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 Bex runs down the patch sets you may need to navigate if you plan to upgrade your now out-of-date UCM instance using his recently setup shortcuts for Oracle Patches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

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 need to change the memory allocation to your WebLogic administration server and/or managed server, the following guide will show you how. Note: This will raise the limit for both the WebLogic administration server and managed server. You can verify these settings by watching the server startup script. Optionally, if you are setting the memory for Oracle UCM, you can verify this setting on the System Audit Information page.

Windows

1. Open the domain environment cmd file:

<middleware home>\user_projects\domains\base_domain\bin\setDomainEnv.cmd

2. Locate the following remark, inside the cmd file: (‘Search’ -> “@REM IF USER_MEM_ARGS”)

@REM IF USER_MEM_ARGS the environment variable is set, use it to override ALL MEM_ARGS values

3. Directly after this remark, add the following line:

set USER_MEM_ARGS=-Xms256m -Xmx1024m -XX:CompileThreshold=8000 -XX:PermSize=128m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m

4. The portion of the file you have edited looks like this:

@REM IF USER_MEM_ARGS the environment variable is set, use it to override ALL MEM_ARGS values

set USER_MEM_ARGS=-Xms256m -Xmx1024m -XX:CompileThreshold=8000 -XX:PermSize=128m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m

if NOT “%USER_MEM_ARGS%”==”" (

set MEM_ARGS=%USER_MEM_ARGS

)

UNIX/Linux

1. Open the domain environment sh file:

<middleware home>\user_projects\domains\base_domain\bin\setDomainEnv.sh

2. Locate the following remark, inside the sh file: (‘Search’ -> “#REM IF USER_MEM_ARGS”)

#REM IF USER_MEM_ARGS the environment variable is set, use it to override ALL MEM_ARGS values

3. Directly after this remark, add the following line:

USER_MEM_ARGS=-Xms256m -Xmx1024m -XX:CompileThreshold=8000 -XX:PermSize=128m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m

4. The portion of the file you have edited looks like this:

#REM IF USER_MEM_ARGS the environment variable is set, use it to override ALL MEM_ARGS values

USER_MEM_ARGS=-Xms256m -Xmx1024m -XX:CompileThreshold=8000 -XX:PermSize=128m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m

if NOT “%USER_MEM_ARGS%”==”" (

MEM_ARGS=%USER_MEM_ARGS

)

References

Note that the basic difference between Windows and UNIX/Linux regarding this issue is the use of the “set” command for the Windows environment.

Final Thoughts

This is certainly not the only way to accomplish this task, and it does affect all managed servers in the domain.  However, if you’re running a dev box with plenty of memory it is the simplest and gives you the best “umph” when running your various instances with the least amount of work.

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.