Agileview

Chandler 0.6 released… wow, talk about a sexy calendar. Features? How about this: iCalendar support, CalDav, Linux / Windows / Mac OS support, Calendar overlaying (multiple sources - single view). This looks like a really cool project to keep an eye on and those screenshots are awesome.

Chandler 0.6 delivers an experimentally usable calendar for individuals and small workgroups. It is a test release for collecting feedback based on real usage. In addition to basic calendaring, advanced features include: recurring events; time-zones; overlayed multiple calendars; and managing a single event across calendars.

0.6 offers innovative new capabilities in calendar sharing to support workgroup collaboration. Chandler sharing is server-based, works across platforms and supports multi-author editing.

0.6 continues to improve Chandler’s developer platform framework. A developer looking to extend Chandler should be able to create a simple forms-based parcel.

More info @ http://chandler.osafoundation.org/

Domino R7 is a great product. Stable and runs lightning fast on Linux, thanks to the 2.6 kernel optimisations. So as a IBM Business Partner, I want to get the message out there that Domino is here to stay and is one of the best collaboration suites on the market today (and *fingers crossed* soon to be available on the Linux desktop).

So I’m currently on the look out for Domino R7 marketing kits with glitz and some zing! Surely these must exist… somewhere. I’ve not been able to find them to date.

Last time I checked on IBM PartnerWorld which had only R6.54 information at the time. And even that info. only talked about why people should upgrade to Domino from Microsoft Exchange or from a previous version of Domino. But what about people who are using neither or nothing at all? I couldn’t find any information for first-time customers who want to find out more about this product called “Domino”. Well, not officially from IBM (bloggers are a great source). Isn’t that totally bizarre?

As a comparison, Novell have an entire marketing website devoted to helping partners promote and sell their products. Which includes up to date marketing kits, box shots, product images, lots of people smiling, mini-movies, pdf’s etc etc. It’s soooo easy to take it to market.

Lotus Domino? Half the battle is simply educating a customer as to the products (initial & continued) existence. Hopefully this will change soon.

Sending out the call - has anyone succesfully performed a Lotus Domino (the server bit) install on Ubuntu server (or desktop)? If so, I’d love to know how

The install process works OK, but exits with an error.

Error status: 32512 compat-libstdc++

Anyone got this sorted?

As a follow-up to my previous post, IBM Technical Support accepted a suggestion that they update the description for Tech Note Doc Number: 1087199 so that it applies to Domino R7 and also causes the “entry not found in index” error.

Now that’s a great outcome.

I’ve been struggling with this corker of a problem for over a month now and yesterday, I finally found the solution (completely by chance) to the problem which has caused iNotes 7 (or dwa7) to cease functioning on 4 Domino R7 Servers we support, and only return the generic error: entry not found in index - for every possible page request. Aaaarrrrggghhhh!!!!

So what causes this error? Well, you wouldn’t believe it…


Domino Directory - Server Document (or Internet Site document) - 'Maximum Lines Per View Page' change this value to 0 (zero).


Yep, that’s it! (cue the background manical laughter).

From the doco, this should enable unlimited views in Domino. But it also has the nasty side-affect of completely buggering your iNotes too! Useful to know.

And the fix? Easy! (cue more background manical laughter).


Domino Directory - Server Document (or Internet Site document) - 'Maximum Lines Per View Page' change this value to anything BUT 0 (zero).


I found this 2004 technote in the IBM Knowledge Base which is for a different error message that applies to Domino R5 and R6, but surprisingly the problem is still occuring in Domino R7. (Hint: Might be time to work on a fix for this one guys…)

iNotes Warning: “Application Exception - Couldn’t Find Design Note” in
iNotes Web Access

Product: Lotus Domino Web Access (iNotes) > Lotus Domino Web Access > Version 6.0, 5.0, 6.5
Platform(s): Windows, OS/400
Doc Number: 1087199
Published: 19/09/2004

Problem

When you attempt to view or create a message, or set User Preferences, etc. in Domino Web Access (a.k.a. iNotes Web Access), the following error message appears:

“iNotes Warning
Problem: Application Exception - Couldn’t find design note.
Solution: Click here to close this window and return to the main window.”

Content

This issue occurs if the ‘Set Maximum Lines Per View Page’ option in the Server Document (Internet Protocols - Domino Web Engine tab) of the iNotes Web Access server is set to “0″.

This issue has been reported to Lotus Software Quality Engineering. There are no current plans to address this issue in iNotes Web Access 5.x or 6.x.

