Using a Web Proxy Server with WebCenter Family

The use of a Web Tier is always recommended in a production environment, for security, performance and better control and load management, no matter if is a Intranet, internet or extranet environment.

The most common use for the Web Tier with WebCenter is acting as Reverse Proxy to forward all requests to a frontend WebCenter site to the application server (Figure A), but there’s to many ways to do an enterprise deployment with a web tier and many flavors of web servers and load balancing options.

Let’s start with the WebLogic plugin with supported webservers. You can found the standard plugins in your WebLogic instalation dir, that will something like “%WEBLOGIC_HOME%/server/plugin/%OS%/”, but I recommend you to download the latest plugin from Oracle’s OTN or eDelivery websites, you will found the Oracle WebLogic Server Web Server Plugins 1.1 or later. With the version 1.1 you will found plugins for Apache 2.2.x (32-Bits and 64-Bits) and for IIS 6+ and IIS 7+. Always confirm the OS support with the WLS Plugin Support Matrix. If you need support for iPlanet 6+ or 7+, you can use the version 1.0. Any throuble to found the files, try search or create to the Oracle support (Ref.: Doc ID 1111903.1).

Some times you do not want to use a separate web server, you can use the WebLogic as a Web Server by using a servlet, but this is subject for another post.

When you are deploying a WebCenter solution using a proxy server, you need to remember to proxy all your requests from all weblogics for Security, performance and Control and also all non-weblogic requests such as static files, WebCenter Content custom requests, Services, Portlets and 3rd Party.

Is common in intranet deployments you see calls direct to the application servers, calls to several different servers, like the Figure C.

Above you can see the same sample with all calls using the web server, for proxy forward, for reverse proxy, static files caching, even the use of Oracle Coherence is easy when you have a WebCenter Spaces + Content deployment.

We cannot forget to talk about the clustering and load balancers, Clustering is easy done by the WebLogic, you just need to follow the documentation. For Load balancing you need to choose what kind and what load balancer you will use.

LOAD BALANCING

You can do load balancing using the Web Proxy Server with WLS Plugin or a servlet as mentioned above or a External Load Balancer (Hardware) or Appliance.

Using the WLS Plugin you will need to remember to create a entry for WebCenter Server that are you using, that means that you need to create a entry for the /webcenter/ another for the /cs/, another for the “custom sitestudio” calls, for the portlets (If you do not create a parent folder for the portlets, you will need to create a entry for each portlet) and an entry for any other 3rd calls.

The configuration file for each entry will looks like this sample for IIS7:

# Changed by Oracle A-Team (Adao.Junior)
# Date: 07/31/2011
# WebCenter Content: CUSTOMER_WEB_SERVER
# WLSPlugin1.1-IIS6-IIS7-win64-x64
WebLogicCluster=192.168.100.101:8888,192.168.100.102:8888,192.168.100.101:8891,192.168.100.102:8891
ConnectTimeoutSecs=25
ConnectRetrySecs=5
KeepAliveEnabled=true
FileCaching=ON
SecureProxy=OFF
Debug=OFF
WLTempDir=C:\DEBUG\CONTENT

For a External Load Balancer (Hardware) you have many options, such as the f5 Big-IP, a guide to help you deploy with WebCenter could be found here.

There’s a option to use a hybrid configuration, with Hardware loadbalancers and Web Proxy to handle the web calls between the users and web farms, and web proxies and between the proxies and applications servers.

Configuring OracleWebcenter Capture with Oracle WebCenter Imaging Receipts App

Introduction

This blog entry walks the reader through the configuration of Oracle Webcenter Capture (formerly known as Oracle Document Capture) in support of EBS Receipt Processing as part of the Oracle Webcenter Imaging (formerly known as Oracle Imaging and Process Management, Oracle I/PM) solution. Oracle Webcenter capture is responsible for production level document scanning and indexing and is an integral part of Oracle WebCenter Imaging, which provides an enterprise level end-to-end platform for managing document images within transactional business processes.In this scenario, the following components will be configured within Webcenter capture: File Cabinet, Index Profile, Import Server, Recognition Server, and the Commit Server.

• File Cabinet, part of the Capture Administration, is the “container” into which batches are scanned. As part of the file cabinet, index fields can be defined such that the values entered can be searched upon within the content management system such as Oracle Webcenter Imaging. In this case, the value(s) will be autopopulated by the Recognition Server when it reads the barcode of an Expense Report. The same index fields could be populated from a pick-list or a database lookup.
• Index Profile: Enables additional configuration changes that need to be applied when users will need to index a batch.
• Import Server: Imports images directly into Oracle Webcenter Capture from multiple sources including network folders, email, FTP sites, list files, and fax providers.
• Recognition Server: This component is used to automate indexing through the recognition of barcode technology. For example, recognition server will interpret the barcode on an expense report, and will commit the document as soon as it has completed indexing the value.
• Commit Server: This component processes batch commits on a scheduled basis. For example, the scanning and indexing could occur on independent workstations during business hours while the commit process using the commit server could occur during the off-peak hours.
Assumptions:
• A ‘Receipts’ Application has already been created in Oracle WebCenter Imaging.
• Connectivity between Oracle Webcenter Capture and Oracle WebCenter Imaging.
• Receipts are submitted with a cover sheet that contains a bar code with the expense report number.

