oracle solaris - Page 314

Parameter _rollback_segment_count can cause trouble

- by Mike Dietrich

Just some weeks ago we've learned that setting the hidden underscore parameter: _rollback_segment_count may cause trouble during upgrade. This parameter is used in very rare cases to have under all circumstances and situations this specified number of UNDO's online. Now during upgrade this may result in massive latch contention due to bug14226559 - and there's a patch available as well. Recommendation is to unset it during upgrade. I don't think that many people will hit this as I personally haven't seen databases with this underscore in their init.ora or spfiles. So take this post more or less as a reminder for myself

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Extended JMS Support

- by ACShorten

In a previous post I discussed the real time JMS integration we added in FW4.1 and also as patches for FW2.2. There are some additional aspects of this integration I did not mention which may be of interest: JMS Topic Support - In the post I concentrated on talking about JMS Queue support but failed to mention that the MDB and outgoing real time JMS also supports JMS Topics. JMS Queues are typically used for point to point decoupled integration and JMS Topics are used for hub integration that uses Publish and Subscribe. JMS Selector Support - By default the MDB will process every message from a JMS resource (Queue or Topic). If you want to alter this behaviour to selectively filter JMS messages then you can use JMS Selectors to specify the conditions for the MDB to selectively process JMS messages based upon conditions. JMS Selectors allow filters to be specified on elements in the JMS Header and JMS Message Properties using SQL like syntax. Note: JMS Selectors do not support filters on the body elements. JMS Header Support - It is possible to place custom information in the JMS Header and JMS Message Properties for outgoing messages (so that other applications can use JMS selectors if necessary as well). This is only available when installing Patches 11888040 (FW4.1) and 11850795 (FW2.2). These facilities coupled with the JMS facilities described in the previous posts gives the product integration capabilities in JMS which can be used with configuration rather than coding. Of course, the JMS facility I have described can also be used in conjunction with SOA Suite to provide greater levels of traceability and management.

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Example WLST Script to Obtain JDBC and JTA MBean Values

- by Daniel Mortimer

Introduction Following on from the blog entry "Get an Offline or Online WebLogic Domain Summary Using WLST!", I have had a request to create a smaller example which only collects a selection of JDBC (System Resource) and JTA configuration and runtime MBeans values. So, here it is. Download Sample Script You can grab the sample script by clicking here. Instructions to Run: 1. After download, extract the zip to the machine hosting the WebLogic environment. You should have three directories along with a readme.txt output Sample_Output scripts 2. In the scripts directory, find the start wrapper script startWLSTJDBCSummarizer.sh (Unix) or startWLSTJDBCSummarizer.cmd (MS Windows). Open the appropriate file in an editor and change the environment variable settings to suit your system. Example - startWLSTDomainSummarizer.cmd set WL_HOME=D:\product\FMW11g\wlserver_10.3 set DOMAIN_HOME=D:\product\FMW11g\user_projects\domains\MyDomain set WLST_OUTPUT_PATH=D:\WLSTDomainSummarizer\output\ set WLST_OUTPUT_FILE=WLST_JDBC_Summary_Via_MBeans.html call "%WL_HOME%\common\bin\wlst.cmd" WLS_JDBC_Summary_Online.py Note: The WLST_OUTPUT_PATH directory value must have a trailing slash. If there is no trailing slash, the script will error and not continue. 3. Run the shell / command line wrapper script. It should launch WLST and kick off "WLS_JDBC_Summary_Online.py". This will hit you with some prompts e.g. Is your domain Admin Server up and running and do you have the connection details? (Y /N ): Y Enter connection URL to Admin Server e.g t3://mymachine.acme.com:7001 : t3://localhost:7001 Enter weblogic username: weblogic Enter weblogic username password (function prompt 1): welcome1 (Note: the value typed in for password will not be echoed back to the console). 4. If the scripts run successfully, you should get a HTML summary in the specified output directory. See example screenshots below: Screenshot 1 - JDBC System Resource Tab Page Screenshot 2 - JTA Tab Page 5. For the HTML to render correctly, ensure the .js and .css files provided (review the output directory created by the zip file extraction) are accessible. For example, to view the HTML locally (without using a web server), place the HTML output, jquery-ui.js, spry.js and wlstsummarizer.css in the same directory. Disclaimer This is a sample script. I have tested it against WebLogic Server 10.3.6 domains on MS Windows and Unix. I cannot guarantee that the script will run error free or produce the expected output on your system. If you have any feedback add a comment to the blog. I will endeavour to fix any problems with my WLST code. Credits JQuery: http://jquery.com/ Spry (Adobe) : https://github.com/adobe/Spryhttp://www.red-team-design.com/cool-headings-with-pseudo-elements

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ASR / SNMP on Exadata

- by rene.kundersma

Recently I worked with ASR on Exadata for multiple customers. ASR is a great functionality that enables your 'systems' to alert Oracle when hardware failures occur. Sun hardware is using ASM for sometime and since 2009/2010 this is also available for Exadata. My goal is not to re-write the documentation so for general information I like to refer to this link. So, where is this note about ? Well, it is about two things I experienced around setting up ASR. I like to provide my experience so others can be successful with ASR fast as well. (It is however expected that things will be updated in the latest documentation.) First, imagine yourself configuring SNMP traps to be sent to ASR. In this situation be sure to not erase any existing SNMP Subscribers settings for example the subscription to Enterprise Manager Grid Control or whatever you already subscribed for. So, when you have documentation stating to execute "cellcli -e alter cell snmpSubscriber=(host=, port=)" be sure to add existing snmpSubscribers when they exist. The syntax allows this: snmpSubscriber= ((host=host [,port=port] [,community=community][,type=ASR]) [,(host=host[,port=port][,community=community][,type=ASR])...) Second, when configuring SnmpSubscribers using DCLI you have to work with a slash to escape the brackets. Be sure to verify your SNMP settings after setting them because you might end up with a bracket in the 'asrs.state' file stating 'public\' in stead of 'public'. Having the extra slash after the word 'public' of course doesn't help when sending SNMP-traps: dcli -g dbs_group -l root -n "/opt/oracle.cellos/compmon/exadata_mon_hw_asr.pl -validate_snmp_subscriber -type asr" cn38: Sending test trap to destination - 173.25.100.43:162 cn38: (1). count - 50 Failed to run "/usr/bin/snmptrap -v 2c -c public\ -M "+/opt/oracle.cellos/compmon/" -m SUN-HW-TRAP-MIB 173.25.100.43:162 "" SUN-HW- TRAP-MIB::sunHwTrapTestTrap sunHwTrapSystemIdentifier s " Sun Oracle Database Machine secret" sunHwTrapChassisId s "secret" sunHwTrapProductName s "SUN FIRE X4170 SERVER" sunHwTrapTestMessage s "This is a test trap. Exadata Compute Server: cn38.oracle.com "" cn38: getaddrinfo: +/opt/oracle.cellos/compmon/ Name or service not known cn38: snmptrap: Unknown host (+/opt/oracle.cellos/compmon/) All together ASR is a great addition to Exadata that I highly recommend. Some excellent documentation is written on the implementation details and available on MyOracleSupport. See "Oracle Database Machine Monitoring (Doc ID 1110675.1)" Rene Kundersma Technical Architect Oracle Technology Services

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Seriously, It’s Time to Get Your Content Act Together

