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Finder Methods in Liferay

2010-07-23T17:56:49Z

I have come across many newbies who find it difficuilt understanding & implementing the finder methods in Liferay.This blog will come as a rescue to those beginners.Here I will first explain the scenario where finder methods are used and then discuss its implementation.
Let take a scenario where we are making a database of the employees in some organization.Assume some of the fields as name ,gender,location,qualification etc .At some point of time ,we want to find all the employees belonging to a particular location.So here comes the concept of finder methods.
The first step in implementing a finder method is declaring the finder field in the service.xml.
In the service.xml file add the following line after declaring all the database columns ,

In the above declaration,for the finder attribute name ,a finder method named findByLocation() will be generated on ant build-service.The return type is Collection since there can be many employees from the same place.In some cases the return type may be Entity type also.The name attribute of finder-column is the corresponding column in the table which is associated with the finder method.
The second step is to run the ant target "ant build-service".This target will generate the Java Beans,Axis Web Services(if remote is set to true),Spring Configuration files,Hibernate Configuration files,SQL scripts,JSON interface.You can now go to the EntityNameUtil.java and find the finder method generated there.Also you can find overloaded methods in this class.

        public static java.util.List<com.mpower.intranet.mpdetails.model.MPDetail> findByLocation(
                java.lang.String location) throws com.liferay.portal.SystemException {
                return getPersistence().findByLocation(location);
            }

Copy the finder method from this class and paste it inside the EntityNameLocalServiceImpl class and do the modification as mentioned and shown below.Remove the static modifier and replace getPersistence() with MPDetailUtil.Here MPDetail is the EntityName.Put your own EntityNameUtil instead of MPDetailUtil.The modified method looks like the one below.Put this method inside the EntityNameLocalServiceImpl class.

        public java.util.List<com.mpower.intranet.mpdetails.model.MPDetail> findByLocation(
                java.lang.String location) throws com.liferay.portal.SystemException {
                return MPDetailUtil.findByLocation(location);
                }

Once again run the target "ant build-service" .You can now see the console which says writing classes EntityNameLocalServiceUtil.Finally you have cracked the Liferay finder methods and they are ready to use now.Here is how to use the finder method.
        List<MPDetail> details = MPDetailLocalServiceUtil.findByLocation("Pass your location parameter here");
Don't forget to replace the MPDetail with your EntityName.

Implementing XMLBeans

2010-07-13T17:28:17Z

XMLBeans is a fantastic technology provided by Apache which is used for marshalling and un-marshalling XML.This helps us to bind XML into Java Types.In this blog, I will first introduce the scenario where XMLBeans comes handy.While progressing I will mention about the configuration required , generating the Java classes and using them.

Lets take the scenario where the user requests the server for some response and assume the response comes in the form of xml file.The xml file will be formatted and will have exactly one root element.The root element may have different child nodes.Suppose the xml file consists of list of flights ,along with their departure and arrival timings and the fares.We want the details related to the flight to be displayed in the list .The XMLBeans technology will generate the Java classes along with the corresponding getters and setters method.If necessary, it also creates the array for particular elements.

For starting with XMLBeans , we should have the sdk installed.You can download the sdk at http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/xmlbeans.Once downloaded extract the folder at some location and set the environment variables for XMLBeans as mentioned below.
export XMLBEANS_HOME=<location of XMLBeans root> (e.g /home/tanweer/xmlbeans-2.5.0)
export PATH=$PATH:$XMLBEANS_HOME/bin
export CLASSPATH=$XMLBEANS_HOME/lib/xbean.jar:$XMLBEANS_HOME/lib/jsr173_1.0_api.jar:$CLASSPATH

Enter the command scomp in the terminal to check whether the path is set correctly or not.

The input to the xml beans scomp (schema compiler) is the .xsd file .
The .xsd file is considered as the grammar of xml.In terms of Java we can say .xsd file is the Java class which defines the object model and .xml file is the Java Object with real content.
To generate the equivalent Java classes for .xsd file ,in the terminal go to the location of the xsd file.Enter the scomp command like :
$location_of_xsd : scomp -out test.jar test.xsd
where test.xsd is the schema file and test.jar is the jar file with all the classes generated.These generated classes have the getters and the setters for accessing the elements of the xml.We can also generate the .java files with proper scomp command.

Copy this jar file ,put it inside the lib folder.Add the jar file to the build path.Import the package and the classes.
Once imported you can go through the classes and the methods.

There are also other technologies like JAXB but XMLBeans are light-weight and even the performance is better.

How to reload module in a flex application on button click....

2010-07-09T09:43:40Z

Hi,

We r trying to reload a module if our flex application on button clicked....

Is there a way to do so....

Drag & Drop Operation in Flex

2010-06-30T16:39:38Z

Following is the excerpts from Adobe Flex Docs

The drag-and-drop operation

The following steps define the drag-and-drop operation.

A component becomes a drag-and-drop initiator in either of the following ways:
- List-based components with dragEnabled=true
  Flex automatically makes the component an initiator when the user clicks and moves the mouse on the component.
- Nonlist-based components, or list-based components with dragEnabled=false
  The component must detect the user's attempt to start a drag operation and explicitly become an initiator. Typically, you use the mouseMove or mouseDown event to start the drag-and-drop operation.
  The component then creates an instance of the mx.core.DragSource class that contains the data to be dragged, and specifies the format for the data.
  The component then calls the mx.managers.DragManager.doDrag() method, to initiate the drag-and-drop operation.
While the mouse button is still pressed, the user moves the mouse around the application. Flex displays the drag proxy image in your application. TheDragManager.defaultDragImageSkin property defines the default drag proxy image.
You can define your own drag proxy image. For more information, see Example: Specifying the drag proxy.

Note: Releasing the mouse button when the drag proxy is not over a target ends the drag-and-drop operation. Flex generates a DragComplete event on the drag initiator, and the DragManager.getFeedback() method returns DragManager.NONE.
If the user moves the drag proxy over a Flex component, Flex dispatches a dragEnter event for the component.
- List-based components with dropEnabled=true
  Flex checks to see if the component can be a drop target.
- Nonlist-based components, or list-based components with dropEnabled=false
  The component must define an event handler for the dragEnter event to be a drop target.
The dragEnter event handler can examine the DragSource object to determine whether the data being dragged is in an accepted format. To accept the drop, the event handler calls the DragManager.acceptDragDrop() method. You must call the DragManager.acceptDragDrop() method for the drop target to receive the dragOver,dragExit, and dragDrop events.
- If the drop target does not accept the drop, the drop target component's parent chain is examined to determine if any component in the chain accepts the drop data.
- If the drop target or a parent component accepts the drop, Flex dispatches the dragOver event as the user moves the proxy over the target.
(Optional) The drop target can handle the dragOver event. For example, the drop target can use this event handler to set the focus on itself.
(Optional) If the user decides not to drop the data onto the drop target and moves the drag proxy outside of the drop target without releasing the mouse button, Flex dispatches a dragExit event for the drop target. The drop target can optionally handle this event; for example, to undo any actions made in the dragOver event handler.
If the user releases the mouse while over the drop target, Flex dispatches a dragDrop event on the drop target.
- List-based components with dropEnabled=true
  Flex automatically adds the drag data to the drop target. If this is a copy operation, you have to implement the event handler for the dragDrop event for a list-based control. For more information, see Example: Copying data from one List control to another List control.
- Nonlist-based components, or list-based components with dropEnabled=false
  The drop target must define an event listener for the dragDrop event handler to add the drag data to the drop target.
(Optional) When the drop operation completes, Flex dispatches a dragComplete event. The drag initiator can handle this event; for example, to delete the drag data from the drag initiator in the case of a move.
- List-based components with dragEnabled=true
  If this is a move operation, Flex automatically removes the drag data from the drag initiator.
- Nonlist-based components, or list-based components with dragEnabled=false
  The drag initiator completes any final processing required. If this was a move operation, the event handler must remove the drag data from the drag initiator. For an example of writing the event handler for the dragComplete event, see Example: Moving and copying data for a nonlist-based control.

