WebSphere

 

Portal Express, Version 6.0
Operating systems: i5/OS, Linux, Windows

 

Administering virtual portals

This topic describes how you can scope your WebSphere Portal Express to have multiple virtual portals.

Before you start creating or administering virtual portals, read all of the information in Planning for virtual portals for planning purposes.

Administering virtual portals and their content comprises the following tasks:

You can use the following tools to administer your virtual portals:

The following table shows how you can use these portal tools to administer virtual portals:

Administrative task Portlet for this task Configuration task XML configuration interface
Adding and configuring the user repository for the virtual portal This is a manual task.
Preconfiguring virtual portals This is a manual task.
Configuring the subadministrators for a virtual portal Access control portlets --- X
Creating a virtual portal Virtual Portal Manager X ---
Filling a virtual portal with initial content Virtual Portal Manager --- X
Listing all virtual portals Virtual Portal Manager X ---
Modifying a virtual portal Virtual Portal Manager X ---
Deleting a virtual portal Virtual Portal Manager X ---

The following sections provide more information about these tasks and how you perform them.

 

Add and configuring the user repository for a virtual portal

When you enable security on a portal installation, you select a custom user registry. Member Manager is the typical choice. In this case you enable security by using one of the configuration tasks enable-security-wmmur-ldap or enable-security-wmmur-db, depending on whether you use an LDAP or a database. Review the sections about the Configuration and Sample Configuration. These sections list samples of the required XML files.

As an alternative choice, WebSphere Portal Express Version 6.0 also supports the WebSphere Application Server Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) custom user registry. You enable the user registry by using the configuration task enable-security-ldap. In this case you cannot use realms.

 

Preconfiguring virtual portals

When you use the Virtual Portal Manager portlet to create a virtual portal, the new virtual portal is set up with content and with a set of access rights on the content for the subadministrator group that you specified. You can modify the default content and the subadministrator access rights globally, that is for all virtual portals that you create, before you create virtual portals. You do this by configuring the Virtual Portal Manager portlet. The following sections provide instructions about how to do this.

 

Preconfiguring the default content for virtual portals

When you create the virtual portal by using the Virtual Portal Manager portlet, the virtual portal is pre-filled with default content. This default content is determined by the default XML script file for initializing virtual portals. For a list of the default content for virtual portals refer to Content of a virtual portal. Advanced master administrators can customize the default content for virtual portals as required by modifying or replacing the XML script that specifies the initial content for virtual portals.

When modifying or replacing this XML script, plan well ahead and apply special care. You can add or remove some content in order to enhance or reduce the functionality of a virtual portal to a certain extent. The following portal resources are mandatory content of a virtual portal and must be included in a customized XML initialization script for virtual portals:

Depending on the functionality that you want to make available, more content is required. For example, in order to allow templating. include Application Root (wps.application.root) and Templates (ibm.portal.Templates). The XML script file that contains the default content of virtual portals is named InitVirtualPortal.xml. It is located in the WebSphere Application Server directory:

For details about how to work with the XML configuration interface refer to the The XML configuration interface. Advanced administrative users can replace the default XML script by their own custom XML script. To do this

  1. Place your custom XML script in the following directory:

  2. Open the Manage Portlets portlet by clicking Administration > Portlet Management > Portlets.

  3. In the list of portlets locate the Virtual Portal Manager portlet.

  4. Click the Configure Portlet (wrench) icon of the Virtual Portal Manager portlet.

  5. Edit the SCRIPT_INIT_VP parameter of the portlet. Replace the value InitVirtualPortal.xml with the name of your custom XML script. You might have to take a note of the parameter and remove it, and then re-enter the parameter with the name of your XML file.

  6. Click OK twice to save your changes.

 

Preconfiguring the subadministrators for virtual portals

To configure the roles and access rights that are assigned to subadministrators on portlets of a virtual portal globally and before you create a virtual portal, proceed by the following steps on your initial portal installation:

  1. Open the Manage Portlets portlet by clicking Administration > Portlet Management > Portlets.

  2. In the list of portlets locate the Virtual Portal Manager portlet.

  3. Click the Configure Portlet (wrench) icon of the Virtual Portal Manager portlet.

  4. Perform the following steps, depending on the requirements for your virtual portals:

    1. If you want to change the list of portlets to which the subadministrators have access:

      1. Edit the portletListNeedAccess parameter of the portlet. Remove those portlets for which you want the subadministrators of your virtual portals to have no access rights.

      2. Add portlets as required by adding the unique names of the portlets to the list. You might have to take a note of the list and remove the parameter, and then enter the parameter with your updated list.
      The default list contains all portlets listed under Content of a virtual portal.

