Lotus Connections 3.0: a Technical View on What's New

ITM04Connections 3.0: a Technical

View on What's NewStuart McIntyre

Collaboration Matters

http://www.nllug.nl/home/lug2010.nsf/web/pocketagenda




This Session

Stuart McIntyre is one of the very few people who could get his hands on version 3.0 of IBM Lotus Connections. While the product is still in beta, Stuart is allowed to give you a sneak preview and tell you a couple of things that otherwise cannot yet be revealed.

He will do his presentation from a more technical view: what has changed since 2.5, what difference to scaling, how will organisations upgrade, what customisation is available and more. This session is quite technical and interesting only for those who have actually seen and 'touched' Lotus Connections before.

Please note:

Lotus Connections 3.0 is beta software, thus some or all features may change before GA.

All screenshots in this presentation are from the Lotus Greenhouse.

Your Host

Stuart McIntyre

Technical Director, Collaboration Matters

Connections Specialist

Blogger/Twitterer/Podcaster/Evangelist

Feel free to contact me:

facebook.com/stuartmcintyre

twitter.com/stuartmcintyre

www.linkedin.com/in/mcintyre

[email protected]

blog.collaborationmatters.com

lotusconnectionsblog.com

quickrblog.com

lotusliveblog.com

lotusphereblog.com

Some Questions...

Some Questions...

Who do you work for?

a Lotus Customer?

an IBM Business Partner?

IBM?

Some Questions...

Who do you work for?

a Lotus Customer?

an IBM Business Partner?

IBM?

What role do you have?

Administrator?

Developer?

Manager/Executive?

Consultant?

More Questions...

More Questions...

Lotus Connections 2.5

Seen it?

Used it in anger?

Installed/configured/administered?

More Questions...


Seen it?

Used it in anger?

Installed/configured/administered?


Seen presentations on it (Lotusphere 2010 etc.)?

Seen it live (demonstrations, Greenhouse)?

Used it (beta, Greenhouse)?

First, a note...

We have a lot of material...

And only 45 minutes to cover it in...

45 minutes????!???!

Our Agenda

Introduction to Connections 2.5

What’s coming in Connections 3.0?

What changes are ‘under the covers’?

On Connections 2.5 now? How do we get to 3.0?

Administration changes

What next?

Q&A

Introducing LC2.5

Whilst only a point-release, LC2.5 was probably the most significant update to product so far

Announced on 18th August, shipped on 28th August

Generated massive demand for adoption amongst existing users and outside

Lotus Connections 2.5Blogs

Communities

Bookmarks

Activities

Profiles

Homepage

Wikis

Files

Create, find, join, and work with communities of people who share a

common interest, responsibility, or area of expertise

Use a weblog to present your idea and get feedback from others; learn from the expertise and experience of others who

blog

Save, organize and share bookmarks; discover bookmarks that have been

qualified by others with similar interests & expertise

Organise your work, plan next steps, and easily tap your expanding professional network to help execute your everyday

deliverables, faster

Quickly find the people you need by searching across your organisation and

connecting to others.

Profiles

Bookmarks

Communities

ActivitiesBlogs

HomepageManage your attention by viewing

relevant social data aggregated across your subscriptions, notifications, and

network of colleagues.

WikisFilesUpload and share any type of file with

colleagues and communities. Store versions and view downloads, comments

and ratings.

Create wiki spaces for individuals, groups, and communities to coauthor pages. View changes across pages,

ratings, and comments.

All your social software needsready for business


Principal new features:

River of news

Status updates

Customisable Communities

Improved Discussion Forums

Files & Wikis

Mobile Interface

What’s New in Connections 3.0?

What’s New in Connections 3.0?

Global Navigation and Theme (including drop-down menus)

Home Page/News – improved news feed and integration of status updates, email digest

Communities – invitations, improved Files integration, Activities integration, sub-communities, My Communities views

Forums – standalone service, tags, question/answer topics

Profiles – Do You Know, Things in Common, Social Path widgets, tabbed Profile format

Files – collections changed to folders including drag and drop

Wikis – improved use of real estate, drag and drop navigation, My Wikis views

Blogs – improved authoring including new editor and more consistent navigation and entries lists

Linked Value – SharePoint/Communities integration, new portlets, status updates Lotus Notes sidebar plug-in

Global Navigation and Theme

Featuring drop-down menus

Fully customisable by administrators

Extensible

Getting Started

Detailed step-by-step introduction to Lotus Connections capabilities

Improved Homepage Updates

Profiles status updates integrated into Homepage

Updates and Watchlist integrated into news feed

New News Feed View

Improved Notifications

Includes option to receive notifications aggregated into digests

Central preferences for how to get notified about different types of content

Ability to follow different types of content like blogs and communities

Community Membership & Invitations

Now much easier to see who has been invited to a community

Can resend or revoke invites

Community Files

Files can be added to a community directly, or now from Connections Files feature

Tagging and commenting on files now available inside Communities

Sub-communities

Allows Communities to be sub-divided

Separate membership for each sub-community

Easy to create and manage

Can have own logo and/or theme

Sub-community has own widgets - forum, bookmarks, files, blog, activities, wiki, feeds etc.

