4 Performing Basic Configuration and Administration

4.1.1 Using the OracleAS Portal Administer Tab

The OracleAS Portal framework provides administrative services, such as access to monitoring and configuration tools, single sign-on, directory integration, caching, and security. A lot of the features needed to manage users and groups, to set up security and search features, and to administer the portal and database are incorporated into a series of dialog boxes accessed through portlets on a portal page.

After you have installed OracleAS Portal, you need to log in as an administrator, to perform various administrative functions.

After you have logged in to OracleAS Portal, the Portal Builder page is displayed to you, as shown in Figure 4-1:

Figure 4-1 The Portal Builder Page

Description of "Figure 4-1 The Portal Builder Page"

Click the Administer tab to view all the subtabs and portlets that help you administer the portal. The Administer tab is shown in Figure 4-2.

Figure 4-2 The Administer Tab on the Portal Builder Page

Description of "Figure 4-2 The Administer Tab on the Portal Builder Page"

You will see the following subtabs in the Administer tab screen:

• Portal - This subtab enables you to create users and groups, administer the OracleAS Single Sign-On (SSO) server, and administer other services including Oracle Internet Directory, Oracle Ultra Search, Oracle Application Server Web Cache, proxy settings, and so on.

• Portlets - This subtab enables you to view the Portlet Repository and its refresh log file contents, and register remote providers and provider groups.

• Database - This subtab enables you to create and edit database schemas, create and edit database roles, and monitor database information like database parameters, memory consumption, and database storage details.

Portal

This subtab under the Administer tab in the Portal Builder page contains the portlets shown in Table 4-1. This subtab is displayed by default when you click the Administer tab.

Portlets

This subtab under the Administer tab in the Portal Builder page contains the portlets shown in Table 4-2.

Database

This subtab under the Administer tab in the Portal Builder page contains the portlets shown in Table 4-3.

4.1.2 Using Additional Administrative Tools

For some administrative tasks that cannot be performed through the OracleAS Portal Administer tab, you may need to use one of the following tools:

• Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Application Server Control Console

• Portal Dependency Settings File and Tool

• Portal Installation and Configuration Scripts

4.2.1 Accessing OracleAS Portal in Your Browser

After OracleAS Portal is installed, access it by entering the following URL in your browser:

http://<host>:<port>/pls/<dad>

See Table 3-1, "Portal URL Descriptions" for an explanation of the URL components.

4.2.2 Finding Your OracleAS Portal Version Number

To find your portal version number:

1. In the Portal Builder, click the Administer tab.

2. Click the Portal subtab.

3. In the Services portlet, click the Global Settings link.

   The version number for your OracleAS Portal is shown at the bottom of the page.

4.3.1 Setting a Default Home Page

The home page is the first page that is displayed to a user after logging in to OracleAS Portal. Here's how the logic works:

• If the user has specified a personal home page, that page is displayed when the user logs on.

• If the user has not selected a personal home page, but the portal administrator has set one for him or her, the default home page specified for that user is displayed.

• If the user has not selected a personal home page, but belongs to a default group, the default home page specified for that group is displayed.

• If there is no default home page for the user's default group, the system default home page is displayed.

If mobile support is enabled, you can specify a default mobile home page to display when a user accesses the portal from a mobile device.

4.3.2 Setting the System Default Style

If you are the portal administrator, you are responsible for selecting a style to serve as the system default.

When a style is deleted, all pages and item regions that used the style revert to the page group default style. If the page group default style is <None>, all pages and regions revert to the system default style.

To set the system default style:

1. In the Portal Builder, click the Administer tab.

2. Click the Portal subtab.

3. In the Services portlet, click the Global Settings link.

   By default, the Services portlet is on the Portal subtab of the Administer tab on the Portal Builder page.

4. In the Default Style section, choose a style from the Display Name list.

   
   

   Note: The list includes all public styles in the Shared Objects page group.

