Administering Liferay Version 7/DXP

By default, the INUBIT software is installed without a portal server. You can use an already installed Liferay Portal (refer to Software Requirements). To do this, you must adjust your Liferay installation.

Refer to

Overview

The INUBIT Enterprise Portal, based e.g. on the Liferay portal server, can be utilized as a basis for intranets and for interacting with business partners. You can combine your business processes within a homogeneous graphical user interface and integrate your own employees, customers, and business partners based on their roles into your business processes.

The main component of the INUBIT Enterprise Portal is the INUBIT Process Cockpit which offers the most relevant functions as pre-configured BPM portlets.

Refer to

Portal Web Services

For a list of all Web Services offered by the INUBIT Enterprise Portal based on Liferay, refer to https://<server>:<port>/o/com.INUBIT.ibis.portal.liferay.service/api/axis. The INUBIT Enterprise Portal must already be activated.

Technical information

For the communication between the portal server and the INUBIT Process Engine SOAP is used. Therefore, it is of no importance whether the two systems are installed on the same or on different computers.

Portlets are deployed into the portal via a Web service call from the INUBIT Process Engine.

The INUBIT software and the INUBIT Enterprise Portal are 100% JSR-286 compliant. This standard allows the integration of any portlets provided that they have been developed in accordance with the JSR-286 standard.

Dummy navigations like href="#" should be changed to href="javascript:void(0)".

Liferay DXP: For testing, you have to create users with appropriate roles, permissions, and INUBIT-related pages.

Using an Existing Liferay Portal With the New INUBIT 8.0 Installation

Usage

You want to use your existing Liferay portal used with your former INUBIT installation the way it is with the INUBIT 8.0 installation you just have migrated to.

Prerequisites

With your former INUBIT installation, you have already used an existing Liferay portal installed separately from your INUBIT installation.

  • You have migrated your Liferay portal used with your former INUBIT installation to a Liferay portal 7.x/DXP as INUBIT 8.0 and higher only support Liferay 7.x/DXP versions. For more information on supported Liferay versions, refer to Software Requirements.

  • You have installed INUBIT 8.0 successfully.

  • You have started both the INUBIT 8.0 Process Engine and the INUBIT 8.0 Workbench.

  • You have connected your INUBIT 8.0 Workbench with your INUBIT 8.0 Process Engine.

  • You have configured and verified both the Portal server and the Process user server.

Refer to

Proceed as follows

  1. Navigate to the following directory of your Liferay portal installation:

    <Liferay-installdir>/<Tomcat-dir>/webapps/ROOT/html/common/themes

  2. Open the top_js-ext.jspf file for editing.

  3. Search for the following line:

    <%@ include file="/html/common/themes/top_js-ext-extjs3.jspf" %>

  4. Replace this line with one of the following lines, depending on the version of Ext JS required:

    <%@ include file="/html/common/themes/top_js-ext-extjs6.jspf" %>
    <%@ include file="/html/common/themes/top_js-ext-extjs7.jspf" %>
  5. Save the changes and restart your Liferay Tomcat server.

→ All INUBIT 8.0 portlets should work as expected.

Configuring the Liferay Portal initially

Prerequisites

  • You have installed at least the INUBIT version 8.0.

  • You have installed one of the supported Liferay Portal versions (refer to Software Requirements).

  • Ensure that ports used by the <Liferay-installdir>/<Tomcat-dir>/conf/server.xml file are not used by your INUBIT installation or other applications.

  • You have configured Liferay properly, that is, you have set up Liferay initially, for example, you have configured the system administrator password.

  • You have successfully started Liferay at least once.

Under Linux, you can use the INUBIT Liferay Plug-in Deployment Script to perform the following steps automatically.

Refer to:

To learn how to use the INUBIT portlets delivered with INUBIT, refer to

Backing Up Data

Proceed as follows

Save the portal, and in particular the file portal-ext.properties if you have made any changes there.

Enhancing the Java Environment

Proceed as follows

  1. Set the JAVA_HOME and PATH variable to your Liferay Java installation.

  2. Open the <Liferay-installdir>/<tomcat-dir>/bin/setenv.{bat|sh} file for editing.

  3. Increase the Xmx parameter to at least -Xmx2048M.

When using Liferay with Java 8, proceed as follows

  1. Download the Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files (zipped archive) from the official Oracle web page https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/downloads/ and unzip it.

  2. Copy the local_policy.jar file from the unzipped download to the <JRE_HOME>/jre/lib/security directory of the Java environment used by the Liferay installation.

    The existing local_policy.jar file in the destination directory is overwritten.

  3. Open the java.security file in the security directory of the Java environment used by your Liferay installation.

  4. Add the following line to the java.security file at the end of the file and increase the index value by 1.

    security.provider.<next free index value>=org.bouncycastle.jce.provider.BouncyCastleProvider

    Example

    security.provider.10=org.bouncycastle.jce.provider.BouncyCastleProvider

Installing the INUBIT Bootstrap Plug-in

Proceed as follows

  1. Start the portal if not yet done.

  2. Copy the following file from the <`inubit-installdir>/portal/inubitPlugins/<Liferay-version>` directory to the portal deploy directory <Liferay-installdir>/deploy.

    liferay-inubit-bootstrap-1.0.0.jar

    → The deployment starts automatically.

  3. Wait for the message that liferay-INUBIT-bootstrap-1.0.0.jar is started is displayed in the <Liferay-installdir>/<tomcat-dir>/logs/catalina.out file or in the startup Command Prompt window (Windows only).

  4. Delete the liferay-INUBIT-bootstrap-1.0.0.jar file from <Liferay-installdir>/osgi/modules directory if it exists.

  5. Restart the portal.

Installing the INUBIT Liferay Integration Plug-in

Proceed as follows

  1. Start the portal.

  2. Navigate to the <inubit-installdir>/inubit/portal/inubitPlugins/<Liferay_version> directory.

  3. Copy the com.INUBIT.ibis.portal.liferay.api-1.0.0.jar file to the <Liferay-installdir>/deploy directory.

  4. Wait for the message that com.inubit.ibis.portal.liferay.api-1.0.0.jar is started to appear in file <Liferay-installdir>/<tomcat-dir>/logs/catalina.out or in the startup Command Prompt window (Windows only).

