iWidgets on IBM Mashup Center via WebSphere Portlet Factory

WebSphere Portlet Factory (or WPF for short) 6.1.5 can be used to develop widgets (or iWidgets as they are also known) and sent to IBM Mashup Center (or IMC for short) 2.0 for end users to use in their mashups.

All on 64-bit Ubuntu 9.10 (also known as Karmic) using 32-bit Eclipse and the same 32-bit Java 6 as used by IMC’s application server.

Develop widgets

A previous post explained how to get setup with WPF. A good test is to start with the samples:

1. start Eclipse
2. ensure WebSphere Portlet Factory is the perspective
3. go File > New > WebSphere Portlet Factory Project
4. enter “TestKarmic” as the Project Name, and click Next
5. expand Tutorials and Samples, tick Widgets, and click Finish

Send widgets (deploy, or publish) to IBM Mashup Center

1. go Window > Preferences, expand WebSphere Portlet Factory, select Widgets
2. enter username and password that IMC was set up with (this step is optional)
3. enter 9080 as the port (as the IMC is installed non-supervisor, otherwise this step is not necessary as the default is 80)
4. click OK
5. right-click on the “TestKarmic” project, go Widgets > Publish Widgets to Lotus Mashups toolbox
6. select the widgets to send, and click OK

Test widgets

1. go to the Lotus Mashups page: http://localhost:9080/mum/resources/bootstrap/login.jsp
2. click on “Go to edit” on the top-right
3. click the Favourites drop-down list, and there the widgets should show for the end users to drag onto pages

No issues – it’s a brilliant integration that works well on 64-bit (and presumably 32-bit) Ubuntu 9.10.

Ben

IBM Mashup Center 2.0 on 64-bit Ubuntu 9.10

Getting IBM Mashup Center (or IMC for short) 2.0 to run on 64-bit Ubuntu 9.10 (also known as Karmic) VMware image involved at least one of the following and it worked with VMware Fusion 3.0.1 on Snow Leopard on my MacBook Pro:

Prepration

• ensure Ubuntu 9.10 is fully updated (good practice)
• ensure VMware image has memory that’s maybe twice than the default 512 MB (else the installation and IMC can be slow)
• ln -sf /bin/bash /bin/sh (Ubuntu uses /bin/dash which is known to cause issues with some IBM software – I don’t know whether this is the case with IMC)
• apt-get install ia32-libs (some IBM software depends on 32-bit libraries – again, I don’t know whether this is necessary for IMC)
• install libstdc++5 (9.10 has 6, not 5, and IMC’s JRE needs 5) by executing a set of commands as explained on http://bootstrapping.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/missing-libstdc-so-5-in-ubuntu-9-10-karmic/

VMware Problem – Beware

If VMware Tools are installed, and the VMware image starts fullscreen, then GDM logon will fail with X server issues – workaround is: start VMware image in a non-fullscreen mode, once logged on, enter fullscreen mode if desired.

Installation

• install IMC by running installer.bin using user account (don’t sudo) and install to home folder, e.g., /home/bjfletcher/MashupCenter, and it’ll work just fine (else it gets hairy with root and user accounts getting involved)
• monitor installation by tailing the following logs in particular, in the logs folder: installCommandWASlog.txt and HubConfiglog.txt (they take a while)

Usability

A couple of steps to improve usability for IMC on Ubuntu (optional, and are of personal preference):

Add the following launchers to the desktop panel from the Applications menu (Applications > IBM WebSphere (1) > Application Server V7.0 > Profiles > mm_profile):

• Start the server
• Stop the server

Add the following bookmarks to Firefox:

• Lotus Mashups: http://localhost:9080/mum/resources/bootstrap/login.jsp
• InfoSphere MashupHub: https://localhost:9443/mashuphub/client/auth/login.jsp
• WebSphere Application Server: https://localhost:9043/ibm/console/logon.jsp

These three are the three important aspects of the IMC. The first two have their UI using the same branding, go under the same name “IBM Mashup Center”, and they run on the Application Server.

Running

When 64-bit Ubuntu 9.10 starts up, assuming First Steps above have been taken:

1. click on the “Start the server” launcher
2. understand that once launched and seemingly complete, it still takes a while before the server is all started up – give it a minute or two
3. start Firefox
4. click on the Lotus Mashups bookmark (or InfoSphere MashupHub, or WebSphere Application Server)
5. when not using, click on the “Stop the server” launcher

Ben