These steps show how to install Google Chrome on Oracle Enterprise Linux 6.x.  I suspect these steps would also work with Fedora, CentOS and Red Hat (RHEL).  This approach uses Google’s YUM repository.

1. Login or switch to the root user
2. Create a file named google.repo in the /etc/yum.repos.d dirctory
3. Add the appropriate segment to your new google.repo file
   • 32 bit
     

     [google-chrome]
     name=google-chrome – 32-bit
     baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/rpm/stable/i386
     enabled=1
     gpgcheck=1
     gpgkey=https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux
     linux_signing_key.pub
     

   • 64 bit
     

     [google-chrome]
     name=google-chrome – 64-bit
     baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/rpm/stable/x86_64
     enabled=1
     gpgcheck=1
     gpgkey=https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub
     

4. yum install google-chrome-stable

Patch Set 5 Released!

Oracle recently released Patch Set 5 for Fusion Middleware.  This includes my primary area of interest WebCenter Content.  This technically started rolling out to Oracle eDelivery and then OTN sometime on February 22nd, 2012.  I was a little late to the blogging game so instead of “announcing” the release let’s do a quick link roundup about this release from some of my favorite community members!  While this list isn’t comprehensive, it does come from a lot of people that have taught me a lot down the years so add them to your blog roll if you haven’t already.

Link Round-Up

1. One of my friends, John Sim might have been the first to point out the release availability.  He also has a great rundown of the products included in the release
2. Ryan has some handy links and also points out that the documentation has been updated
3. Bex runs down the patch sets you may need to navigate if you plan to upgrade your now out-of-date UCM instance using his recently setup shortcuts for Oracle Patches
4. The Official WebCenter Content Blog lists a host of new features around User Engagement, Content Enabling Applications and Infrastructure
5. Webmonkey really elaborates on the new Folders Component (This one is sometimes referred to as Framework Folders while the older one was called Folders_g)
6. And finally, on a separate note, but still related to PS5 note, Shay has a really nifty video showing some of the iPad related ADF stuff that’s new in JDeveloper/ADF for PS5
7. Yannick Ongena has a good review with information on the new RIDC connection in JDeveloper
8. The folks at AMIS also have a good link roundup

Ok, so these guys are a hard act to follow.  What can I say/do that they didn’t cover?  Only thing I can think about are some screenshots!  Once we got all the final bits downloaded (caution: that part takes a while if you want it all) we got a VM put together pronto and here’s some of the things we thought were interesting.

JDeveloper

First up, JDeveloper PS5 with Site Studio for External Applications (SSXA).  Notice in the shot below there is a dedicated RIDC connection you can now add to projects.  This could be handy for all kinds of things!

Also in JDevleoper PS5 (and I think it acts this way in the 11gR2 releases as well) you can now set the default built-in WebLogic Domain password to something you know and will remember when you first start the integrated server.  It used to be that the default password for the integrated server was weblogic1 and this was a major issue for those first setting out to use the product.  New users would be very frustrated trying to find out why they couldn’t login as weblogic user to test that first site they tried to build.  Love this!

Branding

Having booted up the integrated WebLogic server we see our contribution mode banner is now updated with the new product branding (WebCenter Content).  This is also updated in the content server user interface as well.

Out-of-the-box Assets

During the setup of our sandbox we obviously enabled Site Studio and SSXA.  It appears as though those components now ship with all the sample Custom Element Forms right from the start.  No more loading up the Site Studio Samples site from OTN just to grab these Custom Element Forms!  This made my day.

Folders and Desktop Integration

Of all the updates the Framework Folders and Desktop Integration Suite (DIS) changes are my favorite so far.  As mentioned before, Webmonkey runs down a lot of the features for us, but let’s see what it looks like.  One thing I want to point out though is that DIS works with Framework Folders and that Framework Folders overcomes a lot of the performance problems people used to experience with “Folders” in the past (previously called Contribution Folders).  This bears repeating because it opens a lot of doors and numerous customers have been waiting on these two features to converge.

Once you have DIS installed you’ll see an icon on the desktop (similar to how DIS has always worked) and you’ll double click that to open Windows Explorer which now has a “WebCenter Content Servers” node.  Clicking that node will show you the list of servers you have configured for your desktop (initially it will be blank, right click the blank white area and select Add Server).

If you have Rules and Profiles (custom check-in screens, etc.) enabled you’ll be able to use them in a drag and drop fashion right from your desktop by opening the “New Check-In” node.

