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.

Clipper Portlet, IFrame Portlet & WSRP Portlet

Clipper Portlet
A clipper portlet is a portlet that renders content (full or part) from another web site. A clipper portlet can include all or a subset of another web site’s content using a process called “web clipping.” You can clip all or part of another web site. Users can effectively view and interact with content from another web site without leaving the portal. The session of Clipper portlet is independent of session of the weblogic portal application.

IFrame Portlet
Also called Browser (URL) Portlets, display HTML content from an external URL; no development tasks are required to implement them. You can clip all or part of another web site. Users can effectively view and interact with content from another web site without leaving the portal.Browser portlets, also called Content URI portlets, are basically HTML portlets that use URLs to retrieve their content. Unlike other portlet types that are limited to displaying data contained within the portal project, browser portlets can display URL content that is outside from the portal project.

WSRP Portlet
Also called, remote portlets conform to the WSRP standard; they can be hosted within a producer application (simple producer or complex producer), and surfaced in a consumer application. WSRP Portlet (or Remote portlet or producer portlet) are the ones who are actually remote portlet and are supported by weblogic portal. All portlets that are created as part of weblogic portal application are by default remote portlets and available to be consumed by the consumer portal. Pages and Books can also be made remote and can be consumed as part of consumer portal. By setting the property "isRemote" for the portlet, it can be prohibitted to be available as remote portlet.

Which one to choose when?
Clipper and Browser porlets are not recommended to use for transactional purposes, they are meant to be for displaying view only contents from third party sites (part or full). However remote portlets (producer portlets) are available for the purpose of publishing as remote porltets and consuming them through consumer portlets. Separate sessions are maintained for each of these consumer and producer portal applications however Weblogic portal platform is responsible to maintain the session between the producer and consumer portals.