Form -vs- Functionality

-Stands Up- "Hello, my name is Keith, and I'm a Administrator" -Sits Down-

There I said it! Now that that's out of the way, I want to talk about the development of applications; not the actual elements of the database, but the look and fell of it. I know that some of you, the ones that got past the first sentence, are saying, who cares what the database looks like, as long as it works right? Well, that's where I would disagree. Sure having the buttons in places where people can find them is great, but if it looks like they were ripped from the design of a mid 90's website........(cringe)...Nuff said.

So why care? You know the phrase "Don't judge a book by it's cover", that saying doesn't hold true to the applications we develop. How many times have you visited a website, jut to go on to the next one because the site was "outdated" looking. Personally, I feel that if they can't keep the design of the database current, how current is the information. When we develop applications for Domino, the first impression the user gets about the application a a whole is the design. So if we design it using images from a clip art CD made in 1997 and don't take advantage of all the new stuff available to us, then the users will quickly think that Notes as an application is Outdated and opt for the more visually appealing Sharepoint or Outlook. Simple things like roll over graphics, web 2.0 style buttons and menus and even the choice of fonts can make or break an application. Also, color does matter!!!! Look at the design of the 8.5 client. It's uses a simple blue scheme with a splash or color here and there. Take note, this applies to both web based applications as well as Notes client applications. It's so simple to put a graphic on the frame of a table to give it rounded edges or create a menu with highlighted choices, so just take time to explore your options. This stuff isn't new.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, once you're done with the development of the database, pass it to your graphics people to have them make it look good. It will go a long way towards giving Notes a better image. (No Pun)

Case in point, below is the design of an application that I'm working on the graphics for. it's not done yet, but it demonstrates my point.

Desktop Facelift - Free - Clientgenie

I came across this at Lotusphere this year, but I didn't get a chance to play with it until today. I felt like making a change to the way Notes looked....I was in a Battlestar mood!

I created this using the ClientGenie application and Photoshop- http://www.clientgenie.com/free

Yellow Day - How do you celebrate!

So it's Yellow Day! Everyone in the office is in a festive mood and wearing their favorite yellow apparel. The decorations are hung, Lotus Flowers of course, and the food day table is full of your favorite yellow treats; Twinkies, banana's, corn, butterscotch candy, squash, pineapples, lemons...You get the idea... Some, come dressed in fancy yellow scarves and high gloss manicures, yellow of course (Mary Beth Raven). While other simply choose to wear their favorite C.U.L.T shirt. I decided to go with the yellow polo shirt and high gloss yellow construction helmet. It's says I'm ready to work, but still retains the business casual feel.....

So the real question is what did you buy your signifigant other on this holiday and does Halmark have a card for this? Below are some ideas:

Happy Yellow Day Everyone!

Spam Filter - New from FRAM!!

Well, I'm going to install my new SPAM filter this afternoon. I was assured by the manufacturer that this was the best on the market. It's easy to install and cheap too!!! You just need to remember to change it ever 3,000 Messages, or 3 Months, which ever comes first. Now I just need to find the spot on the server to install it.......

Remember to keep the open up when changing the filter, or the Spam will leak out......

What's the oldest database on your server?

So I was looking at databases today and just glanced at the creation dates. I was shocked at the age of one of the mail files on my server. Now we've been using Notes since 1994, but I never expected to see this. It's a database that I've used since I took control of the environment in 2003, but it never occurred to me to see when it was created. (See image Below)

Mine is 6/02/1994 - So, what's the oldest database you have running on your server? Post your replies and lets see who has the oldest file still in production today!

-Keith

IamLUG and GSXDay

So I'm sitting in the last portion of the GSXDay event after 2 days of the first IamLUG event. Kudos to Chris Miller and crew (including his kids) for putting on such a fantastic event. The sessions were well thought out and the presenters were at, or above, the level of the presenters you see at Lotusphere. Of course Paul Mooney was here and he's always good for a laugh, usually at his expense. The usual suspects presented many of the sessions; Paul, John, Chris, Eileen, Mary, Mitch, Kathleen, Etc. Of course the group secured the yearly bonuses for Anheuser Busch management since their sales goals for the month were met last night in the hotel bar. I'll be back for IamLUG 2010, wherever they plan to have it. I encourage all of you that didn't attend, to come and those of you that signed up, but didn't show - Fail. Of course, I'll be at Lotusphere 2010 as well.

OH, GSX Plug, Cool Tool....It really can save an admin his/her job just based on sanity alone. If you have lots (and even little) amounts of servers to monitor, you really need to check them out.

Also, IBM - in Notes 8.5.1 ( Or the next release) we need to have the ability to stop a large attachment from being sent by a user BEFORE it leaves the client and gets delivered to the router (ROOTER if your from Ireland). It's nice that we can block it on the servers, but if the user has a limit, block the message before it's leaves the client. Stop wasting server resources telling the user NO, when the client can do that at no cost to performance!

It's Sabotage...Well OK... not Really.

