Configuration

This part of the book contains information on installation configurations that may be relevant.

Configuration concepts

Configuration of an iKnowBase installation is done through setting named configuration properties to specific values. Changes to configuration objects are static, and will require a restart of the application server.

There are many sources of configuration property values, and the exact sources that are used in a particular installation can only be seen on the ikb$console-page shown below. However, this list shows the overall structure.

• First, the database table IKB_INSTALLATION_PROPERTIES is consulted, using a prioritized list of instance qualifiers. The qualifiers are decided by the application server, and will vary from application server to application server. The actual qualifiers for a given server instance can be seen in the page /ikb$console/services/springEnvironment. A typical list of qualifiers would comprise runtime directory, hostname and context path, but there could be others. Note that the qualifier you need to store in the database table comprises both the qualifier name and the qualifier value, e.g. hostname=iknowbase.example.com.
  • user.dir=/home/iknowbase/prod
  • hostname=iknowbase.example.com
  • servletContext=/ikbViewer
  • * (default value)
• The property source “servletConfigInitParams” is typically not used, but is provided as a standard source by the underlying technology.
• The property source “servletContextInitParams” is typically not used, but is provided as a standard source by the underlying technology.
• The property source “jndiProperties” is typically not used, but is provided as a standard source by the underlying technology.
• The property source “systemProperties” gets values from the command line used to start the java virtual machine, so that you can directly specify property values when starting the server.
• The property source “systemEnvironment” gets values from the operating system environment (where you find e.g. the PATH environment variable)

Thus, there are plenty of options for configuring the instance. Often, the database table is most convenient, but you may also choose to use any of the available property source. Either way, you can and should verify that the correct values are set, using /ikb$console.

Configuring the ikbViewer application

This section describes the main configuration objects for the ikbViewer application.

ContentServerConfiguration

The Content Server is the unit responsible for serving file content, such as word documents or PDFs.

PageEngineConfiguration

The Page Engine is the unit responsible for composing portlets and data, and rendering information to web clients.

SearchClientConfiguration

The Search Client, using SOLR, handles connections to a SOLR search server. “searchEngineName” refers to the logical name given to the Solr Configuration.

CacheManagerConfiguration

The iKnowBase system provides a content cache, based on Ehcache ( http://www.ehcache.org). While Ehcache is used for many caching needs internally in iKnowBase, the content cache is special in that it is in fact a replicated cache: Values stored in the content cache is replicated to all other nodes in a cluster. For more information on Ehcache replication and the meaning of the configuration variables, see http://ehcache.org/documentation/distributed_caching_with_rmi.html.

SecureTokenEngineConfiguration

iKnowBase needs to generate a secure token for login information in the following scenarios:

1. On-demand loading in an Oracle Portal-based Dimension Navigator.
2. Content loading when using the Office add-in.
3. Client authentication integration between ikbViewer and ikbInstant.

This token is generated using the HMAC_SHA1 message authentication algorithm, based on a secret key along with user and time information.

By default, a suitable key is automatically generated when the application server starts up. However, for load balanced scenarios with multiple application servers, this would result in different keys and spurious failures during data load. You may then manually specifiy a secret key in the configuration. Please use a long phrase with multiple words, numbers and special characters.

ActivitiProcessEngineConfiguration

iKnowBase comes with an embedded process engine based on the Activity BPM Platform. This engine must be explicitly enabled if you want to use it.

BpelProcessServicesConfiguration

When iKnowBase Process Services is installed, the ikbViewer runtime application(s) will need to know how to connect to the iKnowBase Process Services engine (ikbProcessServices), and how to log on to the underlying Oracle BPEL engine.

The values for WorkflowService.initialContextFactory and WorkflowService.providerURL vary between application servers. Typical values are as follows:

Configuring the ikbBatch application

This section describes the main configuration objects for the ikbBatch application.

FileConverterConfiguration

The ikbBatch application contains a file converter server, which can be configured to listen for file conversion requests. In order to work, you must install Oracle Outside In on the server, and then set the outside in location as a configuration property.

BatchPageEngineConfiguration

The ikbBatch application contains a page engine server, which can be configured to listen for page rendering requests.

ContentIndexerConfiguration

The ikbBatch application contains a content indexer server, which listens for indexing requests and forwards them to the appropriate search engine for actual indexing. “searchEngineName” refers to the logical name given to the Solr Configuration.

EmailReaderConfiguration

The ikbBatch application contains an email reader client, which can load email from external mail servers. This can be enabled or disabled through configuration.

Configuring the ikbStudio application

There are no configuration items specific to the ikbStudio application.

Configuring the ikbWebdav application

This section describes the main configuration objects for the ikbWebdav application.

FtpServiceConfiguration

The ikbWebdav application contains an embedded FTP-server that lets you use FTP against all documents exposed through the Webdav protocol. This is enabled by setting the following properties:

Configuring the ikbWebServices application

This section describes the main configuration objects for the ikbWebServices application.

WebServicesConfiguration

WebServicesSecurityConfiguration

Configuring the ikbInstant application

This section describes the main configuration objects for the ikbInstant application.

InstantServerConfiguration

The Instant Server is the contact point for Web Clients as well as managing all topics, clients, users and message delivery.

Note: Make sure you also configure SecureTokenEngine to enable authentication for web clients

InstantQueueServerConfiguration

The Instant Queue Server is the unit responsible for consuming messages published using Instant’s PL/SQL API and delivering them to the specified topic where all web clients are connected.

Sample script

This is a sample script, showing how to set installation properties:

truncate table ikb_installation_properties;
insert into ikb_installation_properties (property_name, property_value)
select 'com.iknowbase.page.PageEngine.isContentCacheEnabled', 'true' from dual UNION
select 'com.iknowbase.ProcessServices.WorkflowService.InitialContextFactory', 'weblogic.jndi.WLInitialContextFactory' from dual UNION
select 'com.iknowbase.ProcessServices.WorkflowService.ProviderURL', 'opmn:ormi://localhost:6003:home/ikbProcessServices' from dual UNION
select 'com.iknowbase.ProcessServices.WorkflowService.SecurityPrincipal', 'orcladmin' from dual UNION
select 'com.iknowbase.ProcessServices.WorkflowService.SecurityCredentials', 'mypassword' from dual;