ABSTRACT

Background

In this scenario, a manufacturing company wants to automate their timesheet process. This includes several thousand users at multiple sites worldwide filling out a timesheet form at the end of the work day. As most of the users will fill out the timesheet at the end of their work day, the system needs to be designed to handle a high load during peak hours. Once they complete their daily timesheet information, the form gets routed to a manager for review. The manager approves their employees’ forms at the end of the week before finally routing to human resources for processing.

The timesheet form pre-populates certain data based on the user, such as their available job codes and manager. The user is required to fill out how many hours were spent per each job code at the end of the work day. Form validation ensures that employees do not work past their maximum hours allotted per day (if any). This system will host a single form of 500KB including 20 items and 20 calculations/validations per user per day. During an average week, the system would therefore handle and compile data from 300,000 fields while performing 300,000 calculations on the form.

Most if not all the data entry will take place during set peak hours which constitutes the end of the day in their respective time zones. The heaviest load will be during 4pm-6pm EST, GMT and IST. As a result, there will be anywhere from 500 to 1000 concurrent users at any one time.

In order to meet the high availability requirements of the system, this system will be a distributed environment with load balancers, as well as multiple instances of the forms and workflow servers.

ARCHITECTURE

SYSTEM

Form/Workflow/Reports Designer

• Lotus Forms Designer 3
• Lotus Forms Viewer 3
• OS: Windows XP with SP 2
• Processor: 3 GHz
• RAM: 2 GB
• Disk space: 1 GB
• Display resolution: 1280 x 1024 in 32-bit color

Tasica Workflow Data store (Forms)

• IBM DB2 Version 9
• OS: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Version 5
• Processor: 3 GHz
• RAM: 4 GB
• Disk space: 10 GB

Tasica Workflow Servers

• Lotus Forms Server 3 – API
• WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment 6.0.2 (32-bit version)
• OS: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Version 5
• Processor: 3 GHz Xeon (8 Cores)
• RAM: 8 GB
• Disk space: 6 GB

WebSphere Portal Servers

• WebSphere Portal Server 6.1
• WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment 6.0.2
• OS: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Version 5
• Processor: 3 GHz Xeon (4 Cores)
• RAM: 8 GB
• Disk space: 6 GB

Lotus Forms Servers

• Lotus Forms Server 3 – Webform Server (Translator)
• WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment 6.0.2 (32-bit version)
• OS: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Version 5
• Processor: 3 GHz Xeon (8 Cores)
• RAM: 8 GB
• Disk space: 2 GB

Log Server, Shared File Cache

• Lotus Forms Server 3 – Webform Server – Log Server
• Lotus Forms Server 3 – Webform Server – Shared File Cache
• OS: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Version 5
• Processor: 3.4 GHz single-core
• RAM: 4 GB
• SCSI disk array (for the Shared File Cache)

Deployment Manager System

• WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment Manager 6.0.2 (32-bit version)
• OS: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Version 5
• Processor: 3 GHz
• RAM: 2 GB
• Disk space: 2 GB

Load Balancers

• IBM HTTP Server
• OS: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Version 5Processor: 2 GHz
• RAM: 2 GB
• Virtual memory: 2 GB
• Disk space: 2 GB

HTTP Server

• IBM HTTP Server
• OS: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Version 5Processor: 2 GHz
• RAM: 2 GB
• Disk space: 2 GB

User Systems

• Browser: Firefox 3.0 or Internet Explorer 6 or higher

SETTING UP THE SERVER

Order of Installation

The order of installation for the solution is as follows:

1. WebSphere Application Server (WAS) – Installation Guide.
2. WebSphere Portal Server – Installation Guide.
3. Database
4. LDAP (User Directory)
5. Mail Server
6. Lotus Web Forms Server (Translator) – Installation Guide.
7. Tasica Workflow

Items 1-6 are required to be installed prior to installing and configuring Tasica Workflow.

Prerequisites

Database – The WebSphere Application Server requires a connection to the database server.

1. Create a JDBC connection to WebSphere Application Server named ‘jdbc/formsdirector’. For more information, please refer to the Websphere Application Server Documentation.

LDAP – The WebSphere Application Server requires a connection to the LDAP server.

