B Troubleshooting Portlets and Providers

B.1.1 Portlet Refresh Failure

When using the JavaScript document.write() method in conjunction with a Mozilla browser, you may find that portlet refresh does not work.

Problem

When using a Mozilla browser, such as Firefox, the document.write() method causes portlet refresh to no longer work as expected.

Solution

Avoid using document.write() in your output if you also want portlet refresh to work on Firefox. If this is not possible, you can choose to have the portlet not display the Refresh and Restore icons during rendering. You can also turn off portlet refresh and restore at the region level.

B.1.2 HTML Tags Appearing in Portlet

After upgrading from an earlier release to Release 10.1.4, you may find unformatted HTML appearing in your portlets, for example, in the portlet title.

Problem

When viewing a portlet, you see raw HTML. For example, you might see the following in a portlet title:

<b>Oracle Application Server 10<i>g</i> Collateral</b>

when what you expected to see was:

Oracle Application Server 10g Collateral

To protect against cross site scripting (XSS) attacks, OracleAS Portal Release 10.1.4 escapes all user input by default. Thus, some HTML that was formatted in earlier releases now appears unformatted because it has been escaped to plain text.

Solution

You can resolve this issue in one of two ways:

• Tell your users to stop entering HTML tags as part of their input and have them enter only plain text.

• Turn on compatibility mode to make your OracleAS Portal instance behave the way it did in releases prior to Release 10.1.4, that is, stop the default escaping of HTML to plain text. Note that turning on compatibility mode makes your portal instance less secure.

For more information on these options, refer to Oracle Application Server Portal Installation and Upgrade Guide.

B.2.1 Portlet Logging

In addition to specific issues listed in the other sections of this appendix, the following general techniques can help you to troubleshoot portlet problems.

Problem 1

When accessing a portal page, the portlet does not display or displays an error message.

Solution 1

Check the application log file look for errors.

For OracleAS Portal:

MID_TIER_ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/OC4J_Portal/application-deployments/portal/OC4J_Portal_default_island_1/application.log

For a custom Web provider:

MID_TIER_ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/OC4J_instance_name/application-deployments/web_application_name/OC4J_Portal_default_island_1/application.log

Problem 2

Pertinent information that may help solve the problem is not being recorded in the log file.

Solution 2

Increase the provider's log level to produce more detailed logging information by adding the following entry to the web.xml file:

<env-entry>
<env-entry-name>oracle/portal/provider/global/log/logLevel</env-entry-name>
  <env-entry-value>6</env-entry-value>
  <env-entry-type>java.lang.Integer</env-entry-type>
</env-entry>

You may also change this value for runtime by editing orion-web.xml or updating it in the Grid Control Console. You may have to restart OC4J to ensure that the changes made to the configuration file take effect.

B.2.2 Installation and Deployment Problems

This section describes problems that you may encounter when installing and deploying the PDK-Java framework and samples.

An unexpected error occurred-29540 : class
  oracle/webdb/provider/web/HttpProviderDispatcher does not exist (WWC-43000)

SELECT object_name, object_type, status FROM user_objects 
  WHERE object_name like '%HttpProvider%'

/3334f18_HttpProviderDispatcher

Invalid J2EE application file specified - Base Exception:
Cannot get xml document by parsing WEB-INF/web.xml in template.war: <Line 88, 
Column 14> : '--' is not allowed in comments.
Resolution: 

Internal error (WWC-00006)
The provider URL specified may be wrong or the provider is not running.
(WWC-43176)

Internal error (WWC-00006)
The provider URL specified may be wrong or the provider is not running.
(WWC-43176)
The following error occurred during the call to Web provider: Can't read
deployment properties for service: _default (WWC-43147)

/Web-inf/deployment/

serviceClass=oracle.webdb.provider.v2.adapter.soapV1.ProviderAdapter
loaderClass=oracle.portal.provider.v2.http.DefaultProviderLoader
showTestPage=true
definition=providers/test/provider.xml
autoReload=true
testPageURI=/htdocs/testpage/TestPage.jsp

