Lotus Notes and Domino upgrades are comparable easy. The only challenge: poorly implemented Domino server will stay poorly implemented even after an upgrade. Unless of course you fix things. Once you know what you want to achieve there aremanyways to get there. You simply could use smart upgrade to push out the clients and just install the new server software. What you end up with is your "old" Notes/Domino installation running with new code. That doesn't really cut it. It is like upgrading your trusted old Volkswagen two seater to a Mercedes S class (5 seater) but refuse to take more than one passenger, since that was your limit so far (or for that sake: drive faster than 150 km/h since that was the max the VW did). So how can you identify the ideal upgrade? Some of the following stuff should already run in your Domain, so it wouldn't require any effort other than a nod, but there are Domino installations that run despite their poor configuration (Domino is very forgiving):
The Domino Server
You have defragmented your storage. You can use OS tools, an OpenNTF project or a commercially supported tool. Do that before and after the installation. You could consider different file systems used by other more stable operating systems.
You have implemented Domino Domain Monitoring (DDM) to run your server in "auto-pilot" (Don't forget the activity trends)
The Domino Configuration Tuner (DCT) has given you a clean bill of health
You have implemented the Certificate Authority and the ID Vault. You use OU to divide your user base (typically by functions/departments/locations)
You have cleaned your group structure to be machine verifiable and allows for next level automation
Users can create their own databases based on approved templates
All notes.ini variables you changed are in the server configuration document
Your SMTP routing is fully configured for Spam defense
The Domino server is clustered for high availability
Your network ports have encryption and compression enabled
DAOS is up and running (make sure you get your backups right)
Out-Of-Office is handled by the service, not the agents
The room and resources database is deployed
Adminp runs flawlessly ( make sure your system databases replicate properly)
Traveler is up and running (buy yourself an iPhone as excuse)
All databases on your server have both the latest design and the latest ODS (currently ODS51)
You have designed and implemented Domino policies for all aspects of Notes/Domino usage (that might very well a project in its own right)
On your Domino server you have space for all user profiles since you have implemented roaming user profiles
You have installed and configured your Sametime chat entitlement
You have installed and configured your Quickr entry entitlement
There is a widget catalog with useful widgets for your organization
Smart Upgrade is configured
Your routing and replication structure is Spoke-Hub, not Hub-Spoke (that's a topic for another post)
The Notes Client
You have defragmented your PC's harddisk. Do that before and after the installation. You could consider different file systems used by other more cherished operating systems.
Your machines have current drivers (Video is important) and patch levels
The Notes client installation has been moved to the Program Files for the application and the User Files for the user's data files (in Notes lingo we call that shared user install), so users logging into a workstation get their Notes install and not another.
You have implemented roaming users (one way or the other)
Policies configure and (if your users want to be dumb carefree) lock down your Notes clients
Shared login is implemented
The only version deployed is the full client, not the basic one. For weaker machines you use the notes.ini setting (deployed by a policy) to start the "classic" client
User know what the Notebook (formerly Journal) is for and use it
Important: The list above isn't the steps you need to do, but the results you should strive for. Don't settle for less. As usual: YMMV. Please comment what to add on.
XPages - the "other" skills
Tue, Aug 31st 2010 4:29a Stephan H Wissel In most of the XPages trainings I conducted in 2009 and 2010 there were participants with no prior exposure to Notes and Domino other than using it as a user. They all however had experience with web development. XPages' JavaScript, CSS and HTML was like their natural environment and they had no problem catching up with "the old Notes nuts". The later however, especially the "client only" developers struggled. They struggled not with DDE or XPages per se, but with the open standards it embraces. [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
ldd
lotus
notes
xpages ajax
css
development
dojo
eclipse
google
java
javascript
oracle
soa
wiki
xml
xslt
61
eLearning in the enterprise vs. eLearning in education
Sat, Aug 28th 2010 4:29a Stephan H Wissel I had an interesting chat with the IT teacher of Catholic High about eLearning. I'm following the subject for a very long time. In the early eighties I bought one of the earliest eLearning authoring tools called OpenICE from Dialog Video (a Swiss company which seems to be history now - the only trace of OpenICE I could google was in a document in the download section of The Morrison Company.
