Introduction

An enterprise search system provides extensive capabilities for searching any number of structured and unstructured data sources with a single point of access. The search components installed with WebSphere Information Integrator OmniFind Edition (OmniFind) can collect diverse enterprise information and make that information available for searching.

In OmniFind, Version 8.3, WebSphere Portal Document Manager is a newly supported data source. OmniFind integrates with WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition in order to configure the search crawler in a Portal Document Manager repository. Upon completing this integration, OmniFind can then crawl, parse, index, and search a Portal Document Manager repository on any number of specified Portal Document Manager item classes.

This article provides step-by-step instructions for performing the integration between OmniFind and Portal Document Manager using WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition. Note that this setup can also be used by other WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition repositories in an enterprise search collection, such as Documentum Content Server, FileNet Content Services, Hummingbird Enterprise Document Management, and so on.

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Prerequisites

The instructions in this article assume your environment is set up like the environment shown in Figure 1. In the diagram shown in Figure 1, the enterprise search servers are installed in a multiple-server configuration (see the OmniFind Information Center for further information about the installation procedure), and the Portal machine resides on a separate node.

It is important to note that OmniFind is installed in a multiple-server configuration, in which the search crawler component does not reside on a machine that has an application server. In this case, the WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition connector that the crawler uses must use direct-mode access to the Portal Document Manager repository -- the scenario covered in this article. You can also use this article as a reference for variations of this deployment; configuration steps will be almost identical.

The products and versions covered in this article include:

• WebSphere Information Integrator OmniFind Edition, Version 8.3
• WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition, Version 8.3
• WebSphere Portal Enable, Version 5.1.0.1 (Portal Document Manager is a component of Portal)

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Overview

The high-level tasks required to successfully set up a Portal Document Manager crawler in OmniFind are:

1. Install WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition RMI proxy connector on the Portal machine
2. Configure WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition Portal Document Manager connector
3. Configure direct-mode access to Portal Document Manager (a WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition repository)
4. Install APAR PK10952
5. Create WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition crawler in OmniFind

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Install WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition RMI proxy connector on the Portal node

This section describes the actions required to install the WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition RMI proxy connector on the portal node on an AIX operating system. Before proceeding to this step, ensure that your system has 230MB of free space in your installation directory.

1. Log on as root or an administrator with root privilege.
   
   
2. Launch the WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition InstallShield wizard. (Make sure JRE 1.4 is installed on your system.)
   
   
3. Click Next on the first panel to choose to install WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition.
   
   
4. Accept the default path to install WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition. The default path is /opt/IBM/WebSphereIICE. (Note: This article refers to this path later as the IICE_HOME directory.) Click Next.
   
   Figure 2. WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition installation screen - Choosing an install directory
   
   
   
5. Select the Connectors Only installation option, then click Next.
   
   Figure 3. WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition installation screen - Choosing installation type
   
   
   
6. Select IBM WebSphere Portal Document Manager Connector, then click Next.
   
   Figure 4. WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition installation screen - Selecting Portal Document Manager Connector
   
   
   
7. Review the installation summary, and click Install.
   
   Figure 5. WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition installation screen - Summary information
   
   
   
8. Review the installation log when the install is complete to verify that the installation is successful.

After completing this step, you have successfully installed the vbr.jar and vbr_pdm.jar files to your portal server.

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Configure WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition Portal Document Manager Connector

This section describes the actions required to deploy the services.war file to WebSphere Portal Server. The services.war file is located in the <IICE_HOME>/war directory.

1. Launch the WebSphere Application Server Administrative Console.

   For WebSphere Application Server, Version 5, you can launch the Administrative Console by opening a Web browser to URL http://hostname:port/admin, where hostname is the hostname of the WebSphere Portal Server, and port is the port number of the WebSphere Application Server Administrative Console. Typically, the administrative console is port 9090.

2. In the right panel of the WebSphere Application Server Administrative Console, expand Application, and click on Install New Application.
   
   
3. Check the radio button beside server path, and type in <IICE_HOME>/war/services.war, where <IICE_HOME> is your WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition installation path. (Refer to step 4 in the previous section.) Under Context Root, type in the parameter /services, and then click Next.
   
   Figure 6: Installing Services.war
   
   
   
4. For the next three screens, accept the default values, and click Next or Continue to proceed.
   
   
5. Map the new application to WebSphere Portal by selecting the checkbox beside the module "IBM WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition Services" and choosing WebSphere:cell=<cell_name>, node=<node_name>,server=WebSphere_Portal under the list Clusters and Servers. Cell_name and node_name are your WebSphere Portal Server's cell name and node name. Click Apply, and then lick Next.
   
   Figure 7. Map application to WebSphere Portal
   
   
   
6. Click Next and then Finish.
   
   
7. Click Save to Master Configuration on the final application installation screen, and then click Save again.
   
   Figure 8. Save application install to master configuration
   
   
   In the following steps, files vbr.jar and vbr_pdm.jar are added to a shared library for the services.war application to complete WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition Portal Document Manager configuration on the portal server machine.
   
   
8. In the WebSphere Application Server Administrative Console, create a shared library called IICE Library by expanding Environment in the left panel and then choosing Shared Libraries. Click New.
   
   
9. In the new shared libraries panel, under the general properties in the configuration tab:
   1. Enter in IICE Library in the Name field.
   2. Enter a short description such as "contains library for service_war application" in the Description field.
   3. Enter <IICE_HOME>/lib/vbr.jar and <IICE_HOME>/ejb/vbr_pdm.jar in the Classpath field.
   
