WebSphere Portal: Update/Delete a War - websphere

Question

I need to update a portlet on the WebSphere Portal 6.0. I have tried to use xmlaccess.bat. Here is my DeployPortlet.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<request
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="PortalConfig_1.4.xsd"
type="update"
create-oids="true">
<portal action="locate">
<!-- The uid must match uid attribute of portlet-app in portlet.xml. -->
<web-app action="update" active="true" uid="com.firstlinesoftware.oo.portlet.TestPortlet
<url>file:///$server_root$/installableApps/TestPortlet.war</url>
<!-- The uid must match uid attribute of concrete-portlet-app in portlet.xml. -->
<portlet-app action="update" active="true" uid="TestPortlet">
<!-- The name attribute must match content of portlet-name subtag of concrete-portlet in portlet.xml. -->
<portlet action="update" active="true" objectid="theIbmPortletApiPortlet" name="TestPortlet"/>
</portlet-app>
</web-app>
<!-- Parent element under which the new page is inserted -->
<content-node action="locate" objectid="parentPage" uniquename="ibm.portal.rational.portlets"/>
<!-- The new page.
The contentparentref attribute must match the objectid of the parent.
Change the uniquename attribute to create another page. -->
<content-node action="update" uniquename="ibm.portal.TestPortletPage" ordinal="last" content-parentref="parentPage" active="true" allportletsallowed="false" create-type="explicit" type="page">
<supported-markup markup="html" update="set"/>
<localedata locale="en"><title>TestPortletPage</title></localedata>
<component action="update" ordinal="100" type="container" orientation="H">
<component action="update" ordinal="100" type="control">
<!-- The portletref must match the objectid attribute of the portlet -->
<portletinstance action="update" portletref="theIbmPortletApiPortlet"/>
</component>
</component>
</content-node>
</portal>
When I use this script for the first time everything is ok. But when I try to update the portlet with this script (everywhere action="update") the exception occure: DuplicateAppException.
Then I have tried to delete this portlet via the script:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<request
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="PortalConfig_1.4.xsd"
type="update"
create-oids="true">
<!-- sample for uninstalling a web module -->
<portal action="locate">
<!-- uid must match uid attribute of portlet-app in portlet.xml -->
<web-app action="delete" active="true" uid="TestPortlet">
</web-app>
</portal>
</request>
but the warning occure: Can't delete the portlet(there is no such a web module) maybe it was deleted earlier. Actually this war file is deployed (checked this with an administration console)
Can anybody, please, help me?

Answer 1

I typically don't do this using xmlaccess (couldn't tell you how). I redeploy the portlet application (war or ear depending on how you package it) as I would any application in WAS. Either through the admin console, or using wsadmin. It shouldn't be a problem for you to do it that way since portlet registrations are maintained over redeploys. Here is a sample jython script for deploying an app using wsadmin. It works both standalone and clustered (connect to the primary node).
import sys
import time
def wsadminToList(inStr):
outList=[]
if (len(inStr)>0 and inStr[0]=='[' and inStr[-1]==']'):
tmpList = inStr[1:-1].split() #splits space-separated lists,
else:
tmpList = inStr.split("\n") #splits for Windows or Linux
for item in tmpList:
item = item.rstrip(); #removes any Windows "\r"
if (len(item)>0):
outList.append(item)
return outList
#endDef
def installPortalApp(earFileName, appName, cellName, clusterName, installOptions):
#--------------------------------------------------------------
# set up globals
#--------------------------------------------------------------
global AdminApp
global AdminControl
global AdminConfig
global Help
installOptions.append('-appname')
installOptions.append(appName)
# Should we install on a cluster?
if len(clusterName) != 0:
appServer = 'WebSphere:cell=' + cellName + ',cluster=' + clusterName
mapModuleOptions = [[ '.*', '.*', appServer ]]
# Append additional options
installOptions.append('-cluster')
installOptions.append(clusterName)
AdminApp.install(earFileName, installOptions)
AdminConfig.save( )
count = 0
# This is probably not necessary
while not AdminApp.isAppReady(appName) and count < 10:
count = count + 1
print 'Waiting for app to be ready ' + count + ' of 10'
time.sleep(10)
#endWhile
clusterId = AdminConfig.getid('/ServerCluster:' + clusterName + '/' )
print 'clusterId' + clusterId
clusterMembers = wsadminToList(AdminConfig.list('ClusterMember', clusterId))
for member in clusterMembers:
print 'startApplication on member ' + str(member)
currentServer = AdminConfig.showAttribute(member, 'memberName')
print 'currentServer ' + currentServer
currentNodeName = AdminConfig.showAttribute(member, 'nodeName')
print 'currentNodeName ' + currentNodeName
query = 'cell=' + cellName + ',node=' + currentNodeName + ',type=ApplicationManager,process=' + currentServer + ',*'
print 'query ' + query
appMgr = AdminControl.queryNames(query )
print appMgr
Sync1 = AdminControl.completeObjectName('type=NodeSync,node=' + currentNodeName + ',*')
print 'Sync1 ' + Sync1
AdminControl.invoke(Sync1, 'sync')
print 'Node synchronized. Waiting a short while for binary expansion to finish'
time.sleep(5)
print 'Starting application'
AdminControl.invoke(appMgr, "startApplication", appName )
#endFor
else:
appMgr = AdminControl.queryNames("type=ApplicationManager,*" )
AdminApp.install(earFileName, installOptions)
AdminConfig.save( )
AdminControl.invoke(appMgr, "startApplication", appName )
#endIf
#endDef
#if (len(sys.argv) != 4 and len(sys.argv) != 5):
# print len(sys.argv)
# print "install_application_ear.py: this script requires the following parameters: ear file name, application name, cell name, install options and cluster name (optional)"
# sys.exit(1)
#endIf
earFileName = sys.argv[0]
print 'earFileName' + earFileName
appName = sys.argv[1]
cellName = sys.argv[2]
installOptions = eval(sys.argv[3])
clusterName = ""
if len(sys.argv) == 5:
clusterName = sys.argv[4]
installPortalApp(earFileName, appName, cellName, clusterName, installOptions)

Answer 2

Lets start from the end: the reason that your action=delete doesn't work is because you're referring to the webapp with an incorrect uid. During installation, you assign it the uid com.firstlinesoftware.oo.portlet.TestPortlet, and during deletion, you're referring to TestPortlet. That's not going to work out.
I programmed an automated system that redeploys portlet applications and it's been used for years with no issues, so something must be wrong in your XMLAccess file. Lets work through it. Can you start by removing the portlet-app child element altogether from the web-app element? is there a reason why you need it there?