Core Content Only

Collaborate 2010 Call for Papers Extended!

jason — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:53:42 GMT

I just received this message and thought it might be of some interest to some people out there. If you want to submit a presentation for Collaborate 2010, you STILL HAVE TIME!

If you are on the fence about speaking at COLLABORATE 10 or missed the deadline, you still can submit your presentation as the deadline has been extended through Oct. 23rd.

There has been a good response so far but more speakers are still encouraged to submit a presentation.

Don't miss your chance to attend COLLABORATE 10 in Las Vegas, April 18-22 2010. Submit your Content Management topic about UCM, IPM, URM, IRM, WCM, DAM, Document Capture to the IOUG Fourm by Tuesday October 20th. Make your presentation and receive a full COLLABORATE 10 registration FREE.

Use the following link to submit your presentation.

http://collaborate10.ioug.org/Education/EducationalSessionsbyTrack/tabid/86/Default.aspx

When submitting your presentation, select one of the following tracks that best fits the theme of your presentation.

Application Strategy and Services
Infrastructure Technologies
Development
Governance Risk and Compliance
Master Data Management/Application Integration

For track descriptions please refer to the descriptions found on the track descriptions page at the following link.

http://www.ioug.org/collaborate10/tracks.cfm

Have an idea about a topic but would like to bounce the idea off of someone first? Try the Oracle Content Management SIG Facebook page or visit the Oracle Content Management SIG webpage at http://www.ioug.org/networking/stellent.cfm and send an email to a member of the board.

Regards
IOUG Content Management SIG
www.ioug.org

11g XE - Don't Hold Your Breath

jason — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:37:05 GMT

If you're waiting for Oracle Database Express Edition 11g don't hold your breath.

Last year Oracle indicated they would not be exploring an express edition of 11g until the 11g R2 release was accomplished. Now we read that they really meant it might be a year or two after the 11g R2 release.

This is a bit disappointing.

The 10g XE release makes a pretty decent platform for developing with UCM (though it isn't without its faults as well), but it sure would be nice to get some of the more advanced Oracle Text 11g features in an express package.

Alas, I don't want 2011 to be any earlier than it has to!

Site Studio 10gR4 Link to Rendition

jason — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:05:45 GMT

In my Oracle OpenWorld 2009 demo I showed how to link to specific renditions from a WYSIWYG Element in the Site Studio 10gR4 Contributor Application. This post is about that topic and one of the components I demonstrated during that session.

Download the component right away from here, or visit the Downloads page.

You may also want to check out the other related posts and free components: Web URL Map Extras and Web and Web Sites Menu Filtering.

This particular component is very simple. We accomplish this by overriding two Dynamic HTML includes named ss_compute_doc_url and rendition_info_select_form. Crack the component open to see more specifics.

Once this component is installed (either via Component Manager in the Admin Server or Component Wizard) the select buttons next to each rendition in the Renditions page will insert the correct rendition into the contributor element.

Disclaimer: Accessing renditions may pull the file from a zip file. To learn more about how renditions are stored and the performance implications of this kind of flexibility please contact your favorite Oracle UCM/WCM/URM/DAM partner. Solutions do exist, and they can guide you through the pitfalls.

Web URL Map Extras

jason — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:06:00 GMT

Download the component here or head over to the Downloads page.

In my Oracle OpenWorld 2009 demo I showed how to use the Web URL Map feature of Content Server to make images and renditions easier to use in Cascading Style Sheets. This post is about that topic and one of the components I demonstrated during that session.

One way to make referencing images (and especially renditions) in Cascading Style Sheets and other places in your web sites is to use the Web URL Mapping tool that comes with Content Server. Check out Kyle's blog, he has a whole post about this feature.

I have several of these mappings that I always like to add to a server. So, I made a component that will add these mappings to the server when you install the component. Also, I wanted an example component showing how you can read from a defined map and add it to another map. Hence, the WebMapUrlExtras component was born and is available here.

WebMapUrlExtras adds the following four mappings.

pass in a dDocName and get back the web rendition of an image

pass in a dDocName and get back the native file

qs/

pass in a query string and get back the quick search results

pass in a dDocName and get back the web rendition, or you can optionally specify the rendition by tagging on a ?Rendtion=<rendition name>

Prior to the component your Web Map URL configuration might look like this:

After installing the component and restarting it should look similar to this:

Web Sites Menu Filtering

jason — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:47:00 GMT

I am starting to release some of the example components demonstrated at my session this year at Oracle OpenWorld 2009. In the demo I briefly showed the Web Sites menu and talked about filtering the sites in this menu based on UCM Roles. This component demonstrates how one might accomplish such a task. As other articles related to my session come on line I will inter-link them together.

You know that Web Sites menu Site Studio adds to Content Server? Can I limit the links in that list somehow? This question is asked fairly regularly. I wanted to get a sample of how one might accomplish just that out for general consumption. Once you see an example accomplishing the filtering of that list you'll be able to apply your own specific business logic as well.

In this example we're going to use Roles to control what web sites are listed in the menu for any given user. I've seen this list controlled by Roles, Accounts, Custom User Metadata and every combination of those aspects and more. This is a LOT less about securing sites away from the users (as it doesn't do that AT ALL) and more about thinning the sites list to something more context appropriate for individuals attempting to do their everyday job.

How to do this? Override the custom_finish_layout_init dynamic html include. Here's the important snippet (don't worry, there is an example component!):


	<$c=" STARTING EDIT HERE, JS"$>
	<$if UserIsAdmin OR userHasRole("SSMENU" & siteId)$>
		navBuilder.addChildNodeTo
		(
			'SS_DISPLAY_WEBSITES',
			'item',
			'id==SS_WEBSITE_<$n$>',
			'label==<$js(label)$>',
			'url==<$js(siteRef)$>',
			'icon==WebItem.gif'
		);
	<$endif$>
	<$c=" ENDING EDIT HERE, JS"$>

So, sysadmin has the admin role, so s/he can see our three site samples in the web sites list:

Now, pretend we've created a new user named SingleSiteGuy (stay on task here, this is not a dating site side story...). We'll give SingleSiteGuy our new SSMENUPayPalDemo Role.

And TA DA! Now SingleSiteGuy can only see the menu we gave him a role to access.

Grab the component here or head over to the downloads page.

Oracle OpenWorld 2009 - Monday

jason — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:19:53 GMT

Monday had a lot of action. I caught a couple of ADF sessions today. That stuff is pretty neat. Also attended the 11g UCM Roadmap session with Andy MacMillan and Roel Stalman. The world (UCM world) is changing! A few more UCM sessions including creating real world ROI (nice job Michelle and Brian!) and had a great time at the Town Hall for the UCM Party sponsored by Fujitsu.

The Microsoft Office Document integration and Desktop Integration Suite changes look very slick. Some of the Digital Asset Management changes also looked interesting, but they did not get into specifics on that.

One of the topics they spent a fair amount of time around was the introduction of WebLogic Server as the install platform. Several slides showed the new architecture and the use of WLST or Enterprise Manager as new ways to control UCM.

I also attended Billy Cripe's Amazon Web Services "preview" in the Fusion Middleware Lounge. I call this a preview as he spoke for only about 15 minutes. Billy, you need to do a full two hour session on this! We've been using AWS to run our demos since the beginning and it is absolutely the way to go. We even do a lot of our development in that environment.

