Core Content Only

I often make batch files to sart, stop and restart managed WebLogic servers for UCM 11gR1.  I could use Node Manager, etc., but I like having the server output through the command window when performing development tasks.  It’s fairly straight forward to create a StartUCM.bat and StopUCM.bat, but a restart may be more tricky.  So, if you want to create a batch file to restart a started instance put the following in your batch file (adjust for your install locations, etc.):

start /wait cmd /C "C:\Oracle\Middleware\user_projects\domains\base_domain\bin\stopManagedWebLogic.cmd UCM_server1"
C:\Oracle\Middleware\user_projects\domains\base_domain\bin\startManagedWebLogic.cmd UCM_server1 http://localhost:7001


After you install UCM 11gR1 you may occassionally (or often) start your UCM managed server from the command line.  When you do this, you will get prompted for your weblogic username and password.  If you get tired of this you can create a text file named boot.properties.  In this file, put the following:

username=<your user name here, example: weblogic>
password=<your password here, example weblogic1>

Save the file and place it here:

C:\Oracle\Middleware\user_projects\domains\ecm_domain\servers\UCM_server1\security

You may need to create the security directory.

The next time you start your manage server you will not need to supply the user name or password.  The values for these will be pulled from the boot.properties file.  Additionally the values in your file will be encrypted and written back to the file.  After you have booted the manage server open the properties file to view the encrypted values.

The Content Basket component uses the ZIP Rendition Management to package the contents of the basket for download as a ZIP file. By default there are two limitations imposed on your download. It must be a count of five hundred (500) pieces of content or less and it must be a total of five hundred (500) megabytes or less. The two settings that control this are actually part of ZIP Rendition Management and not Content Basket.

MaxRenditionBundleInMegabytes
This variable represents the max size in megabytes (default is 500 megabytes). From the internal notes: Note, it is unlikely that a browser + web server will successfully download a file over 2 gigabytes over 2 gigabytes and you need 8 byte integers in the Content-Length HTTP header) in all scenarios so the effective maximum cap on this value is 2000 megabytes.

MaxRenditionFileEntries
This is the max number of items available to package in the bundle.

You can use UCM built-in Java methods to Encode and Decode your HTML/XML. This is handy when operating within the WCM realm as well as when working with UCM UI customizations. I’ve uploaded a sample component showing some of this in action on the downloads page.

This component adds a simple service handler you can execute throught the custom service (ENCODE_DECODE_SAMPLE_SERVICE). The handler takes the content you enter into a textarea an encodes and decodes it then provides those variables for out template to write back to the page as well as dumping some information out to the server output.

Get it on the downloads page.

I am very happy to introduce the Alphabetize Menus MARK III (in honor of my love of the Ironman movies).  This version introduces compatibility with Safari and Chrome.  Thanks to Shane D. for pointing this issue out and finally getting me to get this long overdue bug resolved as well as some of the testing.

I went to Collaborate 2010 with constrained expectations. I wondered aloud to my colleagues on the way out about customers that might be participating. Would attendance be up or down? Would the venue distract from the value of the conference? I would say I heavily managed my own expectations. It turns out my concerns were unfounded.

I was surprised by an assortment of factors. Several of our customers actually made it out to Collaborate. We were able to take time with them at dinner throughout the week as well as meet with them during the day between sessions. I had several discussions with friends and competitors about overall market consolidation and industry status quo. I was also impressed with the ingenuity and fervor with which customers are applying new releases in the areas of WebCenter Framework, WebCenter Spaces, IPM and IRM.

The Industry of Enterprise Content Management as a whole has been very busy in the last few years. Several software manufacturers have been gobbled up and you can read scads of articles on the internet full of opinions about market consolidation. If you are a frequent reader here you know that the one affecting us the most is Oracle’s acquisition of Stellent. Despite that focus, we still have to continually be aware of the rest of the market. You may remember that Autonomy bought Interwoven, EMC bought Documentum and Open Text bought Vignette just to name a few.