How to change the portlet title at runtime

2010-06-03T10:39:26Z

Simply use the following line in your jsp page to set portlet name.
renderResponse.setTitle("vijayan");

Katie Margolis's Story

2010-04-20T20:26:05Z

PEOPLE STORIES
Katie Margolis's Story
Michael Gunville learned from an annual physical with his primary care physician that his PSA level was slightly elevated. It's worth investigating, he was told, and so Michael went to see his urologist who took a second PSA and performed a biopsy. Tests revealed that the 64-year old, web manager, had prostate cancer. On the positive side, the tumor had been caught early, before Michael's health was negatively impacted.We tell ourselves we'll quit in time. These patients have shared their personal stories about what it was like for them after they were diagnosed and then treated using the latest technology from Varian Medical Systems. Everything we do at Varian is motivated by a desire to make a difference in the lives of patients. Because of this we have created radiotherapy technology for treating cancer and other disorders with the highest precision and accuracy.
The severity of fractures increase with age. Children's bones are more flexible and less likely to break. Falls or other accidents that do not harm children can cause complete fractures in older adults.The severity of fractures increase with age. Children's bones are more flexible and less likely to break.This has enabled patients to have better outcomes and fewer side effects from treatment.Here are some of our patients' stories.The probability of this phenomenon increases.This has enabled patients to have better outcomes and fewer side effects from treatment.Here are some of our patients' stories.The probability of this phenomenon increases.

Factory Design Pattern

2010-04-09T18:10:07Z

new() in Factory Design Pattern

Consider you have a class called OrderManager that needs to invoke some method on an object of class Order. But there are two types of Order - 1) The ExportOrder and 2) LocalOrder. Both of these inherit from Order class and Order class is abstract. Now in OrderManager class you will write something like this

 1
  2public class OrderManager {
  3  public void someFunction() {
  4     
  5      Order order = null;
  6      if (orderType.equalsIgnoreCase("E"))  {
  7           order = new ExportOrder();
  8       } else {
  9           order = new LocalOrder();
 10       }
 11      order.someBusinessMethod();
 12
 13  }
 14}

Now note the usage of new keyword in OrderManager class. OrderManager is the client of Order. Order is the abstraction. Client is dependent not only on abstraction but also implementation - the moment you write new - you are binding to implementation. Implementation may change in future. You may add more types of Orders in future. You will have to change the OrderManager class i.e. the client class. So you see there is a problem here. Your design violates OCP - Open Closed Principle

Open Closed Principle: Your application design must be such that it is open for extension (enhancing the features) but closed for modification (changes in existing code)

So you will now have a factory. The new will be shifted to the factory class say OrderFactory which (ideally - not necessarily; there can be variations) will look like this:

 1
  2public class OrderFactory {
  3 
  4   public static Order createOrder(String orderType) {
  5
  6       if ("E".equalsIgnoreCase(orderType) ) {
  7           return new ExportOrder();
  8       } else {
  9          return new ImportOrder();
 10       }
 11    }
 12}
 13// In OrderManager class, code will change to
 14Order order = OrderFactory.createOrder(orderType);

You may now think that new is there in a factory also - so what is the difference. The difference is big. Earlier each client (you will agree that OrderManager will not be the only client of Order) will have to know the creation mechanism of Order and now it is encapsulated in one single factory class i.e. OrderFactory. If more types of orders are added in future, you will have add new Order Types and change only the Factory. The client will remain unchanged. Now this complies with OCP. OrderManager is not even aware of the name of implementation classes of Order abstraction. So you see new is bad in client, new is good in Factory. It is just that we are centralizing the creation mechanism of Order - Hence the pattern type - Creation

Anemic Domain Model

2010-04-09T17:39:26Z

This is a model where you have business services written in Classes with each function in it providing some signficant service behavior and domain objects having only setter getters with no behavior at all. There are millions who are under the impression that Domain Objects / Entities are only supposed to hold data. This may be true in case of Value Object but not Domain Objects or Business Entities. There is a world of a difference between Value Objects and Domain Objects (discussing difference is out of the scope of this discussion).

These functions in service classes make use of Domain Objects. For e.g. you may have a service class called BillngRateManager which in turm will use objects like Invoice, Customer and Product (consider that the rate is deduced based on the category of the customer and the product). Here BillingRateManager is the service class and Invoice, Customer and Product are domain objects. If you have created such domain objects in your application with mere setter getter and no business behavior at all, putting all the behavior in service classes then your application is a candidate Anemic Domain Model - and mind you - this is an ANTI PATTERN.

The fundamental horror of this anti-pattern is that it's so contrary to the basic idea of object-oriented design; which is to combine data and process together. The anemic domain model is really just a procedural style design (Martin Fowler)

Anemic model is more of a procedural approach though at first sight your application may really look like object oriented. My argument is that, how are functions written in these service classes different then procedures ? Well, I also understand that layering the application is very important and you must have separate layers for Business Services.

Actually Service Layer advocates that - use a service in conjunction with a behavioral rich domain model (Martin Fowler)

You can very well put domain specific logic like: Validations, calculations and other business rules in your domain objects. For e.g. I have a class in my application called ServiceOrder. The calculation of the order amount is based on the number of days of the training program and the billing rate of that order. I will not calculate this in a service class. Instead I will implement this in ServiceOrder class it self

In general, the more behavior you find in the services, the more likely you are to be robbing yourself of the benefits of a domain model. If all your logic is in services, you've robbed yourself blind. (Martin Fowler)

Eric Evans's excellent book Domain Driven Design has the following to say about these layers.

