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Topic 5. Syndication and how to use it

 

Objective of this section

In this section, we describe a specific Syndication example as it applies to the RiverBend Tea and Coffee company Portal v. 6.1 environment.    

5.1 Syndication

In this scenario, we will show you how to move the WCM data from a development machine to a staging machine. The same process can be used to transfer WCM contents from the Staging environment to the Production environment.

If you need more details about how Syndication works, please refer to the more detailed article in the WCM 6.1 wiki at the following link:

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/portalwiki.nsf/dx/5.1.2-syndication

5.2 Syndication Example

In this section we describe in detail the steps we took to complete syndication of the RiverBend library from the WCM instance on wps01.itso.ibm.com (Syndicator) to the WCM instance on wps02.itso.ibm.com (Subscriber). From here onwards we will refer to these environments as the Syndicator and Subscriber.

To ensure both the Syndicator WCM instance and Subscriber WCM instance were at the same WCM version we looked at the information available in the following file on both the servers – C:\IBM\WebSphere\wp_profile\PortalServer\log\VersionInfo.log.

wps01.itso.ibm.com (Syndicator)
------------------------------------------------------------

IBM WebSphere Portal 6.1
Build Level: wp610_493_01 (2008-06-18 17:24 )
Server Name: WebSphere_Portal
Started at:   11/6/2008 10:43:47:953 EST
Installed FixPacks :
    None
Installed Interim Fixes:
    None

wps02.itso.ibm.com (Subscriber)
------------------------------------------------------------
IBM WebSphere Portal 6.1
Build Level: wp610_493_01 (2008-06-18 17:24 )
Server Name: WebSphere_Portal
Started at:   11/6/2008 10:34:46:281 EST
Installed FixPacks :
    None
Installed Interim Fixes:
    None

Next we check network connectivity between the two servers to ensure both the servers are available on the network.

The screenshots provided below illustrate the results of the ping command between the two servers.

Figure 5-1: Check network connectivity from the Syndicator to the Subscriber

Figure 5-2: Check network connectivity from the Subscriber to the Syndicator

Things to remember when doing first time syndication:

• First-time syndication to an existing library is not supported. Attempting to syndicate a library to a subscriber that already has a library with the same name will result in an exception. Hence it is recommended not to use the default Web Content library. Although the libraries have the same name, they have different UUIDs .
  
• Access control settings are not part of syndication, and hence you must manually set access permissions on the subscriber's library when syndicating for the first time. If the library does not exist on the subscriber, it will be created during syndication. By default, no access control settings are specified on the new library, so you must set them manually before users can access content in the new library. It is not required that the settings on the subscriber's library match those on the Syndicators library, because you might want to provide different access for users on the subscribing server.

 

Starting the Syndication configuration

Log in to the Portal administration portlet as the administrator and access the Web Content Libraries portlet to ensure the list of WCM libraries are available to both WCM instances. To verify this, use two browser instances.

The screenshots below illustrate this.

Web Content Libraries on the Syndicator

The Syndicator has 2 libraries created. One is called "Web Content", which is the default library, and the “ RiverBendLib ” library, which is the one we are using in this scenario, as shown in the screenshot below:

Figure 5-3: Web Content Libraries available on the Syndicator

Web Content Libraries on the Subscriber

The Subscriber has the default Web Content library as shown in the screenshot below. The syndicated library, RiverBendLib , will be automatically created during the Syndication process. So, do NOT create this library in the Subscriber machine.

Figure 5-4: Web Content Libraries available on the Subscriber

Configuring Syndication

On the Syndicator administration portlet click on the Syndicator link available in the left hand navigator. The screenshot below illustrates the Syndicator view which at this stage does not contain any syndicator entries.

Figure 5-5: Web Content Syndicators View

On the Subscriber administration portlet click on the Subscriber link available in the left hand navigator. The screenshot below illustrates the Subscriber view which at this stage does not contain any subscriber entries.

Figure 5-6: Web Content Subscribers View

Tip:   To create a new Syndicator and Subscriber entry at the same time we recommend using   two separate browser instances next to each other.

