Using the Liferay DXP Service¶
The Liferay DXP service is the heartbeat of any project. It runs the application’s Liferay DXP instance and interacts with other services like the web server, Elasticsearch, and MySQL database.
The Liferay DXP service in DXP Cloud can be used in many of the same ways as an on-premise instance of Liferay DXP. However, there are also several differences in configuration and development workflow when working with an instance in DXP Cloud.
See the Liferay service limitations for more information.
Choosing a Version¶
The major version of Liferay DXP that you are using is configured within the LCP.json file within the liferay/ folder of your Git repository. Set the major version as the image variable using a Docker image name within the LCP.json file:
"image": "liferaycloud/liferay-dxp:7.2-4.0.1"
Define the specific service pack and fix pack through the gradle.properties file within the same liferay/ folder. The liferay.workspace.docker.image.liferay property defines another Docker image name with this specific fix pack level that is used for the actual deployment:
liferay.workspace.docker.image.liferay=liferay/dxp:7.2.10-sp2-202005120922
Note
If your DXP Cloud stack is not yet updated to 4.x.x, then by default, this version is instead located within a gradle.properties file at the root of the repository. In this case, define the version with the liferay.workspace.lcp.liferay.image property (which does not need to be defined separately from the major version). See Understanding Service Stack Versions_ for more information on checking the version.
You can check the Services Changelog for DXP Cloud to see a reference for each new release. Each new Service update includes Docker images that you can use for your instance. You can also directly check the DXP tags on Docker Hub to find the Docker image names to use.
Use the new version from the release notes to update the Docker image value. The new Docker image will be used when your instance starts up or the next time you deploy the Liferay service from your repository. You can also use the Docker images for new releases to upgrade the properties for your other services.
Deployment (Customization, Patching, and Licensing)¶
Deploying custom additions to Liferay DXP involves adding the new module, license, or hotfix to the appropriate locations in the Git repository.
With the exception of the common/ directory, changes added to an environment-specific folder (e.g., dev, uat, prod) will only be propagated when deploying to the corresponding environment. Changes added to a common/ directory will always be deployed, regardless of the target deployment environment. This applies to all subfolders within the configs/ directory, for all services.
Because the Liferay service provides many more means of customization compared to other services (such as adding hotfixes, building your module’s source code), there are several more considerations to make when deploying the service. See Deploying to the Liferay Service for more information. Additionally, see Overview of the Deployment Workflow for more information on how the deployment workflow in general. For a tutorial on deploying to DXP Cloud, see Deploying Changes via the DCP Cloud Console.
Configuration¶
Applying configurations to the Liferay service, like portal.properties changes, requires adding them to the Git repository and pushing the changes to Git. For more information on adding these configuration files, see Configuring the Liferay DXP Service.
Environment variables are also used to configure the Liferay service and, in some cases, override portal properties. See Liferay Service Environment Variables for more information.
Hot Deploy¶
Hot deploy can be done via the Liferay DXP UI. To do so, navigate to the Control Panel → Apps → App Manager. Then, click the dots in the upper-right corner, and click “Upload.” From this screen, you can choose a file from your local file system to deploy and install.
Note
Using hot deploy in DXP Cloud is not recommended because any customizations deployed with this method will be lost upon a subsequent DXP service deployment.
Enabling Clustering¶
Clustering Liferay DXP in DXP Cloud is a very simplified process compared to doing so in Liferay DXP. Support for clustering is available and enabled out-of-the-box in DXP Cloud. Additional configurations for clustering behavior and scale does require a few extra steps. See Setting Up Clustering in DXP Cloud for more information.
Running Scripts¶
Any .sh files found in the configs/{ENV}/scripts folder are automatically run prior to starting the service. Scripts may be used for more extensive customizations. However, use caution when doing so. This is the most powerful way to customize Liferay DXP and it can cause undesired side effects.
For example, to include a script that removes all log files, place it in the following directory structure within the project’s Git repository:
liferay
├── LCP.json
└── configs
└── dev
├── deploy
├── osgi
├── patching
└── scripts
└── remove-log-files.sh
Note
If you are using version 3.x.x services, then scripts instead belong in the lcp/liferay/script/ folder in the repository. See Understanding Service Stack Versions_ for more information on checking the version.
Limitations¶
Liferay DXP has many powerful features to build, manage, and deploy content to the web. However, some of those features are unavailable on DXP Cloud:
Remote Staging is currently unsupported on DXP Cloud. Users migrating from an on-premises installation to DXP Cloud must convert to Local Staging in order to continue using Staging functionality.