Let's take an example...

Let's say I start with a big beefy consultant machine where I can easily spend $3,500+. Oh wait, you think that's high? I think it's low actually...recall you'll need to run Oracle DB, UCM, WebCenter and SOA all at once (and maybe some other nifty things too).

Amazon offers a variety of machine sizes (Processing Power, RAM, Storage) with pricing ranging from $0.10 to $0.80 or more. I'll select a mid-range instance at $0.40 an hour. This equates to 8,750 hours or 364.6 days. We can stretch that out with all kinds of tricks like shutting down the server overnight, not running on holidays or vacations and buying what they call a reserved instance, which lowers the hourly rate. If you plan to run the machine over the course of a year a reserved instance will allow you to achieve an early ROI.

Recall that 8,750 hours at $0.40 per hour equates to $3,500. A one year reserved instance has a cost of $910 and changes the hourly use rate to $0.12 an hour. So now, 8.750 x $0.12 + $910 = $1,960. Big difference. They also have a cheaper rate per year if you get a three year reserved instance agreement.

Looks like I might need to pour more into a whole post about using AWS as your developer lab as I still haven't even gotten into things like backups, one-off-instances and networking.

OOW09 - Sunday

jason — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:09:59 GMT

Today was pretty busy for what I thought might be the "light" day of the trip. We started out with a light tour of some Special Interest Group sessions in the morning. From there it was on to the Oracle Partner Network meetings, events and presentations.

I conducted our Leveraging Digital Asset Management with Oracle's Site Studio 10gR4 presentation today for a very pleasant group. Lots of questions afterwards so I think it went well. I did promise that a variety of components demonstrated in the presentation would be available hopefully by Friday, so if you were there, I am going to try to keep that promise!

ORA-01658 Unable to create initial extent for segment in tablespace

jason — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:05:26 GMT

The other day I was using an Oracle database tablespace supplied by a dba for a development environment and when I went to rebuild the full text index the Repository Manager greeted me with this nifty little error:

ORA-01658: unable to create initial extent for segment in tablespace

Fun huh?

Ok, this is a development box, lots of space. I thought this was all setup to expand on need, but let's check it out. First, we need to go to the database via something like Toad, SQL Developer or JDeveloper and execute a Query similar to this one:

select file_name, bytes, autoextensible, maxbytes from dba_data_files where tablespace_name='DEVWCM_SYSTEM';

You're tablespace name will vary, BUT REMEMBER: the value you supply for tablespace name is case sensitive

Running this query I find out that autoextend is NOT turned on, and further exploration yields a maxed out datafile. Fine, let's get autoextend turned ON. Here's two samples:

alter database datafile 
   'C:\Oracle\app\oradata\orcl\DEVWCM_SYSTEM.DBF' 
   autoextend on;

alter database datafile 
   'C:\Oracle\app\oradata\orcl\DEVWCM_SYSTEM.DBF'
   autoextend on next 100m maxsize 2000m;

In the first case we're going to simply turn on autoextend and let it ride. In case number two you can see some extra instructions including how much to extend and a limit.

And did this take care of the problem? Yep. Sweet, a fresh, clean, working index.

jQuery Hosted by Google AND Microsoft

jason — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:54:09 GMT

Last Tuesday, 9/15/2009, Scott Gutherie of Microsoft broke the news about jQuery on the Microsoft CDN. Now, whichever side of the fence you sit on in the Google vs. Microsoft religious fervor you will still enjoy being able to use jQuery on their dime! Happy, happy, joy joy!

The official ASP.NET Page about the CDN: http://www.asp.net/ajax/cdn/
An in action sample: http://stephenwalther.com/blog/archive/2009/09/16/microsoft-ajax-cdn-and-the-jquery-validation-library.aspx
Which should you use? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1447184/microsoft-cdn-for-jquery-or-google-cdn

Those of us using jQuery in our Oracle Web Content Management initiatives need to be aware of this and the Google AJAX APIs. I always like to have options. This is just one more option for us.

You can also check out the Google jQuery hosting options here.

Find Your UCM Search Active Index in Java

jason — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:06:48 GMT

Out on the Oracle ECM Forums a question came up about how to find out which index is currently active (from Java). It's quite simple really. Just use the getActiveProperty method of the ActiveIndexState class.

Like so:

String activeIndexRoot = ActiveIndexState.getActiveProperty("ActiveIndex");

I've created a sample component to show this in action, have at it straight away, or head over to the downloads to page and have a look around.

Ping Enabling Your Firewall

jason — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 20:52:00 GMT

Today I was setting up a VMWare workstation instance. I tried to ping the host. It did not work. Figures. I thought to myself, what's the setting to enable that again? I get tired of hunting this down for the Windows Firewall as and my Norton Firewall.

I also wanted an excuse to play with creating HD quality YouTube videos. So here goes.

UCM Community Expands Again - Welcome Kyle!

jason — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:20:25 GMT

While my blog output the last couple months has been lackluster at best the community at large has benefited from a new author in the arena. Take a look at http://blogs.oracle.com/kyle. Leave a comment. Welcome Kyle Hatlestad to our blog-o-sphere.

I am adding Kyle to the blog roll here. He has already produced a series of very nice articles and I strongly encourage you to take a gander and add his site to your RSS Reader. To give you a sample, here are the titles of his first eight posts:

2009.08.31 - How to set up a Public Document Library in WebCenter Spaces
2009.08.21 - Positioning Sections in Site Studio Designer
2009.08.20 - Site Studio Naming Best Practices
2009.08.18 - UCM Black Hole Check In
2009.08.14 - Allow Contributors To Add Fragments To Your UCM Site Studio Pages
2009.08.06 - UCM Custom Skins and Layouts
2009.07.23 - Global Rules for Standard Check In and Search Only
2009.07.21 - Displaying Native Content With Site Studio 10gR4 in External Apps

Excellent work so far. Kyle has been involved in various aspects of the community for a while. I see his name in forums and blogs occasionally. This is a great next step for him, and a benefit for all of us learning and using Content Server on a weekly basis.

In an effort to learn more about Kyle I have been sending him questions and tabulating his answers to form a kind of "Web Interview". I wanted to introduce him as a community participant, point out his great work and demonstrate to people just how approachable he is. Here's some of the questions I asked and his responses.

Where have you worked other than Oracle (did you come over with the Stellent acquisition)?

Yes, I came over as part of the acquisition of Stellent. I joined Stellent (which was formally named IntraNet Solutions) in July of 1998. Prior to Stellent, I worked at Camax which was a Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) software company for 3 years.

Where is home?

I work in Eden Prairie, MN which was the Stellent headquarters. I live about 20 miles north and was born and raised in Minnesota.

Can you describe what you do now for Oracle and the previous roles you have played in the history of Stellent?

I work in the sales organization in a department known as the Enterprise Solution Group. Our charter is to put together reusable sales assets that can be used during sales cycles. Prior to sales, I was in the Quality Assurance department doing testing for several years. I was also a consultant for several years and did go to customers to do initial installs and configurations of systems.

Is there anyone you can single out has influential in your career development?

Frank Radichel who is a Vice President in Software Development at Oracle and was head of R&D under Stellent has been a big influence on me. I've worked directly for him when I was in the Quality Assurance group and have always worked with him in the other various roles that I've had (Tech Support, Consulting, Sales). He’s always been a great mentor and someone I could always turn to with questions.

