What is impersonation

Websphere Portal 6.1.5 has a new feature called Impersonation, what it does is allow a user, such as a support specialist, to access another user's system to test out a new page, portlet, etc. and to see any issues as they occur on the end user system. Portal Access Control (PAC) controls the ability to impersonate another user. To be able to impersonate another user, the Delegator role on the virtual resource Users, i.e. Delegator@Users must be assigned. You first need to enable the impersonation feature within IBM WebSphere Portal.

The impersonation feature is disabled by default and you will have to follow these steps to enable it

• Log on to the WebSphere Application Server Integrated Solutions Console or Network Deployment Administration Console.


• Perform the following steps to enable the Impersonation feature:
  
  
  
  1. Navigate to Resources > Resource Environment > Resource Environment Providers > WP Authentication Service > Custom Properties.
  
  
  2. Click New.
  
  
  3. Enter logout.explicit.filterchain in the Name field.
  
  
  4. Enter com.ibm.wps.auth.impersonation.impl.ImpersonationLogoutFilter in the Value field.
     
     
  
  
  5. Click Apply and then click Save to save the changes directly to the master configuration.
  
  
  6. Navigate to Resources > Resource Environment > Resource Environment Providers > WP PortletServiceRegistryService > Custom Properties.
  
  
  7. Click New.
  
  
  8. Enter jndi.com.ibm.portal.portlet.service.impersonation.ImpersonationService in the Name field.
  
  
  9. Enter com.ibm.wps.portletservice.impersonation.impl.ImpersonationServiceImpl in the Value field.
     
     
     
  
  
  10. Click Apply and then click Save to save the changes directly to the master configuration.
  
  
  11. Stop and restart the WebSphere_Portal server.
  
  
  12. Perform the following steps to assign the Delegator role to a user:
      
      
      
      • Log on to WebSphere Portal as the Administrator.
      
      
      • Click Administration.
      
      
      • Click Access > User and Group Permissions.
      
      
      • Click Users.
      
      
      • Search for the user you want to assign as Delegator.
      
      
      • Click the Select Resource Type icon for the required user.
      
      
      • Navigate to the page that contains the Virtual Resources option, using the Page Next button and click that link.
      
      
      • Navigate to the page that contains the USERS option and click the Assign Access icon.
      
      
      • Select the Explicitly Assign checkbox for the Delegator role.
        
        
        
      
      
      • Click OK.
      
      
      • Verify that the required user now has User and Delegator access.