Tony Field’s Blog

The following instructions are some great cheat sheet instructions for getting OWCS 11gR1 up and running on a Mac. I use Tomcat & HSQLDB. Installation works perfectly fine.

These instructions should suffice for setting up a complete installation of Oracle WebCenter Sites 11gR1 on Mac OS X Lion. It also includes the steps required to configure CSDT through Eclipse.

It is assumed that nothing is installed at all - no database, application
server, or even Eclipse.

Download the scripts and instructions here. (right-click & “save as” on a PC)

SET UP HOME DIRECTORIES

mkdir /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/
mkdir /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/home
mkdir /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/shared
mkdir /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/catalina_base
mkdir /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/catalina_base/bin
mkdir /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/catalina_base/conf
mkdir /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/catalina_base/logs
mkdir /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/catalina_base/webapps
mkdir /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/catalina_base/work
mkdir /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/db
mkdir /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/installer
mkdir /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/workspace


CREATING DATABASE

Download from http://sourceforge.net/projects/hsqldb/files/hsqldb/hsqldb_1_8_0/

sudo mkdir /usr/local/hsqldb
sudo cp ~/Downloads/hsqldb.jar /usr/local/hsqldb/
cd /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/db
vi start-db.sh
chmod +x *.sh
cat start-db.sh
#!/bin/sh
java -cp /usr/local/hsqldb/hsqldb.jar org.hsqldb.Server -database.0 file:csdb -dbname.0 csdb

./start-db.sh
...


INSTALLING TOMCAT

sudo mkdir /usr/local/apache-tomcat-6.0.35
sudo ln -s /usr/local/apache-tomcat-6.0.35 /usr/local/apache-tomcat
cd /usr/local/apache-tomcat-6.0.35/
sudo mv ~/Downloads/apache-tomcat-6.0.35.tar .
sudo tar -xf apache-tomcat-6.0.35.tar
sudo rm apache-tomcat-6.0.35.tar
sudo mv apache-tomcat-6.0.35/* .
sudo rmdir apache-tomcat-6.0.35


DEPLOYING DB DRIVER

sudo cp /usr/local/hsqldb/hsqldb.jar /usr/local/apache-tomcat/lib/

SET UP TOMCAT CONFIG AND CONTROL SCRIPTS

See attached startup.sh, shutdown.sh, catalina.sh for customizations
relating to setting environment params, classpath, etc.

cd /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/catalina_base/bin
sudo cp -R /usr/local/apache-tomcat/conf/* /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/catalina_base/conf/
sudo chown tfield /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/catalina_base/conf/*
sudo cp /usr/local/apache-tomcat/bin/startup.sh /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/catalina_base/bin/
sudo cp /usr/local/apache-tomcat/bin/shutdown.sh /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/catalina_base/bin/
sudo chown tfield /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/catalina_base/bin/*
cd /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/catalina_base/bin
cp /usr/local/apache-tomcat/bin/catalina.sh .
cp /usr/local/apache-tomcat/bin/setclasspath.sh .
vi shutdown.sh
vi startup.sh
vi catalina.sh
chmod +x *.sh

CONFIGURE DATASOURCE

See attached server.xml

vi /Users/tfield/Metastratus/catalina_base/conf/server.xml

START TOMCAT

./startup.sh

COPY OWCS INSTALLER TO A HANDY LOCATION

cd /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/installer
mv ~/Downloads/WCSSites11 .
cd WCSSites11/ContentServer
chmod +x *.sh
vi cscore.xml

• Add “Mac OS X64″ to the list of platforms that can run the Tomcat package in cscore.xml (line ~526)
• Un-comment HSQLDB from the TOMCAT package (line ~1906)

RUN INSTALLER

./csInstall.sh


Installation Directory : /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/home
Installation Type : Single server
Shared Folder Path : /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/shared
Host Name : localhost
Port Number : 8080
Platform Type : APPSERVER
Application Server : Tomcat 6.0.32+/7.0.23+
Server Path : /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/catalina_base
Database : HSQL Database Engine
JNDI Data Source Name : csDataSource


