New Features, Enhancements, Certifications, and Known Issues for Oracle WebCenter Portal for 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.9.0)

This document offers information about new features, enhancements, and certifications in Oracle WebCenter Portal 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.9.0). It also lists known issues and workarounds. For access to Oracle WebCenter Portal documentation, see the Oracle WebCenter Portal Library.

On this page: (Last updated: 21-July-2017)

New Features, Certifications, and Enhancements in Oracle WebCenter Portal 11.1.1.9.0

New Features in Oracle WebCenter Portal 11.1.1.9.0

This list offers an overview of new features in Oracle WebCenter Portal Release 11.1.1.9.0:

• Simplified install and configuration through the new Jump Start Kit (JSK)
• Support for upgrading a pre-11.1.1.8.0 portal to the current release (see Upgrading a Pre-11.1.1.8.0 Portalin Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal)
• Private Cloud support
  • Install, configure, and clone made easy with Enterprise Manager Cloud Control (MWaaS)
  • Fully automated and quick provisioning
  • Self-service sign-up
  • Self-service user and administrative controls
• Cloud support through Java Cloud Service (JCS-VI)
  • WebLogic Server on Oracle Cloud
  • Fully customizable for any Java application
  • Each tenant gets dedicated WebLogic cluster(s)
  • Built-in High-Availability and DR option
  • Customer has full administrative control
• Portal on-premise cloud integration
  • Composition across on-premise assets
  • Composition across cloud and on-premise assets
  • Deployment in a customer data center
• New light-weight and responsive templates for mobile deployments
• New EL expressions for retrieving information about a particular rendition of an image and specifying a particular rendition in Content Presenter templates (see Using Image Renditions in Content Presenter Display Templatesin Developing Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle JDeveloper)
• Integration with FrameworkFolders
  • Next generation foldering technology from WebCenter Content
  • Faster performance
  • Support for over 1000 files in a folder
  • Existing customers can remain on Folders_g or migrate from Folders_g to FrameworkFolders: migration to FrameworkFolders recommended (see Migrating Folders_g to FrameworkFoldersin Administering Oracle WebCenter Portal)
• New childCreation property of the Show Detail Frame component lets you control when the content of a Show Detail Frame is rendered (see theAttributes of a Show Detail Frame Componenttable in Developing Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle JDeveloper)
• New performance benchmark

New Certifications in Oracle WebCenter Portal 11.1.1.9.0

• MS Exchange 2010 and 2013 for personal events, mail, and notifications
• Support for MS Office 2013 in Desktop Integration
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 11
• Oracle Unified Directory 11.1.2.3 (~ OID/IDM)
• Java Development Kit 7 Update 65

Enhancements to Oracle WebCenter Portal 11.1.1.9.0

Issues Related to Installing and Configuring Oracle WebCenter Portal

Install Secure Enterprise Search in a Separate Oracle Home

Bug: 18398641 Platform: All Installing Secure Enterprise Search 11.2.2.2 (SES) into the same Fusion Middleware home as WebCenter Portal 11.1.1.7 and above is not supported. The recommended and supported topology is to install SES into a separate Fusion Middleware home. That is, treat SES 11.2.2.2 as a remote service for WebCenter Portal.

Mislabeled Updates to WebCenter Customization Framework and WebCenter Framework and Services Design Time Extensions

Bug: 21122384 Platform: All People who update their WebCenter Customization Framework and WebCenter Framework and Services extensions to 11.1.1.9 from the CD media pack or who downloaded these extensions from the Update Center before June 11, 2015 may find the updates are mislabeled as 11.1.1.8.0.150422.0857. These updates should be labeled as 11.1.1.9.0.

Despite the mislabeling, these updates are for 11.1.1.9.0, and you can apply them with confidence.

Irregular Translation When IE 10 or 11 Browser Is Set to Some Chinese Language Locales

Bug: 19566825 Platform: All

This note refers to more recent versions of the Internet Explorer browser 10+. These browsers support BCP47 style language tags, such as the Chinese locales zh-Hans-SG, zh-Hans-CN, zh-Hant-HK, zh-Hant-MO, and zh-Hant-TW.

