Websphere Portal and Domino Integration – User Experiences

Session 8624 SHARE Long Beach – February 2004

Patricia EgenPatricia Egen Consulting, LLC

www.egenconsulting.comPregen@egenconsulting.com

Agenda

• Who we are• Background – why we are doing this• Research to get to where we wanted to be• Results so far• Next steps……

Patricia Egen Consulting• Small, Advanced IBM Business Partner• Looking for ways to exploit existing Domino applications

while gaining experience with Websphere Portal– We have customers looking at using Portals and in particular

Websphere Portal• We currently develop for customers software that runs on

Websphere• We also develop for Domino• The logical next step was the Portal• Plus, we wanted to kick up our own Website and “eat our

own dogfood”• We run our business using Notes applications we built• We needed a way to access them as well as provide

another vehicle for our customers to reach us m

Our Website today

Our Current Customer Portal

What I want to “Portalize”• Presence Awareness

– Are we online? Can we chat

• Team Collaboration– Several big projects are going on and this is a way to

keep on top and avoid scope creep

• Business Apps– Problem Tracking– Customer Details– Discussion Databases not part of a team space– Time tracking – for my consultants/contractors– My iNotes mail and calendar when I’m on the road

Portal Strategy

• Integrating Domino applications into Lotus Workplace means using Domino application portlets – custom or pre-built

• Questions we had about putting our Domino applications in a portal– What portlet development techniques are available?– What is the effort required for portlet development?– What functionalities can be implemented within a

portal?– How can scalability and performance be ensured?

Research leading up to our install• 5• Comments out on Google groups and on the street

were it’s really hard to install and support• Hey, we’re sys progs and highly trained

consultants, how hard can it be? stay tuned….• Interesting item we found during research

– According to the Meta Group:• “Bottom Line: Organizations planning a WebSphere Portal

project should set expectations properly, plan for longer installation times, and budget for significant services.”

• But that was before Portal V5 and before you learned

• these Best Practices!

Portal Project Steps - Timeline• IBM talked to 100+ customers and they say

projects follow this timeline:– Pre-reqs – 3 to infinity– Project Startup – 20-30 days– Solution Definition – 20-30 days– Project Standards – 3 days– Environment Setup – 6 months– Pilot Release – 1-2 months– Production Release – 3 months– Project Close – 3 days

IBM’s Basic Best Practices

• Everything is now your fault! Sorry.Portal if done properly willeventually front end everything in the enterprise. This means you will be blamed for all IT issues.

• LDAP is the most critical component. Spend a painful amount of time working with the LDAP folks.

• If you are an Oracle shop, 90% of install failures in WPS 5.0 are due to Oracle DBA’s. They typically set permissions on the portal id too low to perform install tasks. Pull your DBA aside and tell them to give the portal id ALL permissions during install. They can and should lower these permissions after install. Aftertalking to your DBA, talk to your DBA again. Finally, talk to them a third time.

• Plan time to do caching. This will take about a month of time. Use normal portlet caching, learn dynacache and do advanced caching too for some portlets, finally learn the Command Cache and use it to store data for multiple portlets (use this instead of HTTPSession)

Roles and Responsibilities• There are three distinct activities in building a

portal– Developing portlets (developers)– Creating themes and skins (designers)– Creating page definitions (administrators)

• Everyone can work independently– Changes in portlets do not affect themes or page layouts– Changes in themes do not affect portlets or page layouts– Changes in page definitions do not affect themes or

portlets

Domino Application Characteristics

The following application characteristics need to be understood

• Number of Documents• Total number of application users• Number of concurrent users• Application complexity• Single or multiple database application• Notes client based or web enabled application

Integration Tools• We needed to understand all the various tools at our

disposal

• Various groups of tools–Use pre-built portlets–Use Portlet “Builders”–Modify your Domino application–Use Domino JSP Tag Libraries –Use Lotus Collaborative Components–Use Domino Java classes

Choosing an Integration Tool

• Choosing an integration tool is a four step process

1) Pre-project preparation and training2) Identify project requirements and

considerations3) Select the appropriate portlet pattern4) Select the appropriate integration tool

Select the Appropriate Portlet Pattern

Requires greatest development time and skill

Full application functionality within portlet

Migrated

Requires more development time and skills

Significant functionality within portlet

Integrated

Minimal or no application functionality within portal framework

•Minimal enhancements to existing application functionality•Can launch Notes or web browser