  5. Copy the com.INUBIT.ibis.portal.liferay.service-1.0.0.jar file to the <Liferay-installdir>/deploy directory.

  6. Wait for the message that com.inubit.ibis.portal.liferay.service-1.0.0.jar is started to appear in file <Liferay-installdir>/<tomcat-dir>/logs/catalina.out or in the startup Command Prompt window (Windows only).

  7. Copy the com.INUBIT.ibis.portal.liferay.service-wsdd-1.0.0.jar file to the <Liferay-installdir>/deploy directory.

  8. Wait for the message that com.inubit.ibis.portal.liferay.service-wsdd-1.0.0.jar is started to appear in file <Liferay-installdir>/<tomcat-dir>/logs/catalina.out or in the startup Command Prompt window (Windows only).

Adjusting Configuration File portal-ext.properties

Configure your portal database.

To customize properties, move them to the USER EDITABLE SECTION section of the portal-ext.properties file and edit them there.

Otherwise, the settings are overwritten when updating Liferay or INUBIT plug-ins.

Proceed as follows

When using the default H2 database of your new Liferay installation, e.g. for test purposes, you must not change the database connection properties including the hibernate.dialect property in steps 1 to 4.

  1. Open the file <liferay-installdir>/portal-ext.properties and comment out all jdbc.default.* entries starting with a '#' at the beginning of the line.

  2. Open the saved file portal-ext.properties.

    Refer to Backing Up Data

    For information on how to add properties, refer to the comments given in the portal-ext.properties file.

    You must not change the following property because it is used to turn off single page applications in Liferay: javascript.single.page.application.enabled=false

  3. Copy your database configuration from the saved file portal-ext.properties and insert the configuration below the user editable section at the end of the file into <liferay-installdir>/portal-ext.properties.

    Click-jacking attacks can be prevented by setting the configuration parameter inubit.security.allowFraming in the portal-ext.properties file using the following options:

    • DENY: Frames are not allowed.

    • SAMEORIGIN: Pages may only be displayed from frames on the same domain (default).

    • ALLOW-FROM:<uri>: Frames are only allowed from the given URI.

      Move the line with the parameter INUBIT.security.allowFraming to the end of the file below the USER EDITABLE SECTION section.

      Default value for X-frame option is SAMEORIGIN. To enable ALLOW-FROM from external source instead of default behavior, the following additional steps are required:

      • Create the system-ext.properties file in the <liferay-installdir>/tomcat-8.0.32/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/classes/ folder.

      • Add the following property:

        http.header.secure.x.frame.options=false

        This is not advisable in case you need to achieve more security.

        For a secured option, you can set the URL value as follows:

        http.header.secure.x.frame.options.\*= /<URL_to_first_site>

        The "*" wildcard must be replaced by a positive integer value between 1 and 255.

      • Set the value of INUBIT.security.allowFraming in <liferay-installdir>/portal-ext.properties to ALLOW-FROM.

  4. Set the hibernate.dialect property by uncommenting the line that fits your database and comment the previously uncommented line, by default: hibernate.dialect=org.hibernate.dialect.HSQLDialect.

    Move the line with the hibernate.dialect=org.hibernate.dialect parameter to the end of the file below the USER EDITABLE SECTION section.

  5. Save the changes.

Start the portal, then the Workbench.

Configuring the API Authentication for Liferay 7.3 and 7.4

The following steps are only necessary as of Liferay 7.3 and Liferay 7.4.

Proceed as follows

  1. Click the menu icon administration guide 304 1 on the top-right to open the menu.

  2. Open to Control Panel > System Settings menu.

  3. In the SECURITY section, click the API Authentication button.

  4. In the SYSTEM SCOPE section, click the Basic Auth Header link.

  5. Click the Add button next to CONFIGURATION ENTRIES.

  6. Activate the Enabled checkbox.

  7. In the URLs Includes section, enter the following line.

    /api/,/xmlrpc/,/o/com.inubit.ibis.portal.liferay.service/api/axis/*

    administration guide 305 0

  8. Click the Save button.

Configuring Connection Between INUBIT and Liferay

  1. Configure the portal of the Liferay portal in the Workbench under Administration > General Settings > Portal, refer to Configuring the Portal Server.

    1. Select Liferay from the portal server drop down menu.

      → Both the Liferay version and the URL of the portal server are set automatically.

    2. Check the URL of the portal server. It should look like the following:

      https://<server>:<port>/o/com.inubit.ibis.portal.liferay.service/api/axis

    3. Adjust the URL of the INUBIT Process Engine.

  2. Save your changes.

  3. Configure your process user server under Administration > General Settings > Process User > Server, e.g. for your Liferay portal, refer to Configuring the Process User Server.

    1. Select Liferay as process user server.

      → Both the Liferay version and the URL of the portal server are set automatically.

    2. Check the URL of the process user server. It should look like the following:

      https://<server>:<port>/o/com.inubit.ibis.portal.liferay.service/api/axis

    3. Adjust the log-in and password to connect to the process user server.

  4. Save your changes.

  5. Go to the page Administration > General Settings > Portal > Portal deployment, refer to Configuring Portal Deployment.

  6. In the Portlet archive (administration/deployment) line, click the button at the right end of the line.

→ In the dialog that is displayed, among other things, the connected Liferay portal and its version are displayed.

Communication between the INUBIT Process Engine and the portal is now established. You can now deploy and work with your portlets, such as the ProcessViewer.

Updating an Existing Liferay with new INUBIT Plug-ins

Prerequisites

You have configured your existing Liferay to be used with INUBIT.

Proceed as follows

  1. Shut down Liferay Tomcat.

  2. Backup your existing Liferay installation.

  3. Navigate to the <Liferay-installdir> directory.

    1. Backup the portal-ext.properties file.

    2. Empty the portal-ext.properties file.

  4. In the <Liferay-installdir>/<Tomcat-dir>/work/Catalina directory, delete the localhost directory to clear the Liferay cache.

  5. Delete all the three old integration plug-in jar files from the <Liferay-installdir>/osgi/modules directory.

  6. Start Liferay Tomcat.

  7. In the Liferay basic configuration, deselect the Add Sample Data option.

  8. Copy the new bootstrap plug-in provided in the <inubit-installdir>/inubit/portal/inubitPlugins/<Liferay-version> directory to the <Liferay-installdir>/deploy directory.