INSTALL ECLIPSE

• download Eclipse Java EE version (Helios minimum, Juno works)
• unzip it and move the eclipse folder to /Applications

INSTALL CSDT

Copy the com.fatwire.eclipsecsdt_1.2.jar jar file from the csdt.zip
file in the installer folder to your /Applications/eclipse/plugins folder

CONFIGURE CSDT

• Create a new workspace in /Users/tfield/Metastratus/OWCS11gR1/workspace
• Open the workspace
• Open the Oracle WebCenter Sites Perspective
  (Window > Open Perspective > Other > Oracle WebCenter Sites)
• Synchronize all files to workspace Oracle > WebCenter Sites Sync

Current snapshot builds of the GSF (as available on the GSF website) have “some issues” with the installation on 11gR1, mostly around permissions, that do not arise on 7.6. I’m working on addressing these and hope to have it sorted out in the next week or so.

Meanwhile, here are some step-by-step instructions that will take you through complete installation of the GSF on a virgin 11gR1 installation. They are aimed at a trained WC Sites administrator / developer.

If you have any questions or corrections, please let me know.

Tony
www.metastratus.com

Core GSF Installation

1. Download GSF kit from site
2. Copy the GSF jar to war (webapps/cs/WEB-INF/lib)
3. Copy the “gsf” folder to webapps/cs
4. Start cs and deploy elements that ship with the GSF using CatalogMover
5. Log in to the UI, choose Admin site and GSF application
6. In the WEM ui, go to the WEM admin app
7. Create a new site
8. Add users and roles to site
9. Add CS Admin, GSF, Contributor, and WEM admin app to the new site
10. Add CS Admin, Contributor, and WEM admin apps to the GST site (also)
11. Log out & log in (this might be done in one step)
12. Select GST site and open the CS Admin app
13. Using the “replacement tree”, select Sites > GST > Asset types, and disable all asset types. Repeat the process and ENABLE all asset types starting with GST*
14. In the admin ui, select Sites > YOUR NEW SITE and enable asset types GST*, CSElement, Template, SiteEntry, Page, Page Attribute, Page definition, and AttrTypes
15. Search for all attributes & share them with your new site! Repeat for definitions.
16. In your site, create a new CSElement called exactly: “GST/Dispatcher”. It will be automatically populated. Delete the XML comment if there is one. Change the action from “…ActionController” to “com.fatwire.gst.foundation.controller.BaseController” (for now - let’s start simple)
17. Create a new SiteEntry called “YOURSITE/Dispatcher” using the element you just created. Wrapper, uncached. (This is a workaround to the fact that the SiteEntry asset is created but is not accessible in your site)

Configuring the GSF Vanity URL support
This topic is a little more involved and is not necessary for initial development, so I’ll cover it in another post, later.

Creating a sample site in the GSF

1. Create a new GSTAttribute called “body”, make it text.
2. Create a new GSTDefinition called “MyArticle” containing the following:*h1titlte,*metatitle, *metadescription, linktext, body, *metakeyword
3. Create a new Flex child under GST Attribute called YOURSITEContent and enable it for your site, edit the asset type so that it “can be child”
4. Create a new template called “Microsite” for asset type YOURSITEContent and subtype “MyArticle”. Usage: Layout; type: JSP; code: from microsite.jsp file in the GSF kit; cached.
5. Create a new pageDefinition called “Blank”
6. Create a new named association under “Page” called “-”, Description “Contains”, Child Asset “Any”, Page Subtypes “Blank”. Exists, Multivalued. (this retrofits the unnamed association into the 11g page asset)
7. Switch to contributor UI and create a new YOURSITEContent (definition MyArticle)
8. Save it, then select a template (Microsite), then save it AGAIN
9. Create a new Page called “MainNav”
10. Create sub-pages under MainNav called “Home”, “About”, “Contact”
11. Hook up your new MyArticle to the Home asset’s Contains slot.
12. Create 2 new MyArticles and add them to the About and Contact Contains Slots.
13. Once this is finished, your microsite template should render your site and create a full nab bar

All done!