So, I'm sitting at my cubicle trying to sleep, when a tech from our Service Desk comes over and interrupts a fantastic dream about me and Angelina Jolie. We were sitting on the beach........OK, Too much info.....

He tells me that they received a few calls this morning that users are getting prompted for passwords in Lotus Notes. At first I didn't give it much thought, until I looked at my ticket queue and realized I had 5 people with the same problem. Shortly after that my manager and stopped by to ask me a question and in passing he mentioned that his single sign-on was also not working.

Sure enough, mine had stopped as well. After ruling out Gremlins, Sun Spots and Spontaneous Temporal Shifts in computer settings, I did a quick check of my registry. I found that "NPNOTES" was missing form the Network Provider Order entry; as you may or may not know, without that setting, single sign-on does not work. I checked my settings in Notes and the box was still checked to log in to Notes using the operating system password. Now I'm no rocket scientist, but if more than one person has the same problem, chances are the cause may be similar. I checked the registry on the machines that I had received calls about and sure enough they were missing the entry as well. I added it back on 3 of the machines and had the users reboot. Bingo, Single Sign-on was working again. So what caused the mass extinction of the registry settings?

Quick back story. We use a product called Radia to push out changes to applications and files remotely. We also use ITIL at our company, so we have specific processes around releases and how they are handled. I looked at the release schedule and it showed that just prior to the event, there was a release of a patch to an existing program. It turns out, our CHARM department ( Change and Release Management) had been receiving errors about a package that was failing during install. So they decided to fix it. The problem is, their solution included a line that overwrote the values of the Network Provider Order registry key. Basically wiping out the entry for Notes. So, I had found that something as harmless as "Fixing" a small and inconspicuous application could break my Lotus environment.

ITIL PLUG - If we had not taken the time to record the information about what was released, I never would have been able to track down what had changed the registry. Because I was able to match the CHARM release to the same time frame as the issues with Notes, I was able to find the problem.

After convincing them that they caused a the problem, they are now going to use the same Radia tool to modify the registry setting on everyone's computer to once again include the "NPNOTES" key. So remember, if Notes is broke, it may not be an issue with Notes....But any good administrator already knows that......

Special Occasion Cards

So today is my anniversary! I've been married for 9 years as of today and that in itself in enough to say. It's tough in today's world to make it to this point, but that's not what this entry is about. Just like every other husband who got married on Saturday, February 12th 2000, I purchased a Anniversary card for my wife. No, not today! I bought it yesterday, but that too is another topic...Procrastination....

Now, in my opinion there are two schools of thought when it comes to purchasing cards. Whether they be Birthday, Anniversary, Get Well, etc, they fall into two categories; funny and serious. In the past I've opted for the funny cards. They conveyed a message, but in a way that made my wife laugh. At least I thought they were funny... In the past few years I've gravitated to the more serious cards. As we've shared life's experiences with each other, I feel they are more appropriate. So... after you've chosen which type of cards you need to decide on the length of the message in the card.

Some men like to write volumes of information to their wives inside the card, while others just pick the one that looks nice and has lots of words. I tend to pick the serious ones that have one page of text in them. Then, I usually write a small note to let her know how I'm feeling. This is the other important part of the card giving experience. Woman want to know how "YOU" feel about them, not the person sitting in a cubicle at the Hallmark World headquarters whose only job is to churn out paragraphs for the inside of a cards. Take the time to write something personal and special for her inside the card. trust me it helps! Either way, as long as you remember to get a card for her, you should be in good shape.

Happy Anniversary Nikki.....

Social Stigma

Blogs, they are a great way to convey information on lots of different topics. They're quick and easy to use, the templates are well laid out and easy to read and it's not like they are a new technology. So, why is it taking so long for corporate America to see the benefit of social computing. I go to Lotusphere every year and I see the great presentations on how we can interact with each other in the corporate environment. I've seen Connections evolve as well as the integration of Sametime, Blogs, Profiles and Dog Ears as well as other social sites. The problem is, not every company is as "Open" to the idea of new stuff. Instant Messaging, until recently, has been looked at as a waste of time and a source of possible problems at my company. So the question I have is, how do get management to buy in to the idea of Social Software? FaceBook, Twitter, and even Second Life are being used extensively at other companies, but I can't see how they can be used in places that won't even let their users have IM clients. I see the benefits, but I'm having a hard time getting my point across. The problem is the word "Social" It caries a stigma with it that large corporations can't shake. If your being social, you're not being productive.

