Caching with the Web Content Viewer (JSR 286) Portlet

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1 Leveraging portlet fragment caching

Dynamic fragment caching (also known as servlet caching) involves caching the request at the WebSphere Application Server layer. This type of caching is not as fast as pre-rendering, but it is faster than Web Content Management caching and, depending on your needs, can be more flexible.

Although servlet caching cannot cache personalized content, it can be used to selectively cache or not cache individual pages. Depending on the type of rendering that is used, servlet caching can be enabled to either cache the results of portlets or the Web Content Management servlet.

For the WCM local rendering portlet, please see the article on servlet caching

. The Web Content Viewer (JSR 286) portlet is prepared to use portlet fragment caching to improve performance of Workplace Web Content Management sites. In order to prepare for such a setup, first enable servlet caching

. Then enable portlet fragment caching

Leveraging portlet fragment caching

There are several ways how the Web Content Viewer (JSR 286) portlet can leverage portlet fragment caching. Two aspects are important here. One is the generation of cache ids for the portlet, the other is the definition of a caching policy.

Cache id generation

With regards to cache id generation, there are three possibilities:

use the default cache id generator for JSR portlets
provide a cachespec.xml that defines a cache id
implement a custom idgenerator

Use the default cache id generator for JSR portlets

If you do not specify otherwise, the WebSphere Portal default cache id generator for JSR portlets will be used. In this case, all render parameters will be part of the cache id.

Provide a cachespec.xml that defines a cache id

If you provide a cachespec.xml in the portlet war file you can customize cache id generation and specify exclusion of certain web content items from the cache. See a full description of caching policies for portlets

The render parameters WCM_CONTEXT and PUBLIC_CONTEXT for the Web Content Viewer (JSR 286) portlet control which web content item is actually rendered. In a cache-id element, those render parameters must be referred to by using the type "parameter-list". The render parameter PUBLIC_CONTEXT is used for broadcasting, WCM_CONTEXT otherwise. You can also filter on these render parameters using , e.g.:

<component id="WCM_CONTEXT" type="parameter-list">

    <required>false</required>

    <not-value>/countries/world/europe/switzerland</not-value>

</component>

Implement a custom idgenerator

For the sake of completeness, it should be mentioned that WebSphere Application Server provides an interface

to extend cache id generation with custom code

. However this is outside the scope of this article.

Caching policies

Caching policies for portlets may be defined on several levels

. For the Web Content Viewer Portlet (JSR 286), two methods are of special interest:

configure cache scope and timeout globally for the portlet using WebSphere Portal Administration
configure cache scope and timeout for specific instances of the portlet using Edit Shared Settings mode

Examples

The following cachespec.xml may be used as a starting point for custom caching configurations. The portlet war file needs to be updated so that cachespec.xml is located in the WEB-INF folder. You must re-deploy the portlet after this has been done.

WebSphere Portal 6.1.5/7.0 running on WAS 7

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE cache SYSTEM "cachespec.dtd">

<cache>

    <cache-entry>

        <class>portlet</class>

        <name>Web Content Viewer (JSR 286)</name>

        <property name="consume-subfragments">true</property>

        <cache-id>

            <component id="idLocale" type="locale"/>

            <component id="idMode" type="portletMode">

                <value>view</value>

            </component>

            <component id="idWindowId" type="portletWindowId"/>

            <component id="idPWS" type="portletWindowState">

                <not-value>minimized</not-value>

            </component>

            <component id="com.ibm.wsspi.portletcontainer.response_contenttype" type="attribute"/>

            <component id="com.ibm.wsspi.portletcontainer.user_cache_scope" type="attribute"/>

            <component id="javax.portlet.lifecycle_phase" type="attribute">

                <value>RENDER_PHASE</value>

            </component>

            <component id="PUBLIC_CONTEXT" type="parameter-list">

                <required>false</required>

            </component>

            <component id="WCM_CONTEXT" type="parameter-list">

                <required>false</required>

            </component>

            <component id="PAGE_DESIGN" type="parameter-list">

                <required>false</required>

            </component>

            <component id="pcid" type="parameter-list">

                <required>false</required>

                <value>NOTCACHED</value>

            </component>

            <component id="javax.portlet.render_part" type="attribute">

                <value>RENDER_MARKUP</value>

            </component>

        </cache-id>

        <dependency-id>action

                <component id="depWindowId" type="portletWindowId"/>

                <component id="com.ibm.wsspi.portletcontainer.user_cache_scope" type="attribute"/>

