Torrance, CA (PRWEB) February 02, 2012

Computer Architechs International Corporation (CAI), an organization that provides premier consulting services centered around social business, today announced Social Business Online 2012, an online conference system that allows conference attendees to get the most out of their conference experience.

Social Business Online 2012 opened on Jan. 5, 2012, and will be available to attendees of IBM’s social business conferences, IBM Connect and Lotusphere 2012, until Feb. 3, 2012. This online tool is a powerful source of information that enhances the conference experience for attendees by allowing them to “get social” and “go mobile” when creating their conference schedules, networking and chatting instantly with other attendees, setting status updates, acting on social recommendations, interacting with Twitter feeds, creating profiles, participating in communities and forums, creating wikis, sharing favorite bookmarks, microblogging and so much more.

Social Business Online leverages the power of XPages seamlessly integrated with many of IBM’s social collaboration and mobile tools. It allows users to experience Social Business for themselves from almost anywhere an Internet connection is available. In fact, the online conference system can be accessed from almost any mobile device.

Besides the full online conference system, accessible by the most popular browsers, users have access to a mobile version of the site from advanced mobile devices with smaller screens. Users who don’t sport a tablet or smartphone can still mobilize by accessing the Mobile Lite site, which supports most Internet-connected mobile phones with less advanced browsers.

In addition, CAI also provided native conference agenda applications for the Apple iOS, Google Android, and RIM Blackberry devices for ultra-portability. These applications allowed users to download the conference agenda right to their devices, search, view and schedule sessions, and also synchronize their schedules with their accounts on the Social Business Online 2012 site. The applications also allowed attendees to automatically update the Agenda when any changes were made to the Agenda on the main online site.

“The agenda mobile apps gave attendees the unique ability to view and schedule sessions while offline and then, with a click of a button, sync their schedules and the agenda with their conference accounts” said Reed Gesteland, President and CEO of Computer Architechs International Corp.

The schedule could also be synchronized to users’ own calendars with Apple iOS, Google Android, Nokia SymbianOS, and Microsoft Windows Mobile devices via the site’s Lotus Notes Traveler server. Finally, if that wasn’t enough mobile support already, a user’s schedule could also be exported as an iCal file to be imported into any calendar application that supports the iCalendar standard.

About Computer Architechs International Corporation
Computer Architechs International Corporation is an IBM Advanced Level Business Partner that specializes in providing premier IT consulting services centered around the IBM Social Business portfolio of products. CAI has been providing IT consulting services for IBM Lotus software since 1996 and has more than 15 years of experience providing professional mobile application development services across an array of different industry verticals. CAI can be contacted via email at sales(at)caicorp(dot)com or by telephone toll-free: 888-614-2197. CAI can also be found on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Additional information can be obtained at http://www.caicorp.com.

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When I tried to add some new widgets such as Lotus Learning Widget, XPages Widget, Widgets wrapping iGoogle Gadgets  into IBM Connections 3.0.1, I faced the problem below.

BMWIW0001E: Unable to load iWidget ******************************* Status: 403

Basically this error was caused since IBM Connections security policy was increased for external domain access.

Below is the way to enable the external iWidget on IBM Connections.

1. Go to the LotusConnections-config folder
   (Sample path) /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/Dmgr01/config/cells/connectionsCell01/LotusConnections-config/
2. Open proxy-config.tpl file to edit
3. Add following line under <!– BEGIN CUSTOMIZATIONS HERE –>
   

   <!– BEGIN CUSTOMIZATIONS HERE –>
   <proxy:policy url=”http://www-10.lotus.com/learning/connections/*” acf=”none”>
   <proxy:actions>
   <proxy:method>GET</proxy:method>
   </proxy:actions>
   <proxy:headers/>
   <proxy:cookies/>
   </proxy:policy>

   Note: you can set the policy url=”*” if you would like to allow widgets from any external domain

4. Save the file and close.
5. To propagate this file change, Go to Deployment Manager Console (WebSphere)
6. Go to [System administration] -> [Nodes] from left navigation
   
7. Go to [Applications] ->[Application Types] -> [WebSphere enterpise applications], then restart applications.

That’s all what I did.

Below is the useful link:
Enabling IBM Connections 3.0.1 for External Widgets: http://phase2.com/blog/?p=1861

Updated on Nov 8, 2011 @ 13:50(PDT)

To enable the Install and Application Management options in Domino Designer 8.5.3, simply go to File – Preference – Domino Designer ->(General section) Enable Eclipse plug-in install. (Special thanks to Dan O’Connor)

Below is the original post for alternative way to show the options. (not recommended)

——————- ——————- ——————- ——————-

Below is the way to show File – Application – Install option in Lotus Notes/Domino Designer 8.5.3.

