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Oracle® Application Server Release Notes
10g (9.0.4) for Solaris Operating System (SPARC)
Part No. B10629-15
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12 Oracle Application Server Portal

This chapter describes issues with Oracle Application Server Portal (OracleAS Portal). It includes the following topics:

12.1 Configuration Issues and Workarounds

This section describes configuration related issues and their workarounds for OracleAS Portal:

12.1.1 Portal Service Monitoring Link Not Working

The Portal Service Monitoring link (in OracleAS Portal) provides direct access to the Oracle Enterprise Manager Application Server Control that is monitoring and managing the portal. This link can become misconfigured if you:

  • Make OracleAS Web Cache configuration changes using the Portal Web Cache Settings Page in Application Server Control.

  • Use the "-site" mode of the ptlconfig script.

The link does not work because in these specific cases the Application Server Control port is hardcoded to 1810.

Additionally, the Portal Service Monitoring link does not work if the Oracle Application Server instance name contains an underscore '_'.

As a workaround, run the script:

$ORACLE_HOME/portal/conf/ptlconfig -dad <dad name> -em

This script restores the link to use the correct port. To refresh the Portal Service Monitoring link, it is necessary to clear both the OracleAS Web Cache and the File System cache of OracleAS Portal content.

  • To clear OracleAS Web Cache:

    • In the Services portlet, click Global Settings. By default, the Services portlet is on the Portal sub-tab of the Administer tab on the Portal Builder page.

    • Click the Cache tab and choose Clear The Entire Web Cache.

    • Click Apply or OK to clear the cache.

  • To clear the File System Cache:

    • Clean up the OracleAS Portal file system cache. Do this by recursively deleting all files and directories in the middle-tier Oracle home under the Apache/modplsql/cache directory. Do not delete the cache directory itself.

    • If you have multiple middle-tiers accessing the OracleAS Portal Repository, repeat the preceding step for all middle-tiers.

    • Change the PortalListeningHostPort value to "http://<host>:<port>"

    The default location of the Apache/modplqsl/cache directory can be found in the configuration setting of the PlsqlCacheDirectory entry in the Apache/modplsql/conf/cache.conf file. If this location has been changed from its default, make sure that you clean up all files under your directory.

12.1.2 Portal Web Cache Settings Page Not Working Properly

The Portal Web Cache Settings Page in Oracle Enterprise Manager Application Server Control allows you to specify the OracleAS Web Cache settings that OracleAS Portal should use. However, any configuration changes that you make here are not reflected in the target if you change the Listening Port SSL Enabled property at the same time as other configuration changes, for example host and port number changes. As a result, the portal Homepage Download metric will fail in Application Server Control.

There are two possible workarounds:

  • The first option resolves the issue within Oracle Enterprise Manager but there is a small amount of OracleAS Portal downtime between steps 1 and 2:

    1. In the Portal Web Cache Settings Page, set only the port property to a different port number and click OK.

    2. Open the Portal Web Cache Settings Page again, set only the port property to the actual port number and click OK.

  • The second option does not result in any OracleAS Portal downtime but you must edit the configuration file manually:

    1. Backup $MID_TIER_ORACLE_HOME/sysman/emd/targets.xml before making any changes.

    2. Edit and save $MID_TIER_ORACLE_HOME/sysman/emd/targets.xml so that the property shown below has the correct host and port details:

      <Property NAME="PortalListeningHostPort" VALUE="myportal.us.oracle.com:8000"/>
      

      This property is located under the section starting with TYPE="oracle_portal". Make sure you choose the correct one, i.e. <Property NAME="portal_DAD" VALUE="portal"/> matches the portal application that needs updating.

