Portal Site creation: Backend processes....

[zarathos]

Can someone please provide a quick overview of the backend process that take place when a new site is created?  I believe that it goes through the process of create a new site (storing files in the data folder, A LOT of IO/CPU/Memory) based on the a template, either one already configured of the new site "name" or it will fall back to use GateIn's default template. Afterwards it appears to use lucene to scan the new site (somewhere under data) and the eventually loads the new site data into the JCR database, and then deletes most of the files stored into data.

We have a rather large site, consisting of nearly 25+ portlet applications, and currently it takes nearly 20 minutes to "create the new site" after we click on the save button; where the majority of the time "appears" that the portal is dormant, then all the records are inserted into the JCR database and the site is now available...  An additional question is there a way to create the new site via configuration (.xml) or do we have to create it via the portal?

Thanks..

James..

[zarathos]

Yet another no response......

[antoine_h]

late answer, but in case it helps...

when creating the new portal, the configuration data are added in the JCR (java content repository), like some CMS data.

hence, the config data are created and stored in the repository, then Lucene triggers the indexation of these data, for the search etc...

the process of reindexing is triggered a few seconds after the creation of the portal (or any configuration changes).

sometimes, for big amount of data, this process is not "instantaneous".

for what I saw, it may take from 15 to 30 seconds.

during this time, the new portal is not available yet, so when working quickly, it might be a surprise to see that the portal is not there, and retry to call it, and it appears....

when starting the portal, it takes usualy from 1 to 2 minutes, depending on your machine.

when starting the portal for the first time, or after erasing the configuration to restart with changes in the configuration files, it also creates the data of your portal configuration in the repository.

it takes then from 4 to 5 minutes.

the difference (3 min) is for lucene indexing all the configuration.

I have never seen a 20 min delay for that.

I use a SSD drive, and that might help for file access times when lucene is indexing.

An additional question is there a way to create the new site via configuration (.xml) or do we have to create it via the portal?

yes, you can do all with configuration files.

see the documentation and the samples (sample of additional portal, and of portal extensions).

IMHO, for big portals that needs some dev-test-prod environments, and multiple teams working on it, using the configuration file is mandatory.

For dev-test-prod environments, copying the config data from one repository to another might be complex. At least, it might be possible easily with specific configuration that isolate the repositorty of config data to other data (such as users).

For incremental change of the portal, made by 2 teams working on their own dev environments, I can't see a simple solution to transfert the modifications to the prod portal. Whereas this is simple with configuration in file, and software versionning tools like Git, SVN, CVS...

IMHO, building and configuring a portal with the GUI is nice for small portals, and very usefull also for prototyping workshops with the end users etc...

It can be a very good tool for RAD (Rapid Application Development) way or any practical way to build a portal with the end-users.

Antoine

JBoss Portal and GateIn (JSR-286), JSF, Richfaces, J2EE, Drools, BRMS.

http://www.presta-expert.com/

[zarathos]

Thanks for replying, unfortunently management decided to cancel that project one week prior to going into test.... It simply took too long, and not enough "experts" available, JBoss or otherwise, to help with problem areas.

I was eventually, about to speed up some of the startup delays on a fresh start, by eliminating the majority of the logging the was taking place.  This speed up the deployment/startup time from 20 minutes down to about 6-7 minutes.

Saddly enough we are now developing our new Portal in .Net...   

James.