Oracle® Application Server Portal Configuration Guide
10g Release 2 (10.1.4) B19305-03 |
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The Oracle Application Server Portal architecture is designed around a three-tier architecture that allows any browser to connect to it. This flexible architecture allows each component (browser, Oracle HTTP Server listener, Oracle Database 10g, and OracleAS Portal) to be upgraded individually as required.
A part of the OracleAS Portal middle tier, the Parallel Page Engine (PPE) is a servlet that runs under Oracle Containers for J2EE and services page requests. The PPE reads page metadata, calls providers for portlet content, accepts provider responses, and assembles the requested page in the specified page layout.
When a page is requested from OracleAS Portal, the request is made from the browser to the Oracle HTTP Server listener. The returned page is comprised of many types of portlets. A portlet is an area on a portal page that contains data from a particular data source.
The PPE obtains the page metadata from the Oracle Application Server Metadata Repository and is responsible for assembling the portlets on the page.
Starting from Oracle9iAS release 9.0.2 and later, all of the servlets are installed under OC4J, based upon the application deployment. All of the configuration parameters for PPE are entered in the web.xml
file, that is, in the <servlet>
element with a <servlet-name>
value of page
. In the default installation, this file can be found at the following location:
MID_TIER_ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/OC4J_Portal/applications/portal/portal/WEB-INF/
Table D-1 describes each of the different configuration parameters available for use with the PPE. Each parameter affects the operation of the PPE in a different manner. Some are simply for logging, while others can affect the performance of the engine or OracleAS Portal itself. In most cases, the default values should be sufficient; however, there may be configurations where this is not the case. Each parameter is described with its syntax, description, and default.
Table D-1 Parallel Page Engine (PPE) Parameters
PPE Setting | Syntax | Description | Default Value |
---|---|---|---|
<init-param> <param-name>x509certfile</param-name> <param-value>c:\certificates\trustedcerts.txt</param-value> </init-param> |
Specifies a file containing a list of certificates to be implicitly trusted by HTTPClient. These certificates are added as trust points to all connections made by HTTPClient using SSL. Once this setting is in use, all SSL connections must be trusted. Otherwise, HTTPClient will throw an exception in the PPE. Note that SSL connections are made from the PPE for two reasons, and this configuration affects both: loopback requests to the portal, for example, for PMD. show calls to Providers. Note that the file specified here can be obtained from a wallet by exporting all trusted certificates, but the comments in the resultant file must be removed. Alternatively, it can be created manually. |
trust points not used |
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<init-param> <param-name>versionOnSplashScreen</param-name> <param-value>false</param-value> </init-param> |
Indicates whether the PPE must display version information on the splash screen. |
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<init-param> <param-name>useScheme</param-name> <param-value>http</param-value> </init-param> |
Overrides the scheme (HTTP or https) used when the PPE makes requests to the portal. The default, if not specified, is to always use the page request scheme. Note that you must set the You need to specify these in scenarios where public access is through https on port A, and you want to set PPE requests to use a faster http connection on port B. |
Use page request scheme |
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<init-param> <param-name>usePort</param-name> <param-value>8888</param-value> </init-param> |
Overrides the port used when the PPE makes requests to the portal. The default, if not specified, is to always use the page request port. Note that you must set the You need to specify these in scenarios where public access is through https on port A, and you want to set PPE requests to use a faster http connection on port B. |
Use page request port |
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<init-param> <param-name>useDeviceNameCacheKeys</param-name> <param-value>false</param-value> </init-param> |
This key is used to specify whether the mobile device name or device class must be used while building cache keys. The default is for the device class to be used. If set to Refer to Section C.9, "Using the cfgxodnc.pl Script to Change the Mobile Device Component of the Cache Key" for more information. |
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<init-param> <param-name>urlDebugUsers</param-name> <param-value>fred,bill,ben</param-value> </init-param> |
This is specified to indicate the list of users allowed to use the _debug URL parameter, subject to the value restriction in the The format is a comma-delimited list of portal user names, with leading and trailing spaces being ignored. |
none required |
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<init-param> <param-name>urlDebugMode</param-name> <param-value>1</param-value> </init-param> |
Specifies the highest value of the _debug URL parameter that the PPE should honor. Possible values for _debug are:
If a value higher than that allowed is received by the PPE, it is reduced to the highest value permitted, or ignored if no value is allowed. The values build incrementally. For example, at debug value |
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<init-param> <param-name>stall</param-name> <param-value>120</param-value> </init-param> |
If the response headers are returned, but the data itself lags behind, then a stall comes into affect. This value keeps the PPE from holding on to connections forever. Once the response headers are received, the PPE makes every effort to wait as long as is feasible to retrieve all of the data. Set this value appropriately if the portlets being requested are large, or running over a slow network. Note that the upper limit of this parameter should be set to a response time acceptable by a Web user (typically a few seconds). |
65 sec |
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<init-param> <param-name>showPageDebug</param-name> <param-value>false</param-value> </init-param> |
If you set Refer to Section C.7, "Timing and Caching Statistics" for a description of the timing and caching statistics. |
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<init-param> <param-name>showError</param-name> <param-value>true</param-value> </init-param> |