Internal error (WWC-00006)
The provider URL specified may be wrong or the provider is not running.
(WWC-43176)
The following error occurred during the call to Web provider: Can't read
deployment properties for service: test (WWC-43147)

http://host.domain:port/context/providers/test

/Web-inf/deployment/

serviceClass=oracle.webdb.provider.v2.adapter.soapV1.ProviderAdapter
loaderClass=oracle.portal.provider.v2.http.DefaultProviderLoader
showTestPage=true
definition=providers/test/provider.xml
autoReload=true
testPageURI=/htdocs/testpage/TestPage.jsp

An error occurred when attempting to call the providers register function.
(WWC-43134)
The provider URL specified may be wrong or the provider is not running.
(WWC-43176)
The following error occurred during the call to Web provider: Class
oracle.portal.provider.v2.render.RenderManager has no set or add method for tag
"createdOn" (WWC-43147)

<renderer class="my.local.Renderer"> 
<createdOn>12-Mar-2001</createdOn> 
... 
</renderer> 

(WWC-00006)
An unexpected error occurred: User-Defined Exception
(WWC-43000)
wwpro_api_provider_registry.register_provider
An unexpected error occurred: ava.sql.SQLException: Inserted value too large for column:

An error occurred when attempting to call the providers register function.
 (WWC-43134)
An error occurred during the call to the WSRP Provider: Java stack trace from root exception:
java.rmi.ServerException: Internal Server Error (caught exception while handling request: oracle.webdb.wsrp.server.ContainerRuntimeException: An internal error has occurred in method <init>)
at com.sun.xml.rpc.client.StreamingSender._raiseFault(StreamingSender.java:384)
at com.sun.xml.rpc.client.StreamingSender._send(StreamingSender.java:245)
at oracle.webdb.wsrp.WSRP_v1_Registration_PortType_Stub.register(WSRP_v1Registration_PortType_Stub.java:183)
at oracle.webdb.wsrp.client.design.v1.OraWSRP_v1_Registration_PortType.register(Unknown Source). (WWC-43273)

Error: The listener returned the following Message: 500 Portlet with id $1 doesn't
 exist

Request URI:/jpdk/snoop/snoopcustom.jsp Exception: javax.servlet.ServletException:
java.io.FileNotFoundException:
C:\iAS\Apache\Apache\htdocs\jpdk\snoop\snoopcustom.jsp (The system cannot find the
path specified)

Error: The XML parser encountered an Error, and could not complete the conversion
for portlet id=150, it returned the following message: XML Parsing Error

Error: The XML parser encountered an Error, and could not complete the conversion
for portlet id=146, it returned the following message: XSL reference value missing
in XML document.

Error: An unexpected error occurred: ORA-29532: Java call terminated by uncaught Java exception: Attribute value should start with quote. (WWC-43000) An unexpected error occurred: Attribute value should start with quote. at oracle.xml.parser.v2.XMLError.flushErrors(XMLError.java:205)

ERROR TIMEOUT FOR CONTENT=timeout

http://host:port/context/providers/servicename

<init-param>
  <param-name>requesttime</param-name>
  <param-value>1000</param-value>
</init-param>
<init-param>  <param-name>minTimeout</param-name>
  <param-value>100</param-value>
</init-param>
<init-param>
  <param-name>stall</param-name>
  <param-value>500</param-value>
</init-param>

Error: The listener returned the following Message: 500

MID_TIER_ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/OC4J_Portal/application-deployments/portal/OC4J_Portal_default_island_1/application.log

MID_TIER_ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/OC4J_instance_name/application-deployments/web_application_name/OC4J_Portal_default_island_1/application.log

Error: Could not get markup. The cookie or session is invalid or there is a runtime exception.

B.2.3 Java Portlet Wizard Not Available

In Oracle JDeveloper, when you try to open the Java Portlet Wizard by choosing File > New > Web tier, the Portlets menu selection is not present.

Problem

The Java Portlet Wizard is not installed.

Solution

Install the Portal Extension to Oracle JDeveloper, as described in Section 6.4.1, "Installing the Portal Extension for Oracle JDeveloper".