What products do you work with on a semi-regular basis at Oracle besides UCM (your recent blog post indicates WebCenter Spaces)?

The major ones within what we call the 'Enterprise 2.0' group. They include the portal products of WebCenter Spaces, WebCenter Interaction, and WebLogic Portal. I also work a lot with Information Rights Management and Oracle Capture. Outside of the E 2.0 products, I've done work with BPEL Process Manager, Siebel, AutoVue, & BI Publisher. It's basically the laundry list of products that integrate with UCM. Which seem to be growing every day.

Within UCM what are your favorite two products and why?

I generally like to work with Site Studio. Web Content Management offers a lot of flexibility and creativity. I also like working with the core Content Server which has proven to have a great architecture over the years.

Outside of UCM what are your favorite two Oracle products?

WebCenter Spaces is a great product to work with. It's a very advanced product with a lot of flexibility and control. Provides a great portal/workspace environment that we use internally on a day-to-day basis with our own projects.

And I guess the other product would have to be the database. Under Stellent I was often intimidated when working with the Oracle Database, but have really enjoyed digging into all the things it can do and benefits it provides. Things like Secure Files with compression, deduplication, and encryption of unstructured data, the Application Express (APEX) interface, Oracle Text searching, etc.

What’s one piece of functionality that you would like to see added to Content Server? (I get asked this on support follow-up calls all the time!)

Yeah...this is a tough one because it's always changing depending on what I'm working on at the time and what's missing.

While it's not technically functionality, I think a redesign of the UI would be nice. I think functionally it can do most of the things customers need (or can be customized to), but the general UI can be difficult to use for the non-technical user.

One enhancement I've always wanted to be included since day one has been the ability to store and present comments in Workflow. For both rejection and approval. I've been asked too many times then I can count if you can add comments when you approve in workflow.

What do you feel is the hardest part about customizing Content Server?

Tracing resource includes across different components and patches. Resource includes are great in that they are modular and reusable, but given the number of core and extra components that generally get loaded, it can be cumbersome at times to find the code you need to override for your component.

Do you have any advice to share with those that have just purchased Content Server and are intimidated by “the possibilities” it provides them?

Well, I've always tried to encourage customers to start small and try to do quick win projects first. It helps with the learning curve and encourages adoption. I’ve seen too many initial big projects that get bogged down in politics, lack of understanding, and poor planning.

Also, I tell every customer to buy the book "The Definitive Guide to Stellent Content Server Development" by Brian "Bex" Huff. Even though it was written prior to the acquisition, the majority of it still holds true for UCM 10gR3 and is a tremendous resource.

Please tell us your vision for the future of Content Management (2-3 years out). What are some forthcoming trends, technologies, etc.?

I think it's something that Billy Cripe has been saying for a few years now and that's "invisible ECM". It's the concept that ECM is sitting behind the systems that businesses use to do their day-to-day work. So it will be less important that it be a primary system that users go directly to and use but rather transparent to them as they are executing their business process. So I see a lot more integrations down the line that tie Content Management systems closer to these business systems.

Here's to hoping that Kyle can find the time to continue sharing his insights with all of us in the community for a long time to come. Thanks for the info Kyle, keep the posts coming!

Oracle 11g R2 Database Now Available

jason — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:12:46 GMT

If you use Oracle DB on Linux you can now get your hands on 11g R2.

Get More Info

Have not tried this with UCM yet.

Change Folder Link Format

jason — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:14:59 GMT

When browsing folders through the Web UI in Stellent the title field is hyperlinked to the native file by default. Users can personalize their profile to link to the web viewable by default if they find that more helpful.

Uninstall Stellent Services

jason — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 08:33:00 GMT

When attempting to install or uninstall Content Server or the related services on a Windows box you may occasionally run into some problems. Whatever the scenario is, you may get to a place where you need to manually uninstall the services.

Note: As you will recall, uninstalling Content Server is generally a very simple task of finding the bin directory on the command line and issuing this command:

Installer UnregisterAll

This should cleanup everything. When it doesn't, you can attempt these maneuvers:

-cs install-\bin\IdcServerNT -uninstall 
-cs install-\admin\bin\IdcAdminNT -uninstall
-ibr install-\bin\IdcRefineryNT -uninstall

If this doesn't work, you can also try this beauty:

sc delete "service name"

And finally, you can go hack the registry at your own risk:

1. Open command prompty
2. Type "regedit"
3. Press enter  
4. Navigate to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services' 
5. Find service name you wish to remove
6. Select it
7. Delete it

Release State Values Defined (dReleaseState)

jason — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:13:19 GMT

A question was asked on the Oracle ECM forums about what the various values for Release State meant. I knew which states some of the single character values represented, but not all of them. I was interested in finally finding out this answer for myself once and for all so I dug in. What follows are of what I found as a result of this snooping around.

N
apStateNew=New, this item was newly added to the system

Y
apStateCurrent=This refers to the revision status of the content item (so it's the most recent revision of the content item)

O
apStateOld=This refers to the revision status of the content item (so it's not the most recent revision of the content item)

E
apStateWorkflow=This means the content items is currently in a workflow

R
apStateProcessing=This means the content items is currently being processed by the indexer

U
apStateUpdate=This means the content item is being updated

I
apStateIndexing=This means the content items is currently being indexed

iDocScript - Learning and Extending

jason — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:23:51 GMT

What do you feel is the hardest part about learning iDocScript? In the end, iDocScript is not a hard "language" to acclimate yourself with. Is it just the fact that there is "yet another" thing to learn? This scripting language has some nifty features, is fairly easy to extend and is buried in nearly every part of Content Server. To be a good developer/administrator of UCM you will need to know iDocScript to at least some extent.

Recently, Oracle has opened a source code site. We are waiting for a Content Management classification group. When that arrives, I might try to kick off a project that extends the iDocScript language set with additional useful (in my opinion) functions. Someone else may beat me to it, and that would be fine as well. That's just a project I would like to see become reality. If it does, what kinds of iDocScript functions or calculated variables would anyone like to see added?

Case Insensitive User Name Logins

jason — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 20:54:26 GMT

A recent client has users who were getting frustrated about the case sensitivity of the UCM logins. Their old system did not have this restriction (feature?) and they wanted this removed. The more of these types of things you remove the less secure the login becomes, but depending on each situation the risk/reward analysis plays to either side of the fence.

This turns out to be a fairly easy task to accomplish. First, the users in question need to be changed to "Global" in the User Admin applet.

NOTE: This means you cannot perform this action with SYSADMIN.

Having switched the appropriate users to Global, you need to add this setting via Admin Server (under General Configuration) or directly to the confing.cfg file. Once added, do not forget to restart the services.

AllowCaseInsensitiveLogin=true

Defaulting Query Form Type

jason — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:11:16 GMT

The default query form setting out-of-the-box is the expanded “standard” form. New with 10gR3, you also get the Query Builder form that allows non-technical users to build more advanced queries. Query Builder also includes some new advanced options for power users.

One thing you may want to do at some point is change the default query form view. Users can set their preferred query form view in their profile. Once a user sets this in the profile it will override anything you or your admin set as the system default.

