Domino Unplugged

Delighted to report - I got a new job!

Almost exactly two years after my 'black Friday' experience, I'm delighted to report that I'm back, gainfully employed again.

And, for those of you in the Lotus community, the new employer will be a familiar name:  iEnterprises. I'm going to be working on Client Services - basically taking post-sale care of customers - primarily for their Mobile Edge product. I'm very excited about the new position, and it seems like a perfect spot for me, given my background with mobile.

For those of you not familiar, iEnterprises is a well known Notes-based CRM and mobile middleware software company. And this has been an interesting couple of months for iEnterprises. They've inked a couple major deals recently, and one of them involved iExtensions - iEnterprises' own CRM package - being sold to SugarCRM. Details HERE. But, what a lot of people don't know, is that iEnterprises will continue to sell iExtensions just as they had been - but the product itself and the development for it will be handled by Sugar. This is a great deal for Sugar, as it brings them squarely into the Notes/Domino market. This is also a great deal for organizations using Notes/Domino, as it gives them access to one of the hottest CRM outfits around. Everybody wins.

Including iEnterprises, because now they can focus squarely on the mobile market. Development, sales, support can all have one focus, and I think it makes a tremendous amount of sense. And, I'm delighted to be part of it.

The fact that you're reading this means you know DominoUnplugged - focussed on delivering Domino applications to mobile devices. I started it when I was working for a Lotus/IBM business partner in the Detroit area at the time, and I was doing a lot of mobile work. So, it was part of what I was doing for a living and I was updating frequently. Over the past five years, however - when I worked both for IBM directly and then as an independent consultant - my mobile work was sporadic, and my posts at 'Unplugged were few and far between.

So, we come to the new job, and it's time for a new blog. I will still be active and involved with the Lotus Domino community (as will iEnterprises), but overall my focus is getting broader.

So, I purposely decided to start up a new site - and very consciously chose the title of the new blog - The Business at Hand - because I truly do believe that mobile devices are becoming the 'tool of choice' for traveling professionals. Most salespeople would prefer NOT to lug around a laptop in order to update a client record after a meeting - they'd much rather have a smartphone with the capability to record contacts, update activities, record leads. And why not - it's immediately on, has 98% of the capability and can fit in your pocket. They want, literally, business at hand.

So, I feel there's a huge story still to be told here - and I'm very excited to be part of that industry.

That's what the new blog will be about - and I encourage you to join in the conversation over there.

And to the numerous well-wishers who've already heard the job news I say thanks for all the many kind words. I'm delighted about the new gig - and humbled by the feedback.

- Rob

PS: the URL for the new blog is "www.thebusinessathand.co"  -- and note that it's a ".co", NOT a ".com" -- see you there!

SHOW202 - Beginners Guide to Installing Lotus Connections

Well, we almost made it ...

That is, we ended up "finishing up" our 'live' install of Lotus Connections for the Show and Tell session at Lotusphere yesterday blasting through slides. We were very close - literally another ten minutes probably would have done it ...

That said, thanks to all who attended. We had a surprisingly robust crowd (meaning numbers of people, not size!) for 4:30 in the afternoon of a long, long day. And, for the most part, they hung in til the bitter end! So, thanks ...

I've attached a PDF of our session. I'll circle back and post all the links to the resources, etc. But, I wanted to make sure I got this out there today.

Finally, a huge tip of the hat to Stuart McIntyre. This was very clearly Stuart's work, and I was just there for a combination of moral support and comedic relief! He's the best, and it was great working with him ...

Here's the file:

SHOW202 - Beginners Guide to Installing Lotus Connections

12 MORE Things Your Mother Never Told You About Installing Lotus Connections

First off, many, many thanks to the people who turned out for the "12 MORE Things" session yesterday afternoon. Stuart McIntyre and I had a GREAT time presenting, and hope that the information we passed along will be helpful.

We had a remarkably large crowd - I'm guessing 150 - 200 - and as my buddy Paul Calhoun always says, "they laughed at the right places and clapped at the end." So, I think it was a successful session.

The actual presentation we used is attached below. I was told that it hasn't been uploaded to LSOnline for some reason, and when I go to check I am unable to get into the "files" area at all, so I can't confirm one way or the other.