If you set your browser language to zh-Hans-SG, zh-Hant-HK, or zh-Hant-MO, and the same language is not set in WebCenter Portal, you will likely see translation inconsistencies on a page. For example, some WebCenter Portal user interface elements may default to the locale selected for the server; some content may default to Traditional or Simplified Chinese.

Workaround: Set your IE 10+ browser locale to zh-Hans-CN or zh-Hant-TW, or select a language preference through the WebCenter Portal UI under user preferences. You can also select your preferred language from the WebCenter Portal login UI.

Tabs Not Displayed on Document Manager Task Bar

Bug: 17852403 Platform: All

When editing a WebCenter Portal document in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, the tabs (Status, Members, Tasks, Documents, and Links) do not appear on the Document Management taskbar. This taskbar is invoked by clicking the Office icon > Server > Document Management. The tabs appear only after the document is checked in. This occurs when Oracle WebCenter Portal is configured to use the FrameworkFolders component.

Imprecise Error Messages When Renaming or Pasting a File in Workflow

Bug: 17818024 Platform: All

When you try to rename or cut and paste a file that is part of a workflow, an error message appears indicating that the file cannot be renamed or moved because it no longer exists. For example, the following error message appears when you rename a file:

"Messages for this page are listed below. 
Unable to rename the selected document.
 The document no longer exists. 
 Please refresh to see the latest content. 
 (View > Refresh Content)."

This error message is incorrect. It appears when Oracle WebCenter Portal is configured to use the FrameworkFolders component. The error message should specify that the file cannot be renamed or moved because it is part of a workflow that the user has not been added to as a reviewer.

Unable to Access Files Using a Direct URL in the Home Portal

Bug: 18087565 Platform: All

In the Home portal, accessing a file under Item Level Security using a direct URL does not work if you do not have access to all the folders in the directory chain. This happens when Oracle WebCenter Portal is configured to use the FrameworkFolders component.

Use Folders_g When Oracle BPM Process Spaces Is Enabled for WebCenter Portal

Bug: 18460090 Platform: All

Oracle BPM Process Spaces requires that Folders_g is enabled on Content Server. In a new installation of Oracle WebCenter Portal, if you want to enable Process Spaces for WebCenter Portal, you must ensure that Folders_g is enabled and FrameworkFolders is disabled.

Add a List of Valid External URLs

Bug:27490679Platform: AllSome custom application components, such as links and wikis, allow developers and users to enter external URLs. This opens up the possibility of entering a malicious URL in the portal pages that are exposed to public users.To provide security against this vulnerability, you must enter allowable external URLs in the valid-link-url.xml file.To add a list of valid external URLs:

1. Export the valid-link-url.xml file from the MDS repository using the exportMetadata WLST command:
Copy

  exportMetadata(application='customAppName',
    server='WC_CustomPortal',
    toLocation='MDS_FileStore_Location',
    
  docs='/oracle/webcenter/portalapp/metadata/valid-link-url.xml')

Note: If the following error appears, it indicates that the valid-link-url.xml file is not available in the metadata store.

Copy

 MDS-01059: document with the name 
   /oracle/webcenter/portalapp/metadata/valid-link-url.xml
   missing in the source metadata store   
   1 out of 1 documents failed to be transferred.

If the valid-link-url.xml file is missing, you need to create the file under the MDS_FileStore_Location directory with the following structure: /oracle/webcenter/portalapp/metadata/valid-link-url.xml

2. Add the list of allowed external URLs to the valid-link-url.xml file by adding Item elements as shown in the following example:
Copy

 <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?> 
 <valid-link-url  xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/webcenter/validurl"> 
 <Item link="http://www.oracle.com"/> 
 <Item link="http://www.google.com"/> 
 <Item link="http://www.example.com"/> 
 </valid-link-url>

3. Save and import the valid-link-url.xml file to the MDS repository using the importMetadata WLST command:

  importMetadata(application='customAppName',
 server='WC_CustomPortal', 
 fromLocation='MDS_FileStore_Location', 
 docs='/oracle/webcenter/portalapp/metadata/valid-link-url.xml')

Issues Related to Patching and Upgrading Oracle WebCenter Portal

Downloading and Applying Required Patches

Bugs: 17063926, 17565171 Platform: All

After you install and configure Oracle Fusion Middleware, there might be cases where additional patches are required to address specific known issues.