    3. Reload the targets in Oracle Enterprise Manager:

      $MID_TIER_ORACLE_HOME/bin/emctl reload
      

12.1.3 oracle.hhtp.configfile Property Must Be Set Manually In oc4j.properties

During Oracle Application Server Portal Developer Kit installation, the oracle.http.configfile property in oc4j.properties is not set automatically. Therefore you must update the oc4j.properties file manually. This file is located at:

  • UNIX: <ORACLE_HOME>/j2ee/OC4J_Portal/config/oc4j.properties

  • Windows: <ORACLE_HOME>\j2ee\OC4J_Portal\config\oc4j.properties

Add the following line, ensuring that you substitute the correct absolute path to your Oracle home:

oracle.http.configfile=<ORACLE_HOME>/portal/conf/cache.xml

12.1.4 Incorrect Rewrite Rules For Associating Federated Portal Adapter with SSL

The Oracle Application Server Portal Configuration Guide describes how to associate the Federated Portal Adapter with SSL (Section 6.3.2.1.4, "SSL Throughout OracleAS Portal"). The Rewrite Rules described in this section are incorrect. Instead of copying rewrite rules from the portal.conf file, you should add or edit the following lines in the virtual hosts section of your ssl.conf file, located in the MID_TIER_ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/conf directory:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteOptions inherit

</VirtualHost>

12.1.5 Problems Logging into Two Oracle HTTP Servers on the Same Host

When two Oracle HTTP Servers are running on a single computer, such as when an infrastructure installation and a Portal and Wireless middle tier installation are both installed on a single computer, logging in to OracleAS Portal is not possible when using the Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browser. This behavior has been noted with versions 5.5 and 6.0 of Internet Explorer. This problem occurs when a browser redirect is issued from a port used by OracleAS Single Sign-On server to a port used by OracleAS Web Cache. The OracleAS Web Cache port is fronted by Oracle9iAS Portal. When Internet Explorer receives the redirect, it sets the Host: header incorrectly with the first port rather than the destination port.

When this error occurs with Internet Explorer, one of the following messages may be shown after an attempt to log in:

Error: Unexpected error encountered in wwsec_app_priv.process_signon
(ORA-06502: PL/SQL: numeric or value error: character string buffer too small)
(WWC-41417)

or

Error: The decryption of the authentication information was unsuccessful. This
may be caused by corruption of the data, an incorrect encryption key in this
application's configuration, or an illegal access attempt. Please notify your
administrator. (WWC-41454)

Although Internet Explorer sets the Host: header incorrectly in SSL or non-SSL mode, the problem only shows up in SSL mode. This is because OracleAS Web Cache is setup to map ports to a catch-all default HTTP port in non-SSL mode. The workaround is to use two separate computers; one computer for the Infrastructure install type, and one computer for the Portal and Wireless install type.

12.1.6 Monitoring OracleAS Portal Targets in an OracleAS Web Cache SSL Enabled Site

If you want to use Application Server Control to monitor OracleAS Portal over SSL (using an HTTPS URL), the Oracle Management Agent must be configured to recognize the Certificate Authority used by the Web site where that URL resides. The agent software is preconfigured to recognize most commercial Certificate Authorities that are likely to be used by secure Internet Web sites. However, if the Certificate Authority is not recognized by the agent, you will not be able to monitor the Providers or OracleAS Metadata Repository version for these OracleAS Portal targets (in Application Server Control).

See Also:

  • "About Application Service Level Management" in the Enterprise Manager Online Help.

  • "The Public Key Infrastructure Approach to Security" in Oracle Security Overview for an overview of Public Key Infrastructure features, such as Certificate Authorities.

  • "Using Beacons to Monitor Remote URL Availability" in the Enterprise Manager Online Help.

To configure the agent to recognize the Certificate Authority:

  1. Obtain the Certificate of the Web site's Certificate Authority, as follows:

    1. In Microsoft Internet Explorer, connect to the HTTPS URL of the Web site you are attempting to monitor.

    2. Double-click the lock icon at the bottom of the browser screen, which indicates that you have connected to a secure Web site.

      The browser displays the Certificate dialog box, which describes the Certificate used for this Web site. Other browsers offer a similar mechanism to view the Certificate detail of a Web Site.