But, we had a good time, and I certainly hope things as well today - I've got two sessions, one with John Wargo and another with Stuart again.

Will post those presentations tomorrow, and I'll also post a page with all the various web resources we mentioned in all the sessions in a separate post.

Here's yesterday's:

BP105 - 12 MORE Things Your Mother Never Told You About Installing Lotus Connections

Wonderful tool: WAI

So, Stuart and I are presenting "12 MORE Things Your Mother Never Told You About Installing Lotus Connections" this afternoon. Getting ready.

Once we've actually presented, I'll post a "final" copy of the presentation here, but for now wanted to point you at a great resource for using Lotus Connections with WebSphere Portal.

There's a nifty little utility called "WebSphere Application Integrator" that, basically, allows you to access other web applications "full screen" from Portal, as opposed to running them within portlets. Basically,  this not only gives you a lot more real estate to work with, but it gives you the full functionality of each Connections service, not just what was baked into the portlet.

We're going to talk about this during our session this afternoon,  but I wanted to make the "instructions" available here.

There was a document written by IBM's Chris Biega. I would hasten to point out that this is a "cheat sheet" more than it's formal documentation, and it certainly IS NOT official IBM documentation. Chris has made this available privately, and when I told him that we were going to touch on this during our presentation, he granted me permission to post the document here.

Once again, please proceed carefully, back up stuff before you start changing the code on your Connections pages, and bear in mind that 'your mileage may vary.'

Here's the document:

Portal and Lotus Connections integration via WAI

Don't thank me, thank Chris ...

Lotusphere ’11 Underway!

Well, campers, it's official - Lotusphere is underway.

Although I participated in the Business Development Day and some jumpstarts yesterday, things aren't really official until the Opening General Session, and that has just concluded.

There were a bunch of guys live blogging what went on, so I won't waste your time repeating everything here, but the "secret guest" this year was Kevin Spacey who was, surprisingly, very appropriate. I wasn't aware (although, I might be the ONLY one) that he'd developed an online community back years ago called Trigger Street. So, he talked about that, talked about trying to assist other people and talked about "sending the elevator back down."

There were also the usual round of demos and presentations, with the usual customer testimonials. All in all, well done. I'm not completely sure there was anything completely mind-blowing ... but will need to digest some of the information ...

Later this afternoon, Stuart McIntyre and I do the first of our two sessions, "Twelve MORE Things Your Mother Never Told You About Installing Lotus Connections." Should be fun ...

Policies and widgets

I posted this on Notes.net, er DeveloperZone, uh, developerWorks today, but wanted to collect it here as well. It all had to do with having one of those "duh" moments today that I wanted to pass along.

Simple scenario - I'm working with a customer on deploying widgets. We have Widget A that needs to be deployed to ALL users, and we have Widget B that only needs to be deployed to some.

We created an explicit policy that pushes down Widget A, and a dynamic policy to push down widget B to those people who need it (and they get it by being in the group the policy is assigned to).

NOBODY ever got Widget B.

And, it wasn't until talking with IBM support that I realized what the problem was (and then had the "Duh" moment).

You can't have two policy documents that BOTH are pushing down widgets to the same user. Any given user can only get widget "instructions" from one policy.

I kept thinking that this would be "additive" - that is, I kept thinking that some users would get BOTH widgets. But, Notes saw the two policies as being conflicting - and so it went into the usual policy precedence mode, and the explicit policy won out over the dynamic policy (which, in turn, would have won out over an Organizational policy).

So, lesson learned.

You cannot have TWO different policy documents, both telling your Notes client what widgets to pick up. You can only have one ...

So, we are reworking things and will have a couple different policy documents - but Widget A will be in both of them, and Widget B in the second ...

There's a great document in the Lotus Wiki that helps explain how the policy precedence works:
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/dominowiki.nsf/dx/domino-policy-precedence-explained

Just thought I would pass this along ...

- r

Phantom fields solved!!

Many, many thanks to the people that responded to my plea this morning ( http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/ever-see-phantom-fields.htm ) for some assistance on the "Case of the Phantom Fields."