   
   

5. Click OK to return to the Portal Builder.

4.3.3 Creating Personal Pages

A personal page provides an area within OracleAS Portal where authorized users can store and share their own content. Personal pages are located under the Shared Objects page group, and are organized alphabetically by user name.

This section covers the following topics:

• Automatically Creating a Personal Page for New Users

• Creating a Personal Page for an Existing User

4.3.4 Setting the Total Space Allocated for Uploaded Files

You can limit the amount of space provided in your database to store documents uploaded to page groups. See Section 4.3.6, "Changing the Page Group Quota" if you want to limit the amount of space provided for a single page group.

You can also limit the size of individual files that content contributors can upload to page groups. See Section 4.3.5, "Setting the Maximum File Size for Uploaded Files" for more information.

When a user uploads a file to the portal, the upload is monitored in the middle tier to detect whether the total space or maximum file size is exceeded. If either of these limits is exceeded, the upload is terminated and an error message is displayed.

To set the total space allocated for uploaded files:

1. In the Services portlet, click Global Settings.

   By default, the Services portlet is on the Portal subtab of the Administer tab on the Portal Builder page.

2. Make sure you are on the Main tab.

3. In the Total Space Allocated radio group, select Limit To to limit the amount of space provided to store files uploaded to the page groups in this portal.

4. In the field, enter the maximum amount of megabytes provided for uploaded files across the whole portal. When this limit is reached, users will no longer be able to upload files to page groups in the portal.

   
   

   Notes: Select No Limit if you do not want to impose a limit for uploaded files. The Used Space field displays the amount of space currently used by documents uploaded to page groups in this portal.

   
   

5. Click OK.

4.3.5 Setting the Maximum File Size for Uploaded Files

You can limit the size of individual files that users can upload to the page groups in your portal.

You can also limit the total amount of space provided in your database to store documents uploaded to page groups. See Section 4.3.4, "Setting the Total Space Allocated for Uploaded Files" for more information.

When a user uploads a file to the portal, the upload is monitored in the middle tier to detect if the maximum file size or portal file quota is exceeded. If either of these limits is exceeded, the upload is terminated and an error message is displayed.

To set the maximum file size for uploaded files:

1. In the Services portlet, click Global Settings.

   By default, the Services portlet is on the Portal subtab of the Administer tab on the Portal Builder page.

2. Make sure you are on the Main tab.

3. In the Maximum File Size radio group, select Limit To to specify the maximum size allowed for individual files uploaded to the portal.

4. In the field, enter the maximum size (in MB) for each individual file uploaded to the portal. If a content contributor attempts to upload a file larger than this size, an error is displayed.

   
   

   Note: Select No Limit if you do not want to impose a maximum file size.

   
   

5. Click OK.

4.3.6 Changing the Page Group Quota

You can limit the amount of space provided in your page group to store uploaded documents.

To change the page group quota:

1. In the Portal Navigator page, click the Page Groups tab.

2. Click Properties next to the page group with which you want to work.

3. In the Page Group Quota section, select Limit to to limit the amount of space provided to store uploaded documents.

4. In the field provided, enter the size limit (in MB) for uploaded documents in the page group. When this limit is reached, users will no longer be able to upload documents to the page group.

   
   

   Note: Select No limit if you do not want to impose a limit for uploaded documents.

   
   

5. Click OK.

4.3.7 Specifying an Error Message Page

OracleAS Portal enables you to choose the error message page that you want to display to users. You can choose the default system error page, or you can specify your own customized error page.

OracleAS Portal includes an error message page (called Sample Error Page) that you can edit to match the look and feel of the other pages in your portal. The Sample Error Page is available under the Portal Design-Time page group and includes a portlet that displays all the diagnostic information. Alternatively, you can create your own error message page in any of your page groups. To do this, you must include the Error Message Portlet on the page and turn caching off.

To specify an error message page:

1. In the Services portlet, click Global Settings.

   By default, the Services portlet is on the Portal subtab of the Administer tab on the Portal Builder page.

