Tomcat 7: C3P0 Datasource Pool

Goal:

To configure C3P0 datasource pool in tomcat 7

Detail: 

Till now I was using DBCP JDBC connection pooling for my applications. Considering that the library seems to be out of date now and is not meant for production grade system with heavy load on them, I looked towards the other free open source connection pooling library C3P0.

C3P0 is an easy-to-use library for making traditional JDBC drivers "enterprise-ready" by augmenting them with functionality defined by the jdbc3 spec and the optional extensions to jdbc2.

Below are the steps to configure C3P0 pool in tomcat. 

1. Download the latest c3p0-{version}.jar from http://sourceforge.net/projects/c3p0/.
2. Copy the c3p0-{version}.jar to tomcat/lib directory.
3. Open the tomcat/conf/context.xml in edit mode and add the below lines inside <Context> element.
   

   <Resource auth="Container" description="DB Connection" driverClass="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver" maxPoolSize="50" minPoolSize="10" acquireIncrement="10" name="jdbc/MyDBPool" user="root" password="abc123" factory="org.apache.naming.factory.BeanFactory" type="com.mchange.v2.c3p0.ComboPooledDataSource" jdbcUrl="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/lportal?autoReconnect=true" />

    
4.  For  more on configuring various attributes of the connection pool, see http://www.mchange.com/projects/c3p0/#configuration

Environment:

Java 6

Tomcat 7
MySQL 5

Reference:

• Apache DBCP - http://commons.apache.org/dbcp/
• C3P0 - http://sourceforge.net/projects/c3p0

See my other post (Why C3P0 over Commons DBCP?) for more on DBCP vs C3P0 

Liferay 6.1: Documents And Media CMIS: Install & Configure Xuggler

Goal: 

Installation and Setup:

• Install Xuggler 3.4 from http://www.xuggle.com/xuggler/downloads/
• Configure Xuggler environment variables in setenv.sh
  

  export XUGGLE_HOME=/usr/local/xuggler
  export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$XUGGLE_HOME/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
  export PATH=$XUGGLE_HOME/bin:$PATH

• Start the tomcat
• Go to Control Panel -> Server Administration->External Services. Select the version of Xuggler binary library compatible with your environment and follow the instructions.
• You will need to restart the tomcat after above step as per the installation process.
• To Enable Xuggler in portal
  

  Control Panel -> Server Administration->External Services -> Enable Xuggler

• Now you are ready to play audio/video files uploaded in Documents And Media portlet.

Environment:

• Linux 64 bit (libc version 6)
• Liferay 6.1 GA2
•  Tomcat 7
• Java 1.6.0.20

Reference :

http://www.liferay.com/community/wiki/-/wiki/Main/Preview+Generation#section-Preview+Generation-Audio+and+Video+Previews
http://www.xuggle.com

Liferay 6.1: Documents And Media CMIS: Integrating External Repository

Adding repositories in Documents and Media portlet is a new. Documents and Media allows to connect to multiple third-party repositories that support CMIS 1.0 via AtomPUB or Web Services protocols.
To add new repositories from the web click the Add button from the Home folder. Repositories can only be mounted in the Home folder.
Need to make sure that same credentials are being used  in liferay and external repository for authentications. In order to authenticate and make it working you need to enable the following in portal.properties.
session.store.password=false

company.security.auth.type=screenName

Example 

1. External Repository is Alfresco 4.
2. Once the  Liferay and Alfresco are up and working either both on same tomcat or separate (i have deployed on same tomcat).
3. Goto Document and Media portlet >> Click on Add >> select "Repository"
4. Enter Name, Description.
5. Select type as Atompub.
6. For AtomPub URL enter "http://localhost:8080/alfresco/service/cmis" and click Save.
7. You will see a new entry on left side and now you will be able to browse and search the Alfresco repository.

Environment:

References:

• • User guide of http://www.liferay.com
  • http://www.liferay.com/es/community/wiki/-/wiki/Main/CMIS+Repository#section-CMIS+Repository-Mounting+a+Repository
  
  

Organizations or Communities, which one should I use?

The concept of Organization, Community, groups have been extended in Liferay 6.1, providing a greater flexibility and customization. Below is the link from Liferay official site which explains this in a simple yet practical manner.
Organizations or Communities, which one should I use? The final answer

Liferay: Disable portlet border

Aim: Disable border for all portlets

Solution:

The easiest way to do this is using theme. Open liferay-look-and-feel.xml  add to it below line to achieve the purpose by default for all portlets.

<theme id="myTheme" name="myTheme">
       <settings>
            <setting key="portlet-setup-show-borders-default" value="false" />
        </settings>
</theme>