 

Creating a new Syndicator configuration

Use the Create New Syndicator   action to create a new Syndicator configuration. The screenshot below illustrates the page that loads up.

Figure 5-7: Create New Syndicator

Enter suitable values in the following fields –

• Name: Enter a name for this syndicator configuration entry.
• Description: Enter a description.
• Enabled checkbox: Ensure that this checkbox is checked to enable this syndicator configuration entry.

Before entering the information about the Subscriber server, keep this browser as it is and open a new one to access the Subscriber machine.

Creating a new Subscriber configuration

Use the Create New Subscriber   action to create a new Subscriber configuration. The screenshot below illustrates the page that loads up.

Figure 5-8: Create New Subscriber

Enter suitable values in the following fields –

• Name: Enter a name for this subscriber configuration entry.
• Description: Enter a description.
• Syndicator Name: Enter the value from the Name field in the syndicator configuration entry as seen in Figure 5-8 above, but this field can be any name, it doesn't have to match.
• Syndicator ID: Enter the value from the Subscriber ID field in the syndicator configuration entry as seen in Figure 5-8 above, this field must match.
• Syndicator URL: Enter the value from the Subscriber URL field in the syndicator configuration entry as seen in Figure 5-8 above.
• Enabled checkbox: Ensure that this checkbox is checked to enable this subscriber configuration entry. To disable this subscriber configuration entry, deselect this checkbox.

Now, go back to the Syndicator configuration and complete it with the Subscriber information:

Figure 5-9: Create New Syndicator

• Subscriber Name: Enter the value from the Name field in the subscriber configuration entry as seen in Figure 8 above, but this field can be any name, it doesn't have to match.
• Subscriber ID: Enter the value from the Subscriber ID field in the subscriber configuration entry as seen in Figure 8 above, this field must match.
• Subscriber URL: Enter the value from the Subscriber URL field in the subscriber configuration entry as seen in Figure 8 above.
• Enabled checkbox: Ensure that this checkbox is checked to enable this syndicator configuration entry. To disable this syndicator configuration entry, deselect this checkbox.

Click on Add libraries  

Use this action to add WCM libraries that should be syndicated as part of this syndicator configuration entry.

This action loads the portlet illustrated in the screenshot below which allows you to add the WCM libraries to be included as part of this syndicator configuration. In this case we selected the RiverBendLib library with All Items as the scope.

• Scope All Items will syndicate all items.
• Scope Live Items will only syndicate items that are in the published state.

Figure 5-10: Web Content Syndicators – Add Libraries

Once the syndicator configuration and subscriber configuration field values have been correctly entered, saved the syndicator entry first by using the OK action available.

The screenshot below illustrates the syndicator view which now reflects the new syndication entry. Notice the Status and Last Update column values.

Figure 5-11: Web Content Syndicators View - Status Idle

After the syndicator entry is saved, click the OK action on the subscriber configuration entry to save the subscriber configuration entry.

The screenshot below illustrates the subscriber view which now reflects the new syndication entry. Notice the Status and Last Update column values.

Figure 5-12: Web Content Subscribers View - Status Idle

Click on Rebuild Syndication to start the Syndication for the first time as illustrated in the screenshot below:

Figure 5-13: The Rebuild Syndication button

Once the syndication process has completed, the Syndicator and Subscriber views display the idle status as illustrated in the screenshots below.

Figure 5-14: Web Content Subscribers View – Status Idle

Figure 5-15: Web Content Syndicators View – Status Idle

Monitor the Syndicator/Subscriber Status Report

We used the Last Update column entry links on the syndicator and subscriber to review the Syndicator and Subscriber status reports as illustrated in the screenshots provided below.

Figure 5-16: Syndicator Status Report

When the first Syndication is done, the library “ RiverBendLib ” has been automatically created and populated in the Subscriber machine. You will have to give the same access rights you have set in the Syndicator for this library. The Syndication process will not syndicate the library access permissions. You will set the permissions to this library using the Set permissions ( ) button and the Library resources button ( ).

Figure 5-17: Setting permissions to the library

Abstract - In this article, we describe a specific Syndication example as it applies to the RiverBend Tea and Coffee company Portal v. 6.1 environment.