Setup the WebSphere Commerce Portal development environment

You can develop and test WebSphere Commerce Portal configurations using the development environment.

Before you begin

Ensure that you have completed the following tasks:
  1. The WebSphere Portal and WebSphere Application Server software stack has to be at a specific level in order to enable WebSphere Portal v6.1 to be deployed on WebSphere Application Server v7.0. WebSphere Portal must be at or later than 6.1.0.2, while WebSphere Application Server must be at or later than 7.0.0.5.
  2. The WebSphere Commerce Toolkit has to be installed and configured properly before starting to set up the WebSphere Commerce Portal development environment.
  3. The WebSphere Commerce Toolkit must be upgraded with the latest maintenance fixes.
  4. In addition, there are a few recommended tuning tips:
    1. Tuning your server
    2. Installation options
    3. Optimizing JSP file testing

Procedure

  1. Installation of WebSphere Portal 6.1 test server:
    1. See Installing Rational Application Developer for detailed tasks on installing WebSphere Portal 6.1 test server.
    2. After the installation has been completed, upgrade the software level to the latest recommended WebSphere Application Server 7 fix level.
    3. The WebSphere Portal server requires no special configuration to be used a test environment. See Configuring the WebSphere Portal server as a test environment to configure an existing WebSphere Portal server to be a test server in Rational Application Developer.
  2. Configuring WebSphere Commerce Portal development environment:
    1. Start the WebSphere Commerce Toolkit
    2. Enable the Eclipse Developer, XML, and Web service capabilities in WebSphere Commerce Developer:
      1. Select Window > Preferences > General > Capabilities.
      2. Select the required capabilities in the main pane:
        • Development (Open Advanced to select all in Development)
        • Web Service Developer
        • XML Developer
        Note: Alternatively, you can simply click Enable All to select all available capabilities in WebSphere Commerce Developer.
      3. Click OK.
    3. Verify the JAX-RPC Web service generation settings:
      1. Select Window > Preferences.
      2. Select Web Services.
      3. Select WebSphere.
      4. Select Select JAX-RPC Code Generation.
      5. Select the WSDL2Java tab.
      6. Select Disable data binding and use SOAP element.
      7. Click OK.
      1. Select Window > Preferences.
      2. Select Web Services.
      3. Select Scenario Defaults.
      4. Select Java Proxy for Client Type.
      5. Select Deploy Client in the slider.
      6. Click OK.
      1. Select Window > Preferences.
      2. Select Server Runtime.
      3. Select WebSphere Application Server v7 as the Server.
      4. Select IBM WebSphere JAX-RPC as the Web service runtime.
      5. Click OK.
    4. Import the MVCPortlet.war file into the Rational Application Developer workbench. Select the Target Runtime to be WebSphere Portal 6.1 on WebSphere Application Server 7. See Importing portlets for instructions on importing a WAR file.
      Note: Ensure the new MVCPortlet project is associated with a new EAR project. Only deploy this new MVCPortlet EAR project to the WebSphere Portal 6.1 on the WAS 7 test server. Do not deploy it to the WebSphere Commerce 7 test server.
    5. Update the Java build path of the MVCPortlet project by adding the WebSphere Application Server v7 library under the libraries tab. See Java Build Path for more information.
    6. Create a new test server for WebSphere Portal 6.1. See Defining local servers for testing portlets in the Rational Application Developer Information Center for instructions on creating a new test server.
    7. Optional: Set up the TCP monitor to forward messages from MVCPortlet to the WebSphere Commerce Server.
      Note: This step is optional as it is only needed when WebSphere Commerce server is running on a remote machine.
      1. Open WebSphere Commerce Developer.
      2. Select Window > Preferences > Run/Debug > TCP/IP Monitor.
      3. Click the Add button, and add a new monitor using the following properties:
        Monitor properties
        Property Value
        Local Monitoring port 80
        Hostname host_name
        Port 8007
        Note: If you have configured the WebSphere Commerce services with a different default port number, ensure that you enter the appropriate port number here.
        Type HTTP
        Timeout 0
      4. Select Start monitor automatically.
      5. Click OK.
    Note: The Realm name used for the VMM setting in the WebSphere Commerce test server environment must be the same as the one used in WebSphere Portal in order for the single sign-on to correctly function.
  3. Configure WebSphere Portal and WebSphere Commerce single sign-on option for the development environment, from the following options:
    Note: The default configuration of WebSphere Portal and WebSphere Commerce single sign-on option is LTPA.
    • Configuring LTPA single sign-on for WebSphere Commerce
    • Configuring simulated single sign-on for WebSphere Portal
    • Configuring basic authentication single sign-on for WebSphere Portal
      Note: Basic Authentication is only supported when Application Security is disabled. Basic Authentication has been deprecated in WebSphere Commerce integration with WebSphere Portal. It is strongly recommended to migrate to the suggested LTPA configuration.

      See Configuring WebSphere Portal with WebSphere Commerce for more information.