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Clippings is the official newsletter for Lotus Certified Professionals.
This monthly newsletter is your ideal source for news, certification
and exam updates, and technical resources NOW brought to you jointly
by LotusUserGroup.org,
THE VIEW, and
IBM
Lotus Certification.
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| In This Issue: |
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Newsletter archive! The Clippings newsletter archive is available here.
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| SPONSORED BY CERTFX |
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Study with CertFX, the leader in Lotus Certification practice tests. With CertFX practice tests, all purchases are available for immediate download. You also receive free support, real-time updates and lifetime maintenance* with your purchase. |
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*Lifetime maintenance refers to the lifetime of the real exam.
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| PROGRAM MANAGER'S NOTE |
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We have just returned from a very successful Lotusphere. It was wonderful to meet so many of you there. I will have a full report for you all in next month's "Clippings"
This Month we are introducing a new segment to Clippings, Guru Guidance. This section of the newsletter will provide you with a different article each month written by one of two world-class gurus, Julian Robichaux, a renowned speaker, author, consultant, and creator of nsftools.com and Warren Elsmore, popular speaker and Technical Director of BE Systems.
Check out this month’s article from Julian and be sure to check in each month to reap this new benefit of being a Clippings Subscriber.
Best Regards,
Bob
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| SPONSORED BY: GSX GROUPWARE SOLUTIONS |
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| GURU GUIDANCE |
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February 2008: the Lotus Notes 8 client has been "gold" code for 6 months, and 8.0.1 is about to be released. Have you started testing it yet?
IBM hasn't offered numbers on how many clients have upgraded to Notes/Domino 8 so far, but common speculation is that a lot of people were waiting for 8.0.1 to come out because they didn't want to install a "dot zero" release of software.
Fair enough, but have YOU been testing Notes 8? Do you have it installed on your workstation, playing with the new features and testing your applications on it? If not, here are a few tips on installing and testing the new client.
Understand the two different clients
There are actually two different versions of the Notes 8 client now: "Basic" and "Standard". The Basic client is essentially the same as the Notes client you're used to using, and it looks virtually the same as the Notes 7 client. This is for customers who want to upgrade but who either (A) don't have machines powerful enough to run the Standard client, or (B) don't want to shock their users with a modern, pleasant-looking new interface.
The Standard client is based on the Lotus Expeditor framework, which is an IBM customization of Eclipse. While it still runs the Notes executables in the background, the presentation layer is all done in Expeditor/Eclipse, which offers a lot of nice new interface and add-on possibilities.
From a functional standpoint, here's a good list of what the Standard client CAN do but the Basic client cannot.
Interestingly enough, you can actually launch the Basic client from a Standard client install by running nlnotes.exe from the Notes 8 install directory. As a Developer, you most certainly want to install the Standard client.
Install everything
Two of the optional components for a full (client + Designer + Admin) install are the Productivity Editors and the Composite Application Editor. Even if you don't plan on looking at those things right away, just go ahead and install everything. Either you'll want them later (like when you want to create a Composite Application), or someone will ask about them (like a manager who's curious about whether a spreadsheet will open in the new Notes editors).
Use a reasonably new computer
I actually do demos of Notes 8 sometimes on my 3-year-old Thinkpad with a Pentium 1.5 MHz processor and less than 1 GB of RAM, just to show people that you don't need a supercomputer to run the client. However, you may want something a little better than that.
At the very least, use a newer machine with more than 1 GB of RAM. If you're running Windows Vista, make it at least 2 GB of RAM. If you're the type of person who always has 8 or 10 programs running at the same time, give yourself another GB. The Standard client likes to do a lot of things when it runs, and the underlying Eclipse tooling means that everything is much more modular (and resource intensive) than the old client. This makes it powerful, extensible, and hungry.
And also, no matter what machine you run it on, it may take a while for the Notes 8 client to launch after you've double-clicked the icon. Get used to it. After it's started, things run much more quickly. If you can disable virus-scanning on the new Notes directory, that will tend to speed things up too.
You CAN install Notes 8 on the same computer as Notes 7
Yes, it IS possible to install Notes 7 and Notes 8 on the same workstation. That's what I do, and it's the same technique we've been using for years with concurrent Notes installations: rename the old install directory and adjust the registry when you're done. If you're not familiar with the technique, there are excellent instructions and information here.