1. Configure a Name Space Binding to the LDAP server. For more information, please refer to the Websphere Application Server Documentation.
1. The scope must include the node where Tasica Workflow resides.
2. The name space name must be ‘jndi/fdldap’.
3. The JNDI name should be the base DN used for Tasica Workflow.

Installing Tasica Workflow

1. Accept the license agreements to proceed.
2. Provide the path to install Tasica Workflow Server in the ‘Install to:’ field.
3. Optional: To run Tasica Workflow Server as a Windows service, select ‘Run Tasica Workflow as a Windows Service?’ Note that the server will still need to be configured using the server console and any configuration changes will require the service to be restarted. The service will not start until the server has been properly configured.
4. Optional: To add a shortcut to the server on the desktop, select ‘Add Desktop Shortcut?’.
5. Optional: To integrate Tasica Workflow Server with Lotus Forms, select ‘Integrate with Lotus Forms?’.If Lotus Forms and Tasica Workflow Server are to be installed on the same computer, ensure that Lotus Forms is installed first.
6. Click ‘Install’.

Integrating Tasica Workflow with WebSphere Application Server

Tasica Workflow integrates with the WebSphere Application Server through the WebSphere Application Server Administration Console.

This process will also configure the remaining integration settings with the database, LDAP and the Lotus Web Forms Server. Integration between Tasica Workflow Designer and the Lotus Forms Designer is a separate procedure.

1. Login to WAS Server Administration Console.
2. Expand the node ‘Applications’.
3. Click ‘New Application’.
4. From the main window, click ‘New Enterprise Application’.
5. Browse to find the Tasica Workflow Server war file. It will be titled TasicaWorkflow.war.
6. Click ‘Next’.
7. When prompted for how to install the application, click ‘Detailed’.
8. Click ‘Next’.
9. Complete the New Application Installation wizard.
1. Step 1: Select Installation Options
1. Select the ‘Precompile JavaServer Pages files’ checkbox.
2. Leave the ‘Directory to install application’ field blank.
3. Select the ‘Distribute Application’ checkbox.
4. Deselect the ‘Binary configuration’ checkbox.
5. Deselect the ‘Deploy enterprise beans’ checkbox.
6. Provide a name for Tasica Workflow in the ‘Application name’ field. This is the name that will appear in the application management sections of WebSphere Application Server.
7. Select the ‘Create MBeans for resources’ checkbox.
8. Deselect the ‘Override class reloading settings for Web and EJB modules’ checkbox.
9. Leave the ‘Reload interval in seconds’ field blank.
10. Deselect the ‘Deploy Web services’ checkbox.
11. Set ‘Validate Input off/warn/fail’ to ‘warm’.
12. Deselect the ‘Process embedded configuration’ checkbox.
13. Leave the default values for the ‘File Permissions’ section.
14. Leave the default value for the ‘Application Build ID’.
15. Deselect the ‘Allow dispatching includes to remote resources’ checkbox.
16. Deselect the ‘Allow servicing includes from remote resources’ checkbox.
17. Leave the default value for ‘Business level application name’ field.
18. Leave the default value for ‘Asynchronous Request Dispatch Type’ field.
19. Deselect the ‘Allow EJB reference targets to resolve automatically’ checkbox.
20. Click ‘Next’.
    
    
    
2. Step 2: Map Modules to Servers
1. From the ‘Clusters and servers’ section, select all the servers you would like Tasica Workflow to be deployed on.
2. Select the checkbox next to the ‘Tasica Workflow’ module.
3. Click ‘Apply’.
4. Click ‘Next’.
   
   
   
3. Step 3: Provide JSP reloading options for Web modules
1. Leave the default ‘JSP reloading options for Web modules’ settings.
2. Click ‘Next’.
   
   
   
4. Step 4: Map shared libraries
1. Leave the default ‘Map shared libraries’ settings.
2. Click ‘Next’.
   
   
   
5. Step 5: Map shared library relationships
1. Leave the default ‘Map shared library relationships’ settings.
2. Click ‘Next’.
   
   
   
6. Step 6: Map resource reference to resources
   This page contains all the primary settings for Tasica Workflow integration with the mail server, LDAP and the database.
1. In the ‘javax.mail.Session’ section, type ‘mail/fd’ in the ‘Target Resource JNDI Name’ field.
2. In the ‘javax.naming.directory.DirContext’ section, ensure that ‘jndi/fdldap’ is provided in the ‘Target Resource JNDI Name’ field.
3. In the ‘javax.sql.DataSource’ section, ensure that ‘jdbc/formsdirector’ is provided in the ‘Target Resource JNDI Name’ field.
4. Click ‘Next’.
   
