Installing ARCHIBUS Web Central with Oracle WebLogic and BEA WebLogic 8.x

This topic covers installing ARCHIBUS Web Central with the Oracle WebLogic application server. The text presumes you are familiar with this application server.

Note:  The exact name of the WebLogic directory on your machine will depend on the version of WebLogic installed on your machine. To cover all versions, the below directions use the format "weblogicxx" as the directory name.

If you are using WebLogic 8.x, see Installing ARCHIBUS Web Central with BEA WebLogic 8.x later in this topic.

Oracle WebLogic 9.1 and later 

Step 1: Build the EAR File

Build the deployment ARCHIBUS .WAR file in to an Enterprise Archive (.EAR) file that contains your ARCHIBUS license file.

1. Create two temporary folders:
2. \temp
3. \temp\tools
2. Copy these files from the release media:
3. WebLogic\_ear_buildarea folder into the \temp folder
4. ai-licenses.bin file into the \temp\tools folder.
3. If you are using WebLogic 10, create a weblogic.xml file that contains the entries below, and place this weblogic.xml file in the ARCHIBUS WEB-INF folder.

<weblogic-web-app xmlns="http://www.bea.com/ns/weblogic/90" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<session-descriptor>
<cookie-http-only>false</cookie-http-only>
</session-descriptor>
</weblogic-web-app>

4. Navigate to the \temp\tools folder and start _MakeEarFile.bat. The process will create the .ear file. It will take a minute or two.
5. You will find the archibus.ear file in the \temp\_ear_buildarea folder.

Note: WebLogic 10.3 and later turn on the “cookie-http-only” attribute in the servlet session descriptor by default. This default disables JavaScript from obtaining the contents of a session cookie. However, the Direct-Web Remoting (DWR) subsystem that ARCHIBUS uses for AJAX screen refreshes needs to have access to the session cookie in the JavaScript, as DWR uses the session cookie as a token to protect against cross-site request forgeries (CSRF). ARCHIBUS recommends that sites concerned with session spoofing and cross-site scripting use HTTPS. Notice that the “cookie-http-only” attribute value is sticky for the HTTP session in WebLogic 10.3.1 - WebLogic 10.3.3, meaning that the first webapp sets it and subsequent webapps cannot override the value.

Step 2: Deploy ARCHIBUS

1. Open the Configuration Wizard.
2. When the dialog opens, the "Create a new Weblogic domain" radio button is selected. Choose Next.
3. The "Select Domain Source" window opens. Keep the default values and choose Next.
4. The "Configure Administrator Username and Password" dialog opens. Enter a username and password and choose Next.
5. The "Configure Server Start Mode and JDK" dialog opens. Select the "Development Mode" radio button and the "Oracle Supplied JDKs" radio button.
6. Select "Sun SDK" and choose Next.
7. The Customize Environment and Services Setting dialog opens. Keep the default values and choose Next.
8. The Create WebLogic Domain dialog opens. Enter a domain name. Choose Create.
9. The Domain is now created. Choose Done.
   The new domain is located in \\bea\user_projects\<domain name>
10. Create an ‘Archibus’ folder in this location.
11. Expand the EAR file in the Archibus folder.
12. After EAR file is expanded, copy the license file into the config folder located in \\archibus\WEB-INF\config and edit the afm-projects.xml to point to the correct project.
13. Start the Weblogic Admin server and login to the Admin Server Console.
14. In the Domain Structure section, select the Deployments link.
15. Click Lock & Edit and click Install.
16. The Install Application Assistant page opens. Navigate to the location of the archibus project, select the radio button for archibus, choose Next.
17. The next page opens and ‘Install this deployment as an application’ is selected by default. Choose Next.
18. When the next page opens, keep all default values. Choose Next.
19. When the next page opens, keep all default values. Choose Finish.
20. The Setting for Archibus page opens. Choose Save.
21. ‘Settings updated successfully’ displays. Choose Activate Changes.
22. Under ‘Domain Structure’ select ‘Deployments’.
23. The Summary of Deployments page opens. Check the box next to archibus, and click ‘Start’ and ‘Servicing all requests’.
24. The Start Application Assistant page opens. Choose Yes.

C: Configure the Basic Rule Wizard for Java 6

Application servers that use Java 6, such as Oracle WebLogic 10 , require a Java 6-compatible version of the Basic Rules Compiler. The manual deployment procedure for this version is as follows. For information, see Installing the Basic Rule Compiler on Java 6 Web Servers,

Optional: Install the Online Help Systems

Accessing online help from Web Central (either through the Help command or right-clicking on the Process Navigator) automatically brings you to the latest help systems that are stored on www.archibus.com.

Since these help systems are continually updated, accessing online help from these locations ensures that you are working with the very latest help release from ARCHIBUS, Inc.

However, some sites wish to have users access the online help from the company's network. In this case, you can install the help systems on your network by obtaining them from the ARCHIBUS DVD. Follow this procedure:

1. Use WinZip or another archive utility to expand \help\archibus-help.zip (located on the product DVD) into a temporary directory, preserving all subfolders.

2. The expansion process will create a series of folders:

   • system (for System Management Help)
   • user (for ARCHIBUS Help)

3. Create an “archibus_help” folder in Oracle\Middleware\user_projects\domains\base_domain\.

4. From the temporary location, copy the \system\ and \user\ directories to the Oracle\Middleware\user_projects\domains\base_domain\archibus_help directory on your system.

5. Start the Weblogic Admin server and login to the Admin Server Console.

6. In the Domain Structure section, select the Deployments link.

7. Click Lock & Edit and click Install.

8. The Install Application Assistant page opens. Navigate to the location of the archibus_help project, select the radio button for archibus_help, choose Next.