        </dependency-id>

        <invalidation>action

            <component id="invWindowId" type="portletWindowId"/>

            <component id="com.ibm.wsspi.portletcontainer.user_cache_scope" type="attribute"/>

            <component id="javax.portlet.lifecycle_phase" type="attribute" ignore-value="true">

                    <value>ACTION_PHASE</value>

                    <value>EVENT_PHASE</value>

            </component>

        </invalidation>

    </cache-entry>

</cache>

WebSphere Portal 6.1.5 running on WAS 6.1

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE cache SYSTEM "cachespec.dtd">

<cache>

    <cache-entry>

        <class>portlet</class>

        <name>Web Content Viewer (JSR 286)</name>

        <property name="consume-subfragments">true</property>

        <cache-id>

            <component id="idLocale" type="locale"/>

            <component id="idMode" type="portletMode">

                <value>view</value>

            </component>

            <component id="idWindowId" type="portletWindowId"/>

            <component id="idPWS" type="portletWindowState">

                <not-value>minimized</not-value>

            </component>

            <component id="com.ibm.wsspi.portletcontainer.response_contenttype" type="attribute"/>

            <component id="com.ibm.wsspi.portletcontainer.user_cache_scope" type="attribute"/>

            <component id="javax.portlet.lifecycle_phase" type="attribute">

                <value>RENDER_PHASE</value>

            </component>

            <component id="PUBLIC_CONTEXT" type="parameter-list">

                <required>false</required>

            </component>

            <component id="WCM_CONTEXT" type="parameter-list">

                <required>false</required>

            </component>

            <component id="PAGE_DESIGN" type="parameter-list">

                <required>false</required>

            </component>

            <component id="pcid" type="parameter-list">

                <required>false</required>

                <value>NOTCACHED</value>

            </component>

        </cache-id>

        <dependency-id>action

                <component id="depWindowId" type="portletWindowId"/>

                <component id="com.ibm.wsspi.portletcontainer.user_cache_scope" type="attribute"/>

        </dependency-id>

        <invalidation>action

            <component id="invWindowId" type="portletWindowId"/>

            <component id="com.ibm.wsspi.portletcontainer.user_cache_scope" type="attribute"/>

            <component id="javax.portlet.lifecycle_phase" type="attribute" ignore-value="true">

                    <value>ACTION_PHASE</value>

                    <value>EVENT_PHASE</value>

            </component>

        </invalidation>

    </cache-entry>

</cache>

Cache Replication

In a clustered Portal environment with cache replication, the recommended setting for cache replication policy is NOT_SHARED, which is also the default setting if you omit it from the cachespec.xml. In case your WebSphere environment has a different default setting, here' how to add it to the cachespec.xml: create a new child element in the "cache" element:

<sharing-policy>not-shared</sharing-policy>

In some cases it is necessary to exclude non-serializable request attributes from being saved with the cache entry. Add the following as a child element to the "cache" element:

<property name="save-attributes">true

    <exclude>javax.portlet.ccpp</exclude>

</property>

Article information

Category:

Best Practices for Web Content Manager, IBM Web Content Manager, Performance,

Tags:

6.1, web content, WCM, cache, caching, pre-render, pre-rendering, performance, best practices

This Version:

Version 20

August 15, 2011

11:35:39 AM

by Achim Staebler IBMer

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Comments (8)

Submitted by Achim Staebler on Jun 29, 2011 10:29:58 AM

Re: Caching with the Web Content Viewer (JSR 286) Portlet

David, you are correct, we've tested this on Portal 6.1.5 and 7.0, both running on WAS 7.0.

I'm going to update the article with a separate cachespec.xml that also works on 6.1.5 with WAS 6.1.

