Category Archives: Liferay

Liferay

How to take knowledge transfer in a discussion for Liferay engagement – Part 1

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Here is a list of points which will help in taking a knowledge transfer for a Liferay engagement – Part 1:

1. Check which products of Liferay are in use: DXP, Commerce, Analytics and / or Cloud LXC

2. Take the list of osgi/configs & osgi/modules to get configurations of osgi modules and such

3. Check portal-ext.properties and portal-setup-wizard.properties 

4. Understand the functional flow of usecase fully and draw sequence diagrams for the flows 

5. Check control panel in terms of what is in use like number of private / public pages, server administration, OOTB portlets / apps used, web content, templates, foundation, search, instance / virtual settings, redirects, configurations, LDAP, SSO, system properties  

6. Check theme and style books

7. Get information on file-store, index server, database, clustering and deployment via deployment architecture 

8. Check CI/CD & developer environment details in terms of integration and pipeline

9. Check sizes of file-store and database

10. Get details on type of custom portlets, UI frameworks in use and Lifeary DevStudio usage

11. Check integrations with Liferay and the ecosystem like deployment on in-prem infra and cloud deployment

12. Check CPU / memory usage and errors that frequently come from logs. Get logs for last 7-15 days

13. Check the ecosystem of code quality, monitoring & performance tools if any are present 

14. Get a list of problems from developers, inputs from functional managers, any roadmap, upgrade plans for future usage 

Email me: Neil@HarwaniSystems.in

Liferay

Checklist for DMS Use Case in Liferay

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Find below a checklist for Liferay’s DMS (Document Management System) Use Case:

  • Size your document average size, range of size, number of documents, type, viewers, thumbnail requirements early
  • Decide the workflow templates for start plus growth per quarter & estimated workflow instances per day / week / month in advance which will run on your documents
  • Size your file store and decide on SAN / NAS requirements early based on latency / size of documents / number of folders and so on
  • Switch to advanced file store early if you have large number of documents – this is preferrable right from the start
  • Consider adding multiple repositories in advance if you have multiple file stores and a very large number of documents across repositories
  • Use case of DMS specific software other than Liferay working alongside Liferay mounted via CMIS protocol should be considered early incase of very large number of documents across repositories
  • Full text / partial / multilingual search requirements should be planned early
  • Scanning integration if needed should be considered
  • Anti-virus considerations should be considered depending on use case
  • Response times should be calculated based on network latency for all users
  • Mobile, responsive, desktop, laptop / universal views for documents need to be planned
  • Cloud deployment use case in terms of blob storage / file store considerations should be done early
  • Separate Elasticsearch should be planned
  • Access control, confidentiality, digital rights management related planning and requirements should be done as a prerequisite
  • Liferay file store, Elasticsearch, data folder, filesystem and database should not be directly worked on – We should work via Liferay UI/Control Panel/Groovy/API and so on. Exceptions are there like reindexing problems, performance tuning and so on but they should be more exceptions than norm.
  • Include backup/restore in sync with database. Also in DR.
  • Leverage Ghostscript and Open Office / Libre Office for text extraction and conversion.
  • Include clam-av for portal-based scans when uploads are supported from external sources.

Email me: Neil@HarwaniSystems.in

Liferay, Search

Elasticsearch with Liferay – Notes & Links – Part 1

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Below are the important notes & links for configuring Liferay DXP with Elasticsearch.

Email me: Neil@HarwaniSystems.in

Liferay

How to debug Liferay? – Some pointers – Part 1

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How to debug Liferay? Some pointers. – Part 1. Many a times, we only check at specific places and forget other areas while debugging. This small blog acts as a checklist to check and debug Liferay.

  • Look at installing and using GLOWROOT
  • Check the slow traces / web transactions / errors and the related graphs in GLOWROOT
  • Check the logging levels module wise and overall
  • Check all the Liferay nodes if in a cluster
  • Check the app server logs
  • Check JNDI & JDBC settings
  • Check the things by simulating on default vanilla instance / bundle
  • Use help center articles
  • Check your webserver, load balancer and database configurations plus logs
  • Check your portal & system properties
  • Check configurations in control panel for the related work
  • Check your custom API list
  • Check details via GoGo shell commands
  • Check the code in Liferay DevStudio or your favorite IDE
  • Check marketplace apps that are installed
  • Consider using Groovy scripting for debugging
  • Check virtual instances if in use
  • Check OSGI configurations if added
  • Check your elastic search server status
  • Check your heap size and thread dumps plus configurations in setenv.sh/bat

Blog also gives you an idea on the configurability and extent of Liferay modularity. It makes our work easier when many of the things are configurable.