2. In the Error Page section, select one of the following:

   • System Error Page to use the system error page to display full-page error messages to users. The system error page automatically includes all the diagnostic information.

   • Error Page to use your own page to display full-page error messages to users. Click the Browse Pages icon to select the error message page that you want to use.

3. Click OK.

4.3.8 Setting the Page Users See When They Log Out

You can specify the page that is displayed to users after they have logged out by setting the default home page for the PUBLIC (that is, non-authenticated) user.

To set the page users see when they log out:

1. In the Portal User Profile portlet, in the Name field, enter PUBLIC.

   By default, the Portal User Profile portlet is on the Administer tab of the Portal Builder page.

2. Click Edit.

3. Next to the Default Home Page field, click the Browse Pages icon to see a list of pages from which to choose.

   
   

   Note: You cannot enter a value in this field; you must select one from the list.

   
   

4. Click Return Object next to the page you want to be displayed when users log out.

5. Click OK.

   
   

   Note: Click Reset to remove this setting.

   
   

4.3.9 Removing the Context-Sensitive Help Link

If you have access to SQL*Plus, you can suppress the Context-sensitive Help link that appears in the banner in OracleAS Portal wizards, dialog boxes, alerts, and so on. Note that you cannot suppress the "?" icon that appears in the blue bar of wizards, dialog boxes, and alerts.

You cannot perform this task through the user interface; it must be done programmatically through SQL*Plus.

To remove the context-sensitive help icon:

1. Access SQL*Plus.

2. Enter:

   exec wwui_api_body.set_display_help (wwui_api_body.DISPLAY_HELP_OFF);
   
   

To reinstate the context-sensitive help icon:

1. Access SQL*Plus.

2. Enter:

   exec wwui_api_body.set_display_help (wwui_api_body.DISPLAY_HELP_ON);
   commit;
   

4.5.1 Simplifying the Full URL of an OracleAS Portal Instance

You can simplify the full URL created by the OracleAS Portal installation to a more memorable or meaningful URL using the Redirect directive. In this way, end users can access OracleAS Portal by entering a simple URL.

By default, the URL for a new OracleAS Portal installation requires you to enter:

http://<host>:<port>/pls/dad

You can simplify this URL to:

http://<host>/redirectpath

1. Open the Oracle HTTP Server configuration file, httpd.conf, which is located in the following directory:

   ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/conf/
   
   

2. Enter the redirect path as follows:

   Redirect /DADnamepath http://<host>:<port>/pls/dad
   
   

   For example:

   Redirect /portalhome http://mysite.oracle.com/pls/portal
   
   

   In this example, end users can enter:

   http://mysite.oracle.com/portalhome
   
   

   to access the full URL, which is:

   http://mysite.oracle.com/pls/portal
   
   

   
   

   Notes: The example http://mysite.oracle.com/portalhome assumes that the default port 80 is being used. If the default port is not being used, then the user would have to enter the URL with the port number, http://mysite.oracle.com:<port>/portalhome. You can also edit the httpd.conf file using the Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Application Server Control Console. If the httpd.conf file is updated manually, you must synchronize the manual configuration changes done on the middle tier by running ORACLE_HOME/dcm/bin/dcmctl as follows: dcmctl updateConfig -ct ohs Finally, restart Oracle HTTP Server, by running the following command from ORACLE_HOME/opmn/bin: opmnctl restartproc type=ohs

   
   

4.5.2 Configuring Oracle HTTP Server to Use the OracleAS Portal Home Page

To set the OracleAS Portal home page as the Oracle HTTP Server's default home page:

1. In the directory ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/htdocs/, make a backup copy of the files index.html.html and index.html.<lang>, where <lang> is the language code. For example, index.html.en is the index HTML file for English.

2. Edit index.html.<lang> by replacing the entire contents of the file with the following HTML redirection code:

   <HTML>
   <SCRIPT LANGUAGE=JavaScript>
   document.location="http://host.domain:port/pls/portal"
   </SCRIPT>
   </HTML>
   
   

   
   

   Notes: Do not specify a port number if you are running OracleAS Portal on port 80. If you plan to support other languages, you need to have the language-specific index HTML files with the redirection code, for these languages.