Just be aware that if you're not careful, Notes 8 will overwrite your existing Notes client installation. It's not that hard to avoid the problem, but you need to watch out.
It's mostly safe to edit Notes 7 apps with Notes 8, but be careful.
Just as a test, I kept going back and forth between Notes 7 and Notes 8 while I was developing my Lotusphere sample databases. Nothing seemed to break, but it was far from a scientific test. In older versions of the client there were sometimes strange issues with things like Action bars getting messed up if you used multiple client versions to edit, but I haven't noticed anything like that so far. The worst that's happened to me is LotusScript code that worked fine in 7 but required a recompile in 8 because of the old "Error loading UseLSX" error.
That being said, be careful editing your production applications with Notes 8 if you're "just testing". It's possible that you might stumble across some weird cross-version bug that makes your users mad.
One known area of incompatibility is web services: web services created or edited in Notes 8 WILL NOT WORK on Notes 7. You have been warned.
Read up on the new features
And of course you'll need to read up on all the nice new features of Notes 8. It's not enough to just test your old apps on the new client and say, "Yeah, that works." You should also learn about things like the sidebar, the new mail template, and composite applications. Here are some links to get you started:
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp4359.html
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247506.html
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/library/notes8-new/index.html
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| SPONSORED BY GOOGLE UNIVERSAL SEARCH FOR LOTUS NOTES/DOMINO |
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Can finding information within your company - including all emails and content in Lotus Notes - be as easy as finding information on Google.com? The Google Search Appliance brings universal search to the enterprise, enabling enterprise users to access intranets, file shares, databases, content management systems, and real-time business data - all from one simple search box. Additionally, Persistent Systems, a certified Google Enterprise Partner, has built a Lotus Notes connector to make all your Notes content searchable.
Join us for an online presentation about universal search and see an online demo on the Lotus Notes connector. The Webcast will be presented on February 19th, 2008 at 10:00 AM Pacific Standard Time.
Register today
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| FROM LOTUSUSERGROUP.ORG |
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Huge mail file sizes are a universal frustration for system managers and mail file size quotas are a source of aggravation for users. Find out how to reconcile the two (and maybe win a great prize while you're at it). Join us for our first virtual user group meeting of 2008, including an online presentation by popular Lotus expert Rob Axelrod of Technotics, Inc, in which Rob discusses how to reconcile the user's business needs for expanded mail file sizes with your disk management needs and most importantly with your corporate document management needs. Rob will discuss tools and methods for analysis of your systems and methodologies for managing the massive amounts of email data that resides in our environments. Uncover proven best practices for where to put data (local vs. server), setting up and managing archiving rules, and controlling the end-user environment. Get tips managing and troubleshooting policies. Plus, learn how archiving affects server performance, the impact of local archiving, and more.
Virtual User Group Meetings (and the presentation) are free to LotusUserGroup.org members but require pre-registration.
Register Today!
Hosted by LotusUserGroup.org, sponsored by Sherpa Software, Google, and Admin2008 Boston.
After some technical difficulties, the podcasts are now posted online. This year, Superguru Jess Stratton once again went running around Lotusphere 2008 grabbing interviews for the Live from Lotusphere coverage.
Our Live from Lotusphere coverage features podcast interviews recorded live from the conference with members from all walks of the Lotus community. You get to hear about cool projects being worked on throughout the community, what people are looking forward to in Lotus, what was worthwhile and what wasn't, what people's perceptions of the conference, announcements, and activities are, and a lot more fun and interesting details. We've posted Jess' interviews in 3 different categories:
2 Minutes With...Our Members
2 Minutes With...The Gurus
2 Minutes With...Lotus
Check out all 3 interview groups for some fun and interesting insights into the community, Lotusphere 2008, and Lotus in general.
If you are not yet a member of LotusUserGroup.org, there has never been a better time to join. Aside from the many benefits of membership, like moderated topic forums to get your toughest questions answered, online presentations, helpful administration and development newsletter, member discounts, and a lot more; we've updated some features to make them even more useful. We now have searchable topic forums, searchable and browsable Lotus event listings, and more. Plus, when you sign up this month, you are automatically entered to win a Motorola Q9 from Motorola Good Technology. There will be a drawing at the end of February and at the end of March, so you have 2 chances to win. If you are not a member, sign up for free today.
If you are already a member, send this link to a colleague and recommend that they sign up today. They will thank you for it. We promise.
