Configuring IBM Connections integration for task notifications

Process Portal users can set their preferences to receive a notification in IBM® Connections when a new task is assigned to them. To use this capability, you must configure the integration with IBM Connections.

Before you begin

Attention: Process Portal now also supports displaying business card information. The following information applies to both Heritage Process Portal and Process Portal.

• IBM Business Process Manager must be configured to use the same user repository that the IBM Connections server uses.
• If you want your team of Process Portal users to receive notifications about tasks in IBM Connections, you must have IBM Connections V4 or later.
• If you want your team to use IBM Connections only for business card information, see Enabling IBM Connections integration for Process Portal.

To configure the integration for task notifications in IBM Connections, complete the following steps:

1. Configure the IBM BPM server to use the same LDAP server that the IBM Connections server uses.
2. Enable SSO for the IBM BPM server.
   1. In the administrative console, select Security > Global Security.
   2. In the Authentication cache settings section, expand Web and SIP security and select Single sign-on (SSO).
   3. Select Enabled, select Interoperability Mode, and select Web inbound security attribute. Make sure to include the correct domain name and change the cookie names to match your environment.
      Tip: Add a period before the domain name, for example .ibm.com.
3. Configure cross-cell security for the IBM BPM server and the IBM Connections server.
   1. Configure Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) by exchanging the server SSL certificates.
      Extract the root SSL certificate from the IBM Connections server. Use the administrative console on the Process Portal server to complete the following actions:

      1. Select Security > SSL certificate and key management > Key stores and certificates > DefaultTrustStore > Signer certificates.
      2. Click Retrieve from port.
      3. Specify the host name and SSL port (for example, the admin host secure port) of the remote Process Center server.
      4. Specify an alias that you want to use for the root signer.
      5. Click Retrieve signer information and verify that the retrieved signer information is correct.
      6. Save the root signer in the local truststore.

      To retrieve the root signer of the Process Portal server, repeat the previous steps on the IBM Connections server.

   2. Share the LTPA keys by exporting the LTPA key from the IBM Connections server and importing it into the keystore of the Process Portal server. Sharing LTPA keys is required for configuring cross-cell security for the IBM BPM server and the IBM Connections server.
      Tip: When multiple cells are involved, one set of LTPA keys is shared among them. Therefore, administrators must plan which set of LTPA keys to use in the organization and ensure that the automatic LTPA key generation is turned off. Otherwise, if a new set is generated, the cells can become unsynchronized.

      1. In the administrative console of the remote IBM Connections server, select Security > Global Security.
      2. In the Authentication section, click LTPA.
      3. In the Cross-cell single sign-on section, type a new password and a fully qualified key file name.
      4. Click Export keys.
      5. Transfer the exported key file in binary mode to the file system of the local Process Portal server by repeating the previous steps on the administrative console of the Process Portal server and clicking Import keys.
   3. Verify that cross-cell security is configured correctly.
      1. Log in to your IBM Connections server.
      2. In the same browser session, launch the URL for your IBM BPM server.
      If security is configured correctly, you are not prompted to log in to the IBM BPM server.
4. Optional: If you want to customize the URLs of links to gadgets, configure the optional scenario key SERVER_EMAIL_GADGET_LINK, as described in Configuring endpoints to match your topology.
   Tip: By default, links to widgets are generated using the EXTERNAL_CLIENT scenario key, which points to the IBM BPM server or, if you have one, the web server.
5. Enable task notifications in IBM Connections on the server by editing the 100Custom.xml file.

   For information about modifying the 100Custom.xml file, see The 100Custom.xml file and configuration.

   1. Insert the following XML code in the <server> section of the file:

      <connections-task-notification merge="mergeChildren">
      <!-- Change the value to true in order to enable connections task notification-->
      <enable-connections-task-notification merge="replace">true</enable-connections-task-notification>
      </connections-task-notification>

   2. Restart the deployment manager, nodes, and clusters.