    3. Click the Certificate Path tab and select the first entry in the list of certificates.

    4. Click View Certificate to display a second Certificate dialog box.

    5. Click the Details tab on the Certificate window.

    6. Click Copy to File to display the Certificate Manager Export wizard.

    7. In the Certificate Manager Export wizard, select Base64 encoded X.509 (.CER) as the format you want to export and save the certificate to a text file with an easily-identifiable name, such as myportal_certificate.cer.

    8. Open the certificate file using your favorite text editor.

      The content of the certificate file will look similar to the content shown here:

      -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
      MIIDBzCCAnCgAwIBAgIQTs4NcImNY3JAs5edi/5RkTANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQQFADCB
      ... base64 certificate content...
      -----END CERTIFICATE-----
      
      
  2. Update the list of the agents Certificate Authorities, as follows:

    1. Locate the b64InternetCertificate.txt file in the following directory of Oracle Home:

      oracle_home/sysman/config/

      This file contains a list of Base64 Certificates.

    2. Edit the b64InternetCertificate.txt file and add the contents of the Certificate file you just exported to the top of the file, taking care to include all the Base64 text of the Certificate including the BEGIN and END lines.

  3. Restart the Application Server Control.

    emctl stop iasconsole
    emctl start iasconsole 
    
    

    When you restart the Application Server Control, the agent detects your addition to the list of Certificate Authorities recognized by agent and you can successfully monitor OracleAS Portal Providers and view OracleAS Metadata Repository version information.

12.2 UI Issues and Workarounds

This section describes UI related issues and their workarounds for OracleAS Portal:

12.2.1 Relative Links Converted to Absolute Links

This problem occurs when using the Rich Text Editor in Internet Explorer only. If you create a Text item containing a relative link, it is converted to an absolute link. This causes problems if your content is to be exported to another site. For example:

  1. Create a Text item.

  2. Switch to HTML mode in the Rich Text Editor.

  3. Enter: <IMG SRC="/images/home.gif" ALT="Home" BORDER=0>

  4. Click OK.

  5. Edit the Text item.

    Note that the base has been added to the URL, e.g. <IMG alt=Home src="http://webserver.us.abc.com:5000/images/home.gif" border=0>.

One workaround is to disable the Rich Text Editor. For details, see Oracle Application Server Portal User's Guide. Alternatively, apply the patch to Bug 3009204 (available on the OracleMetaLink Web site at http://metalink.oracle.com). This patch provides a script that parses text items and converts absolute URLs to relative URLs.

12.2.2 Problems Adding Portlets to Pages - Provider Registration Failure

If you are unable to add portlets to a page, it may be due to a provider registration issue. You will not receive an error message if you register a provider that has two portlets with the same portlet ID, portlets with no names, or portlets with no IDs. However, in all these cases you are not able to add portlets from that provider onto pages, and so on.

12.2.3 Extra Perspective Page Template if Upgrading from Oracle9iAS Portal 9.0.2.6

If you previously upgraded to Oracle9iAS Portal 9.0.2.6 using version 1, 2, or 3 of the Oracle9iAS Portal 9.0.2.6 repository upgrade patch #2981297, and then upgraded to OracleAS Portal 10g (9.0.4), you may encounter a problem where you have two perspective page templates. This problem occurs if you previously upgraded to Oracle9iAS Portal 9.0.2.6, and then created additional perspectives in a page group that contained upgraded perspectives.

If you find that one or more of your upgraded page groups contains two perspective page templates, follow these steps for each affected page group:

  1. Display the perspective page of one of the perspectives that was created after the upgrade to Oracle9iAS Portal 9.0.2.6 (but before the upgrade to OracleAS Portal 10g (9.0.4)).

  2. Switch to Edit mode.

  3. In the page toolbar, click Edit Template.

  4. In the template toolbar, click Template: Properties (make sure you click the Properties link for the template and not for the page group).

