration

Comparing the Data Grid with relational databases, including the costs/benefits e.g. latency of memory access vs. disk access etc.

Chapter 5 Handling Increased Load

How an IMDG can scale up and out

Chapter 6 Keeping Data Available

How availability non-functional requirements can be met with replication

Chapter 7 The DataGrid API

How IMDG breaks the traditional mould of bringing the data to the application, by moving application code back out into the grid, in a manner similar to, but not the same as SQL Stored Procedures

Chapter 8 Data Grid Patterns

How Extreme Transaction Processing (XTP) requirements can be met using the IMDG concept

Chapter 9 Spring Integration

Using the Spring framework to interact with the IMDG, where Javabeans etc. are instantiated by Spring rather than within the Java code itself

Chapter 10 Putting It All Together

Taking a "real world" example application for bookmark storage, management and access, and moving it from a somewhat "kludged" pattern-light model to something a lot more formalised and structured

As per my previous comments, as one might expect, the book is heavy on the Java code, and is likely to be of more use to an enterprise application developer, especially one working with highly-performance transaction/compute-intensive data models, *BUT* the overall architecture, benefits and implementation best practices are clearly established within the book. As an infrastructure architect, I've learnt some important lessons that, although not specifically relevant to the projects on which I'm working right now, are of value now, and almost certainly, in the future.

In conclusion, I'd strongly recommend this book to anyone wishing to explore In-Memory Data Grids, whether they intend to utilise the WebSphere eXtreme Scale platform or not.

Mr Chaves, I thank you :-)

Using WebSphere Portal documentation offline

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hay) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:16:00 +0000

I've been trying to use the WP documentation off-line, in preparation for a client project later this week.

The WebSphere Portal 6.1.5 Information Centre is available offline, from this page: -

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

specifically, via this link ( as a ZIP file ).

This ZIP file then references the "...the IBM User Interface Help System built on Eclipse...".

However, when I Google'd for this, I found: -

"...

This technology has graduated.

The IBM User Interface Help System Built on Eclipse framework can be found running help systems within many IBM products. Additionally, the framework is being used to provide information centers for most IBM products. These information centers are available on-line and frequently they are also made available with the product itself to be installed locally.

..."

here: -

http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/iehs

That wasn't a whole lot of help ...

Thankfully, thanks to one of my colleagues ( thanks, Cali ! ) bookmarking this page: -

IBM User Interface Help System Built on Eclipse

https://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/iwm/web/preLogin.do?source=AW-0M5&S_PKG=0M5〈=en_US&cp=UTF-8

from where one can download the 8 MB plugin.

In conclusion, I'm hoping that a combination of this: -

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wpdoc/v6r1/topic/com.ibm.wp.ent.doc_v615/com.ibm.wp.ent.doc_v615.zip

and this: -

http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/

and this: -

https://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/iwm/web/preLogin.do?source=AW-0M5&S_PKG=0M5〈=en_US&cp=UTF-8

will do the job.

More to follow ...