Release Notes for the BEA ALI .NET Application Accelerator 1.0
Contents
Version History
Release Notes Overview
Version 1.0
Supported Operating Systems, Application Servers, and Browsers
Supported BEA Products
Documentation
New Features
Issues Addressed
Known Issues
Version History

ALI .NET Application Accelerator 1.0 - released October 2006

Release Notes Overview

The ALI .NET Application Accelerator 1.0 packages components needed to develop .NET portlets. The product packages some existing functionality and adds new components and features.

ALI .NET Application Accelerator 1.0 includes the following:

- Web Control Consumer 3.1 -- Supports authoring portlets using ASP.NET 2.0
- .NET Portlet API 1.0 -- Ease-of-use APIs for the IDK
- .NET WSRP Producer 1.0 -- Standards compliant WSRP 1.0 Producer for ASP.NET 2.0 web sites

The Interaction Development Kit (IDK, formerly the EDK) 5.3 is also included.

The Web Control Consumer 3.1 supports ASP.NET 2.0 in this release.

Note: ASP.NET 1.1, Web Parts, and SSL are unsupported.

These release notes cover the ALI .NET Application Accelerator 1.0. For information on a particular release, please visit the appropriate section of these release notes.

Release notes are occasionally updated after the release date. For the most up-to-date release notes, go to http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/index.html or the Product Center at support.plumtree.com.

Version 1.0

Supported Operating Systems, Application Servers, and Browsers

Refer to the Interoperability page in the Product Center at support.plumtree.com for the latest information on supported operating systems, application servers, databases, and browsers.

At the time of release, the ALI .NET Application Accelerator 1.0 supports the following:

- Operating Systems: Microsoft Windows 2003 Server SP1
- Browsers: Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6.0; Netscape 7.1 and 7.2; Firefox 1.0

Supported BEA Products

Refer to the Interoperability page in the Product Center at support.plumtree.com for the latest information on supported BEA products.

At the time of release, the ALI .NET Application Accelerator 1.0 supports the following:

- ALI Portals (for ALI Portlets)
  - AquaLogic Interaction (previously known as Plumtree Foundation and Plumtree Corporate Portal) 6.0SP1, 6.1
- WSRP Consumers (for WSRP Portlets)
  - WebLogic Portal 8.1.6 + Patch for CR288816
  - WebLogic Portal 9.2

Documentation

The product distribution includes the following documents in the Documentation folder.

Document Title and File Name | Document Description
--- | ---
Attributions ALINETApplicationAccelerator_Attributions.txt | Provides a list of third-party technologies used in the product, along with licensing information.
Installation and Development Guide for ALI .NET Application Accelerator 1.0 install.pdf | Describes how to install, configure, and use the components of the ALI .NET Application Accelerator 1.0.

New Features

The ALI .NET Application Accelerator 1.0 provides the following new features:

- Web Control Consumer 3.1
  - Support for developing portlets using ASP.NET 2.0
- .NET Portlet API 1.0
  - VisualStudio.NET 2005 project templates for both ALI and WSRP Portlets
  - VisualStudio.NET 2005 file templates for ALI portlet and preference pages
  - VisualStudio.NET 2005 file templates for WSRP portlet pages
  - Ease of use APIs for ALI and WSRP portlets to access portlet information such as preferences, user information, and user profile properties
  - Simplified debugging of portlet preferences
- .NET WSRP Producer 1.0
  - Support for the required web services specified in the WSRP 1.0 specification

Issues Addressed

Web Control Consumer

- Link tags that use href=pt://styles aren't rendered correctly through portal and Web Control Consumer. (Issue #55202)
- RegisterStartupScript sometimes does not allow postback to a JavaScript function. (Issue #50964)
- The Web Controls Consumer 2.2 / 3.0 do not postback panels or buttons after making them invisible or hiding them. (Issue #51106)
- Installer should say to Restart the Machine after Installing Portlet Server. (Issue #48750)

Known Issues

Web Control Consumer

- ReportViewer control does not work with WSRP. (Issue #54352)
- TreeView and other web controls with URLs in JavaScript may not be rewritten. (Issue #54414)

WSRP Producer

- Uninstaller deletes the portlets.xml file when removing the WSRP Producer. (Issue #54495)
- WSRP portlets don't maintain view state between two WebLogic Portal pages. (Issue #54573)
- WSRP Producer's portlets.xml does not allow multiple instances of the description element for a single portlet. (Issue #54913)
- WSRP Producer returns invalid portlet mode "Bea.Types.Portlet.PortletMode[]" to Consumer. (Issue #55131)
  Workaround: Portlets produced with the WSRP Producer return an invalid WSRP mode that should be disabled in WebLogic's Eclipse-based tools. This mode is called "Bea.Types.Portlet.PortletMode[]". To disable this mode:
  1. Select the .portlet file for a .NET WSRP portlet
  2. Select the mode titled "Bea.Types.Portlet.PortletMode[]"
  3. In the Property pane for this mode, set the "Visible" property to "false".
- WSRP portlets don't support the minimize / maximize window states. (Issue #55139)
- WSRP Producer's portlets.xml is not automatically reloaded after it is changed on the file system (Issue #55284)
  Workaround: When developing WSRP portlets and editing portlets.xml, changes to portlets.xml may not be noticed by the Producer. For example, simply editing the <view-url> will not cause the WSRP Producer to reload the portlets.xml file. The portlets.xml file can be reloaded in two ways:
  1. In WLP's Eclipse tools, re-run the portlet wizard and retrieve the portlets defined in a .NET WSRP Producer.
  2. Reset IIS using "iisreset.exe"
  Note, this bug can be the subtle cause of a variety of problems with WSRP portlets. Ensure that the correct object model for portlets.xml is loaded into memory when debugging portlet rendering issues.
- WSRP Producer does not support edit / help view modes(Issue #55302)
  Workaround: The .NET WSRP Producer only supports the WSRP "view" mode and does not provide support for the edit and help modes. Portlets needing to provide these modes must provide these links inside of the portlet itself as they will not be available in the portlet's title bar.