    2. If you want to change the access rights that are granted to the subadministrators on the portlets of virtual portals, edit the actionSetName parameter of the portlet and change the role that you want to assign to the subadministrators to the role that fits your requirements. The default role is EDITOR. You might have to take a note of the parameter and remove it, and then re-enter the parameter with the updated value. You can enter the following values: Administrator, Security Administrator, Delegator, Manager, Privileged User, User.

      Subadministrators have the roles that you assign to them on all the portlets that are listed under the portletListNeedAccess parameter of the Virtual Portal Manager portlet (see the previous step).

  5. Click OK to save your changes.

 

Create a virtual portal

As a master administrator you can create virtual portals by using the Virtual Portal Manager portlet. When you do this, you specify the following attributes:

For details refer to Using the Virtual Portal Manager administration portlet. As an alternative you can also use the appropriate configuration task to create virtual portals. For details about the configuration tasks for administering virtual portals refer to Using configuration tasks for administering virtual portals.

Notes:

  1. If you use the configuration task create-virtual-portal to create a virtual portal, the virtual portal is created without content. For more details about filling a virtual portal with content refer to Filling a virtual portal with content.

  2. If no virtual portal title is given in the language which is either defined as the user-preferred language or defined in the user's browser, the display fallback will use the unique name if present, or a string version of the ObjectID. So, to display the virtual portal title and content root correctly, the administrator must select the preferred language for the portal user, or define the display language in the user's browser, according to the language in which the title is set. For information about the language search sequence, please refer to Language determined by the portal in Selecting and changing the language.

 

Filling a virtual portal with content

When you create a virtual portal by using the Virtual Portal Manager portlet, the portlet fills the new virtual portal with default content. This default content is determined by the default XML script file for initializing virtual portals. If you want different content in your virtual portal, you can configure a custom script file. For more information about the default content for virtual portals and how you configure it before creating a virtual portal refer to Preconfiguring the default content for virtual portals. For more information about how you can add more portal content refer to Administering the portal content and resources for virtual portals. You can also use the portal XML configuration interface to add content to a virtual portal.

If you use the configuration task create-virtual-portal to create a virtual portal, the virtual portal is created without content. In this case use the portal XML configuration interface to fill the virtual portal with content.

For more information about the XML configuration interface and how to use it refer to The XML configuration interface.

 

Configure the subadministrators for virtual portals

You can administer the subadministrators of a virtual portal as required by using the Portal Access Control of your initial portal installation.

When you create a virtual portal by using the Virtual Portal Manager portlet, you select a user group of subadministrators that you want to be responsible for the administration of the new virtual portal. During creation of the new virtual portal the Virtual Portal Manager portlet creates a set of necessary access rights on the virtual portal for the subadministrator group that you specified. This includes EDITOR role access rights on the administration portlets that are part of a virtual portal (refer to Planning for virtual portals). As a result, the subadministrators of a virtual portal can perform administrative tasks on the virtual portal with these administration portlets. If you want to change these default access rights for the subadministrators, you can do one of the following:

The Manage Search portlet requires that you assign the following additional role and access rights on it to the virtual portal administrators so that they can use the full functionality of the portlet: Editor@Virtual Resource PSE_SOURCES.

Do not grant the subadministrators of virtual portals the access rights to perform any installation related tasks, such as installation of portlets or themes. An unstable or malicious portlet that is installed in one virtual portal can destabilize the entire portal installation, as all virtual portals share the same Java Virtual Machine. Typically, installation related tasks should only be done by the master administrator of the portal installation.

If you use the configuration task create-virtual-portal to create a virtual portal, this configuration task does not assign roles to the subadministrators of the virtual portal. In this case assign the required roles manually or by using the portal XML configuration interface. For more information about the XML configuration interface and how to use it refer to The XML configuration interface.

 

Listing all virtual portals

You can list all virtual portals by using either the Virtual Portal Manager portlet or using a configuration task.

 

Modifying a virtual portal

You can use the Virtual Portal Manager portlet to change the following settings of an existing virtual portal:

As an alternative, you can perform the same modifications by using a configuration task.

 

Deleting a virtual portal

You can delete a virtual portal by using the Virtual Portal Manager portlet.

You can also delete a virtual portal by using the appropriate configuration task.

You cannot delete the initial portal installation.

After the virtual portal resource has been deleted, the scoped resources of that particular virtual portal are deleted at a later time by a scheduled cleanup service. The URL mapping that was created when the virtual portal was created is also deleted. The following resources are not deleted:

If you delete a virtual portal and you want to create a new virtual portal immediately after the deletion using the same URL context, you do not have to wait for the scheduled cleanup service. Run the cleanup task for deleting resources by running the XML script Task.xml using the XML configuration interface. Then you can create the new virtual portal.

 

Administering the portal content and resources for virtual portals

When you create a virtual portal by using the Virtual Portal Manager portlet, the portlet also creates default portal content and resources for the virtual portal. This default content is determined by the default XML script file for initializing virtual portals. The default content of a virtual portal is listed under Planning for virtual portals. In general, you can administer portal resources for a virtual portal just like you do for a normal portal installation.

