What is XMLAccess and why to use XMLAccess?

All about XMLAccess what i have learnt so far...

What is XMLAccess - in short
XMLAccess is a command line utility that comes with WPS portal.This utility connects to the server using HTTP connection and allows us to configure portal remotely.

Why to use XMLAccess
The very important benefit of XMLAccess is it's ability to update a portlet app or update portal pages without loosing user customization. This is really most important point i like about xml access. If you perform any updates via XMLAccess, user customization to page or portlet will remain same.
How does it remain same? Speaking technically, when you perform update vai XMLAccess, objectID of the portlet or pageremains same, and this is the reason portlet app gets updated without loosing user customization.

Consider a scenario, where your portal has a weather portlet.Users of your portal have customized weather portlet to see weather of certain cites.Now, if you update this portlet you don't want user customization to be lost. XML Access is the command you can use to achieve the same. XML Access will allow you to update weather portlet application without loosing user customization.

How to Rum XMLAccess
XMLAccess is located under <portalServer>/bin
with WPS 6.1.x, you can also find xmlaccess.bat/xmlaccess.sh under <portalServer>/wp-profiles/PortalServer/bin

XMLAccess syntax
xmlaccess -in file.xml -url ://:/wps/config -user wpsadmin -password wpsadmin
file.xml is your xmlaccess command. For example DeployPortlet.xml
rest all parameters are self explanatory

What all you can do with XMLAccess
You can use the XMLAccess tool to transfer a complete configuration, including:
* Portlets
* Access Control List
* Portal Web application configurations (portlet applications)
* Portal skin definitions
* Portal theme definitions
* Portal portlet configurations
* Portal site map (pages, labels, and links)
* Portal URL mappings

XML-Access samples
You can find XMLAccess samles inside your portal installation located under<PortalServer>/doc/xml-samples/

For deployment and updating a portlet applications, you can use refer to DeployPortlet.xml

Technote on Using XmlAccess to deploy standard (JSR 168) portlet application might also be helpful.