Installing Liferay on Oracle WebLogic 12c (12.1.2 and higher)

In this section, you’ll learn how to install Liferay on Oracle WebLogic 12c. Since you’re using Oracle WebLogic, you may wonder if Liferay supports XA transactions. Liferay doesn’t require XA transactions, but it supports XA. Let’s get acquainted with how Liferay fits in with your current WebLogic domain.

Liferay by default defines Liferay Home as one folder above the domain in which you’ll be installing Liferay. For example, if your domain location is /Oracle/Middleware/Oracle_Home/user_projects/domains/base_domain, then your Liferay Home is /Oracle/Middleware/Oracle_Home/user_projects/domains.

For this section, the variable $WL_HOME refers to the location of your WebLogic server installation (e.g., /Oracle/Middleware/Oracle_Home/wlserver).

Before you begin, make sure to download the latest Liferay .war file and Liferay Portal dependencies from the Help Center. The Liferay .war file is called liferay-portal-[version].war and the dependencies file is called liferay-portal-dependencies-[version].zip.

These instructions assume you’ve already configured a domain and server and that you have access to the WebLogic console.

If you still have the mainWebApp module installed in your WebLogic server installation, remove it before proceeding with the instructions in this section.

Let’s get started by installing the .jar files Liferay needs.

Dependency Jars

Liferay needs the driver .jar file applicable for the database you plan to use for Liferay. Liferay also needs the .jar files contained in the Liferay Dependencies Archive. All of these .jar files must go into your domain’s global classpath.

Navigate to your domain’s lib folder. Extract the dependency .jar files from the Liferay Dependencies Archive to your domain’s lib folder.
If WebLogic does not already have access to the JDBC driver for your database, copy the driver to your domain’s lib folder as well.

So far so good. The .jar files on which your Liferay Portal will depend are in place.

Let’s proceed with configuring WebLogic.

Configuring WebLogic

You need to make the following adjustments in your configuration to support Liferay:

Set WebLogic Server’s memory arguments.
Set the maximum size for Java’s permanent generation space.
Set the file encoding.
Enable Lucene support.
Enable AspectJ support.

You can set WebLogic Server’s memory arguments in your setDomainEnv.[cmd|sh] environment script file found in your domain’s bin folder. For the Sun JVM, set the WLS memory arguments for 64 bit and 32 bit architectures to at least -Xms256m -Xmx1024m. For all other JVMs, set the 64 bit and 32 bit WLS memory arguments to -Xms512m -Xmx512m respectively.

Set the permanent generation space for 64 bit and 32 bit architectures to -XX:PermSize=256m.

Lastly, make sure to specify UTF-8 for Java’s file encoding, by including Java property -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8.

To specify all of these settings on Windows, for example, you’d edit your setDomainEnv.cmd file and find the call to the commEnv.cmd script. After this call, you’d update your memory arguments and permanent generation space settings to be like the following code:

...
if "%JAVA_VENDOR"=="Sun" (
    set WLS_MEM_ARGS_64BIT=-Xms256m -Xmx1024m
    set WLS_MEM_ARGS_32BIT=-Xms256m -Xmx1024m
) else (
    set WLS_MEM_ARGS_64BIT=-Xms512m -Xmx512m
    set WLS_MEM_ARGS_32BIT=-Xms512m -Xmx512m
)
...
set MEM_PERM_SIZE_64BIT=-XX:PermSize=256m
set MEM_PERM_SIZE_32BIT=-XX:PermSize=256m

Later in the setDomainEnv.cmd file’s clustering support section, you’d set the UTF-8 file encoding by appending -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 to the front of the list of Java property values. Here’s what that setting could look like:

set JAVA_PROPERTIES=-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 %JAVA_PROPERTIES% %CLUSTER_PROPERTIES%

Next, you need to specify local environment settings to support Liferay’s memory requirements, its use of the Apache Lucene search engine library, and its use of Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) with AspectJ.

From within the domain, open the script file that starts the server that will host the Liferay application. To deploy Liferay to a managed server (recommended) you’d edit the startManagedWebLogic.[cmd|sh] script file. If you’re on Windows, you’d add directives similar to those listed below, after the SETLOCAL command:

set "USER_MEM_ARGS=-Xmx1024m -XX:PermSize=512m"

set "MW_HOME=D:\Oracle\Middleware\wlserver"

set "JAVA_OPTIONS=%JAVA_OPTIONS% -da:org.apache.lucene... -da:org.aspectj..."

Make sure to set your MW_HOME value to your WebLogic server’s location. On Linux, you’d make similar changes replacing %JAVA_OPTIONS% with $JAVA_OPTIONS.

