My Lotus Connections session @BLUG

1. Lotus Connections new
features and
configuration tips

2. Overview
What's new: Features
What's new: Administration
Install tips
Configuration tips
Future
Reporting Tool for Lotus Connections

3. Whats new: Getting Started page
Detailed step by step introduction to Lotus Connections capabilities
Fully customizable
Shown by default for new users

4. Whats new: New Forums
Stand alone Forums
Multi-forums in a community
Tag, search, 'My'
Attachment, Following,
Q & A features

5. 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.

6. Whats new: Mobile Enhancement
Communities, Bookmarks, Files, Wikis, Forums – new Mobile services
More devices
Android
Apple iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch
Nokia S60 devices

7. Whats new: Social Analytics
People, Community and Content recommendations
Things in common
Who connects us

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. Overview
Whats new: Features
Whats new: Administration
Install tips
Configuration tips
Future
Reporting Tool for Lotus Connections

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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)

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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.

21. 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

22. Overview
What's new: Features
What's new: Administration
Install tips
Configuration tips
Future
Reporting Tool for Lotus Connections

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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()

29. 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

30. 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

31. Overview
What's new: Features
What's new: Administration
Install tips
Configuration tips
Future
Reporting Tool for Lotus Connections

32. 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, ...

33. Configuration: User interface
Blogs
Configuration parameters
Moderation
Approval for entries and comments
Flagged entries and comments

34. Configuration: User interface
Blogs
Configuration parameters for other users blogs
Cache control

35. Configuration: User interface
Home Page
Widgets Administration

36. Configuration:wsadmin
Used to
Change configuration settings
Perform administrative tasks
Background
Standard WebSphere Application Server
command line interface
Uses Jython scripts
Usage
Case-sensitive

37. Configuration: XML Repository
Used for configuration of
Lotus Connections general
Lotus Connections features
Why Check-out / Check-in
You should not change the files @ runtime
Check-in uses syntax checking
Flow
Check-out XML file on Deployment Manager
Edit file
Check-in
Sync changed file to other nodes
Restart applications

38. 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

39. Overview
What's new: Features
What's new: Administration
Install tips
Configuration tips
Future
Reporting Tool for Lotus Connections

40. 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

41. 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,

42. Future
ECM capabilities
Custom library widget, looks like files but integrates with ECM softwares like Filenet
No details on list of Ecm products

43. Future
Lotus Connections Next +, expected Q4 2011 (no official release
date)
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

44. 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

45. Overview
What's new: Features
What's new: Administration
Install tips
Configuration tips
Future
Reporting Tool for Lotus Connections

46. 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.

47. Reporting Tool for Connections

48. Reporting Tool for Connections

49. 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/