Defining servers for publishing or importing portals

Use the New Servers wizard, as described below, to define a server connection for importing, exporting, and deploying portals.

The instructions below will guide you through the process of using the New Servers wizard to create a server connection for
  • Deploying a portal project from Rational® Developer to a portal server
  • Exporting a portal project from Rational Developer to a WAR file that you can manually install on a portal server.
  • Importing an existing portal site from a portal server for editing in Rational Developer

Note: These instructions do not apply to creating server connections for testing or debugging. If you want to test and debug your portal either on a local or remote server, refer to Testing and debugging portals.

To define a server for an import, export, or deploy:

  1. Select choose File > New > Other. The New wizard opens.
  2. From the New wizard, expand the Server folder; then choose the Server subfolder. Click Next. (If the Server folder does not appear in the New wizard, then select the Show all wizards check box.)
  3. On the Define a New Server page, enter your remote WebSphere® Portal server's fully-qualified host name. Select a WebSphere Portal for Import, Export & Deploy server. The version of the server you select must match the version of the remote WebSphere Portal server. Click Next.
  4. Configure your WebSphere Portal server settings and specify your server administrator ID. Click Next.
  5. If you plan to either import or deploy, select a transfer method and specify the remote Web application and Library directories. Depending on which method you choose, these are the requirements:
    Method Requirements
    Local copy

    The Web application directory should map to the installedApps/node/wps.ear of the WebSphere Application Server.

    The Library directory should map to the shared/app directory of the target WebSphere Portal server.

    The Web application and Library directories should be either drive mappings or network resources that do not require a logon and must allow read, write and delete access.

    FTP file transfer

    Specify the FTP host and the paths to the Web application and Library directories, as described above.

    The ID and password that you specify must have read, write and delete permissions on the FTP server.

    Note: The Library directory entry is optional for WebSphere Portal v5.0 servers. However, it is recommended that you provide a value to avoid manually copying files before importing and after deploying a portal site. The Library directory is where the properties files containing translated strings reside. These properties files are in the shared\app\nls directory of the WebSphere Portal server. See Defining the Library directory for properties files for more information.
  6. Click Finish. Do not associate EAR projects with a WebSphere Portal for Import, Export & Deploy server.

If you want to view the status of your new server connection, open the Servers view. The tab for this view appears below the Portal Configuration editor.

Servers tab in Portal Designer

To edit the settings of your server connections, double-click the server connection name to activate its editor.

An alternative way to create a WebSphere Portal v5.x server connection for importing, exporting and deploying portals is to click the New button on the first page of the Import wizard, Deploy Portal wizard, and so on.

Related tasks
Testing and debugging portals
Publishing portals
Exporting portal projects
Deploying portal projects

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