I needed to select File – Application – Install option to install the latest XPages Extension Library (OpenNTF XPages ExtLib page) into Domino Designer 8.5.3 automatically via the update site database that is the new feature of Domino 8.5.3.

1. Close Lotus Notes and Domino Designer.
2. Go to Lotus\Notes\framework\rcp
3. Edit plugin_customization.ini
4. Add the following line, then save the file.
   com.ibm.notes.branding/enable.update.ui=true
5. Go to Lotus\Notes\Data\workspace\.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.core.runtime\.settings
6. Edit com.ibm.notes.branding.prefs file
7. Edit 2nd line
   [Before]
   #Thu Sep 08 11:56:06 PDT 2011
   enable.update.ui=false
   eclipse.preferences.version=1
   [After]
   #Thu Sep 08 11:56:06 PDT 2011
   enable.update.ui=true
   eclipse.preferences.version=1
8. Start Lotus Notes and Domino Designer.

Then I could confirm Install and Application Management options are shown in File – Application.

I’m told that IBM frowns on companies switching/downgrading their licenses from Lotus Domino Enterprise to a “lesser” license. I don’t really know if that is true, but it is perfectly understandable that IBM would prefer that a client continues its Software Subscription and Support with an Enterprise-level product versus purchasing a product targeted to SMBs. Therefore, it comes to no surprise that there is no “downgrade” path from a IBM Lotus Domino Enterprise license to a license such as IBM Lotus Domino Collaboration Express. Your only choice is to purchase the Domino Collab Licenses in full, outright if you decide to make the switch.

Until 2011, the line between Lotus Domino Enterprise Server and Lotus Domino Collaboration Express was very clear. With the former you got many advanced features such as Clustering and Directory Assistance that were not supported by the latter license. So, for organizations that needed more reliable uptime, integration with a foreign directory such as LDAP, and/or wanted to place a condensed replica of their Domino Directory on the laptops of their Notes users (among other many enterprise level features), the obvious choice was to go with the Enterprise version. However, this year, all but one restriction imposed upon the Collaboration Express license has been lifted and that is the size of the company that is allowed to use that license instead of the Enterprise one.

This one restriction is that IBM only allows companies with fewer than 1000 employees to opt for a Collaboration Express license. If you have more than 1000 employees then the only choice is for the Enterprise Server. With all of the other licensing restrictions lifted this means that there are a huge number, of what IBM deems to be SMBs, faced with a new choice: Do I make the switch from IBM Lotus Domino Enterprise to IBM Lotus Domino Collaboration Express?

Besides the recent lifting of the licensing restrictions for Collab Express, it is also important to note the two big advantages to this license compared with the Enterprise one. The first being that there is no additional licensing cost for installing and running Domino servers. Collaboration Express is purely based on the number of users (aka Client Access Licenses or CALs) using the Lotus Notes or iNotes client whereas Enterprise is a combination of both user (CAL) and server (PVU) licensing. So, with Collaboration Express you can run as many servers as you want without restriction, even if you purchase just one CAL.

The second advantage is that for Collab Express you do not need to calculate the number of Processor Value Units (PVUs) for each server you are installing since, as already stated above, there’s no need to worry about server licensing. I don’t think it is necessary to go into detail in this posting about how PVUs are calculated and how IBM determines the PVU value for the variety of processor types that exist in the market today (if you need more information please check out this link: Processor Value Unit [PVU] licensing for Distributed Software). Suffice it to say that PVU calculation is a fairly complex task. In fact, it is complex enough where IBM has felt the need to provide a PVU calculator on its website to aid users and resellers in figuring out how much server licensing will be for their physical and virtual server machines. In short, avoiding the need to calculate PVUs is a huge benefit to Collab Express licensing.

For companies under 100 users the choice is quite clear actually, especially if you plan to be using the software for at least another 2 or 3 years and you plan to continue purchasing IBM Lotus’ Software Subscription and Support during that time. In this case, switching from Enterprise to Collaboration Express makes the most sense. Although there is the initial sting of paying full price for the Collab Express licenses, if you compare the cost with the annual subscription for the Enterprise user and server licenses, you might actually break even or save money on or after the first year.

We recently landed the opportunity to renew the software for a company with 10 employees. They were planning on renewing their user and server licenses for Enterprise server. The total renewal cost turned out to be more expensive than purchasing 10 new Collaboration Express licenses outright. The next time this company is up for renewal their total cost outlay will be less than one fourth what they had been paying annually before for basically the exact same license.

