DomBlog.de - Notes, Domino and Stuff

Tags: German
Manchmal ist das mit der deutschen Sprache ja nicht so einfach. Vor allem dann, wenn man beispielsweise versucht aus einer E-Mail den Gemuetszustand des Verfassers zum Zeitpunkt des Verfassens abzuleiten, um den Mailtext entsprechend interpretieren zu koennen. Kurz: Man versucht herauszulesen, ob der Absender einem wohlgesonnen war/ist oder eben nicht.

Genau das habe ich heute morgen versucht. Etwas abstrahiert, gekuerzt und natuerlich anonymisiert ging es darum, dass wir in einem Projekt an einem Problem bzw. dessen Loesung gearbeitet haben. Klar, dafuer kauft man technisch orientierte Berater ja schliesslich ein. Doch diese eben auf die Technik und Software spezialisierten Berater haben oft ein Problem. Die Dokumentation. Denn warum soll man fuer etwas, dass 5 Minuten dauert, ein 20 seitiges "wie erklaere ich es einem Projektleiter so, dass er es versteht"-Dokument schreiben? Eben. Braucht man nicht. Ist doch schnell gemacht. Gedacht, getan - und Post bekommen. Und zwar eine dieser interpretationswuerdigen Mails, wo es um Professionalitaet und Dokumentation ging. Ohne die Hintergruende naeher ausfuehren zu wollen, habe ich gerade einfach mal zwei Suchanfragen bei Google gestartet. Eine um eine Definition fuer "unprofessionell" und eine um eine Definition fuer "professionell" zu bekommen. Die jeweils ersten Treffer:

ụn·pro·fes·sio·nell
Adj. ụn· pro· fes· sio· nell
(≈ dilettantisch) so, dass es ohne Fachkenntnisse oder nicht effektiv ist. Es ist voellig unprofessionell, wie er das Projekt leitet.

Quelle

professionell
So nennt man ein Programm, das manchmal funktioniert und dann ungefaehr das tut, was es soll. Dieses Adjektiv ist steigerungsfaehig: noch professioneller, superprofessionell. Es gibt auch eine Abschwaechung: semiprofessionell; deutsche Uebersetzung: so gut wie nicht zu gebrauchen.
[Kommentar 1997: Die Ausdruecke sind etwas aus der Mode gekommen. Statt semiprofessionell sagt man heute M$.]

Quelle

Was ich sagen will ist ganz einfach. Eine Zeit lang habe ich darueber nachgedacht, was mir der Mail-Verfasser wohl sagen wollte. Ob er tatsaechlich Maengel an unserer Arbeitsweise in diesem einen Fall ankreiden wollte - nur nebenbei bemerkt, hat technisch (natuerlich) alles funktioniert - oder eben einfach nur einen schlechten Tag hatte.
Nachdem ich diese beiden "Definitionen" gelesen habe, lehne ich mich aber entspannt zurueck. Denn nach der Definition wird er uns wohl nicht vorwerfen unprofessionell gearbeitet zu haben. Denn Fachkenntnis haben wir (auch bewiesen) und effektiv war es auch (denn schliesslich hat's funktioniert). Und nicht professionell gearbeitet zu haben ist nach der Definition wohl auch nicht das Passende.
Bleibt der schlechte Tag. Und in Anbetracht des sonst so entspannten Verhaeltnisses interpretiere ich die Mail mal so. Ist ja auch viel praktischer als im Kaffeesatz zu lesen. Das naechste Zusammentreffen wird's wohl klaeren.

Posted by Thomas Lang At 6:01 PM Location Frankfurt | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: IDVault Notes 8.5 Notes Client
Since ages Notes has powerfull tools to create an automated and unattended installation and configuration. The Installshield Tuner for example does a great job with a variety of possibilities for customizing the Notes installation. It generates an MST file (Microsoft Transform File) and automated installations using the MSI technology are possible.
If you don't want or like to create an MST file, maybe because your environment is smaller or you don't want to use the MSI technology or whatever, you are nevertheless able to customize the installation of Notes clients.