- by Mike Stiles

Branded content, content marketing, social content, brand journalism, we’re seeing those terms more and more. Why? The technology tools are coming together. We should know. We can gather big data, crunch it, listen to the public, moderate, respond, get to know the customer intimately, know what they like, know what they want, we can target, distribute, amplify, measure engagement and reaction, modify strategy and even automate a great deal of all that. An amazing machine, a sleek, smooth-running engine has been built such that all the parts can interact and work together to deliver peak performance and maximum output. But that engine isn’t going anywhere without any gas. Content is the gas. Yes, we curate other people’s content. We can siphon their gas. There’s tech to help with that too. But as for the creation of original, worthwhile content made for a specific audience, our audience, machines can’t do that…at least not yet. Curated content is great. But somebody has to originate the content for it to be curated and shared. And since the need for good, curated content is obviously large and the desire to share is there, it’s a winning proposition for a brand to be a consistent producer of original content. And yet, it feels like content is an issue we’re avoiding. There’s a reluctance to build a massive pipeline if you have no idea what you’re going to run through it. The C-suite often doesn’t know what content is, that it’s different from ads, where to get it, who makes it, how long it should be, what the point of it is if there’s no hard sell of the product, what it costs, how to use it, how to measure it, how to make sure it’s good, or how to make sure it will keep flowing. It could be the reason many brands aren’t pulling the trigger on socially enabling the enterprise. And that’s a shame, because there are a lot of creative, daring, experimental, uniquely talented entertainers and journalists chomping at the bit to execute content for brands. But for many corporate executives, content is “weird,” and the people who make it are even weirder. The content side of the equation is human. It’s art, but art that can be informed by data. The natural inclination is for brands to turn to their agencies for such creative endeavors. But agencies are falling into one of two categories. They’re failing to transition from ads to content. In “Content Era, What’s the Role of Agencies?” Alexander Jutkowitz says agencies were made for one-hit campaigns, not ongoing content. Or, they’re ready and capable but can’t get clients to do the right things. Agencies have to make money, even if it means continuing to do the wrong things because that’s all the client will agree to. So what we wind up with in the pipeline is advertising, marketing-heavy content, content that was obviously created or spearheaded by non-creative executives, random & inconsistent content, copy written for SEO bots, and other completely uninteresting nightmares. Frank Rose, author of “The Art of Immersion,” writes, “Content without story and excitement is noise pollution.” In the old days, you made an ad and inserted it into shows made by people who knew what they were doing. You could bask in that show’s success and leverage their audience. Now, you are tasked with attracting, amassing and holding your own audience. You may just want to make, advertise and sell your widgets. But now there’s a war on for a precious commodity, attention. People are busy. They have filters to keep uninteresting and irrelevant things out. They value their time and expect value back when they give it up. Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, says, "Your customers don't care about you, your products, your services…they care about themselves, their wants and their needs." Is it worth getting serious about content and doing it right? 61% of consumers feel better about a company that delivers custom content (Custom Content Council). Interesting content is one of the top 3 reasons people follow brands on social (Content+). 78% of consumers think organizations that provide custom content want to build good relationships with them (TMG Custom Media). On the B2B side, 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company info in a series of articles vs. an ad. So what’s the hang-up? Cited barriers to content marketing are lack of human resources (42%) and lack of budget (35%). 54% of brands don’t have a single on-site, dedicated content creator. And only 38% of brands have a content marketing strategy. Tech has built the biggest, most incredible stage for brands that’s ever been built. Putting something on that stage is your responsibility. Do a bad show, or no show at all, and you’ll be the beautiful, talented actress that never got discovered. @mikestilesPhoto: Gabriella Fabbri, stock.xchng

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Pinterest and Social Commerce: The Social Networking Site Retailers Shouldn’t Ignore

- by Jeri Kelley

If you are in the midst of remodeling your home, researching the latest spring fashion trends, or simply trying to figure out what to cook for dinner you’ve probably been on Pinterest, and like me, find it extremely useful for generating new ideas and storing them all in one place. Gone are the days of folding over corners of magazines or bookmarking the URL of a Web page – Pinterest makes it easy for you to “pin” ideas, photos, links, and more to virtual bulletin boards where your “followers” can repin, like, and share. As a consumer, Pinterest has gained my attention and I’m definitely not the only one. According to a Monetate infographic, Pinterest’s unique visitors increased 329% from September to December 2011. With this explosion of users, what does it mean for social commerce? Also according to Monetate, Pinterest is one of the top traffic drivers for retailers – driving even more traffic than popular social networking sites like Google+. For businesses, creating a presence on Pinterest is a great way to extend the reach of your brand, increase inbound links, and drive more traffic to your site. Socialnomics has a great post on how some of the biggest retail brands are using Pinterest to connect with consumers, offer cool content, and engage on a more personal level. When evaluating your social commerce program, while Facebook still delivers the most referrals, Pinterest shouldn’t be ignored as a way to help reach and connect with as many consumers as possible.

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Webcast with Brian Griffin, Ancestry, 2013 Winner 10 Best Web Support Sites

- by Tuula Fai

The web is one of the fastest growing channels for providing service, support and information, as seen in The Service Council's (TSC) latest multi-channel research survey. Join TSC's Chief Customer Officer Sumair Dutta as he shares key findings from his current customer experience research from over 200 organizations. Sumair will be joined by Brian Griffin, Senior Program Manager, Global Support Experience, Ancestry.com who will show how Ancestry is using the web as a powerful tool to enhance self-service opportunities and increase customer engagement. Smarter Web Service Educast Thursday, November 14th 2 pm ET / 11 am PT Register: http://bit.ly/1cwz4Ns

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Looking ahead at 2011-with Gartner

- by andrea.mulder

Speaking of forecasting the future. Gartner highlighted the top 10 technologies and trends that will be strategic for most organizations in 2011. While Gartner's predictions are not specific to CRM, you just cannot help but notice some of the common themes in store for 2011. The top 10 strategic technologies for 2011 include: Cloud Computing Mobile Applications and Media Tablets Social Communications and Collaborations Video Next Generation Analytics Social Analytics Context-Aware Computing Storage Class Memory Ubiquitous Computing Fabric-Based Infrastructure and Computers

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¿Es más barato desarrollar a medida que adquirir un ERP?

- by Luis Alberto Quilez

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Cuando abordamos un desarrollo a medida, estamos pensando únicamente en las necesidades de hoy. Tenemos un proyecto concreto, un determinado alcance funcional y conocemos las herramientas que hoy tenemos disponibles. Somos los que mejor conocemos nuestra empresa de hoy, sus procesos y el desarrollo parece una buena opción, pues las licencias de las herramientas de desarrollo son económicas y el coste de la tarifa diaria de programación es asequible, y entonces, caemos en la trampa del corto plazo y vamos adelante. Es muy posible que este desarrollo salga bien, que estemos orgullosos de nuestro trabajo, e incluso que proclamemos a los 4 vientos el dinero que nos hemos ahorrado. Sin embargo el mundo no se para, el negocio no se para, la adaptación debe ser permanente, nuestros clientes, internos y externos, tendrán nuevas exigencias y nuestro desarrollo no estará terminado, tendremos que integrarlo con otras áreas, tendremos que tratar de darle mayor funcionalidad y alcance, tendremos que adaptarlo a las nuevas tecnologías, permitir que la información se analice, se comparta, se acceda desde nuevos dispositivos … y veremos en primera persona cómo la trampa del desarrollo se cierra sobre nuestras cabezas, nunca estará terminado, la tecnología que usamos un día se quedará obsoleta, el ritmo de exigencia por funcionalidad e integración será cada vez mayor y no podremos sino poner más y más recursos dedicados al mantenimiento de un desarrollo propio, que no deja de comer, que me obliga a gastar más y más cada día y del que no puedo salir. Al poco tiempo me he convertido en una empresa de desarrollo de software dentro de mi propia empresa y ni tengo los recursos económicos para hacerlo viable, ni tengo las capacidades humanas y de inversión para responder a lo que se me exige desde el negocio. Así que pensemos, desde el principio, en que nuestra empresa debe perdurar muchos años, y hagamos el análisis de costes bajo esta perspectiva a la hora de tomar la decisión y veremos entonces que la adquisición de un ERP es mucho más económica que el desarrollo a medida. Por otro lado tenemos la integración. Un sistema de producción, requiere la asignación de recursos, que a su vez requieren de un plan de desarrollo, una formación o un cálculo de su nómina; también requiere de una cuenta contable, de una gestión de compras o de una asignación de costes y claro,de todos estos puntos nos vamos dando cuenta sobre la marcha, cuando en un sistema de gestión integral (ERP) lo tenemos disponible desde el primer momento. Claro que no nos vale un ERP cerrado, poco flexible y que no me permita diferenciar a mi empresa. Tenemos que buscar un socio tecnológico que nos acompañe, que asuma la inversión en tecnología y que me vaya suministrando versiones y soluciones acordes a las exigencias de los tiempos, de hoy y de mañana, pero además que me permita adaptar los flujos e innovar en los procesos para que podamos diferenciar nuestra empresa de la competencia, hoy y mañana. Veremos cómo, con la decisión de un ERP, flexible y abierto, los números salen y en el largo plazo es mucho más económica la decisión de adquirir un ERP que de optar por el desarrollo. Luis Alberto Quilez v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}