9. The next page opens and ‘Install this deployment as an application’ is selected by default. Choose Next.

10. When the next page opens, keep all default values. Choose Next.

11. When the next page opens, keep all default values. Choose Finish.

12. The Setting for Archibus page opens. Choose Save.

13. ‘Settings updated successfully’ displays. Choose Activate Changes.

14. Under ‘Domain Structure’ select ‘Deployments’.

15. The Summary of Deployments page opens. Check the box next to archibus, and click ‘Start’ and ‘Servicing all requests’.

16. The Start Application Assistant page opens. Choose Yes.

Accessing the locally installed help systems

There are a few ways to access the locally installed help systems.

• After Web Central starts, enter the following URLs to start the ARCHIBUS Help systems. You may wish to set up a shortcuts for these.
  • ARCHIBUS Help: http://localhost:9080/archibus/help/user/archibus.htm
  • ARCHIBUS System Management Help: http://localhost:9080/archibus/help/system/afm-sysman.htm
• If you want the local help to appear when you select Web Central's Help command or the right-click Help menu from the Process Navigator, you must edit the WEBINF\Config\help.properties file and assign the new URL to Help.url.
• Clicking Help link on a Smart Client that is pointed to the WebLogic application server will also access this Help.

Note: You can follow the same procedure for localized versions of ARCHIBUS Help. The only difference is that you add the abbreviation for the locale to the "user" folder in the URL, such as http://localhost:9080/archibus/help/user_it/archibus.htm for the Italian version of ARCHIBUS Help. Localized versions of System Management Help are not available.

BEA WebLogic 8.x

Note: ARCHIBUS does not formally support WebLogic 8.x.

Note: The Web Central WAR file does not include WEB-INF/lib/jsp-api.jar file because it is not necessary for the currently supported servers, which already include this jar file. However, if you are using an older version of the application servers, such as Web Logic 8, download this jar file and copy it to the WEB-INF/lib folder.

Step 1: Create the Domain

Before installing ARCHIBUS, you must first create a domain.

1. Use the Configuration Wizard and select the option to create a "New WebLogic Configuration."
2. Select "Basic WebLogic Server Domain." Press "Next."
3. Select "Express." Press "Next."
4. Enter a username and password for the administrative user of this WebLogic Domain, and press "Next."
5. Select the Configuration Startup Mode and the SDK you wish to use, then press "Next."
6. Enter a configuration name for your WebLogic domain, e.g. "archibus". Then press "Next." The wizard will install a new user domain in C:\bea\user_projects\domains\archibus (if you chose to name your configuration "archibus").

Step 2: Install the ARCHIBUS Web Central Files

1. Extract the WAR file to a directory inside C:\bea\user_projects\domains\archibus. Instructions for doing so are covered in the "Installation/Configuring ARCHIBUS Web Central" section of the Contents pane of System Management Help.

Typically you will name this folder C:\bea\user_projects\domains\archibus\archibus. As such, your config folder, for instance, is located at C:\bea\user_projects\domains\archibus\archibus\WEB-INF\config.

2. Copy your ai-licenses.bin file to your config folder. Configure your WEB-INF\config\context\compatibility.afm-config.xml file per the standard instructions.
3. Upgrade your XML parser to the version required by ARCHIBUS Web Central per the upcoming instructions.
4. Update your project database connections in afm-projects.xml per the standard instructions.
5. If you have a Windows server and wish to use the Sybase Runtime server for demonstration or testing of your configuration  copy the JDBC-ODBC bridge file dbjodbc9.dll from \webapps\archibus\WEB-INF\lib to <bea_home>weblogicxx\server\bin.

See also the following web site:  http://e-docs.bea.com/wls/docs81/deployment/overview.html

Step 3: Start the WebLogic Server

Start the server by clicking on Start/Programs/WebLogic Platform /User Projects/archibus/Start Server, or by running C:\bea\user_projects\domains\archibus\startWebLogic.cmd.

You will need to provide the administrative username and password that you specified when you created your WebLogic domain using the Configuration Wizard.

Step 4: Add a Web Application Domain

Next, add a new Web Application Domain through the Admin Console.

1. Open the Admin Console by browsing the URL http://localhost:7001/console/.
2. Enter the administrative username and password to open the console.
3. Open archibus/Deployments/Web Application Domains.
4. Choose "Deploy a new Web Application Domain."
5. Browse to the parent directory of the location where you put the extracted files from the WAR file (e.g. C:\bea\user_projects\domains\archibus).
6. You should now see three folders, one of which is another "archibus" folder which contains the extracted documents from the WAR file. Select the control next to this folder, and then click on "Target Module."
7. The console will deploy the Web application. Wait until the console says the deployment is complete.

Step 5: Configure WebLogic to Use the Parser Version Required by Web Central

The default parser provided with the WebLogic server is written to an older standard than that required by ARCHIBUS Web Central. You must install the parser version required by ARCHIBUS Web Central.

To do so, you must copy the parser JAR files into “endorsed” folder.

• Create folder “endorsed” in C:\bea\jdk142_05\jre\lib.
• Copy xercesImpl.jar, xalan.jar, xml-apis.jar files from your \archibus\WEB-INF\lib folder into “endorsed” folder (e.g. from C:\bea\user_projects\domains\archibus\archibus\WEB-INF\lib\ into C:\bea\jdk142_05\jre\lib\endorsed).
• Restart your server so the new settings take effect.

See Also

http://e-docs.bea.com/wls/docs81/faq/xml.html