Display

No content or functionality available within the portal framework

•Easy•Access existing applications•No modifications needed

LinkDisadvantagesAdvantagesPattern

Choosing the Integration Tool

• Identify one or more integration tool that will support the portlet pattern

• Once a set of integration tools have been selected, compare each one to the project requirements

• Choose the tool which yields the highest time to value

Domino Application Integration Options

• Out of box Notes/Domino Portlets• Portlet Builder for Domino

• XML access to Domino View data

• Lotus Collaborative Components• Domino JSP Tags• Domino Java API’s• Partner Products

– Bowstreet Portlet Factory

Java Skills

End User

Domino Skills

DevelopmentEffort

Low

High

Tools Comparison

OK – no session management

PA; Domino App/Dev

HTTP, DIIOPPortlet Builder for Domino

OK – no session management

PA; Domino App/Dev, XML, JavaScript

HTTPHelper Portlets(XML, RSS)

Best – Session management, object pooling

PA, Domino App/Dev, JSP, Java

HTTP, DIIOP(for remote)

LCC API & Domino Objects for Java

Better – limited session management

PA, Domino App/Dev, JSP

DIIOP(for remote)

Domino JSP Tags

Good – caching, fast html parser

PAHTTPDomino Web Access Portlet

OK – no session management

PAHTTP, DIIOPNotes View Portlet

PerformanceSkill Set(minimum)

ProtocolTool

PA = Portal Admin (all tools require this skill set)

Behind the Scenes• Use any and all programmability features to create, enhance,

and/or connect to Domino apps

NRPC

HTTPbrowser

Notes

Designersvr

http

diiop

amgr

repl

…

NRPC

NRPC

HTTP

13

2

non-Domino system

C/C++, VB,“local” Java

HTML or XMLbased program

“remote”Java

program

NCSO

4

5

6

modifydesign

extendDomino

addservertasks

connectto

Domino

IIOPN/D app user

Notes/Dominoapplications

Connecting To Domino From An External System

• Three current options– URLs over HTTP– C, C++, VB, or

“local” Javausing NRPC

– “Remote” Java using IIOP s

vr

http

diiop

amgr

repl

…

NRPC

HTTP

non-Domino system

C/C++, VB,“local” Java

HTML or XMLbased program

“remote”Java

program

NCSO

4

5

6

connectto

Domino

IIOP

Notes/Dominoapplications

Portal Integration Uses Domino HTTP In Two Ways

• Run existing Domino web applications– Lotus/IBM says there are still issues to resolve

• Get view data via the ReadViewEntries command– Used by the Lotus Collaborative Components

API

Portlet Builder for Domino• A portlet to build Domino portlets

–Simple Web interface to create portlets that access / manipulate data in Domino–No programming required–Views and documents–Basic create, edit, delete operations

Notes View Portlet• Display user’s Mail, Calendar, To Do…• Display any view in any database• Wizard-like Edit mode helps users define

the portlet• Can launch Notes client instead of browser• Built-in People Awareness• Sorting

Notes View Portlet Requirements• Domino Server

– HTTP & DIIOP

• Portal Server <= 4.2– Individual Lotus Notes and iNotes portlets

• Portal Server >= 5 & Lotus Workplace– Portlets consolidated into this single portlet for 5.0 – PortletType parameter determines the type of Notes database source– Lotus Notes View portlet

• Values: NotesView, NotesMail, MyInbox, MyCalendar, MyToDo, NotesDiscussion, NotesTeamroom

– Domino Web Access (iNotes) portlet• Values: All, Welcome, Mail, Contacts, Calendar, ToDoList, Notebook

– Requires Lotus Collaborative Components

Domino Server

Domino Database

Domino View

Restrict to a category

Notes View Portlet

View format controlsDocumentcontrols

Notes View Portlet

Completed Portlet from Portlet Builder

View Switcher

Create New Doc

Search

View

Read Doc

Web Page Portlet• Out of the box portlet• Allows you to leverage Existing Domino Web-Enabled

Applications• Uses an iframe to display an existing application• Plus: no change to the app needed• Minus:

– light integration– browser specific– potential firewall issues

Limitations of Current Pre-built Portlets

• Currently available pre-built portlets have issues when working with documents– Basic form display– Browser– iFrame– Notes Client is good but its not Portal

