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.

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.

Not able to configure SAML

SAMLAuthenticator is not recognizing the alias and passphrase

Sometimes the way weblogic server is started, it does not recognize the DemoIdentity.jks and thats why we need to make the following changes to recognize this by weblogic server:

Go to weblogic admin console
Environment -> servers -> AdminServer -> Configuration -> Keystores
- change the value of Keystores to use “Custom Identity and Java Standard Trust”
- Enter the complete path of the DemoIdentity.jks in custom identity store field

Save the changes and redefine the SAMLAuthenticator.