Application Layer [his name for Service Layer]: Defines the jobs the software is supposed to do and directs the expressive domain objects to work out problems. The tasks this layer is responsible for are meaningful to the business or necessary for interaction with the application layers of other systems. This layer is kept thin. It does not contain business rules or knowledge, but only coordinates tasks and delegates work to collaborations of domain objects in the next layer down. It does not have state reflecting the business situation, but it can have state that reflects the progress of a task for the user or the program.

Domain Layer (or Model Layer): Responsible for representing concepts of the business, information about the business situation, and business rules. State that reflects the business situation is controlled and used here, even though the technical details of storing it are delegated to the infrastructure. This layer is the heart of business software.

I would like to support my argument with one more example where withdraw, deposit and payInterest methods are very elegantly designed in a class called Account (Needless to say that Account is an Entity Class and not a plain Service Class) - infact using a State Pattern (My discussion here has nothing to do with patterns - it is just a mention). Get this full fledged example from State Design Pattern on dofactory.com. The example there on dofactory.com in real-world example section is in C# but any java or C++ professional will be able to make sense out of the code.

Feel free to sign-up and add your comments/questions/arguments

Finally - here is the link which will explain the rest - Martin Fowler on Anemic Domain Model.

Actors & Use Cases

2010-04-09T17:37:17Z

Actors & Use Cases are UML model elements that helps modeling system requirements.

Actors are those that interact with the system and those external systems with which the system interacts. A bank customer to an ATM System is an actor to the system and also the external system with which the ATM System interacts (passing on the transaction details) is also an actor. If you step into travel agents office and if he booking a ticket for you using reservation system, then you are not the actor to the system but the agent who is directly communicating with the system is the actor.

Use Cases are functional requirements in the system. Each fine grained system requirement is not a use case for e.g. Enter amount in ATM System is not a use but "Withdraw Money" is. The sequence of actions system performs that yields an observable result of value to an actor is a Use Case. Non-functional requirements are never use cases for e.g. "System must respond in less than 2 seconds for any given request" is not a use case.

Use cases describe as to - what the actor does and in response what the system does. It is the interaction between the actor and the system. Use Case are not classes or functions in classes instead we can say that classes participate in the realization of use cases. Use Cases are used define the scope of the system. Actors & Use Cases are shown on use case diagrams. Stakeholders of the target organization can refer to this diagram to get a global view of Actors & Use Cases.

There are relations like extends, includes and generalize between use cases but these relationships are based on common sequence of actions (common requirements) and not based on common data. Also you do have show use cases on use case diagrams in some specific sequence. Use Case diagrams are not meant to describe the sequence in which the use cases are executed in the system.

The entire software development process is driven by use cases. You identify requirements as use cases, you analyze use cases, you design use cases, you implement use cases, you test use cases, you get inputs from use cases to prepare test cases and test procedures, you prepare end-user document from use cases and finally the Project Manager plans the contents of the iteration based on use cases.

Conclusion: Actors, Use Cases and Use Case diagrams helps modeling system requirements. The approach here is not just to identify what the system is supposed to do but to identify what the system is supposed to do for each user.

Abstract Factory Design Pattern

2010-04-09T17:36:04Z

If you have understood factory pattern, understanding abstract factory is a cake walk. How many create methods you have in a factory ? Answer is 1. How many product(s) does a factory return ? Answer is 1. Now if you are asked how many create methods or in other words, how many product(s) does an abstract factory create ? - Answer will be : More than 1.

Abstract factory will typically have more than 1 create methods. For e.g. you see Document interface (org.w3c.dom; the xml parser) - you will find methods like createElement, createAttribute, createComment and so on. All of these are factory methods in Document. So you see, each create returns to you a product and all of these create(s) are in Document; hence Document is an abstract factory. Very important: Each product returned by a factory method in abstract factory belongs to the same family. Element, Attribute, Comment all belong to the same family that makes the XML structure.

Yet another example is an Abstract Factory used to create product(s) that make up a GUI window. Say WidgetsFactory. This widget factory will have methods like createScrollBar, createTitleBar, createStatusBar etc. Note that they all belong to the same family - they are all components of window.

The benefit of Abstract Factory is that you can have several concrete implementations of Abstract Factory. Each concrete implementation of Abstract Factory will return different product implementations. Like in the example of above, I can have ClassicStyleWidgetstFactory, StandardStyleWidgetsFactory as concrete implementation which will return different implementations (having different look & feel) of ScrollBar, TitleBar & StatusBar. Here these are the products the Abstract Factory creates.

BTW, you can download the source code of all patterns from my downloads (menu option on main menu above) >> training material >> Design Patterns.

Flex Startup Events

2010-04-09T17:56:20Z

The order in which the events are dispatched by the application are preinitialize(), initialize(), creationComplete(), updateComplete() and applicationComplete().

The events in more detail:
preinitialize() is dispatched when the component has been attached to its parent container, but before the component has been initialized, or any of its children have been created. In most cases, this event is dispatched too early for an application to use to configure a component.

initialize() is dispatched when a component has finished its construction and its initialization properties have been set. At this point, all of the component’s immediate children have been created (they have at least dispatched their preinitialize() event), but they have not been laid out. Exactly when initialize events are dispatched depends on the container’s creation policy, as described later in this section.

Following on initialize event as given in flex4 guide by adobe: Dispatched when a component has finished its construction and its initialization properties have been set. At this point, all the component’s immediate children have been created (they have at least dispatched their preinitialize event), but they have not been laid out. Exactly when initialize events are dispatched depends on the container’s creation policy.

Flex dispatches the initialize event for a container after it attaches all the container’s direct child controls and the container’s initially required children have dispatched a preinitialize event.

When a container or control dispatches the initialize event, its initial properties have been set, but its width and height have not yet been calculated, and its position has not been calculated. The initialize event is useful for configuring a container’s children. For example, you can use the container’s initialize event to programmatically add children or set a container scroll bar’s styles. You can use a container or component’s initialize event to initialize the data provider for a control.

render

Later, to display the application, a render event gets triggered, and Flex does the following:

Flex completes all processing required to display the component, including laying out the component.
Flex makes the component visible by setting the visible property to true.
Flex dispatches the creationComplete event on the component. The component has been sized and processed for layout and all properties are set. This event is dispatched only once when the component is created.
Flex dispatches the updateComplete event on the component. Flex dispatches additional updateComplete events whenever the position, size, or other visual characteristic of the component changes and the component has been updated for display.

creationComplete() is dispatched when the component, and all of its child components, and all of their children, and so on have been created, laid out, and are visible.

updateComplete() is dispatched every time the container or component characteristics are changed.

applicationComplete() dispatches events after the Application has been initialized, processed by the LayoutManager and added to the display list. This is the last event dispatched during an application startup. It is later than the application’s creationComplete() event, which gets dispatched before the preloader has been removed and the application has been attached to the display list.

Following as explained in Flex 4 Documentation

preInitialize: Dispatched when a component has been created in a rough state, and no children have been created.

initialize: Dispatched when a component and all its children have been created, but before the component size has been determined.

creationComplete: Dispatched when the component has been laid out and the component is visible (if appropriate).