But the installation is just one part. The client setup needs to be done also. Today I asked myself if the unattended configuration of the client will work with a vaulted user? For an unvaulted user you create a TXT file and link to it through an entry in the the notes.ini ConfigFile=Z:/User/setup.txt. The file should contain at least those entries:
Username=Hans Tester/TestDomain
KeyFileName=z:/Notes/htester.id
Domino.Name=domino01/TestDomain
Domino.Address=10.97.93.200
Domino.Port=TCPIP
Domino.Server=1

See the full list of available settings here.

Unfortunately this list (and I didn't found any documentation) doesn't say anything about how this works for a vaulted ID. But I assumed that omitting the line KeyFileName= will do the job. And it does.
The good news is you can use all your files created for unattended client configuration also for Notes 8.5 and vaulted IDs. Just delete this one line.
ID Vault is a really great feature. It save's a lot of work and time. If you haven't tried it out yet, go for it. It's easy and it just works.

Posted by Thomas Lang At 2:01 PM Location Frankfurt | Permalink | Comments (7)

Tags: development LotusScript

Let's assume we have a Notes database with documents containing reader fields. Let's also assume the reader fields contain group names. If a user has a local replica of this application it will obviously only contain the documents he is allowed to see.

When the admin adds the user to a group which allows the user see more documents in the database they might not replicate down because their modification date is prior to the last replication date stored in the replication history. In order to make these documents replicate to the user they either need to be modified (which would lead to all users replicating them as well) or the replication history of the local replica needs to be cleared.

The code in this entry is a sample to clear the replication history of the current database. It is sample code and hence does not contain error handling etc. and is provided as is - use at your own risk. The code is heavily based on an entry by Paul Ray in the Notes/Domino 4 and 5 Forum which contains the code to display the replication history of a database.

Sample Code

You can download the sample code here...

Posted by Jens Polster At 2:30 PM Location Sulzbach (Taunus), Germany | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: Stuff

Rendezvous - Claude LeLouche from Mark Dalzell on Vimeo.

Posted by Thomas Lang At 8:16 AM Location Frankfurt | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: Domino 8.5
One of our customers uses Domino since years for different things. The mailsystem is still Exchange but Domino didn't died through all the years. Even when some people would have loved seeing Domino passing away I'm working in a project team which builds one of the most profitable applications in this multinational company.

Some weeks ago our team was asked a really interesting question. One of the subsidiaries needed a new intranet. And someone in this company remembered a Domino application which is now 8 years old and was used in former years for a similar reason. And we were asked if this application is still available and if it can be run on the existing Domino 8.5 infrastuctur? Our answer was clear and easy: Yes and yes!
So the customer decided to stop efforts of evaluating new plattforms and other applications and build a protoype of a possible new intranet. There were some design refreshes and some other changes needed to let the old R5 application shine in a new light. But all the renovations were made by a non-developer. It was just reconfiguring the application with colors, fonts and images. For sure we're not talking about a web 2.0 stylish intranet. But we're talking about a application which made it's way from a prototype to the intranet application of one of the DAX companies with thousands of users. Since two weeks the new old application is live. We do have some issues with the full text search (maybe there will be a blog entry about it later) but nothing unsolvable.

The most interesting aspect of this story in my opinion is, that this new intranet was build without spending hundreds of thousands of Euros. The application was there, the Domino infrastructure was there (for sure, our needs for disk space, backup etc. will be higher, but at the moment no new hardware is needed) only the design refresh and some functional changes were needed. No project team, no new hardware, no new licenses, nothing. In times where everyone is talking about savings and crisis one of the most cost savings applications I've ever worked with.

Posted by Thomas Lang At 3:58 PM Location Frankfurt | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tags: Notes IDVault Notes 8.5 Notes Client
For one of our customers I created an IDvault in a new Domino 8.5 environment. Everything worked well except the setup of a freshly installed client. Everytime I started the client for configuration and entered user and servername (in that format: (<servername>/<ou>/<o>), the client asked me for the ID file. There wasn't any message or log entry on the server which could have linked me to the couse why the client didn't download the ID file from the vault.

I checked the users access to the server, checked the ID in the vault, checked if all user data was replicated to the users home server, if the vault server was available and so on. Nothing.
But then I tried the IP address instead of the full qualified servername
and voila, the client asked me directly for the password. The behavior is reproducable.

And as far as I can see I'm not the only one with that problem: look here or here.

Posted by Thomas Lang At 4:50 PM Location Frankfurt | Permalink | Comments (2)