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Open Data, Government and Transparency

- by Tori Wieldt

A new track at TDC (The Developer's Conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil) is titled Open Data. It deals with open data, government and transparency. Saturday will be a "transparency hacker day" where developers are invited to create applications using open data from the Brazilian government. Alexandre Gomes, co-lead of the track, says "I want to inspire developers to become "Civic hackers:" developers who create apps to make society better." It is a chance for developers to do well and do good. There are many opportunities for developers, including monitoring government expenditures and getting citizens involved via social networks. The open data movement is growing worldwide. One initiative, the Open Government Partnership, is working to make government data easier to find and access. Making this data easily available means that with the right applications, it will be easier for people to make decisions and suggestions about government policies based on detailed information. Last April, the Open Government Partnership held its annual meeting in Brasilia, the capitol of Brazil. It was a great success showcasing the innovative work being done in open data by governments, civil societies and individuals around the world. For example, Bulgaria now publishes daily data on budget spending for all public institutions. Alexandre Gomes Explains Open Data At TDC, the Open Data track will include a presentation of examples of successful open data projects, an introduction to the semantic web, how to handle big data sets, techniques of data visualization, and how to design APIs.The other track lead is Christian Moryah Miranda, a systems analyst for the Brazilian Government's Ministry of Planning. "The Brazilian government wholeheartedly supports this effort. In order to make our data available to the public, it forces us to be more consistent with our data across ministries, and that's a good step forward for us," he said. He explained the government knows they cannot achieve everything they would like without help from the public. "It is not the government versus the people, rather citizens are partners with the government, and together we can achieve great things!" Miranda exclaimed. Saturday at TDC will be a "transparency hacker day" where developers will be invited to create applications using open data from the Brazilian government. Attendees are invited to pitch their ideas, work in small groups, and present their project at the end of the conference. "For example," Gomes said, "the Brazilian government just released the salaries of all government employees and I can't wait to see what developers can do with that." Resources Open Government Partnership U.S. Government Open Data ProjectBrazilian Government Open Data ProjectU.K. Government Open Data Project 2012 International Open Government Data Conference

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Week 13: Tall in a Grande Nonfat Double Shot No Whip Sugar Free Specialization

- by sandra.haan

Do you speak espresso? If so, we've got just the specialization for you - Caffeination. Listen in as Judson tells you more: Are you ready to apply? Head to your local barista for details. In all seriousness, check out the upcoming OPN Specialized webcasts and let us know of any reference stories you already have. Happy April Fools, The OPN Communications Team

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Updated Security Baseline (7u45) impacts Java 7u40 and before with High Security settings

- by costlow

The Java Security Baseline has been increased from 7u25 to 7u45. For versions of Java below 7u45, this means unsigned Java applets or Java applets that depend on Javascript LiveConnect calls will be blocked when using the High Security setting in the Java Control Panel. This issue only affects Applets and Web Start applications. It does not affect other types of Java applications. The Short Answer Users upgrading to Java 7 update 45 will automatically fix this and is strongly recommended. The More Detailed Answer There are two items involved as described on the deployment flowchart: The Security Baseline – a dynamically updated attribute that checks to see which Java version contains the most recent security patches. The Security Slider – the user-controlled setting of when to prompt/run/block applets. The Security Baseline Java clients periodically check in to understand what version contains the most recent security patches. Versions are released in-between that contain bug fixes. For example: 7u25 (July 2013) was the previous secure baseline. 7u40 contained bug fixes. Because this did not contain security patches, users were not required to upgrade and were welcome to remain on 7u25. When 7u45 was released (October, 2013), this critical patch update contained security patches and raised the secure baseline. Users are required to upgrade from earlier versions. For users that are not regularly connected to the internet, there is a built in Expiration Date. Because of the pre-established quarterly critical patch updates, we are able to determine an approximate date of the next version. A critical patch released in July will have its successor released, at latest, in July + 3 months: October. The Security Slider The security slider is located within the Java control panel and determines which Applets & Web Start applications will prompt, which will run, and which will be blocked. One of the questions used to determine prompt/run/block is, “At or Above the Security Baseline.” The Combination JavaScript calls made from LiveConnect do not reside within signed JAR files, so they are considered to be unsigned code. This is correct within networked systems even if the domain uses HTTPS because signed JAR files represent signed "data at rest" whereas TLS (often called SSL) literally stands for "Transport Level Security" and secures the communication channel, not the contents/code within the channel. The resulting flow of users who click "update later" is: Is the browser plug-in registered and allowed to run? Yes. Does a rule exist for this RIA? No rules apply. Does the RIA have a valid signature? Yes and not revoked. Which security prompt is needed? JRE is below the baseline. This is because 7u45 is the baseline and the user, clicked "upgrade later." Under the default High setting, Unsigned code is set to "Don’t Run" so users see: Additional Notes End Users can control their own security slider within the control panel. System Administrators can customize the security slider during automated installations. As a reminder, in the future, Java 7u51 (January 2014) will block unsigned and self-signed Applets & Web Start applications by default.

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Social Network Updates: While You Were Busy Marketing 2

- by Mike Stiles

Since social moves at the speed of data, it’s already time for another update, as we did back in April, on the changes the various social networks have made or gone through while you were busy marketing. Facebook There’s a lot of talk Facebook’s developing a mobile product to act like Flipboard and surface news, from both users and media outlets. The biggest news was Facebook/Instagram’s introduction of 15-second videos, enhanced with with filters, to take some of Vine’s candy. You can also delete parts of videos and rerecord them, and there’s image stabilization. Facebook’s ad revenue is coming along just fine, thank you very much. 35% quarter-to-quarter growth in Q2. And it looks like new formats like Mobile App Install Ads and Unpublished Page Posts are adding to the mix. If you don’t already, you’ll soon see a little camera in comment boxes letting you insert photos right into the comments you make. The drive toward “more visual” continues. The other big news is Facebook’s adoption of our Twitter friend, the hashtag. Adding # sets apart the post topic so it can be easily found or discovered. It’s also being added to Google Plus, Tumblr, and Pinterest. Twitter Want to send someone a promoted tweet when they’re in range of your store? That could be happening by the end of this year. Some users have been seeing automatic in-stream previews of images on Twitter.com. Right now it’s images in your own tweets, but we can assume all tweets are next. Get your followers organized! Twitter raised the limit on the number of lists you can create from 20 to 1,000. They also raised the number of accounts you can have in a list from 500 to 5,000. Twitter started notifying you when someone favorites a tweet you’re mentioned in or re-tweets a tweet you re-tweeted. Anyway, it’s the first time Twitter’s notified you about indirect interactions like that. Who’s afraid of Instagram? A study shows 6-second Vine videos are being posted to Twitter at the rate of 9/second, up from 5/second 2 months ago. Vine has over 13 million users and branded Vines are 4x more likely to be shared than video ads. Google Plus Now featuring a 3-column redesigned stream, and images that take up a whole column. And photo filters Auto Highlight and Auto Awesome work to turn your photos into a real show. Google Hangouts is the workhorse for all Google messaging now, it’s not just an online chat with 9 people anymore. Google Plus Dashboard improves the connection between your company’s Google Plus business page and your Google Plus Local. Updates go out across all Google properties and you can do your managing from the dashboard. With Google Plus’ authorship system, you can build “Author Rank” based on what you write and put on the web. If your stuff is +1’ed and shared a lot, you’re the real deal and there are search result benefits. LinkedIn "Who's Viewed Your Updates" shows you what you’ve shared recently, who saw it and what they did about it in real-time. “Influencers” is, well, influential. Traffic to all LI news products has gone up 8x since it was introduced. LinkedIn is quickly figuring out how to get users to stick around awhile. You and your brand can post images and documents in status updates now. In fact, that whole “document posting” thing is making some analysts wonder if LinkedIn will drift on over to the Dropboxes and YouSendIts of the world. C’mon, admit it. Your favorite part of LinkedIn is being able to see who’s viewed your profile. Now you’ve got even more info and can see what/who you have in common. Premium users get even deeper insights about how people are finding them. If you’re a big fan of security, you’ll love that LinkedIn started offering two-factor authentication (2FA). It’s optional, but step 2 is a one-time code texted to your registered mobile. Pinterest A study showed pins have a looong shelf life compared to other social net posts. “Clicks kept coming for 30 days and beyond.” Most pins are timeless, and the infinite scroll causes people to see older pins. Is it a keeper? Pinterest jumped 82% to 54 million users in the past year. It’s valued at $2.5 billion and is one of the biggest sources of referral traffic there is. That said, CEO Ben Silbermann adds, "Right now, we don't make money." A new search feature stops you from having to endlessly scroll through your own pins looking for that waterfall picture you posted. Simply select “just my pins” in the search bar. New "Rich Pins" lets brands add info like price and availability to pins that can be updated daily via a data feed from your merchant site. Not so fast, you have to apply to Pinterest for it first. Like other social nets, Pinterest does not allow sexual content, nudity, or even partial nudity. However…some art contains nudity, and Pinterest wants to allow art. What constitutes “art” will be judged by…what we have to assume are Pinterest employees who love their job. @mikestilesPhoto: stock.xchng, Tim Marmon