New Forum Service

Forums have moved from being part of Communities to being standalone feature

Can have both Community-based and standalone forums

Easy to see:

Which forums user is taking part in

Open/Answered Questions

Profile Improvements

Social Path widgets

Tabbed Profile format

Much cleaner UI

‘Follow’ as well as ‘Connect’

Profile Improvements

Files Folders

Collections changed to Folders

Allows more granular management of files

Can be public, shared or private

Can be ‘pinned’ to make easier to access

Includes ‘drag and drop’

Wiki Usability

Improved use of real estate

‘Drag and drop’ navigation changes

Improved ‘My Wikis’ views

Authoring Blogs

New Rich Text Editor

Improved Moderation

And Much Much More...

Check out Suzanne Livingston’s session for all the details on Connections 3.0 improvements

Tomorrow at 15:00

What changes are ‘under the covers’?

The interesting bit!

First Up, Pre-requisites

There are a number of framework pre-requisites that must be met before installation of Lotus Connections

They’ve changed substantially for Connections 3.0...

Lotus Connections 3.0 System Requirements (Frameworks)

LC2.5 LC3.0

WASWAS 6.1.0.23

WAS ND 6.1.0.23WAS ND 7.0.0.7

DBDB2 9.1.6, 9.5.3

Oracle 10g 10.2.0.4 MS SQL 2005 Enterprise

DB2 9.5, 9.7 Oracle 10g 10.2.0.4

MS SQL 2005 Enterprise

HTTP WAS/IHS 6.1.0.23 WAS/IHS 7.0.0.7

LDAP

ITDS 6.0.0.3, 6,1 Lotus Domino 7.0.2, 8.0.x, 8.5.x

MS AD 2003Sun Java System Directory Server 5.2Sun Java Platform Standard Edition 6.0

Novell eDirectory 8.8IBM TDI 6.1.1 FP 6

ITDS 6.2.0.1 Lotus Domino 8.5.x

MS AD 2003, ADAM MS 2008 Sun Java System Directory Server 6.3

Novell eDirectory 8.8.5 TDI 7.0

Lotus Connections 3.0 System Requirements (OS)

LC2.5 LC3.0

Server OS

Windows 2003 32 bit Standard & EE Windows 2008 64 bit Enterprise Edition

AIX Version 5.3 TL10(System i/p)SLES10.0 32 bit

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) AS/ES Version 4.0 Update 7(x86-32)

Windows 2003 32 bit Standard & EE Windows 2008 64 bit Enterprise

Edition AIX 6.1, 64 bit kernel support

SLES10 32 bit RedHat 5.4 64 bit

Linux on System z – SLES 10 and RedHat 5.4

Client OS

Windows XP Pro, VistaSUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED)

10.0 x86-32Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger x86-32

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard x86-32

Windows XP Pro, Vista, 7 32 bit (and 64 bit toleration)

RedHat Desktop 5.4 Mac OS X 10.6

Lotus Connections 3.0 System Requirements (Client)

LC2.5 LC3.0

Browser

Windows 2003 32 bit Standard & EE Windows 2008 64 bit Enterprise Edition

AIX Version 5.3 TL10(System i/p)SLES10.0 32 bit

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) AS/ES Version 4.0 Update 7(x86-32)

Firefox 3.5 (Win/RH/Mac)Safari 4.0.5 (Mac)

IE6 (WinXP)IE7 (WinXP, Vista)

IE8 (WinXP, Vista, 7)

MobileApple iPhone, iPod TouchNokia Series 60 v3.x, v5.x

Android 2.x

Apple iPhone, iPod TouchNokia Series 60 v3.x, v5.x

Android 2.x

Installation and Upgrade

The installation procedure has changed significantly

Installation now much faster:

Actual installer still take approximately an hour

But start-to-finish now approximately 60% of Connections 2.5 install time

Upgrades from Connections 2.5.0.2 to Connections 3.0 will be supported

The New Installer

Connections 3.0 installer is based on the newest install technology – IBM Rational Install Manager (2.5 was based on Install Shield). This is the same as used for Lotus Sametime 8.5.

The new installer has a more flexible GUI

Supports installation of multiple product simultaneously

Integrates install/uninstall/upgrade/modify into one GUI

Connections 3.0 installer supports Network Deployment version of WAS only

No longer support Stand-alone deployment (still able to migrate from 2.5 stand-alone to 3.0 ND)

Connections 3.0 installer supports installing multiple nodes at the same time

The installer will run directly against Deployment Manager and Managed Node rather than on unmanaged nodes (like 2.5)

Connections 3.0 installer is faster with reduced post-install steps

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Installing a New Environment

High-level overview of installation process:

Pre-install steps

Prepare WebSphere Application Server environment

Install Deployment Manager and Node1

Install Node2/Node3/...