To see where all this query form view decision making is happening we will take a quick peek at the “determine_search_form_type” dynamic html include:


<@dynamichtml determine_search_form_type@>
	<$if not searchFormType$>
		<$searchFormType = utGetValue("pne_portal", "searchFormType")$>
	<$endif$>
	<$if not searchFormType and DefaultSearchFormType$>
		<$searchFormType = DefaultSearchFormType$>
	<$endif$>
	<$if not searchFormType$>
		<$searchFormType = "standard"$>
	<$endif$>

	<$if DisabledSearchFormTypes$>
		<$DisabledSearchFormTypes = DisabledSearchFormTypes$>
	<$else$>
		<$DisabledSearchFormTypes = ""$>
	<$endif$>
	<$if DisabledSearchFormTypes like ("*" & searchFormType & "*")$>
		<$if DefaultSearchFormType$>
			<$searchFormType = DefaultSearchFormType$>
		<$else$>
			<$searchFormType = "standard"$>
		<$endif$>
	<$endif$>
<@end@>

Upon examination of this include you can see that you can use DefaultSearchFormType as a configuration variable in Admin Server or [install]/config/config.cfg to control the default query form view. Also note, they provide a variable to disable a particular query form view, DisabledSearchFormTypes.

Out-of-the-box, possible values we can set are “standard” which is the default, and "queryBuilder".

Announcing Redstone Content Solutions!

jason — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:54:00 GMT

Announcing: Redstone Content Solutions

I have been working with my business partner, John Klein, to form a new Advanced Training & Consulting company focused on Oracle products. We work specifically in the Enterprise 2.0 landscape. Please visit our new website to learn more about us and our services. Please feel free to contact us at any time for answers to your questions.

As one might imagine, starting a new company can be a bit of an adventurous undertaking. I wanted to take a moment to thank the various people who offered so much help and advice. So as to protect the innocent, we will not get into names, however, you all know who you are. Thank you so much for reviewing our content, tearing apart the website and answering way too many questions about running a business, accounting, insurance and legal advice.

Press Release: Open For Business

The Blog

The presence of and my involvement and commitment to Redstone Content Solutions will have no negative effect on Core Content Only. I intend to continue posting code samples and giving away free components as time permits. In fact, the possibility of MORE posting and samples is very real as time may actually be more available now that we have opened Redstone Content Solutions.

Belated Anniversary

Nearly one year ago, on July 14th, 2008, I released the first post for Core Content Only. One full, eventful year later I want thank you for visiting my corner of the internet and I appreciate all the feedback presented by my various visitors. I hope you have found the last year as rewarding as I have.

One year has presented 104 posts or approximately 8.6 posts per month as well as 14 free downloadable examples/components. This is a little below my posting target of 10 posts a month while still satisfying my "freebie quota" of one new download per month.

One of the most interesting parts of any public endeavor is monitoring the statistics. The first couple of months were a little slow and it was fun to see the visits and page views spike whenever the blog was mentioned in another public space. Visits and page views have fairly consistently grown by about 10% each month. The download page gets the most traffic by far.

YSlow Updated for FireFox 3.5

jason — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:31:18 GMT

Looks like I might have jumped on this too quickly. The age-old advice stands true: "Don't believe everything you read on the internet." Yahoo IS updating YSlow for FireFox 3.5. I am usually ok with being wrong, and in this case, I am doubly so as I got to play with and use Page Speed and looks like I can keep YSlow in the tool shed as well.

I fired up FireFox 3.5 this morning and low-and-behold, YSlow 2.0.0b4 is available. It sports the following notice:

Version 2.0.0b4 is certified to work with Firefox 3.5 and Firebug 1.4b5.

Known Issue
----------------
1. Opening the Firebug panel may sometimes require a refresh of the page if Autorun is disabled. We are actively  addressing this.

So, looks like now I'll have two of these in the arsenal as I was not using Page Speed before.

FireFox 3.5 & Google Page Speed (Bye, bye YSlow)

jason — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:45:11 GMT

FireFox 3.5 has arrived been around for a little while now. I finally got around to upgrading and found out the handy YSlow add-on I used to use no longer works. Bummer. After a little digging around it looks like it is discontinued. Yahoo will not be updating it. Big bummer.

Enter Google Page Speed! This add-on will help you evaluate your web pages for efficiency, load times, etc.

Search UCM (Stellent) With Groovy

jason — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:06:25 GMT

In a previous article we talked about using Groovy to execute the PING_SERVER service of our SOA enabled Content Server. Interesting, but fairly useless you might say. Let’s see how we can conduct a search using Groovy and then access specific metadata from those search results.

You may want to keep the RIDC JavaDoc link handy as you explore Groovy Integration further.

First, the script, and then some discussion.

The Script

// Import needed classes from Remote Intradoc Jar
import oracle.stellent.ridc.IdcClientManager
import oracle.stellent.ridc.IdcContext

// Create the client for request/response, connect directly to server
client = (new IdcClientManager()).createClient("idc://localhost:4444")

// Create a user/security context
userContext = new IdcContext("sysadmin", "idc")

// Setup the request, search for two pieces of content
req = client.createBinder()
req.putLocal("IdcService", "GET_SEARCH_RESULTS")
req.putLocal("QueryText", "")
req.putLocal("ResultCount", "2")

// Get the response
resp = client.sendRequest(userContext, req).getResponseAsBinder()

// Dump out the local data of the response
println "LocalData:"
resp.getLocalData().keySet().each
{
    println "  $it = ${resp.getLocalData().get(it)}"
}

// Dump out the names of the resultsets in the response
println "\nResultSets:"
resp.getResultSetNames().each
{
    println "  $it"
}

// Dump out dDocTitle for each piece of content in the response
println "\nTitles:"
rsSearchResults = resp.getResultSet("SearchResults")
rsSearchResults.getRows().each
{
    println "  ${it.get('dDocTitle')}"
}

// Wrap it up!
println "\nDone"

Closures

The above script makes extensive use of a language feature in Groovy known as a closure. Closures are not specific to Groovy and they are certainly not a new concept. They are found in many other programming languages. One such language you may be very familiar with is JavaScript!

In this particular case we are using the "each" closure function. Here is an excerpt from the sample script:

println "LocalData:"
resp.getLocalData().keySet().each
{
    println "  $it = ${resp.getLocalData().get(it)}"
}

See that "each" statement in the second line? The word each followed by curly brackets forges the wrapping closure and the code inside is what becomes executed when the closure is invoked. In this case, our closure is invoked for each key in the Key Set of the Local Data collection. Within the closure you can use the "it" variable (as in iterator) to access each key.

If you have something against the name "it" for the variable you can alter the variable name. As an example, let’s change the syntax so the variable will be named "key", try this:

println "LocalData:"
resp.getLocalData().keySet().each
{
key ->
    println "  $key = ${resp.getLocalData().get(key)}"
}

This is also very helpful when using a closure within a closure. An example? Sure. What if you wanted to loop the resultsets and print the value for each column for each row of each resultset? You’re code might use nested closures and look something like this:

resp.getResultSetNames().each
{
    println "\nResult Set '$it':"
    
    resp.getResultSet(it).getRows().each
    {
        row ->
        resp.getResultSet(it).getFields().each
        {
            field ->
            println "\t${field.getName()} = ${row.get(field.getName())}"
        }
    }
    print("\t----------------")
}

Additional Sample Scripts

Groovy Scripts are available from the downloads page. Here are two scripts related to searching for you to try out.

