Self Registration Portlets Guide

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An Administrators Guide to Deploying the Self RegistrationPortlets for IBM WebSphere Portal 8

Contents

Introduction

System Requirements

The Portlets

Portal 8 Configuration Steps

Configuring the Self Registration Portlets

Deploying the Self Registration Portlets Further Notes

Importing the Self Registration WEF Archive into Web Experience Factory

Introduction

The Self Registration WAR contains a number of portlets for deployment on a Portal 8 server. These

portlets allow a Portal user to register an account, modify an existing account and change their account

password, all without administrator intervention.

There is an email activation mode that, once enabled, causes an email to be sent when a user

registers their account. The new account will remain inactive until the user opens a unique link that is

contained in the email body, and completes the activation process. A further two portlets are provided

to facilitate this process and to also enable the user to request a resending of the activation email.

System Requirements

The Self Registration portlets are designed to run on an IBM WebSphere Portal 8 CF3 deployment

with a WAS version 8.0.0.5 or greater. It is also a requirement to have the iFix: IFPM73727 installed for

WAS 8.0.0.5.

You need to have your Portal 8 server configured with an LDAP and various attributes and attribute

mappings must be added to both the LDAP schema and the Portal server. These are specified in more

detail below. The Portal 8 server must also be configured to use an SMTP mail server.


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The Portlets

Self Registration this portlet allows an anonymous user to register a user account, by

providing a unique user ID, email address and other details. If the Send Activation Email

setting is set to true, when the form is submitted, an email will be sent to the provided emailaddress that will contain a link to a page with the Account Activation portlet. If the same setting

is set to false, the user will become active immediately.

Profile Update allows a logged-in user to edit their registered account. If an email address

for the user has been specified, an email will be sent confirming that the user's account has

been successfully modified.

Forgot Password lets an anonymous user set a new password for their account, but only if

they can provide the correct answer to one of two security questions that they choose whenregistering.

Account Activation if the Send Activation Email feature is enabled, an email will be sent

to the newly registered user. That email will contain a link to a page that contains this portlet.

The portlet itself contains two text fields to provide and confirm the user's password, and a

submit button. If the passwords meet the minimum criteria, the user's account is activated.

Resend Activation Email when the Send Activation Email setting is set to true, an email

will be sent to the newly registered user. This portlet gives an anonymous user the opportunityto receive another email, in the event that the first email was accidentally deleted. The new

email will also contain a link to the page with the Account Activation portlet.


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Portal Configuration Steps

Required LDAP attributes and mappings

Both your LDAP schema and the Portal user registry must have the following attributes defined:

activationCode

activationStatus

securityQuestion1

securityQuestion2

securityAnswer1

securityAnswer2

Furthermore, the Portal repository should have a the following LDAP attributes mapped to the Portal

attributes:

mail -> ibm-primaryEmail

See the WebSphere Portal Family Wiki documentation for instructions on how to do this, check for the

relevant document (depending on your Operating System) for configuring a stand-alone or federated

LDAP:

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/portalwiki.nsf/xpDocViewer.xsp?

lookupName=IBM+WebSphere+Portal+8+Product+Documentation#action=openDocument&res_title=

Installing_wp8&content=pdcontent

Setting up a Mail Session

It will be necessary to set up a connection to an SMTP server if you want to enable email activation, or

if you want users to get notification emails after they use the Profile Update portlet.

1. In the WAS Administration console for your Portal Server, go to Resources -> Mail -> Mail

Sessions and click the 'New' button

2. Specify any name for the new session

3. The value of the JNDI name should be mail/mailSession

4. Specify the SMTP server and credentials for outgoing mail

5. Click 'OK' and then save changes to the master configuration

6. Restart the WebSphere Portal Server
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Configuring Self Registration Portal

A number of settings that can be configured by editing the accountActivation.xml file that is found

within the Portlet WAR file under the path accelerators/config/profile/common.

The file can also be located and edited on the server after the Portlet WAR has been installed under the

following directory:

[WP_PROFILE_ROOT]/installedApps/dslvm41Cell/PA_selfreg.ear/PA_selfreg.war/accelerators/confi

g/profile/common

The properties and how they are used:

portalHomePage the unique ID of the page that the Return to Home link will direct the

user to

sendActivationEmail set to true or false. If true, an email will be sent to the user to activate

their account. If false, the user gets activated as soon as they register. This setting needs to be

set to true for the Resend Activation Email portlet to work

acctActivationPageId The unique ID of the page that will contain the Account Activation

portlet

acctivationPortletWindowId The unique ID that should be given to the Account Activationportlet

fromAddress The address that will appear as the sender for account activation emails

emailSubject The subject that will appear on account activation emails

emailBody The general text that will appear in account activation emails


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Deploying the Self Registration Portlet WAR

1. Install the WAR onto your Portal server as a Web Module

2. Set the appropriate permissions on the Portlets

Typically, all portlets should have the Anonymous Portal User role assigned to them, except

for the Profile Update portlet, which should have the All Authenticated Portal Users role

assigned to it

3. Add the correct unique name to the Account Activation Portlet

When email activation is enabled, it is necessary to give the Account Activation portlet a

unique name. The unique name must correspond to the activationPortletWindowId

property in the accountActivation.xml file that is found within the Portlet WAR file under thepath accelerators/config/profile/common. The default value is:

com.ibm.accelerators.templates.tb.portlet.accountActivation

This can be set in the Portal Administration page under Portal Settings > Custom Unique

Names

4. Create pages for the portlets. Typically a separate page will be created for each portlet

Note: the page that will contain the Account Activation portlet will need a Unique Name that

is specified in acctActivationPageId property in the accountActivation.xml file (which is

mentioned above). The default value is:

com.ibm.accelerators.templates.tb.page.accountActivation

5. Set the theme profile to Full for pages that contain the Self Registration, Forgot Password and

Profile Update portlets

As an administrator, navigate to the newly created page and go into Edit mode

On the 'Overview' tab, click on the first section under Page Properties

Go to the 'Advanced' tab in the Page Properties window

Under the Theme Settings section, select Full from the profile drop-down menu

Click the Save button at the bottom of the window

When back at the edit mode view, click the Save button

6. Set appropriate permissions for the pages

Further Notes

When email activation has been enabled, don't try to use the Self Registration portlet as a logged

in user. The email activation link will not work correctly


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Importing the Self Registration WEF archive into Web Experience Factory

In Web Experience Factory 8, switch to the Web Experience Factory Perspective

On the Project Explorer pane, right-click and go to Import -> Web Experience Factory Archive

Give the project a name and deselect Create default folders


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Uncheck the User Interface checkbox (it will be checked by default as shown below) and click

Next to go to the third page

Deselect the WASCE option and click the Finish button


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Right-click on the newly created project and select Import -> Web Experience Factory Archive

Click Browse and select the Self Registration WEF archive. Click Open

The Import window should now look like below. Click Finish


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There will be errors in the project. We need to add additional jars to the build path. The jars can be

found in subdirectories of Websphere/PortalServer/base.

Copy the following jars into a location inside your Self-Registration WEF project directory on the

file system:

wp.auth.base.jar

wp.base.jar

wp.model.api.jar

wp.pe.api.standard.jar

wp.portalservices.api.standard.jar

wp.user.api.jar

Back in WEF, right-click on the Self-Registration project, and select Properties. From the tree,

select Java Build Path and on the main pane, select the Libraries tab. Select the Add Jars button

and then find and select all the jars mentioned above from the location that they reside

You should see the new jar files that have been added.

Click Ok and then rebuild your project if necessary

Documents

Self Registration Portlets Guide