Now that your WebLogic environment is configured for Liferay, you should consider how you want to manage the database and mail session for Liferay. We recommend that you use Liferay to manage your database and mail session. If you want to use Liferay to manage them, you can skip the next sections and go to the section that follows titled Security Configuration. But if for some reason you’d rather configure your database and/or mail session within WebLogic, you can start your WebLogic server and follow the instructions in the next section(s) that apply.

Database Configuration

If you want WebLogic to manage your database for Liferay, use the following procedure. If you want to use Liferay’s built-in data source (recommended), you can skip this section.

Select Services → Data Sources. Click New → Generic Data Source.
Give your data source a name, such as Liferay Data Source. The JNDI name should be jdbc/LiferayPool.
Choose the type of database and click Next.
Click Next three times. You should be on the Connection Properties screen. Enter the database name, the host name, the port, the database user name, and the password. WebLogic uses this information to construct the appropriate JDBC URL to connect to your database. Click Next.
WebLogic prompts you to confirm the information you’ve specified for your data source.

Depending on the database you’re using, you may need to specify additional parameters. If you need to access previous wizard pages to modify information, click Back to revisit those pages.

When you’re done specifying your configuration, click Next.
Click Test Configuration to make sure WebLogic can connect to your database successfully. When it does, click Finish.
WebLogic shows the listing of data sources. Notice that your new data source has no value in the Target column. Click on your data source to edit it.
Click the Targets tab and check off the server instance(s) to which you wish to deploy your data source. Then click Save.
To configure additional portal properties for the WebLogic data source, you must shutdown the server(s) that you’re targeting for the Liferay deployment.
Create a portal-ext.properties file in your Liferay Home folder.
Add the following property setting to your portal-ext.properties file.
```
jdbc.default.jndi.name=jdbc/LiferayPool
```

Your data source is set up in WebLogic Server. You’ll need to configure a mail session too. We recommend that you use Liferay to manage your portal’s mail session. If you want to use Liferay to manage your portal’s mail session (recommended), skip the next section. If for some reason you want to use WebLogic to manage your mail session, you can follow the instructions in the next section.

Mail Configuration

If you want WebLogic to manage your mail session, use the following procedure. If you want to use Liferay’s built-in mail session (recommended), you can skip this section.

Start your WebLogic server(s).
Select Mail Sessions and create a new mail session which points to your mail server.
Give it the name Liferay Mail and give it the JNDI name of mail/MailSession and click Next.
Choose your server and then click Finish.
To configure additional portal properties for the WebLogic mail session, you must shutdown the server(s) that you’re targeting for the Liferay deployment.
Create a portal-ext.properties file in your Liferay Home folder, if you haven’t already created it.
Add the following property setting to your portal-ext.properties file.
```
 mail.session.jndi.name=mail/MailSession
```

Liferay Portal will reference your WebLogic mail session via this portal property setting.

Before you deploy Liferay, regardless of whether you’re using Liferay or WebLogic to manage your database and/or mail session, you should enable and configure Java Security. This will enable your portal to use Liferay’s plugin security manager with the Liferay apps that you download and install from Liferay Marketplace.

Security Configuration

When you are ready to start using apps from Marketplace, you’ll want to protect your portal and your WebLogic server from security threats. To do so, you must enable Java Security on your WebLogic server and specify a security policy to grant Liferay Portal access to your server.

First, you’ll grant Liferay access to your server. This configuration opens all permissions–you can fine-tune your policy’s permissions later. Create a policy file named weblogic.policy in your $WL_HOME/server/lib folder and add the following contents:

grant {
    permission java.security.AllPermission;
};

To enable security on your WebLogic server and direct the server to your policy file, open the setDomainEnv.[cmd|sh] file in your domain’s folder. Then set the -Djava.security.manager Java option and set the property -Djava.security.policy== to the location of your weblogic.policy file. You can specify both settings on the same line like this:

-Djava.security.manager -Djava.security.policy==$WL_HOME/server/lib

The double equals sign tells the app server to use this policy file on top of any existing security policies.

For extensive information on Java SE Security Architecture see its specification documents at http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/security/spec/security-spec.doc.html. Also, see section Understanding Plugin Security Management in the Developer’s Guide to learn how to configure Liferay plugin access to resources.

Next you’ll learn how to configure your WebLogic application server for JSF applications.

JSF Configuration

If you’d like to deploy JSF applications on your WebLogic application server, you’ll need to complete a few extra steps in your configuration process. If you do not plan on using JSF applications in your application server, you can skip this section. This section assumes you’re using JSF 2.1 portlets.

Complete the first section to ensure JSF applications deploy successfully to your WebLogic application server.