B.2.4 Portlet Code Does Not Compile

When you try to compile the code for your portlet, you receive a compilation error.

Problem

The Portlet Development library is not selected.

Solution

Make sure that Portlet Development library is selected for the project. Edit your project's properties and select the Profiles > Development > Libraries entry in the pane on the right. Make sure that the Portlet Development library is listed under Selected Libraries.

B.2.5 Application Server Connection Test Fails

In Oracle JDeveloper, the Application Server Connection Test fails with the message Connection refused: connect.

Problem 1

OC4J is not running.

Solution 1

Make sure OC4J is up and running by typing the following URL in your browser: http://yourhostyourdomain:8888

Problem 2

The connection information is incorrect.

Solution 2

Verify the connection information that you provided in the Connection Setup wizard.

B.2.6 Provider Test Page Shows Error

When accessing the provider test page with your browser, an error is shown.

Problem 1

The provider.xml syntax is incorrect.

Solution 1

Correct the provider.xml syntax. Refer to the PDK-Java XML Provider Definition Tag Reference document on Portal Studio:

http://portalstudio.oracle.com/pls/ops/docs/folder/community/pdk/jpdk/v2/xml_tag_reference_v2.html

Problem 2

Needed JAR files are missing from the deployment environment.

Solution 2

Search the JAR files for the missing class. When the missing JAR file is identified, you can add to the lib directory of the application from the Oracle JDeveloper Deployment Profile. Refer to the Oracle JDeveloper Online Help System for more information about the deployment profile.

B.2.7 Web Provider Not Appearing in Portlet Repository

Users cannot see a Web provider, such as Omniportlet, in the Portlet Repository even though it has been registered successfully and is visible in the navigator.

Problem

The Web provider uses DBPreferenceStore and the database information stored in data-sources.xml is incorrect.

Solution

Correct the information in data-sources.xml. Refresh the provider and invalidate the Portlet Repository cache.

B.2.8 Portlet Does Not Display on Page

When you access a portal page, the portlet does not display on the page.

Problem 1

The provider is not running.

Solution 1

Make sure that the provider is up and running by entering the provider registration URL in your browser's address bar.

Problem 2

The security manager for the provider is preventing the portlet from displaying.

Solution 2

In the provider definition file, provider.xml, delete or comment out the security manager, if any.

Problem 3

The user may not have the Execute privilege for the portlet as defined on the portlet's Access page.

Solution 3

Check the privileges for the portlet and, if the user or a group the user belongs to does not have the Execute privilege, grant them access. Portlets sometimes inherit their access privileges from the provider. You can use the Navigator in OracleAS Portal to find the portlet's provider and check its access privileges, then drill down to the portlet to see its access privileges.

Problem 4

You get an error trying to display the portlet after you redeployed it.

Solution 4

Refer to Section B.2.2.12, "Portlet Displays Session Expired Message After Redeployment".

B.2.9 After Initial Successful Display, Portlet Does Not Display on Page

When you access a portal page, the portlet initially displays on the page but returns error messages in subsequent display attempts.

Problem

The provider session information is incorrect.

Solution

Check whether or not the provider uses sessions. If it does, edit the provider registration information to make sure that you registered it accordingly:

Login Frequency: Once per User Sessions

You should also confirm that <session> is set to true in provider.xml.

B.2.10 Provider Group Not Created

When you create a new provider group, the provider group is not created.

Insufficient Privilege. Please contact the administrator for privilege in Default Provider Builder Instance.

You might also receive some mod_osso errors.

Problem 1

If you get mod_osso errors during authentication, the most likely problem is that mod_osso is not correctly configured on the middle tier or you have a mod_osso registration problem.

Solution 1

For information on reregistering mod_osso, refer to the Oracle Application Server Single Sign-On Administrator's Guide.

Problem 2

You have a problem in the jpdk application classpath.

Solution 2

Check the jpdk application log for errors.

Problem 3

The user does not have the necessary privileges to access these pages.