At Lotusphere 2008 IBM Lotus announced Foundations and Bluehouse, two initiatives for businesses with less than 500 employees. How many employees are there in your company?
Give us your feedback and answer the survey question.
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| EDUCATION NEWS |
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Available to Solution Developers and Service Providers
Technical skills enablement workshops are being delivered both in-person and virtually worldwide. These workshops are intended to provide valuable technical skills to build solutions and deploy services.
Workshop descriptions and registration is now open on the public IBM Internet, click the links below for details.
For any questions, please send e-mail to Lotusedu@us.ibm.com
Available to Clients, Business Partners and IBMers
New Self-Paced Technical Skills Workshops are now available. Self-Paced workshops enable the student to download the workshop presentations & labs, then execute the labs remotely, all on their own schedule with no travel required. The presentations have synchronized narration (English only) and allow the student full control to pause, forward, repeat or navigate the slides. Students reserve a 1-week period to run the labs on a remote live environment. Support for questions or any assistance are provided through a monitored forum. After enrolling, the student is sent an e-mail with details on how to proceed. To enroll in this no-fee offering, send a note to Lotusedu@us.ibm.com with the name of the workshop requested, your e-mail address, and one or two preferred 1-week times to run the labs. NOTE: an Internet connection is required.
The Self-Paced workshop content is the same as the in-person workshops that are currently being delivered. Here are links to the workshop descriptions:
Lotus Expeditor Client & Toolkit V6.1.1
Lotus Expeditor for Systems Administrators
Lotus Mobile Connect
Lotus Workplace Forms 2.7
Websphere Portal Express
Websphere Portal Enable
Lotus Sametime 7.5.1
Lotus Connections
Lotus Notes 8 Domino 8
Lotus Quickr 8
For any questions, please send e-mail to Lotusedu@us.ibm.com.
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| RESOURCES/PUBLICATIONS |
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Integrating IBM WebSphere Portlet Factory V6.0.1 with IBM WebSphere Portal Document Manager
Introduction to the JavaScript API in IBM Lotus Forms V3
Integrating IBM Lotus Connections with Microsoft Technologies
IBM Workplace Web Content Management V2.x to V6.x Migration Guide
The Learning Continuum Company (administrators) has announced new courses for both developers and administrators on Notes Domino 8. These courses will prepare you for the IBM/Lotus exams to get certified on Notes Domino 8.
For New Developers:
Notes Domino 8 Application Development 1
Learn how to develop Notes Domino 8 applications at your own place and at your pace. This distance-learning course is for developers who are new to Notes application development. Using Domino Designer you will learn how to create a Domino database, create forms, add fields to a form, create views, use the formula language, and create agents. Enhance your application using framesets, outlines, pages, tables, single category views, layers, hotspots, buttons, and actions. Then complete your application by adding help documents and applying Domino security. This course is packed with demonstrations and activities to quickly get you developing Notes and Domino applications. As you progress through the course you build a customer tracking application. The Notes Domino 8 Application Development 1 course will prepare you for the Exam 834: IBM Lotus Notes Domino 8 Application Development Foundation Skills certification exam. This exam is the first of three required exams for certification as an IBM Certified Application Developer — Lotus Notes and Domino 8.
Notes Domino 8 Application Development 2
Become an expert Domino developer with this comprehensive distance-learning course. Take a deep dive into how Notes and Domino really work and learn to develop complex workflow applications which are secure and have a great user interface! This course will teach you how to take advantage of Domino's event oriented architecture for databases, views and forms. Use list processing to work with lists and build a cool dynamic table. Learn how to use Domino's many tools to lookup data in both Notes and relational databases with profile documents, @DbColumn, @DbLookup, DECS and DCR. The complete Domino security model is presented from top to bottom including access control lists, controlling agents, encryption, server controls and much more. Learn how to use Notes and Domino's integrated tools to develop workflow applications which route documents and e-mails automatically. Dive into Domino's architecture and learn the relationships between documents and design elements like forms. Speed up your applications with many performance-enhancing techniques! The Notes Domino 8 Application Development 2 course will prepare you for the Notes Domino 8 Application Development Intermediate Skills certification exam (835). This exam is the second of three required exams for certification as an IBM Certified Application Developer — Lotus Notes and Domino 8.
