PK41337: WHEN EDITING A PARAM VIA THE ADMIN PORTLET FOR PORTLETS, IN A JSR 168 PORTLET, IT WILL TREAT COMMAS AS A DELIMETER

6.0.1.7 Download: WebSphere Portal and Web Content Manager V6.0.1, fix pack 7
6.0.1.5 Download: WebSphere Portal and Web Content Management V6.0.1 fix pack 5

APAR status

• Closed as program error.

Error description

• If you have a single value attribute for a jsr 168 portlet in
  the portlet.xml like the following
  
  <preference>
      <name>test1</name>
      <value>this is a test of the emergancy broadcast system,
  this is only a test</value>
     </preference>
  
  and you edit that via the admin portlet for portlets,  it will
  treat the comma as a delimeter of a multi value attribute, and
  will change it to be like this
  
  <preference>
      <name>test1</name>
      <value>this is a test of the emergancy broadcast system
  </value>
  <value>this is only a test</value>
     </preference>
  
  there is no way to escape this so that it ignores it as a
  delimeter, 6.0 does have this functionality
  

Local fix

• update the param via xmlaccess
  

Problem summary

• If you have a single value attribute for a jsr 168 portlet in
  the portlet.xml like the following test1 this is a test of the
  emergancy broadcast system, this is only a test and you edit
  that via the admin portlet for portlets, it will treat the comma
  as a delimeter of a multi value attribute, and will change it to
  be like this test1 this is a test of the emergancy broadcast
  system this is only a test there is no way to escape this so
  that it ignores it as a delimeter, 6.0 does have this
  functionality
  

Problem conclusion

• Fix is available from IBM Support:
  https://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/iwm/web/preLogin.do?source
  =swgwp-fixes&S_PKG=PK41337
  You might need to copy and paste the complete URL into your
  browser.
  
  Portlet was modified to allow escaped commas in a preference
  value for JSR 168 portlets. The new allow.escaped.commas
  preference for the Manage My Portlets portlet must be set to
  true to enable this
  capability so that existing customers relying on the old
  behavior are not affected. Once enabled multi-valued preferences
  are separated by commas
  and will appear like this in the Manage Portlets user interface:
  HH,MM,SS
  
  Single values with escaped commas will appear like this:
  Go to jail\, go directly to jail
  
  To enter such a value it would be typed in as it appears above
  with the backslash preceding the comma. Of course the values
  within a multivalued preference can contain escaped commas, like
  this:
  Go to jail\, go directly to jail,Do not pass Go\,do not collect
  $200
  
  When processed by the portlet during initialization it will see
  this:
  preference-value[0]Go to jail, go directly to jail
  preference-value[1]Do not pass Go, do not collect $200
  
  Preference values can begin and end with escaped commas as well.
  
  To enable the new feature, login as wpsadmin and do the
  following:
  -- Click Administration -> Portlet Management -> Portlets
  -> Manage Portlets configure (wrench) icon
        -- In the New parameter field type: allow.escaped.commas
        -- In the New value field type: true
        -- Click Add
        -- Click OK
        -- Restart WebSphere_Portal server
  

Temporary fix

Comments

APAR Information

• APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

• APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Fix information

• Fixed component name

  WEBSPHERE PORTA

• Fixed component ID

  5724E7600

Applicable component levels

• R600 PSY

     UP