This may initially appear to be a losing proposition for IBM since their renewal revenue stream could be drastically reduced by lower licensing costs. However, I believe that this may actually be a boon for IBM. It is a great opportunity for IBM to encourage new SMBs to Lotus Notes and Domino or even existing ones to choose to do one or more of the following:
1. Move/Migrate to IBM Lotus Notes and Domino given the recently available enterprise level features that do not exist in competing products at similar price points;
2. Stay put on the IBM Lotus Notes and Domino platform by switching from Enterprise to Collaboration Express when they might have decided to move away to a competing platform because of the much higher annual Enterprise level licensing
3. Stay put on the IBM Lotus Domino Collaboration Express platform because of all of the newly introduced enterprise level features now available at no additional cost
4. Reinstate/Upgrade an older version to the latest version of IBM Lotus Notes Domino to take advantage of all of these new features

Of course, the ability to switch will not be suitable for all SMB Enterprise level licensed companies. We researched having a 250 user company switch from Enterprise to Collaboration Express, but the switch did not make sense financially in this case, at least not over the short team Purchasing 250 Collab Express CALs outright was much more costly than renewing 250 Enterprise CALs even along with the Server PVU renewals, so it made a lot more sense for the company to stay where they were for now.

If your company is considering making the switch please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We can help you figure out whether it makes sense for you too.

I was looking for a way to speed up my Notes 8.5 Standard (Eclipse-based) client and, thankfully, I found out this site:
http://www.lotusdr.com/LotusDR/LotusDR.nsf/dx/speeding-up-the-notes-eclipse-version.htm?opendocument&comments

Here’s how to increase your Eclipse memory usage:

- Close your Notes client
- Go to your Notes client installation directory of C:\…\Notes\framework\rcp\deploy and edit the jvm.properties file by changing:
vmarg.Xmx=-Xmx256m
to
vmarg.Xmx=-Xmx512m or vmarg.Xmx=-Xmx1024m
-Save and close the file then start your Notes Client.

My Lotus notes client is fast like a rocket now.

I was confronted with two issues when installing Sametime Entry 8.5.1 after the BES Express server was installed on the Domino 8.5.2 FP2 server.

When I installed Sametime Entry 8.5.1 over Lotus Domino 8.5.2 FP2 today I got an error message stating: “Xsp Initialization error – Could not get JVM environment”.  After a little bit of searching I found out the following:

The problem turned out to be that the BES Express installation was effectively setting any JVM to be disabled in the Domino server’s notes.ini.   The setting that BES Express changed in the Notes.ini was:
HTTPDisableJVM =1
I changed the value to 0 and the error message went away.

However,  despite the change the STaddin task was still not loading when Domino started up.  I checked the domino log and I noticed the following error message.

05/25/2011 11:31:20 AM  HTTP JVM: JVMJ9GC027E Malformed option: ‘-Xmx64sM’
05/25/2011 11:31:20 AM  HTTP JVM: JVMJ9VM015W Initialization error for library j9gc24(2): Failed to
initialize; unable to parse command line0
5/25/2011 11:31:20 AM  JVM: The Java Virtual Machine creation returned an invalid JVM machine pointer.
05/25/2011 11:31:20 AM  JVM: Java Virtual Machine failed to start
05/25/2011 11:31:20 AM  HTTP Server: Error Loading Java Virtual Machine
05/25/2011 11:31:20 AM  HTTP Server: JVM: Missing entrypoint in JVM runtime library.05/25/2011 11:31:21 AM  HTTP Server: Shutdown

I did a “sh conf http*” on the Domino console and saw that my HTTPJVMMaxHeapSize was set to 64M.  I fixed this by increasing the HTTPJVMMaxHeapSize to 128M  and restarted the server.  Everything is working now.  What a happy day for me. : )

We were trying to get a customer configured to use his Lotus Notes Basic 8.5 client to connect to his newly installed Lotus Sametime Entry 8.5.1 server on Microsoft Windows 2008. When the customer tried to log in, he seemed to login successfully. However, even though the Lotus Notes Basic Client status bar would show “Logged on to Instant Messaging”, his Instant Messaging status showed as “Disconnected”. When opening up his Notes mail there was no awareness showing up at all. If he had logged on successfully he should show “I’m Active” as the Instant Messaging status.

When we attempted the same process with the Lotus Notes Standard client, he was able to login to Sametime Entry server without a problem and awareness was fine as well. So we knew the problem was the user’s account or the configuration of the Sametime Server.

We did a search on the Internet for a possible solution without much success at first. However, eventually we found the following post that was extremely helpful. Although the nature of the problem described in the post linked below is different from the problem we were experiencing, it turns out that the fix was the same.

http://www.zarazaga.net/mangelcalvo/blog/home.nsf/dx/sametime-8.5.1-doesnt-like-lotus-notes-basic

As the post above states, the fix is to simply lower the number in the Sametime Entry Server’s Sametime.ini for the parameter VP_SECURITY_LEVEL from the default of 7000 to a something like 25 and restart the Domino server.
So instead of:
VP_SECURITY_LEVEL=7000
You should have:
VP_SECURITY_LEVEL=25

The reason for the value change is also explained in the above post as follows: the Lotus Notes 8.5 Basic client comes with the Sametime 6.5 Client. The VP_SECURITY_LEVEL is set too high to allow such an old version of the Sametime client to login. By lowering the value you are, thereby, lowering the threshold for what clients can access the server allowing the Lotus Notes Basic 8.5 Client the ability to login.