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AuthnRequest Settings in OIF / SP

- by Damien Carru

In this article, I will list the various OIF/SP settings that affect how an AuthnRequest message is created in OIF in a Federation SSO flow. The AuthnRequest message is used by an SP to start a Federation SSO operation and to indicate to the IdP how the operation should be executed: How the user should be challenged at the IdP Whether or not the user should be challenged at the IdP, even if a session already exists at the IdP for this user Which NameID format should be requested in the SAML Assertion Which binding (Artifact or HTTP-POST) should be requested from the IdP to send the Assertion Which profile should be used by OIF/SP to send the AuthnRequest message Enjoy the reading! Protocols The SAML 2.0, SAML 1.1 and OpenID 2.0 protocols define different message elements and rules that allow an administrator to influence the Federation SSO flows in different manners, when the SP triggers an SSO operation: SAML 2.0 allows extensive customization via the AuthnRequest message SAML 1.1 does not allow any customization, since the specifications do not define an authentication request message OpenID 2.0 allows for some customization, mainly via the OpenID 2.0 extensions such as PAPE or UI SAML 2.0 OIF/SP allows the customization of the SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest message for the following elements: ForceAuthn: Boolean indicating whether or not the IdP should force the user for re-authentication, even if the user has still a valid session By default set to false IsPassive Boolean indicating whether or not the IdP is allowed to interact with the user as part of the Federation SSO operation. If false, the Federation SSO operation might result in a failure with the NoPassive error code, because the IdP will not have been able to identify the user By default set to false RequestedAuthnContext Element indicating how the user should be challenged at the IdP If the SP requests a Federation Authentication Method unknown to the IdP or for which the IdP is not configured, then the Federation SSO flow will result in a failure with the NoAuthnContext error code By default missing NameIDPolicy Element indicating which NameID format the IdP should include in the SAML Assertion If the SP requests a NameID format unknown to the IdP or for which the IdP is not configured, then the Federation SSO flow will result in a failure with the InvalidNameIDPolicy error code If missing, the IdP will generally use the default NameID format configured for this SP partner at the IdP By default missing ProtocolBinding Element indicating which SAML binding should be used by the IdP to redirect the user to the SP with the SAML Assertion Set to Artifact or HTTP-POST By default set to HTTP-POST OIF/SP also allows the administrator to configure the server to: Set which binding should be used by OIF/SP to redirect the user to the IdP with the SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest message: Redirect or HTTP-POST By default set to Redirect Set which binding should be used by OIF/SP to redirect the user to the IdP during logout with SAML 2.0 Logout messages: Redirect or HTTP-POST By default set to Redirect SAML 1.1 The SAML 1.1 specifications do not define a message for the SP to send to the IdP when a Federation SSO operation is started. As such, there is no capability to configure OIF/SP on how to affect the start of the Federation SSO flow. OpenID 2.0 OpenID 2.0 defines several extensions that can be used by the SP/RP to affect how the Federation SSO operation will take place: OpenID request: mode: String indicating if the IdP/OP can visually interact with the user checkid_immediate does not allow the IdP/OP to interact with the user checkid_setup allows user interaction By default set to checkid_setup PAPE Extension: max_auth_age : Integer indicating in seconds the maximum amount of time since when the user authenticated at the IdP. If MaxAuthnAge is bigger that the time since when the user last authenticated at the IdP, then the user must be re-challenged. OIF/SP will set this attribute to 0 if the administrator configured ForceAuthn to true, otherwise this attribute won't be set Default missing preferred_auth_policies Contains a Federation Authentication Method Element indicating how the user should be challenged at the IdP By default missing Only specified in the OpenID request if the IdP/OP supports PAPE in XRDS, if OpenID discovery is used. UI Extension Popup mode Boolean indicating the popup mode is enabled for the Federation SSO By default missing Language Preference String containing the preferred language, set based on the browser's language preferences. By default missing Icon: Boolean indicating if the icon feature is enabled. In that case, the IdP/OP would look at the SP/RP XRDS to determine how to retrieve the icon By default missing Only specified in the OpenID request if the IdP/OP supports UI Extenstion in XRDS, if OpenID discovery is used. ForceAuthn and IsPassive WLST Command OIF/SP provides the WLST configureIdPAuthnRequest() command to set: ForceAuthn as a boolean: In a SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest, the ForceAuthn field will be set to true or false In an OpenID 2.0 request, if ForceAuthn in the configuration was set to true, then the max_auth_age field of the PAPE request will be set to 0, otherwise, max_auth_age won't be set IsPassive as a boolean: In a SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest, the IsPassive field will be set to true or false In an OpenID 2.0 request, if IsPassive in the configuration was set to true, then the mode field of the OpenID request will be set to checkid_immediate, otherwise set to checkid_setup Test In this test, OIF/SP is integrated with a remote SAML 2.0 IdP Partner, with the OOTB configuration. Based on this setup, when OIF/SP starts a Federation SSO flow, the following SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest would be generated: <samlp:AuthnRequest ProtocolBinding="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:HTTP-POST" ID="id-E4BOT7lwbYK56lO57dBaqGUFq01WJSjAHiSR60Q4" Version="2.0" IssueInstant="2014-04-01T21:39:14Z" Destination="https://acme.com/saml20/sso"> <saml:Issuer Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:entity">https://sp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer> <samlp:NameIDPolicy AllowCreate="true"/></samlp:AuthnRequest> Let's configure OIF/SP for that IdP Partner, so that the SP will require the IdP to re-challenge the user, even if the user is already authenticated: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the configureIdPAuthnRequest() command:configureIdPAuthnRequest(partner="AcmeIdP", forceAuthn="true") Exit the WLST environment:exit() After the changes, the following SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest would be generated: <samlp:AuthnRequest ForceAuthn="true" ProtocolBinding="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:HTTP-POST" ID="id-E4BOT7lwbYK56lO57dBaqGUFq01WJSjAHiSR60Q4" Version="2.0" IssueInstant="2014-04-01T21:39:14Z" Destination="https://acme.com/saml20/sso"> <saml:Issuer Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:entity">https://sp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer> <samlp:NameIDPolicy AllowCreate="true"/></samlp:AuthnRequest> To display or delete the ForceAuthn/IsPassive settings, perform the following operatons: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the configureIdPAuthnRequest() command: To display the ForceAuthn/IsPassive settings on the partnerconfigureIdPAuthnRequest(partner="AcmeIdP", displayOnly="true") To delete the ForceAuthn/IsPassive settings from the partnerconfigureIdPAuthnRequest(partner="AcmeIdP", delete="true") Exit the WLST environment:exit() Requested Fed Authn Method In my earlier "Fed Authentication Method Requests in OIF / SP" article, I discussed how OIF/SP could be configured to request a specific Federation Authentication Method from the IdP when starting a Federation SSO operation, by setting elements in the SSO request message. WLST Command The OIF WLST commands that can be used are: setIdPPartnerProfileRequestAuthnMethod() which will configure the requested Federation Authentication Method in a specific IdP Partner Profile, and accepts the following parameters: partnerProfile: name of the IdP Partner Profile authnMethod: the Federation Authentication Method to request displayOnly: an optional parameter indicating if the method should display the current requested Federation Authentication Method instead of setting it delete: an optional parameter indicating if the method should delete the current requested Federation Authentication Method instead of setting it setIdPPartnerRequestAuthnMethod() which will configure the specified IdP Partner entry with the requested Federation Authentication Method, and accepts the following parameters: partner: name of the IdP Partner authnMethod: the Federation Authentication Method to request displayOnly: an optional parameter indicating if the method should display the current requested Federation Authentication Method instead of setting it delete: an optional parameter indicating if the method should delete the current requested Federation Authentication Method instead of setting it This applies to SAML 2.0 and OpenID 2.0 protocols. See the "Fed Authentication Method Requests in OIF / SP" article for more information. Test In this test, OIF/SP is integrated with a remote SAML 2.0 IdP Partner, with the OOTB configuration. Based on this setup, when OIF/SP starts a Federation SSO flow, the following SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest would be generated: <samlp:AuthnRequest