  9. Once the deployment succeeded, restart the Liferay Tomcat.

  10. Copy the new integration plug-ins provided in the <inubit-installdir>/inubit/portal/inubitPlugins/<Liferay-version> directory to the <Liferay-installdir>/deploy directory.

  11. Add your customized content (e.g. database settings) from the portal-ext.properties file content saved in step 3. a to the newly created portal-ext.properties file.

    Do not replace existing settings!

  12. Once the deployment succeeded, restart the Liferay Tomcat.

  13. In your browser, open the URL https://<server>:<port>/o/com.inubit.ibis.portal.liferay.service/api/axis to check whether all inubit-related web services are displayed, for example: PluginInubitFileService, PluginUserUtilsService, PluginUserUtilsFlatWSService, PluginInubitUserService, PluginInubitRoleService, PluginInubitFolderService

Using Ext JS in the Portal

In Liferay, Ext JS 6 and Ext JS 7 can be used, which are shipped together with INUBIT.

The default portlets (Process model, Tasks, and Reporting), which are also shipped with INUBIT, are all supported by both Ext JS 6 and Ext JS 7.

Scope of Delivery and Configuring the Ext JS Version Used

When configuring your Liferay installation, Ext JS is provided in the following directories:

Version 6.5.3: <Liferay-installdir>/<Tomcat-dir>/webapps/ROOT/html/js/extjs6

Version 7.1.0.46: <Liferay-installdir>/<Tomcat-dir>/webapps/ROOT/html/js/extjs7

Configure Ext JS 6.5.3 in the file <Liferay-installdir>/<Tomcat-dir>/webapps/ROOT/html/common/themes/top_js-ext.jspf.

By default, the top_js-ext-extjs6.jspf file for Ext JS-6.5.3 stored in the same directory is referenced.

Configure Ext JS 7.1.0.46 in the file <Liferay-installdir>/<Tomcat-dir>/webapps/ROOT/html/common/themes/top_js-ext.jspf by referring top_js-ext-extjs7.jspf file stored in the same directory.

Directory Structure for Ext JS

The ResourceBundle extension has been updated and now it is located in the following directory:

  • Ext JS 6

    • <Liferay-installdir>/<Tomcat-dir>/webapps/ROOT/html/js/extjs6/packages/i18n/

    • <Liferay-installdir>/<Tomcat-dir>/webapps/ROOT/html/js/extjs6/packages/i18n/resources/

  • Ext JS 7

    • <Liferay-installdir>/<Tomcat-dir>/webapps/ROOT/html/js/extjs7/packages/i18n/

    • <Liferay-installdir>/<Tomcat-dir>/webapps/ROOT/html/js/extjs7/packages/i18n/resources/

Refer to:

Portal Roles and Rights in Liferay

Portal roles

A portal role is a container for rights.

Liferay’s portal roles are independent of the INUBIT roles. Access must be set up to both components for users wishing to use both.

By default, the portal server is provided with the following portal roles:

  • Administrator

    Possesses all rights, e.g. the rights to create portal users, portal roles and sites. Administrators may add resources such as pages and content to site’s private pages and also possess private pages of their own.

  • Power User

    Power users possess a personal area in which they may add and delete pages and content. However, this function is deactivated in the INUBIT Enterprise Portal. To activate this function open the <liferay-installdir>/portal-ext.properties file and set the property private.pages=false.

  • User

    Users may perform the tasks assigned to them on the private pages of their site but they do not have a private area and can neither add nor delete pages. New users are automatically assigned the User role.

  • Guest

    Guests can only view the public areas of the sites and have no areas of their own.

Several pre-configured users are supplied with INUBIT software; their login details are displayed on the login page of the Enterprise Server.

Organization areas

In addition to the roles, the portal server has the concept of organizational areas. These can be of the following types:

  • Company

  • Organization

  • Locations

Organizations and locations represent a hierarchical company structure. The company can comprise many organizations and each organization can have many locations.

A user can belong to exactly one location and one organization. Roles and individual rights can be assigned to organizations and locations. By default, locations inherit rights from their organizations.

Scopes

The rights associated with a role may be assigned different scopes so that a role may, for example, be allowed to perform different actions in different sites.

There are various types of scopes, e.g. the Site type. A site is a grouping of users based, for example, on their skills or interests. A user can belong to any number of sites.

Roles and individual rights can have a scope of Sites or Company.

User group

A user group is also a grouping of users. However, unlike organizations, locations and sites, no context is connected to user groups. The purpose of a user group is simply to help the administrator when assigning roles and rights as the administrator can assign roles and rights to a group instead of to individual users.

A user can belong to any number of user groups. Both roles and individual rights can be assigned to a user group. Each user who belongs to a group inherits its roles or rights.

Organizational Structures in Liferay

Organizational concepts

In order to organize the portal users, it is important to understand the different organizational concepts provided by Liferay:

  • Portals are accessed by users.

  • User administration can be organized in the form of user groups.

  • Users belong to organizations. Organizations can be based on a hierarchical structure.

  • Users, user groups, and organizations can belong to sites. Sites are groupings of users based, for example, on their skills or interests.

Roles and permissions

User access to web applications and data is organized with portal roles and permissions:

These roles are used to assign permissions for actions and locations to role owners, e.g. for adding web applications within a sites.

The following figure illustrates the described concept:

administration guide 309 1

The portal roles of Liferay are independent of the INUBIT user roles. For users wishing to use both components, access must be provided separately to both components.

Portlet permissions

Each portlet can have individual permissions. Portlet permissions set up with INUBIT software can be defined both in the Web Application Connector and in the Task Generator.

Synchronization of roles

All portal roles are automatically available in the INUBIT software in order to use them for instance in BPM rules.

Inheritance concept

Roles (and with it the rights assigned to the role) which are assigned to an organization are inherited to all sub organizations.

Each user who belongs to a role inherits its permissions.

Each user who belongs to a user group inherits its permissions.

Each member of a site inherits its roles and permissions.

Organizations in Liferay

The organization concept is used to visualize the hierarchical framework of a company: a local company branch can, for example, be represented as a location type organization and company departments can be subordinated as regular organizations to other regular organizations. You can also define an organization for external business partners like suppliers in order to provide access to the portal for him and enter his address.

Sites in Liferay

A site is a grouping of web pages.

A site contains one or more portal pages. As soon as one user is assigned to a site, which contains at least one page, this site is displayed in the service menu under Sites.