Search & Target Title, and Search & List Result Sets

Get Groovy With UCM (Stellent)

jason — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 05:42:01 GMT

Yet another way to work with UCM? You bet! But this one is super Groovy (sorry, I had to do that). Check out how to setup Groovy and the Remote Intradoc Client to integrate with the Oracle Fusion Enterprise Content Management platform. You know you want to!

I really like the Remote Intradoc Client (RIDC). RIDC allows me to control UCM (Stellent) from a Java based application (Console, JSP, Servlet, etc.). What was that? Sounds similar to Content Integration Suite (CIS) you say? Yes, so far it does. RIDC is a thinner, light weight framework for those already familiar with UCM services. RIDC has very few of those "helper methods" that would guide you through the intelli-sense embedded in your IDE. However, for those familiar with services or willing to research them RIDC will offer tremendous capacity with little effort.

You can get RIDC as part of the CIS download from here. Within the CIS download is a folder containing the jar files and documentation needed to get up to speed on RIDC. This is not a deep dive on RIDC itself, but more of a sampling of how I use it to integrate/control UCM. Bex Huff has a similar article using Jython with RIDC. There is always more than one way to skin a cat.

I make use of RIDC via Groovy. Side Note: Groovy is built in with ADF 11g and Oracle uptake on Groovy will go even deeper in the future.

Important Groovy Links

Download - As of this writing the latest version of Groovy was 1.6.3.
Documentation - (Tons of examples!)
Getting Started - Discusses configuration of the JDK and variables like JAVA_HOME

Pure Groovy Examples

Sample #1 - Hello World

println "Hello, World!"

Sample #2 - JSON Like Syntax Possibilities

   scores = [ "Brett":100, "Pete":"Did not finish" ]
   println scores["Pete"]
   println scores.Pete

Groovy UCM Sample

How about we start with a very simple example? We will use Groovy to Ping the Content Server. Start by opening the Groovy Console application. From there I need to use the "Script" menu to add a reference to the RIDC JAR file. At this point the environment is pretty well ready to go and we can start writing code in the console to be executed. To execute the code you can use CTRL-R, and to clear the output window you can use CTRL-W.

Using RIDC is easiest when we are familiar with the services calls, the parameters to send the calls, and what to expect in the response from the calls. If you set your profile to Top Menus so you can see the URL you will be able to look at the variables passed around to service calls as you surf through content server. You could also use a tool like Fiddler or another HTTP proxy/sniffer to spy on the parameters being swapped with content server by your browser.

Use the "Script" menu to add JARs

Add the RIDC JAR specifically

As an example, when I execute this url:

http://localhost/idc/idcplg?IdcService=PING_SERVER&IsJava=1

I get back a response like this one below, which I can then use RIDC/Groovy to access the response data.

<?hda version="10.1.3.4.1 (090528)" jcharset=UTF8 encoding=utf-8?>
@Properties LocalData
dUser=sysadmin
blFieldTypes=StatusMessage message
refreshSubMonikers=
StatusMessage=You are logged in as 'sysadmin'.
blDateFormat=M/d/yy {h:mm[:ss] {aa}[zzz]}!mAM,PM!tAmerica/Chicago
XmlEncodingMode=Full
changedSubjects=
refreshSubjects=
refreshMonikers=
changedMonikers=
IdcService=PING_SERVER
IsJava=1
@end

Armed with this request/response knowledge, we can create a Groovy script using RIDC like this (or download the script from here):

// Import needed classes from Remote Intradoc Client Jar
import oracle.stellent.ridc.IdcClientManager
import oracle.stellent.ridc.IdcContext

// Create the client for request/response
client = (new IdcClientManager()).createClient("idc://localhost:4444")

// Create a user/security context, don't need a as we're connecting directly to ucm and we're a trusted ip
userContext = new IdcContext("sysadmin")

// Setup the request
req = client.createBinder()
req.putLocal("IdcService", "PING_SERVER")

// Get the response
resp = client.sendRequest(userContext, req).getResponseAsBinder()

// Use the response, should say "Response: you are logged in as 'sysadmin'"
println "Response: ${resp.getLocal("StatusMessage")}"

// Wrap it up!
println "Done"

Here's what this looks like run in Groovy Console:

You may need to add your ip address to the IP Address Filter of content server for this script to run (as it is written). You can also use a user name and password with RIDC. This is covered in the documentation.

Hide Primary File In Site Studio Contributor

jason — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 05:10:00 GMT

When users create new datafiles through Site Studio Contributor the Primary File (primaryFile) field can be the source of some questions or confusion. This field is usually pre-populated with “default.xml”. Sometimes users will ask what this field is and/or why they see it. One of the easiest ways to deal with this issue or answer this problem is to hide that field! Add the following field to the server's config.cfg and restart. It looks like this setting may have been added in the may releases, so this may or may not work for you depending on your version and when this new feature was added.

SSHidePrimaryFileInContributor=true

Before

After

Link To a Specific PDF Page

jason — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:13:00 GMT

Sometimes I need to send someone to the documentation. Now and then it will be easier to tell them, "Hey, check out page 10 of the iDocScript guide!" This can easily accomplished by tagging #page= onto the end of the PDF URL.

As an example, check out page 30 of the "Using Components" PDF:

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E10316_01/cs/cs_doc_10/documentation/developer/using_components_10en.pdf#page=30

Send users directly to a certain page makes the process much easier for them.

Saying I Don't Know

jason — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:27:49 GMT

How do you say “I don’t know”? More often than I would like I am presented with an opportunity to tell a client or potential client how little I know about topic XYZ. In consulting, each opportunity presents itself as new twists to an old problem or some completely new animal that catches you totally off guard.

If you have had success in your past endeavors you usually have an answer or a process that quickly derives an answer in your back pocket. For those days when you get blind-sided, just how do you say you are clueless without coming off as inept?

Discuss something you have done that is similar
Demonstrate some degree of familiarity with the problem space (though perhaps not a solution)
Admit you simply do not know

I have found that trying to know everything is generally a recipe for disaster. It comes back to bite you in the end. I will usually opt for total transparency whenever possible and point out where I may be lacking in hopes of fostering a trust relationship with the client. This in turn sometimes leads them to grant a little latitude or even an allotment of time to learn something new.

Since I am always looking for new ways to not look totally moronic, how do you say “I don’t know” gracefully?

Manually Disable Component

jason — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:46:41 GMT

It is very easy to disable a Stellent component manually. Sometimes when you install a new component you may find something is wrong and the server does not restart. Other times you might be developing the component yourself and the server again fails to restart. On a variety of occasions you will not even be able to fire up Component Wizard. This process also comes in handy when content server is installed on a remote machine and you do not have access to be able to pull up component wizard.

That is where this trick comes in. Find this file: /config/components.hda

Remove the name and location entries for the component causing the issue. I suggest storing those strings somewhere else, perhaps another text file?

Now attempt to restart your content server and all should be right with the world once again.

Hide Standard Profile Menus

jason — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:03:44 GMT

Content Profiles allow administrators to craft custom check-in and search screens. They can perform all sorts of default metadata tips and tricks and generally craft targeted, context centric pages that help users properly apply metadata to their content.

On occasion I have been asked about how to hide the Standard Check-In and Search menus once Content Profiles have been enabled. At the end of this article you will find a link to a component that enables just such functionality. This component is also available on the downloads page.