ProtocolBinding="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:HTTP-POST" ID="id-E4BOT7lwbYK56lO57dBaqGUFq01WJSjAHiSR60Q4" Version="2.0" IssueInstant="2014-04-01T21:39:14Z" Destination="https://acme.com/saml20/sso"> <saml:Issuer Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:entity">https://sp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer> <samlp:NameIDPolicy AllowCreate="true"/></samlp:AuthnRequest> Let's configure OIF/SP for that IdP Partner, so that the SP will request the IdP to use a mechanism mapped to the urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:X509 Federation Authentication Method to authenticate the user: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the setIdPPartnerRequestAuthnMethod() command:setIdPPartnerRequestAuthnMethod("AcmeIdP", "urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:X509") Exit the WLST environment:exit() After the changes, the following SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest would be generated: <samlp:AuthnRequest ProtocolBinding="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:HTTP-POST" ID="id-E4BOT7lwbYK56lO57dBaqGUFq01WJSjAHiSR60Q4" Version="2.0" IssueInstant="2014-04-01T21:39:14Z" Destination="https://acme.com/saml20/sso"> <saml:Issuer Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:entity">https://sp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer> <samlp:NameIDPolicy AllowCreate="true"/> <samlp:RequestedAuthnContext Comparison="minimum"> <saml:AuthnContextClassRef xmlns:saml="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:assertion"> urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:X509 </saml:AuthnContextClassRef> </samlp:RequestedAuthnContext></samlp:AuthnRequest> NameID Format The SAML 2.0 protocol allows for the SP to request from the IdP a specific NameID format to be used when the Assertion is issued by the IdP. Note: SAML 1.1 and OpenID 2.0 do not provide such a mechanism Configuring OIF The administrator can configure OIF/SP to request a NameID format in the SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest via: The OAM Administration Console, in the IdP Partner entry The OIF WLST setIdPPartnerNameIDFormat() command that will modify the IdP Partner configuration OAM Administration Console To configure the requested NameID format via the OAM Administration Console, perform the following steps: Go to the OAM Administration Console: http(s)://oam-admin-host:oam-admin-port/oamconsole Navigate to Identity Federation -> Service Provider Administration Open the IdP Partner you wish to modify In the Authentication Request NameID Format dropdown box with one of the values None The NameID format will be set Default Email Address The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:emailAddress X.509 Subject The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:X509SubjectName Windows Name Qualifier The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:WindowsDomainQualifiedName Kerberos The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:kerberos Transient The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:transient Unspecified The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:unspecified Custom In this case, a field would appear allowing the administrator to indicate the custom NameID format to use The NameID format will be set to the specified format Persistent The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:persistent I selected Email Address in this example Save WLST Command To configure the requested NameID format via the OIF WLST setIdPPartnerNameIDFormat() command, perform the following steps: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the setIdPPartnerNameIDFormat() command:setIdPPartnerNameIDFormat("PARTNER", "FORMAT", customFormat="CUSTOM") Replace PARTNER with the IdP Partner name Replace FORMAT with one of the following: orafed-none The NameID format will be set Default orafed-emailaddress The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:emailAddress orafed-x509 The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:X509SubjectName orafed-windowsnamequalifier The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:WindowsDomainQualifiedName orafed-kerberos The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:kerberos orafed-transient The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:transient orafed-unspecified The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:unspecified orafed-custom In this case, a field would appear allowing the administrator to indicate the custom NameID format to use The NameID format will be set to the specified format orafed-persistent The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:persistent customFormat will need to be set if the FORMAT is set to orafed-custom An example would be:setIdPPartnerNameIDFormat("AcmeIdP", "orafed-emailaddress") Exit the WLST environment:exit() Test In this test, OIF/SP is integrated with a remote SAML 2.0 IdP Partner, with the OOTB configuration. Based on this setup, when OIF/SP starts a Federation SSO flow, the following SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest would be generated: <samlp:AuthnRequest ProtocolBinding="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:HTTP-POST" ID="id-E4BOT7lwbYK56lO57dBaqGUFq01WJSjAHiSR60Q4" Version="2.0" IssueInstant="2014-04-01T21:39:14Z" Destination="https://acme.com/saml20/sso"> <saml:Issuer Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:entity">https://sp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer> <samlp:NameIDPolicy AllowCreate="true"/></samlp:AuthnRequest> After the changes performed either via the OAM Administration Console or via the OIF WLST setIdPPartnerNameIDFormat() command where Email Address would be requested as the NameID Format, the following SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest would be generated: <samlp:AuthnRequest ForceAuthn="false" IsPassive="false" ProtocolBinding="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:HTTP-POST" ID="id-E4BOT7lwbYK56lO57dBaqGUFq01WJSjAHiSR60Q4" Version="2.0" IssueInstant="2014-04-01T21:39:14Z" Destination="https://acme.com/saml20/sso"> <saml:Issuer Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:entity">https://sp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer> <samlp:NameIDPolicy Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:emailAddress" AllowCreate="true"/></samlp:AuthnRequest> Protocol Binding The SAML 2.0 specifications define a way for the SP to request which binding should be used by the IdP to redirect the user to the SP with the SAML 2.0 Assertion: the ProtocolBinding attribute indicates the binding the IdP should use. It is set to: Either urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:HTTP-POST for HTTP-POST Or urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:Artifact for Artifact The SAML 2.0 specifications also define different ways to redirect the user from the SP to the IdP with the SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest message, as the SP can send the message: Either via HTTP Redirect Or HTTP POST (Other bindings can theoretically be used such as Artifact, but these are not used in practice) Configuring OIF OIF can be configured: Via the OAM Administration Console or the OIF WLST configureSAMLBinding() command to set the Assertion Response binding to be used Via the OIF WLST configureSAMLBinding() command to indicate how the SAML AuthnRequest message should be sent Note: the binding for sending the SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest message will also be used to send the SAML 2.0 LogoutRequest and LogoutResponse messages. OAM Administration Console To configure the SSO Response/Assertion Binding via the OAM Administration Console, perform the following steps: Go to the OAM Administration Console: http(s)://oam-admin-host:oam-admin-port/oamconsole Navigate to Identity Federation -> Service Provider Administration Open the IdP Partner you wish to modify Check the "HTTP POST SSO Response Binding" box to request the IdP to return the SSO Response via HTTP POST, otherwise uncheck it to request artifact Save WLST Command To configure the SSO Response/Assertion Binding as well as the AuthnRequest Binding via the OIF WLST configureSAMLBinding() command, perform the following steps: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the configureSAMLBinding() command:configureSAMLBinding("PARTNER", "PARTNER_TYPE", binding, ssoResponseBinding="httppost") Replace PARTNER with the Partner name Replace PARTNER_TYPE with the Partner type (idp or sp) Replace binding with the binding to be used to send the AuthnRequest and LogoutRequest/LogoutResponse messages (should be httpredirect in most case; default) httppost for HTTP-POST binding httpredirect for HTTP-Redirect binding Specify optionally ssoResponseBinding to indicate how the SSO Assertion should be sent back httppost for HTTP-POST binding artifactfor for Artifact binding An example would be:configureSAMLBinding("AcmeIdP", "idp", "httpredirect", ssoResponseBinding="httppost") Exit the WLST environment:exit() Test In this test, OIF/SP is integrated with a remote SAML 2.0 IdP Partner, with the OOTB configuration which requests HTTP-POST from the IdP to send the SSO Assertion. Based on this setup, when OIF/SP starts a Federation SSO flow, the following SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest would be generated: <samlp:AuthnRequest ProtocolBinding="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:HTTP-POST" ID="id-E4BOT7lwbYK56lO57dBaqGUFq01WJSjAHiSR60Q4" Version="2.0" IssueInstant="2014-04-01T21:39:14Z" Destination="https://acme.com/saml20/sso"> <saml:Issuer Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:entity">https://sp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer> <samlp:NameIDPolicy AllowCreate="true"/></samlp:AuthnRequest> In the next article, I will cover the various crypto configuration properties in OIF that are used to affect the Federation SSO exchanges.Cheers,Damien Carru