Users can be assigned indirectly through an organization or a user group to a site. They can belong to an unlimited number of sites.

User Groups and Users in Liferay

User group

A user group is a grouping of users. However, unlike organizations and sites user groups have no context associated with them. The purpose of a user group is simply to help the administrator in assigning roles and permissions to a group of users instead of individual users.

A user can belong to any number of user groups.

Roles can be assigned to user groups. Every user that belongs to a user group inherits its roles or permissions.

User

A user can be assigned to one or more sites, organizations, user groups and/or roles. By means of such assignments, he receives permission to display pages and carry out actions.

Managing Organizations in Liferay

Overview

An organization has the following attributes: unique name, type, group ID, several addresses (office address, mailing address, billing address, shipping address), telephone numbers, e-mail address, URL address and service opening hours for different departments.

Further attributes can be defined for an organization.

Actions

In the menu, open the Control Panel > Users and Organizations and then open the Organizations tab. Click the action icon administration guide 310 0 and select one of the following menu items:

  • Edit

    Allows you to edit the organization.

  • Assign Organization Roles

    Allows you to assign organization-scoped roles to users.

  • Assign Users

    Allows you to choose from available users.

  • Add User

    Allows you to enter a new user.

  • Add Organization

    Allows you to add subordinate organization of regular organization type.

  • Delete

    Allows you to delete current organization after confirmation prompt.

    An organization can only be deleted if no subordinate organization is linked and no user is assigned to it.

Creating Organizations in Liferay

You can create an unlimited number of organizations.

Proceed as follows

  1. Log in as Administrator.

  2. Open the menu and choose the item Control Panel >Users > Users and Organizations.

    → On the Users tab, a list of all available users is displayed. On the Organizations tab, a list of all available organizations (or no list if there are no organizations yet) is displayed.

    → Click administration guide 311 1 to create a new organization.

  3. In the Name input field, enter a name.

  4. Optionally, choose the Country and the Region.

  5. To select a Parent Organization, click administration guide 311 2.

    → The Select Organization dialog opens.

    An organization must already exist. Otherwise, no parent organizations can be selected.

  6. In the line of the organization you want to select, click Choose.

    → The dialog closes.

  7. Save the new organization.

    → Your operation is confirmed and the Edit <organization name> form opens.

  8. Edit the organization according to your needs and save it. Otherwise, click Cancel.

→ The new organization appears in the list.

Assigning Organization Roles in Liferay

As an administrator you can assign the following roles to members of an organization:

  • Organization Administrator

    Organization administrators are superusers of their organization, are allowed to manage their organization’s pages with all administrative permissions, but they are not able to assign to other users the status of organization administrator.

  • Organization Content Reviewer

    Autogenerated role from the workflow definition.

  • Organization Owner

    Organization owners are superusers of their organization and are allowed to assign organization roles to other users.

Prerequisites

You have assigned at least one user to the organization, refer to Assigning Users to an Organization, a Site or a Role in Liferay.

Proceed as follows

  1. Open the menu and choose the item Control Panel > Users > Users and Organizations > Organizations.

  2. In the row with the desired organization, click the administration guide 310 0 action icon and choose the Assign Organization Roles menu item.

    → The organization roles are displayed.

  3. Click the role to which you want to assign a member.

  4. Click the Available tab.

    → All users are displayed that belong to the selected organization.

  5. Select the checkbox for the user to whom you want to assign the organization role.

  6. Click Update Associations:

    administration guide 312 0

If the user is successfully assigned, the confirmation message is displayed at the top of the page.

Adding Pages for Selected Organizations in Liferay

Managing Sites in Liferay

Actions

Via the control panel the following actions are available for each site:

  • Edit Settings: Allows you to edit properties.

  • Manage Pages: Allows you to create and edit site portal pages.

  • Manage Memberships

    Creating, editing and deleting teams.

  • Delete: Allows you to delete current sites after confirmation prompt.

Types and areas

The following types of sites exist:

  • Open sites allow a user to join or leave them at any time without any kind of administrator’s approval.

  • Restricted sites require that users be added to the site by a site administrator. Users may use the site’s portlet to request membership.

  • In private sites the administrator explicitly assigns new users. A private site does not show up at all in the site’s portlet.

Every site can have a public and a private area:

  • A public area is also visible for guests if they know the correct URL.

  • A private area is only visible for logged-in users that are members of this site.

Creating Sites in Liferay

Proceed as follows

  1. Log in as Administrator.

  2. Open the menu and choose the menu item Control Panel > Sites > Sites.

    → A list of all available sites is displayed.

  3. Click administration guide 311 1 and select a site template.

    → The New Site form displayed.

  4. In the Name input field, enter a name.

  5. To select a parent site, click administration guide 311 2.

    → The Select Site dialog opens.

  6. Click the site you want to select.

    → The dialog closes.

  7. Save the new site.

    → Your operation is confirmed and the Site Settings dialog opens.

  8. Edit the site according to your needs and save it. Otherwise, click Cancel.

    → The new site appears as a sub site of its parent site in the list.

Assigning Users, User Groups or Organizations to Sites in Liferay

You can assign members to a site in the form of users, organizations and user groups.

Proceed as follows

  1. Log in as administrator.

  2. Open the menu and choose the menu item Control Panel > Sites > Sites.

    → A list of all available sites is displayed.

  3. Click the desired site.

  4. In the menu, open the Members section.

  5. Click Site Memberships.

    → The Site Memberships dialog is displayed.

  6. Depending on what you want to assign, select one of the following tabs: Users, Organizations, or User Groups.

  7. Click the add icon administration guide 311 1 and select the user, organizations, or user groups.

  8. Click Done.

→ The table is updated with the new members.

Managing User Groups and Users in Liferay

User group actions

Via the control panel, the following actions are available for user groups:

  • Edit: Allows you to edit the name and description.

  • Permissions: Allows you to define which roles have administrative permissions for this user group.

  • User Group Pages Permissions: Allows you to define which roles have administrative permissions for the pages of this user group.

  • Manage Pages: Allows you, for instance, to configure the page’s Look and Feel and Change Current Theme.

    In the INUBIT Enterprise Portal based on Liferay users are not allowed to add individual pages. Therefore, the Manage Pages action cannot be used effectively.