Workaround:
The Notes/Domino Administrator should do the following:

1. Open the Domino Directory and open the Server document of the iNotes Web Access server.
2. Switch to the Internet Protocols tab and select the Domino Web Engine sub tab.
3. Go to the Conversion/Display section.
4. Change the ‘Image Conversion Format’ to “GIF”.
5. Change the ‘Default Lines Per View Page’ value to “1000″.
6. Change the ‘Maximum Lines Per View Page’ value to “1000″.
7. Save the Server document.

Well, this has wasted a lot of our time and caused serious grief. Domino R7 had just been deployed to a new customer wanting to access iNotes (and they couldn’t) and we could no longer access our schedules internally.

Not to mention the numerous phone calls and emails to IBM Support in India, who finally escalated the problem report (PMR) to severity 1 and the PAE team. This PMR was open for just over 4 weeks before I stumbled onto the answer.

So if anyone else out there is experiencing this same problem, I hope this entry saves you all the trouble I had in finding the solution.

And now to help Googlers find this solution:
inotes errors
inotes does not work
dwa does not work
inotes entry not found in index
dwa entry not found in index
dwa7 entry not found in index
domino r7 inotes entry not found in index linux
inotes no work
inotes no worky me cranky
inotes does not work and no one has the answer
how to migrate lotus domino to novell groupwise

Well the year is almost at an end and it’s been a quite a huge one for us. 2005 has seen Linux and open source adoption continue to grow in our customer base. And as a result our services and solutions have expanded in response to the growing customer demands. All based on an exciting platform, which never ceases to amaze me with its versatility and capabilities.

I thought it worth sharing with you all, my selection of top 5 software applications for 2005, which has had a significant impact on our business (be it productivity, opportunities, income etc). These are listed in no particular order as follows. Feel free to comment on my selection and let me know what you would put into your own top 5 list.

1. Wiki: We implemented a Wiki trial using Media Wiki in the second quarter of this year and I was amazed out how quickly it grew and how much information was being captured. I halted the trial after about 3 weeks, as it was becoming apparent that there were some features we needed which were either: not available, or just hard to use. In addition, extending the system with our own customisation was not a trivial task. Nothing wrong with Media Wiki itself, just that it did not meet all of our specific requirements. A few months later and after much research (and information not being captured) we deployed PmWiki and have not looked back since. It has all the features we require, easily extensible and deployed. Truly a credit to Patrick R. Michaud and the community that contributes to PmWiki.

   Business impact: This software has enabled us to easily capture and maintain our knowledge base, as well as collaborate directly with our customers. We are achieving higher levels of knowledge capture and sharing than we have ever experienced before, enabling us to learn from our mistakes and develop flexible on-demand knowledge base.

2. VMWare: This is one huge paradigm shift. Run any operating system on your desktop. Run multiple operating systems at the sametime: Windows XP, Open SUSE, Novell Linux Desktop (I’ve done this on a 1GB RAM AMD2500 PC). Distribute entire server and desktop setups to other people, be they staff, partners, customers etc. Point-click-run. This software is just too amazing for words and well worth the license cost. I have not checked out the free VMWare player yet, but just the ability to distribute VMWare images and give these to use by non-licensed users is extremely exciting. I’ve got it on my To Do list to ask IBM Lotus if we can start distributing trials of Lotus Domino and other applications this way, as one of the biggest hurdles with Lotus Domino is getting the environment installed, server, client etc. With VMWare it would be possible to setup and deliver pre-setup trials of an entire working environment.

   Business impact: VMWare has saved us considerable time and cost, enabling us to be even more agile than we were previously capable. We now have access to a virtual lab of computers capable of running any operating system and application and without requiring additional hardware. The ROI was same day with this software.

3. Novell & SUSE Linux: Novell are a clever bunch of blokes. They understand open source and the opportunities it brings. If I’d been told 2 years ago that we would be partnering with Novell and supporting their products, I would have laughed out loud. Now Agileware are a Novell Gold Partner (hells bells!) and Novell have made open source and Linux a cornerstone of their overall strategy. SUSE Linux is a excellent enterpise software platform and equally so is the support that Novell provides to it’s partners and customers. Linux has never been so easy, nor looked so good. OpenSUSE is one of the fastest distro’s I have seen to date on the desktop and is bundled with killer apps. This is a platform that surpasses Windows in terms of performance, usability and stability. Installing new software has never been so easy and makes accessible the huge number of open source applications out there. SUSE Linux scales from the desktop right up to the data center.

   Business impact: The strength of the SUSE platform convinced us to partner with Novell, which enables us to offer enterprise ready software with enterprise level support.

4. Ubuntu Linux: Our move to a Linux desktop was complete with the adoption of this software. With an active and supportive community, 6 month upgrade cycle, a single CD install and user-friendly software library (ie. search, select, install, run). For me, Ubuntu has set the benchmark and has clearly marked 2005 as the year that Linux on the Desktop became a real and viable option for everyone. The next step is to start telling everyone!