You need to be aware that some resource types are scoped to a particular virtual portal and cannot be accessed from outside of that virtual portal. Such scoped portal resource types are assigned to only that one portal. Sharing of these resource types between virtual portals is not possible. This restriction is imposed by the portal system and provides a secure isolation between virtual portals. You cannot change this behavior.

Other resource types are not scoped. They are shared among all virtual portals of the same installation. If you want to restrict such resource types to particular virtual portals, you can define their visibility by using Portal Access Control. These access restrictions should usually be defined by the master administrator of the portal installation. For more details about scoping of portal resources for virtual portals refer to Planning for virtual portals.

If you want to change the content of virtual portals, you can do this by one of the following ways:

When you create a virtual portal, the portlets associated with IBM® Workplace Web Content Management™ are not included in the virtual portal, even if you have deployed these portlets as part of your original portal installation. To use any of these portlets in a virtual portal, manually create a page and add the portlets:

 

Administering the users for virtual portals

As the master administrator of the portal installation you assign administrative users for the virtual portals. These virtual portal subadministrators can manage the access rights of the user population of the virtual portal for which they are responsible. When you use realms to separate the user populations of the virtual portals from each other, you need to configure the realms manually in a Member Manager configuration file. This is typically done by the master administrator of the portal installation.

When you create a virtual portal, be aware of the following implications:

If you want to change these default access rights for the users, you can do one of the following:

 

Administering content and search with virtual portals

Document libraries that are used by the Document Manager portlet and Personalization are not aware of virtual portals. A document library that is available in the initial portal installation is also available in each virtual portal, if the Document Manager portlet or Personalization is available in that virtual portal and is configured to use that document library. Searching for a document in a document library will produce a document reference (URL) that is different in each virtual portal, but points to the same document in the document library. To provide separation of content within virtual portals, use separate document libraries for each virtual portal. To provide content collaboration between virtual portals, use the same document libraries between virtual portals.

 

Use the Virtual Portal Manager administration portlet

For improved manageability of virtual portals, WebSphere Portal Express provides a new administration portlet. It is named Virtual Portal Manager. It allows you to create additional virtual portals on demand. You can also use it to list the virtual portals that exist in the portal.

After you complete a regular portal installation, the portal is ready and enabled for implementing virtual portals. You can create additional virtual portals for your business as and when you need.

When you create a new virtual portal, you enter or select the following properties of the new virtual portal as required:

After you enter this information, you create the new virtual portal. With that information the portlet triggers a sequence of processes to establish the new virtual portal. These include:

Besides creating a virtual portal, you can also use the Virtual Portal Manager portlet to perform the following tasks:

 

Preconfiguring the Virtual Portal Manager portlet

When you use the Virtual Portal Manager portlet to create a virtual portal, the portlet creates the new virtual portal with default portal content and resources. It also creates default access rights for the virtual portal subadministrators on those resources. You can change both the default portal content and the default access rights for the subadministrators globally and before creating a virtual portal. To do this, you configure the Virtual Portal Manager portlet and the default XML script:

 

Use configuration tasks for administering virtual portals

WebSphere Portal Express provides the following configuration tasks that you can use perform the following work with virtual portals:

 

Use the XML configuration interface to work with virtual portals

You can export and import individual virtual portals by using the XML configuration interface. For example, you can use the XML configuration interface to fill a newly created virtual portal with content.

As each virtual portal has its own globally unique portal ID, all resources associated with that virtual portal can be clearly determined. You specify the unique virtual portal URL with your XML request as follows:

This command is shown on two lines but must be entered as one line. 

    xmlaccess -user user -password password -url 
    myhost:10038/wps/config/URL_Context_of _the_Virtual_Portal 
    -in XML_file -out result.xml

For the variable URL_Context_of _the_Virtual_Portal use the URL context that you specified when you created the virtual portal. For more information about the XML configuration interface and how you use it refer to the The XML configuration interface .

You can only export and import a single individual virtual portal at a time by using the XML configuration interface. You cannot export or import multiple virtual portals at the same time or an entire portal installation with virtual portals. You need to specify a separate XML request for each virtual portal. You can also export content from one virtual portal and import it into a different virtual portal.

The access rights for the XML configuration interface are limited to the master administrator of the portal installation as a whole. Subadministrators for the virtual portals cannot use the XML configuration interface to export or import the virtual portal which they administer.

Apply special care when you configure unscoped resources using the XML configuration interface. Unscoped resources are shared between all virtual portals across the entire portal installation. A change of unscoped resources by the XML configuration interface affects all other virtual portals. For example, this applies to the following tasks and types of XML processing:

For more information about scoped and unscoped resources refer to Planning for virtual portals.

 

Related information

 

Parent topic:

Multiple virtual portals