Submitted by Gianluca Bruno on Jun 28, 2011 11:31:44 AM

Re: Caching with the Web Content Viewer (JSR 286) Portlet

Has anyone successfully applied the cachespec to a Portalv7 and WAS7 environment? I was unsuccessful in my attempts with the above cachespec.xml.

Submitted by yang us_ibm_com on Jun 24, 2011 5:11:28 PM

Re: Caching with the Web Content Viewer (JSR 286) Portlet

UGH, formatting is messed up, trying again...)

For Portal/WAS 6.1, try removing these XML lines from the sample cachespec.xml:

.component id="javax.portlet.render_part" type="attribute".

.value.RENDER_MARKUP..value.

..component.

Submitted by yang us_ibm_com on Jun 24, 2011 5:10:15 PM

Re: Caching with the Web Content Viewer (JSR 286) Portlet

(UGH, formatting is messed up, trying again...)

For Portal/WAS 6.1, try removing these lines from the sample cachespec.xml:

/RENDER_MARKUP/

Submitted by yang us_ibm_com on Jun 24, 2011 5:09:27 PM

Re: Caching with the Web Content Viewer (JSR 286) Portlet

(UGH, formatting is messed up, trying again...)

For Portal/WAS 6.1, try removing these lines from the sample cachespec.xml:

RENDER_MARKUP

Submitted by yang us_ibm_com on Jun 24, 2011 5:07:51 PM

Re: Caching with the Web Content Viewer (JSR 286) Portlet

For Portal/WAS 6.1, try removing these lines from the sample cachespec.xml:

RENDER_MARKUP

Submitted by yang us_ibm_com on Jun 24, 2011 5:06:09 PM

Re: Caching with the Web Content Viewer (JSR 286) Portlet

I believe this article was tested on WP 6.1.5.x on WAS 7.0.

Submitted by Robert Greenwood on Jun 2, 2011 12:11:18 PM

Re: Caching with the Web Content Viewer (JSR 286) Portlet

My attempts at this so far have failed. Is this feature supported for WAS 6.1/Portal 6.1.5? What are the version requirements for this functionality?

Copy and paste this wiki markup to link to this article from another article in this wiki.

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Version ComparisonCompare version with version
	Version	Date	Changed by	Summary of changes
	This version (20)	Aug 15, 2011 11:35:39 AM	Achim Staebler	Added closing tag for cache-id to 6.1 cachespec.xml
	19	Jun 29, 2011 11:27:22 AM	Achim Staebler	fixed markup
	18	Jun 29, 2011 11:26:35 AM	Achim Staebler	added information on cache replication settings and saved request attr...
	17	Jun 29, 2011 10:40:24 AM	Achim Staebler	added details on tested version and another cachespec for WAS 6.1
	16	May 19, 2011 4:37:28 AM	Achim Staebler	caching only for view mode, added two-phase rendering awareness
	15	Dec 16, 2010 5:31:07 AM	Achim Staebler	added link to idgenerator interface
	14	Dec 16, 2010 5:20:50 AM	Achim Staebler	added public render parameter PAGE_DESIGN to cache id
	13	Dec 3, 2010 6:00:55 AM	Achim Staebler	fixed a link
	12	Dec 3, 2010 5:56:39 AM	Achim Staebler	markup fix
	11	Dec 3, 2010 5:47:36 AM	Achim Staebler	markup fixes
	10	Dec 3, 2010 5:42:05 AM	Achim Staebler	markup fix
	9	Dec 3, 2010 5:40:37 AM	Achim Staebler	markup fix
	8	Dec 3, 2010 5:38:36 AM	Achim Staebler	markup fix
	7	Dec 3, 2010 5:37:48 AM	Achim Staebler	markup fix
	6	Dec 3, 2010 5:33:58 AM	Achim Staebler	markup ifx
	5	Dec 3, 2010 5:33:26 AM	Achim Staebler
	3	Dec 3, 2010 5:24:48 AM	Achim Staebler
	3	Dec 3, 2010 5:24:48 AM	Achim Staebler
	2	Dec 3, 2010 5:23:21 AM	Achim Staebler
	1	Dec 3, 2010 5:22:39 AM	Achim Staebler	added initial version