   
   

4.5.3 Configuring a Portal DAD

A Database Access Descriptor (DAD) is a set of values that specify how an application connects to an Oracle Database to fulfill an HTTP request. The information in the DAD includes the user name (which also specifies the schema and the privileges), password, connect-string, and Globalization Support language of the database.

There are two types of DADs: general DADs and portal DADs. An OracleAS Portal middle tier uses a portal DAD to access the OracleAS Metadata Repository, and this section describes how you can configure portal DAD information. For information on general DADs, refer to the Oracle HTTP Server Administrator's Guide.

You can configure the portal DAD for a particular OracleAS Portal instance from the Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Application Server Control Console:

1. Navigate to the Application Server Control Console.

   See Section 7.2.1, "Accessing the Application Server Control Console" for more information.

2. Navigate to the home page for your OracleAS Portal instance.

   See Section 7.3, "Using Application Server Control Console to Monitor and Administer OracleAS Portal" for more information.

   You can also access this page directly from OracleAS Portal. Click the Administer tab on the Portal Builder page and then click Portal Service Monitoring (by default, this link is located in the Services portlet on the Portal subtab).

3. Click Portal DAD Settings.

4. Edit the DAD for this OracleAS Portal instance as required. Table 7-3, "DAD Settings" has a description of all the options on this page.

5. Click Apply.

6. Restart Oracle HTTP Server and OC4J_Portal.

   Navigate to the Oracle Application Server home page. In the System Components table, select HTTP_Server and OC4J_Portal, and then click the Restart button.

4.5.4 Configuring the Portal Cache

Portal cache is a file system-based cache for OracleAS Portal pages and portlets. See Section 1.3.2, "Understanding Portal Cache" for more information.

You can configure the Portal cache in the Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Application Server Control Console:

1. Navigate to the Application Server Control Console.

   See Section 7.2.1, "Accessing the Application Server Control Console" for more information.

2. Navigate to the home page for your OracleAS Portal instance.

   See Section 7.3, "Using Application Server Control Console to Monitor and Administer OracleAS Portal" for more information.

   You can also access this page directly from OracleAS Portal. Click the Administer tab on the Portal Builder page and then click Portal Service Monitoring (by default, this link is located in the Services portlet on the Portal subtab).

3. Click Portal Cache Settings.

4. Ensure that the Caching option is set to On.

5. Edit the cache settings for the OracleAS Portal instance as required. Table 7-2, "Portal Cache Settings" has a description of all the options on this page.

6. Click Apply.

7. Restart Oracle HTTP Server and OC4J_Portal.

   Navigate to the Oracle Application Server home page. In the System Components table, select HTTP_Server and OC4J_Portal, and then click the Restart button.

4.5.5 Clearing the Portal Cache

Sometimes you must clear the portal cache (the OracleAS Portal File System Cache). For example, if you change the character set of the OracleAS Metadata Repository. In such cases, the existing content in the Portal cache will be invalid, as it will continue to have content configured to use the older character set.

To clear the portal cache:

1. Navigate to the portal cache directory. The default path is ORACLE_HOME/Apache/modplsql/cache.

2. Perform a recursive delete of all the files under this directory. For example, on UNIX platforms, issue the following command:

   rm -rf * 
   
   

   
   

   Note: Whenever you clear the portal cache, you may need to clear the OracleAS Web Cache content as well. Refer to Section 5.7.3, "Managing Portal Content Cached in OracleAS Web Cache" for information about clearing the OracleAS Web Cache content.

   
   
   
   

   WARNING: Ensure that you are in the correct directory before issuing this command. Do not delete the cache directory.

   
   

4.5.6 Using a Custom Image Directory

To avoid losing custom images stored in the OracleAS Portal images directory (which is ORACLE_HOME/portal/images by default) during a future upgrade, it is recommended that you create your own images directory and set up an appropriate Oracle HTTP Server alias for this directory.

