WebSphere Portal Version 7 - my first few steps ...

Having had a massive download fest whilst I was on the IBM network a week or so back, I'm now the proud owner of two VMware images, one with WebSphere Portal Server 7 and the other with WebSphere Portal Express 7.

These are the images and the unpack scripts that I used for both: -

WebSphere Portal Server 7

IL-Setup            CZLL2ML.zip
IL-1                    CZLP0ML.tar
IL-2                    CZLP6ML.tar
IL-3                    CZLL5ML.zip
IL-4                    CZLL8ML.zip
IL-5                    CZLM1ML.zip

unpack.sh

mkdir                        /tmp/WP7
unzip CZLL2ML.zip      -d    /tmp/WP7/IL-Setup
mkdir                        /tmp/WP7/IL-1
tar xvf CZLP0ML.tar    -C    /tmp/WP7/IL-1
mkdir                        /tmp/WP7/IL-2
tar xvf CZLP6ML.tar    -C    /tmp/WP7/IL-2
unzip CZLL5ML.zip      -d    /tmp/WP7/IL-3
unzip CZLL8ML.zip      -d    /tmp/WP7/IL-4
unzip CZLM1ML.zip      -d    /tmp/WP7/IL-5

Download Document

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24026527

WebSphere Portal Express 7

IL-Setup                CZLL3ML.zip
IL-1                        CZLP0ML.tar
IL-3                        CZLR2ML.zip
IL-4                        CZLL6ML.zip
IL-5                        CZLL9ML.zip
IL-6                        CZLM2ML.zip

Note that there is no IL-2 as Express doesn't support a 64-bit WAS, unlike Server

unpack.sh

mkdir                        /tmp/WPX7
unzip CZLL3ML.zip      -d    /tmp/WPX7/IL-Setup
mkdir                        /tmp/WPX7/IL-1
tar xvf CZLP0ML.tar    -C    /tmp/WPX7/IL-1
unzip CZLR2ML.zip      -d    /tmp/WPX7/IL-3
unzip CZLL6ML.zip      -d    /tmp/WPX7/IL-4
unzip CZLL9ML.zip      -d    /tmp/WPX7/IL-5
unzip CZLM2ML.zip      -d    /tmp/WPX7/IL-6

Download Document

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24026542

At present, I'm playing with the Express variant, partly because it also includes Lotus Web Content Management 7, which has a rather nice make-over to the authoring environment etc.

One thing that I'd noticed that, unlike previous versions, the wp_profile directory is no longer automatically placed under /opt/IBM/WebSphere, but is instead under /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles which brings the product into line with other non-Express installations.

As part of my exploration, I am looking at the options to integrate iWidgets and portlets onto the same page.

To begin with, I went looking for the My Mashups page in the navigation, and was surprised to find it absent - when I thought back, I realised that it might not yet have been enabled, especially considering an earlier blog post that I had written re adding and removing Mashups etc. i WebSphere Portal Server.

Therefore, I needed to run the following ConfigEngine script: -

cd /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/wp_profile/ConfigEngine
./ConfigEngine.sh deploy-portal-mashup-ui

as detailed in the Wiki here: -

IBM WebSphere Portal Express 7 Product Documentation > Installing on Linux: exp7

Having done that, I now have access to the My Mashups page, and was able to create a model in WebSphere Portlet Factory Designer, deploy it as portlet AND as an iWidget, and then add BOTH portlets and iWidgets to the same page.

I'm still testing the water here, but v7 looks to be a very very nice release.

:-)

In other news, I'm very pleased to report that the newly released WebSphere Portlet Factory Designer now supports Open Document Format (ODF) ... specifically, the old Excel Import and Excel Export builders have been replaced by Spreadsheet Import and Spreadsheet Export builders, which support XLS *AND* ODS. This makes my demos far far easier ....