  • Go to Profile Pages: Allows you to configure the public pages of the site in a new window

  • Go to Dashboard Pages: Allows you to configure the dashboard pages of the site in a new window

  • Assign Members: Allows you to choose from available users

  • Delete: Allows you to delete the current user group after a confirmation prompt.

A user group can only be deleted if no user is assigned to it.

User actions

Via the control panel, the following actions are available for users:

  • Edit: Allows you to edit user properties.

  • Permissions: Allows you to define which roles have administrative permissions for this user.

  • Impersonate User: Allows you to open a new browser tab that displays the site within the bounds of permissions applying to current user.

  • Deactivate: Allows you to deactivate the selected user.

Adding User Groups in Liferay

You can create an unlimited number of user groups.

Proceed as follows

  1. Log in as Administrator.

  2. Open the menu and select the menu item Control Panel > Users > User Groups.

    → A list of all available user groups is displayed.

  3. Click Add administration guide 311 1.

    → The New User Group dialog is displayed.

  4. Enter the name of the new user group.

  5. Optionally, choose a profile and/or a dashboard.

  6. Save the new user group.

The new user group is displayed in the list of available user groups.

Creating Users in Liferay

Proceed as follows

  1. Log in as Administrator.

  2. Open the menu and choose the menu item Control Panel > Users > Users and Organizations.

  3. Open the Users tab.

    → A list of all available users is displayed.

  4. Click Add administration guide 311 1.

    → The Add User dialog is displayed.

  5. Enter user information or select items from the list boxes. The portal automatically assigns a user ID.

  6. Choose an organization.

  7. Click Save.

    Via the tabs you can configure further settings of the new user, for example, password, addresses and telephone numbers.

  8. In the Password section, the input fields for defining the user password are displayed.

  9. Define a password.

    Select the Require Password Reset checkbox if the password should only be used once when logging in for the first time. After the first login, the system requires the user to reset the password.

  10. Click Save.

The new user is created.

If new users have no access to the default sites, check if the names of the default site in the Default User Associations dialog and the one in the list of available sites are identical.

Assigning Users to a User Group in Liferay

Proceed as follows

  1. Log in as Administrator.

  2. Open the menu and choose the menu item Control Panel > Users > User Groups.

    → A list of all available user groups is displayed.

  3. Click the action icon of the desired user group and choose Assign Members.

    → All users already assigned to the user group are displayed.

  4. Click the Add administration guide 311 1 button.

    → All available users are displayed in a checkbox list. A checked box indicates that these users are already member of the respective user group.

    To find a user more quickly, use the search function and limit the number of displayed users.

  5. Select the checkboxes for the users that you want to assign to the user group.

  6. Click the Add button.

    To add all available users to the user group, select the checkbox in the left upper corner of the table header.

Assigning Users to an Organization, a Site or a Role in Liferay

Proceed as follows

  1. Log in as administrator.

  2. Open the menu and choose the menu item Control Panel > Users and Organizations.

  3. Open the Users tab.

    → A list of all available users is displayed.

  4. Click the action icon administration guide 310 0 to the desired user and select the Edit menu item.

    → The page for editing user information opens.

  5. Depending on where you want to assign the user, go to the Organizations, Sites, or Roles section. A list of available assignments is displayed.

  6. Click Choose in the line of the desired organization, site, or role. The updated assignment list of the current user is displayed.

  7. Save your changes.

Deactivating and Deleting Users in Liferay

Users must be deactivated before they can be deleted. Deactivated users can be reactivated again or definitely deleted.

Proceed as follows

  1. Log in as Administrator.

  2. Open the menu and choose the menu item Control Panel > Users > Users and Organizations.

  3. Open the Users tab.

  4. In the table heading, choose Active.

    → A list of all active users is displayed.

  5. Click the action icon administration guide 310 0 of the user you want to delete and choose the menu item Deactivate.

  6. Confirm the prompt.

    → The deactivated user disappeared from the active users list.

  7. To display and delete or reactivate an inactive user, choose Inactive in the table heading.

    → A list of all inactive users is displayed.

    To reactivate a user, click the action icon administration guide 310 0 of the user you want to reactivate and choose the menu item Activate.

  8. Click the action icon administration guide 310 0 of the user you want to delete and choose the menu item Delete.

  9. Confirm the prompt.

→ The deleted user disappeared from the inactive users list.

Assigning Site Roles in Liferay

In every site you can assign the following sites roles to members:

  • Site Administrator

    Site administrators are superusers of their organization, but they are not able to assign the status of site administrator to other users.

  • Site Content Reviewer

    Autogenerated role from the workflow definition.

  • Site Owner

    Site owners are superusers of their site and are allowed to assign site roles to other users.

Proceed as follows

  1. Log in as Administrator.

  2. Open the menu and choose the menu item Control Panel > Sites > Sites.

    → A list of all available sites is displayed.

  3. Open the desired site.

  4. Open the menu and choose the menu item Members > Site Memberships.

    → The Site Memberships page is displayed.

  5. Depending on what you want to assign, select one of the following tabs: Users, Organizations, or User Groups.

  6. For the desired user, organization or user group, click the action icon administration guide 310 0 and select Assign Site Roles.

  7. Select the desired roles.

  8. Click Done at the bottom to save your assignments.

→ A confirmation message is displayed at the top of the page.

Adding Pages to a Site or Organization in Liferay

Proceed as follows

  1. Log in as Administrator.

  2. Open the menu and choose the menu item Control Panel > Sites > Sites.

    → A list of all available sites is displayed.

  3. Open the desired site.

  4. Open the menu, then open the site.

  5. Click the action icon administration guide 310 0 of the Private Page menu item and choose the Add Private Page menu item.

    → The following page is displayed:

    administration guide 317 1

    Choose the page type, by default Empty Page and the page layout. Optionally, you can add Tags in the Categorization section.

  6. Click Add Page to create the new page.

    → The page is created.

  7. To further configure the page, open it in the menu, click the page’s action icon administration guide 310 0, and choose the Configure Page menu item.

    To create a subordinate page, click the action icon and choose the Add Child Page menu item.

    The pages of a site are represented in the form of a directory tree. Every page can have subordinate pages.

    There are several tabs to configure tags, meta tags, the look and feel as well as the advanced settings, e.g. an icon and mobile device rules.