For example, add an entry, similar to the one shown next, to the file ORACLE_HOME/portal/conf/portal.conf. It is recommended that you use the local Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Application Server Control Console instance to make this change. For more information, refer to the Oracle HTTP Server Administrator's Guide or the Oracle Application Server Web Cache Administrator's Guide.

Alias /mycompany/images/ "/opt/app/myportal/images/"
<Directory "/opt/app/myportal/images/">
     AllowOverride None
     Order allow,deny
     Allow from all
     ExpiresActive on
     ExpiresDefault A2592000
  <Files *>
     Header set Surrogate-Control 'max-age=2592000'
  </Files>
</Directory>

You do not need to perform any specific OracleAS Web Cache configuration as OracleAS Web Cache is already configured to globally cache .bmp, .gif, .png, .jpg, and .jpeg files.

4.6.1 What Is Installed By Default?

Performing a standard Oracle Application Server installation of OracleAS Portal and Oracle Application Server Wireless configures mobile support in OracleAS Portal as follows:

• A master service that provides mobile device access to the installed portal is created, which refers to the portal home page URL. As mobile access to portal is mediated by OracleAS Wireless, a mobile device must communicate with OracleAS Wireless to access content on OracleAS Portal.

• OracleAS Wireless service's URL refers to OracleAS Portal. Users that access this OracleAS Wireless service will be directed to the public home page of the portal. When a mobile browser contacts OracleAS Portal through the home URL, the request will be redirected to the OracleAS Wireless service.

4.6.2 Configuring Mobile Settings in OracleAS Portal

You can change most of these mobile settings using a standard desktop browser.

To modify mobile settings:

1. In the Services portlet, click Global Settings.

   By default, the Services portlet is on the Portal subtab of the Administer tab on the Portal Builder page.

2. Click the Mobile tab.

Figure 4-3 The Mobile Tab in the Global Settings Page

Description of "Figure 4-3 The Mobile Tab in the Global Settings Page"

All the options for setting mobile options for OracleAS Portal are found here.

In the Mobile Settings page, you can perform the following actions:

• Enabling Mobile Access

• Enabling Mobile Page Design

• Logging Mobile Responses

4.6.2.1 Enabling Mobile Access

This setting controls the response of OracleAS Portal to mobile clients that request portal pages by connecting through OracleAS Wireless.

If you want OracleAS Portal to be able to return pages and portlets in response to mobile requests, you must select the Enable Mobile Access option in the Mobile tab. If you do not select this option, OracleAS Portal responds to mobile requests with a message stating that it is not mobile enabled.

To enable mobile access:

1. In the Services portlet, click Global Settings.

   By default, the Services portlet is on the Portal subtab of the Administer tab on the Portal Builder page.

2. Click the Mobile tab.

3. Select the Enable Mobile Access option.

   Figure 4-4 Enabling Mobile Access

   
   Description of "Figure 4-4 Enabling Mobile Access"
   
   

4. Click OK.

You will find additional information about how OracleAS Portal responds to mobile requests in the article "Life Cycle of a Mobile Request," on Oracle Technology Network (OTN), http://www.oracle.com/technology/.

When mobile friendly portal pages are created, an option to preview the page as it would display in a mobile device is available in the page editor. Selecting the Enable Mobile Access option in the Mobile tab enables the display of the Mobile: Preview option in the page editor.

Figure 4-5 Mobile Preview Option in the Page Editor

Description of "Figure 4-5 Mobile Preview Option in the Page Editor"

4.6.2.2 Enabling Mobile Page Design

This option enables page designers to create and edit pages using the mobile page editor, and also to specify mobile home pages. Pages of type Mobile are typically referred to as mobile pages.

To enable mobile page design:

1. In the Services portlet, click Global Settings.

   By default, the Services portlet is on the Portal subtab of the Administer tab on the Portal Builder page.