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Facebook Sponsored Results: Is It Getting Results?

- by Mike Stiles

Social marketers who like to focus on the paid aspect of the paid/earned hybrid Facebook represents may want to keep themselves aware of how the network’s new Sponsored Results ad product is performing. The ads, which appear when a user conducts a search from the Facebook search bar, have only been around a week or so. But the first statistics coming out of them are not bad. Marketer Nanigans says click-through rates on the Sponsored Results have been nearly 23 times better than regular Facebook ads. Some click-through rates have even gone over 3%. Just to give you some perspective, a TechCrunch article points out that’s the same kind of click-through rates that were being enjoyed during the go-go dot com boom of the 90’s. The average across the Internet in its entirety is now somewhere around .3% on a good day, so a 3% number should be enough to raise an eyebrow. Plus the cost-per-click price is turning up 78% lower than regular Facebook ads, so that should raise the other eyebrow. Marketers have gotten pretty used to being able to buy ads against certain keywords. Most any digital property worth its salt that sells ads offers this, and so does Facebook with its Sponsored Results product. But the unique prize Facebook brings to the table is the ability to also buy based on demographic and interest information gleaned from Facebook user profiles. With almost 950 million logging in, this is exactly the kind of leveraging of those users conventional wisdom says is necessary for Facebook to deliver on its amazing potential. So how does the Facebook user fit into this? Notorious for finding out exactly where sponsored marketing messages are appearing and training their eyeballs to avoid those areas, will the Facebook user reject these Sponsored Results? Well, Facebook may have found an area in addition to the News Feed where paid elements can’t be avoided and will be tolerated. If users want to read their News Feed, and they do, they’re going to see sponsored posts. Likewise, if they want to search for friends or Pages, and they do, they’re going to see Sponsored Results. The paid results are clearly marked as such. As long as their organic search results are not tainted or compromised, they will continue using search. But something more is going on. The early click-through rate numbers say not only do users not mind seeing these Sponsored Results, they’re finding them relevant enough to click on. And once they click, they seem to be liking what they find, with a reported 14% higher install rate than Marketplace Ads. It’s early, and obviously the jury is still out. But this is a new social paid marketing opportunity that’s well worth keeping an eye on, and that may wind up hitting the trifecta of being effective for the platform, the consumer, and the marketer.

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Article: Interceptors 1.1 in Java EE 6

- by OracleTechnologyNetwork

This Tip Of The Day (TOTD) attempts to explain the basics of Interceptors 1.1 - a "new" specification introduced in the Java EE 6. Interceptors do what they say - they intercept on invocations and lifecycle events on an associated target class. The specification is not entirely new as the concept is borrowed from the EJB 3.0 specification.

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Gartner PCC Follow-up: Interview with Chaeny Emanavin, Usability Lead - Office of Information Develo

- by [email protected]

Last week at the Gartner Portals, Content and Collaboration conference in Baltimore, Chaeny and I co-presented on Oracle Enterprise 2.0 and BIA's Citizen Portal. Chaeny's presentation about the BIA solution was very well received and I wanted to do a follow-up interview with Chaeny to discuss more details about their solution and its Enterprise 2.0 features. Ajay: What were the main objectives for the BIA Citizen Portal? Chaeny: The BIA Citizen Portal is designed to provide all the services of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the community of 564 federally recognized tribes that include over 1.9 million American Indians and Alaska Natives. The BIA provides the same breadth of services that the entire U.S. Federal Government provides in one small Bureau. So, we needed a solution that was flexible enough to handle content ranging from law enforcement to housing to education. Key objectives for external users was to use the Web as a communications channel and keep them informed on what services are available. We also wanted to build an internal web presence and community for BIA's 5000 employees to ensure that they update their content, leverage internal experts and create single sources of truth for key policy documents. Ajay: How is the project being implemented? Chaeny: We are using a phased approach. In phases 1 & 2, interim internal and external sites were built to ensure usability and functional requirements are being met. In Phases 3 & 4, we built out a modern internal and external presence using Oracle WebCenter Suite and Oracle Universal Content Management (UCM), including enabling delegated content management for our internal business units. Phase 4 was completed in January 2010. Phase 5 will add deeper Enterprise 2.0 collaboration capabilities to the solution. Ajay: Are you integrating any existing sites into the new solution? Chaeny: Yes, we have a SharePoint implementation that we are using for document management. We needed more precise functionality however. We found that SharePoint would let individual administrators of a SharePoint site actually create new sites. In a 3 months span, we had over 200 new sites created and most were not being used. So, we had an enormous sprawl problem. Our requirements mandated increased governance and more granular control over the creation of sites and flexible user access to content. In SharePoint this required custom code and was very time-intensive which was unfeasible given our tight deadlines. We are piloting Oracle WebCenter Spaces as our collaboration solution to mitigate these issues. However, we must integrate our existing SharePoint investment which we can do easily by using the SharePoint connectors available in Oracle WebCenter and UCM. Ajay: What were the key design parameters for your solution? Chaeny: We wanted everything driven by standards and policies. We created a cross-functional steering group called the Indian Affairs Web Council to codify policies that were baked into the system. Other key design areas were focused on security/governance, self-service content management, ease of use, integration with legacy applications and seamless single sign-on. We are using Dublin Core as our metadata standard. We also are using Java, APEX, and ADF as our development standards. Ajay: Why was it important to standardize on a platform? Chaeny: We initially looked at best-of-breed solutions, but we faced a lot of issues getting the different solutions to work together. Going with an integrated solution was more economical, easier to learn and faster to deliver the solution. Ajay: What type of legacy applications are you integrating into the portal? Chaeny: Initially we are starting with administrative apps such as people directory and user admin and then we will integrate HR and Financial applications among others. Ajay: Can you describe some of the E20 collaboration features you are putting into the solution? Chaeny: We are adding Enterprise 2.0 using Oracle WebCenter Spaces to deliver different collaboration tools such as wikis, blogs and discussion forums. Wikis to create rapid, ad hoc monthly roll-up reports; discussion forums to provide context-specific help; blogs to capture tacit organization knowledge from experts, identify gurus and turn tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge. Ajay: Are you doing anything specifically to spur adoption and usage? Chaeny: Yes, we did several things that I think helped us ramp quickly. First, we met our commitments for the new system launch date and also provided extra resources for a customer support "hotline" during the launch period. Prior to launch, we did exhaustive usability studies to capture user requirements around functionality, navigation and other key interaction areas. We also created extensive training programs so that the content managers in each business unit were comfortable using the content management tools and knew the best practices for usage. Finally, to launch the Enterprise 2.0 collaboration capabilities, we are working with a pilot group from the Division of Forestry and Wildland Fire Management of BIA. This group of people in the past have been willing early adopters and they have a strong business need to collaborate with many agencies both internal and external across State, County and other Federal jurisdictions. Their feedback is key to helping us launch Enterprise 2.0 successfully in our broader organization. Ajay: What were the biggest benefits to internal BIA employees and to the external community of users? Chaeny: For our employees, the new Enterprise 2.0-based solution will make it easier to find information; enhance employee productivity by embedding standard business processes into the system and create more of a community by creating connections with experts via social collaboration to ultimately provide better services more quickly. For the external American Indian and Alaska Native communities, we have a better relationship with the users and the new site has improved BIA's perception as a more responsive and customer-centric organization.

