Preparing XperienCentral

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Unpacking the XperienCentral Release

Before XperienCentral can be configured, the release has to be downloaded and unpacked. Perform the following steps to download and unpack XperienCentral. To unpack the XperienCentral release, unzip the ZIP-file to D:\XperienCentral\webmanager-mywebsite\.


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Placing the configuration.xml

XperienCentral uses configuration.xml to validate which components have been purchased and which hostnames are supported. Ask GX Software for a configuration.xml if you want to run on a hostname other than “127.0.0.1” and “localhost”. If you have received a configuration.xml from GX Software, then place this file in:

<xperiencentral-root>\configuration\

If you have not received a configuration.xml from GX Software, use the default:

<xperiencentral-root>\webmanager-mywebsite\webmanager-webapps\webmanager-backend-webapp\src\main\webapp\WEB-INF\siteworks\configuration.xml


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Modifying the settings.xml

The XperienCentral configuration is set in settings.xml. This file is located in the root of the unpacked XperienCentral release (D:\XperienCentral\webmanager-mywebsite\). Settings.xml provides additional information about the most important properties that need to be modified in the settings.xml.

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Creating the Database(s)

XperienCentral data is stored in a relational database (MS SQL, MySQL, or Oracle). Create the databases desired for this installation. A complete XperienCentral installation requires only one database. In some cases for performance and/or security reasons, it is possible to save specific items in separate databases. A separate database can be created for the following components:

  • XperienCentral core (JCR repository storage)
  • XperienCentral other (externaldb)

Below, a configuration that saves both components in one database (“wm9mywebsite”) is created below. The database for MySQL and MS SQL can be created with one single command and filled with the necessary tables. To create databases and the standard tables for Oracle, it is required that you use the standard Oracle tools (SQL Plus can be used, for instance). The initial scripts for all databases are located in: D:\XperienCentral\webmanager-mywebsite\webmanager-sqlscripts\.

Actions for MySQL

cd D:\GX-WebManager\webmanager-mywebsite
mvn -s settings.xml -P create-mysql-db
# If the content of JCR should be stored in another DB, then run:
# mysqladmin create wm9mywebsite_jcr -u root -p


The default MySQL settings need to be adjusted to make it work smoothly with XperienCentral. Add the following properties and values to the my.ini file. It is located at e.g C:\ProgramData\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.7. The initial contents of this file should be:


[mysqld]
max_allowed_packet=512M
innodb_buffer_pool_size=256M
[mysqldump]
max_allowed_packet=512M



For MySQL versions 5.7 and higher, add the following to the [mysqld] section:


optimizer_switch = derived_merge=off



Restart the MySQL service (Windows Task Manager > Services) whenever you modify the file my.ini.


Actions for Oracle

Use SQL Plus, for example, to create the database(s). Run the webmanager-oracle-scripts.sql script located in the D:\XperienCentral\webmanager-mywebsite\webmanager-sqlscripts\ directory.

Actions for MSSQL

cd D:\GX-WebManager\webmanager-mywebsite
mvn -s settings.xml -P create-mssql-db
# If the content of JCR should be stored in another DB, then
# create the DB using the Enterprise Manager






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Installing the XperienCentral Release

The basic server setup is now complete. To install the release, enter the following commands in a Command prompt:

cd D:\GX-WebManager\webmanager-mywebsite
mvn -s settings.xml -P
configure-jcr-repository
mvn -s settings.xml -P build-project

Unzip the following .WAR file:

D:\XperienCentral\webmanager-mywebsite\webmanager-webapps\webmanager-static-webapp\target\webmanager-static-webapp-1.0-SNAPSHOT.war

to:

D:\XperienCentral\wwwroot\mywebsite

Create the /deploy directory and copy the following .WAR file to it:

D:\XperienCentral\webmanager-mywebsite\webmanager-webapps\webmanager-backend-webapp\target\webmanager-backend-webapp-1.0-SNAPSHOT.war

to:

D:\XperienCentral\deploy

Create the /system directory copy the following .JAR file to it:

D:\XperienCentral\webmanager-mywebsite\webmanager-cleansite\target\webmanager-cleansite-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar

to:

D:\XperienCentral\system

 Create the /edition-bundles directory and copy all the .JAR files in the unzipped XperienCentral D:\XperienCentral\webmanager-mywebsite\edition-bundles folder to it:

D:\XperienCentral\work\edition-bundles


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Create the wm\b Folder

For the next action, create the folder D:\XperienCentral\wwwroot\mywebsite\wm\b in IIS. It is important that an expiration date is set for files in this folder. Follow these steps to set the expiration time:

  1. Click on “edit.mywebsite.com”;
  2. Click on “wm”;
  3. Click on “b”;
  4. Double-click the “HTTP Response Headers” option;
  5. In the right panel, click the option “Set Common Headers”.





  6. Leave the "Enable HTTP keep-alive" selected.
  7. Enable the "Expire Web content" option and set the expiration time 10 minutes.
  8. Click [OK].


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Make the Hostnames Resolvable

The server on which XperienCentral is installed needs to be able to resolve the hostnames that are used for the Edit environment and the external environment of XperienCentral. In this example the hostnames are “www.mywebsite.com” and “edit.mywebsite.com”. Add the hostnames to the file C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts if the used hostnames don’t resolve to the correct IP address on the server.


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Starting the Software

At this point all files are in place and are properly configured. The database and JCR have been initialized and configured. To run XperienCentral make sure that the database, Tomcat, and IIS are running. Make sure that these programs run automatically after a reboot of the server. To test this, reboot the server now and see if XperienCentral runs. To check whether XperienCentral is running properly you can monitor the Tomcat catalina.out log file. You can also log in to the Setup Tool of XperienCentral. If no one has logged in before, the username/password is: Administrator/Administrator.


If XperienCentral receives a request for a page from the frontend and/or backend during the startup sequence between the time that the log messages Server startup in <x> ms and XperienCentral started successfully in <x> ms appear, the following message will appear in the browser:





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Deleting Folders with a New Deploy

When a new deployment is rolled out, it is important to remove the content of the following folders while Tomcat is stopped:

  • D:\XperienCentral\work\osgi\*
  • D:\Program Files\Tomcat 7.0\work\*
  • D:\Program Files\Tomcat 7.0\temp\*

Remove also the entire D:\XperienCentral\deploy\web folder.



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