IBM Connections DOCS 2.0 CR3 if 006 available for download

IBM has released over fixcentral a new huge cumulative update for DOCS 2.0 CR3 named Ifix 006.

This is the new fixes of this version:

Common:

• Fixed the issue of failing to open files when the browser language setting is en-* other than en, en-us, or en-gb by providing a solution of language fallback to en.
• Fixed the sanity check failure of soffice process on Linux Conversion server.
• Fixed the hang issue caused by some files with specific wmf images.
• Fixed a rare issue that content might be corrupted when multiple editors start editing the same document at the same time.

Documents editor:

• Fixed the issue of one specific document that contains empty shape cannot be opened after publishing.
• Fixed the issue of title shown as "undefined" in the dialog of  Insert Special Character.
• Fixed the issue that some comment items are duplicated in the view of comments list when co-editing.

Presentations editor:

• Added Copy Formatting that you can use to quickly copy and apply text styles and list styles by clicking the icon.
• Increased the supported file size to 300 slides and 100MB, and removed the restriction of 3000 objects(such as text boxes, shapes, images and OLE objects).
• Fixed the issue that font size shown in IBM Docs presentation editor is smaller than in MS office.

Spreadsheets editor:

• Fixed the date time formatting issue in some specific time zones (for example, Dublin Summer Time) after upgrading your browser.

Viewer:

• Fixed the issue that documents cannot be opened in Viewer when watermark is turned on.

Clicking here , you could read the releated IBM technotes  the setup guide is a pdf included in the package.

HCL Technologies to Acquire Select IBM Software Products for $1.8B

IBM and HCL today announced a definitive agreement under which HCL will acquire select IBM software products for $1.8 billion:

• Appscan for secure application development,
• BigFix for secure device management,
• Unica (on-premise) for marketing automation,
• Commerce (on-premise) for omni-channel eCommerce,
• Portal (on-premise) for digital experience,
• Notes & Domino for email and low-code rapid application development, and
• Connections for workstream collaboration.

HCL and IBM have an ongoing IP Partnership for five of these products (maybe 5 sw will rest under IBM brand and sales channel? )

We will see the details during next days, right now this sounds to me as great and positive news for current ICS products, especially for IBM Connections and Portal.

I can't wait to hear first news about future plan and roadmap from HCL !

IBM Connections : a way to automate profile pic deletions for disabled users

One of my IBM Connections customers has asked if was possible to remove profile pics of the disabled users that wasn't using Connectons at least from X months.

This task is not available out of the box but luckily there is a lot of way to accomplish this request using IBM TDI or shell scripts.

After some evaluation I choose to use 2 different scripts, the first one executed on db server and the second one on Connections DMGR.

DB Scripts
This environment is running on Db2 , so this should be adjusted if you need to use it on different db servers but  could give you the idea about where are the infos , all available inside Profiles databases PEOPLEDB on Db2.

This is the select I've used in my script

select EMPINST.EMPLOYEE.PROF_GUID FROM EMPINST.EMPLOYEE
INNER JOIN EMPINST.PHOTO ON EMPINST.PHOTO.PROF_KEY = EMPINST.EMPLOYEE.PROF_KEY INNER JOIN EMPINST.PROFILE_LAST_LOGIN ON EMPINST.PROFILE_LAST_LOGIN.PROF_KEY = EMPINST.EMPLOYEE.PROF_KEY
WHERE EMPINST.EMPLOYEE.PROF_STATE='1' and timestampdiff (64, CURRENT TIMESTAMP -EMPINST.PROFILE_LAST_LOGIN.PROF_LAST_LOGIN) > X"

where X is the number of the month this disabled user with photo are not using Connections Profiles.

to format the output I've insert  an | awk   after the select

 awk "{print \"ProfilesService.deletePhotoByUserId('\"\$1\"')\" }" >> clearphotos.py

and I've obtained a result like the following wit a user per line


...
ProfilesService.deletePhotoByUserId('11111111-222A-AA22-1122-11B222B11B22')
...

To have the script ready to be executed inside wsadmin we could add on top of the script the following 2 lines:

echo "batchMode = 1" > clearphotos.py
echo "execfile('profilesAdmin.py')" >> clearphotos.py

batchMode =1 is necessary if you have a multi node environment  (click here for details. )

I've shared this script here  , in my publich GitHub repo..

Script on Connections DMGR

This script is a common shell script so I'm not sharing it here but I've made this 3 steps:

1. clearphotos,py copy from DBserver to DMGR server
2. execurion of the script inside wsadmin ( wsadmin.sh -lang jython -user connAdmin -password password -f clearphotos.py )
3. log of the operation executed

To close this request I've scheduled the 2 scripts on the 2 servers using crontab scheduling the databse script some minutes before the other.