  5. Edit the Display Name of the template to something like <template_name>_delete, and click OK.

  6. Go to the Navigator and drill down to the templates area of the page group.

  7. Delete the <template_name>_delete template.

  8. Use the following scripts to delete all the perspective pages in the page group then recreate them using the correct perspective page template:

    • ORACLE_HOME/portal/admin/plsql/wws/pstdefin.sql

    • ORACLE_HOME/portal/admin/plsql/wws/pstpgshw.sql

    • ORACLE_HOME/portal/admin/plsql/wws/pstundef.sql

    • ORACLE_HOME/portal/admin/plsql/wws/pstpgcre.sql

    • ORACLE_HOME/portal/admin/plsql/wws/pstprcpg.sql

For information about these scripts, refer to Oracle Application Server Portal Configuration Guide.

12.2.4 Custom Attributes Revert to Default Values When New Version Created

The values of custom attributes revert to their default values when a new version is created in the following situations:

  • When the attribute is hidden in the Edit Item page, the item is edited and a new version is created. In this case, the custom attribute is no longer shown in the region display. Currently, the only workaround is to always show custom attributes in the Edit Item page when using versioning.

  • When an item is edited through WebDAV and versioning is enabled on the page (either Simple or Audit versioning). When versioning is enabled, WebDAV always creates a new version, and the value of any custom attribute is set to the default value in the new version. Currently, the only workaround is to not use custom attributes in combination with versioning and WebDAV.

12.3 OmniPortlet, Simple Parameter Form, Web Clipping Portlet Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues relating to OmniPortlet, Web Clipping and Simple Parameter Form. These portlets are located in the Portlet Repository as follows: Portlet Repository: Portlet Builders.

12.3.1 Browser Requirements

To edit OmniPortlet, Web Clipping or Simple Parameter Form portlets, that is, set properties in Edit Defaults mode, you must use the following browser versions:

  • Netscape 7.0 or higher.

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher for Windows NT and Windows 2000

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 for Windows XP

If you use browser versions older than these, you may encounter JavaScript errors.

12.3.2 (OmniPortlet) Need to Refresh OmniPortlet Provider After Installation

If you want to use parameters and events with OmniPortlet, you must first refresh the OmniPortlet provider. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Login to OracleAS Portal.

  2. Click the Navigator link.

  3. Select the Providers tab.

  4. Select Locally Built Providers.

  5. Locate OmniPortlet Provider and click its Refresh link.

12.3.3 (OmniPortlet) News Layout Scroll Type Not Supported in Netscape 4.79

The News Layout Scroll type in OmniPortlet is supported on Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape 7.0. It does not work with Netscape 4.79.

12.3.4 (OmniPortlet) Chart Does Not Display Formatted Numeric Values

If numeric values in a data source contain formatted strings, commas or currency (e.g. $32,789.00), they are considered to be text and ignored when the chart is generated. As a workaround, remove formatting characters from numerical values.

12.4 Search Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues relating to the search functionality in OracleAS Portal.

12.4.1 Search Error - Page Group ID Does Not Exist (WWS-30641)

These errors are displayed on pages containing search portlets or Basic Search Box items, if the page group of an associated search results page is deleted:

Error: An unexpected error has occurred (WWS-32100) 
...
The Page Group ID does not exist. (WWS-30641)

Also, you are unable to access the Search Settings page to choose a new search results page. (The Search Settings page is accessible from the Services portlet which is on the Portal sub-tab of the Administer tab on the Portal Builder page.)

To resolve this issue, follow the instructions published in Bug 3263977 (available on the OracleMetaLink Web site at http://metalink.oracle.com).

12.4.2 Maximum Return Value Does Not Work

You can build a custom search form (using the Custom Search portlet) that lets the user Set the maximum number of results. In this release, this option does not restrict the total number of results returned.

However, if you allow users to Set the number of results per page they can restrict how many results appear on each page.

12.4.3 Problems Saving Searches using Netscape 4.79

In Netscape 4.79 you may experience problems saving search results, if your search is based on more than one search term separated by spaces, for example, sales targets. This error is displayed: The request had invalid syntax.

12.4.4 Result Attributes Not Displayed

The Custom Search portlet allows you to choose which attributes are displayed with search results. However, some of the available attributes which are listed do not get displayed with search results as expected, that is Base Item Type, Display Parameter Form, Enable Item Check-Out, Link That Displays Item In New Browser Window, Oracle Reports Components, Rollover Image, Item Content, Portlet Content, Portlet Instance Global Unique Id, Provider Name, Updated Item Indicator, New Item Indicator.