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Predicting Likelihood of Click with Multiple Presentations

- by Michel Adar

When using predictive models to predict the likelihood of an ad or a banner to be clicked on it is common to ignore the fact that the same content may have been presented in the past to the same visitor. While the error may be small if the visitors do not often see repeated content, it may be very significant for sites where visitors come repeatedly. This is a well recognized problem that usually gets handled with presentation thresholds – do not present the same content more than 6 times. Observations and measurements of visitor behavior provide evidence that something better is needed. Observations For a specific visitor, during a single session, for a banner in a not too prominent space, the second presentation of the same content is more likely to be clicked on than the first presentation. The difference can be 30% to 100% higher likelihood for the second presentation when compared to the first. That is, for example, if the first presentation has an average click rate of 1%, the second presentation may have an average CTR of between 1.3% and 2%. After the second presentation the CTR stays more or less the same for a few more presentations. The number of presentations in this plateau seems to vary by the location of the content in the page and by the visual attraction of the content. After these few presentations the CTR starts decaying with a curve that is very well approximated by an exponential decay. For example, the 13th presentation may have 90% the likelihood of the 12th, and the 14th has 90% the likelihood of the 13th. The decay constant seems also to depend on the visibility of the content. Modeling Options Now that we know the empirical data, we can propose modeling techniques that will correctly predict the likelihood of a click. Use presentation number as an input to the predictive model Probably the most straight forward approach is to add the presentation number as an input to the predictive model. While this is certainly a simple solution, it carries with it several problems, among them: If the model learns on each case, repeated non-clicks for the same content will reinforce the belief of the model on the non-clicker disproportionately. That is, the weight of a person that does not click for 200 presentations of an offer may be the same as 100 other people that on average click on the second presentation. The effect of the presentation number is not a customer characteristic or a piece of contextual data about the interaction with the customer, but it is contextual data about the content presented. Models tend to underestimate the effect of the presentation number. For these reasons it is not advisable to use this approach when the average number of presentations of the same content to the same person is above 3, or when there are cases of having the presentation number be very large, in the tens or hundreds. Use presentation number as a partitioning attribute to the predictive model In this approach we essentially build a separate predictive model for each presentation number. This approach overcomes all of the problems in the previous approach, nevertheless, it can be applied only when the volume of data is large enough to have these very specific sub-models converge.

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Selling Solutions, Not Products

- by David Dorf

When I think about next-generation retailers, the names that come to mind are Apple, Whole Foods, Lulu Lemon, and IKEA. They may not be the biggest retailers, but they are certainly growing fast. Success is never defined by just one dimension, and these retailers execute well across many dimensions, but the one that stands out for me is customer experience. These stores feel...approachable...part of the community...local. Customers are not intimidated to ask questions, and staff seem to go out of their way to help. What's makes these retailers stand out in the industry? These retailers aren't selling products -- they're selling solutions. Think about that. You think you're going to the Apple store to buy a phone, but you're actually buying a communications solution that handles much, much more. If you carry an iPhone, your life has changed. The way you do things is different. The impacts go much beyond a simple phone. Solutions start with a problem, which is why these retailers greet customers with "what brought you in today," or "can I answer any questions for you?" Good retailers establish a relationship, even if it lasts only a few minutes. You don't walk into Whole Foods looking for cans of soup. You are looking for meals: healthy snacks, interesting lunches, exotic dinners. Its a learning experience where you might discover solutions to problems you didn't know you had. Mention what foods you like, and you'll get a list of similar items you had not considered. I didn't know I needed a closet organizer until I visited an IKEA and learned about all the options. They were able to customize the solution to meet my needs, and now I'm much more organized. One of the differences between selling products and selling solutions is training. Visit any of these retailers' sites and you'll see a long list of in-store events for the benefit of customers. You can buy exercise clothing from Lulu Lemon, and also learn new yoga techniques, meet like-minded people, and branch off to other fitness regimes via their ambassadors. You can visit the Geek Bar at Apple, eat lunch at IKEA, and learn to cook at Whole Foods. These retailers are making an investment in a relationship with their customers. They are showing loyalty to their customers before asking for it back. In the long-run, this strategic approach will outlive any scan-and-bag mentality.

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Wildcard SSL certificate support in Weblogic

- by user10139630

Weblogic by default doesnt validate ssl certificates with wildcard entries. i.e. with cn = *.example.com . The impact of this is any ssl handshake which involves these kind of certificates are by default rejected. A clean resolution for this is to use custom hostname verifier and point the same to use the class weblogic.security.utils.SSLWLSWildcardHostnameVerifier To make this change, Launch WLS console Click on Environment -> Servers on your left Select Admin Server Then go to SSL tab Lock & Edit Scroll down and expand advanced section Here change Hostname verification entry to Custom Hostname Verifier Below in Custom Hostname verifier enter "weblogic.security.utils.SSLWLSWildcardHostnameVerifier" Restart weblogic

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Four Emerging Payment Stories

- by David Dorf

The world of alternate payments has been moving fast of late. Innovation in this area will help both consumers and retailers, but probably hurt the banks (at least that's the plan). Here are four recent news items in this area: Dwolla, a start-up in Iowa, is trying to make credit cards obsolete. Twelve guys in Des Moines are using $1.3M they raised to allow businesses to skip the credit card networks and avoid the fees. Today they move about $1M a day across their network with an average transaction size of $500. Instead of charging merchants 2.9% plus $.30 per transaction, Dwolla charges a quarter -- yep, that coin featuring George Washington. Dwolla (Web + Dollar = Dwolla) avoids the credit networks and connects directly to bank accounts using the bank's ACH network. They are signing up banks and merchants targeting both B2B and C2B as well as P2P payments. They leverage social networks to notify people they have a money transfer, and also have a mobile app that uses GPS location. However, all is not rosy. There have been complaints about unexpected chargebacks and with debit fees being reduced by the big banks, the need is not as pronounced. The big banks are working on their own network called clearXchange that could provide stiff competition. VeriFone just bought European payment processor Point for around $1B. By itself this would not have caught my attention except for the fact that VeriFone also announced the acquisition of GlobalBay earlier this month. In addition to their core business of selling stand-beside payment terminals, with GlobalBay they get employee-operated mobile selling tools and with Point they get a very big payment processing platform. MasterCard and Intel announced a partnership around payments, starting with PayPass, MasterCard's new payment technology. Intel will lend its expertise to add additional levels of security, which seems to be the biggest barrier for consumer adoption. Everyone is scrambling to get their piece of cash transactions, which still represents 85% of all transactions. Apple was awarded another mobile payment patent further cementing the rumors that the iPhone 5 will support NFC payments. As usual, Apple is upsetting the apple cart (sorry) by moving control of key data from the carriers to Apple. With Apple's vast number of iTunes accounts, they have a ready-made customer base to use the payment infrastructure, which I bet will slowly transition people away from credit cards and toward cheaper ACH. Gary Schwartz explains the three step process Apple is taking to become a payment processor. Below is a picture I drew representing payments in the retail industry. There's certainly a lot of innovation happening.

