Updating producer handle deletes all remote portlet instances

Updating producer handle deletes all remote portlet instances

Platform: WebLogic Portal (Oracle formerly BEA)
Version: 10.3.7 (may be in earlier version too)

Description: When producer handle is updated using Portal Admin Console (with or without checking the Re-register Producer), it deletes all the remote portlets associated with the handle. This has been reported and Oracle has created a bug for this issue.

Solution: There are various ways to avoid deleting the associated remote portlets, when trying to update the remote producer handle:

1. Update the remote producer handle directly in the portal database  table by running the following query:
update PF_CONSUMER_REGISTRY set WSDL_URL = 'http://myNewProducer.com/webApp/producer?wsdl' where PRODUCER_ID = XXXX;

Warning: This seems pretty simple however involves touching the portal database directly, one small mistake and you can corrupt your portal database, so take extreme precaution! Don't forget to commit after you ran the query.

2. Get the patch for the bug from Oracle, here is the detail:
Bug 25227539 : Reregister of ProducerHandle deletes the existing portlets from DVT & PATconsole.
This requires a lot of work, but is safe and will fix the issue. After the patch is applied, producer handle can be updated using portal admin console without checking the re-register handle check box.

PS: If you are following any of the above solutions, please leave your comments.

Update the remote producer handle

How to update the remote producer handle?
There are multiple ways to update the remote producer handle, two of them are given here:
1. By accessing the Portal Admin Console
2. By updating the Portal database directly

Both of these methods has pros and cons.
Updating via path 1 is a standard procedure and lot of documentation can be found on the web and oracle technical documentation website. It may take lot of time to update the remote producer handles depending upon the network, firewall and number of handles itself, since every update attempted via console will try to connect to the incorrect url first and should return error as a result before one can update it.

However going via path 2 requires little courage and technical expertise. Make sure you have a database backup before you attempt this path.
Steps to update the remote producer handles directly through database:
- Find all the producer details that need to be updated
- Verify along the table pf_consumer_registry to see if you need to update the producers
- Find the PRODUCER_ID and WSDL_URL from pf_consumer_registry table
- Update the WSDL_URL for the PRODUCER_ID that needed to be updated.
- Commit the transaction and verify the same using portal admin console.

If things go wrong, feel free to restore the database.

Note: WebLogic Portal 10.3.2 & WebLogic Portal 10.3.4 has been used and tested while writing this post and they were successfully updated.