1. First step would be to create a File Cabinet in Oracle Webcenter Capture. Call it ‘Expenses’.


2.Add 2 Index Fields, Expense Report and Classification. Ensure that both parameters are alphanumeric and have a max length of 25. Make sure that Expense Report is a Required Field. The values from the Index fields will be passed into the Imaging Application.

3. Add Batch Statuses that indicate 'Ready for Recognition' and 'Failed Recognition'.


4. Under the Commit Profile, edit the Profile.
Profile Name: Oracle IPM11g Driver Change the Commit Driver to Oracle I/PM 11g Commit Driver Ensure that the Document Output Format is Tiff-Multiple
Page. If a document already exists, overwrite.

5. Click on 'Configure' on Oracle I/PM 11g Commit Driver.
On the General Tab ensure the following: Direct Commit. UserID: e.g weblogic Password: e.g welcome1 Security Policy: Basic Security IPM Service URL: http:// of IPM Application>:Port/imaging/ws
http://singapore.us.oracle.com:16000/imaging/ws Click Connect.

6.Under the Field Mappings Tab, ensure you’re in the Receipts Application then map the ODC to IPM fields.
ODC Field: Expense Report to IPM Application Field: Expense Number ODC Field: Classification to IPM Application Field: Classification Click OK when done.


7. The next step is to create an Index Profile. Within Oracle WebCenter Capture, Click on Indexing and then Manage Index Profiles.
On the General Tab Profile Name: Expense Index Profile File Cabinet: Expenses



8, Skip the Filter Tab and click the Option Tab. Check the ‘Use the Commit Server’ option.

9 .Click on the Fields Tab and select the ‘Classification’ and ‘Expense Report’ values.

10, Save the Index Profile and Close. The next step is to configure the Import Server
11. Click on the Import Server, Setup, Batch Jobs, Folder/List Provider. Add Job. On the
General Tab
File Cabinet: Expenses
Batch Prefix: EXP
Default Batch Status: Ready for Recognition

12. Move onto the Image Output Tab and uncheck the ‘Retain Native Image Format’ and move onto the Folder/List File Provider Settings.
Import from Folder.
Import Folder: e.g C:\Oracle\Document Capture\ExpenseImport
After Import: Rename image file extension To: dun
Save and Close.

13. Configure the Recognition Server. Click on Setup and then Batch Job

General Tab.

Batch Job Name: Expenses

File Cabinet: Expenses

Batch Prefixes: EXP

Batch Status: Ready for Recognition

Minutes to Wait: 0.

Check the ‘Use Commit Server’.

Check and Change Batch Status to: Failed Recognition.

14. Click on the Bar Code Recognition Tab. Uncheck the Enable the Auto-detect and select the Code-128.


15. Click on the Bar Codes Tab. Click on ‘New’ under the Bar Code Definitions.
Description: Bar Code
Validation Rule: mask
Mask:#####.
Since it is expected that the expense report number would be 5 characters, the mask would be #####. If the expense report number were 6 characters, the mask would be expected to be ######.
Click Save.

16. Move to the Processing Tab.Bar Code: Bar Code. (This was created in the prior step).Check 'Clear All Index Values' and 'Keep Document Seperator.

17. Click on the Fields Tab.
Index Field Name: Classification
Auto Populate with: Default
Value: EXPENSE
Index Field Name: Expense Report
Auto Populate with: Bar Code
Description: Bar Code
Click on Save and Close.

18. Configure the Commit Server.

Click on Setup and the Batch Jobs.

On the General Tab Click New.Check the Expenses File Cabinet.

19, Move onto the Batch Criteria Tab.
File Cabinet: Expenses
Process all batch prefixes
Process all batch statuses

20. Schedule and Activate the Commit Server.
In the Scheduler, click on the Schedule Event.
Event: All File Cabinets
Frequency: Every 30 seconds.
Click OK and Close.
On the Commit Server, Click on 'Activate' under the 'Server' Menu.



21. Follow the same procedure for the Recognition Server and Import Server. When scheduling the Event for the Recognition Server, select ‘Expenses’ for the Event and ‘Every 30 seconds’ for the Frequency. Activate the Event.



22. Schedule the Job in the Import Server ensuring that the images will be picked up from the right import folder and choose the frequency as ‘Every 30 seconds’. Activate the Event.



23. Once the servers are activated, the image of the expense report should be picked up from the Import folder and processed through the recognition server where the expense report number should be retrieved and committed through to the Imaging server.

24. In the Imaging Application, do a search for the committed Expense Report.