2. Click the Mobile tab.

3. Select the Enable Mobile Page Design option.

   Figure 4-6 Enabling Mobile Page Design

   
   Description of "Figure 4-6 Enabling Mobile Page Design"
   
   

4. Click OK.

You will find additional information about the dedicated mobile page editor in the article "Using the Mobile Page Editor," on Oracle Technology Network, http://www.oracle.com/technology/.

In addition, if you select this option, the following screens display an extra field that allows the selection of a home page specific to mobile access of the OracleAS Portal:

• Main tab in the Global Settings page of the Services portlet.

• Preferences tab in the Portal User Profile portlet

• Preferences tab in the Portal Group Profile portlet.

• Edit Account Information page, accessed using the Account Info link.

  
  

  Notes: Once a mobile page is created, it is possible to edit the page using the mobile page editor, even if the Enable Mobile Page Design option is not selected. If the Enable Mobile Page Design option is not selected, page designers cannot create dedicated mobile pages. But if the option is selected, OracleAS Portal still supports mobile requests for standard pages (that is, pages that were not designed using the mobile page editor).

  
  

4.6.2.3 Logging Mobile Responses

This setting controls the logging of OracleAS Portal mobile portlet responses.

To enable logging of mobile responses:

1. In the Services portlet, click Global Settings.

   By default, the Services portlet is on the Portal subtab of the Administer tab on the Portal Builder page.

2. Click the Mobile tab.

3. Select the Log Mobile Responses option.

   Figure 4-7 Logging Mobile Responses

   
   Description of "Figure 4-7 Logging Mobile Responses"
   
   

4. Click OK.

Portlet responses are logged if all the following conditions are met:

• The Log Mobile Responses option is selected.

• The user making the request is logged on.

• The request is either from a mobile device, or it is for a mobile page.

You will find additional information in the article "Provider Debugging Techniques: Using the Mobile Log Viewers," on Oracle Technology Network, http://www.oracle.com/technology/.

Note: Enabling or disabling the Log Mobile Responses option results in all the currently cached page data being invalidated. It is recommended that you do not change this option frequently after your OracleAS Portal has been deployed for general access.

4.6.3 Manually Reconfiguring the Mobile Setup

An Oracle Application Server reconfiguration that has resulted in a change to the Oracle Application Server Wireless service URL or OracleAS Portal home page URL, requires the changes to be reflected in the stored information in OracleAS Portal, and the OracleAS Wireless service definition that refers to OracleAS Portal. You should reconfigure OracleAS Wireless and OracleAS Portal to ensure that the communication between them is not affected.

You have to manually reconfigure OracleAS Wireless and OracleAS Portal to update the values of the following referenced URLs, as required:

• Updating the OracleAS Portal Home Page URL References

• Updating the OracleAS Wireless Portal Service URL Reference

ORACLE_HOME/assistants/opca/

perl cfgiasw.pl -s portal -c portal_db -h "http://my_portal_server.com/pls/portal/portal.home"

ORACLE_HOME/assistants/opca/

perl cfgiasw.pl -s portal -c portal_db -w "http://my_iasw_server.com/ptg/rm?PAoid=12345"

4.10.1 Performing Basic WebDAV Configuration

After OracleAS Portal has been installed as part of the Oracle Application Server installation, the oradav.conf file should be populated with a <Location> directive that points to the portal schema. In Example 4-1, the location /dav_portal/portal will be OraDAV-enabled and will (once populated with the correct values) connect to the portal schema so that users can use WebDAV clients to access portal data.

<Location /dav_portal/portal>
   DAV Oracle
   DAVParam ORACONNECT dbhost:dbport:dbsid
   DAVParam ORAUSER portal_schema
   DAVParam ORAPASSWORD portal_schema_password
   DAVParam ORAPACKAGENAME portal_schema.wwdav_api_driver
</Location>

http://<host>:<port>/dav_portal/portal/

http://mysite.oracle.com:7777/dav_portal/portal

The dav_portal part of the URL is the default name of a virtual directory used to differentiate between portal access through a WebDAV client and portal access that uses the pls virtual directory. portal is the DAD of the portal installation. You can also configure virtual hosts to provide a different, simpler, or easier to remember URL for WebDAV access, if need be.