Spiritual e-Mail and IM

So, I was thinking this morning on my way to work and reflecting on the message that Pastor Todd (The Pastor of my church)had this weekend about Jonah and his prayers. When Jonah was at his lowest point he didn't take time to say a long prayer; he just prayed. So that got me to thinking about the types of prayer we use and how it relates to what I do for a living; I came up with this. I think there are two types of prayer, "e-Mail" and "Instant Message." The e-Mail prayers are the one's we say before we eat dinner or when someone has an illness or financial need. They are well thought out and convey a message in as much detail as possible. The IM's, on the other hand, are simple by comparison. They are the quick prayers we say when time is short. They are the one's we say just before we get into a car accident or just before we take a test. The best part is God always has his e-Mail client AND IM client open. What's even better than that is God doesn't use a SPAM filter or Mail Rule that puts our prayer's into a spiritual "Junk Mail" folder. He treats them both as important and unlike me, he actually reads all of his mail and messages. I'm pretty sure he has a rather large server for storage of messages, so he never needs to delete them to free up space.

Either one is a great way to communicate, but if you never sit at the keyboard and type, how will God ever hear your message? Your prayer's will never make it to his "Inbox" or IM Pop-up if you don't take the time to"write the message".


Oh, two more thoughts. First, Did you ever have an idea ( Like This One) that just popped into your head? That's God's IM to you! Don't ignore it!

Second, God has a Blog, it contains all the stuff that he feels is important for us to read. It's called the Bible! In the past he had a website called the Old Testament, but he upgraded it to a Blog when he added the New Testament!



Have a great day everyone!

Automation - How it can improve your life as an administrator?

So the biggest problem I had as an Administrator was keeping up to date with all the requests to change membership in groups as users transferred from department to department. It was critical to keep them up to date as many applications and ACL required the groups to be correct. For example we have an application called Department Calendar. It's used by employee's to request time off as well as keep a centralized calendar of there team members. Well, the problem is when a person left the company or transferred to another department, I was never told. So my applications and ACL's became out of date very quickly.

The Solution! Who has the most accurate employee information in the company? Go to the source - Humans Resources! I realized the the our PeopleSoft database contained all the information about the user I could ever want. Once I convinced them to create a separate SQL table for me, minus pay information, I was able to pull information like Manager, Department, Last Worked Day, Cost Center, etc. With this information I was able to populate information into our database that contains user information. No, not the Names.nsf, I don't touch the design of that. We have a database called the EDBook (Enterprise Directory Book)...OK, it's not the best name, but it works. Anyway, this database contains all the information about the users, which we then use to populate ACL's, groups, pull Cost Center for applications, etc.

Now, when a user switches from Department-A to Department-B, I don't have to do a thing to adjust the groups. An agent that we created runs and re-creates the groups nightly. So, applications like Department Calendar can keep their information up to date because the groups are auto-maintained. Now if a user leaves the company, they are pulled from the ACL's as soon as HR updates the information and the agents run. Now if managers forget to tell me that a person has left the company, no big deal. We also use the process to create distribution groups so we can send messages to specific area of the company.

Lotus Notes as a Virtual Application

Lotus Notes as a Virtual Application

So, the other day a teammate and I were considering ways to upgrade our Notes environment. First, let me tell you that I don't like to do work, if I don't have to. So, having said that, I was convinced that there must be an easier way to deploy the Lotus Notes client. Sure, Smart Upgrade is fun, but lets face it, there's work involved. The user needs to push some buttons and because we have our Notes Data folders on shared drives, I have to build a new install every time we upgrade. Citrix would be great, but it would take a very large (Expensive) server farm to provide access for all of our users.

Then is dawned on us,Virtual Applications! What if we could package The Lotus Notes client as a Virtual Application. For those of you not familiar with Virtual Applications, it's a technology for virtualizing Windows software. Administrators do not have to install all applications on the workstation anymore – applications will be packed into a virtual environment, a sandbox, which contains all necessary information such as registry entries and applications’ DLL files.

The best part is the application can be streamed to the user across a network or installed locally. Any network storage device can serve as a streaming server for hundreds or thousands of client PCs. To use Thinstall packages in a streaming fashion, simply place your Thinstall package in a location that is accessible to client PCs send a link to end-users to run the application directly, for example \server\sharename\application.exe. You can also create shortcuts on the end-user's desktop which point to the centrally hosted EXE package(s). When the user clicks on the shortcut, the application will automatically begin streaming to the client PC.

Since our users Data directory resides on a shared drive, and we built the virtual install with with this in mind, all a user needs to upgrade from Notes 7.x to Notes 8.x is log-in to a PC and then launch a shortcut on there workspace. The only this I had to do in advance was replace the users "names.ntf" with a newer version. When then launched the Notes 8.5 shortcut, it upgraded the design of there address book on start-up of the application. Then the 8.5 policy upgraded the design of the mail file. DONE!!! In less than 3 minutes I had upgraded the user form Notes 7.X to Notes 8.5. I can also run the program locally on a laptop by moving the application file to the local drive and pointing the shortcut there.

So now when I want to upgrade, All I need to do is change the application in one location and the users get the new version. OK.... so I know that you're saying "IBM WON'T SUPPORT THAT"....Who cares! IBM has never supported my data directory on a file server (not until recently), and for the most part I'm on my own for support issues. So, I'll let you know what happens as we move from Test to Pilot....

If anyone has tried this or has any comments, please let me know.