Migrating from Portal Document Manager (PDM) to Quickr Document Libraries

Migrating from Portal Document Manager (PDM) to Quickr Document Libraries

Introduction

In WebSphere Portal Enable, Express and Extend 6.1 we removed the Portal Document Manager Components from the Portal installation. This is reflective of IBM's strategy to consolidate a number of document management solutions under the Quickr product roadmap. There are a number of benefits to this change in direction:

1) Scaling and Performance - Since WebSphere Portal Portal can only run in one JVM, additional embedded components such as PDM could impact server performance. By removing a large service like PDM and entitling it to run on a dedicated, separate JVM we can focus delivering better portal and content performance and scale to our customers.

2) Modularity - Our analysis of customers using PDM has provided us a number of insights. One major observation is that many customers were deploying PDM to a subset of their total portal user base. By allowing customers to install Quickr on a separate system we are giving them the chance to deploy a component in a way that impacts only the people who need it.

3) Roadmap and strategy - Quickr is a product that has a strategy and roadmap for the long haul. It just made sense to leverage that work as opposed to continuing to support a separate document management solution.

4) Open architecture and Services - Published services allow you to develop solutions that interoperate with and extend Quickr.   These services are document in this wiki.   Examples of how to use these services are published in DeveloperWorks articles.  See Enablement Materials for a list of the resources available to customers and business partners who want to extend Quickr.

5) Partner Ecosystem - A number of IBM Business Partners have developed solutions to extend Quickr.   See the Lotus Solutions Catalog for the latest list of available solutions.


Entitlements to Quickr within the WebSphere Portal offerings

The Websphere Portal offerings now include two entitlements to Quickr. The focus of this entry covers the entitlement that is specific to offerings that are entitled to replacing PDM only. Those offerings are

• WebSphere Portal Enable
• WebSphere Portal Express
• IBM Content Accelerator

This entitlement is covered in the licenses for these products which can be found at

http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/search/


Architecture

The specific Quickr template that will be used to replace the Portal Document Manager components is the Document Library Template which is included in the Portal Deployment of Quickr. The Quickr server must be installed separately from the WebSphere Portal server as opposed to PDM which was embedded in the Portal installation. There are multiple ways that this can be facilitated including installing Quickr on a separate logical or virtual partition from the portal server or on a different physical server.

Once the Quickr server is installed, it is recommended that all other templates besides the Document Library template are deleted from the server as the IBM WebSphere Portal license does not entitle you to use other templates on the Quickr server.

Additionally Quickr (like QuickPlace) supports LTPA tokens which means that customers can still easily create a single sign on capability between Quickr and Portal.

All of these steps are covered in the Quickr Information Center -

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/ infocenter/lqkrhelp/v8r0/index.jsp

Connectors

Another change for PDM customers is that the Office and Windows connectors for Portal Document Manager are not supported for usewith Quickr. At this time the equivalent Quickr Connectors are not entitled with any WebSphere Portal offering and upgrading to the full Quickr product is required.

Migration Considerations

For customers who have used PDM in previous releases and are storing active documents there, IBM is planning to deliver a migration tool.  It is recommended that existing PDM customers do not perform an inplace upgrade of any servers running PDM as it could result in data loss. Details on the tool, it's release and documentation will be made available in this Wiki as they become available.

Web Content Management Considerations

A number of customers have utilized features that integrate P DM with Lotus Web Content Manager. While we continue to support the idea that you can store files and content outside of WCM and link back to it (especially in Quickr) this integration is not complete. We are evaluating how and when we will be able to deliver this integration in a future version of WCM.

Additionally, we are also looking to deliver a migration tool that will move content from PDM into the WCM JCR while still providing link integrity for customer sites. Details on the tool, it's release and documentation will be made available in this Wiki as they become available.


