Deploy customized themes and skins

 

Overview

Theme and skin JSPs are managed as part of the main WebSphere Portal enterprise application and are thus part of the WebSphere Portal EAR file. The WebSphere Portal EAR file must be updated and redeployed when adding new themes and skins. Failure to do this could cause the custom themes and skins to be deleted when the EAR file is subsequently updated. To update and redeploy the EAR file with the new themes and skins, follow the instructions in this section.

When customized themes and skins are deployed into the cluster, they must be updated in the cluster master configuration, which is managed on the Deployment Manager.

The WebSphere Portal EAR file must be updated and redeployed when adding new themes and skins, using the following steps:

  1. Export the WebSphere Portal EAR file according to your network configuration. If you have a cluster environment, the WebSphere Portal EAR must be exported from Deployment Manager.

    1. Change directories to the Application Server or Deployment Manager bin directory.

    2. Invoke the wsadmin command to export the wps EAR file to a temporary directory...

      wsadmin -instance instance -user admin_user_id -password admin_password -c '$AdminApp export wps directory/wps.ear'

      ...where...

      • instance is the WebSphere Application Server instance
      • admin_user_id is the administrator's user ID
      • admin_password is the administrator's password
      • directory is the temporary directory


  2. Create the wps_expanded directory. Use the EARExpander tool to expand the contents of the exported EAR file (make sure that all commands are entered on one line):

    EARExpander -ear dirctory/wps_original.ear -operationDir directory/wps_expanded -operation expand

  3. Place the updated themes and skins JSPs into the correct directory within the expanded EAR.

  4. Use the EARExpander command to collapse the EAR directory back into an EAR file:

    EARExpander -ear directory/wps.ear -operationDir directory/wps_expanded -operation collapse

  5. Use the wsadmin command to update the WebSphere Portal EAR. If you have a cluster environment, update the EAR in Network Deployment Manager to synchronize the update across each node in the cluster.

    wsadmin -instance instance -user admin_user_id -password admin_password -c '$AdminApp install directory/wps.ear {-update -appname wps}'

    where:

    • instance is the WebSphere Application Server instance

    • admin_user_id is the administrator's user ID

    • admin_password is the administrator's password

    • directory is the temporary directory

  6. Restart the portal server. In a cluster configuration, restart the portal server on each node.

Updates to the configuration of a WebSphere Portal cluster must occur on the Deployment Manager and resynchronized with the other node in the cluster. If updates are made directly to the node, the updates will be lost when the master configuration on the Deployment Manager resynchronizes with the node again.

See also