12.4.5 Enabling/Disabling Oracle Text Impacts Perspective Selection

If Oracle Text is enabled you can restrict search results by one or more perspective. If Oracle Text is disabled you can restrict search results by a single perspective only. If you restrict your search results by perspective and then switch between Oracle Text being on then off (or off then on), perspective selection may not be as expected.

12.4.6 Issues With Multiple Search Portlets Placed on Search Result Pages

Search functionality is designed such that one search portlet maps to a single page. Therefore, if you choose to display search results on a page that contains multiple search portlets (Basic, Advanced, Custom or Ultra Search portlets) you will notice that all search portlets on the results page respond, i.e. search results are displayed in every search portlet. To avoid this behavior it is recommended that you display search results on pages that contain a single search portlet.

Similarly, when an Ultra Search portlet returns results, any other search portlets placed on the same page will respond. Therefore, do not place additional search portlets on a page that contain an Ultra Search portlet.

12.4.7 Promoting Perspectives to Shared Objects Impacts Search Results

(Oracle Text enabled only.) If you promote a perspective to Shared Objects and then search for items in that perspective, the items are not returned. As a workaround, drop and recreate your Oracle Text indexes after promoting the perspectives. For more information, refer to Oracle Application Server Portal Configuration Guide.

12.4.8 Problems If Too Many Page Groups or Search Attributes Selected

Search functionality can become inconsistent if the search criteria includes a large number of attributes and/or the user chooses a long list of page groups to search. This problem is due to URL size constraints. Here are examples of issues that can occur:

  • Links do not work, for example, Saved Search, Bulk Action, Edit, etc. Note that these links do work when fewer attributes/page groups are selected.

  • Search results page can lose search criteria when changing between tabs.

  • Some search results can be lost whilst saving a search. Also, some attributes may be lost when the search is run again.

The workaround is to reduce the number of attributes and/or page groups available for user selection.

12.5 PDK Issues and Workarounds

Oracle Application Server Portal Developer Kit (PDK) version 9.0.4 is included with an OracleAS Portal & Wireless install. Release notes for the JPDK and PL/SQL PDK can be found at these mid-tier $ORACLE_HOME locations:

12.5.1 Latest Version of OracleAS PDK

New versions of the OracleAS PDK are released periodically providing new features, new API's and additional documentation. To take advantage of all the latest features, download the latest PDK from Portal Center at:

http://portalcenter.oracle.com

Release notes for the latest OracleAS PDK version are available on Portal Center and also at these PDK download locations:

  • pdk\plsql\pdkplsql.release.notes.html

  • pdk\jpdk\v2\pdkjava.v2.release.notes.html

12.5.2 Support for WSRP and JSR 168

OracleAS Portal supports the building of JSR 168 portlets starting in Oracle Application Server 10g (9.0.4). OracleAS Portal does not yet support consumption of WSRP-enabled portlets. Hence, today you can only test your JSR 168 portlets against the hosted OracleAS Portal Verification Service (http://portalstandards.oracle.com/ ) or the Developers Preview for OracleAS Portal available for download. Please note that both the Developer's Preview and the hosted OracleAS Portal Verification Service are provided for development purposes only and, as such, should not be used for production systems. See also Section 12.7.1.11, "Registering JSR 168 Portlets".

12.6 NLS Issues and Workarounds

This section describes National Language Support (NLS) related issues in OracleAS Portal:

12.6.1 Oracle Text Searching Limitation (Text Files and HTML Files)

In some non-ASCII character set environments, you are unable to search non-ASCII character content of plain text files and HTML files.

You can search plain text and HTML files if the document character set is the same as the database character set and the database character set is one of the following:

  • US7ASCII

  • WE8ISO8859P1

  • JA16SJIS

  • KO16KSC5601

  • ZHS16CGB231280

  • ZHT16BIG5

If the database character set is none of those listed but the document is in the WE8ISO8859P1 character set, the search feature also works correctly. In any other non-ASCII character set environment you can encounter this problem.