  8. To configure the visibility, click the action icon on the page title, and choose the Permissions menu item.

    → The Permissions dialog is displayed containing a table with pre-configured access rights for the specific page according to different roles.

    administration guide 318 0
  9. Define for each role the permissions that should be assigned to its owner on the current page by selecting the checkbox.

  10. Click Save to save defined permissions.

  11. Close the dialog by clicking the cross in the top right.

  12. Click Save.

    → Your operation is confirmed.

Deleting a Site in Liferay

Sites can be deleted while members are still assigned to them.

Proceed as follows

  1. Log in as Administrator.

  2. Open the menu and choose the menu item Control Panel > Sites > Sites.

    → A list of all available sites is displayed.

  3. Open the desired site.

  4. Open the menu, then open the site.

  5. Click on the action icon administration guide 310 0 of the desired page and choose the Delete menu item.

  6. Confirm by clicking OK.

→ The site is no longer displayed in the list of available sites.

Managing Portal Roles in Liferay

Actions

Via the control panel the following actions are available for each role:

  • Edit: Allows you to edit attributes.

  • Permissions: Allows you to define which roles have administrative permissions to edit this role.

  • Define Permissions: Allows you to define for the selected role which portlets are basically visible to it and which portal-wide permissions apply to it.

  • Delete: Allows you to delete regular roles after a confirmation prompt.

    The pre-configured roles such as administrator, guest, power user and user cannot be deleted.

Creating Portal Roles in Liferay

Proceed as follows

  1. Log in as Administrator.

  2. Open the menu and choose the menu item Control Panel > Users > Roles.

  3. Open the tab Regular Roles, Site Roles, or Organization Roles to display the containing roles.

    → Depending on the chosen tab, a list of all available Regular Roles, Site Roles, or Organization Roles is displayed.

  4. Click Add administration guide 311 1.

    → The New Role dialog is displayed.

  5. Enter a name for the new role.

  6. Optionally, you can enter a Title and/or a Description.

  7. Click Save.

→ The newly created role is displayed in the corresponding list.

Specifying Visibility of Pages for Selected Roles in Liferay

You can specify the visibility of individual pages or hide them for defined roles.

Proceed as follows

  1. Log in as Administrator.

  2. Display the page for which you want to specify the visibility.

  3. On the page title, click the Configure Page icon administration guide 319 2.

  4. On the page title, click the Option icon administration guide 310 0 and choose the Permissions menu item.

    → The Permissions dialog is displayed containing a table with pre-configured access rights for the specific page according to different roles.

    administration guide 320 0
  5. Define for each role the permissions that should be assigned to its owner on the current page by selecting the checkbox.

  6. Click Save to save defined permissions.

  7. Close the dialog by clicking the cross in the top right.

  8. Click Save.

→ Your operation is confirmed.

Managing Portlets in Liferay

When managing portlets the following procedure is recommended:

  1. Configuring the portlet via the control panel, hence, defining for which roles the portlet should be visible

  2. Adding the configured portlet to one or more pages.

Proceeding like this has the great advantage that all portlets on all pages can be managed from one central configuration point.

You can change a portlet configuration even after adding it to a page. These changes do not affect the other instances of the portlet. Thus, you can individually change single portlet instances. But it also makes it much more difficult to ensure a uniform configuration of all portlet instances.

Adding Portlets to a Page in Liferay

Proceed as follows

  1. Display the page to which you want to add portlets.

  2. On the page title, click the Add icon administration guide 311 1.

    → On the right side, the Add pane is displayed.

  3. Open the Applications section and then open the category to which your portlet belongs.

    For portlets created with the INUBIT software, the category has been defined in the Web Application Connector. By default, these portlets all belong to the INUBIT category.

    All portlets belonging to the selected category are displayed.

  4. Next to the desired portlet, click Add or drag and drop the portlet to the portal page:

    administration guide 321 0
  5. To close the Add pane, click the X at the top of the pane.

→ The selected portlet is displayed on the portal page.

Specifying Visibility of Portlets for Selected Roles in Liferay

You can specifically define for each portlet for whom it should be visible.

Roles are used to make portlets visible. You define the visible portlets for each role, and you define the users, user groups, and user subgroups for each role.

A list containing all portlets available in the portal can be displayed in the control panel by opening the Define Permissions for a role.

You select a portlet from the list of available portlets and then define the sites on which the action shall be allowed.

Proceed as follows

  1. Log in as Administrator.

  2. Open the menu and select the menu item Control Panel > Users > Roles.

    → A list of all available roles is displayed.

  3. Click on one of the tabs to choose the role type.

  4. Click the action icon administration guide 310 0 of the desired role and choose the menu item Define Permissions.

    → A list of all available portlets is displayed. To find the portlet, enter the name in the Search field on the top-left.

  5. Click the portlet to open the Application Permissions dialog.

    administration guide 322 1
  6. Check the desired actions.

  7. To restrict the actions’ scope proceed as follows.

    1. In the line of the desired action, click Change in the Site column. → The Select Site dialog is displayed.

    2. Click the site you want to restrict the visibility to.

      → The dialog closes.

      Repeat step a and b for all desired sites.

      → All selected sites are displayed in the table. For removing a site click the X of the site.

    3. Click Save.

Removing Portlets from Pages in Liferay

All users with an administrator role (Administrator, Site Administrator, Organization Administrator) are allowed to delete portlets from pages.

Proceed as follows

  1. Display the page containing the portlet instance that is to be deleted.

  2. Click the Options icon on the right in the title bar of the portlet to open the configuration menu.

  3. Choose the Remove item from the configuration menu.

    administration guide 323 1
  4. Confirm the prompt.

→ The portlet is removed from the page.

Customizing Liferay

Many central Liferay configuration options are integrated in the file <liferay-installdir>/portal-ext.properties. The specifications contained in this file overwrite the specifications of the original configuration file portal.properties in portal-impl.jar. Further information can be found in the Liferay documentation.

All settings stored in the USER EDITABLE SECTION at the end of the file are untouched by patches and are commented out in the protected area.

Configuring Authentication in Liferay

Proceed as follows

  1. Log in as Administrator.

  2. Open the menu and select the menu item Control Panel > Configuration > Instance Settings.

    → The Instance Settings page is displayed.

  3. On the Configuration tab, go to the Authentication section.

    → The General tab is displayed:

    administration guide 324 0
  4. Define if users must authenticate by e-mail address, screen name, or user ID.

