Home
HCL Digital Experience Product Documentation
Welcome to the product documentation for HCL Digital Experience. Find information about how to install, configure, maintain, and use HCL Web Content Manager and HCL Portal Server, Enable, and Extend solutions.
HCL Digital Experience 8.5
Learn how to install, configure, troubleshoot, maintain, and use Version 8.5 of HCL Web Content Manager and HCL Portal Server, Enable, and Extend.
Migrating
Successful migration requires significant planning and preparation, understanding the tools that are involved, and careful execution of the appropriate steps in the order provided.
Next steps
To complete migration, you must first perform several post-migration steps that depend on how Portal is being used. After completing the post-migration steps, review the Enabling new functionality section to take advantage of the new tools available in HCL Digital Experience 8.5. Enabling new functionality should not be started until all post-migration steps have been completed.
Post-migration activities
After you migrate to HCL Digital Experience 8.5, you need to complete extra tasks depending on how you customized the source portal environment and which components you used. First, complete the Applying the latest Combined Cumulative Fix updates task, then you can begin the post-migration tasks followed by enabling new functionality.
Portal tasks
Complete the post-migration tasks specific to the way that you use HCL Digital Experience.
Virtual Portal tasks
If you configured HCL Digital Experience to use virtual portal, there are some additional steps that are needed to complete the migra
Sharing Web Content Manager libraries between Virtual Portals
When you created Web Content Manager libraries in the base portal of earlier versions of Portal, these libraries were available in the virtual portals. In Portal Version 8.0 and HCL Digital Experience 8.5, a Web Content Manager library that you create in the base portal is not available in the virtual portals.