   
   Figure 9. New shared library
   
   
   
10. Browse to your services_war application:
    1. Expand Applications in the left-hand panel.
    2. Select Enterprise Applications.
    3. Find and select the services_war application in the rendered list. The services_war configuration page will render.
11. Under additional properties in the Configuration screen, choose Libraries, and then click Add. Select IICE Library as the library reference to add. ClickApply and then Save to save this setting to the master configuration file.
    
    Figure 10. Add library reference
    
    
    
12. Verify the services are working properly by going to the URL http://<hostname>:9081/services/, where hostname is the hostname of your WebSphere Portal machine. You should see the status of your WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition services in your browser, similar to the screenshot in the Figure 11.
    
    Figure 11. Service monitor
    
    
    
13. Finally, set the vbr.home environment variable in Portal JVM to point to <IICE_HOME>, typically /opt/IBM/WebSphereIICE.
    1. Expand Servers and select Application Servers in the left-hand panel.
    2. Click on WebSphere_Portal to render the configuration page.
    3. Under additional properties, click on Process Definition.
    4. Under additional properties, click on Java Virtual Machines.
    5. Under additional properties, click on Custom Properties.
    6. In the General Properties page, type vbr.home in the name field and use <IICE_HOME> in the value field.
    7. Click Apply, and then clickSave.
    
    
    Figure 12. Set vbr.home variable
    
    
    

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Configure direct-mode access to Portal Document Manager (a WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition repository)

This section describes the actions required to configure the WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition administration console to run in direct mode and to configure the PDM connector on the OmniFind search crawler server.

1. Confirm that environment variables VBR_HOME and JAVA_HOME are pointing to the correct directory for <IICE_INSTALL_ROOT>. Typically, the <:IICE_INSTALL_ROOT> is /opt/IBM/es/content_edition and VBR_HOME is /opt/IBM/es/content_edition on your OmniFind crawler server.
   
   
2. Add vbr.as.operationMode=direct to the <IICE_INSTALL_ROOT>/bin/Admin.sh file. The file should contain the following:

					
	java -classpath \
	"$VBR_CLASSPATH" \
	-Dvbr.home="$VBR_HOME" \
	-Dvbr.as.operationMode=direct \ 
	-Dlog4j.category.com.venetica.vbr.tools.admin=WARN \
	com.venetica.vbr.tools.admin.AdminFrame $1 $2 $3 $4
	

3. To start the WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition administration tool in direct mode, run Admin.sh in <IICE_INSTALL_ROOT>/bin.
   
   
4. Create a new WebSphere Portal Document Manager connector:
   1. Right-click on Connectors.
   2. Select NEW IBM WebSphere Portal Document Manager Connector.
      
      Figure 13. New WebSphere Portal Document Manager connector in WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition
      
      
      
5. Configure the Portal Document Manager connector to use RMI proxy by setting the following parameters:
   1. Set Use RMI Proxy Connector property value to TRUE.
   2. Set RMI Proxy Connector URL to rmi://<WebSpherePortal_Server>:1251/RMIBridgeServer2, where <WebSpherePortal_Server> is your WebSphere Portal Server machine's hostname.
      
      Figure 14. Configure Portal Document Manager connector in WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition
      
      
      
6. Right-click on the Portal Document Manager connector and select Test Connection to verify that your configuration is set up properly. You will receive a message like that in Figure 15 if your RMI Proxy connector is configured correctly.
   
   Figure 15: Test Connection in WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition
   
   
   

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Install APAR PK10952

Please refer to the OmniFind Information Center for instructions on installing APAR PK10952.

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Create Content Edition crawler

After completing all the previous steps, you can create a Content Edition crawler to enable search for your Portal Document Manager repository in your WebSphere Information Integrator OmniFind Edition Administrative Interface.

Please refer to the OmniFind Information Center for crawler configuration instructions.

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Conclusion

This article takes you through the steps required before a Content Edition crawler in WebSphere Information Integrator OmniFind Edition can be created. The overall steps involved are installing a WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition RMI proxy Portal Document Manager connector on the Portal Server and integrating WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition with your WebSphere Portal Server. Crawl, parse, index, and search configuration can be made directly on the OmniFind administrator's interface once these steps are completed.

Resources

Learn

• developerWorks WebSphere Information Integration zone: Find more articles and tutorials about WebSphere Information Integrator OmniFind Edition and Content Edition.
  
  
• WebSphere Information Integrator OmniFind Edition Information Center: Your documentation resource for OmniFind.
  
  
• WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition Information Center: Your documentation resource for WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition.
  
  
• developerWorks Information Management zone: Expand your skills on a wide variety of IBM Information Management products.
  
  
• Stay current with developerWorks technical events and Webcasts.
  
  

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About the author

Janet joined IBM full time after graduating with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Computer Engineering degree from the University of Waterloo. She has previously worked at various IBM software functions within the Toronto IBM Software lab, including the DB2 Regression team and the Java Just-in-Time Compiler Development team. Janet is currently a part of Software Group Strategy, Scenario Analysis Lab, where she is implementing a customer-based scenario named the Employee Workplace, using various IBM products such as DB2 Content Manager, DB2 Document Manager, DB2 Records Manager, WebSphere Information Integrator OmniFind Edition, and WebSphere Portal.

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Table of contents

• Introduction
• Prerequisites
• Overview
• Install WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition RMI proxy connector on the Portal node
• Configure WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition Portal Document Manager Connector
• Configure direct-mode access to Portal Document Manager (a WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition repository)
• Install APAR PK10952
• Create Content Edition crawler
• Conclusion
• Resources
• About the author
• Comments

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