Deleting a WebLogic domain can be accomplished through a series of manual tasks.  There is no script or application to run that will accomplish deleting a domain or removing a domain.  The good news is the steps are fairly short and easy.  In the sample steps below it is assumed that your domain is named base_domain.

1. Delete the domain folder (meaning base_domain) under %WL_HOME%/user_projects/domains
2. Delete the domain folder (meaning base_domain) under %WL_HOME%/user_projects/apps
3. Remove any references to the domain in the %WL_HOME%/domain-registry.xml file
4. Remove any references to the domain in the file WL_HOME/common/nodemanager/nodemanager.domains
5. Remove any schema/database associated with the domain

Content Profiles and Content Rules provide a mechanism for customizing a variety of pages within UCM.  Generally just referred to as Profiles, you can conditionally configure/customize the check-in, update, search and information pages as relates to the context of the content and user intent.

One of the often used by seldom explained parts of Profiles is something called Side Effects.  You will find the Side Effects tab on the Add/Edit Activation Conditions screen and it primarily allows you to accomplish two things:

1. Add name/value pairs as IdocScript that will then get pushed to local data if the activation condition is true.
2. Add custom IdocScript to a rule that is only evaluated if the activation condition is true and this can include logic like if and else statements or loops.  Basically all IdocScript is possible here (though all of it may or may not be useful).  As such, once a rule is activated, you can include logic, use includes from a component, etc.

What specifically might one use Side Effects for?  For a simple example let’s pretend we have a profile for some scanned content.  This content is checked in as an image based PDF (no OCR, no searchable text).  Your profile should not display the full text search box in this case.  There is no full text to be searched.  You can accomplish this with a Side Effect in your profile:

<$SearchEngineName="DATABASE.METADATA"$>

Let’s take another example.  Perhaps on the check-in page you want the alternate file field to be removed.  You could go into config.cfg and add this setting, but it would be universal.  More likely you want this to happen in a specific, conditional context.  Try adding this as a Side Effect to your rule:

<$suppressAlternateFile="1"$>

Want more examples of Profiles, Rules and Side Effects? See below:

1. Using Rules & Profiles To Drive Custom Pages
2. Suppressing Alternate File
3. Thumbnail search in Content Server
4. Thumbnail search in Content Server #2
5. Hiding the Primary File field in UCM
6. Metadata field tool tips

Oracle recently released WebLogic 12c.  I have had a lot of customers ask about running ECM products and ADF on the newly released WebLogic Application server.  We talked with Oracle and basically the current releases of 11.1.1.5 ECM Products and ADF are not certified for WebLogic Application Server 12c.  Also, it does not look like 11.1.1.6 will be certified either.

In short, 12c looks neat and there looks to be a lot of new features but those toys are not currently part of our playground.

If you are using Oracle Universal Content Management PS3 (11.1.1.4.0) and are experiencing some search performance woes you might be surprised to find out that the search cache is turned off by default.  This seems to be a known issue that is being addressed for the next patch set.  In the mean time, you can turn it on by editing your config.cfg file located here:

<WLS path>/user_projects/domains/<UCM domain>/cs/config/config.cfg

Add the following entry:

UseSearchCache=true

Save and restart your content server.

Oracle has recently (September 2011) released Oracle Database Express Edition 11g Release 2 (Oracle Database XE).  This is an entry-level database based on the Oracle Database 11g Release 2 that has a small-footprint.  It’s free to “develop, deploy, and distribute”.  It is also fast to download and simple to install.

Download Page

Documentation

The default character set used during installation and setup is AL32UTF8, which is perfect for use with WebCenter Content development machines!

Oracle XE 11g also supports Oracle Text.

Previously we showed how to install WebLogic Application Server 11gR1 PS3 (10.3.4) using the graphical mode installation.  You can also perform the installation in “Console Mode” which may be helpful if you only have terminal access (such as ssh).

Once you have download the generic installation jar you can execute a command line this to kick off the installation:

java -jar wls1035_generic.jar -mode=console

Upon executing this command you will basically get a text based version of the graphical installation.  You can enter Next to move to the next step or enter numeric keystrokes to toggle selected options.  Once all your choices are mad you’ll be presented with a text-based progress bar.  Once installation is complete you’ll be notified and control of the command line will be returned to you.

The installation is very fast!

Also, take a little bit to check out silent install info.

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/content-management/downloads/index-085241.html

Get it while it’s hot!  Oracle released Patch Set 4, version 11.1.1.5 of ECM recently.  Includes updates to IRM, IPM, UCM and the whole stack as well as matching updates for RCU, WebLogic and JDeveloper.