You can use the initialize event to configure most component characteristics; in particular, use it to configure any value that affects the component’s size. Use the creationComplete event if your initialization code must get information about the component layout.

Note that there is one contentCreationComplete event as well which is dispatched after all container children are created, and before the children dispatch the creationComplete event. This event is not available for Group and DataGroup (Flex 4)

Interportlet Communication in Liferay

2010-04-09T17:16:34Z

Liferay is state-of-art, open source portal platform that runs on any J2EE Web Container. Here in this blog I will explain how to make two portlets communication with each other.

Portlets are applications that can be pluged & played on a portal page. Portal is a platform which helps integrate multiple applications under one single URL with single sign-on and excellent content management mechanism.

Each portlet on a portal can be a use case which in turn may be the part of a large application or a complete (small) application in itself with several menu options to invoke different use cases. Specially in case of one portlet designed to stand as one use case and the other portlet as another, there are high chances that would need these portlets to communicate with each other. Let us take an example - say I have a portlet which displays the blog entry (BlogDisplay Portlet) and I have another portlet that displays the list of topics (TopicsList Portlet) and both these portlets are put side by side to each other. When the user selects a topic in TopicsList Portlet, the BlogDisplay Portlet must display the blog associated to selected topic. Needless-to-say that BlogPortlet would need to know the topic selected in TopicsList Portlet. There are two ways of making these portlets communicate with each other.

You can construct the hyperlinks on topic names (using <liferay-portlet:actionURL/>) in TopicList Portlet in such a way that it invokes Action Request on BlogDisplay Portlet passing topicId as parameter. BlogDisplay Portlet will get the value of topicId using actionRequest.getParameter("topicId");
You can construct hyperlink on topic names in TopicList Portlet such that it invokes Action Request on TopicList Portlet itself which in turn can invoke an event adding topicId as pay load to the event. BlogDisplay Portlet can be configured to listen to this event and process the same making use of the pay load which is nothing but topicId.

Method 1 (Using <liferay-portlet:actionURL/>)

Open view.jsp of TopicList Portlet. Create a hyperlink in this jsp as follows:

<a href="<liferay-portlet:actionURL portletName='BlogDisplayPorltet_WAR_BlogDisplayPortletportlet_INSTANCE_'>

<portlet:param name="topicId" value="101"/> </liferay-portlet:actionURL>">Invoice Portlet</a>

Here portlet name that I have used is the one that is constructed by liferay while creating the portlet instance. Also note that the value of topicId is hardcoded here for simplicity. In real life you will get this value set dynamically.

Now in processAction method of BlogDisplay Portlet simple write the following statement:

String topicId = actionRequest.getParameter("topicId");

System.out.println('The topic Id is : " + topicId);

Method 2 (Using Events)

First and foremost you must make note of the fact that Event based communication is possible with only those portal frameworks that are JSR 268 compliant. Liferay from 5.x onwards is full fledged compliant with JSR 268

Open portlet.xml file in TopicsList Portlet and do the following:

Following lines as last lines between <portlet> </portlet> <supported-publishing-event>
	<qname xmlns:x="http://localhost:8080/events">x:topic</qname>             
</supported-publishing-event>

Following lines just before </portlet-app> <event-definition>
	<qname xmlns:x="http://localhost:8080/events">x:topic</qname>
	<value-type>java.lang.String</value-type>
</event-definition>

Now open JSPPortlet.java in TopicsList Porlet and do the following:

Write the following lines in processAction method  String topicId = "10555";
 QName name = new QName("http://localhost:8080/events", "topic");
 System.out.println("Invoking Event from OrderPortlet");
 actionResponse.setEvent(name, topicId);		
 System.out.println("Event invoked from OrderPortlet - successfully");

Now open portlet.xml file of BlogDisplay Portlet and do the following:

Following lines as last lines between <portlet> </portlet> <supported-processing-event>
  <name>topic</name>
</supported-processing-event>

Following lines just before </portlet-app> <default-namespace>http://localhost:8080/events</default-namespace>     
<event-definition>
   <name>topic</name>
  <value-type>java.lang.String</value-type>
</event-definition>

Finally do the following in JSPPortlet.java of BlogDisplay Portlet

Write the following method public void processEvent(EventRequest req, EventResponse resp) {
		Event event = req.getEvent();
  if (event.getName().equals("topic")) {
	String payload = (String) event.getValue();
	System.out.println(" ----------- In processEvent of Invoice Portlet : " + payload);                       
	resp.setRenderParameter("topicId", payload);
  }
}

Write the following SOP in doView method System.out.println("In doView of Invoice Portlet : " + 
  renderRequest.getParameter("topicId") + " Subject Id : "+ 
    renderRequest.getParameter("subjectId"));

Developing themes

2010-04-05T12:02:19Z

1. Developing Themes For Liferay
2. Download liferay-plugins-sdk-5.2.3 and unzip it.
3. Create Java Project in your eclipse
    1.New->Java Project
    2.Project Name :-any name that you want
    3.Select Create Project from existing source and select your liferay-plugins-sdk-5.2.3 folder
    4.finish.

3. Inside liferay-plugins-sdk-5.2.3 folder there is build.properties file copy that file and rename
that copied file with build.${username}.properties
4. open build.${username}.properties file now go to specify the paths to an unzipped tomcat 5.5.x bundle line
   and give path for your tomcat and comment the properties for tomcat 6.0 version(which is by default). If you are using tomcat 6.0 give path for tomcate 6.0.

5. Now open command prompt go to your liferay-plugins-sdk-5.2.3 folder,in that go to themes
6. Give command as follows.
E:\liferaytraining\liferay-plugins-sdk-5.2.3\themes>create first "first"

7. Now go to your eclipse and refresh the themes folder. There you can see the folder name with
            first-theme.
    In this first-theme two more folders will be there 1._diffs and 2.WEB-INF
8.Now inside _diffs folder create 4 folders as follows.
        1.css
        2.images
        3.javascript
        4.templates

9.    You can download sample themes from Lifery web site    these themes will be available as .war file
    download few of them. And unzip them.
10. Form thad unzip theme folder copy four folders css,templates,images and javascript copy them to your
        first-theme\_diffs folder.
11. Open command prompt go to your first-theme folder and give ant deploy command as follows.
            E:\liferaytraining\liferay-plugins-sdk-5.2.3\themes\first-theme>ant deploy
12. Restart your tomcat and login.
13.Go to Manage Pages and click on look And Feel, there you can see your newly deployed theme. apply it.

Introduction to Liferay

2010-03-29T05:37:45Z

LifeRay is one of the leading open source CMS software platforms available for social networking, portal development, business intranets, corporate extranets, forums, archives, and general web publishing. LifeRay has already been downloaded over 1 million times, with an average of over 60,000 downloads per month. The software comes with numerous bundled versions and has already won accolades such as the InfoWorld 2007 Technology of the Year Award for Best Open Source Portal.

