Changing application URLs

Change the context root of URLs that point to HCL Connections applications.

About this task

The web address for an IBM® Connections application contains a default context root value. You can change this context root value to conform to corporate policies that limit where server applications can be deployed and how they can be addressed.

For example, the Blogs application is available by default from host_server/blogs. You could change that base address to, for example, host_server/IBMConnectionsBlogs to differentiate it from any other blogging service or to conform to corporate guidelines.

To change the context root of an application, complete the following steps:

Procedure

Log in to the WebSphere® Application Server Integration Solutions Console.
Expand Applications > Application Types and then select WebSphere enterprise applications.
Click the name of the deployed application and then in the page that loads, click Context Root For Web Modules.

Note: Perform this step for each application whose URL you want to change.
Edit the values in the Context Root column of the table. The paths must begin with a forward slash (/) and must not contain spaces.
Do not specify a single forward slash (/) as the full context root. That specification prevents applications from retrieving Atom feeds properly. Using the default application context ("/") is not supported.
Click OK and then click OK from the server properties page to save the change.
Start the wsadmin client from the following directory of the system where you installed the deployment manager:
```
app_server_root\profiles\dm_profile_root\bin
```
Note: You must start the client from this directory or subsequent commands that you try to run will not execute properly. For more information, see the Starting the wsadmin client topic.
Update the HCL Connections configuration file to reflect this context root change. Use the wsadmin client to access and check out the file.
1. Enter the following command to load the HCL Connections configuration file: execfile("connectionsConfig.py")
  
  If you are prompted to specify a service to connect to, type 1 to select the first node in the list. Most commands can run on any node. If the command writes or reads information to or from a file by using a local file path, you must select the node where the file is stored. This information is not used by the wsadmin client when you are making configuration changes.
2. Enter the following command to check out HCL Connections configuration files:
  LCConfigService.checkOutConfig("working_directory","cell_name")
  where:
  - working_directory is the temporary working directory to which configuration files are copied. The files are kept in this working directory while you edit them.
    Notes:
    
    When you specify a path to the working directory on a system that is running Microsoft® Windows®, use a forward slash for the directory. For example: "C:/temp".
    
    AIX®, and Linux® only: The directory must grant write permissions or the command fails.
  - cell_name is the name of the WebSphere® Application Server cell that hosts the HCL Connections application. If you do not know the cell name, display it by typing the following command in the wsadmin client: print AdminControl.getCell()
    Note: This input parameter is case-sensitive.

Update the value of the href prefix by using the following command:

LCConfigService.updateConfig("<web_module_name.href.prefix", "new_context_root_value")

Where:

web_module_name is the name of the web module for the application. Each application has one or more web modules (see the Application Web Modules table), and

new_context_root_value is the value that you defined for the application's web UI context root in Step 4. For example, to change the context root of the Profiles application, use the following commands:

LCConfigService.updateConfig("profiles.href.prefix","/contacts") LCConfigService.updateConfig("personTag.href.prefix","/contacts")

Table 1. Application web modules.
Table of applications and services and their corresponding web module names.
Application or service name	Web modules
Activities	/activities /activities/quickrpicker
Blogs	/blogs
Common	/connections/bookmarklet
	/connections
	/connections/config
	/connections/oauth
	/connections/resources
Communities	/communities /communities/calendar /communities/recomm
ConnectionsProxy	/connections/proxy
Dogear	/dogear
Extensions	extensions
Files	/files
FileNetEngine (Available only if FileNet is part of your deployment.)	FileNet
	clientDownload
	P8CE
	wsi
	acce
	pewsi
	peengine
	ibmccepo
Forums	/forums
Help	/help
Home page	/homepage
Metrics	/metrics /metrics/service
Mobile	/mobile /connections/filesync /connections/filediff
Mobile Administration	mobileAdmin
Moderation	/moderation /moderation/proxy
Navigator (Available if FileNet is part of your deployment only.)	dm
News	/news
URLPreview	/connections/thumbnail /connections/opengraph
Profiles	/profiles /profiles/ext/admin /profiles/seedlist
PushNotification	/push
RichTextEditors	/connections/rte
Search	/search
WidgetContainer	/connections/opensocial
Wikis	wikis

Note:

This table is indicative only.
Context roots can change between releases, so you should check each definition manually.
Some applications have multiple components in the LotusConnections-config.xml file that you might need to update as well. See the examples in the table that follows.
Applications for which the context root currently cannot be changed: Connections Engagement Center (CEC), Invite, Sidebar, and Touchpoint.

Table 2. Components within applications (example)
Table of applications and their corresponding component names.
Application	Component
Common	/connections/bookmarklet
	/connections/opengraph
	/connections/thumbnail
	/connections/opensocial
	/connections/resources/socmail-client
	/connections/resources
	/connections/oauth
	/connections/opensocial
News	/news/widgets/lw
Profiles	/profiles/ibm_semanticTagServlet

Check in the file in during the same wsadmin session in which you checked it out. For more information, see Applying common configuration property changes.
(Files and Wikis only) Perform the following steps:
1. Check out the Files and Wikis configuration files. For more information, see Changing configuration property values in the Administering Files and Administering Wikis sections of the product documentation.
2. Locate the following property:
```
<security>
   <logout href="/files/ibm_security_logout" />
</security>
```
3. Change it to the following content:
```
<security>
   <logout href="new_context_root_value>/ibm_security_logout" />
</security>
```
Regenerate the plugin-cfg.xml file:
1. Open the WebSphere® Application Server Integrated Solutions Console.
2. Expand Servers > Server Types and then select Web servers.
3. Select the check box next to the IBM® HTTP Server name. For example: webserver1.
4. Click Generate Plug-in.
5. If necessary, click Propagate Plug-in to copy the plugin-cfg.xml file from the local directory to the remote system.
Restart IBM® HTTP Server.
Delete the search index. By default, the indexing task runs every 15 minutes and rebuilds the index if you deleted it. For more information, see Deleting the index.
Update any non-browser clients to point to the new URL. See the client documentation for the required steps.
Run the BlogsAdminService.fixBrokenUrls command to fix the absolute URLs that are used by embedded images and attachments in Blogs. For more information, see Replacing URLs in Blogs.
Optional: Create a landing page for the old URL that redirects to the new URL.
(Communities only) For Highlights to work with the changed context root, perform the following steps:
1. Check out the widgets-config.xml file.
2. Change the widget definition url to /xcc/templates/iWidgetXCCCommunityDefinition.xml, as in the following example:
```

<widgetDef bundleRefId="highlights" defId="Highlights"
description="Highlights.description" modes="view fullpage" showInPalette="true"
themes="wpthemeNarrow wpthemeWide wpthemeBanner" uniqueInstance="true"
url="/xcc/templates/iWidgetXCCCommunityDefinition.xml">
<itemSet>
<item name="lang" value="{lang}"/>
</itemSet>
</widgetDef>
```
3. In the Administrator's Home Page, click Add Another App to register the new app.
4. Define the new app using the following settings:
  - App Type: iWidget
  - App Title: XCC
  - URL Address and Secure URL Address: Enter the app location containing the new widget definition URL /xcc/templates/iWidgetXCCCommunityDefinition.xml.
5. Select the checkboxes for Display on My Page and Display on Updates pages, then click Save.
Note: If any of the application URLs are changed and the Foundation Features (ICXT) are deployed, the additional custom property ic.apps.context.mapping needs to be set on the Foundation Feature configuration. Refer to ICXT - Configuuration parameters for more details.