Change application URLs

Change the context root of URLs that point to Connections applications.

Change the context roots of the applications before you map the applications to IHS or before you edit the IHS configuration file for any other reason.

This task is optional.

The web address for a Connections application contains a default context root value. We can change this context root to conform to corporate policies that limit where server applications can be deployed and how they can be addressed.

For example, the Blogs application is available from host_server/blogs by default. We can change that base address to host_server/ConnectionsBlogs to differentiate it from any other blogging service or to conform to corporate guidelines. To change the context root of an application:

1. Log in to the WAS Integration Solutions Console.

2. Expand Applications > Application Types and then select WebSphere enterprise applications.

3. Click the name of the server hosting the application to administer and then click Context Root For Web Modules.

4. Edit the values in the Context Root column of the table. The paths must begin with a forward slash (/) and must not contain spaces.

   Do not specify a single forward slash (/) as the full context root. That specification prevents applications from retrieving Atom feeds properly. Using the default application context ("/") is not supported.

5. Click OK and then click OK from the server properties page to save the change.
   app_server_root/profiles/Dmgr01/bin
   ./wsadmin.sh -lang jython
   Access the Connections configuration file:
   execfile("connectionsConfig.py")

6. Update the Connections configuration file to reflect this context root change. Use the wsadmin client to access and check out the file.

   1. Check out Connections configuration files:

      LCConfigService.checkOutConfig("/tmp","cell_name")

      where:

      • /tmp is the temporary working directory to which configuration files are copied. The files are kept in this working directory while you edit them.

        • With Windows, use a forward slash for the directory. For example: "/tmp".

      • To determine: print AdminControl.getCell()

7. Update the value of the href prefix by :

   LCConfigService.updateConfig("<web_module_name.href.prefix", "new_context_root_value")

   where:

   web_module_name

   Name of the web module for the application. Each application has one or more web modules. Select from the following options:

   Application or Service name	Web modules
   Activities	activities
   Blogs	blogs
   Communities	communities
   Dogear	dogear
   Files	files
   Forums	forums
   Home page	homepage, news
   Metrics	metrics
   Mobile	mobile
   Moderation	moderation
   Profiles	personTag, profiles
   Search	search
   Wikis	wikis

   new_context_root_value

   Value definedd for the application's web UI context root in Step 4.

   For example, to change the context root of the Profiles applications:

   LCConfigService.updateConfig("profiles.href.prefix","/contacts") LCConfigService.updateConfig("personTag.href.prefix","/contacts")

8. Save the changes to LotusConnections-config.xml.

9. Check in the file in during the same wsadmin session in which you checked it out. See Applying common configuration property changes.

10. (Files and Wikis only) Perform the following steps:

    1. Check out the Files and Wikis configuration files. See Change configuration property values in the Administer Files and Administer Wikis sections of the product documentation.

    2. Locate the following property:

       <security>
          <logout href="/files/ibm_security_logout" />
       </security>

    3. Change it to the following content:

       <security>
          <logout href="new_context_root_value>/ibm_security_logout" />
       </security>

11. Update existing links be selecting one of the following options:

    • Update the old links manually.

    • Redirect requests to links:

      Use this option only if the old and new context roots are defined on the same IBM HTTP Server.

      1. Open httpd.conf from the following directory:

         AIX: /usr/IBM/HTTPServer/conf

         IBM i: /www/HTTPServer_name/conf

         Linux: /opt/IBM/HTTPServer/conf

         Windows: C:\IBM\HTTPServer\conf

      2. Uncomment the following line or add it if it is not present: LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

      3. Add redirection rules for each application for both HTTP and secure HTTP. The following content is an example of redirection rules added for the Blogs application:

         Listen 0.0.0.0:443 <VirtualHost *:443> RewriteEngine on RewriteRule /blogs/(.*) https://<your_host_server>/LotusConnectionsBlogs/$1 [R,L] ServerName <your_host_server> SSLEnable </VirtualHost> SSLDisable RewriteEngine on RewriteRule /blogs/(.*) http://<your_host_server>/LotusConnectionsBlogs/$1 [R,L]

      4. Save and close httpd.conf and then restart the IHS.

12. Regenerate the plugin-cfg.xml file:

    1. Open the WAS console.

    2. Expand Servers > Server Types and then select Web servers.

    3. Select the check box next to the IHS name. For example: webserver1.

    4. Click Generate Plug-in.

    5. If necessary, click Propagate Plug-in to copy the plugin-cfg.xml file from the local directory to the remote system.

13. Restart IBM HTTP Server.

14. Delete the search index. By default, the indexing task runs every 15 minutes and rebuilds the index if you deleted it. See Delete the index.

15. Update any non-browser clients to point to the new URL. See the client documentation for the required steps.

16. Run the BlogsAdminService.fixBrokenUrls command to fix the absolute URLs used by embedded images and attachments in Blogs. See Replace URLs in Blogs.

17. Consider creating a landing page for the old URL that redirects to the new URL.

Parent topic:
Customize the deployment

Related:
Close the widget palette. post-installation tasks
Start the wsadmin client
Apply common configuration property changes
Delete the index
Change Files configuration property values
Change Wikis configuration property values
Replace URLs in Blogs