The LifeRay Portal is composed of two main sections: the LifeRay Journal and the LifeRay Collaboration Suite. The LifeRay Journal is the content management system of the portal, allowing web publishers to easily post content, manage pages, create hierarchical menus, and site structure. The LifeRay Collaboration Suite is the social networking aspect of the portal, which includes forums, wiki collaboration, blogs, email, calendars, and tagging. Both of these can be extended by open source “portlets” that add increased functionality to the system.

The LifeRay Journal:

LifeRay Journal is LifeRay Portal’s built-in content management system (CMS) ready to deliver portal-based web publishing and document management.

Web Publishing
Document Library & Image Gallery
Java Content Repository
Image Gallery
Portal Publishing
Searchable Pages
Tagging
Easy Article Creation

The LifeRay Collaboration Suite:

Forums:

Message Boards
Sticky Posts
Statistics
Recent Posts
RSS
Email-based Subscriptions
Avatars
Threads Management
Permissions

Blogs:

User Blogs
RSS Support
Threaded User List
Guest Comments
Email Notifications of Blog Replies
Tags and Labels
Entry Rating System
Social Bookmarking Links
Blog Aggregator

Wikis:

Built-in User Management
LDAP Integration & Permissions
Multiple Wikis per Installation
Versioning and Reversion Capabilities

Other Features:

Mail
Microformats Support
Shared Calendaring
Enterprise Instant
RSS
Tagging

Portlets:

Administration
Content Management
Collaboration
Community
Entertainment
Personal Tools
Shopping Tools
Developer Tools

There are many benefits to the LifeRay Portal software, first and foremost of which are its open source code base and large community of international users. LifeRay provides an intuitive and collaborative user experience and allows publishers to consolidate, organize and access all their data and applications via a single point of access. It is also a cost effective way to optimize your development costs and adapt to the demands of a changing market.

The LifeRay CMS has one of the most impressive client lists of any open source portal software. From IT, Financial Services, and Retail Companies, to Non-Profits, Educational Groups, and Governmental Agencies, LifeRay CMS has hundreds of thousands of web sites deployed with its architecture. The professionalism, scalability, and affordability of LifeRay make it a wise choice for any web development department.

Search Container

2010-03-22T07:16:30Z

STEP1:(GET THE LIST YOU WANT TO ITERATE)

	For Example: I am getting imageList
	List<MPImage> imageList = (List) ps.getAttribute("IMAGE_LIST");

STEP2:(SEARCH-CONTAINER)

	<liferay-ui:search-container iteratorURL="<%= url %>"  delta="5" emptyResultsMessage="Sorry. There are no images to display.">
	</liferay-ui:search-container>

    By default it contains three attribute iteratorURL, delta and emptyResultsMessage.

    iteratorURL(Optional) - If you try to show the list in the first page of the portlet. Then there is no need to mention the url.
					Otherwise you need to mention the url.

    
	delta(Optional) - It is used for mention the size of the iterator. By default it will show 20 list. If you want to mention you can mention delta.

    emptyResultsMessage(Optional) - If the list is empty it will show the message.

STEP3:(SEARCH-CONTAINER-RESULTS)

<liferay-ui:search-container-results  
	total="<%= imageList.size() %>" 
	results="<%= ListUtil.subList(imageList, searchContainer.getStart(), searchContainer.getEnd()) %>"
/>

total - We need to mention the total size of the list.
results - It will sublist accoriding to your delta value.

STEP4:(SEARCH-CONTAINER-ROW)

	This is the row.

    <liferay-ui:search-container-row modelVar="images" className="com.inikah.common.model.MPImage" >
	</liferay-ui:search-container-row>

    modelVar - This is the object of the first list.
	className - Here we need to mention the className of our entity.

STEP5:(SEARCH-CONTAINER-COLUMN)

	This is the COLUMN.

	Example 1:

	<liferay-ui:search-container-column-text name="Image" property="imageId" />

	name - It is the name which will be displayed in the row.(Header)
	property - It is the value. Here we need to mention field name.

	Example 2:

	<liferay-ui:search-container-column-text name="Image" value="<%= images.getImageId() + 'H' %>" />

	value - If you want to modify the field value, That time use value attribute to display.

	Example 3:
	
	<liferay-ui:search-container-column-text name="Image">
		Hai how are you.<br/>
		<%= images.getImageId() %>
	</liferay-ui:search-container-column-text>

	If you want to display huge data under that column that time use the above format.

STEP6:(SEARCH-ITERATOR)
	
	<liferay-ui:search-iterator searchContainer="<%= searchContainer %>" />

	This is the main tag. If you dint place this tag nothing will appear.


SAMPLE EXAMPLE:

<% List<MPImage> imageList = (List) ps.getAttribute("IMAGE_LIST"); %>
<liferay-ui:search-container delta="5" emptyResultsMessage="Sorry. There are no images to display.">
	<liferay-ui:search-container-results  
 		total="<%= imageList.size() %>" 
 		results="<%= ListUtil.subList(imageList, searchContainer.getStart(), searchContainer.getEnd()) %>"
	/>
	<liferay-ui:search-container-row modelVar="images" className="com.inikah.common.model.MPImage" >
		<%
			Profile profile = ProfileLocalServiceUtil.getProfile(images.getProfileId());
			long imageId = images.getImageId();
			
			String content = "<b>" + profile.getProfileCode() + "</b><br/><b>" + profile.getProfileName()+ "</b><br/><b>" + (profile.getGender() ? "Female" : "Male" + "</b>");
			String approve = "<select name='image_" + imageId + "'><option value='0'>Pending</option><option value='1'>Accept</option><option value='2'>Reject</option></select>";
			String imageURL = "[$link_url$]<img border='2' src='[$image_url$]' width='60px' height='70px'></a>";
			imageURL = StringUtil.replace(imageURL, "[$image_url$]", themeDisplay.getPathMain() + "/ext/reports/image?imageId=" + imageId + "&tn=small");
			imageURL = StringUtil.replace(imageURL, "[$link_url$]", "<a href='" + themeDisplay.getPathMain() + "/ext/reports/image?imageId=" + imageId + "&download=2' rel='lightbox'>");
			String DownloadUrl = themeDisplay.getPathMain() + "/ext/reports/image?imageId=" + imageId + "&download=1";
		%>
		<liferay-ui:search-container-column-text name="Image" value="<%= imageURL %>" />
		<liferay-ui:search-container-column-text name="Download" value="Download" href="<%= DownloadUrl %>"/>
		<liferay-ui:search-container-column-text name="Details" value="<%= content %>" />
		<liferay-ui:search-container-column-text name="Status" value="<%= approve %>" />
	</liferay-ui:search-container-row>
	<liferay-ui:search-iterator searchContainer="<%= searchContainer %>" />
</liferay-ui:search-container>

Installing Liferay 5.2.3 on Existing Apache Tomcat 6.0.24

2010-03-11T06:41:16Z

1. Download and install Apache Tomcat 6.0.24 into your preferred directory.

2. Download and install JDK 5 . Set an environment variable called %JAVA_HOME% (in Windows) or $JAVA_HOME (in Linux/UNIX) to point to your JDK directory.

