The purpose of this section is to describe the layout of the Administration Console. A detailed description of significant fields on each console page is provided in the remaining sections of this chapter following this overview.

The Administration Console user interface contains two panes. The left pane displays the navigation tree that enables you to navigate through a hierarchical tree of system resources. The right pane displays the console page for the selected resource. Figure 35.2 shows the BEA WebLogic Server home page. The home page is displayed after successfully logging on to the Administration Console.

The navigation tree shown in the left pane contains a hierarchy of elements called nodes. Each node has an icon and a name. The icon gives a quick visual representation of the node type. A small plus or minus symbol to the left of the icon indicates that the node contains a list of sub-nodes beneath it. This structure organizes the resources into a hierarchy with the domain being the root of the navigation tree. Selecting a node by left-clicking its name in the navigation tree opens the MBean for that node and displays the console page on the right pane. Selecting the plus symbol or the icon displays the sub-nodes for that entry in the navigation tree. Right-clicking a node in the navigation tree displays a pop-up menu that contains the options to open, open in a new window, and a list of node-specific configuration choices.

The right pane is used to display the console page for the selected node in the navigation tree. The top portion of the console page is a banner. The right side of the banner contains icons to

Below the banner is the hostname and login account information. This line also contains a Logout from the Administration Console link. The remainder of the right pane is the console page for the selected node. Every console page can be displayed with or without help text. The default configuration for the Administration Console is to display help text. This feature is described in more detail in the section "Configuring the Console," later in this chapter. The help text is a valuable feature of the WebLogic Administration Console and provides documentation for each feature and attribute in the context of its use. Figure 35.3 shows the console page for the domain. It is opened by left-clicking on the domain name (bcsi, in this example) in the navigation tree.

NOTE

graphics/35icon01.gif This symbol indicates that the resource is not dynamically configurable. A change to this type of resource requires restarting the WebLogic server for the change to take effect.

Every console page has a question mark icon in its banner to display help text for that panel. Figure 35.4 shows the Administration Console help screen for the domain. The console help screen provides valuable information about the current console page.

As noted in the opening paragraph, the remainder of this chapter follows the same order as the navigation tree on the Administration Console. Each section provides an overview of the console page with a description of the attributes and operations controlled by that console page. Each console page is specific to the node selected in the navigation tree. There is a common format for console pages. When a console page is used to provide settings for a list of attributes, the attributes are organized on tabbed panels. The tab label indicates the settings that are configured by that tab panel.

Overview of the Administration Console User Interface

Figure 35.2. The home page provides direct links to all aspects of WebLogic Server administration.

Figure 35.3. The domain console page provides access to configure and monitor the resources represented by the domain.

Figure 35.4. The Administration Console's help screen provides a complete description of the current console page.