Software Manufacturers are not the only ones consolidating. Have you checked in with your Systems Integrator lately? Times are changing. Over in Indiana Front Line Logic was acquired by our friends at TEAM Informatics. Just this week, at Collaborate 2010, Bex Huff and Jason Clarkin announced the merger of Bezzotech and ImplementRAdvantage. As these and other potential events unfold your choices may dwindle. However, I believe the quality of options will remain high.

During all this activity Oracle is certainly not holding still. Out at the AIIM Conference (held the same week as Collaborate) Oracle won the Content Management Product of the Year Award. And one of our good friends, Brian Dirking, won a prestigious Distinguished Service Award.

Exciting times.

I conducted a presentation at Collaborate 2010 today showing some tips and tricks for installing Oracle Universal Content Management, formerly known as Stellent, on an EC2 instance.

Here are a few references:

http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/#pricing
http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/purchasing-options/
http://calculator.s3.amazonaws.com/calc5.html
http://aws.amazon.com/solutions/global-solution-providers/oracle/

One of the participants asked about license ramifications and this might help understand that arena a little:
http://www.oracle.com/corporate/pricing/cloud-licensing.pdf

Fellow Redstone Content Solutions founder John Klein has setup shop on the internet posting tips, information, etc., about how you can use Oracle ECM and other Oracle Fusion Middleware products to add Business Value to your organization.  He is currently running a series that dovetails with his Collaborate 2010 panel session about how to select an implementation partner for your projects and initiatives.

Check it out at businessvalue.corecontentonly.com.

VS2010 is now officially roaming the streets. Great coverage of what all this means over at the Scott Hanselman Blog.

I generally promote Oracle “stuff” on this blog, but I am a true believer in being aware of the rest of the world at the same time, as much as a single person can be “aware of everything” anyway.

For those of you that have ever tried to setup an Oracle Database on Linux you know there are a variety of steps to take on your fresh box before you can actually begin the installation process.  You will need to install serveral binaries and those will perhaps have several depedencies.  After that you will need to create an “oracle” user.  And the list goes on.  If you have a support subscription with a valid Customer Support Identifeir (CSI) this whole process gets MUCH easier.

My Unbreakable Linux Network support subscription and accompanying CSI allow for the use of the “up2date” command.  This will update the binary I ask for as well as deduce, install and/or update any dependencies.  Technically, I can accomplish the same tasks without the subscrption.  This would require that I look up (and not miss) binary depedencies while also having the time to manually hunt down, download and install the binaries by hand.  Or I can just use the up2date command!

Having just installed OEL5.4 and registered the box with the Unbreakable Linux Network I can use the up2date command along with the parameter “oracle-validated”.  Running this command will update all the necessary binaries in prepartion for installing Oracle Database.  It will resolve and install or update all related dependencies of those binaries.  It will aso create the OS user oracle along with the oinstall and dba OS groups.  Let’s try it out here:

[bash]
[root@localhost ~] up2date -i oracle-validated

Fetching Obsoletes list for channel: el5_x86_64_latest…

Fetching rpm headers…
*******************************************************

Name Version Rel
———————————————————-
oracle-validated 1.0.0 22.el5

Testing package set / solving RPM inter-dependencies…
There was a package dependency problem. The message was:

Unresolvable chain of dependencies:
glibc-headers 2.5-42.el5_4.3 requires kernel-headers
glibc-headers-2.5-42.el5_4.3 requires kernel-headers >= 2.2.1
oracle-validated 1.0.0-22.el5 requires kernel-headers
[/bash]

Oops. Need to update the kernel headers. When you try to run up2date again telling it to update kernel-headers it will likely not do so. This is because of how up2date is currently configured. We can override the configuration by using the –force command:

[bash]
[root@localhost ~] up2date –force kernel-headers

Fetching Obsoletes list for channel: el5_x86_64_latest…

Name Version Rel
———————————————————-
kernel-headers 2.6.18 164.15.1.0.1.el5

Testing package set / solving RPM inter-dependencies…

kernel-headers-2.6.18-164.1 ***************** Done.
Preparing ***************** [100%]

Installing…
1:kernel-headers ****************** [100%]

[/bash]

Now when you run your up2date command with oracle-validated it should work a lot better.