3. Create and edit $TOMCAT_HOME/conf/Catalina/localhost/ROOT.xml to set up the portal web application.
<Context path="" debug="0" reloadable="true" cookies="true" crossContext="false" privileged="false" />

4. Download liferay-portal-5.2.3.war.

5. Download Liferay's Portal 5.2.3 Dependencies.

5.1. Create a $TOMCAT_HOME/lib/ext directory and unzip the dependencies ZIP in there.

6. Edit $TOMCAT_HOME/conf/catalina.properties. common.loader= ${catalina.home}/common/classes,\ ...\ ${catalina.home}/common/lib/ext/*.jar

7. Make sure your database server is installed and is working.
If it's installed in a different machine make sure that it's accessible from the one where Liferay is being installed.

8. Configure data sources for your database. Make sure the JDBC driver for your database is accessible by Tomcat.
8.1. Obtain the JDBC driver for your version of the database server. In the case of MySQL use mysql-connector-java-{$version}-bin.jar.
8.2. Copy the JAR file to $TOMCAT_HOME/lib/ext

9. Create a database for Liferay.
For example: create database lportal character set utf8; Liferay will automatically create the tables and populate it the first time it starts.

10. To add support for accessing Liferay's services remotely and to access the document library using WebDAV follow these steps:
10.1. Download tunnel-web.war
10.2. Create a directory called $TOMCAT_HOME/webapps/tunnel and unzip the WAR contents inside

11. Create $TOMCAT_HOME/conf/jaas.config.

PortalRealm { com.liferay.portal.kernel.security.jaas.PortalLoginModule required; };

12. Edit $TOMCAT_HOME/bin/catalina.bat so that Tomcat can reference the login module.
set JAVA_OPTS=-Xms128m -Xmx512m -Dfile.encoding=UTF8 -Duser.timezone=GMT -Djava.security.auth.login.config=%CATALINA_HOME%/conf/jaas.config

13. Delete contents $TOMCAT_HOME/webapps/ROOT directory.

14. Unpack liferay-portal-5.2.3.war to $TOMCAT_HOME/webapps/ROOT.

15. For supporting UTF-8 UIRIEncoding, edit $TOMCAT_HOME/conf/server.xml.

16. Run Tomcat, point browser to http://localhost:8080. Sign in as test@liferay.com and password test

    NOTE: ---- ************copy the following jar files in lib/ext folder to avoid startup problem:********
        activation.jar annotations.jar ccpp.jar container.jar hsql.jar jms.jar jta.jar jutf7.jar mail.jar mysql.jar portal-kernel.jar
        portal-service.jar portlet-container.jar portlet.jar postgresql.jar serializer.jar support-tomcat.jar xalan.jar xercesImpl.jar

xml-apis.jar

Load Balancing and Clustering - Liferay Tomcat along with apache on same windows machine

2010-03-09T06:32:57Z

Use-Case

Setting up two tomcat along with apache on same windows machine.

Pre-requirements

1. install Apche 2.x

2. download tomcat 5.x /6.x and make an extra copy

Steps 1. open httpd.conf from apache_home/conf/ and add these lines at the end

BalancerMember ajp://localhost:8009/ route=tomcatA

BalancerMember ajp://localhost:8010/ route=tomcatB

ProxyPass balancer://mycluster/ stickysession=JSESSIONID

SetHandler balancer-manager

Order Deny,Allow

Deny from all

Allow from localhost

Step 2.

uncomment the following four lines

LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so

LoadModule proxy_ajp_module modules/mod_proxy_ajp.so

LoadModule proxy_balancer_module modules/mod_proxy_balancer.so

LoadModule status_module modules/mod_status.so

Step 3.

open tomcat_home_1/conf/server.xml and add jvmRoute="tomcatA" to the following line

Engine name="Catalina" defaultHost="localhost"

so it should look like this

Engine name="Catalina" defaultHost="localhost" jvmRoute="tomcatA"

Step 4.

open tomcat_home_2/conf/server.xml and add jvmRoute="tomcatB" to the following line

Engine name="Catalina" defaultHost="localhost"

so it should look like this

Engine name="Catalina" defaultHost="localhost" jvmRoute="tomcatB

also change the following port nos

Server port="8006" shutdown="SHUTDOWN"

Connector port="8081" protocol="HTTP/1.1"

connectionTimeout="20000"

redirectPort="8444"

Connector port="8010" protocol="AJP/1.3" redirectPort="8444"

Thats It!

start apache, tomcatA, tomcatB and

navigate to http://localhost/

Liferay Tomcat Clustering

2010-03-09T06:05:05Z

Running Liferay in a clustered environment consists of 6 steps.

1. Preparations and getting things ready.

2. Connecting to a remote MySQL or Sybase database.

3. Running 2 or More "IDENTICAL" Liferay tomcat instances on 2 Or more

physical machines.

4. Making one machine as "Apache Web Server"

5. Connecting apache with tomcat using apache module "mod_jk"

6. Configuring mod_jk for clustering for both load-balancing and fail-over.

7. Verifying whether clustering is working fine.

=============================================================================

1. Preparations and getting things ready.

Select 4 physical machines (servers) in your LAN network. Each should have an internal IP address.

Just ping between the 4 machines and confirm that the pinging is successful.

Make sure none of the machines have fire wall running.

Machine1 - we'll use as Database server (Either windows or Linux) on which MySQL is installed and running

Machines2 will be made as clustered servers on which identical verions of liferay is up running.

Machine1 will be the apache http server which will be exposed to the outside world. Let this be a windows machine.

In the later part of this exercise we'll see how to run apache on a Linux server.

Note down the IP address of IP addresses of all four machines.

Machine 1 (MySQL) - [IP Address 1]

Machine 2-a (Liferay 1) - [IP Address 2]

Machine 2-b (Liferay 2) - [IP Address 3]

Machine 3 (Apache server with mod_jk) [IP Address 4]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Connecting to a remote MySQL database.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the machine where mysql is running, open mysql prompt by typing "mysql -u root -proot mysql" from the command window.