Configuration for Deploying JSF Portlets

To avoid a ViewExpiredException with Ajax, disable the Liferay Portal ETagFilter by adding the following property in the portal-ext.properties file:
```
 com.liferay.portal.servlet.filters.etag.ETagFilter=false
```
For more information on this exception, refer to FACES-1591.
You’ll need to adjust your memory settings for your environment variables. For your memory settings to be permanently set, they need to be hard-coded in the startWebLogic.sh script. Just above the definition of your home domain, add the following lines:
```
 export MW_HOME=$HOME/Oracle/Middleware
 export USER_MEM_ARGS="-Xms512m -Xmx1024m -XX:CompileThreshold=8000 -XX:PermSize=128m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m"
```
Note that if you have many portlet WAR modules, you may need to increase memory. For example, the following lines reserves double the amount of memory:
```
 export MW_HOME=$HOME/Oracle/Middleware
 export USER_MEM_ARGS="-Xms1024m -Xmx2048m -XX:CompileThreshold=8000 -XX:PermSize=256m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m"
```
If you’re running the JSR 329 Portlet Bridge TCK, you’ll need to include the trinidad-api.jar dependency in the global classpath (in the lib folder).
In order for JSF 2.1 portlets to deploy correctly in WebLogic, the WEB-INF/weblogic.xml descriptor must be configured to fine-tune how class loading takes place. For a working example, please refer to the weblogic.xml descriptor from a demo JSF portlet.
Due to a deficiency in the XML parser that ships with WebLogic, it is necessary to include a custom Apache Xerces parser as a dependency. In order to include it in the proper position in the WebLogic classpath, the Xerces JARs are included in the Mojarra Shared Library. Therefore, it is necessary to add Xerces as a dependency in the portlet’s WEB-INF/lib folder. For example:
```
 <dependencies>
     <dependency>
         <groupId>xerces</groupId>
         <artifactId>xercesImpl</artifactId>
         <version>2.11.0</version>
     </dependency>
 </dependencies>
```
If using ICEfaces, PrimeFaces, or RichFaces, all JARs related to these projects must exist in WEB-INF/lib.

Next, you’ll need to upgrade Mojarra for your WebLogic application server.

Upgrading Mojarra

Liferay Faces requires JSF 2.1.29-04. However, the version of Mojarra that comes with WebLogic 12c is version 2.1.20. Therefore, it is necessary to upgrade Mojarra in WebLogic by creating a new Shared Library WAR with the updated dependencies.

Make sure your MW_HOME environment variable is defined (completed in step 2 of the previous section).
Open a command prompt and navigate to the liferay-faces/support directory.
If you’re on WebLogic 12.1.3, then run the following command to upgrade to the latest version of JSF:
```
 mvn -P weblogic,upgrade clean install
```
If you’re on a version of WebLogic other than 12.1.3, you’ll need to specify the path to Mojarra’s POM file as the value of the Maven property weblogic.mojarra.pom. For example, on Weblogic 12.1.2 you would run the following command:
```
 mvn -P weblogic,upgrade clean install -Dweblogic.mojarra.pom=$MW_HOME/wlserver/plugins/maven/com/oracle/weblogic/glassfish.jsf_1.0.0.0_2-1-20/12.1.2/glassfish.jsf_1.0.0.0_2-1-20.12.1.2.pom  
```
Since the Mojarra API and Implementation JARs are present in the global classpath, jsf-api.jar and jsf-impl.jar must not be included in WEB-INF/lib.

You’ve successfully upgraded your Mojarra version. If you’re interested in configuring CDI for your JSF portlets running on WebLogic 12c, you’ll need to configure a few more things. For more information on configuring CDI, visit the Configuring JSF Portlets to Use CDI section.

Now it’s the moment you’ve been waiting for: Liferay deployment!

Deploy Liferay

Although you can deploy Liferay on a WebLogic Admin Server, we recommend deploying Liferay to a managed server. As a best practice, you should dedicate the Admin Server to managing other servers that run your apps. By deploying to a managed server, you’ll be able to startup/shutdown Liferay more quickly and you’ll more easily be able to extend Liferay into a cluster configuration.

Regardlesss of which server(s) you target to host Liferay in your WebLogic server domain, here are steps for deploying Liferay:

Start your WebLogic server, if it’s not already started.
Go to Deployments and select the Liferay .war file from the file system, or click the Upload Your File(s) link to upload it and then click Next.
Select Install this deployment as an application and click Next.
Target the server (e.g., a managed server) on which to deploy Liferay.
If the default name is appropriate for your installation, keep it. Otherwise, give it a name of your choosing and click Next.
Click Finish. After the deployment finishes, click Save. Liferay precompiles all the JSPs, and Liferay launches.

If you’re using Liferay to manage your database, you can use Liferay’s Setup Wizard that Liferay Portal shows the first time that you go to the portal.

If you’re using Liferay to manage your mail session (recommended), you can configure the mail session in the Control Panel. You go to Control Panel → Server Administration → Mail and enter the settings for your mail session.

Congratulations! You’re now running Liferay on Oracle WebLogic 12c.

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