Configure the federated documents feature

Configure the federated documents feature to specify information about the source servers for the documents available to users.

When the portal retrieves documents from a remote server, authentication might be required to access the documents on the remote server. We can use several types of authentication:

• Single sign-on (SSO) between the portal and the remote server

• User name and password information in the user interface. Only HTTP basic authentication is supported for CMIS servers.

• Credential vault slots that handle HTTP authentication

In addition to enabling or disabling credential vault slots for authentication, we can identify the servers providing documents. For each server, we can define characteristics such as the type of document that the server returns and the title used to identify the server.

1. Log in to the WebSphere Integrated Solutions Console...
   http://hostname.example.com:10027/ibm/console

2. Click...
   Resources > Resource Environment > Resource Environment Providers > WP FederatedDocumentsService > Additional Properties > Custom Properties

3. Specify whether credential vaults slots are used for authentication with remote servers.

   Because we can access federated documents through either the personalization editor or the rich text editor provided with Web Content Manager, we can configure credential vault slots for each method independently.

   1. If we are accessing federated documents through the personalization editor, click wp.federated.documents.pzn.vaultselection.enabled. To enable credential vaults slots, set the value to true, or, to disable credential vault slots, set the value to false. By default, the value is true.

   2. If we are accessing federated documents through the rich text editor in Web Content Manager, click wp.federated.documents.wcm.vaultselection.enabled. To enable credential vaults slots, set the value to true, or, to disable credential vault slots, set the value to false. By default, the value is true.

   If you enable credential vault slots, users can select a credential vault slot in the user interface. We can also use the property wp.federated.documents.suffix.vault.slot to specify a default credential slot to be used with a given remote server.

4. Specify whether users can enter their own servers when accessing remote content or can use only predefined servers that you configure.

   1. Click wp.federated.documents.custom.server.enabled.

   2. To allow users to enter their own servers, set the value to true. To prevent users from entering custom servers, set the value to false. When set to false, the user interface does not display the entry field for custom servers. By default, the value is true.

5. Specify whether documents from servers supporting Document Services remote interfaces can be retrieved by the portal. Examples of products that support Document Services remote interfaces include IBM Lotus Quickr , IBM Content Manager, and IBM FileNet Content Manager.

   1. Click wp.federated.documents.document.services.enabled.

   2. To enable access to Document Services feeds, set the value to true. To disable access to Document Services feeds, set the value to false. If false, users can still access servers supporting CMIS or Atom feeds, but connections to Document Services servers are not supported. By default, the value is true.

6. For each remote server containing documents you want to access from the portal, configure the server URL, feed type, and additional optional properties.

   The value of the suffix portion of the property key is used to group related properties for each server. Use the same suffix value for properties related to the same server. The suffix can be any value as long as it is unique across the property keys.

   For each property, click New and enter the name and value:

   wp.federated.documents.suffix.url

   Value: The URL for an Atom feed or CMIS service document for the remote server. Required.

   wp.federated.documents.suffix.type

   Value:

   • CMIS indicates that the remote server provides a CMIS service document.

   • DocumentServices indicates that the remote server supports Document Services remote interfaces.

   • ATOM indicates that the remote server provides a generic Atom feed.

   If no value is specified, a default value of CMIS is used.

   wp.federated.documents.suffix.title.default

   Value: The title used to identify this source server in the user interface, when there is no resource bundle defined to provide title text. If no default title and no resource bundle are defined, the value of the wp.federated.documents.suffix.url property is used in the user interface.

   wp.federated.documents.suffix.nls.resources

   Value: The name of the resource bundle containing the translated title and description used to identify this source server in the user interface. If this property is not defined, the default title is used. If no default title and no resource bundle are defined, the value of the wp.federated.documents.suffix.url property is used in the user interface.

   wp.federated.documents.suffix.vault.slot

   Value: The name of the credential vault slot that stores the credentials used for authentication with the remote server. Credential vault slots are set up and managed by the portal administrator. This property defines the default credential vault slot that is predefined in the user interface, although the user can also select a different slot if one is available. If this property is not defined, the user interface does not display a default credential vault slot, but we can still select a slot from the available list. This property is optional.

   The credential vault slot must contain the credentials required for authentication with the remote server.

   wp.federated.documents.suffix.override.authentication.enabled

   Value: true or false. When set to true, the user can change the authentication method for the server in the user interface. When set to false, the user interface does not display the field to change the authentication method. The default value is true.

7. Optional: Configure the amount of data returned for the summary metadata attribute of the document.

   1. Click Resources > Resource Environment > Resource Environment Providers.

   2. Click WCM WCMConfigService.

   3. Under Additional Properties, click Custom Properties.

   4. Click wcm.pzn.ecm.max.field.length, and enter the number of characters to be returned. If no value is specified, the default value is 128 characters.

8. Optional: Configure whether property changes are automatically loaded.

   By default, the Federated Documents service automatically reloads properties at a specified interval, without requiring you to restart the portal. We can change the automatic reloading behavior or modify the reloading interval.

   1. Click Resources > Resource Environment > Resource Environment Providers.

   2. Click WP FederatedDocumentsService.

   3. Under Additional Properties, click Custom Properties.

   4. Click wp.federated.documents.document.service.reload.disabled, and specify a value of true to disable automatic reloading of properties. The default value is false.

   5. Click wp.federated.documents.document.service.reload.interval, and specify the interval in seconds for reloading properties. The default value is 3 seconds.

9. Save the changes. The Federated Documents service automatically reloads any updated properties. If you have disabled automatic reloading, restart the portal server.

10. If you enable credential vault slots, grant access to credential vault slots for all authenticated users.

    1. Log in to the portal as an administrator.

    2. Click Administration > Access > Resource Permissions.

    3. From the list of resource types, navigate to Virtual Resources.

    4. For the ADMIN_SLOTS resource, click the Assign Access icon.

    5. Edit the User role, and add the All Authenticated Portal Users group to the role.

Parent: Set up support for federated documents