Lotus Connections new features and configuration tips
Overview What's new: Features What's new: Administration Install tips Configuration tips Future Reporting Tool for Lotus Connections
Whats new: Getting Started page Detailed step by step introduction to Lotus Connections capabilities Fully customizable Shown by default for new users
Whats new: New Forums Stand alone Forums Multi-forums in a community Tag, search, 'My' Attachment, Following, Q & A features
Whats new: SubCommunities Create child communities to branch off sub topic Equal or more restrictive privacy Only community members can join Can delegate ownership to other members.
Whats new: Mobile Enhancement Communities, Bookmarks, Files, Wikis, Forums new Mobile services More devices Android Apple ipad, iphone, ipod Touch Nokia S60 devices
Whats new: Social Analytics People, Community and Content recommendations Things in common Who connects us
Whats new: User Lifecycle Custom profile type for inactive users Automate user lifecycle handling via TDI synchronization Hide inactive users from search and add member dialogs Inactive users marked throughout UX
Whats new: Following & email digest Includes option to receive notifications aggregated into digest Central preferences for how to get notified about different types of content Ability to follow different types of content like Blogs and Communities
Whats new: Sharepoint New widget available for Lotus Connections Communities Access to Sharepoint files Open and Add files to Sharepoint from a community Free download from the Solutions Catalog http://catalog.lotus.com
Whats new: WebSphere Portal New Profiles and tag cloud portlet for WebSphere Portal Browse and search your Network View and make Status Updates Activities, Blogs, Bookmarks portlets also updated for WS Portal V7 Free download from the Solutions Catalog - http://catalog.lotus.com
Overview Whats new: Features Whats new: Administration Install tips Configuration tips Future Reporting Tool for Lotus Connections
Whats new: new installer Lotus Connections 3.0 installer is based on the newest install technology IBM Rational Install Manager (RIM)Connections 2.5 was based on Install Shield The RIM installer has a more flexible GUI Integrate install/uninstall/upgrade/modify into 1 GUI
Whats new: new installer Supports Network Deployments of WAS only No more Stand-alone deployment Can install multiple nodes at the same time Directly on Deployment manager and Managed nodes instead of unmanaged nodes (2.5) Faster, less post install steps Upgrades from 2.5 possible New database wizard, allows you to look into the detailed commands Population wizard uses TDI 7
Whats new: new metrics page Metrics are enabled for all users with the metrics-reader role. By default all users have this role Administrators can restrict this http://<servername.com:port>/activities /service/html/servermetrics You can export these to csv through wsadmin commands
Whats new: Enable/disable Social Analytics Social Analytics features Do You Know (Profiles) Recommendations (Communities) Recommendations (Home page) Who Connects Us? (Profiles) Things in Common Controlled by 'LotusConnections-config.xml By default it's enabled after installation To disable, run wsadmin commands
Whats new:content Moderation Administration Content Moderation Blogs, Forums, Community Files Moderation scenarios Content Approval (pre-moderation) Review before new content gets published Flag inappropriate content (post-moderation) Report inappropriate published content Reviewers evaluate and take actions (ignore, quarantaine, delete)
Whats new: Disable a Connections Service To disable a service 2 steps required Change user role mapping in WebSphere console for person and reader role to none Run wsadmin command
Whats new: Remove sections from help system All help information is in 1 system, even if you don t install all features of Lotus Connections You can remove sections using a wsadmin command. You can only remove complete feature parts
Whats new: Manage Communities membership Add people to a community Before 3.0 the community owner could just add someone to a community without consent You can disable this and only leave the invite option available. You also have the option to disable both.