When you install this component it will prompt you for four (4) preference variables. These variables (2 for each menu) indicate if the functionality is currently enabled and what iDocScript should be executed to determine if the menu item should show or not. The default settings hide the menu from anyone without the admin role.

As sysadmin, a user with the admin role:

As a test user, a user without the admin role:

Download the component here or off the downloads page.

Components are freely available for you to do as you wish with.

You may also be interested in the Alphabetize Menus component!

Force Security Group Choice (Stellent)

jason — Thu, 28 May 2009 06:06:05 GMT

Similar to the article on forcing users to select a Content Type (dDocType) there is a setting that forces the selection of a security group.

ForceSecurityGroupChoice=true

This setting adds a new blank list item for Security Group and sets this new blank list item as the default selection thereby requiring the user to select a Security Group.

Place this setting in <install_dir>/config/config.cfg

Or, put this setting in place in the General Configuration section of the Admin Server.

Force Doc Type Selection (Stellent)

jason — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:17:46 GMT

By default, when the check-in page loads up the Content Type select list automatically sets itself to the first item in the list. Sometimes this can cause problems if users do not pay attention, get lazy, etc. On occasion it will be desirable to force the selection of a Content Type (dDocType). Through the admin server go to general configuration and add this setting:

ForceDocTypeChoice=1

Restart content server and you should be all set. Now when you visit a check-in page they Content Type will not be preset and users will be forced to make a selection from the list.

Collaborate 2009 – Customizing Site Studio Contributor

jason — Fri, 08 May 2009 10:04:54 GMT

In support of Thursday’s session at Collaborate 2009 I am releasing some information here for those that attended as well as those that could not make it. You will find the PowerPoint presentation, accompanying paper and components. The components will also be available on the downloads page. Also, be sure to find out more about other products, projects and processes over at ioug.org.

Presentation - 22 slides of fantastic fun sure to keep you awake well into the night

Paper - 14 pages of riveting reading revealing the deepest, darkest secrets of Site Studio Contributor

2009_05_06_Build_1_SSContribLookAndFeelSample - Component that demonstrates customizing the look and feel of the contributor application

2009_05_06_Build_1_SiteStudioHelp - Component that demonstrates adding help icons and infrastructure to your contributor mode region markers

Collaborate 2009 - Tuesday and Wednesday

jason — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:14:59 GMT

Wow. Tuesday and Wednesday were a blur. I met so many people and my brain hurts pretty badly. In the end, I am not all that great with names so this has been a personal growth opportunity. There have been a few customers/clients in particular that I have been able to connect with though and that has been a really great relationship building exercise.

Tomorrow is the presentation, and I think it will be fun. Tomorrow I will have a big post, so check back!

Collaborate 2009 - Monday – Keynote

jason — Mon, 04 May 2009 10:19:12 GMT

Charles Phillips performed the opening Keynote at Collaborate09 this year. He presented similar material during Open World in 2008 primarily based on integration of applications. Some of the more exciting portions of the presentation revolved around release announcements:

Business Suite 12.1

Many new standalone solutions
Modular impl
Immediate value without upgrade

Announced Extended Support: Products that were scheduled to have the extended support fee waived through 2009 or 2010 have had this extended another year, some of them through 2011. This means a longer honeymoon period to get used to working with Oracle while enjoying maximum support without the cost.

Oracle Business Intelligence App, release 7.9.6

AIA Foundation Pack Release 2.4

Beehive: Team Collaboration portion announced. This makes Beehive a much more complete product in my opinion. We are now starting to see and realize a more complete value proposition than before. This is more what Beehive was always meant to be.

Collaborate 2009 – Sunday – The Arrival

jason — Mon, 04 May 2009 09:45:31 GMT

Thanks to AirTran who supplied a great trip and even a free upgrade! The weather in Orlando is beautiful. We got here at about noon. After checking in at the hotel we went over to register and picked up our bag and conference information.

I went to the new speaker orientation and they had some nice tips for things to make your presentation better. Hopefully I will use those tips wisely! All in all, the suggestions delivered around presenting were great. After that it was on to the IOUG SIG meeting. Lots of people to talk to and some chips and salsa to hold over until dinner later were appreciated.

We got to meet with some of the Oracle personnel attending the seminar. I encourage you to try to meet and talk with product managers from your product line of interest if you can arrange it. We went to Cuba Libre for some food and it was very good, try it out!

Finally, back to the room to wrap up for the day. Worked on the presentation for Thursday some more.

Profiles vs Folders - Default Values

jason — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:19:09 GMT

If you have folders installed and profiles enabled you might have some confusion about which one ultimately wins in the battle of default metadata values. When content is checked into a folder the default values set at the folder level take precedence over the value set in any matching Content Profile Rule or Global Rule.

Collaborate 2009 - Get Informed and Stay Informed

jason — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 06:24:01 GMT

Phase One: Briefing

With Collaborate 09 looming on the horizon I wanted a plan for maximizing my visit. How might I best find information PRIOR to arrival? I will also need a game plan to stay informed after the conference begins. For me, the best way to prepare is to pay close attention to blogs and social networking sites/concepts such as facebook or twitter. When you are on site, in the heat of the moment, twitter seems to be the best.

Phase Two: Reconnaissance

I like to find out as much about what is supposed to happen as I can before I get there. It looks like Sunday night is already booked as I have a speaker meeting and the rest of my team will be arriving. Once everyone is together I am sure we will beat down some of the local paths and see what's going on. Also, I will keep the content management specific sessions list on hand. In the days leading up to the conference keep an eye specifically on blogs by Billy Cripe, Bex Huff and Brian Dirking.

Phase Three: Real Time Intelligence

Good, bad or ugly I am going to rely mostly on Twitter for real time feedback at the conference. I will be following the three people listed above along with others. If I find out David Roe is attending I would follow him too, he kept the live feedback coming strong at Open World '08. I will start with this list, if anyone has additional suggestions leave them in the comments please!

Billy Cripe - http://twitter.com/billycripe
Brian Dirking - http://twitter.com/bdirking
Bex Huff - http://twitter.com/bex
Jennifer Marzolf - http://twitter.com/jenmarzolf
David Roe - http://twitter.com/david167

Oh yeah, and myself at http://twitter.com/jasonstortz

Using Hashtags:

If you are "following" some of the people/groups listed above you may start seeing things like #c09 or #ioug in some of the tweets. These are called hashtags. Think of them as metadata for tweets. If everyone that posts about Collaborate 09 and/or IOUG uses these hashtags the tweets are captured in special ways for us to consume without having to follow the original authors.

So if I send a tweet with #c09 in the message people can use sites like hashtags.org to see all tweets, including mine, that have the #c09 hashtag. You can even subscribe to an RSS or Atom feed of these tweets. Some of the places I am going to use include:

http://hashtags.org/tag/c09/messages

http://hashtags.org/tag/ioug/messages

Adding Fields to Quick Search

jason — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 06:20:05 GMT

The Quick Search box in Oracle Fusion ECM (Stellent) will search Content ID, Title and the full text of content by default. To change the fields this functionality uses you will need to add two configuration variables: QuickSearchFields & QuickSearchOperators.