Workaround:

Complete the following steps to obtain a patch:

1. Log into the My Oracle Support web site: https://myoraclesupport.com/.
2. Click the Patches & Updates tab.
3. Use the Patch Search area to locate patches.
4. On the Patch Search Results page, select a patch and click Download.
5. Install the patch by following the instructions in the README file that is included with the patch.

Integrating PeopleSoft and Oracle WebCenter Portal

Bug: 17063926

Platform: All

This is a known issue when integrating PeopleSoft and Oracle WebCenter Portal leveraging WSS1.0 Username Token and Password. This is the recommended approach for customers who require secure consumption of PeopleSoft portlets in WebCenter Portal. Customers should contact Oracle Customer Support to obtain a patch to address this issue.

Top Banner Not Rendering Correctly

Bug: 16786746

Platform: All

In Oracle WebCenter Portal, when you open a portal that was upgraded from a previous installation, the top banner of the portal does not render correctly. This happens when the portal has a page template set to a specific value and the skin is left as [System Default].

Workaround: To work around this issue, you must choose a skin to match the page template. Configure the upgraded portal to use the Spaces FX or Fusion FX skin, depending on the page template.

Custom Development Using APIs in the Jive Web Service Layer

Bug: 13425243

Platform: All

Oracle supports the embedded discussions server from Jive Software. Use the task flows that come with WebCenter Portal to call this discussions server. Any custom development using APIs in the Jive WebService layer are subject to review by Oracle and cannot be supported.

There are other features that Jive Software delivers as part of the discussions server that Oracle does not recommend and cannot support.

Documentation for Jive Forums is included for reference only. Jive software installations and upgrades outside of the WebCenter Portal product installation are not supported.

Issues Related to Mobile Applications

Unable to View Entire Content on iPad Because Scrollbars Not Shown

Bug: 14488651 Platform: iOS (mobile)

The Apple iOS platform does not use scrollbars. When you view a page on an iPad, content may appear truncated because scrollbars are not shown. Also, iFrame components ignore dimensions on an iPad.

Workaround: To view the entire content area, use the two-finger scroll gesture on your iPad.

RSS Links Not Working Properly on iPad

Bug: 14487974

Platform: iOS (mobile)

The Apple iOS platform renders RSS links by loading them through the site reader.mac.com. If the WebCenter Portal instance is not accessible outside of your firewall, RSS links cannot be viewed.

Cannot Upload Content Using iPad

Bugs: 14488559 and 14487904 Platform: iOS (mobile)

The Apple iOS platform does not support a native file system browser; therefore, you cannot upload content from an iPad. All upload actions, such as publish, upload, and share, are disabled or hidden when you access WebCenter Portal from an iPad.

Cannot Copy Text on a Page Using iPad

Bug: 14488336

Platform: iOS (mobile)

When you access a page through an iPad, you cannot copy the text that is shown on the page. This is a limitation from the Apple iOS platform.

Mobile Page Variants Not Displayed Correctly on Nexus 4 Devices

Bug: 16954597

Platform: Mobile

Mobile page variants are not displayed o the new Nexus 4 devices.

Workaround: To resolve this issue, create a new device with the following user agent string:

Mozilla/5.0 \(Linux; Android.+4.2.+Nexus 4.+Chrome.*Mobile Safari.*

For information about creating new devices and specifying the user agent string, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.

Back to top

Issues Related to REST Implementations

Configuring the REST Server Post-Installation

Bug: 12710929

Platform: All

For certain features of the Oracle WebCenter Portal REST server to work correctly, when using a REST client like the Oracle WebCenter Portal iPhone application, the Oracle WebLogic Server Plugin flag WLForwardUriUnparsed must be set to ON.

• If you are running Apache in front of WebLogic Server, add this flag to weblogic.conf.
• If you are running Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) in front of WebLogic Server, add this flag to mod_wl_ohs.conf.

