Several installation errors/problems with XFILES.5 XML DB sample

Question

I attempted to install the XFILES.5 XML DB sample application on our 11.2.0.2 database and encountered several errors. I ran the installation from Windows 7. A number of the errors were caused by not having XDMP and XDP_UTIL utility packages installed prior to installing XFILES. The installation instructions do not mention this.
Once I had these packages installed, I reran the XFILES installation. The installation claimed to succeed, but when I tried to go to the URL I got a 404 error. I looked in the repository and there were a number of empty folders and there was no XFILES folder. The installation clearly had not completed successfully. I then tried to uninstall XFILES. The documentation gives no indication of how to do this so I dropped the XFILES schema and used parts of the XFILES_DBA_TASKS.sql script to clear out the XML DB repository. I reran the XFILES installation and it failed again. This time there was an "Invalid listener" error when XDB_UTILITIES.createHomeFolder() was called. This was due to the XDBPM packages being replaced previously with the XFILES versions, meaning they now had dependencies on XFILES. After some investigation, it seemed that I could just run the XFILES install again since the dependencies were installed after the failure. I did, and the installation again claimed it succeeded. It did not. When I navigated to the XFILES URL, I got a few errors that indicated that the user need to be granted the XFILES_USER or XFILES_ADMINISTRATOR role first. There were no such roles created. I found they were created in the XFILES_DBA_TASKS.sql script, but this script was never executed by the installation. I tried creating them manually and granting them to my test user. Now I get a new batch of errors:
Module:xmlDocumentObject.xmlDocument.checkParsing
Error Type: 4 [NOT-FOUND]
Description: Unable to load Document
Target URL: undefined
Module: common.handleException
Error Type: 3 [AJAX]
Description: Not found
Target URL: /sys/servlets/XFILES/RestService/XFILES.XFILES_REST_SERVICES.WRITELOGRECORD...
Number: 404
I am stuck and a little tired of troubleshooting Oracle's code for them. How do I fix this? Clearly the scripts and docs need vast improvements.
Also, there appears to be an APEX version of the application included, but it never gets installed. Are there separate instructions for this?
Edited by: user12166954 on Jul 13, 2012 9:00 AM
Edited by: user12166954 on Jul 13, 2012 9:00 AM

Answer 1

Looking at the XFILES.5.xml file and Install.vbs files of the XFILES installer, it appears that the XDBPM_SUPPORT and XFILES_DBA_TASKS actions will only be run if you enter a SYSDBA user in the "DBA User" field of the installer. However, for some reason, Oracle seems to have commented out the command that checks to ensure that the DBA user you entered is a SYSDBA user, and the "DBA User" field defaults to SYSTEM, which is not a SYSDBA user. Since I got things working I haven't tried rerunning the installer with a SYSDBA user, but maybe it will work better. The installation documentation and/or the installation scripts need to be updated to reflect the need for a SYSDBA user.
Regarding the APEX version of XFILES, this has not installation instructions whatsoever, and there are prerequisite steps to get this to install correctly as well. I tried importing the f102.sql file into APEX and it failed on the prereq validation because an "XFILES/Apex" folder wasn't found in XML DB. I went looking for anything that creates this directory and I found that there is another XFILES_DBA_TASKS.sql script specifically for the APEX version. It is included in the f102.sql file. So I cut and paste the contents into SQL*Plus and ran it as SYS. I was then able to install the f102 application.