For example, say you wanted to make the quick search use the default fields AND the comments field. Through the Admin Server then General Configuration add the following (then restart and try it out):

QuickSearchFields=dDocName|dDocTitle|dDocFullText|xComments
QuickSearchOperators=hasAsSubstring,hasAsSubstring,fullText,hasAsSubstring

Possible values for Quick Search Operators:

equals
hasAsSubstring
beginsWith
endsWith
hasAsWord
fullText
dateGreater
dateGE
dateEquals
dateLE
dateLess
numberGreater
numberGE
numberEquals
numberLE
numberLess
zoneHasAsWord
zoneHasAsWordPrefix

Collaborate 2009 - Customizing Site Studio 10gR4 Contributor (Stellent)

jason — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 07:19:00 GMT

Join us at Collaborate 2009 in Orlando! If you are going to be attending Collaborate '09 I invite you to stop my session "Customizing Site Studio Contributor". I will be talking about creating components to skin the Contributor, creating Custom Element Forms and Debugging Contributor interaction with the Content Server. Tons of demos.

Customizing Site Studio Contributor

Session ID		747
Day		Thursday, May 7, 2009
Time		11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Room		W340CD
Event Type		Technical Session (1 Hour)
Speakers		Jason Stortz (Midland Information Resources)
Track		Middleware
Sub-Category		Content Management (e.g. Stellent)
Objective 1		Customize the look and feel of the contributor application
Objective 2		Become educated about custom elements and why they require an upgrade from older versions
Objective 3		Learn to Debug/Modify Contributor Communication with Content Server

The new Site Studio Contributor platform is all web based and this opens a lot of doors for customization and enhancement that was not previously possible. This session will cover three primary topics including customizing the look and feel of the contributor, learning about the new structure for custom elements and modifying/debugging communication between the contributor and Content Server.

Rotten vegetables will be available for purchase prior to the session. Those with a strong arm are encouraged to sit more towards the back so as to give others a chance to pelt me.

Lost Sysadmin Password for Oracle Fusion ECM (Stellent)?

jason — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:35:00 GMT

Did you forget your sysadmin password for your Oracle Fusion ECM (Stellent) Content Server?! There are those rare occasions where you might not know the sysadmin password for your Content Server. The reasons for this are many and varied and certainly not limited to forgetting the password or the departure of your administrator who was the "keeper of the key".

What can you do now?

Stop all Content Server services/processes including main, admin and inbound refinery services/processes
Stop the Web Server (Apache, IIS, etc.)
Find this file: -content server install directory-/data/users/SecurityInfo.hda
Rename that file to something else so you can keep it, like SecurityInfo.hda.bak
Open your Content Server database (perhaps with SQL Management Studio for SQL Server or SQL Developer for Oracle)
Find the record in the Users table where dName equals sysadmin
Remove the value for dPasswordEncoding for that record
For that same record set the value for the dPassword column to a temporary password
Commit your database changes
Start the Content Server services
Start the User Admin standalone application, not from the admin applets page
Use your new password to login when prompted
Find the sysadmin user and update the password to your new long term password
Close the User Admin application
Start the Content Server Web Server
Enjoy!

Oracle Buys Sun Microsystems

jason — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:42:21 GMT

Oracle has bought Sun Microsystems!!

Oracle.com Articles
Oracle and Sun
Benefits
General Presentation
FAQ

Sun.com Articles
Oracle to buy Sun
Media and Press Links

Calling A Stored Procedure From Oracle Fusion ECM (Stellent)

jason — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:30:19 GMT

You want to call a stored procedure from within your Oracle Fusion ECM Content Server (Stellent). This post will detail two ways to accomplish that. This post will also be written under the assumption that the stored procedure you are attempting to call resides in your Content Server database.

The first step is to define a query resource. This is fairly simple through Component Wizard. When you create the actual query give it a name and put the word “exec”, a space, and the name of your stored procedure in the Query text area.

A template is needed display our data. The template will be attached to a service we will craft in just a few moments. With your handy component wizard create a new template. Add to it some iDocScript that looks like this:

  dDocName (# of Revisions)
  <$loop MOST_REVISED$>
      <$dDocName$> (<$REVCOUNT$>)
  <$endloop$>

Now for a service with which to execute our query. Through component wizard go ahead and create the service and then add an action. The action is where we will execute our query resource which points to our stored procedure. Note the parameters textbox as we name the Result Set that will hold our data returned from the stored procedure. Do not forget to hook up your template you made earlier.

We have now used the triangle of power to produce results: Service, Query, Template. To call your query resource from Java you can use the createResultSet method of the Workspace object. You will need to copy the data from that ResultSet into a DataResultSet object and put that in the binder for your template to have access to it.

    ResultSet rs = m_workspace.createResultSet("QmostRevisedContent", m_binder);
    DataResultSet drs = new DataResultSet();
    drs.copy(rs);
    m_binder.addResultSet("MOST_REVISED", drs);

The sample:

Below is a link to a sample component that demonstrates this functionality. It was developed against SQL Server, not Oracle, but the same concepts apply. The component includes a sample sql script you can run against your database to create a stored procedure for the component to execute.

2009_04_15_Build_1_StoredProcSample.zip (22.9 KB)

Site Stuido 10gR4 - April Patch Released

jason — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 10:28:00 GMT

Get the April Site Studio Rollup Patch Set off metalink released yesterday, April 6th.

Get It!

One of the items listed as fixed is the issues SS Designer was having when IE 8 was installed

Beware the Best Practice

jason — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:01:17 GMT

I typically have a hard time in meetings and conference calls when the term Best Practice springs to life. What is a Best Practice? Perhaps I should ask what it means in the context of this post. You can read all about what Best Practice might mean here. 50% of the time I view this as one of the eighty thousand buzzwords that get tossed around during requirements gathering or the whole RFP, RFI, RF* process.

Problems with best practices:

There may be NO Best practice for your particular issue
Using a Best Practice can easily fail because you used it instead of investigating the root problem

Having problems figuring something out? Arguing over the best course of action? Ask the consultant what the Best Practice is. This is a great tactic. We grant our consultants a chance to prove themselves, absolve our self of responsibility, appear to be acting in the best interest of the project and get to check off another buzzword. All with a single question. I find this course can elude talking about the real issues. We fail to decide on a real solution for a tough business problem we are facing.

Sure, there really is such a thing as a good course of action or…a Best Practice for various issues. News Flash: Not every problem HAS a Best Practice. In fact, a fairly large number of the problems we are trying to solve are likely not going to be solvable by a Best Practice. If there was a specific, well known, highly adopted and strongly verified process to solve the issue we are dealing with it would likely mean our company is not doing anything unique or special. That would be bad because then we would have no competitive edge now would we?

Having established that a Best Practice cannot solve at least a portion of our roadblocks, and having noted we should not avoid tough, lengthy discussions we need to be aware of one more danger. Occasionally there IS a Best Practice that fits fairly well with the problem on the table. Please do not just follow the process blindly. Think for yourself. Sometimes you can just tell that there is a fundamental flaw in the process for your special scenario.

Finally, an example. I tell you, when I was a small child my parents would get upset if I would yell across the house at them. It was quickly set forth as a rule that you went and found them and talked to them normally instead of yelling at them. I offer this as a Best Practice. Now I offer an example where following the Best Practice was not the Best Solution:

Twitter Any Faster/Better Than It Was?

jason — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 07:49:00 GMT

As I look at getting back into Twitter I have snooped around for additional information. You know the story: If you're going to do something then really do it or just pack up and go home. And so, I present a list of links to things I found interesting as I take this for a test drive once again:

Twictionary - lots of terms that help you understand what half that chatter means
Top 100 Twitter Clients - a few months old, but still might be a good resource
@timer - Send a tweet "d timer 60 WAKE UP!" to take a roughly 60 minute nap
Do's & Don'ts - I liked the info about personal safety
@TrackThis - Track Packages

What are some good clients for this? I was thinking of using Digsby...but I was hoping to get some suggestions.