The examples below illustrate the possible configurations for both of these cases.

For more information about how to configure WebLogic Server Plugins, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Using Web Server 1.1 Plug-Ins with Oracle WebLogic Server.

Example 1 (Recommended): Using <location /rest> to apply the flag for only /rest URLs

<Location /rest> # the flag below MUST BE set to "On" WLForwardUriUnparsedOn # other settings, example: WebLogicCluster or WebLogicHost & WebLogicPort # set the handler to be weblogic SetHandler weblogic-handler </Location>

Example 2: Applying the flag to all URIs served by Oracle WebLogic Server

<IfModule mod_weblogic.c> # the flag below MUST BE set to "On" WLForwardUriUnparsedOn # other settings, example: WebLogicCluster or WebLogicHost & WebLogicPort WebLogicCluster johndoe02:8005,johndoe:8006 Debug ON WLLogFilec:/tmp/global_proxy.log WLTempDir"c:/myTemp" DebugConfigInfoOn KeepAliveEnabled ON KeepAliveSecs 15 </IfModule>

Unable to Create Pages in Portals Created Using REST APIs

Bug: 17062598

Platform: All

In a portal created using WebCenter Portal REST APIs, there are some page creation issues.

Workaround: To enable page creation, deselect and reapply page permissions:

1. In WebCenter Portal Builder Administration, navigate to the Security page.
2. On the Roles tab, deselect all the permissions for pages and save.
3. Select the same permissions and save.

General Issues and Workarounds

Task Flow Parameter Names Are Hard-Coded in English

Bug: 20509590 Platform: All

Task flow input parameters are defined in the task flow definition. This leaves task flow parameter names out of translation bundles. Consequently, when a language other than English is applied to a WebCenter Portal instance, the names of task flow parameters remain in English.

Cannot Work with Content Workflows Using Oracle Workflow Queue Portlet

Bug:19143743 Platform: All

Workflow-enabled content in a portal is not accessible through the Oracle Workflow Queue portlet. This is a known limitation.

Workaround: To work with workflow-enabled content, use the Document task flows and Content Presenter.

SQL Query with NCHAR Data Type Throws Exception

Bug: 12956478 Platform: All

When using a SQL data control, you may encounter an error if the query contains a column with the NCHAR data type.

Workaround: You can workaround this issue by using the to_char (NCHAR_COLUMN NAME) function.

Cannot Customize or Personalize a JSF Portlet

Bug: 13331428 Platform: All

When clicking OK after customizing or personalizing a JSF portlet (that is, a portlet created using the Oracle JSF Portlet Bridge), the portlet produces a time-out message and ceases to respond. This is caused by performing two actions in single operation (editing and then changing the portlet mode).

Workaround: You can work around this issue by performing the edit action first, then clicking Apply (instead of OK), and then clicking Return to change the portlet mode back to View mode. Portlet developers can avoid the issue entirely by editing the code for the generated Edit Defaults mode in the edit_defaults.jspx file and the Edit mode in the edit.jspx file: Remove the code for the OK button so users must use Apply.

Embedded Images Not Rendered

Bug: 14407330 (Enhancement Request: 14552633) Platform: All

The Mail task flow does not render embedded images. Emails that contain inline images show them as attachments rather than render them within the message body.

In Firefox, First Attempt to Check Out a Document Fails

Bug: 14697381 Platform: All

When using the Mozilla Firefox browser, the first time you access WebCenter Portal over an SSL or HTTPS connection and attempt to open a document using Desktop Integration, you will receive a warning that the certificate is not trusted, even if the environment has a valid certificate. You can open the document, but you cannot check it out or in from a Microsoft Office application. Subsequent use of Desktop Integration through the Firefox browser will work as expected. You will be able to check documents in and out from a Microsoft Office application.

Deployment Fails Because Versioned Applications Are Not Supported

Bug: 15869339 Platform: All

Application versioning is not supported by default for ADF applications. With initial deployment, an existing or new application deploys successfully from JDeveloper to a WebLogic Server, regardless of the application's versioning. However, deployment fails when you redeploy an unversioned application where the versioned instance is running. You will see an error message like this:

Weblogic Server Exception: weblogic.management.ManagementException: [Deployer:149082]You cannot deploy application 'Application1_application1' without version. The application was previously deployed with version 'V2.0'

Workaround: To resolve this issue, first undeploy the versioned application and then deploy the unversioned application.

