The Remote Policy Server function enables Multi-Channel Server (MCS) to fetch policies from a remote server instead of from the local MCS database. In this way, Mobile Portal Accelerator can be integrated with a content management server. The content management server is then responsible for authoring, approving, publishing, and withdrawing the policies.
The policies are referenced by specifying a remote URL instead of specifying the local policy name (for example, /image-policy-name.mimg). This remote URL is usually the URL of a remote servlet, for example http://myserver.mycompany.com/servletURI, along with a remote policy asset identifier. The remote policy servlet, which is a custom web application, locates the requested remote policies and responds to the request by returning the information in a predefined format. The exact structure of the asset identifier depends on the operation of the remote policy server. For example, it could be the path to the asset, or it might be a unique identifier that is resolved by the remote policy servlet. The remote policy servlet can be asked to fetch either a single policy or to preload the MCS remote policy cache with a set of remote policies.
The remote policies contain cache directives which indicate whether or not MCS will cache the remote policies and how long to cache them. It is also possible for a portlet to use MCS APIs to flush the remote policy cache or to preload it with a set of policies.
Although remote policies appear to be very similar in structure to those that you can create in the Mobile Portal Toolkit, different schemas are used for local and remote policies. Therefore, you cannot use policies created by the Mobile Portal Toolkit in remote policy servlet responses. The schema file for remote policies, marlin-rpdm.xsd, is available in the XML Schema catalog of Mobile Portal Toolkit and is also included in the wp_root/wp.mobile/wp.mobile.mcs/schema directory.
For more details about creating a remote policy servlet and remote policies, see the topic Using remote policies in the Web author's guide section of the Multi-Channel Server information center.
For details on configuring the Multi-Channel Server remote policy cache, see the topic Configuring remote policy caches in the Administering MCS section of the Multi-Channel Server information center.
Mobile Portal Accelerator provides a sample remote policy servlet that can be installed on WebSphere Application Server and a sample portlet that can be configured to use remote policies, the Mobile Calendar sample portlet.