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Thomas Kurian's COLLABORATE Keynote: Process not Product

- by Aaron Lazenby

Right off the bat, Oracle's Senior Vice President, Server Technologies Development made his purpose very clear: demonstrate how the elements of the Oracle product stack are evolving (and integrating) together. There are some great details about the new functionality of each Oracle application line and how the different products sync and interact. The lifecycle charts in Kurian's presentation illustrate how data can flow from an Oracle Demantra into Oracle E-Business Suite and back out to an Oracle Agile system to support value chain planning. With so many products at play in the enterprise, Kurian shows that if you trust that your systems can work together, IT strategy becoming much more about managing business process than managing software product.

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A Letter for Your CEO About Social Marketing’s Future

- by Mike Stiles

We’ll leave it to you to decide if or how to sneak this in front of them. Dear Chief: This social marketing thing looks serious. It’s gone beyond having a Facebook page and putting our info and a few promotions on it. It’s seriously disrupting how we’ve always done marketing. And its implications reach well beyond marketing. My concern is that we stay positioned ahead of these changes and are prepared to embrace, adapt and capitalize on these new capabilities as opposed to spending valuable time and money trying to shoehorn social into “the way we’ve always done things.” I’m also concerned about what happens if our competition executes on this before we do. The days of being able to impose our ad messaging on the masses to great effect are numbered. The public now has the tech tools and ability to filter out things that are irrelevant to them. And frankly, spending ad dollars to reach unlikely prospects isn’t the most efficient path for us either. Today, our customers have to genuinely love what we do. That starts with a renewed, customer-centric focus on the quality and usability of our product. If their experience with it is bad, they now have very connected, loud voices that will testify against us. We can’t afford that. Next, their customer service experience, before and after the sale, has to be a pleasant surprise. That requires truly knowing our customers and listening to them. Lip service won’t cut it. We have to get and use as much data on the customer as possible, interact with them wherever they want to interact with us, and commit to impressing them. If we do, they’ll get out there and advertise for us. Since peer-to-peer recommendation is the most effective marketing, that’s money in the bank. Social marketing is about forming relationships, same as how individuals use social. We want them to know us, trust us, and get real value from knowing us. That requires honesty and transparency that before now might have been uncomfortable. I propose that if we clearly make everything we do about our customers’ wants and needs, we’ll have nothing to hide. It will solidify customer loyalty, retention, and thus, revenue. These things can’t happen without certain tools and structural changes in the organization. There are social cloud platforms that integrate social management into all of the necessary areas: CRM, customer service, sales, marketing automation, content marketing, ecommerce, etc. This is will give us a real-time, complete view of the customer so their every interaction with us is attentive, personalized, accurate, relevant, and satisfying. Without it, we’re just a collage of disjointed systems, each gathering data that informs only its own departmental silo. The customer is voluntarily giving us everything we need to know about them to win them over, but we have to start listening and putting the pieces together. There’s still time. Brands are coming to terms with this transition to the socially enabled enterprise, but so far they aren’t moving very fast. Like us, they’re dealing with long-entrenched technologies and processes. CMO’s and CIO’s have to form new partnerships. Content operations have to be initiated and properly staffed and funded. Various departments must be able to utilize interconnected big data. What will separate the winners from the losers? Well chief, that’s why I’m writing you. It’s in your hands. These initiatives won’t get the kind of priority and seriousness that inspire actual deadlines & action unless they come from your desk. You have to be the champion of customer centricity. You have to be our change agent. You have to be our innovator. Otherwise, it’s going to be business as usual, and that puts us in a very vulnerable place. Sincerely, Your Team @mikestilesPhoto: Gary Scott, stock.xchng

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Thinking of Adopting the PRINCE2™ Project Management Methodology? Consider Using PeopleSoft Projects to Help

- by Megan Boundey

Ever wondered what the PRINCE2™ project management methodology is? Ever wondered if you could use PeopleSoft Projects (ESA) to manage your projects using PRINCE2™? Published by the Office of Government Commerce in the UK, PRINCE2™ is a scalable, business case and product description-driven Project Management methodology based upon managing by exception. Project activities are organized around fulfilling and meeting the product description. Quality assurance, configuration control and risk management are all based upon ensuring that the product delivered accurately meets the product description. PRINCE2™ is built upon seven principles and seven themes, each underpinning the PRINCE2™project management processes. Important for today’s business environment, the focus throughout PRINCE2™ is on the Business Case, which describes the rationale and business justification for a project. The Business Case drives all the project management processes from initial project setup to successful finish. PRINCE2™, as a method and a certification, is adopted in many countries worldwide, including the UK, Western Europe and Australia. We’ve just released a new white paper, which provides you with an overview of the principles, themes and project management processes associated with PRINCE2™. It also shows how these map to the functionality available within PeopleSoft Projects (ESA). In the time it takes to drink a coffee, you can learn about PRINCE2™ and determine whether it might help you deliver better project results. We encourage you to take a look.

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List of all states from COMPOSITE_INSTANCE, CUBE_INSTANCE, DLV_MESSAGE tables

- by Deepak Arora

In many of my engagements I get asked repeatedly about the states of the composites in 11g and how to decipher them, especially when we are troubleshooting issues around purging. I have compiled a list of all the states from the COMPOSITE_INSTANCE, CUBE_INSTANCE, DLV_MESSAGE and MEDIATOR_INSTANCE tables. These are the primary tables that are used when using BPEL composites and how they are used with the ECID. Composite State Values COMPOSITE_INSTANCE States State Description 0 Running 1 Completed 2 Running with faults 3 Completed with faults 4 Running with recovery required 5 Completed with recovery required 6 Running with faults and recovery required 7 Completed with faults and recovery required 8 Running with suspended 9 Completed with suspended 10 Running with faults and suspended 11 Completed with faults and suspended 12 Running with recovery required and suspended 13 Completed with recovery required and suspended 14 Running with faults, recovery required, and suspended 15 Completed with faults, recovery required, and suspended 16 Running with terminated 17 Completed with terminated 18 Running with faults and terminated 19 Completed with faults and terminated 20 Running with recovery required and terminated 21 Completed with recovery required and terminated 22 Running with faults, recovery required, and terminated 23 Completed with faults, recovery required, and terminated 24 Running with suspended and terminated 25 Completed with suspended and terminated 26 Running with faulted, suspended, and terminated 27 Completed with faulted, suspended, and terminated 28 Running with recovery required, suspended, and terminated 29 Completed with recovery required, suspended, and terminated 30 Running with faulted, recovery required, suspended, and terminated 31 Completed with faulted, recovery required, suspended, and terminated 32 Unknown 64 - Normal 0 false false false EN-CA X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Any value in the range of 32 to 63 indicates that the composite instance state has not been enabled, but the instance state is updated for faults, aborts, etc. CUBE_INSTANCE States State Description 0 STATE_INITIATED 1 STATE_OPEN_RUNNING 2 STATE_OPEN_SUSPENDED 3 STATE_OPEN_FAULTED 4 STATE_CLOSED_PENDING_CANCEL 5 STATE_CLOSED_COMPLETED 6 STATE_CLOSED_FAULTED 7 STATE_CLOSED_CANCELLED 8 STATE_CLOSED_ABORTED 9 STATE_CLOSED_STALE 10 STATE_CLOSED_ROLLED_BACK DLV_MESSAGE States State Description 0 STATE_UNRESOLVED 1 STATE_RESOLVED 2 STATE_HANDLED 3 STATE_CANCELLED 4 STATE_MAX_RECOVERED Since now in 11g the Invoke_Messages table is not there so to distinguish between a new message (Invoke) and callback (DLV) and there is DLV_TYPE column that defines the type of message: DLV_TYPE States State Description 1 Invoke Message 2 DLV Message MEDIATOR_INSTANCE STATE Description 0 No faults but there still might be running instances 1 At least one case is aborted by user 2 At least one case is faulted (non-recoverable) 3 At least one case is faulted and one case is aborted 4 At least one case is in recovery required state 5 At least one case is in recovery required state and at least one is aborted 6 At least one case is in recovery required state and at least one is faulted 7 At least one case is in recovery required state, one faulted and one aborted >=8 and < 16 Running >= 16 Stale In my next blog posting I will walk through the lifecycle of a BPEL process using the above states for the following use cases: - New BPEL process - initial Receive activity - Callback BPEL process - mid-level Receive activity As always comments and questions welcome! Deepak

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