Note that there are no issues when searching binary files like Word, PDF, and so on.

12.6.2 BiDi Alignment Issues Using Netscape 7.0

Header images and some buttons are not aligned properly, due to a Mozilla issue.

12.6.3 Problems Opening Excel/Sylk Formatted Reports in Microsoft Excel

When you create an Excel/sylk formatted report, the file encoding is always the same as the database character set. You may not be able to open the file in Microsoft Excel like this. As a workaround, convert the exported files into native encoding.

For example, if the database character set is UTF8, Excel can not open exported reports as they are encoded by the UTF8 database character set. On a Japanese Windows system, Excel can open Shift_JIS encoded files only but to export files in Shift_JIS, the database character set must be JA16SJIS. So, if the database character set is EUC (another Japanese standard character set) or UTF8, the files will not open. You can use Notepad to open and save files in different character sets.

12.6.4 Unable to Separate Search Keywords With Double Byte Space Key

You cannot use a double byte space character to separate two search keywords. You must use a single byte space character.

12.6.5 Text Entry Always Right to Left in BiDi Languages

The direction of all text areas and fields is right to left (RTL). However, you may want some text areas to work left to right (LTR). Internet Explorer users can change this by pressing the left hand side 'Ctrl' and 'Shift' keys.

12.6.6 NON ISO-8859 Web Page Limitation for URL Items

You may not be able to display a NON ISO-8859-1 Web page using a URL item. Other portlets offer this functionality, so you may want to use one of these instead, that is portlets such as NLS URL Service and Web Clipping.

12.6.7 Non-ASCII Character Limitations

  • Non-ASCII XML data is not displayed correctly in the XML Portlet. To display non-ASCII XML data, use OmniPortlet which has this functionality.

  • Non-ASCII data from a specified URL is not displayed correctly in the URL Portlet. To display such data in a portlet, use the Web Clipping portlet which has this functionality.

  • If you use non-ASCII characters in Web Provider Display Names, they are not displayed correctly. Similarly non-ASCII characters used in Provider Group Display Names can not be displayed.

  • You may not use non-ASCII characters in the Name for portlets of Database Providers. However, you can use such characters in the Display Name.

  • If a portlet name contains non-ASCII characters, the name does not display correctly when the portlet is previewed.

  • (Internet Explorer only.) If you use the NON-UTF8 database character set, labels of form components may display incorrectly. This is not a problem in Netscape.

12.6.8 Shared Type Objects Cannot Be Exposed in Non-English Page Group

Shared type objects (page types, item types) always have English as the default language. If you create a page group in a language other than English, a shared type cannot be made available to the page group unless a translation exists for the shared type in the default language of the page group.

To create the translation, follow these steps:

  1. Enable the language for the Shared Objects page group.

    For details, see Oracle Application Server Portal User's Guide - Section 4.6.1 Creating a Translation.

  2. Switch to the language in the Set Language portlet.

  3. Edit the page type or item type while the session language is set to the non-English language.

    This automatically creates a translation of the type in that language.

You can now make the shared type available to the non-English page group.

12.6.9 Issues With Oracle Ultra Search Portlet Help Page

If you click the Help link in the Oracle Ultra Search portlet, the help page displays invalid information in all languages.

As a work around, change the encoding to UTF8 in the appropriate help file, located at:

ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/OC4J_Portal/applications/UltrasearchPortlet/query/html

12.6.10 OracleAS Portal Unable to Support Some Database Character Sets

An 'Unsupported IANA character encoding' exception is displayed in OracleAS Portal if the character set of the database is not supported by Java. Java (1.3, 1.4, 1.5) does not support the following character sets:

  • NE8ISO8859P10

  • CEL8ISO8859P14

If you need to use characters that are supported in these particular character sets, use the unicode character set AL32UTF8 instead.