References:

Liferay

Links on important technical concepts of Liferay – Part 1

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Here are some links on important technical concepts of Liferay – Part 1. Hope this is helpful to all using and learning Liferay.

Email me: Neil@HarwaniSystems.in

Liferay

Liferay upgrade learnings – Part 1

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Some learnings below from various Liferay upgrades that I have been part of:

  • Upgrades need us to plan various dry runs in advance on non-production environment
  • Divide your upgrade between core / database and non-core upgrade
  • Core includes Liferay engine, configurations and database
  • Non-core includes themes, custom code, integrations and such
  • Understand how to use database upgrade tool for core upgrade
  • Logging of upgrade should be at much more verbose level than normal
  • You can upgrade with document library or without it using portal-ext.properties configurations
  • Upgrades between DXP from 7.x to 7.x are easier whereas upgrades from 6.x to 7.x need more planning
  • For database upgrade tool, you have an option of 3 property files or you can use command prompt to enter required details
  • Make sure you are at the latest version of whichever 7.x you are upgrading to
  • Bad and corrupt data are perpetual problems which need to be analyzed properly before upgrade
  • Use groovy to fix bad data not SQL
  • Consider analysis and compliance from Liferay compatibility matrix, Liferay whitepapers on cloud, security, upgrade & scaling before planning your upgrade
  • Create a template document for upgrade with all major areas pre-covered in analysis via the whitepapers on Liferay.com
  • Understand the breaking changes with every major version release
  • Learn to use the upgrade planner for code upgrade
  • Docker containers are available and should be considered
  • Consider headless, clustering, cloud, advanced file store, CMIS repository options right at the analysis phase of Liferay upgrade
  • For your data storage requirements in future as per scaling – understand and analyze the load to confirm to the right choices of infrastructure like Cloud, SAN / NAS and so on
  • Learn to use the basic Linux commands (if you are using Linux) like top, free, tail, ps, grep, liferay bin commands, sudo, vim, thread dumps and such to monitor / manage the upgrade well
  • Look at top thread dump analyzers like: Smart Java thread dump analyzer – thread dump analysis in seconds (fastthread.io)
  • Consider learning basics of operating system / network you are using, JVM & database tuning / optimization for threads, core allocations, monitoring and using Eclipse IDE to analyze threads, heap, etc.
  • Keep reference guide for system.properties and portal-ext.properties handy during upgrade of core part
  • Keep headless, GraphQL, Liferay / Java API details handy during code upgrade
  • Explore 7.4 DXP features if you are upgrading to this version: Liferay DXP 7.4 New Features
  • Refer help center articles and open documentation both, they have lot of good, useful content
  • Reference: Upgrade Basics — Liferay Learn

Email me: Neil@HarwaniSystems.in

Liferay

Liferay best practices – Part 1

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Developers and managers both struggle at times to pre-plan usage of best practices in projects causing many problems which are best avoided. Providing below some learnings & best practices on using and working with Liferay – Part 1.