Solution 3

Modify provideruiacls.xml to grant the user the necessary privileges. provideruiacls.xml has two instances, one for PDK-Java providers and one for OracleAS Portal tools (such as Omniportlet) providers:

MID_TIER_ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/OC4J_Portal/applications/jpdk/jpdk/WEB-INF/
deployment_providerui

HOME/j2ee/OC4J_Portal/applications/portalTools/providerBuilder/WEB-INF/
deployment_providerui

The following code sample illustrates how you can add users in provideruiacls.xml:

<object name="ANY_PROVIDER" owner="providerui">   <user name="orcladmin" privilege="500"/>   <user name="portal" privilege="500"/>

B.2.11 URL-Based Portlet Does Not Work

Attempting to display your portlet via URL generates the following error message:

500 INTERNAL SERVER ERROR

Problem

The httpProxyHost is not defined correctly.

Solution

In general, you should replace your URL-based portlets (formerly URL Services) with Web Clipping. Refer to Chapter 5, "Creating Content-Based Portlets with Web Clipping" for more information about Web Clipping.

If for some reason you must continue to use a URL-based portlet, check the default proxy information in your provider.xml file. For example:

<proxyInfo class="oracle.portal.provider.v1.http.ProxyInformation">
   <httpProxyHost>www-proxy.us.oracle.com</httpProxyHost>
   <httpProxyPort>80</httpProxyPort>
</proxyInfo>

Change the httpProxyHost and httpProxyPort proxy settings or remove these settings if you do not use proxy. Restart the OC4J instance to test if this resolves the problem.

B.3.1 OmniPortlet Cannot Access the Specified URL

Your OmniPortlet displays errors or does not display the correct content.

Problem 1

The URL is not active.

Solution 1

Type the URL directly in your browser address field to test its validity.

Problem 2

If a proxy server is required to reach the site, the proxy settings are not valid. The following messages may display:

Failed to open specified URL.Cannot open the URL specified because of connection timeout.

Solution 2

Check that your proxy settings are valid by clicking Edit for the HTTP Proxy Setting in the OmniPortlet Provider Test Page.

Problem 3

The message OmniPortlet timed out displays in your OmniPortlet.

Solution 3

1. If a proxy server is required to reach the site, see Solution 2.

2. If the URL request takes a long time to process (for example, it executes a long running query), try increasing the timeout value (in seconds) in the OmniPortlet provider.xml file in MID_TIER_ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/OC4J_Portal/applications/portalTools/omniPortlet/WEB-INF/providers/omniPortlet. If you change the timeout value, you also need to do the following:

   • Bounce your middle-tier.

   • Increase the provider registration Timeout value of the OracleAS Portal instances with which this provider is registered.

Problem 4

If HTTP authentication is required and the user name and password are missing or not valid, the following error message displays:

Authorization failed when connecting to the URL specified. Provide correct user name and password to connect.

Solution 4

To configure the Secured Data (Web Clipping) Repository Setting, click Edit on the OmniPortlet Provider Test Page. On the Source tab, click Edit Connection and enter a valid user name and password on the Connection Information page. To enter the connection information, the Secured Data Repository must be already be configured. To configure its settings, click Edit on the OmniPortlet Provider Test Page.

Problem 5

If opening a URL to an HTTPS site with a certificate and the certificate is identified as not valid, the following error message displays in the portlet:

SSL handshake failed for HTTPS connection to the specified URL. The certificate file needs to be augmented.

Solution 5

See the Oracle Application Server Portal Configuration Guide.

Problem 6

If the proxy server requires authentication and the user name and password are missing or not valid, the following error message displays:

Invalid or missing user proxy login information.

Solution 6

Check that your proxy server user name and password are valid. Refer to Section B.4.5, "HTTP Error Code 407 When Clipping Outside Firewall" for more information.

B.3.2 Portlet Content Is Not Refreshed

After changing portlet properties in the Edit Defaults page, your portlet content is not refreshed.

Problem 1

OracleAS Web Cache invalidation is not configured properly.