After changing the value and restarting the Sametime Entry Server, when our customer attempted to login again he got the “I’m Active” as his Instant Messaging status and all appeared to be working just fine.

I hope that this helps someone else experiencing the same issue.

This information may already be out there, but I really couldn’t easily find it. At least I couldn’t find one place that gave a step-by-step on how to update your Symphony from version 1.3 to version 3.0 with Fix Pack 1 embedded in Lotus Notes 8.5. So, after successfully installing it, I decided that this may help someone else who might be trying to do the the same thing:

Here are the steps:
1. First you need to download the IBM Lotus Symphony 3.0 Add on Pack from IBM Partnerworld or your IBM Passport Advantage account. The correct product name and part numbers are:
- IBM Lotus Symphony 3.0 Add on Pack for Windows Multilingual (CZT5PML)
- IBM Lotus Symphony 3.0 Add on Pack for Linux (RPM Install) Multilingual (CZT5RML)
- IBM Lotus Symphony 3.0 Add on Pack for Linux (Debian Install) Multilingual (CZT5TML)
- IBM Lotus Symphony 3.0 Add on Pack for Mac Multilingual (CZT5VML)

2. Once downloaded successfully, extract all the files and locate the instructions for installing the add-on from within the extracted files. Follow those instructions (each platform has different instructions). Make sure, of course, that you close Lotus Notes before installing. I installed the Windows package so I did the following:
- Inside the extracted files you should find a folder called “Lotus_Symphony_Add-on”. Run Setup.exe inside that folder and follow the directions to install the upgrade.

3. Once you complete Step 3, you will need to download the Fix Pack for your platform for Lotus Symphony 3.0. Here’s information from IBM about the prerequisites needed for your platform and how to install the update [IBM Lotus Symphony 3 Fix Pack 1 (embedded with Lotus Notes) Release Notes]: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21459445

4. You can find the Fix Packs for your platform at the following URL in the LDD Fix Central. Please locate and download the Fix Pack:

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/search.wss?rs=475&navkey=1ByProduct&tc=SSKTWP&loc=en-us&dc=D400&dtm

Here are the names for the Fix Pack for your platform:
- IBM Lotus Symphony 3 Embedded in Lotus Notes fix pack 1 for Ubuntu Linux​
- IBM Lotus Symphony 3 Embedded in Lotus Notes fix pack 1 for Linux​
- IBM Lotus Symphony 3 Embedded in Lotus Notes fix pack 1 for Mac OSX​
- IBM Lotus Symphony 3 Embedded in Lotus Notes fix pack 1 for Windows​

5. Once downloaded, extract the files as you did for the 3.0 upgrade and follow the instructions in the URL provided in Step 3 above to install the Fix Pack. Of course, still make sure that Lotus Notes is not running when you install the Fix Pack.

7. You should be all set now

Computer Architechs created mobile agenda applications for IBM’s Lotusphere 2011 Online so that registered attendees would be able to, not only, put the whole Conference Agenda into their pockets, but also they can create their Conference Schedule right on their device and sync the schedule with the Lotusphere Online servers.

The session data is also synchronized with the servers, so, if any updates are made to the session data, the mobile application can automatically synchronize the changes. Furthermore, attendees can maintain their schedule on their devices and on the Lotusphere Online Session Scheduler application. Edits made to either side will automatically sync up.

The iPhone application is available on the iTunes Apps store ready for download as “Lotusphere 2011 Mobile Agenda”. It will also run on the iPad and iPod devices. The Android and Blackberyry apps can be downloaded directly from the Lotusphere Online site after the registered attendee logs in.

Attendees need a Lotusphere Online six digit User ID and Password to allow the application to synchronize with the servers and to ensure that they have access to their own unique calendars on the site.

This is a huge leap forward from previous years, when only static applications were made available to attendees. For past Lotuspheres only static mobile apps for the Blackberry and Windows Mobiles were available.

On January 11, 2011, IBM welcomed Computer Architechs International Corporation into the Software Value Incentive (SVI) business partner reseller authorization group (RAG) for Lotus Messaging & Collaboration.

As part of IBM’s plan to ensure that its software and hardware resellers have adequate knowledge to sell its products, IBM has toughened its requirements for resellers by making specific technical and sales certifications in its products mandatory for proper authorization. One of those groups is the aforementioned Lotus Messaging and Collab which authorizes a reseller, once accepted, to resell Lotus Notes and Domino software.