    By selecting the corresponding checkbox, you can allow users to log in automatically.

  5. Save your selection.

Configuring Password Policies in Liferay

Password policies can improve the security of your portal. You can define different password policies for individual organizations or users.

Proceed as follows

  1. Log in as Administrator.

  2. Open the menu and select the menu item Control Panel > Users > Password Policies.

    → The list of currently available password policies is displayed.

    You can edit existing password policies, add new ones, and define who has permissions for which policies, and you can assign members to the policies.

  3. Save your changes.

    More complex requirements for password policies can be configured in the portal-ext.properties file, refer to Liferay Administration Guide, Chapter "Advanced Liferay Configuration, The portal-ext.properties File, Passwords".

Deploying Non-INUBIT Portlets in Liferay

Liferay provides hot deployment of layout templates, JSR 168- or JSR 286-compliant portlets and themes: all *.war files stored in the <liferay-installdir>/deploy directory can automatically be accessed via the Liferay repository.

Switching Liferay Database in Liferay

By default, Liferay is delivered with an HSQL database. Virtimo AG recommends for the productive use of the system to replace the pre-configured HSQL database with an external relational database system such as MySQL, PostgreSQL or Oracle, for example.

Virtimo AG highly recommends using the same database for the development and test system as subsequently for the real-time operating system. This facilitates the import of already existing data and preferences and prevents an error-prone migration. Liferay allows to export your database via the control panel, too.

Prerequisites

  • When replacing the HSQL database by a MySQL database: The database schema already exists.

  • To avoid problems with special characters, you should activate UTF‑8 encoding for the database.

  • Installing database driver

    The database driver must not be installed more than once. Exactly one of the following prerequisites must be met.

    • You have already installed the desired database driver for another database.

    • You have copied the driver for the database that you want to use to the following directory: <liferay-installdir>/<Tomcat-dir>/common/lib

Proceed as follows

  1. In the menu, select the menu item Control Panel > Configuration > Server Administration entry.

  2. Open the Data Migration tab.

  3. Enter the values of your new database:

    • JDBC Driver Class Name

    • JDBC URL

    • JDBC User name

    • JDBC Password

  4. Click on Execute.

    → The database is migrated and then the portal is shut down.

  5. Open the following file: <Liferay-installdir>/portal-ext.properties

  6. Move the parameters suited for your Liferay database to the USER EDITABLE SECTION section, hence:

    #jdbc.default.driverClassName=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
    #jdbc.default.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/liferayDB?useUnicode=true&characterEncoding=UTF-8&useFastDateParsing=false
    #jdbc.default.username=liferay
    #jdbc.default.password=inubit

    You can find examples for further database management systems in the portal.properties in the archive portal-impl.jar in the following directory: <Liferay-installdir>/<Tomcat-dir>/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/lib

  7. Add # comment signs at the beginning of each line in the section between start JDBC Database configuration and end JDBC Database configuration if necessary.

  8. Remove the # comment signs from the beginning of each line of the parameters moved in step 7 and adjust the values according to your destination database.

    When updating the INUBIT Liferay plugins the parameters in the USER EDITABLE SECTION are considered and not overwritten in the Plugin section.

  9. Adjust the hibernate dialect.

    1. Ensure that all lines containing hibernate.dialect start with a comment sign #.

    2. Copy the hibernate.dialect line suitable for your database into the USER EDITABLE SECTION.

    3. Remove the comment sign # from the beginning of the line.

  10. Restart the portal.

Synchronizing Liferay Users with LDAP

You can synchronize user data from a directory service such as OpenLDAP with Liferay to realize an authentication with LDAP.

Proceed as follows

  1. Log in as Administrator.

  2. Open the menu and select the menu item Control Panel > Configuration > Instance Settings.

    → The Instance settings page is displayed.

  3. On the Configuration tab, go to the Authentication section.

  4. Select the LDAP tab.

  5. Enable and configure LDAP settings:

    administration guide 327 0
    • Required: If Required is selected, only the Active Directory password is allowed for login, otherwise you can also use the Liferay password.

    • In the LDAP Servers area all configured servers are listed. You have the following options:

      • Click the Add button to add a new LDAP server.

      • Use the arrow icons to change the servers’ order.

      • Click the Edit icon to open to edit the selected server’s settings.

      • Click the Delete icon to remove a server.

  6. Save your changes.

Performing Backup in Liferay

For the backup, use the corresponding tools of your specific operating system and include the following data in the backup process:

  • Configuration file: <Liferay-installdir>/portal-ext.properties

  • Database and Liferay repository: <Liferay-installdir>/data

  • Portlets and themes: <Liferay-installdir>/<Tomcat-dir>/webapps

Replacing Portal Logo in Liferay

You can replace the logo, which is displayed in the upper right corner of the portal welcome page.

Refer to company logo.

Proceed as follows

  1. Log in as Administrator.

  2. Open the menu and select the menu item Control Panel > Configuration > Instance Settings.

  3. On the Miscellaneous tab, go to the Logo section and click Change.

  4. Click Select and navigate to the new file.

  5. Upload the new logo file.

→ The new logo is displayed on the portal pages and in the service menu.

Selecting Pre-defined Themes in Liferay

A theme contains layout specifications in order e.g. to confer a uniform look to a site’s website.

Proceed as follows

  1. Log in as administrator.

  2. Select the desired site.

  3. On the page title, click the Configure Page icon administration guide 319 2.

  4. Click the Look and Feel tab.

  5. Select one of the available themes.

  6. Click Save to assign the theme to the page.

→ A confirmation message is displayed at the top of the page.

Defining Layout Template for a Page in Liferay

Layout templates define the area where users can position portlets on a page.

Users of private pages and administrators of sites or public websites can define a layout template for each page.

Proceed as follows

  1. Open the page for which you want to change the layout template.

    If the page is currently not displayed:

    1. Open the menu and select the menu item Control Panel > Sites > Sites.

    2. Select the site that contains the desired page.

  2. Open the configuration page.

    • In the menu, click on the action icon administration guide 310 0 of the page and choose the menu item Configure Page.

    • Alternatively, you can click the Configure Page icon administration guide 319 2 on the page title.

  3. On the General tab, select Layout from the Type pull-down list.

    administration guide 329 0

    → All available layout templates are displayed below.

  4. Click the desired layout template.

  5. Save your changes.

→ The last displayed page is displayed again with the new layout template.