IBM Verse On-Premises 1.0.5 IF1 how install it , why and how verifiy VOP version installed on your server

IBM has released on Fixcentral VOP 1.0.5 IF1 that address loading issue on Domino 9.0.1 environments.
After the release date I have setup VOP 1.0.5 on 2 servers , V10.0 where was working correctly and V9.0.1IF3 where I got the issue ( now fixed! )

This package include the new file core-1.0.32.201811081156.jar that needs to be copied over the previous core*.jar file included in 1.0.5 package:

• tell http q
• copy  core-1.0.32.201811081156.jar in VOP setup dir and delete the older one
• load http

This update reminded me that could be helpful know the VOP version installed on a Domino server.

If you like to have this info, right click on a VOP page, click on "inspect " and go to the browser console to see the Build version

In this case 1.0.5 and 1.0.5 IF1 has the same build number but this could confirm in any way the correct setup  ( here the related IBM Technote)

Build	Verse On-premises version
12812-250	1.0.0.1
12812-252	1.0.0.1 IF1
13853-325	1.0.1
14893-342	1.0.2
14893-344	1.0.2 IF1
15909-376	1.0.3
16368-410	1.0.4
16368-439	1.0.4 IF1
16838-458	1.0.5
16838-458 *Note this is the same as 1.0.5 as the client code has not been updated*	1.0.5 IF1

IBM Verse on Premises 1.0.5 is out and it's a HUGE update !!

IBM has released today VOP 1.0.5 and the related part-nuber is  CNWQ5ML .


I love to talk about this release because in my opinion is a HUGE update with a lot of useful features:

• When a user files an email, Verse On-Premises can suggest folders to use based upon the user's previous selections and content contained in the email.
• When composing an email, a user has the option to mark the email as confidential in the subject line.
• The email compose window has a minimize and restore button that enables users to view other emails while composing a new message. This enhancement eliminates the need for users to save an email being composed as a draft while checking other email.
• The option to empty the trash is readily available at the top of the folder or inbox.
• The calendar can display a second time zone in the right margin, providing quick access to meeting times for two different zones.
• The calendar view can be printed.
• Click to chat capabilities are enhanced with an option to register a custom extension for a user-preferred chat client.
• Extensibility and customization enhancements that enable clients to tailor the experience to meet the needs of the organization include:Color and theme modifications
• Support for adding a submenu in the navigation bar
• Support for optional integration with Gravatar for display pictures in the Important to Me bar, and Business Cards
• Calendar preview capability enables the administrator to configure Verse On-Premises to preview the ongoing enhancements to the calendar experience. This capability is off by default.

My top 3 features of this release are the calendar enhancements, the customization enanchements (css themes and colors) and the integration with gravatar service. that is a standards service for online avatar images based on email resolution.

To enable gravtar integration you have to enable the following notes.ini

VOP_GK_FEATURE_182=1

and VOP will start to check the service to resolve the pics of the contacts ( below my pics and Wordpress pic resolved from gravatar, without IBM Connections profiles integration)

Another useful notes.ini it's the following to enable the new calendar event design preview

VOP_GK_FEATURE_168=1.

Another awesome new it's customers doesn't needs to upgrade Domino to V10 but 9.0.1 FP9+ could be enough:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux® and Windows™ Server 64-bit systems are supported.

The following are required:

• IBM® Domino® V9.01, Feature Pack 9, or later 
• IBM Connections™ V5.5, or later

Here at this link you could find the announcement letters with more details and here you could find the complete what's new with the related info and screenshots.

In my opinion if you have a Domino Server supported ,  this upgrade it's a must have !

P.S This is not all ! VOP 1.0.6 it's planned late in this year and will include the ICS calendar support! 

The new hub for IBM Collaboration solutions it's here : http://ibm.biz/ICS_Community

During past days , IBM has announced  a new Community named " IBM Collaboration Solutions Community " that should become the new hub regarding ICS , with news , events, training .

This community is build over a cloud instance of IBM Connections with ICEC , so customers and users could touch what it's possible build with this products.
.

The access of the community is free , if you are customers, business partner or users I strongly suggest to add it to your bookmarks!

Below 2 essential links:

• Registration forms: http://ibm.biz/ICS_Community_SignUp  
• Community access link  http://ibm.biz/ICS_Community

JUMP Session for IBM Connections Admin : Understanding and Configuring ElasticSearch for IBM Connections

IBM support has announced another interesting Jump Session, this time regarding the configuration of ElasticSearch on prem for the new Metrics apps and the new type-ahead feature of Files & Communities provided by CR3.

If you are a Connections admin, don't miss this free webinar .

below the details:

• Topic: Understanding and Configuring ElasticSearch for IBM Connections (on prem)
• Date: Wednesday, November 14, 2018
• Time: 11:00 AM EST (16:00 UTC/GMT, UTC-5 hours) for 60 minutes
• Announcement page: click here