Solution 1

See Section I.2.1.3 "Configuring Caching (PDK Only)" in the Oracle Application Server Portal Configuration Guide.

Problem 2

You have personalized the portlet.

Solution 2

See Section B.3.3, "Edit Defaults Changes are Not Reflected in the Personalized Portlet".

B.3.3 Edit Defaults Changes are Not Reflected in the Personalized Portlet

When you personalize the portlet at runtime using the Personalize link, the new property values are not reflected in the personalized version of the portlet.

Problem

When you personalize the portlet, a complete copy of the personalization object file is created. Since all properties are duplicated, subsequent modifications through Edit Defaults are not reflected in the personalized version.

Solution

To ensure the latest changes are made to the portlet, click Personalize again (after the modifications via Edit Defaults), then select the Reset to Defaults option.

B.4.1 Setting Logging Levels

By default, the logging level of Web Clipping is set to level 3, which provides information about configuration, severe errors, and warnings. This level is reasonable for day-to-day operations. To view information useful for debugging, you should set the logging level to 8.

To set the logging level, edit the web.xml file, which is located at:

OracleHome/j2ee/OC4J_Portal/applications/portalTools/webClipping/WEB-INF

To set the level to 8 and display debugging information, set the value of the parameter oracle.portal.log.LogLevel as follows:

<context-param>
        <param-name>oracle.portal.log.LogLevel</param-name>
        <param-value>8</param-value>
</context-param>

After you make the change, restart the Web application.

B.4.2 Reviewing Error Messages

Errors that occur when accessing the Test Page or executing of the Web Clipping portlet are written to one of the following files:

OC4J_HOME/j2ee/home/application-deployments/portalTools/application.log
IAS_HOME/j2ee/OC4J_instance/application-deployments/portalTools/OC4J_instance_default_island_1/application.log

B.4.3 Checking the Status of the Provider with the Test Page

You can use the Web Clipping Provider Test Page to determine if the provider is functioning properly. To access the Test Page, click Web Clipping Provider from the Portal Tools Application Welcome Page, which is located at:

http://host:port/portalTools

The Provider Test Page: Web Clipping is displayed. It provides the following information:

• Portlet information about the Web Clipping portlet. The Web Clipping provider contains only one portlet.

• Provider initialization parameters and values.

• Provider status, with links to pages for editing the configuration.

For more information about using the Test Page, see the "Administering Web Clipping" appendix in the Oracle Application Server Portal Configuration Guide.

B.4.4 Problem Connecting to the Web Site for Clipping

You encounter difficulties making or maintaining connections to the Web site containing the clipping.

Problem 1

If you cannot access the Web site using Web Clipping Studio, you may be using an incorrect URL.

Solution 1

To be sure a URL is correct, test the URL that you want to clip in a browser before you attempt to clip it. Also test the URL to be sure that it is accessible from the provider middle tier.

Problem 2

The connection times out when attempting to browse to any Web site and your environment uses a proxy server to connect to HTTP servers outside a firewall.

Solution 2

Make sure that the proxy servers are configured correctly.

To configure the proxy servers, go to the Web Clipping Provider Test Page, as described in Section B.4.3, "Checking the Status of the Provider with the Test Page". In the Web Clipping Provider Test Page, click Edit in the Actions column of the HTTP Proxy row. In the Edit Provider page, specify the HTTP Proxy Host and the HTTP Proxy Port for the HTTP Proxy.

For access to servers inside the firewall, you can specify a list of domain names that need not go through the firewall by selecting No Proxy for Domains beginning with and entering the URL. You do not need to restart OC4J for the new settings to take effect.

For more information about configuring proxy servers, see the "Administering Web Clipping" appendix of the Oracle Application Server Portal Configuration Guide.

Problem 3

Your configuration includes a load balancer and you experience difficulty making or maintaining connections while attempting to add a clip to a Web Clipping portlet.

Solution 3

The configuration was not set up correctly:

• If multiple OC4J instances are set up behind a load balancer, the Web Clipping Repository and HTTP proxy must be configured identically on all OC4J instances before you join them to the load balancer.

