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432 Document Management Using WebSphere Portal V5.0.2 and DB2 Content Manager V8.2

Figure C-1 Example of Manage Applications page as seen by test user

WebSphere Portal - XMLAccess

XMLAccess is a small command-line client that connects to the portal server via

an HTTP connection. Therefore, it allows an administrator to connect to the

WebSphere Portal server remotely.

XMLAccess can be used for the following purposes:

 Export an entire portal configuration or parts of the configuration to an xml file.

You can then import this file into another portal in order to recreate the desired

configuration.

 Install additional resources to the current portal.

 Perform common administrative tasks in a scripted manner.

Appendix C. Administration tools and tasks 433

Using XMLAccess in a secure environment

XMLAccess does not currently support an HTTPS connection. Therefore, an

administrator must choose one of the following options to secure communication

with XMLAccess:

 Run XMLAccess from a secure location within your firewall where you can be

certain the transaction cannot be compromised. If port 80 cannot be enabled,

then port 9081 is another option (http transport for the application server).

 Set up an SSH connection to create an encrypted network tunnel for use with

XMLAccess.

In order to use the XMLAccess configuration interface, you must have the

manager role on the virtual resource XMLACCESS, as well as the administrator

role on the virtual resource PORTAL.

Running the XMLAccess client

The XMLAccess client can be run from any directory on local or remote

machines that meets the following requirements:

 Java runtime is installed.

 XMLAccess.bat and tools.jar reside in the working directory.

To run XMLAccess, do the following:

1. Ensure the WebSphere_Portal application server is running.

2. Open a command prompt and change to the directory containing

XMLAccess.bat.

3. Run the following command

Note: XMLAccess should not be used for backing up and restoring

production systems since XMLAccess is not designed to deal efficiently

with large volumes of data.

Also, it should be pointed out that a complete backup of the portal

configuration is not enough to recreate the portal on another machine. You

must also copy the WAR files for the portlets, and perhaps additional

resources such as themes that are not included as part of the standard

portal installation.

Note: You may have to adapt the PATH settings in the .bat file to point to

your Java runtime. The XMLAccess.bat and tools.jar are initially placed in

the <wp_home>\bin directory during the WebSphere Portal installation.

434 Document Management Using WebSphere Portal V5.0.2 and DB2 Content Manager V8.2

xmlaccess -in <xml_file> -user <username>-pwd <password> -url

<portal_config_url> -out <result_xml_file>

Explanation of command-line syntax:

– <xml_file>: The name of the input file containing the XML request

(configuration export or update) that should be processed.

– <username>: The short username describing the authority under which

the request should be processed. Full distinguished names (DN) are not

supported.

– <password>: Password for user.

– <portal_config_url>: The URL to access the portal configuration servlet

(for example, http://wpwin1.itso.ral.ibm.com/wps/config).

– <result_xml_file>: The name of the output file containing the resulting

XML.

Exporting the WebSphere Portal configuration

We will provide the standard example of exporting the entire WebSphere Portal

configuration (excluding users). To export the configuration do the following:

1. Copy the xmlaccess.bat and tools.jar (located in <wp_home>/bin) to a secure

workstation in your environment.

2. Edit the xmlaccess.bat to reflect the correct path for the java environment on

your workstation.

3. Create your input file. For example, we did the following:

a. Create a new file (with a text editor) called export.xml in the directory that

contains xmlaccess.bat on your workstation.

b. Populate export.xml with the xml shown in Example 12-1.

Example 12-1 Contents of sample export.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<request

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"

xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="PortalConfig_1.2.xsd"

type="export"

export-users="false">

<!-- This exports the complete portal configuration (not including users).

Note: The <xml_file> must be created and reside in the working directory

(or you can specify a path to the file in your command line) prior to running

XMLAccess.