HCL Digital Experience Product Documentation
Welcome to the product documentation for HCL Digital Experience. Find information about how to install, configure, maintain, and use HCL Web Content Manager and HCL Portal Server, Enable, and Extend solutions.
- HCL Digital Experience 9.5
- HCL Digital Experience 9.5 [Legacy Content]
- HCL Digital Experience 9.0
  Learn how to install, configure, troubleshoot, maintain, and use Version 9.0 of HCL Web Content Manager and HCL Portal Server, Enable, and Extend.
- HCL Digital Experience 8.5
  Learn how to install, configure, troubleshoot, maintain, and use Version 8.5 of HCL Web Content Manager and HCL Portal Server, Enable, and Extend.
  - Overview
    HCL Digital Experience (formerly IBM WebSphere Portal and IBM Web Content Manager) empowers you to create, manage, and deliver engaging omnichannel digital experiences to virtually all audiences with responsive content, targeted offers, seamlessly integrated applications, and consistent branding across channels (web, mobile. and hybrid mobile/web applications and more).
  - Roadmaps to deploy your system
    Review the roadmaps to understand the common deployment, configuration, migration, and integration patterns.
  - Roadmaps to create your website
    Review the roadmaps to understand how to create your website.
  - Online Help
    This Online Help is made available in the HCL Digital Experience Help Center for quick references on how to install, configure, maintain, and use HCL Digital Experience.
  - Installing
    HCL Digital Experience provides flexible deployment options that range from proof-of-concept where you can examine and test functionality to a highly available and scalable production environment. Review the planning information to learn more about hardware and software requirements, high availability, scalability, supported topologies, and much more. Select your operating system and then select the installation pattern that most reflects your business needs.
  - Configuring
    Run the following tasks after you install and deploy HCL Digital Experience. They address tasks that are typically run one time and have a global effect. Some configuration changes are made more frequently or do not have a global effect. These tasks are addressed in the Administering section.
  - Backup and restore
    Backup and recovery of data files and databases is an essential operation for any business system, particularly for data and applications that run in production environments. Create and follow a plan for backing up and recovering data on all tiers of your HCL Digital Experience deployment. IBM Installation Manager must also be included in backup and recovery planning. If you back up the HCL Portal file structure and then install a fix pack, your HCL Digital Experience and IBM Installation Manager become out of sync after you restore the HCL Portal file system. This condition is not recoverable.
  - Migrating
    Successful migration requires significant planning and preparation, understanding the tools that are involved, and careful execution of the appropriate steps in the order provided.
    - Overview
      Migration is the process of collecting configuration data and applications from an earlier installed version of HCL Digital Experience and merging them into a newer installed version. So that the new environment is identical to the earlier environment. For the z/OS® platform, the new version must be on the same server as the earlier version. Migration to a different (remote) server is not supported.
    - Planning for migration
      Completing a thorough plan before migrating to the latest version of HCL Digital Experience has a direct impact in the effort invested during the actual migration. Become familiar with the environment you are migrating to (target environment). Also, make sure that the environment you are migrating from (source environment) is up to date with fixes and meets the requirements for migration.
    - Preparing your source environment
      Before you begin the steps for migration, you must perform some critical tasks on your source environment, such as creating back ups, installing the latest cumulative fix and one of the two most recent fix packs, and disabling automatic synchronization if you are migrating a cluster. Review the topics in this section, and perform the required tasks to ensure that your source environment remains functional and the migration completes successfully.
    - Setting up the target environment
      The migration requires you to install the required Portal and WebSphere® binary installations. To prepare your target environment, ensure that you have applied the latest cumulative fix and the most recent fix pack before you start migration. In addition, create new copies of the source databases for the target environment to use, and prepare the target environment for any custom applications that have dependencies or any other tasks that need to be performed for remote or cluster migrations.
    - Migrate data using the configuration wizard
      For Version 8.5, data, applications, databases, property files, security settings, and configuration are migrated using the Configuration Wizard. Use the roadmaps for cluster and stand-alone environments to guide you through the process.
    - Next steps
      To complete migration, you must first perform several post-migration steps that depend on how Portal is being used. After completing the post-migration steps, review the Enabling new functionality section to take advantage of the new tools available in HCL Digital Experience 8.5. Enabling new functionality should not be started until all post-migration steps have been completed.
      - Post-migration activities
        After you migrate to HCL Digital Experience 8.5, you need to complete extra tasks depending on how you customized the source portal environment and which components you used. First, complete the Applying the latest Combined Cumulative Fix updates task, then you can begin the post-migration tasks followed by enabling new functionality.
        For CF07 and earlier: Applying the latest Combined Cumulative Fix updates
        This task is a required if you are on CF07 or earlier. After you migrate using the Configuration Wizard, you must run two tasks to ensure that all of the Combined Cumulative Fix updates are applied to your system before you complete other post-migration or enablement tasks. If you are on CF08 or later, the Configuration Wizard automatically runs these commands.
        Administrative tasks
        To ensure that your new environment functions properly, complete administrative tasks such as enabling automatic synchronization, migrating web server configurations, configuring a federated LDAP user registry, and more.
        Portal tasks
        Complete the post-migration tasks specific to the way that you use HCL Digital Experience.
        Updating page order
        If the page order was altered for HCL Digital Experience pages in the Applications, Administration, or Hidden Pages areas on your source environment, then the page order might not be correct on the target environment after migration.
        Web Content Manager
        Extra migration steps are required for updating Web Content Manager after data migration is complete.
        Virtual Portal tasks
        If you configured HCL Digital Experience to use virtual portal, there are some additional steps that are needed to complete the migra
        Updating administration themes in Virtual Portals
        During migration, the HCL Digital Experience 8.5 theme is deployed. However, only the administration themes on the default virtual portal are updated to the 8.5 version of the administration user interface. For all other virtual portals, you must manually update the administration themes.
        Enabling the 8.5 site toolbar before you create your first Virtual Portal
        After migration and before you create your first Virtual Portal on your migrated server, you must install the 8.5 site toolbar.
        Moving the personalization page
        After you migrate from Portal Version 7.x to HCL Digital Experience 8.5, change your theme to Version 8.5. The Personalization welcome page is in the Content application area. You can run a task to move the Personalization welcome page back to the application level.
        Sharing Web Content Manager libraries between Virtual Portals