When a portlet times out, or something within the PPE goes wrong with a particular portlet request, an error is displayed to the user. The messages tend to be generic, but do give the user some information and an indication that the page did not display as expected. If you set this to |
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<init-param>
<param-name>resourceUrlKey</param-name>
<param-value>KEY</param-value>
</init-param>
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This key is used by the PPE to calculate checksums for URLs that are requested by WSRP and JPDK resource proxying. For WSRP resource proxying to work, the key must be set to an alpha-numeric value of 10 characters or more. In addition, for JPDK proxying, a JNDI environment variable, also called |
none |
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<init-param> <param-name>requesttime</param-name> <param-value>30</param-value> </init-param> |
This is the default time out assigned to portlet requests that do not have their own time out value specified. It is applied as the amount of time (in seconds) allowed before response headers are returned by the server. Time outs are weighted by where they originate. If the portlet sets its own time out value, then that is the time out that is used. If no portlet time out is available, then the provider registration time out is used. If neither of these is present, then the Note that the upper limit of this parameter should be set to a response time acceptable by a Web user (typically a few seconds). |
30 sec |
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<init-param> <param-name>queueTimeout</param-name> <param-value>10</param-value> </init-param> |
The amount of time a request should stay in the queue before being timed out. This parameter can be used if requests for portlets are timing out, but the requests are never being sent. Although this points to other performance problems that could be solved by alternative configurations, this option is available to allow requests to stay in the queue for longer or shorter periods of time. |
10 sec |
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<init-param> <param-name>proxyHost</param-name> <param-value>ph.comp.com</param-value> </init-param> <init-param> <param-name>proxyPort</param-name> <param-value>8888</param-value> </init-param> |
This is the host name and port number of a proxy server that may be required to request data from the Oracle Application Server. These parameters are only required if a proxy server is in use between PPE and the Oracle Application Server listener. |
n/a |
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<init-param> <param-name>poolSize</param-name> <param-value>25</param-value> </init-param> |
This represents the number of connections that the PPE is capable of making at any one time. This value can be raised or lowered based upon performance needs. Setting the number higher makes more threads and connections available for use; however, this uses more resources. |
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<init-param> <param-name>offlinePath</param-name> <param-value>/path/offline.html</param-value> </init-param> <init-param> <param-name>offlinePathMxml</param-name> <param-value>/path/offline.xml</param-value> </init-param> |
By setting either of these, the PPE is set to display the desired off-line message. There are two available messages: one for an HTML browser and one for a mobile enabled device. |
null |
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<init-param> <param-name>minTimeout</param-name> <param-value>5</param-value> </init-param> |
This is the minimum timeout allowed to be used by a Portlet. Thus, if the |
5 sec |
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<init-param> <param-name>maxParallelPortlets</param-name> <param-value>20</param-value> </init-param> |
Used to specify the maximum number of portlet requests for a given page, that should be allowed, to execute at the same time. Allowed values are:
Any positive integer - Indicates a restriction on simultaneous requests. |
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<init-param> <param-name>maxParallelPagePortlets</param-name> <param-value>20</param-value> </init-param> |
Used to limit the number of page portlet requests that are allowed to execute at the same time in the PPE. Allowed values are as follows:
Any positive integer - Indicates a restriction on simultaneous requests. |
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<init-param> <param-name>logmode</param-name> <param-value>debug</param-value> </init-param> |
Enables the PPE to run in debug mode. This mode writes debug information to the PPE log file. This mode does cause some degradation in performance because large amounts of information are being written to disk. The PPE log file (
Allowed values are:
The values build incrementally. For example, at logging level |
none - no debug messages |
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<init-param> <param-name>jspSrcAlias</param-name> <param-value>/PATH</param-value> </init-param> |
The Alias for the jsp engine, like |
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<init-param> <param-name>jspRoot</param-name> <param-value>/JSP PATH/</param-value> </init-param> |
The relative path where JSP files for JSP Pages can be found. |
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<init-param> <param-name>httpsports</param-name> <param-value>433:444</param-value> </init-param> |
This is a colon (':') separated list of ports on which OracleAS Portal is configured to use SSL. |
null |
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<init-param> <param-name>enableWebCacheStaticRules</param-name> <param-value>false</param-value> </init-param> |
This key is not used if you are running 10g Release 2 (10.1.4) of the portal repository, and is provided only for backward compatibility when you use a 10g Release 2 (10.1.4) middle tier with an earlier release of the portal repository. If you are using an earlier release of the portal repository, then consider the following: If set to If set to Note: It is recommended to use the default value, |
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<init-param> <param-name>dmsLogging</param-name> <param-value>false</param-value> </init-param> |
If you set |
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<init-param> <param-name>cacheEncryptionKey</param-name> <param-value>KEY</param-value> </init-param> |
This key is used to obscure the headers used for caching using OracleAS Web Cache. This allows for a more secure cache key, and makes retrieving a cached object more difficult for unwanted requests. This key is not used if you are running 10g Release 2 (10.1.4) of the portal repository, and is provided only for backward compatibility when you use a 10.1.4 middle tier with an earlier release of the portal repository. |
Server Context information |