• Browser and iFrame do not adhere to Portal rules– Go directly at the Domino server– Potential firewall issue– Bypasses Portal security

• Domino serves up links which point to itself• Need a portlet that will transform links to Portal links

Steps to Build a Portlet

1. Select the Domino server and database2. Select view(s) and form(s) to include in the portlet3. Configure view(s) and form(s)4. Configure extra settings5. Select Authentication and Form display options

Step 1 - Select the Domino Server and Database

Enter a new portlet nameConnect to Domino server

Select the Domino databaseand retrieve forms / views list

Step 2 - Select View(s) and Form(s)• Select from list of

forms/views• Adding elements to the

portlet• Portlets can contain multiple

forms/views

Page Through Elements

Select multiple elements

Sort By Element Type

Sort by Design Element

Step 3 - Configure View(s) and Form(s)

Select markup

Configure

Authentication and Form Display Options

Step 3 - Configure View(s) and Form(s)Configure View Column Display Options

Control View Column Order

SelectedSelected Display infoDisplay info Search infoSearch info C2AC2A ExtraExtra

Move DownMove Down

Move UpMove Up

Step 4 - Configure Extra Settings

§Form options4Field types4Display options

§Form options4Field types4Display options

§View Column options4Presence Awareness4View Column Formulas4Links4Images

§View Column options4Presence Awareness4View Column Formulas4Links4Images

Step 5 - Select Authentication and Form Display Options

• User Authentication Options– Single Sign On– Explicit– Implicit– Credential Vault

§Form display options

4Use Data Form

4Use Inline Frame

Don EgenPat Egen

Harold Pritchett

Version I Vision

Don Egen

Pat Egen

Harold Pritchett

2/4/045:45 PM

2/4/048:00 AM

Pat Egen 423-555-1212

Don Egen 423-555-1212

Harold Pritchett 706-555-1212

Patricia Egen Consulting Welcome Pat Customer Portal

My Dream Collaboration Portal

What has to be in placeSoftware checklist• Microsoft® Windows 2000 Server or Professional, with Service Pack 2 or 3 • IBM DB2 V8.1 with Fixpack 1 (hereafter called DB2) • IBM Directory Server V5.1 (hereafter called Directory Server) • IBM WebSphere Portal V5.0, which includes WebSphere Application Server • IBM WebSphere Studio Application Developer 5.01 (hereafter called Application Developer

Hardware checklist• Physical Memory: 1024MB or higher• WebSphere Portal, including Application Server 2.2 GB• DB2 285 MB• Directory Server 216 MB• Application Developer 3.0 GB

Port bindings• 443 (standard HTTPS port) • 523 (DB2 Administration Server) • 8008 (IBM HTTP Server Administration port) • 50000 (DB2 instance connection port) • 50001 (DB2 instance interrupt port) • 50002 (DB2 Control Server) • 55555 (WAS database port)

Access Rights• Install this enviornment using a local Windows user id that is in the Administrators group and has the following

rights assigned to the account: • Act as part of the operating system • Log on as a service

Our Installation Saga• Caveat – we are a small business and customer calls come

first – so we do this when we can – sound familiar?• We’ve been trying to install for over three weeks• Step by step, slowly we abend…and abend….and abend• Findings so far

– HUGE!!! install RAM requirement– Installer does not have helpful error messages– Installer’s log is 1,376,260 bytes at mid point– Very slow install

• Start a process – go eat dinner, go to the movies, sleep – wake up –eat breakfast – go to a customer site – check on install – still running first step – you get the picture

– We get to a point and then we run into “Some portlets failed to install – see the log”

Research says….• When we starting looking on the web in

Google groups and on the IBM website we discovered we are not alone

• There are fix packs on top of fix packs on top of fix packs– Not all are documented well

• It appears to us that the powers that be have lots of hardware and time to throw at installing this and have not tried it in a real environment

• It shouldn’t be this hard

Summary and next steps

• I still want my portal• We will keep trying because that’s our style• It may end up being someone else’s portal• Or, we’ll wait till it’s ready for prime time

References• http://www-

106.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/library/techarticles/0310_manekar/manekar.html#pde

• http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/pvc/wp/502/ent/en/InfoCenter/index.html

• http://www-306.ibm.com/software/genservers/portal/support/• http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/zones/portal/