  • Don’t work directly on the Liferay database. Use the groovy script console in CONTROL PANEL or the Liferay User Interface. Use the database at the max as a READ ONLY tool for analysis and debugging – even this is for extreme cases when recommended like for problems in reindexing and such for BackgroundTaskTable or Lock_ as per Help Center articles only. Stick to Liferay APIs (REST or Java / Groovy – based) for right results. Changing anything at database level can have unintended consequences which are best avoided.
  • If you need a cloud offering, instead of deploying Liferay on AWS / GCP / Azure or similar on your own which can be a valid option, also consider and evaluate one of Liferay DXP Self Hosted, Liferay Experience Cloud Self-Managed or Liferay Experience Cloud. They are built on top of GCP with many advanced features pre-baked like CI/CD depending on the version you select. Liferay’s cloud offering decrease many of the efforts of upgrades, infrastructure, security, patches, CI/CD, monitoring and more depending on which option you select.
  • Use as many out of the box features as possible, followed by configuration and lastly customization. There are 100s and 1000s of direct and indirect features for Liferay available on it’s documentation site.
  • Support tickets are for Liferay product issues, reach out to Customer Success for short term engagements up to multi-month configuration, system administration, customization, audits and such areas. Global services is for executing projects, SME engagements to embed a Liferay expert into your team for technical help, team augmentation, custom packages to support upgrades, performance tuning, DevOps/Architecture kickstarts, long- and short-term customization development, etc. on Liferay. Reaching out to the right team maximizes chances of a fast resolution for your request. For support issues, refer this blog: https://liferay.dev/blogs/-/blogs/working-with-liferay-support
  • Maintain a DevOps / DevSecOps / Repository strategy. Use best practices of code merging, quality and more.
  • Maintain a list of customizations, custom APIs (REST) and modules that are deployed.
  • Consider headless if you want extreme performance or a very specific User Interface with a non standard JS library or you want to connect with an external app with Liferay as the engine or want a very high LightHouse score. Even without headless high scores are possible in most areas.
  • Understand LightHouse and PageSpeed Insights score. There are many hidden things which are NOT OBVIOUS – for example mobile performance scores. Consider investing in parallel into an in-house monitoring tool as well.
  • Upgrades need preparation and multiple dry runs. Bad data, orphan data and bad customizations create problems in upgrade. So use Liferay in the optimum way as per documentation.
  • Keep regular watch on End of Life support and premium / extended support phases. Pre-plan your upgrades by at least one+ years.
  • Lift and shift from in-prem to cloud is not a healthy approach using AMIs. Consider setting up Liferay again via backups if you are shifting to AWS/GCP/Azure from in-prem. Otherwise consider Liferay Experience Cloud, migration would still be needed though.
  • Search & database server should be monitored and optimized on routine basis.
  • Search optimization needs to be a regular habit by the Liferay Administrator as the content and documents get updated. Explore concepts like suggestions, boosting, queries, filters, blueprints and more.
  • SSO, Authentication, Authorization, Login and Security need advance planning and design. These topics vary widely from customer to customer.
  • There are many inbuilt apps in areas of collaboration, social, workflow, content, process, documents and more. Explore and use them before doing customizations.
  • Explore Liferay marketplace for technical & functional accelerators / solutions before investing in developing from scratch.
  • Maintain documentation for your architecture, design, customizations, testing, security, code quality and other areas.
  • Understand and study portal & system properties, they have many settings which can help in managing various scenarios directly by configuration only.
  • Explore Liferay University and trainings on it.
  • Clustered environments are possible in Liferay and consider planning for them right during your architecture, design phase at the start of project rather than later.
  • Consider usage of Advanced or S3 filestore, Clustering, Headless, Liferay DevStudio, Docker images of Liferay, Virtual instances and similar advanced concepts as need be from early in the project.
  • Understand Liferay architecture, tooling and internals like Portlets, OSGi, Liferay DevStudio, Configurations, Control Panel, Gogo Shell, Module projects, Dependencies, Modularity and such.
  • Your important directories and areas in Liferay are: Liferay Home and sub-directories, Filestore / document library – data folder, Custom modules, Configuration files in Liferay Home sub/directories, Search server, Control Panel, Database, Other peripheral configuration areas like load balancer, application server, networking, clustered environments and such.
  • Learn to use the Liferay forums, Liferay Blogs, Liferay GitHub, Liferay Help Center, Liferay Community site, Customer & Partner portals of Liferay well. Lot of useful information is available there.
  • There are in-built areas in the same integrated DXP installation from 7.4 onwards for Digital experience, Portal, Commerce with Analytics. Consider using them from DXP platform before doing customizations for features that are available already.
  • Explore concepts like debug patch, logging per module and overall logging in Liferay.
  • Reach out to community slack channel which can be a great way to further connect with Liferay resources.
  • Keep your portal & components updated with relevant patches & upgrades as per advisory from Liferay.
  • Refer Liferay resources page with case studies & whitepapers. It has useful information on cloud migration, compatibility matrix, benchmarking, what customers are doing with Liferay and more.

References:

  • https://help.liferay.com/hc/en-us
  • https://liferay.dev/
  • https://learn.liferay.com/dxp/latest/en/liferay-internals.html
  • https://learn.liferay.com/dxp/latest/en/index.html
  • https://help.liferay.com/hc/en-us/categories/5843406636941
  • https://marketplace.liferay.com/
  • https://www.liferay.com/liferay-experience-cloud
  • https://learn.liferay.com/dxp-cloud/latest/en/index.html
  • https://www.liferay.com/resources/case-studies
  • https://www.liferay.com/resources

Email me: Neil@HarwaniSystems.in

Liferay, Search

Notes on Liferay search optimization – Part 1

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Notes on Liferay search optimization – Part 1.

There are two parts to search optimization in Liferay. One is the internal search and other is the SEO / Digital Marketing for content. Below, I am sharing concepts and keywords to explore for both areas.