   Business impact: My free desktop environment of choice.

5. Open Office 2: The Microsoft Office replacement which achieved the major and long awaited version 2 milestone this year. In my view, Open Office is a critical application that provides users with choice and freedom. Open standards enabling freedom of their information, and freedom of choice in terms of their operating system. Open Office continues to be a stable and viable alternative to Microsoft Office. And also provides software developers with a fantastic toolbox of tricks, for example: server-side document conversion (MS Word to HTML, MS Word to PDF, MS Word to XML, XML to MS Word etc).

   Business impact: No more Microsoft Office. An API that makes the proprietary Microsoft formats accessible from any platform.

Almost Top 5 List

Other software, services and stuff which I wanted to mention, but unfortunately due to mathematical constraints cannot fit into the top 5 are:

1. Skype: VOIP goes from ‘hype’ to a desktop application that everyone can use. Skype has enabled us to talk to our customers (Australia wide), business partners, friends and relatives (World wide), as well as keep in touch with each other (even when working just down the road). It is a fantastic application that has changed my voice communications paradigm forever. Using Skype we can now communicate with almost anyone in the World for minimal cost and setup. The world again, has become a smaller place.
2. Google Adwords: How do you reach your customers? One of the main methods most Australian businesses rely on is advertising in the Yellow Pages (a business phone directory). This can be very expensive ($AUD 30,000 for a colour page ad) to relatively cheap ($AUD 1,000). The downside of advertising on paper is that: you cannot change it, you do not know who has looked at your advert and you cannot start a new ad campaign until the next edition. This year I discovered Google Adwords and wow! What a fantastic service. Instant activation of advertising, unlimited campaigns, detailed reporting on usage and clicks and real results, that is people actually contacted or contracted us as a result of Google.
3. LDAP: An open standard that has enabled us to consolidate and re-use our Domino Directory to provide single sign-on capabilities across all of our internal and customer facing applications. LDAP is pivotal to our business.
4. Subversion: A refreshing change from the total lack of any free version control features available for the Lotus Domino development environment. Subversion is a developers best friend and entirely code agnostic. Code version comparisons with highlights, code check-in/check-out, operating system independent and with a collection of great client-side software including an Eclipse plug-in. Is quickly becoming our favourite dev.tool.
5. eBay: I re-discovered eBay this year and have struck many great deals. And of course, bought a collection of lemons as well. But what I really love about eBay is the power of the consumer. Consumer feedback is highly valued on eBay and sellers (reputable ones at least) will go to great lengths to ensure their ratings are always positive.
6. Eclipse: I like Eclipse. I like the strategy, the interface and the fact that I can use it to work on just about any programming language I require. I look forward to seeing what happens with this platform in 2006.
7. LUG Radio: This one is really hard to describe, but here goes. A group of brits. talking about Linux and open source, including great interviews with a wide range of people from Novell developers, Mark Shuttleworth to more recently Microsoft. Very funny and not for the faint hearted.

Looking Forward To 2006

Things I’d like to see magically appear in 2006.

1. IBM/Lotus to release their long awaited, much hyped and overdue Notes client for Linux (Notes 8 or whatever) or at least do something new and significant for the platform.
2. An application for Lotus Domino which enables import/export of iCal entries into the Notes calendar. So we can use iCal supported Calendar applications to access our Notes Calendar data. Maybe we’ll just have to write one. (I wonder if Workplace supports iCal, I certainly hope so).
3. Dell to start selling computers with the following choices:
• A pre-installed Linux distro (SUSE perhaps!)
• No operating system installed. They do this for their servers, so why not laptops and desktops. Well, actually I know why - peer pressure.
• AMD64 chipset. And here I’m talking about AMD64×2 (dual-cores). Available servers, desktop and laptop models.
• Laptops with a capacity for 4GB RAM+ for less than $AUD 4,000
4. A enterprise ready open source and open standards based email, calendar and directory (collaboration suite) for the Linux desktop and/or Web-based client.
5. KDE version 4, which should push the Linux desktop even further and funkier.
6. Someone to figure out how to install Lotus Domino on Ubuntu server. I had a crack at it and got stuck on deprecated C++ libraries.
7. And of course, for my current PMR with IBM Support (currently IBM India) re: iNotes 7 does not work on the Linux Domino Server, returning only ‘entry not found in index’, to be finally be resolved and fixed. This happens on 4 Linux servers that we manage and it is a right pain in the bum.

Wishing you all a happy and safe Christmas 2005 - Justin