(Seriously, it really does say something about the Lotus community ... thanks!)

David Clover, one of the good folks who responded, said they'd seen this same behavior and that it seemed to be directly related to 8.5.2. Well, campers, guess what version I'm using! (All together: 8-5-2!!)

Okay, so, I go through all the minor heartburn to re-install 7.0.4 (I know I didn't have to go back that far, but seemed a little cleaner than trying to run 8.5.2 and 8.5.1 side by side).

Reopened that form - started fiddling with the tables, labels and fields and I'm delighted to report that things look a lot better:



Thanks, thanks and thanks ....

- Rob

Ever see "Phantom Fields?"

I know, I know ... it's been a while.

Truth is I've been working on a couple projects non-Domino related over the past couple months, and there wasn't much relevant to post here.

That said, now I **have** to post, because I've got a problem and hope that  I might be able to get some assistance.

Here's the scenario ...

I'm working on a Domino application. Relatively straightforward - modification of a 'legacy' Notes application so that it will work properly from a browser.

What's happening is that I've got a couple 'phantom fields' - fields that are showing up in a completely different place in a browser while editing a document than where they were placed on the form.

Don't believe me (and, frankly, I can't blame you!)?  Here's the form:



Now, here's how it's rendering:



Note the two fields that are rendering immediately above the table. Note also the "missing" fields down below:



I'm completely baffled - anybody got any ideas?

- Rob
 

Mobile Sessions at ADMIN/LotusDeveloper 2010

 


The ADMIN/LotusDeveloper 2010 conference is officially underway here in Boston - today is jumpstart day and I'm presenting a session this afternoon on Best Practices for Web Development. Should be fun. I don't want to give away the entire presentation, but Best Practice #1 is "Stay Away from Design Elements that Don't Work on the Web."

Simple, eh? That's it - I'm exhausted.

But, oh yes, mobile.

There are four sessions (and one "Birds of a Feather" session) this year that are specifically aimed at the "Doing Domino on Mobile Devices" topic, each with its own twist. I wanted to list them - and will try to post links to associated resources, etc., for each of them as I can.

First off, tomorrow morning, is mine:
Going Mobile - Web Development to Mobile Browsers - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 10:00 am

Find out the tips and tricks you need to deliver world-class apps to an increasingly mobile community. Find out how to tweak your Domino databases to work correctly on a mobile device’s micro-browser and learn to steer clear of design elements that will give you heartburn.

Then, from my colleagues:

What to do when your browser apps just don’t cut it anymore — How to build Rich mobile apps for the BlackBerry and Android  - John Wargo - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 4:15 PM

Sometimes mobile users need more than a browser version of a Domino application to access data when they’re out of network coverage or when data must be easily manipulated on-device. Get the information you need to help decide if you should use a browser version or a Rich client version of a Domino application.

Creating mobile device apps for Lotus Notes and Domino applications  - Chris Toohey - Friday, May 14, 2010 - 8:30 AM

Find out how to create mobile device apps for RIM BlackBerry, Apple iPhone, and various other mobile platforms that interact with Notes Domino applications.

Current trends in mobile application development  - John Wargo - Friday, May 14, 2010 - 10:15 AM

Get the information you need to help decide if you should use a browser version or a Rich client version of a Domino application. Get a feel for the power of Domino Web Services for mobile devices to deliver data to mobile applications. Step through a demo of how to build Windows Mobile and Blackberry Java applications that consume data from a Domino Web service. See how to build an Android Java application that consumes data from a RESTful Domino Web service.


And, last but not least, John Wargo and I will be moderating a BOF session:
Know your options for mobile application development - Thursday - 1:00 - 1:45 PM


Hope to see you at several of these sessions!

One final note - all the details about these two concurrent conferences can be found at ADMIN2010 or LotusDeveloper 2010.

In Boston for ADMIN/LotusDeveloper 2010

Welcome to Beantown, campers!

Delighted to be among those attending (and, in my case, presenting at) The VIEW's ADMIN/LotusDeveloper conference.

Resources for my sessions will be posted HERE - but I'll also try to give you a running play-by-play ...

- Rob