QuickStart Instructions for Rocket PASSPORT WEB TO HOST on BEA WebLogic Application Server

Background Information

As a Microsoft-based application, PASSPORT WEB TO HOST was originally designed to be deployed from the Microsoft Windows platform running IIS (Internet Information Server). However, since its introduction, many of our customers have expressed a desire to deploy to other platforms. PASSPORT WEB TO HOST can now be deployed from any web server that can deploy Java servlets like BEA WebLogic.

PASSPORT WEB TO HOST EAR file

PASSPORT WEB TO HOST is packaged as an Enterprise Application Archive file (EAR) file and it must run out of an expanded directory structure. An EAR is a zipped file so the contents can be expanded using a product such as WinZip. Our EAR file includes a Web Archive (WAR) file that contains all the PASSPORT installation files so if you prefer to work directly with it then you may do so. Different application servers have different functionality with regard to deployment and expanded directory structure as discussed below:

• Deploy compressed archive to working directory- On some application servers (such as IBM WebSphere V5 and higher), the deployment process expands the EAR/WAR file automatically into a working directory and from that point forward, the expanded directory is considered to be the application. For these application servers, you deploy the compressed EAR/WAR file and work in the resulting directory structure. For more information, please refer to QuickStart Instructions for PASSPORT WEB TO HOST on IBM WebSphere Application Server. 
• Deploy expanded archive as working directory- On other application servers (such as BEA WebLogic), the deployment process expands the EAR/WAR file into a temporary directory and (conceptually), the compressed EAR/WAR file is still considered to be the application. For these application servers, you must expand the EAR/WAR file manually and then deploy the expanded directory structure, which becomes your working directory. The instruction below discusses this deployment method.

1. Check your system requirements

Before installing PASSPORT WEB TO HOST, make sure that your web server meets the following system requirements. If these requirements are not met, you may have unpredictable results.

• TCP/IP connection to the host
• BEA WebLogic server with Java servlet engine enabled

2. Extract the PASSPORT WEB TO HOST EAR file and transfer the contents to your BEA WebLogic server

Note: If you’re upgrading to a newer version of PASSPORT, it is very important to follow these instructions to preserve your PASSPORT configuration files.

• Use any data compression utility (like WinZip) to extract the contents of the EAR file to your web server (keeping the same directory structure). In our example, we unzip the WAR file packaged inside the EAR file to a folder call passweb.
• Transfer the entire passweb folder, including its sub-folders and contents to the location on your web server where web applications are being deployed (refer to your web server documentation for more information). The path below was used in our testing with BEA WebLogic 6.1 server running on Windows. 
  
  C:\bea\wlserver6.1\config\mydomain\applications\ (see screenshot)
  
  

3. Start the web server administrative console to configure a new web application

• Start the web server and the administrative console
• Click Configure a new Web Application under Web Applications
• Under Name, type passweb (or other name that you choose) as your application name
• Under Path, type the path where you transfer the passweb folder to. In our example, it is: .\config\mydomain\applications\passweb
• Click Create (see screenshot below)

Note: When creating a new web application, the application entry below gets added to your web.xml file. Depending on your web server, you may have to manually add this entry into the web.xml (refer to your server documentation).

<Application Name="passweb" Path=".\config\mydomain\applications">

<WebAppComponent Name="passweb" Targets="myserver" URI="passweb"/>

</Application>

• Select the Targets tab and make your server the Chosen server (see screenshot). Again, this step may be different depending on your web server.

4. Starting the PASSPORT WEB TO HOST administrator website and configuration program

• PASSPORT WEB TO HOST administrator can be launched from any workstation PC with IE by using this (default) URL http://<servername>:7001/passweb/Index.htm (this example URL is from a BEA WebLogic server).
  
  This starts the PASSPORT WEB TO HOST administrator page. There are four sections: Configure, Deploy, Support, and Documentation. Each section provides pertinent information to help you quickly complete the installation and configuration.

5. Configuring and Testing Sessions