First things first, get your hands on the beta by going to http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/pfwiki.nsf/dx/08072009024448PMWEBPZ3.htm
You will probably want to get your hands on the portal as well and my last post describes a Windows install if you are so inclined. (Don’t worry Linux geeks, there’s a mention of the Linux VMWare offering as well.)

What will you find when you begin to explore the new features? Here’s a brief laundry list with a promise from me to tell more shortly:

• Support for client side mobile web UI architecture
• Easier implementation of Dojo mobile
• Builders to integrate Filenet and Sharepoint

Interestingly, some of the features that focus on mobility appear to be ‘exclusive’; If you want to develop a multi-channel application you may find “the server-side page based mobile development support available in Web Experience Factory 7.0.1 to[sic] be more suitable for such development.”

Check out http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/pfwiki.nsf/dx/IBM_Web_Experience_Factory_8.0_Beta_One_Overview#Dojo+Mobile+and+Data+layout+templates for more details.

To install WebSphere Portal Express and IBM Content Manager Beta on a Windows 32 bit operating system you will need the following files: WAS8-1.zip, WAS8-2.zip, WP8-1.zip, and WP8-2.zip. For other platforms consider the following table:

At the time this document was composed the files could be obtained from a download link at: https://www14.software.ibm.com/iwm/web/cc/earlyprograms/lotus/portalopenbeta/download.shtml Note that the download site also includes files for a VMWare instance.

The installation employs the IBM Installation Manager. Beginning with WebSphere Application Server V7 Feature Packs, IBM Installation Manager is used to install, modify, or update products including fix packs, infixes, and product features. It can work with local and remote repositories.
The IBM Education Assistant offers information on IBM Installation Manager. For an overview, examine the WebSphere Application Server V7 Feature Packs and locate the Installation Manager overview if you are not already familiar with IBM Installation Manager.
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/ieduasst/v1r1m0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.iea.wpi_v6/wpswid/6.1/WID/WBIV61_WIDInstallationManager/player.html

Some organizations will be concerned about the graphical nature of the IBM Installation Manager. To this point, the manager can be silently installed. Additionally, organizations can record response files using the IBM Installation Manager for silent install of products. The Education Assistant includes a lab demonstrating this scenario applied to IBM WebSphere Application Server V8.

For this lab I am using an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instance of a Windows 2008 R2 Datacenter Service Pack 1 64bit on Intel Xenon ES430 @2.66GHz 3.94 GHz. Capacity: Memory=7.50 GB Disc (including expanded binaries): 35 GB 12 GB free.

Merge the WAS8-1 and WAS8-2 folders.
Prepare the binary folders before configuring them as source repositories used by the IBM Installation Manager.
For WebSphere Application Server move the ‘native’ folder from WAS8-2 into WAS8-1. For WebSphere Portal move the db2 installer into the native folder of the WP8-1\WP8_Express\native folder. For this lab the file moved is found in WP8-4\native and is named db2installer.win64_8.0.0.20119222311.zip.

Install the IBM Installation Manager

The installer is located in the expanded binary file WP8-1 in the IIM_V15 folder and is named install.exe. (figure 1)

Figure 1

Select the package for the IBM Installation Manager and click the Next button. (figure 2)

Figure 2

Read the license agreement and if you wish to install the product select the radio button to accept the license agreement and then click the Next button. (figure 3)

Figure 3
You can accept the default install path or change it. When ready, click the Next button to continue. (figure 4)

Figure 4

A summary of the install settings will appear. Click the Install button if you are satisfied with the choices and settings to install IBM Installation Manager. (figure 5)

Figure 5

If the product installs successfully a message will appear. If there is a failure review the log files and resolve the underlying issues before attempting to reinstall the product. When you are ready to continue click the Restart Installation Manager button to restart the program. (figure 6)

Figure 6

After installing the IBM Installation Manager configure the repository list to include the extracted IBM WebSphere Portal and WebSphere Application Server binaries downloaded and extracted for this project. The repository list bust be ordered such that the repository for WebSphere Application Server is listed first and the repository for IBM WebSphere Portal is listed second.

Steps for Configuring the IIM Repositories
The repository configuration is used to provide package data to the tool for installation. To configure the IIM repositories locate the menu bar of the application and select File > Preferences. In the preferences interface locate the left side navigation and click Repositories. Then, in the detail pane to the right click the Add Repository button. A dialog box for browsing to the repository.config file will appear. (figure 7)

You will add a repository definition for WebSphere Application Server and for WebSphere Portal. The repository.config file for the WAS is located in the WAS8-1 extracted binary location. The repository.config file for WP is located in the WP8-1 extracted binary location.