12.7 Documentation Errata

This section describes known errors and omissions in OracleAS Portal documentation:

12.7.1 Documentation Errors

This section describes known errors in OracleAS Portal documentation. It includes the following topics:

12.7.1.1 Editing Item/Portlet Properties

The online help states that clicking the Edit icon allows you to edit the properties of the item or portlet. While this is true for items, clicking this icon next to a portlet takes you to the Edit Defaults page. To edit the portlet instance attributes (such as display name), click the Actions icon, then click the Edit Portlet Instance link.

12.7.1.2 Editing Pending Items

Online help for Pending Items: Preview (cawkpend.htm) incorrectly states that the submitter can continue to edit a pending item if it hasn't yet been approved by the first approver in the approval process.

12.7.1.3 Referencing the Current Version of Images

Image attributes can reference an uploaded source image. The documentation currently states:

To reuse an image that has been uploaded to OracleAS Portal, enter its internal name (not file name) without a path in this field, for example, enter 1645.GIF.

If you are versioning the referenced image item, and you use the internal filename in the reference (e.g. 1645.gif), the reference does not use a new, current version of the image if one is created. The image reference continues to show the original version. For example:

  1. In an image attribute, reference an image item by its internal file name, e.g. 1645.gif.

  2. Update the image item and create a new version. The new version is given a new internal file name (e.g. 1705.gif).

  3. The image attribute still refers to 1645.gif, it has not been updated to refer to the new version of the image.

Therefore, only use the internal filename if you are not using versioning, or if you want the reference to always point to the original version, even if it is no longer the current version.

If you are using versioning and you always want to show the current version, use the durable link to the image item instead of the internal filename. The durable link always picks up the latest version of the image. So, instead of entering 1645.gif, enter:

/pls/<DAD>/url/item/<GUID>

This is the relative URL format of a durable link. For example:

/pls/portal/url/ITEM/A47D41ECA23648A9E030007F0100118A

Relative URLs should always be used in case the host or domain name changes, or the content is exported to another site. For more information on durable URLs, refer to Section 1.1.3.1 Understanding Page and Item URLs in the Oracle Application Server Portal User's Guide.

12.7.1.4 Working in List View

List View functionality is documented in the online help topic Page Edit Mode: List View (pobpglst.htm). Some information in this topic is incorrect:

Button: Actions List - Options Enable ILS and Disable ILS are not available.

Button: Find - The search is not case-sensitive.

Sub-items - The online Help states that the List view does not display sub-items. This is correct, however, sub items will be listed in search results if they meet the search criteria.

Also, note that in List View, pages based on templates do not show any tabs or items belonging to the template. You must click the Edit Template link to see tabs and items on a template. Therefore, when editing the page in List View, you can not add items to tabs that are inherited from the template. Likewise, if items are added to these tabs when editing the page using another edit view (e.g., Graphical View), you do not see these items in List View.

If you are using Netscape 4.8, you may notice that version information is incorrectly displayed under the Description column. This is not a problem in Internet Explorer.

12.7.1.5 Unpublished Items Section Documented Incorrectly

Online help for the Edit Page Group Items tab (sbrsmit.htm) incorrectly refers to the Expired and Deleted Items section and the Display Expired and Deleted Items and Retain Expired and Deleted Items check boxes. These should be, respectively, the Unpublished Items section and the Display Unpublished Items In Edit Mode and Retain Deleted Items check boxes. Refer to the text on the page itself for details on how to use these check boxes.

12.7.1.6 Item Level Security and Page Caching

The online help incorrectly states that when item level security (ILS) is enabled page caching is automatically disabled. Page caching is not disabled when ILS is enabled.

12.7.1.7 User Profile Help Incorrect

Online help for the Edit Portal User Profile tabs, Preferences (secumed1.htm) and Privileges (secgmed3.htm) incorrectly states that there are Reset to Defaults buttons on these pages. This option is not available.

12.7.1.8 Defining a Display Style for Results from a Custom Search

Online help for Edit Defaults: Custom Search - Results Display page (sbrrsres.htm) incorrectly states that style and attribute settings apply only to items returned in search results. The Style and Attribute settings (section Which style and attributes should be used to render the search results?) apply to both items and pages.