The GST Site Foundation (”GSF”) was designed for FatWire Content Server 7.6, and it has proven very useful for many customers. With the release of Oracle WebCenter Sites 11gR1, some significant changes were made that impacted the GSF. The biggest by far is the change to the role of the Page asset.

Pages in 11gR1 are “Complex Assets” that are “templatable”, which means they can be assigned attributes via definitions. (Strictly speaking they are not Flex assets, because they can’t be assigned parents, be involved in related item recommendations, among other things, but they do share this definition feature.) In addition, the UI integration of the Page asset in the new Contributor UI is much tighter than it was in the Advanced UI in Content Server 7.6.

The GSF assigned the 7.6 Page asset the role of “provider of navigation structure” only. In 11gR1, the Page is positioned to be a web-referenceable asset (”WRA”) itself. This means that the 11gR1 is architecturally incompatible with the GSF’s use of the Page asset. An adjustment must be made.

Strictly speaking, the GSF 1.3 will work on 11gR1. Instructions on how to do it will be provided in the next post. No changes need to be made to the GSF architecture, and all previous sites will continue to work.

GSF 1.3 is compatible with Oracle WebCenter Sites 11gR1 for sites built with the 7.6 / GST 1.0.3 architecture specification.

To take advantage of the NEW features in 11gR1 with the GSF, some changes to the architecture are required. Primarily, it is necessary to expand the role of the Page asset to allow it to also be a WRA. Once this is done, Pages can take advantage of full WRA roles. There are a some code issues that arise though when switching architectures. The <gst:navigation> and <gst:multilingual-navigation> tags stop working properly, because they expect the Page asset to have an unnamed association to the WRA, and we don’t have to do this in 11gR1 anymore.

We are planning to release a final 1.3 edition of the GSF in late July, 2012 (it’s almost ready to go, we’re just addressing some 11gR1 installation complications). Immediately after that, a new branch will be created for version 2.0, which will include native support for 11gR1 features. Stay tuned in the month of August for details about this change.

Enjoy!

Tony
Metastratus Web Solutions
www.metastratus.com

Hello! It seems that a bit of time has gone by since I’ve dusted off this blog. A long while, perhaps, based on the number of spam comments in the moderation queue. In any event, I’m going to start again. I’ll cover several topics, but be warned, I’m going to get technical.

Over the last few months I’ve ramped up my consulting company, Metastratus Web Solutions, quite a bit, and have taken a few steps back from FatWire Software where I’ve been parking most of my working hours over the last few years. Part of that is due to the fact that FatWire was recently acquired by Oracle. (That is a whole topic itself). Long story short, Metastratus is now an Oracle Gold partner and I’ve set out as an elite team of WebCenter Sites (formerly FatWire Content Server) specialists, to help customers with their implementations.

That’s going well. We were lucky in that we hit the ground running. Metastratus has been in operation for almost two years now and we have a team of 5 today, myself included. In the last couple of months, we’ve opened a US company, have started hiring, and began building relationships with several key partners in this small but rapidly growing community. And we’re hiring.

I must admit that getting all of this set up has been a huge amount of work, and so it’s really at the front of my mind a lot these days. Consequently, it’s going to probably dominate the blog for a bit. But besides just the whole setup topic, I’ll be posting technical topics regularly, and I won’t be able to resist the occasional personal post too. Some of you know that I’ve been pretty involved in the creation of the GST Site Foundation (”GSF”), so you can look here for posts on that topic too.

So that’s the intro for now. Watch this space, and please don’t hesitate to comment below.

As for now, its’ time to head home to prepare for a concert! The Etobicoke Community Concert Band is performing its first series concert, “From Rags to Riches”, tonight at ECI. It’s my first concert since coming back after a brief hiatus, so I’m looking forward to it. Very short rehearsal schedule though so we are hoping for some good celestial alignment (today is the Rapture (revised) after all).