Liferay internal search:

  • Search BluePrints
  • Search Insights
  • Custom Indexers
  • Tags & Categories
  • ReIndexing
  • Facets
  • Suggestions
  • Boosting
  • Sorting
  • Low level search
  • Search Options
  • Similar Results
  • Queries & Filters
  • Google Search console / Bing search console / Google Analytics analysis and feedback into internal search

Liferay SEO:

  • Open Graph
  • Friendly URLs
  • SiteMap
  • Robots
  • Meta Tags
  • LightHouse / PageSpeed Insights score
  • Google Analytics
  • PIWIK
  • Headless

References:

  • https://learn.liferay.com/dxp/latest/en/using-search/liferay-enterprise-search/search-experiences/creating-and-managing-search-blueprints.html
  • https://learn.liferay.com/dxp/latest/en/using-search/getting-started/search-overview.html
  • https://learn.liferay.com/dxp/latest/en/using-search/getting-started/searching-for-content.html
  • https://help.liferay.com/hc/en-us/articles/360029046411-Building-Search-Queries-and-Filters
  • https://learn.liferay.com/dxp/latest/en/site-building/site-settings/configuring-open-graph.html
  • https://learn.liferay.com/dxp/latest/en/site-building/site-settings/adding-a-new-analytics-service.html
  • https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/
  • https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/
  • https://piwik.pro/
  • https://developer.chrome.com/docs/lighthouse/overview/
  • https://pagespeed.web.dev/

Email me at Neil@HarwaniSystems.in

Liferay

Navigating Liferay as a Customer & Partner – Part 1

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Single ready reference of important links for customers & partners of Liferay:

  • Where is the customer portal: https://www.liferay.com/customers
  • Where do I find the documentation – Version & Product wise: https://learn.liferay.com/
  • Where is the developer portal: https://www.liferay.com/developers
  • Where is the partner portal: https://www.liferay.com/partners
  • Where can I get online trainings: https://www.liferay.com/learning
  • Where are the blogs: https://www.liferay.com/blog
  • Where can I get the case studies: https://www.liferay.com/resources/case-studies
  • Where is the list of upcoming events: https://www.liferay.com/events
  • Where are the details for Subscription services: https://www.liferay.com/subscription-services
  • What is DXP: https://www.liferay.com/products/dxp
  • What is Liferay Experience Cloud: https://www.liferay.com/products/liferay-experience-cloud
  • What are the major Use-cases & Industries that Liferay caters to: https://www.liferay.com/ – Navigate to Solutions
  • Where is the MarketPlace: https://web.liferay.com/marketplace
  • Where is the resource library: https://www.liferay.com/resources
  • Where is the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/liferayinc
  • Where is the LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/liferay-inc-/
  • Where do I raise a product request for technical support, licenses and similar points: https://help.liferay.com/hc/articles/360018414031
  • Where is the page for careers: https://www.liferay.com/careers
Liferay

Why Liferay & what about my performance? – Part 1

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An unbiased view on why you should adopt a platform like Liferay and what are the benefits in using Liferay:

  • Having implementations in various domains like insurance, manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, education, government, intranets, commerce, energy, customer / partner portals and more
  • Open standards based system built with and around Java & specifications from Java community
  • Tooling options built on top of Eclipse, Gradle and Blade
  • Gogo Shell & DevStudio
  • Has been contributing to ecosystem by community as well as enterprise versions regularly plus has cloud options with analytics & commerce
  • Modular architecture built using OSGi
  • Growing marketplace
  • Maturity of 10+ years in terms of having features in fine grained property file entries, IAM/SSO/AD/LDAP, programming & configuration options and similar inbuilt integrations, workflows, content management, system administration and more
  • Commerce, Analytics, Cloud option & Content / horizontal portal in the same ecosystem
  • Evolving features around Cloud, Personalization, CI/CD, Analytics, ML&AI with the trends
  • Large part of documentation is open for public reference
  • Growing community & partner ecosystem
  • Strong features around content, search, collaboration, chat bots, headless and more
  • Many security, clustering, optimization, workflow, content, configuration features are pre-built with past experiences and evolution for over a decade
  • Programmers & technical people love the open standards based understanding of the product ecosystem

How to overcome some of the challenges around implementing Liferay:

  • Read the official documentation, blogs, forums in entirety and refer non Liferay forums across the web, don’t read piecemeal – that does not help
  • If you struggle with SEO / page load performance problems look at various reports from across the web like GTMetrix, Pingdom and more rather than rely on a single tool and single geo based server. Think of functional, technical and other changes across configurations rather than only one area. Good part is as there is transparency with open standards and open forums, it’s easier to decipher what changes need to be made
  • To avoid upgrade problems, follow the official path for customization & configuration in conjunction with Liferay team rather than customize outside the official process. Also, use out of the box features as much as possible

Liferay case studies

Email me: Neil@HarwaniSystems.in