Add node

Configure Security/LDAP

Create Connections databases

Populate Profiles database

Install using installer

Post-Install

Add Blogs admin

Configure IBM HTTP Server

Target Installation Environment

On DMgr, can either:install WAS ND from scratch (Cell profile), orcreate a Cell profile in existing WAS using PMT

On additional nodes:Either:

install WAS ND from scratch (AppSvr profile), orcreate a Cell profile in existing WAS using PMT, choosing AppSvr profile

add new nodes to DMgrConfigure security/LDAP on DMgr (federated repositories, as for Connections 2.5)

Creating Databases

New Database Wizard for Connections 3.0

“Nanny mode” enables you to look into the detailed commands the Wizard runs, selected by default

Streamlined Wizard reduces number of questions asked

Population Wizard much improved too

Uses TDI 7.0

Installing the Connections code

Install using installer

Prepare content store directories

Prepare database driver on all nodes

Copy installer to DMgr machine

Start installer

Restart WAS env

Restart DMgr/node (DMgr should always be started first and stopped last)

Full synchronize (on DMgr console)

Start all cluster (on DMgr console)

The New Installer

New Installation Manager process

Still defaults to c:\Program Files on Windows

Don’t do it!! (avoid spaces)

Installation path must be empty

Detects WAS installation directory

New topology options:

Small/Medium/Large

Asks for DB password once if selected (yay!)

Post Install

Much simplified over Connections 2.5

Install and configure HTTP and Plug-in

Configure Blogs


More Questions!!


More Questions!!

How many of you have Connections 2.5 in place?


More Questions!!

How many of you have Connections 2.5 in place?

Already at Connections 2.5.0.2?

Upgrading to Connections 3.0

DB migration

In-place upgrade (always backup before you proceed)

DB wizard or manual upgrade (using SQL scripts)

Side-by-side

Install 2.5 DB on new host

Using db transfer tool or local DB tools to transfer DB

DB upgrade using DB wizard (or manual steps)

Application migration (effectively always side-by-side)

New install LC 3.0 on WAS 7.0

Migrate configuration and content store using migration tool

Same process for migrating a 2.5 stand-alone and 2.5 ND in terms of migration tool

Migration framework remains the same as 2.5

And from an Admin perspective?

User Lifecycle Management

Add a consistent concept of “state” in Lotus Connections - active and inactive

Employees no longer located in the user repository can be inactivated in Connections

An employee can be re-activated

Net benefits:

Make easier and solve issues around the reuse of emails and logins

Enhanced user experience

Background process keeping in sync user data across all LC databases

Infrastructure pushing user meta-data from Profiles to other LC services

Keep in sync display name, email, logins, directory id and state

Lower the administrative complexity -no longer needed to run administrative WSAdmin commands against all services!

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User Lifecycle Management

Marked with a specific style in membership lists

Business card and Profiles page

Omitted from typeahead components used for Notification/Membership/Access Control

Can no longer be added to a network

Can be hidden from search results (Profiles)

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Globalisation

Globalization and ignoring punctuation in searches

Default behaviour is to ignore accents – the and thé are equivalent

Can enable language sensitivity (via WSAdmin)

Requires recreation of index

Results in larger index

Can choose to ignore punctuation (via WSAdmin)

These marks will be removed from search terms

New Server Metrics

Bookmarks, Communities, Files, Homepage, Profiles, Search and Wikis

E.g.

Number of users

Most popular tags

Size of Files libraries

Search indexing times

Each service has its own access URL, eg:

http://<servername.com:port>/communities/service/html/servermetrics

http://<servername.com:port>/dogear/toolbox/servermetrics

Details will be in the Infocenter under each service

Activities Scheduler

Prior to Connections 3.0, Activities used the Quartz scheduler

Now using the WebSphere scheduler

Consistent with other Connections services

Changes to Activities scheduled tasks are not migrated forward

Must be re-configured in oa-config.xml or via WSAdmin

Search Index

Multiple nodes

Indexes can be managed across several nodes

Temporary directories can be configured for each node to store the files for indexing

You can remove a node from the index management table when it is removed from a cluster

Scripted backup

A task can be scheduled to backup the index

Purging content

Allows admin to delete content for a specific application, rather than deleting and recreating the whole index (Yay!)

What Next?

If you have Connections 2.5, do not stand still!

Try out the Connections 3.0 instance in the Lotus Greenhouse

Look out for more details on the new release (Suzanne’s session, Techtalks, webcasts etc.)

Evangelise, drive adoption, socialise your organisation (and your customers, partners,

friends...)!

Image: http://www.slideshare.net/Niezette/100-pictures-for-powerpoint-presentations

http://www.slideshare.net/marknadsstod/getting-real-about-enterprise-20

http://www.slideshare.net/marknadsstod/getting-real-about-enterprise-20

Remember...

But in truth, social software

users do and the business problems the tools address.

Jakob Nielsen, Usability Guru

Did you know?

lotusinfocenters.com

lotuswikis.com

planetlotus.org

thisweekinlotus.com

Questions?

Thank you!

Lotus Connections 3.0: a Technical View on What's New

Technology

Transcript of Lotus Connections 3.0: a Technical View on What's New