12.7.1.9 Applying Background Color or Image to Page Portlets

If you want page portlets (including navigation pages) to display a background color or background image, follow these steps:

  1. Ensure that the navigation page uses its own style when published as a portlet, that is, do not select Use Style Of Page On Which Portlet Is Placed in the page properties.

  2. In the style for the container page (the page containing the portlet), set Portlet Body Color to null (no value). This step is missing from the documentation.

12.7.1.10 Error Message WWC-40018 Incorrectly Listed as WWC-40019

The Web Cache connection error message WWC-40018 was incorrectly listed as WWC-40019 in the Oracle Application Server Portal Error Messages Guide.

12.7.1.11 Registering JSR 168 Portlets

The OracleAS Portal Developer's Guide provides instructions on how to register a JSR 168 portlet in a local instance of OracleAS Portal, Section 5.3.2.4.1, "Registering on a Local OracleAS Portal Instance." These instructions do not apply to the current production release of the product but can be used for the Developer's Preview release until the production WSRP-enabled OracleAS Portal is released. Please note that the Developer's Preview is provided for development purposes only and, as such, should not be used for production systems.

12.7.2 Additional Documentation

This section describes known omissions and additions to the OracleAS Portal documentation. It includes the following topics:

12.7.2.1 Public Users Cannot Search Pages with Item Level Security Enabled

PUBLIC users are unable to search for items on pages where item level security is enabled.

12.7.2.2 Inaccurate Data in Log Registry Records

Online help describing Log Registry records (wvlogadm.htm) lists the set of actions that are logged. Since the introduction of OracleAS Web Cache, some of the actions logged in OracleAS Portal Activity Log tables have become inaccurate. Specifically, these actions are View, Execute, Show and Perform. However, since all other actions logged are still accurate, the Activity Log tables and views still remain in the OracleAS Portal Metadata Repository.

12.7.2.3 Granting Privileges to New Providers

When you create/register a new provider, a page is created in the Portlet Repository under Portlet Staging Area to display portlets for that provider. This page is not visible to all logged in users. It is only visible to the user who published the provider and portal administrator. The publisher or portal administrator can change the provider page properties to grant privileges to appropriate users/groups, as required.

12.7.2.4 Using Unique Names for Custom Attributes

It is recommended that you name custom attributes such that they are unique across page groups. For example, you could include the page group name as a prefix or suffix.

If custom attributes do not have unique names, they appear duplicated when choosing search result attributes. For example, if they are both named 'MyCustomAttribute1' they are listed as:

MyCustomAttribute1
MyCustomAttribute1

This way, it is not possible to establish which attribute belongs to which page group. However, if you name them 'MyCustomAttribute_PG1' and 'MyCustomAttribute_PG2' they can be identified by their unique names:

MyCustomAttribute_PG1
MyCustomAttribute_PG2

12.7.2.5 Expired Items Remain Visible in WebDAV Clients

Expired items continue to be visible in WebDAV clients until they are permanently removed from the database during a system purge.

12.7.2.6 Portal Smart Text and Portal Smart Link Items

You can embed a page containing Portal Smart Text or Portal Smart Link items (published as a portlet) in another page. When you do this, the Portal Smart Text/Portal Smart Link items work within the context of the containing page. For example, if you add the Edit Portal Smart Link item to Page A, publish the page as Portlet A and then place Portlet A on Page B, the Edit link will allow the user to edit Page B.

12.7.2.7 May Need to Invalidate Cache to Effect Search Setting Changes

If page caching is enabled, any changes you make on the Search Settings page may not be seen in existing search portlets immediately. For example, if you enable Oracle Text, the expected range of search operators are not available until the cache is cleared. Other settings which are not applied immediately include new Search Result Pages, Advanced Search Link/Page, and Internet Search Engine details.

The cache is cleared automatically every 24 hours for all search portlets. Alternatively, you can clear the cache manually using the OracleAS Web Cache Manager (accessible though the Web Cache Administration link in the Services portlet).