Good things are happening with Oracle WebCenter Portal in the last couple of months/years, one of the improvements to the WCP is the introduction of FrameworkFolders component in WebCenter Content. You can find on the internet the reasons why you should use FrameworkFolders against Folders_g component, this article is not about reasons, but about how you can switch WebCenter Portal to use FrameworkFolders, if you already have it configured to use Folders_g (the same method can be applied also to switch from Folders_g to FrameworkFolders).

I find this method quick and dirty and it should be used only for development. This article is not indicating that  you should use Folders_g instead of FrameworkFolders, as Oracle is quite clear about the direction: FrameworkFolders. I had the case that a customer asked  me to test something in an environment that uses Folders_g in WCP and WCC 11.1.1.8. In this case you have two possibilities, either install all from scratch or use this method to switch between the two folders technologies.

Note: FrameworkFolders can be used with WebCenter Portal only from the version 11.1.1.8.3 on, don’t try to use it with earlier versions as it will not work.

Here  are the easy steps to do for switching from FrameworkFolders to Folders_g:

  1. FromWCP you have to delete all the portals;
  2. Stop WCP;
  3. In WCC  disable the component FrameworkFolders  and enable the component Folders_g;
  4. Stop WCC;
  5. Open the WEBCENTER schema and edit the table WC_PORTAL_PROPERTIES, find the row wich has WCPP_KEY=’oracle.webcenter.doclib.foldering_service.connection_string’, modify the WCPP_VALUE field with the value: ‘FOLDERS_G#idc://middleware:4444′. For switching between Folders_g to FrameworkFolders you have to provide to the WCPP_VALUE filed the value: ‘FRAMEWORKFOLDERS#idc://middleware:4444′
  6. Start WCC;
  7. Start WCP;

As you might already spotted this article didn’t focus on preserving the data from WCC, this will be covered by another article. Oracle provides information about how to do the migration from Folders_g  to FrameworkFolders here.