Why Portal Framework is ignored in 12c?

TechGeek

Hi Webcenter gurus,

why Portal Framework is removed from FMW stack 12c It was good to completely customize you portal app with in your jdeveloper.

I am curious to know what problems it created or how are we making it better by removing it and only using web center portal?

@Frank Nimphius-Oracle

-- I would really appreciate if you can make a comment or point me to the right source...

Thanks!

Daniel Merchán

Hi.

Our friend Frank does not has any relationship with WebCenter products line and he will not give you any information related to this.

In the Oracle Open World 2016 in a presentation about moving from FMW Portal to Portal Builder they gave some rational behind on why FMW has been removed.

I do not remember all of them, but mainly was:

• Simplify support, as people mixes Framework Task Flows or created wrappers on top of it.
• The new "Composer" built on top of 12c is adapted to Portal Builder.
• Avoid issues related to third-party code.
• Performance, Portal Builder is already an ADF Application fully tuned.
• "Customizations" to product Task Flows. You can still do it, but is not recommended and Oracle has not provided a simple way to do this in 12c by using JDeveloper.
• Less painful upgrades, upgrading FMW Portals to new releases was a big pain.

There are some things I miss from FMW Portal, but this is not the topic .

Kind regards.

TechGeek

Hi @Daniel Merchán,

Thank you for writing!

I personally think the Webcenter extensions in 11g for Jdev were sweet. It has good combination of out of box features as well as customization satisfying all the worlds the tuning might not be an issue given some time and attention to the business and application and as you mentioned:

• "Customizations" to product Task Flows. You can still do it, but is not recommended and Oracle has not provided a simple way to do this in 12c by using JDeveloper.

Actually for some features/extensions I think there's no way to get them into Jdeveloper 12c to support previous 11g applications. my findings so far are:

• JCR Common Runtime
• Webcenter Document Library Service
• JCR Content Server Adapter
• Webcenter Virtual Content Repository
• Webcenter Personalization Core
• WebCenter Content Server Repository Adapter

Not to forget the ucm, cache extensions RIDC, wcps cache but I was able to get away with the RIDC and cache by making some tweaks.

Thanks!

Daniel Merchán

You are welcome and I am with you that I like to have all the power in my hands!

You can still use them if you want.

What I do from some 11g migrations is to import some WebCenter Framework Libraries from a WCP 12c Portal Installation (creating them in as JDev Libraries).

In addition, you can always import back the RIDC JDev Extension which is shipped by WebCenter Content 12c installation.

However, I would strongly recommend to adapt to the nowadays and code using the public APIs provided to avoid any migration or patch issue.

Kind regards.

TechGeek

@Daniel Merchán

I tried the same approach Oracle is smart the JDev extensions were thrown in such a way that you have only some part of the whole extension. I found out some of the classes have been removed which were available in previous extensions and JCR common runtime is missing, people connections dont even ask.

I'm sure migration from 11g to 12c will be a huge pain and I'm still not convinced with the reasons Oracle had to give to remove Portal Framework

Wish me luck!