Figure 7
Once you have added the repositories ensure that they are in the correct order as this defines the order of installation. The WAS repository must be first in the list. (figure 8)

Figure 8
Click the OK button.
Click the Install link to begin installation. (figure 9)

Figure 9
Select the packages to install. In this lab you will select all of the packages. (figure 10)

Figure 10

Indicate that you have read and whether you accept the product license. If you wish to continue, choose to accept the license and click the Install button.

The IIM stores some package installation information in a shared file location. Set this. In this example the default location is acceptable.

Click the Next button to continue. Then set the location of the application binaries for both the application server and the portal. In this lab change the path from the default to C:\IBM\Websphere…. (figure 12)

Figure 12
Be sure to set the property for each of the application binaries folders (WAS and WP8). Click Next to continue.

On the next panel in the wizard select additional product languages as needed then click Next to continue. (figure 13)

Figure 13
Set the product feature choices. In this lab the default are selected. (figure 14)

Figure 14

Credentials for the WebSphere Application Server and the WebSphere Portal administrators as well as for DB2 are to be set. The password for the DB2 administrator must match the system password policy. There is a test button for this purpose. (figures 15 & 16).

Figure 15

Figure 16

Click Next to continue.
The summary page should be reviewed, selections should be confirmed. When ready to install click Install to continue. (figure 17)

Figure 17

When the install is complete choose the radio button to launch First Steps. Then click the Finish button to conclude the install.

This ends the procedure guide to install WebSphere Portal 8 Beta 2 on a Windows system.

Some software implementations leave me feeling the same way. For many years I have listened to the issue emerge when a competent engineer but otherwise ‘challenged designer speaks of how they have constructed their application with omniscient knowledge of what the user community needs. The result is a software taco, tempting but clumsy.

In his book, The Design of Everyday Things D.A. Norman shed new light on my frustration. It isn’t me, it’s the taco. When I walk on an elevator and struggle to find the right button, or fiddle repeatedly with the stove top to turn on the right burner he explains that more often than not, the design is flawed.

Recently I was at a wedding (a great place for intense geek-to-geek conversations) and the conversation turned to my conversational companion’s line of work. He expressed great frustration with the limits imposed on him in which design for function was far down the list of factors driving development of his company’s site and related applications.

In my mind, the engineer’s axiom that the appearance of an application is just the “lipstick on the pig” misses the point. The point is that more often than not, how a thing looks reveals what a thing should do. Whether a button is red, teal, or haze gray is not irrelevant. It helps explain what the owner expects the button’s role to be.

Clearly we could go crazy about this… really we could… but we are so far to the other extreme. The development of use cases are often defined by persons who know the tasks they wish to be performed but are not the ones who will perform those tasks. Design is about understanding the users whose purposes will be achieved through the use of whatever tool we may provide.

When I started out as a developer I was asked to develop a software solution to replace a byzantine collection of paper based processes. As directed, I took a copy of the procedure manual home and build a solution that automated or streamlined the manual tasks being performed by employees of that company. As soon as I demonstrated the beta I was told by the manager I had it exactly right. Scarcely had she spoken when the staff who would use the solution announced that, “Really, that’s not how we do things at all.”

The designer who believes she knows all when it comes to users’ needs is going to make lots of tacos. Sadly, users will live with it because the lack of considered design is increasingly rare.

Oh, by the way, I really like crispy tacos…. in a salad where they belong.

According to my understanding of the documentation, I should not need to provide any additional configuration for the OpenID associated with my Google account to work. That is, I should be able to incorporate my Google login into WebSphere Portal using the features exposed in the ‘Sign Up” interface.

After clicking ‘Sign up’ I noticed two new buttons on the profile page. I clicked Google and when I did the browser was redirected to a Google login. Once I logged into Google I was presented with an option to confirm that I wished to sign into my portal using the Google account.

I was not sure what was supposed to happen but I believed that some of the profile details would have been filled in for me on the portal’s sign up page. This is not true. After my initial attempts on my portal I went to demolotus.com  and repeated the process. In both cases I, after I logged into my Google account, I filled in the required profile details and submitted the registration.  In the case of demolotus.com I clicked the Google button and was logged into the portal. In contrast when I attempted this on my portal I received an error message saying, in effect, that the ID requested was not available.

I haven’t had time to investigate farther but will do so soon. While I am disappointed it didn’t work as I expected, I am encouraged by the introduction of this feature as it can simplify management of user accounts in a public facing portal. What I will be interested in learning is how this might be facilitated on a request basis as opposed to the ‘open ended’ sign up basis.