There is a lot of money spend both in enterprises and in academic, but the stellar success stories are f [read] Keywords: collaboration
css
enterprise
google
integration
widget
wiki
176
XPages Medical Advice
Mon, Aug 23rd 2010 11:38p Stephan H Wissel The truth about XPages:
But of course you know that and are in tune with the impermanence of being and continuous upgrade your skills. [read] Keywords: xpages wiki
66
Boys and their toys X
Mon, Aug 23rd 2010 10:33p Stephan H Wissel Huawei topped their already impressive E5 device
with a new entry, the E583C
On top of being a mobile hotspot for 5 devices it spots a OLED display and via microSD up to 32G shared storage. So a small team working away easily can share what they are working on and access the Interweb at the same time using a good looking gadget.
(via godevice.com) [read] Keywords: gadget
mobile
wifi
136
Visualize using Mindmaps
Sun, Aug 15th 2010 6:29a Stephan H Wissel Mindmaps are an incredible tool to collect and share thoughts on any topic in a very compact and comprehensive format. Just look at the sample Ernest did for Water (his current topic in science):
He used iMindmap which has the most natural look from all mindmap software offerings I've seen so far (and is available on Win, Linux, Mac and iPad). It is the commercial offering of Tony Buzan who claims the invention of mindmapping. If you like eProductivity, you might want to look at MindManager, [read] Keywords: notes
notes client
linux
mac
wiki
117
Speed boost for your Notes client on Linux
Sun, Aug 1st 2010 2:29p Stephan H Wissel You need enough RAM. Follow these steps (adopted from here):
Stop the Notes client
Create a new directory: mkdir ~/notestemp
Edit your notes.ini and add:
view_rebuild_dir=/home/[yourid]/notestemp/
NOTES_TEMPDIR=/home/[yourid]/notestemp/
TempDir=/home/[yourid]/notestemp/
Edit the mounting table: sudo gedit /etc/fstab
Add this line (one line, tab separated values):
tmpfs /home/[yourid]/notestemp tmpfs defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0
and save the file
Mount the new directory:sudo mount -a (a [read] Keywords: notes
notes client
show-n-tell
linux
72
Command line tool for Linux command line junkies
Mon, Jul 19th 2010 12:25p Stephan H Wissel I found a little gem for "Friends of the commandline"TM. Since the autor suggested to improve this with zenity I went ahead and created ~/bin/runthis:
#!/bin/sh
#~/bin/runthis
############################################################################
# Runs commands that have been entered in the prompt box
# Originally published here: http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic/2848/bash-at-your-fingertips-nifty-notifysend/
# Replaced command line with zenity dialog
######################### [read] Keywords: linux
76
Run
Mon, Jul 19th 2010 11:25a Stephan H Wissel KVM and VirtualBox are two virtualization solutions for Linux. KVM requires the module kvm_intel to be loaded, while VirtualBox can't run with the module running. So if you can't makeup your mind what to use, you need a little script magic to get this working. Here are the steps:
Download libnotify for nice bubble notifications (just eye candy):
sudo apt-get install libnotify (Of course you can use the Synaptics package manager in System-Administration and simply search for the library, but th [read] Keywords: administration
linux
virtualization
248
Getting close with IBM OneUI
Sat, Jul 17th 2010 8:24a Stephan H Wissel I recommended the use of IBM OneUI before including a helper stylesheet. While there is a complete documentation available, a little explanation about the how and why goes a long way. The OneUI is not so much about colours and fonts, but about structure, navigation and layout. Following its guidelines your applications get a consistent look, which user studies show increase user confidence about their ability to use your web application. This translates into less help desk calls. Any consistent [read] Keywords: ibm
ldd
lotus
notes
notes client
xpages application
applications
css
development
105
Multi column checkboxes and radio buttons
Mon, Jul 12th 2010 11:24p Stephan H Wissel Brian shared his implementation of multi-column check boxes. Having such a control mimicking the functionality of the Notes client is pretty helpful. Brian's approach however wasn't very re-usable, so I though of a way to come up with a more reusable solution:
The resulting custom controls can be easily added to any page with a few lines of code. You need to reference 2 supporting JavaScript libraries and then add a few lines to your page:
< xc:MultiColumnCheckBox numberOfColumns="3"dataB [read] Keywords: notes
notes client
xpages bleedyellow
bleedyellow.com
javascript
openntf
xml