   
   
7. Step 7: Map virtual hosts for Web modules
1. Leave the default ‘Map virtual hosts for Web modules’ settings.
2. Click ‘Next’.
   
   
   
8. Step 8: Map context roots for Web modules
1. Provide a context root in the ‘Context Root’ field. This is the path where the application will reside.
   Click ‘Next’.
   
   
   
9. Step 9: Map environment entries for Web modules
1. Provide the values for the following environment variables.
   

Environment Variables	Description
DIRECTORY_MAIL_ATTRIBUTE	The e-mail address attribute for users in the LDAP directory. This is typically ‘mail’.
DIRECTORY_GROUP_MAIL_ATTRIBUTE	The e-mail address attribute for groups in the LDAP directory. This is typically ‘mail’.
DIRECTORY_USERNAME_ATTRIBUTE	The user name attribute for users in the LDAP directory. This is typically ‘cn’ or ‘uid’.
DIRECTORY_MEMBER_ATTRIBUTE	The attribute that denotes users that belong to a group in the LDAP directory. This is typically ‘member’.
DIRECTLRY_MAX_RESULTS	The maximum number of results that a directory search can return.
LOG4J_DEFAULT_LOGGING_LEVEL	The types of messages that are written to the Tasica Workflow log files. This is either ‘debug’, ‘info’, ‘warn’ or ‘error’. Note that ‘debug’ is not recommended for production environments.
USER_ID	How users will be identified in Tasica Workflow. This is either ‘dn’ or ‘email’. If ‘dn’ is specified, users will be identified by their distinguished name from LDAP. If ‘email’ is specified, users will be identified by their e-mail address from LDAP.
NOTIFICATION_FROM	The e-mail address that will be used for sending system messages such as routed form notifications.
NOTIFICATION_ENCODING	How e-mail should be encoded. Options are either ‘text/html’ or ‘text/plain’.
ERROR_EMAIL_ADDRESS	The e-mail address that will be notified when Tasica Workflow fails to deliver an e-mail.
SITE_TITLE	The title displayed on a user’s browser when accessing the Tasica Workflow web interface.
ADMIN_ROLE	The distinguished name of the LDAP group that will be given administration rights for the Tasica Workflow Server.
DATABASE_JNDI_NAME	The name of the Tasica Workflow database. This should remain ‘jdbc/formsdirector’.
LOTUS_FORMS_DEPLOYMENT	The value that determines whether Tasica Workflow is integrated with Lotus Forms. A ‘true’ value indicates that Tasica Workflow is integrated with Lotus Forms.
LOTUS_FORMS_TRANSLATOR_LOCATION	The URL for the Lotus Forms Webform Server including port and context path. For example, http://webformserverhost:8085/translator.
LOTUS_FORMS_LOG_LOCATION	The URL for the Lotus Forms Log Server including the port. For example, http://webformserverhost:4560.
THEME_* (There are several values with theme)	Settings that affect the look and feel of the Tasica Workflow web interface.
INSTALL_DIRECTORY	The installation path for Tasica Workflow.

2. Click ‘Next’.
10. Step 10: Map security roles to users or groups
    This section provides users with the permission to access Tasica Workflow through both the web interface, portlets and the Tasica Workflow designer.
1. Select the checkbox next to the ‘*’ role.
2. Based on who you would like to access Tasica Workflow, select either users from the ‘Map Users…’ button, groups from the ‘Map Groups…’ button or the ‘Map Special Subjects’ button. The ‘Map Special Subjects’ button contains an easy method of selecting all authenticated users or everyone rather than selecting individual users and groups.
3. Click ‘Next’.
   
   
   
11. Step 11: Summary
1. Verify all the data is correct. If any data is inaccurate, return to that step from the navigation menu on the left.
2. Click ‘Finish’.
   
   

TASICA PORTLET PACK INTEGRATION

Background

The Tasica Portlet Pack integration consists of installing WebSphere Portal Server first followed by Tasica Workflow Server. Complete the pre-installation steps prior to installing and configuring the Portlet Pack.