Defining a Portal Name in Liferay

The portal name is also displayed in the title bar of the browser or tab, resp., for example:

administration guide 330 1

Proceed as follows

  1. Log in as Administrator.

  2. Open the menu and select the menu item Control Panel > Configuration > Instance Settings.

  3. In the Name field in the Main Configuration section, enter the desired name.

    → The portal automatically connects the logo with a link to the portal’s starting page.

    By default, the starting page of the INUBIT software when delivered is the login page of the Guest site.

  4. Save your changes.

→ The change is immediately displayed.

Load Balancing with INUBIT Portlets in Liferay

Each portlet instance belongs to a browser session and it is linked to an INUBIT Process Engine.

In order to deal with large numbers of users you can distribute the execution of the portlet instances between multiple INUBIT Process Engines.

The portlets of the INUBIT Process Cockpit cannot be balanced in the described way. For further information on how to balance the execution of these portlets, contact Virtimo AG.

Prerequisites

Defining the Session Timeout in Liferay

You configure the session timeout (default: 30 minutes) via the session-timeout property in the <liferay‑installdir>/<Tomcat-dir>/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/web.xml.

It could be necessary to set the path for the session cookies for your Liferay Tomcat.

For this purpose, you should set the sessionCookiePath parameter to the root directory in the context.xml file.

Proceed as follows

  1. Navigate to the <Liferay-installdir/Tomcat-dir/conf/ directory.

  2. Open the context.xml file for editing.

  3. To set the session cookie path to the root directory, replace the <Context> element as follows:

    <Context sessionCookiePath="/">

  4. Save your changes.

  5. Restart the Tomcat of your Liferay installation.

Configuring Liferay Using the INUBIT Liferay Plug-in Deployment Script under Linux

To use a Liferay portal together with INUBIT, Liferay must be customized.

Under Linux, the INUBIT Liferay plug-in deployment script helps the INUBIT administration to configure both the Liferay Enterprise Edition and the Liferay Community Edition automatically.

To configure Liferay 7.3 and below, use the installInubitLiferayDXPExtensions_73.pl script.

Prerequisites

  • On the system dedicated to the INUBIT Process Engine:

    • You have installed INUBIT successfully.

    • You have started the INUBIT Process Engine

  • On the portal server, the following prerequisites must be met:

    • You have installed the Tomcat-based Liferay portal on a Linux system successfully.

      Liferay has to be installed with the default database.

    • The Liferay Enterprise Edition portal must be enabled with a Liferay license file.

    • You have logged in to the Liferay portal at least once, and you have ensured that the marketplace-portlet is deployed successfully.

    • You haven’t installed any INUBIT components yet.

    • You have stopped the Liferay portal.

    • The portal ports (shutdown port and HTTP port) are not used by other applications.

    • You have installed Perl 5.10 or higher.

    • You have installed the GNU binutils.

    • You have transferred the following directories and its sub-folders – if any – to a temporary directory with the same directory hierarchy as below <inubit-installdir> on the Linux system where the Liferay portal is installed.

      <inubit-installdir>/inubit/portal/liferayInstallScripting
      <inubit-installdir>/inubit/portal/inubitPlugins/<liferay-version>
      <inubit-installdir>/_jvm

      The highest level of this temporary directory must be set for the --pathToInubit option, e.g.:

      --pathToInubit /tmp/inubit

    • You have backed up the Tomcat portal installation to a temporary directory.

Usage

The installInubitLiferayDXPExtensions.pl script is started from the temporary directory on the Linux system where the Liferay portal is installed.

The script is executed as a step-by-step sequence. If a single step fails, the script is aborted.

The following steps are processed:

  1. Checking whether the prerequisites are met.

  2. Preparing the portal.

  3. Installing the bootstrap plug-in.

  4. Installing the other plug-ins (e.g. API, service, WSDD jar files).

  5. Testing the web services.

  6. Checking the JVM used by the portal Tomcat.

    If one or more functions or extensions are missing, the script writes a warning to the log file install.log stored in the same directory where the script is located. The script stops without changing the Liferay installation if the script failed later on anyway.

  7. Stopping the portal Tomcat.

Options

Parameter Description

--pathToJVM Short form: --pj

Optional: Path to the Liferay JVM

--pathToLiferayInstallation Short form: --pl

Path to the Liferay portal to be configured (mandatory)

--pathToInubit Short form: --pi

Path to the INUBIT installation or to the temporary directory containing the plug-ins that are necessary (mandatory)

--nonInteractive Short form: --ni

Deactivates the confirmation requests to execute the script unattended (optional)

--noColours Short form: --nc

Deactivates the colored output (optional)

--appendLogfile Short form: --al

Log file entries are appended to the log file. Otherwise, the log file is overwritten if the script is started again. (optional)

--debug Short form: --d

For analyzing errors, you can activate verbose output

Output

The script writes its output to both the default output and the log file install.log stored in the same directory where the script is located.

Messages are colored as follows:

Color Description

Green

Success

Yellow

Warning

Red

Error

Blue

Headings

If an error occurs during the installation, the script writes an error message to the shell as well as the log file and stops.

At the end of the script, the portal is stopped if it has previously been started.

If the shutdown fails, an error message is written to the log file and the script is stopped.

If the script terminates successfully, it returns the value “0”. Otherwise, a non-zero exit status is returned.

Examples

perl -w installInubitLiferayDXPExtensions.pl --pathToLiferayInstallation /home/portal/liferay-dxp-digital-enterprise-7.0-sp7/ --pi /home/installer/inubit/
perl -w installInubitLiferayDXPExtensions.pl --pathToLiferayInstallation /home/portal/liferay-dxp-digital-enterprise-7.0-sp7/ --pi /home/installer/inubit/ --pj /home/LiferayJVM/

Proceed as follows

  1. Ensure that the Tomcat portal installation is backed up to a temporary directory.

  2. Ensure that all other prerequisites are met, too.

  3. Start the script that applies to your Liferay installation with the options that apply to your environment.

    installInubitLiferayDXPExtensions.pl

  4. After the script has finished successfully, you can use the portal.

  5. If there are error messages, fix the issues and remove the Tomcat portal installation.

  6. Restore the original Tomcat portal installation from the backup directory (refer to step 2).

  7. Repeat step 3 to step 6 until the script has finished successfully.