Once the files had a chance to ferment on my disk, I expanded them as instructed in the accompanying readme file. The instructions in that file are very helpful and the process of expanding and launching the beta was relatively painless.

When I followed the guide and configured the IP address configuration I supplied a name and DNS domain of my own choosing. When I completed the task and started the portal it did not properly start. I won’t pretend to have been surprised. Since the guide did not explicitly state “what” I should name the machine I assumed I could use any name I liked. I was wrong bu in my own defense, I based this mistaken understanding on my experience with the AWS based developer’s solutions from IBM. In those experiences the software install script is executed as part of the provisioning process. Not so with the beta download. Note: If you want to avoid my mistake be SURE to name your machine wp8beta in the rtp.raleigh.ibm.com domain.

Other than needing to blow away my first instance and repeat the process of expanding the files, the experience proved to be very satisfying.

Next time I will write about my first impression.

Technote: 1095683 http://www.ibm.com/software/lotus/support

The first task for those considering ‘a cloud solution’ is to understand there are not only multiple vendors offering cloud services, there are different types of clouds and the distinction is not between ‘public’ and ‘private’. This is not to say one cannot obtain services from a private (or public) cloud. Instead it is to say that whether a cloud is public or private there are distinct services offered.

In a series of articles explaining cloud computing Dustin Amrhein and Scott Quint, both from IBM observed:

Anatomy of a cloud

… cloud computing is an all-inclusive solution in which all computing resources (hardware, software, networking, storage, and so on) are provided rapidly to users as demand dictates.

The resources, or services, that are delivered are governable to ensure things like high availability, security, and quality. The key factor to these solutions is that they possess the ability to be scaled up and down, so that users get the resources they need: no more and no less.

In this regard it helps to look at three well known brands competing for customers affection: Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.  Add to these vendors the involvement of partners such as IBM and Oracle, to name a couple, and it is easy to imagine a whole new competitive landscape rich with opportunities.

Amazon, a provider of cloud based solutions since 2002, has a comprehensive set of solutions. The list of these services can be intimidating.

• AWS “Amazon Associates Web Service” provides access to product data and e-commerce functionality.
• CDN “Amazon CloudFront Content Delivery Network” provides a means for distributing content from S3 (Amazon’s Simple Storage Service)
• EBS “Amazon Elastic Block Store” for persistent storage of volumes bound to EC2 (Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud).
• S3 “Simple Storage Service” is a Web Service based storage solution. Older AMIs (Amazon Machine Images) use S3 as the storage location for boot volumes.
• EC2 “Elastic Compute Cloud” is an implementation of Xen for delivery of private virtual machine instances based on AMIs (Amazon Machine Images).
• VPC “Virtual Private Cloud” allows a customer to create an isolated collection of EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) instances accessed through a VPN from the customer site.

The effort to understand these and other services offered by Amazon is not trivial. In the case of EC2 and S3 or EBS customers have an opportunity to implement a huge array of solutions deployed to virtual machines. It is through this mechanism that IBM, Oracle, Citrix, and others have created ‘shrink wrapped’ offerings of some of their flagship products such as IBM WebSphere Portal.

More recently Google entered the cloud based solutions arena.  Compared to Amazon EC2, Google provides seamless access to their infrastructure such that scalability is easy to accomplish but the range of applications is significantly restricted. For example the AppEngine can only respond to HTTP requests or scheduled background tasks. There is support for both Java and Python but there are restrictions here as well. For example the JRE Class White List defines a subset of available classes found in the JRE (Java Runtime Edition – Standard Edition). This does not mean that Google’s AppEngine is not a prudent or optimal choice. Customers must understand their present and future needs as completely as possible if they hope to make a wise choice.

Similarly, Microsoft has offered the Azure platform. This environment is bound to evolve rapidly as Microsoft vigorously enters the cloud based service provider market. This offering bears greater resemblance to Google’s AppEngine than Amazon’s EC2.  The chief benefit is also the chief liability of this platform. That is: customer’s will be bound to the Microsoft .NET framework and related tools such as Visual Studio.  One succinct description of Azure is found at Wikipedia:

The Azure Services Platform uses a specialized operating system, called Windows Azure, to run its “fabric layer” — a cluster hosted at Microsoft’s data centers that manages computing and storage resources of the computers and provisions the resources (or a subset of them) to applications running on top of Windows Azure. Windows Azure has been described as a “cloud layer” on top of a number of Windows Server systems, which use Windows Server 2008 and a customized version of Hyper-V, known as the Windows Azure Hypervisor to provide virtualization of services.

Understanding the nature and scope of cloud based services should be the task of any technology leader and the sooner that understanding is achieved, the better.