Integration Components

Tasica Portlet Pack will integrate with the following component:

1. WebSphere Portal Server

Order of Installation

The order of installation for the solution is as follows:

1. WebSphere Portal Server
2. Tasica Workflow Server
3. Tasica Portlet Pack

Items 1 and 2 are required to be installed prior to installing and configuring Tasica Portlet Pack.

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this integration.

Pre-Installation Configuration for Tasica Portlet Pack

A Tasica Workflow server must be specified for the portlet pack before users will have access to the portlets.

To set or change the Tasica Workflow Server used by the portlet pack:

1. Open the Tasica Workflow Portlets Pack application WAR file using a zip file viewer. By default, this file is named FDPortlets_3_x_x.war, where x indicate the version number of the Tasica Workflow server.
2. Extract the file WEB-INFf/web.xml.
3. Open the web.xml file and navigate to the list of tags.
4. Locate the tag that corresponds to FD_SERVER_ADDRESS_KEY.
5. Enter the location of the Tasica Workflow server between the and tags. The location must be in the following format:
   
   scheme://fd_server:port/context_path
   
   The currently supported schemes are http and https. The port section is optional and if omitted will default to use port 80 on http or 433 on https. Additionally, if there is no context_path for Tasica Workflow, ensure that there is only one slash (/) at the end of the address.
   
   For example, the following addresses have a valid format:
   http://www.tasicaworkflow.com/
   https://www. tasicaworkflow.com:9031/fd/
   
   
6. Save the changes made and replace the WEB-INF/web.xml file in application WAR file with the updated web.xml file.

Pre-Installation Configuration for Single-Sign-On Lockout

Each Tasica Workflow portlet needs to authenticate with the Tasica Workflow server. Certain LDAP servers can be configured to flag a user account as compromised if it receives a number of consecutive failed attempts. This can be problematic if a user enters the wrong credentials and the portal page has many portlets all attempting to authenticate. Tasica Workflow portlets by default will only try to authenticate once. After a failed attempt the user
will have to reenter their credentials before authentication is attempted again. In most cases there is no reason to modify this behavior. To modify this follow the above procedure and change the value of FD_SSO_LOCKOUT from
“true” to “false”.

To set or change the single-sign-on lockout settings:

1. Open the Tasica Workflow Portlets Pack application WAR file using a zip file viewer. By default, this file is named FDPortlets_3_x_x.war, where x indicate the version number of the Tasica Workflow server.
2. Extract the file WEB-INFf/web.xml.
3. Open the web.xml file and navigate to the list of tags.
4. Locate the tag that corresponds to FD_SSO_LOCKOUT.
5. Enter “true” or “false” between the and tags. Entering “true” will enable single-sign-on lockout.
6. Save the changes made and replace the WEB-INF/web.xml file in application WAR file with the updated web.xml file.

Installing Tasica Portlet Pack

1. Login to WebSphere Portal Server.
2. Select the ‘Administration > Portlet Management > Web Modules’ page.
3. Click ‘Install’.
4. Browse to find the Tasica Portlet Pack war file. It will be titled TWPortlets_3_4_0.war.
5. Click ‘Next’.
6. Rename the ‘Enterprise Application display name’ to match your company paradigm.
7. Rename the ‘Context root’ to match your company paradigm.
8. Click ‘Finish’

Configuring Tasica Portlet Pack

When a user accesses a Tasica Portlet for the first time, they are required to enter their user name and password. This only occurs once per user and they only have to do this for a single portlet. For example, if the user accesses the Tasks Portlet first, they will enter their user name and password to continue. If they then access the Action Items Portlet, they will not be required to enter any credentials.

1. Click the ‘Update your user name and password’ link.
2. Enter your Tasica Workflow user name in the field provided.
3. Enter your Tasica Workflow password in the field provided.
4. Click ‘Update Settings’.

TASICA WORKFLOW DESIGNER AND TASICA REPORT DESIGNER INTEGRATION

Background

The Tasica Workflow Designer integration consists of installing Lotus Forms Designer first. The Workflow Designer is then installed prior to configuration. Tasica Reports Designer will install at the same time as Tasica Workflow Designer.

Integration Components

Tasica Workflow Designer will integrate with the following component:

1. Lotus Forms Designer

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