@jasonstortz

Add jQuery Support to Content Server

jason — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:29:00 GMT

There have been some updates to the jQuery platform recently that I want to help promote. Here is a little history (my point: development is ongoing, it is not a dead end project):

January 14th, 2009	jQuery 1.3 released
January 16th, 2009	jQuery UI 1.6 RC5 released
January 21sth, 2009	jQuery 1.3.1 released
February 20th, 2009	jQuery 1.3.2 released
March 6th, 2009	jQuery UI 1.7 released
March 19th, 2009	jQuery UI 1.7.1 released

jQuery is a very neat framework (my opinion). It allows you to easily manipulate the page, introduce effects and interact with the server. jQuery also makes it easy to extend with a rich community of plug-ins already available. A lot of other frameworks can make similar promises and even deliver on those promises, including but not limited to script.aculo.us, prototype, EXT, etc. These libraries (including jQuery) are not the answer to every problem you will ever have but they certainly provide solutions for many issues. With these kinds of tools all around should you not seriously consider using them instead of rolling your own?

You might say, “That’s nice Stortz, but how does this relate to content server?” There are currently two components provided by our community of UCM blogs that grant support for a few of the previously mentioned frameworks. David Roe has a component that adds support for script.aculo.us at his blog. John Sim has a component to add EXT support at his blog. Obviously I did not want to be left out, did I? I am partial to jQuery, so I wanted a component to add jQuery support to Content Server.

Download the component here or from the Downloads page. Install and restart your Content Server service. At this point jQuery 1.3.2 and jQuery UI 1.7.1 are available (in no conflict mode, so please use “jQuery” instead of “$”). To get to the supplied jQuery/JSON playground go to the Administration menu and look for the JSON Lab menu item.

A fully patched 7.5.x and 10gR3 Content Server adds the ability to invoke services on Content Server with the IsJson=1 request variable, similar to the IsJava=1 variable. But, instead of returning HDA format data (IsJava=1), or SOAP (IsSoap=1) the IsJson=1 parameter and value will kick back the data in JavaScript Object Notation format (JSON).

The JSON Lab provides a venue for you to execute services, review results and script against those results. The Request tab executes services uses jQuery in the background to interact with Content Server. When the service call you executed by clicking “Send Request” returns you are automatically flipped over to the Response tab where the JSON Data returned by Content Server is displayed and the data is also assigned to a variable named jsonData that you can utilize later in the Work Bench. Finally, the Help tab provides some…well…help.

The Request tab presents a text area in which you can enter key/value pairs for the request one to a line, kind of like a properties file. Use the Samples button to populate the request text area with prefabricated requests to learn more about what kinds of requests could be performed.

Once you click “Send Request” jQuery kicks in some AJAX to go get the response from Content Server in JSON format. That response is plugged into a text area on the Response tab. At this time that is meant only for review. At some point I will get around to allowing editing of the response data and making those edits stick. After you have examined the response, click the Work Bench tab. Again, sample scripts are available to get you started. You can take advantage of a div below the Work Bench area with the id of “canvas” to craft HTML from the response data.

So remember, response data is in a variable named jsonData and the div you can populate with HTML, etc., is named canvas.

Download 2009_03_27_build_1_jquerysupport.zip (2.43 KB)

Paging Your Custom ResultSet

jason — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:51:00 GMT

When you want to get paging controls for your ResultSet and the ResultSet in question is SearchResults from one of a few search services you can include the xui_results_page_nav_controls dynamic html snippet to get paging controls on your page. You may have to jump through a few hoops because the buttons may not currently point to YOUR page. That’s doable with some detective work.

But what if you have a custom ResultSet that you want to page across? Your service points to your template which may include snippets from your resource file. Somewhere in there you carefully create your own ResultSet. Now you want to display this with x records at a time.

This PagingSample component shows one way to accomplish this task. I create a dummy ResultSet, display x records to the page, and setup paging controls at the bottom. Quick, dirty and certainly could use more work, but I wanted to get the sample out there.

Install, restart, and visit:

<HttpCgiPath>?IdcService=GET_DOC_PAGE&Action=GetTemplatePage&Page=PAGING_SAMPLE

2009_03_26_build_1_PagingSample.zip

Scripting UCM Startup and Shutdown

jason — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 06:02:33 GMT

I do content server development a lot. Unfortunately I have other responsibilities as well. I also move around a fair bit so I fire up the old laptop and shut it down a lot. I set my SQL Server, Apache and Content Server services all to manual. I really hate waiting for all that to load up when all I want to do is get online to triage email, etc.

I have created two PowerShell scripts I have used to startup and shutdown various services in the "proper order". The scripts themselves are very simple. They include a list of service names set into a variable and one more line to start or stop each service in the list.

The StartUCM Script

$services = "MSSQLSERVER", "msftesql", "SQLWriter", "IdcAdminService idc_admin", "IdcContentService idc", "IdcRefineryService ibr", "Apache2.2"
$services | get-service -ErrorAction silentlycontinue | start-service

The StopUCM Script

$services = "Apache2.2", "IdcContentService idc", "IdcAdminService idc_admin", "IdcRefineryService ibr", "SQLWriter", "msftesql", "MSSQLSERVER"
$services | get-service -ErrorAction silentlycontinue | start-service

When I fire up my laptop and want to work with content server I can click start and enter "powershell startcum" and press enter. I could also have shortcut on the desktop, etc. For the trick I use to work I had to add the directory where I keep my PowerShell scripts to my Path environment variable.

Custom Element Forms Ideas

jason — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:41:15 GMT

What kinds of things have you done with Custome Element Forms?

I have been brain storming about what kinds of things people might do with Custom Element Forms. If you are unfamiliar with Custom Element Forms they are way for you to create highly customized, specific, pieces of user interface functionality within the Site Studio Contributor Application. If you are planning to upgrade from 7.x Site Studio to 10gRx Site Studio keep in mind this is one area of broken backward compatibility.

So, some of the things I could think of or have used Custom Element Forms for include:

Media Selector - a browse/preview ability that shows flash, quicktime, etc., not just JPEG/GIF
Select/Drop Down Lists - Allows users to configure data and style (multiple/single) of drop down lists
Integer Field - Allow only numbers to be entered into a text box, now included in the WCM Site Studio Sample Site
SEO Data - Allow users to control variables like title, description, keywords, etc., for search engine optimization meta tags
Dependent Choice Lists - Configuration of 1..n drop down lists that are dependent on the previously selected option, sometimes driven off of site navigation
Instructions - Show instructions to the contributor, don't store anything

Any more ideas?

Disabling Site Studio Contributor

jason — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:52:34 GMT

Use can use the following configuration setting to disable contribution on a content server:

DisableSiteStudioContribution=true

Over on John's Blog you can find even more information about disabling and/or "enhancing" the contributor key-stroke

Component: Site Studio - Consumption to Contribution Ctrl Shift F5 redirect
Guide: Disable “ctrl + shift + f5″ Site Studio contributor option
Updated: Consumption to Contribution Ctrl Shift F5 redirect.