Ways to Integrate Quickr within the context of Portal

a) My Places Portlet

To provide a more integrated way to access a personalized list of Quickr places a user has access to IBM provides the My Places portlet. IBM My Places portlet lets you display all Lotus Quickr places you are a member of, public places, all places which you can access, and places which you have marked as Favorites. By clicking on a place in the My Places portlet, the place will be displayed. An Administrator can configure the portlet to retrieve places from specific J2EE and Domino servers.

The My Places Portlet can be downloaded from the IBM Portlet Catalog

http://catalog.lotus.com/wps/portal/portal/details?catalog.label=1WP1001GJ

b) Feed Reader

Any page within Quickr can be surfaced as an ATOM feed. To consume Quickr pages within the context of a Portal page you can direct the Feed Reader Portlet at Quickr content. The IBM Feed Reader portlet enables users to read RSS and Atom feeds from various content providers, including news, information, and solutions web sites. Users can add and delete multiple feeds from various content providers. This portlet supports basic authentication and time out parameters. The portlet also supports proxy authentication. The IBM Feed Reader portlet is AJAX based, providing improved client side performance.

The Feed Reader Portlet can be downloaded from the IBM Portlet Catalog

http://catalog.lotus.com/wps/portal/portal/details?catalog.label=1WP1001GK


c) Integrated Business Card Capability

Now you can have the same business card capability between Quickr, Connections and Portal. IBM WebSphere Portal - Lotus Quickr and Lotus Connections Integrated Person Card enables WebSphere Portal and Lotus Quickr users to link to the features of Lotus Connections, IBM's social software for business, from within the Person Card. The Integrated Person Card integ rates the business card information from Lotus Connections with the person card information from WebSphere Portal or Lotus Quickr. Thus, you can see links to the Profile, Communities, Blogs, Bookmarks, and Activities for a person from within the Person Card in WebSphere Portal or Lotus Quickr.

The Integrated Business Card Capability can be downloaded from the IBM Portlet Catalog

http://catalog.lotus.com/wps/portal/portal/details?catalog.label=1WP1001IW

d) Web Application Integrator

A newer capability for any web application but notably Quickr is the add ition of IBM Web Application Integrator. Web Application Integ r a t or for IBM WebSphere Portal is a solution which allows external web applications to be integrated with IBM WebShpere Portal version 6.0x and I BM WebSphere Portal Express 6.0x.

WAI allows Portal customers to further leverage their investment in Portal by using it to centralize access to external web applications within the enterprise. Examples of such external web applications include home grown, in-house web apps as well as our own IBM web based products like Lotus Connections, Lotus DWA, and Lotus Quickr

The Web Application Integrator can be downloaded from the IBM Portlet Catalog

http://catalog.lotus.com/wps/portal/portal/details?catalog.label=1WP1001IA

Also included in the catalog is a detailed set of documentation on how to implement and configure the Web Application Integrator Portlets. Attached below is a document from an IBM session at Lotusphere 2008 on configuring the Web Application Integrator with Portal.

e) REST Services Builders for Portlet Factory

Another area where the entitlement has changed is the ability to utilize Quickr APIs to create portlets and widgets within the context of Portal. Quickr has exposed a number of it's features (and may do more over time) via a REST based API. Last year the WebSphere Portlet Factory team created a set of builder to speed up the creation of Portlets based upon REST and even includes some sample Quickr Portlets in the Portlet Factory installation. To help developers get started a number of entries have been added to the Portlet Factory Wiki and the links to the relevant pages are below.

This DeveloperWorks article details how you can use the REST builders to create Quickr Portlets

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/pfwiki.nsf/dx/ibm-creating-a-lotus-quickr-service-using-the-rest-service-call-builder

These are some additonal DeveloperWorks articles on how to use the REST Builders

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/PortletFactoryID/Creating+a+REST+Service+Call+with+a+WPF+model
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/PortletFactoryID/IBM+-+Using+REST+Style+Service+Calls
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/PortletFactoryID/IBM+-+Using+the+REST+Service+Call+builder

f) Integrating Quickr into Portal Search

WebSphere Portal 6.1 supports the search of Quickr documents and configuring this is documented in the WebSphere Portal 6.1 Infocenter.

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