Run these following scripts. Before running dont forget to modify the [IP Address X].

create database lportal2 character set utf8;

Giving access to the first Liferay machine (2-a)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

insert into db (

Host

,Db

,User

,Select_priv

,Insert_priv

,Update_priv

,Delete_priv

,Create_priv

,Drop_priv

,Grant_priv

,References_priv

,Index_priv

,Alter_priv

,Create_tmp_table_priv

,Lock_tables_priv

,Create_view_priv

,Show_view_priv

,Create_routine_priv

,Alter_routine_priv

,Execute_priv

)

values (

"[IP Address 2]"

,"lportal2"

,"root"

,"Y"

,"N"

,"Y"

,"N"

);

GRANT ALL ON lportal2.* TO root@'[IP Address 2]' IDENTIFIED BY 'root';

Giving access to the second Liferay machine (2-b)

-- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

insert into db (

Host

,Db

,User

,Select_priv

,Insert_priv

,Update_priv

,Delete_priv

,Create_priv

,Drop_priv

,Grant_priv

,References_priv

,Index_priv

,Alter_priv

,Create_tmp_table_priv

,Lock_tables_priv

,Create_view_priv

,Show_view_priv

,Create_routine_priv

,Alter_routine_priv

,Execute_priv

)

values (

"[IP Address 3]"

,"lportal2"

,"root"

,"Y"

,"N"

,"Y"

,"N"

);

GRANT ALL ON lportal2.* TO root@'[IP Address 3]' IDENTIFIED BY 'root';

Important:

Once you have run the above scripts, pls dont forget to restart your MySQL.

Verification:

Now open the command window in the 2 machines where liferay is running and enter the command,

mysql -h [IP Address 1] -u root -proot lportal2;

This should successully get entry to the mysql prompt.

Do the similar thing on the other machine where Liferay is running and confirm that is it also connecting to

the remote Mysql database server.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. Running 2 or More "IDENTICAL" Liferay tomcat instances on 2 Or more physical

    machines.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Install fresh Liferay tomcat bundle on machines 2-a and 2-b.

Configure the server to point to the common MySQL database [IP Address 1]

By making appropriate changes in the ROOT.xml file (5.1.x) or portal-ext.properties (5.2.x)

url="jdbc:mysql://[IP Address 1]/lportal2?useUnicode=true&amp;

characterEncoding=UTF-8&amp;useFastDateParsing=false"

username="root"

password="root"

Start the tomcat servers one after the other and confirm that they are both working fine, pointing to the remote database.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Making one machine as "Apache Web Server"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Install apache webserver on machine 3 [IP Address 4]

Download apache_2.2.10-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi and install

Once it is successfully installed, open the web browser and type http://localhost

You should see the message "It works !!"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. Connecting apache with tomcat using apache module "mod_jk"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next, inorder to connect apache and tomcat, we need to install the apache module, "mod_jk".

Download mod_jk for windows and rename as mod_jk.so

copy this file and paste under %APACHE_HOME%/modules

Create workers1.properties file under, %APACHE_HOME%/conf

Open this file and paste the following code

worker.list = worker1

worker.worker1.type = ajp13

worker.worker1.host = [IP Address 2]

give the IP Address of one of the machines where Liferay is running.

Open httpd.conf file under %APACHE_HOME%/conf and do the following minor changes,

Insert this line at the appropriate location,

LoadModule jk_module modules/mod_jk.so

Add this to the end of the file....

JkWorkersFile conf/workers1.properties

JkMount /* worker1

Restart the apache http server.

Now in the browser, go to http://localhost. It should land in the liferay's home page.

Congratulations, you've successfully configured connected apache with tomcat using mod_jk

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6. Configuring mod_jk for clustering for both load-balancing and fail-over.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In this step we are going to run liferay on a clustered environment.

changes to apache server,

Create workers2.properties file under %APACHE_HOME%/conf

Open this file and paste the following code

worker.list = bal1, stat1

worker.machine1.type = ajp13

worker.machine1.host = [IP Address 2]

worker.machine1.lbfactor = 10

worker.machine2.type = ajp13

worker.machine2.host = [IP Address 3]

worker.machine2.lbfactor = 10

worker.bal1.type = lb

worker.bal1.sticky_session = 1

worker.bal1.balance_workers = machine1, machine2

worker.stat1.type = status

give the correct IP addresses of two machines on which Liferay is running.

Edit httpd.conf file:

Replace the earlier lines

JkWorkersFile conf/workers1.properties

JkMount /* worker1

with these lines,

JkWorkersFile conf/workers2.properties

JkMount /* bal1

JkMount /jkstatus/ stat1

Restart apache server inorder for the new changes to take effect

Changes to the Liferay server.

Open the server.xml files of the first liferay server and do the following changes,

search for the line,

<Engine name="Catalina" defaultHost="localhost">

Add one more attribute jvmRoute="machine1", to make it look like,

<Engine name="Catalina" defaultHost="localhost" jvmRoute="machine1">

Open web.xml under webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF,

insert the tag <distributable /> just before the first <filter> tag.

For security reasons, close the port 8080 by commenting out the following block, as it will be no longer needed.

    <Connector port="8080" protocol="HTTP/1.1"

               connectionTimeout="20000"

               redirectPort="8443" URIEncoding="UTF-8" />

Restart the Liferay server.

Do the similar setting on the other Liferay server, except in the place of machine1, give machine2.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

7. Verifying whether clustering is working fine.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Open the file webapps/ROOT/html/portlet/login/init.jsp on both the Liferay servers

Insert the following lines in the first and second servers respectively,

<h4>You ve landed in the <b>first</b> liferay server.</h4>

<h4>You ve landed in the <b>second</b> liferay server.</h4>

Trying connecting to the apache web server (http://[IP Address 4]) from different machines in the network

(other than these 4 machines) and see what happens .

Now, let us simulate a failure by shutting down the server and see what happens.

Congratulations, you've successfully seen Clustering in action.

**************************************

how to run apache on a Linux server

1. Install apache HTTP Server

Open a browser and type http://localhost

You'll get the message "Failed to connect"

From console:

sudo apt-get install apache2

This will install apache and all required libraries

Now check the url, http://localhost

You'll see the message, "It Works!!", indicating apache server is running on port 80.

Congratulations !!

2. Installing apache module mod-jk to connect to a liferay tomcat instance.

sudo apt-get install libapache2-modjk

=============================================================================

PhpMyAdmin

From console:

sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin

To set up under Apache all you need to do is include the following line in /etc/apache2/apache2.conf.

Include /etc/phpmyadmin/apache.conf

Once phpMyAdmin is installed point your browser to http://localhost/phpmyadmin to start using it.

You should be able to login using any users you've setup in MySQL.

=============================================================================

how to install mod_jk

1. install mod_jk

sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-jk

2. confirm that it is installed.

run "a2enmod jk"

ls -l /usr/lib/apache2/modules

3. touch /etc/apache2/workers.properties

4. vi /etc/apache2/workers.properties

workers.java_home=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.10

ps=/

worker.list = worker1

worker.worker1.type = ajp13

worker.worker1.host = localhost

worker.worker1.lbfactor = 1

5. vi /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

# mod_jk config

# Where to find workers.properties

JkWorkersFile workers.properties

# Where to put jk logs

JkLogFile /var/log/apache2/jk.log

# Set the jk log level [debug/error/info]

JkLogLevel info

6. vi /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>

        ServerAdmin admin@mpowerglobal.com

        ServerName  localhost

        JkMount /* worker1

        # Deny direct access to WEB-INF

        <LocationMatch ".*WEB-INF.*">

                deny from all

        </LocationMatch>

</VirtualHost>

*************************************

CENTRAL AUTHENTICATION SERVICE (CAS) with Liferay 5.2.x

2010-03-08T19:18:17Z

CAS is an authentication system that was originally created at Yale University. It is a widely-used open source single sign-on solution, and was the first SSO product to be supported by Liferay.