Whats new: Customization New Customization process New variable: CONNECTIONS_CUSTOMIZATION_PATH Customization files added in same file structure as application Customization files will override the default files
Overview What's new: Features What's new: Administration Install tips Configuration tips Future Reporting Tool for Lotus Connections
Install tips Installing Connections 3.0 is easier then 2.5 Installing Domino is still easier RTFM!!! (like we always do for all products, but this time it is serious) Read it again The order of installation is important, the documentation is not always structured that way Get your System requirements right All fixes and fix packs are required. If installing on Linux, install the required libraries
Install tips Install time is greatly influenced by the speed of your disks (VmWare) Use the planning worksheet from the wiki Make sure you use a time server on all server Make life easy if you need to move physical servers or domains later: Always use short names for servers/hostnames Always use logical names not physical/virtual machine names Even on simple one/two server installs, add aliases to hosts file(s) or dns entries
Install tips: Architecture Scaling up is easier than scaling down Get your naming conventions up front Think very well about the server / cluster ratio 12 features 12 WAS servers (jvms) is often too much 12 features 1 WAS server is often not enough 3 to 6 servers works best Example model: InfraCluster Homepage, News, Search and mobile FiWiDoBloCluster Files, Wikis, Dogear and Blogs ProComFoActCluster Profiles, Communities, Forums and Activities
Install tips: Focus on profiles Plan this completely Involve all relevant people from the start HR, Marketing, Reception, (and IT) Start with pilot groups If Profiles work fine, Lotus Connections deployment will have a higher rate of adoption Pre-Populate user photo s Integrate Sametime awareness Use the business cards from Connections in other places
Install tips: Sametime You can integrate Lotus Sametime into Lotus Connections Turn of case sensitivity You need to have Sametime connect on the desktop, dll s are used by Lotus Connections
Install tips: Cheat sheet Configuring Lotus Connections is done using wsadmin. Use a cheat sheet with all commands../wsadmin.sh -lang jython -user wasadmin -password xxxxxx -port 8879 execfile("connectionsconfig.py") execfile("activitiesadmin.py") LCConfigService.checkOutConfig("/data/config","DemoCell01") LCConfigService.checkInConfig() ActivitiesConfigService.checkOutConfig("/data/config","DemoCell01") ActivitiesConfigService.checkInConfig()
Install tips: Fixes You should keep your environment patched up Watch out for dependencies Installing fixes can take forever Can be installed using GUI or command line
Install tips: Auto Restart In Windows this is obvious, on linux/aix it is less common The order is important Database system Http server Deployment Manager Node(s) Application servers
Overview What's new: Features What's new: Administration Install tips Configuration tips Future Reporting Tool for Lotus Connections
Configuration 3 interfaces: wsadmin, User interface, WebSphere Console wsadmin (command line interface) + XML configuration files --------------------------------------------------- Lotus Connections Communication settings, Notifications configuration, user interface Language selector, Metrics & statistics, ------------------------ Scheduled tasks, Life-cycle events Blogs, Homepage User management --------------------------------------------------- Configuration & administration for - Activities, Bookmarks, Communities, Files - Forums, Profiles, Wikis, Search & News WebSphere Application Server Integrated Solutions Console ------------------------ WAS services and processes, Access control, Node synchronization, Data sources, Security, JVM settings, SMTP, IBM HTTP Server,...
Configuration: User interface Blogs Configuration parameters Moderation Approval for entries and comments Flagged entries and comments
Configuration: User interface Blogs Configuration parameters for other users blogs Cache control
Configuration: User interface Home Page Widgets Administration
Configuration:wsadmin Used to Change configuration settings Perform administrative tasks Background Standard WebSphere Application Server command line interface Uses Jython scripts Usage Case-sensitive
Configuration: XML Repository Used for configuration of Lotus Connections general Lotus Connections features Why Check-out / Check-in Flow You should not change the files @ runtime Check-in uses syntax checking Check-out XML file on Deployment Manager Edit file Check-in Sync changed file to other nodes Restart applications
Configuration: WebSphere Console Configuration of WAS services and processes Security JVM settings (heap size) Virtual hosts SMTP Management of WAS processes and related servers Start & stop of servers and clusters Node synchronisation Management of IBM HTTP server Lotus Connections specific aspects Access control Data sources
Overview What's new: Features What's new: Administration Install tips Configuration tips Future Reporting Tool for Lotus Connections
Future Lotus Connections 3.0.1, expected H1 2011 (no official release date) Video and photo sharing Media gallery widget for your communities Ideablogs Idea generation Voting Push to activities
Future Outlook social connector Profiles network locally synchronized as contacts Profile photos and meta data Add to network from message Menu in Outlook ribbon Files plugin for Lotus Notes Access LC files from Lotus Notes Sidebar Drag and drop from desktop to files Search for files and people and download,
Future ECM capabilities Custom library widget, looks like files but integrates with ECM softwares like Filenet No details on list of Ecm products
Future date) Lotus Connections Next +, expected Q4 2011 (no official release Social Platform Evolution Support IBM Vulcan with new services and deeper cross platform integration Better mobile experience Integrate 3d party through open standards Enhanced Communities for Teams New productivity functions to communities, for example collaborate with GROUPS!!!! Calendar widget for events in Communities with many capabilities Community calendar can be viewed as Iocal feeds from other personal calendars like Notes
Future Business to Consumer Reports/dashboard to monitor adoption and community vitality Many metrics Custom reports Micro blogging Enhancement Add images to your status updates with preview capability Both like and recommend Search micro blogging entries by tags or full text Expanded social analytics Most active members widget
Overview What's new: Features What's new: Administration Install tips Configuration tips Future Reporting Tool for Lotus Connections
Reporting Tool for Connections Trend & Snapshot Reporting 30+ Bar, Line, Tabular reports across all Connections features. Easy Export Export data to 3rd party reporting solutions Measurement Consulting ISSL assistance to develop your measurement framework using Reporting Tool metrics and other measurement sources.
Reporting Tool for Connections
Reporting Tool for Connections
Links Planning worksheet http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/lcwiki.nsf/dx/worksheet_for_installing_lotus_connections_lc3 Customizing Lotus Connections http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/documentation/lc3customize/ Lotus Connections InfoCenter publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/ltscnnct/v2r0/index.jsp Greenhouse Solution catalog https://greenhouse.lotus.com/catalog/