  Web clippings have definitions that must be stored persistently in the Web Clipping Repository hosted by an Oracle Database server. In a multiple middle-tier environment, all instances of OC4J must store definitions in the same repository.

  In addition, all instances of OC4J must have identical HTTP proxy configurations.

• The Load Balancer must be session-enabled. If it is not, the first request connects, but subsequent requests, which may be routed to a different instance, fail.

For more information about configuring with a load balancer, see the "Performing Advanced Configuration" chapter of the Oracle Application Server Portal Configuration Guide.

Problem 4

You use a reverse proxy, but cannot make a connection.

Solution 4

Make sure that the reverse proxy server is configured correctly. See the "Performing Advanced Configuration" chapter of the Oracle Application Server Portal Configuration Guide for information about configuring a reverse proxy.

Problem 5

You cannot connect and the error log contains a message about denying logon to the database. (See Section B.4.1, "Setting Logging Levels" for information about the error log.)

Solution 5

The PORTAL schema password for the infrastructure database may have been modified manually and it may not match the password stored in Oracle Internet Directory. Refer to the Oracle Internet Directory Administrator's Guide for more information about setting the password.

B.4.5 HTTP Error Code 407 When Clipping Outside Firewall

The proxy servers are configured for proxy authentication and you receive HTTP error code 407 when you attempt to clip a page outside the firewall.

Problem

The proxy servers are configured for proxy authentication, but you have not configured proxy authentication.

Solution

You must manually configure proxy authentication. Web Clipping supports both global proxy and per-user authentication. You can specify the realm of the proxy server and whether all users login automatically with a provided user name and password, each user logs in with an individual user name and password, or all users log in with a specified user name and password. For more information about configuring proxy authentication, see the "Administering Web Clipping" appendix of the Oracle Application Server Portal Configuration Guide.

B.4.6 Cannot Clip a Page

You can connect to the Web site, but you cannot clip the page.

Problem

The page may be overpopulated with IFrames.

Solution

View the page in a browser and look at the page source. If it contains IFrames, start browsing in Web Clipping Studio using the URL pointed to by the IFrame src attribute.

B.4.7 Images Not Retrieved with Clipping

Images in a Web clipping are not retrieved with the rest of the clipping.

Problem

Because images are treated as links (using the src attribute of the IMG tag), images from clipped sites are served directly from the original sites. If the images require that you enable proxy settings during creation of the clipping, then disabling the browser proxy setting disables the viewing of the images in a clipping.

Solution

Enable proxy settings in the browser.

B.4.8 Resolving Problems with Migration of URL-based Portlets

You can migrate URL-based portlets that are stored in a provider.xml file to Web Clipping portlets. This section explains how to troubleshoot issues that arise as you migrate your portlets to Web Clipping portlets. For more information on the migration process itself, refer to Section 5.5, "Migrating from URL-Based Portlets".

Exception in thread "main" java.io.FileNotFoundException:
 /wrongpath/somservice.properties (No such file or directory)
        at java.io.FileInputStream.open(Native Method)
        at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(FileInputStream.java:103)
        at oracle.webdb.wcs.client.urlservices.UrlServicesMigrator.importService
                                             (UrlServicesMigrator.java:631)
        at oracle.webdb.wcs.client.urlservices.UrlServicesMigrator.main
                                             (UrlServicesMigrator.java:724)
        at oracle.webdb.wcs.WcWebdbMain.main(WcWebdbMain.java:60)

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
        at java.util.Hashtable.put(Hashtable.java:375)
        at java.util.Properties.setProperty(Properties.java:97)
        at oracle.webdb.wcs.client.urlservices.UrlServicesMigrator.setRepository
                                                  (UrlServicesMigrator.java:415)
        at oracle.webdb.wcs.client.urlservices.UrlServicesMigrator.main
                                                  (UrlServicesMigrator.java:733)
        at oracle.webdb.wcs.WcWebdbMain.main(WcWebdbMain.java:58)

Error: Target provider.xml is already migrated.

Error: Can't migrate provider.xml with class <someclass>