Users connect to a portal in WebDAV clients using the same user name and password that they use to log in to the portal itself. If the portal is in a hosted environment, users also need to add their company information to their user name, as follows:

<username>@<company>

Authentication

Due to the way some WebDAV clients behave, users might experience authentication requests multiple times. To avoid this, the portal administrator can enable the cookie option by adding the following line to the oradav.conf file:

DAVParam ORACookieMaxAge <seconds>

where seconds is the amount of time in seconds before the cookie expires.

For example a value of 28800 is 8 hours and means that once a user has logged on through a WebDAV client, he or she will not be prompted for a user name and password again until 8 hours has passed.

If you are using the SQL*Net Advanced Security Option (ASO), the ORACONNECT parameter in the oradav.conf file must be replaced with ORASERVICE dbhost as shown next:

<Location /dav_portal/portal>
  DAV Oracle
  DAVParam ORASERVICE dbhost
  DAVParam ORAUSER portal_schema
  DAVParam ORAPASSWORD portal_schema_password
  DAVParam ORAPACKAGENAME portal_schema.wwdav_api_driver
  Options Indexes
</Location>

This allows the database alias to be resolved by the tnsnames.ora file.

4.10.2 Setting Up a WebDAV Client

The steps required to set up a WebDAV client to connect to OracleAS Portal varies depending on the client. All clients will eventually request a URL. The Portal DAV URL is very similar to the URL you use to access the portal itself in your Web browser, and uses the following format:

http://<host>:<port>/<dav_location>

If you experience problems while connecting to OracleAS Portal from a WebDAV client, refer to the WebDAV troubleshooting section in the Oracle Application Server Portal Error Messages Guide.

4.10.3 WebDAV Clients and SSL

Although OraDAV does support Secure Socket Layer (SSL), some WebDAV clients do not. Refer to the WebDAV client's documentation for details.

4.10.4 Checking the Version of OraDAV Drivers

You can check the version of the OraDAV drivers from any Web browser, as shown in the following example:

http://<computer>:<port>/<dav location>/~OraDAV-Version

The output will be like the following example:

Version 1.0.3.2.3-0030 
Using Container Version 1.5

4.10.5 Checking the Version of mod_oradav.so

You can check the version of mod_oradav.so by running the oversioncheck binary and specifying mod_oradav.so as its argument, as shown subsequently:

ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/bin/oversioncheck ORACLE_HOME/Apache/oradav/lib/mod_oradav.so

4.10.6 Viewing Errors

Any errors that occur when a user performs actions on a portal using a WebDAV client are recorded in an error log that is created in that user's personal page (as an item titled My Error Log) the first time an OracleAS Portal-related WebDAV error occurs. This can be very helpful for interpreting the error messages reported in WebDAV clients, such as the message 'An error has occurred while trying to complete this operation' that is often displayed in Web Folders, or HTTP error numbers reported in Cadaver.

All errors are also recorded in the Apache error log file (ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/logs), so if the user does not have a personal page, or is a public user, the errors can still be examined.

The OraTraceEvents parameter in the oradav.conf file ensures that certain information about an error, such as Agent, User, ECID, URI, and Method, is logged in the Apache error log file. This information is helpful to portal administrators and Oracle Support Services in resolving the error. The OraTraceEvents parameter is available in the following format in the oradav.conf file:

DAVParam OraTraceEvents agent

The information logged in the Apache error log file will be in a format similar to the following example:

[Wed Sep 22 10:38:46 2004] [notice] OraDAV: Agent [Secret-Agent-Man] User
[Hanckel] ECID [Viscous] URI [/orddav_var2/images/var2] Method [MKCOL].

For more verbose error reporting in the Apache error log file, add the following parameter to the oradav.conf file:

DAVParam ORATraceLevel 1