Integration into WebSphere Application Server

FirstSpirit does not have any requirements (exceeding those of the Technical requirements and recommendations) with regard to using this application server software. However, in practice, it is important to take note of the following anomalies, specifically when using IBM WebSphere.

In addition to the general configuration mentioned previously for integrating an external application server, the following configurations are necessary when using IBM WebSphere as the application server:

The file firstspirit5/data/fslib/fs-isolated-webrt.jar must be entered in the global class path of the WebSphere server, since the JARs digitally signed by Crownpeak cannot be loaded into the web applications under WEB-INF/lib. The file fs-isolated-webrt.jar should not be integrated as a “common library” file, but must instead be passed to WebSphere as a parameter of the Java VM.

The Java VM parameters are located in the web interface for WebSphere administration under "Server > Application Server > Server Name > Java and Process Management > Process Definition > Java Virtual Machine". There under "Class path", the complete path to the fs-isolated-webrt.jar file is specified; for instance, /opt/firstspirit5/data/fslib/fs-isolated-webrt.jar. If FirstSpirit Server is running on a server other than WebSphere, it is recommended that the directory opt/firstspirit5/data/fslib be passed via NFS to WebSphere so that the file fs-isolated-webrt.jar does not have to be copied manually to the WebSphere server every time FirstSpirit Server is updated.

Likewise, all JAR files that are used in modules delivered by Crownpeak need to be entered into the Java VM class path of the WebSphere server. The following procedure is necessary after activating a module for the Preview (fs5preview), ContentCreator (fs5webedit) or Staging (fs5staging) areas: first, open the WAR file(s) that were downloaded via the server and project properties using a ZIP program or jar xvf fs_<Modulename>.war and copy all JAR files contained within that with a naming convention of fs-*.jar from the “WEB-INF/lib” directory to the class path directory of the WebSphere server, where fs-isolated-webrt.jar has already been stored. In the WebSphere administration interface, add the copied JAR files to the class path, as was done for fs-isolated-webrt.jar, and restart WebSphere. This procedure is required for every FirstSpirit update.

In addition, the following entries are needed for "generic JVM arguments":
-Djava.awt.headless=true -Dclient.encoding.override=UTF-8

The following entry must be made in the fs-server.conf file for operation under WebSphere:

WEBAPP_ROOT_URL=/fs5root

(For more information on this parameter, see Area: Web Applications)

The FirstSpirit start page is then accessible on the WebSphere server as http://fs5host.domain.net/fs5root. To enable accessibility using the simpler URL http://fs5host.domain.net, the following redirect rule must be defined in the HTTP server of the WebSphere server:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^/$ /fs5root/ [redirect,last]

In the fs-server.conf file, the parameter preview.cacheFileWithTimestamp=* must also be set (for more information on this parameter, see Area: Preview).

The WebSphere Application Server Java VM must be configured to regularly remove Java classes automatically for JSP files that no longer exist. The corresponding parameters can be found in the JDK documentation for the Java version used.

To enable these changes in WebSphere, the WebSphere server needs to be restarted.