The CAS Server application requires a properly configured Secure Socket Layer certificate on your server in order to work.

If you wish to generate one yourself, you will need to use the keytool utility that comes with the JDK. Your first step is to generate the key. Next, you export the key into a file. Finally, you import the key into your local Java key store.

Setting up CAS server

Step 1:

Download cas-web.war

( copy from http://www.liferay.com/web/guest/downloads or

http://www.ja-sig.org/products/cas/downloads/index.html )
Download cas-client.jar ( cas-client-2.0.11)

( copy from http://www.ja-sig.org/products/cas/downloads/index.html )

Step 2:

1. Copy cas-web.war file into tomcat\webapps

2. Copy cas-client.jar file into tomcat\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\lib

Step 3:

1. Edit server.xml ( tomcat/conf/server.xml)

2. uncomment this part :

 <Connector port="8443" protocol="HTTP/1.1" SSLEnabled="true"

maxThreads="150" scheme="https" secure="true"

clientAuth="false" sslProtocol="TLS" />

Generate the SSL cert with Java keytool

Step 1 :

Go to tomcat/webapps/Root in command prompt, enter the command:

 keytool -genkey -alias tomcat -keypass changeit -keyalg RSA

Note: Be sure to use the keytool that comes with the Java VM (%JAVA_HOME%/jre/bin/keytool), as on some systems the default points to the GNU version of keytool, where the two seem incompatible.

Step 2:

Answer the questions in command prompt : (note that your firstname and lastname MUST be hostname of your server and cannot be a IP address; this is very important as an IP address will fail client hostname verification even if it is correct)

 Enter keystore password:  changeit
 What is your first and last name?
 [Unknown]:  localhost
 What is the name of your organizational unit?
 [Unknown]:
 What is the name of your organization?
 [Unknown]:
 What is the name of your City or Locality?
 [Unknown]:
 What is the name of your State or Province?
 [Unknown]:
 What is the two-letter country code for this unit?
 [Unknown]:
 Is CN=localhost, OU=Unknown, O=Unknown, L=Unknown, ST=Unknown, C=Unknown correct?
 [no]: yes

Step 3: Then enter the command:

 keytool -export -alias tomcat -keypass changeit -file %FILE_NAME%

I use server.cert for %FILE_NAME%. This command exports the cert you generated from your personal keystore (In windows your personal keystore is in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\.keystore)

Step 4: Then enter the command:

Finally import the cert into Java's keystore with this command. Tomcat uses the keystore in your JRE (%JAVA_HOME%/jre/lib/security/cacerts)

 keytool -import -alias tomcat -file %FILE_NAME% -keypass changeit -keystore "C:/Program Files/ Java/jdk1.6/jre/lib/security/cacerts"

SETUP in properties File

system-ext.properties

    #
    # The CAS filter will redirect the user to the CAS login page for SSO. See
    # [http://www.ja-sig.org/products/cas] for more information.
    #
    com.liferay.filters.sso.cas.CASFilter=true

portal-ext.properties

Put this in portal-ext.properties.

 ##
 ## Auto Login
 ##
  #auto.login.hooks=com.liferay.portal.security.auth.BasicAutoLogin
 auto.login.hooks=com.liferay.portal.security.auth.BasicAutoLogin,com.liferay.portal.security.auth.CASAutoLogin

Comment the first auto.login.hooks property and uncomment the second to add CASAutoLogin to the list of AutoLogin implementations.

Startup the CAS server

Start tomcat and click Sign-In from Dock Menu . It will redirect to CAS server page as follows:

(Access CAS with https://localhost:8443/cas-web/login You should see the CAS login screen and no errors in your catalina logs. )

jQuery Autocomplete

2010-03-08T18:43:27Z

Autocomplete is a common feature available in lot of web tools and services. You will find lots of implementation of autocomplete features.

Autocomplete is an input field to enable users quickly finding and selecting some value.

When we type character/ word in textbox, it will search matching values and will display in small division as dropdown.

Let us see how can we implement a simple Autocomplete feature in JSP page.

Required Files :

Download file : ui.autocomplete.js

(or)

jQuery’s autocomplete plugin

JSP Page:

<html>

<head>

<script src=”jquery.js“ type=”text/javascript”></script>

<script src=”ui.autocomplete.js“ type=”text/javascript”></script>

(or)

<script src=”jquery.autocomplete.js” type=”text/javascript”></script>

</head>

<form>

<% String names=”Testing,Catch,Test,Welcome”; %>
<input type=”hidden” id=’ac‘ value=”<%=names%>”/>
<input type=”text” id=’acbox‘ />

</form>

</html>

jQuery(document).ready(function(){
var itemNames= jQuery(‘#ac’).val();
var mydata = itemNames.split(“,”);
jQuery(‘#acbox’).autocomplete({
data:mydata,
autoFill: true
});
});

</script>

if you use plugin jquery.autocomplete.js, just give script like this:

<script type=”text/javascript”>
jQuery(document).ready(function() {
var itemNames= jQuery(‘#ac’).val();
var mydata = itemNames.split(“,”);
jQuery(“#acbox“).autocomplete(mydata);
});
</script>

Output:

mpowerglobal.com

Finder Methods in Liferay

Implementing XMLBeans

How to reload module in a flex application on button click....

Drag & Drop Operation in Flex

The drag-and-drop operation

How to change the portlet title at runtime

Katie Margolis's Story

PEOPLE STORIES

Katie Margolis's Story

Factory Design Pattern

new() in Factory Design Pattern

Anemic Domain Model

Actors & Use Cases

Abstract Factory Design Pattern

Flex Startup Events

Interportlet Communication in Liferay

Method 1 (Using <liferay-portlet:actionURL/>)

Method 2 (Using Events)

Developing themes

Introduction to Liferay

Search Container

Installing Liferay 5.2.3 on Existing Apache Tomcat 6.0.24

Load Balancing and Clustering - Liferay Tomcat along with apache on same windows machine

Liferay Tomcat Clustering

CENTRAL AUTHENTICATION SERVICE (CAS) with Liferay 5.2.x

Generate the SSL cert with Java keytool

SETUP in properties File

system-ext.properties

portal-ext.properties

jQuery Autocomplete

<head>

<script src=”jquery.js“ type=”text/javascript”></script>

<script src=”ui.autocomplete.js“ type=”text/javascript”></script>

<script src=”jquery.autocomplete.js” type=”text/javascript”></script>

</head>