Error When Page Name Includes a Space

Bug: 16977809 Platform: All

When accessing a portal page on a device, such as a tablet or iPhone, an issue arises when all of the following conditions are true:

• The page has a space in its name
• The page does not have a page variant defined
• The Page Fallback setting for the page or the portal is Display No Page

In this case, the expected behavior is to see Page Not Available on the device. However, when all of the listed conditions are true, the content of the page appears (without the page title) on the device in lieu of the Page Not Available message.

For more information, see the "Setting Page Behavior for a Portal When No Page Variant Exists" and "Setting Page Behavior for a Specific Page When No Page Variant Exists" sections in Oracle Fusion Middleware Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal.

Documentation Corrections and Additions

Sample security-samples.zip Not Available in WebCenter Portal 11.1.1.9.0

Bug: 26351224 Platform: All

In the Developing Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle JDeveloper guide, the topics Building a Custom Self-Registration Page and Creating a Reset Password Page instruct you to unzip the security-samples.zip found in the webcenter/customportal directory.

This is not correct. The security-samples.zip is not available in WebCenter Portal 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.9.0).

Skyros V2 Skin Not Available by Default in WebCenter Portal 11.1.1.9.0

Bug: 22553343 Platform: All

The What’s New chapter in the WebCenter Portal documentation states that in WebCenter Portal 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.9.0), the Skyros V2 skin is preinstalled and you can see it listed on the Shared Assets page if you are assigned the Administrator or Application Specialist role.

This is not correct. The Skyros V2 skin (skin_Skyros_v2_Skin.ear) is not available out-of-the-box in WebCenter Portal 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.9.0), and is not listed on the Shared Assets page.

Oracle Enterprise Manager is Available for Installing or Cloning Oracle WebCenter Portal

Platform: All

The FMW Plugin for Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control supports provisioning new multi-node WebCenter Portal instances or cloning existing instances with data. It supports both WebCenter Portal 11.1.1.8.0 and 11.1.1.9.0 releases. Use the plugin to:

• Configure multi-host topologies in one session
• Clone WebCenter Domain with data
• Enjoy support for Portal scale up and scale out
• Take advantage of its flexible architecture
• Modularized steps for provisioning portal
• Add custom pre- /post- scripts

For more information, see Provisioning the Oracle WebCenter Domain and Oracle Homes.

Running the migrateFoldersGDataToFrameworkFolders WLST Command

Bug: 20863293 Platform: All

To migrate the Folders_g data to FrameworkFolders, when you run the migrateFoldersGDataToFrameworkFolders WLST command, the contentDbConnectionUrl and contentDbUserName parameters are mandatory for the WebCenter Portal application but optional for Portal Framework applications. This corrects the sections Running migrateFoldersGDataToFrameworkFolders to Validate the Migrated Data(Administering Oracle WebCenter Portal) and migrateFoldersGDataToFrameworkFolders(WebLogic Scripting Tool Command Reference).

Saved Search and Other Task Flows Work with SES 11.2.2.2

Platform: All

The documentation chapters covering Search say that Saved Search and some older task flows--such as Search - Preferences, Search - Toolbar, and Search - Non-Faceted Search--work only with SES 11.1.2 and do not work with SES 11.2.2.2. This is not correct. Saved Search and the older task flows work with SES 11.2.2.2 when the Use new search task flow with facet support option is deselected in the Search Settings administration page.

Recommendations

Consider Using Portal Builder in Lieu of Portal Framework

Oracle recommends creating new portals using Portal Builder rather than Portal Framework. While custom Portal Framework applications may provide a greater degree of flexibility when developing your portal solution, such flexibility typically forfeits product supportability and the ability to upgrade to new WebCenter Portal releases. Using Portal Builder avoids these constraints without sacrificing complexity or scalability.

Framework application will remain fully supported in the 11g releases.