        When you created Web Content Manager libraries in the base portal of earlier versions of Portal, these libraries were available in the virtual portals. In Portal Version 8.0 and HCL Digital Experience 8.5, a Web Content Manager library that you create in the base portal is not available in the virtual portals.
        Updating scripts and removing deprecated features
        To create new Virtual Portals with the same content as the portal from which you migrated, you must pre-configure the default content for creating the Virtual Portal. You must also remove or replace references to deprecated features.
        Enabling Tag and Search Center pages for virtual portals
        When you migrate to HCL Digital Experience 8.5, the migration process does not apply the Portal 8.5 theme to all portal pages for your virtual portals. This affects the Tag and Search Center pages. To use your Tag Center and Search Center pages, you must manually update the theme for the pages to the Version 8.5 theme. You must also update the profile of the pages to the Search and Tag Center profile.
        Importing search web collections
        As a part of preparing your source environment, you exported web collections. After you export a search web collection from a source portal, you can import the data into a new, empty collection on the target portal. Importing a web collection retains most of the configuration data such as content sources, schedulers, filters, and language settings. If you configured such settings when creating the new collection, they are overwritten by the imported settings.
        Importing UX Screen Flow Manager dialog definitions
        If you migrated from Version 8.0.0.1 with the UX Screen Flow Manager (UXFM) enabled, then you exported and removed your dialog definitions before migrating to Version 8.5. Run the following task to import the dialog definitions into your upgraded system.
        WSRP
        If you use your HCL Digital Experience as a WSRP Consumer or Producer, you must complete additional steps to complete migration.
        Migration: Blogs and wikis
        After you migrate from HCL Digital Experience Versions 7.0 or 8.0 to Version 8.5, you must run a configuration task to update the presentation templates that are used by blogs and wikis to apply the latest updates. You must run this task for content in your blogs and wikis to render properly.
        Tag and Search Center pages
        When you migrate to HCL Digital Experience 8.5, the migration process does not apply the Portal 8.5 theme to all portal pages. For example, this affects the Tag and Search Center pages. To continue to use your Tag Center and Search Center pages, you must update the theme for the pages to the Version 8.5 theme. You must also update the profile of the pages to the Search and Tag Center profile.
        Removing Person Tag hidden pages
        Remove Person Tag hidden pages from migrated environments where Search for Portal Site was previously configured. If you migrated or updated to HCL Digital Experience 8.5 CF04 or later, then you do not need to complete these steps.
        Updating URL mapping for personalization page
        If you migrated from Portal Version 7.0 to HCL Digital Experience 8.5 with a CF03 or earlier fix pack applied, then you must complete the following task to ensure that the Personalization page displays properly.
        Enabling vanity URL support after migration
        In a new HCL Digital Experience 8.5 installation, vanity URL support is enabled. However, if you upgrade your Portal from a previous version to Version 8.5, vanity URL support is disabled. You can enable and disable vanity URL support as required by using a portal configuration task.
        Enabling impersonation
        If you migrate to HCL Digital Experience 8.5 and upgrade to fix pack level CF01-CF03, impersonation might not be enabled. If you plan to use the impersonation feature, which allows a selected user to preview and test new pages or portlets to help identify any potential issues, then you might need to enable this feature.
        Theme tasks
        To ensure that your new environment functions properly, complete theme tasks such as updating the default theme and skin or applying themes to your pages.
        Development tasks
        Complete the development tasks that are required after the migration to ensure that your environment functions properly.
        Database tasks
        There are different post-migration tasks that are required depending on the type of database that is used.
        Add-ons, features, and third-party integration tasks
        Complete the post-migration tasks that are required based on the way you use your HCL Digital Experience environment.
      - Enabling new functionality in a migrated portal
        The migration process collects configuration data and applications from an earlier installed version of HCL Digital Experience and merges them into the newer installed version so that the new environment is identical to the earlier environment. Taking advantage of new functionality that was not available in the earlier portal requires additional attention after migration is complete.
  - Integrating
    Integrate HCL Digital Experience with software such as HCL Sametime to enable your users to collaborate more easily. You can also use the unified task list portlet to integrate HCL with your backend business process software, such as IBM Process Server.
  - Administering
    Use the administration tools that are provided with the portal to do various day-to-day administration tasks. There are two methods for editing portal setup: using the administration portlets or the XML configuration interface. The administration portlets are a convenient way to make real-time updates to the portal's configuration. While the XML configuration interface is suited to more advanced administration, including batch processing of updates.
  - Securing
    Security tasks include setting up property extension databases and custom user repositories, configuring and activating SSL, and configuring authentication. In addition, tasks such as activating Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) and NIST SP800-131a security modules and configuring external security managers such as Security Access Manager might be required to secure your portal environment.
  - Monitoring
    HCL Portal includes tools and features to help you monitor the portal site.
  - Setting up a website
    Setting up a website includes, creating pages, adding navigation, setting up search, and adding content to the site. Themes are used to customize the portal's look-and-feel. Out-of-the-box templates and the site wizard can help you set up your portal site faster. You can add wikis and blogs to your site and let users tag and rate content on your site.
  - Staging to production
    During portal solution development, the solution is initially developed, tested, and refined on one server or a limited number of servers. The solution is deployed later on live systems, referred to as the production environment. The process of moving the solution from the development environment to the production environment is called staging.
  - Developing
    This section includes developer documentation on extending applications and development assets for HCL Portal and HCL Web Content Manager.
  - Troubleshooting
    This section helps you resolve problems, use diagnostic tools and tracing to capture HCL Digital Experience system errors.
  - Reference
    View information that can help you use the Digital Experience Help Center including directory conventions, terms of use, trademarks, a glossary, and more.
  - Glossary
    This glossary includes terms and definitions for HCL Digital Experience.
  - Content Template Catalog 4.4
    The Content Template (CTC) is a set of templates that accelerate the process of building a website.

Sharing Web Content Manager libraries between Virtual Portals | HCL Digital Experience

When you created Web Content Manager libraries in the base portal of earlier versions of Portal, these libraries were available in the virtual portals. In Portal Version 8.0 and HCL Digital Experience 8.5, a Web Content Manager library that you create in the base portal is not available in the virtual portals.

About this task

If you have managed pages enabled and want to share a Web Content Manager library between virtual portals, use syndication to replicate the library to the virtual portals.