For New Administrators:
Notes Domino 8 System Administration 1
In this course you will learn the fundamentals of administering Domino 8 by installing and configuring a small Domino network from the ground up. Learn the ins and outs of using the Domino Administrator client. Get a solid grounding in how Domino security works, from user IDs to server access to database ACLs. Configure mail routing between your Domino servers and between your network and the Internet. Configure replication between your Domino servers and find out how to control what replicates. Learn the tricks to troubleshoot mail routing and replication. Understand how to securely enable your Domino server to act as a web server.
Notes Domino 8 System Administration 2
Learn to better manage and administer Domino servers, databases, directories, users and mail. Learn advanced administration topics including how to administer the server using a browser, use the Domino Server Controller, view statistics and monitor Domino server events, and automatically restart the server if it crashes. Manage Domino databases with tools like compact, repair corrupt databases, and manage the design of databases with templates. Learn how to manage users including renaming, workstation setup and updates, roaming users, and using policies. Understand how to setup multiple Domino Directories and to use LDAP with Domino. Learn how to keep spam under control with blacklists and mail rules and how to troubleshoot mail routing issues.
Upon completion of this course and the Notes Domino 8 System Administration 1 course you will be prepared to take all three of the exams needed to become an IBM Certified System Administrator — Lotus Notes and Domino 8
For Experienced Developers and Administrators:
TLCC offers update courses for experienced Notes and Domino 7 developers and administrators. These update courses concentrate only on the changes in Notes Domino 8 and will prepare you to take the update certification exams to become certified on Notes Domino 8.
Special Offer for Clippings Readers! All other TLCC courses and packages from TLCC qualify for a 15% discount! (5% for any course/package already on sale.) Your discount will be automatically taken off your order.
Click here for more information on TLCC's Notes Domino 8 courses and this special offer.
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| EVENTS |
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Online Presentation
Learn how finding information within your company - including all emails and content in Lotus Notes — can be as easy as finding information on Google.com
Presentation Date: February 19, 2008
Presentation Time: 10:00 Am Pacific Standard Time
Take advantage of the most significant change to Lotus Notes since the release of R5. This seminar gives you the benefit of 4 decades of experience that presenters Rob Axelrod, Andy Pedisich, and Chris Miller bring to this seminar, having successfully upgraded 100's of customers since V2. If you are even thinking about upgrading, you need to be at this event.
| Copenhagen, DK |
March 31 - April 2 |
| Boston, MA |
April 30 - May 2 |
| London, UK |
May 12 - 14 |
| San Francisco, CA |
June 16 - 18 |
| Toronto, Canada |
July 16 - 18 |
http://www.nd8upgrade.com
Meeting Date: April 30 - May 2, 2008
Meeting Location: Boston Sheraton Hotel, Boston, MA
http://www.admin2008.com
Meeting Date: April 30 - May 2, 2008
Meeting Location: Boston Sheraton Hotel, Boston, MA
http://www.LotusDeveloper2008.com
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| INSTRUCTOR'S CORNER |
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We need your feedback and suggestions! We are looking to work with instructors on a regular basis to learn more about how you use our technical information (product help, information centers, training materials, release notes, and so on), and how we can improve what we deliver to you, so you can get your work done in a successful and timely manner. We would also like to get your feedback on some of the new deliverables that we have already started developing.
The Information Development Center (IDC), the Lotus group that is responsible for the Lotus and Portal brand technical publications (product help, information centers, training materials, etc.) is investigating and creating new information deliverables that are based on Web 2.0 technologies. We are working on creating more dynamic content, we are making technical information easier to find, we want to help increase your interaction and customization capabilities with our technical information, and we want to leverage the vast knowledge of our instructor community so we can collaborate and build content together.
If you would like to work with us on a regular basis on any of our feedback efforts, please let us know by sending an email to lotusdoc@us.ibm.com with the subject "Request to work with Lotus IDC", and include your name, e-mail address, and point of interest in your note.
We are looking for instructors who use any of our Lotus and Websphere Portal products, especially Websphere Portal, Lotus Expeditor, Lotus Forms, Lotus Connections, Lotus Portlet Factory, and Lotus Domino Designer.
Once approved into the IBM Certified Instructor Program for Lotus Software, instructors are responsible for keeping current and maintaining compliance with program requirements. It is recommended instructors keep both the public and private Instructor Certification websites bookmarked as well as register for access to the LE Instructor Forum. This is an easy way to stay in the know about any changes to the program.
Maintaining compliance entails teaching only the authorized courseware you have been approved to teach, teaching only for Authorized Independent Training Providers or for IBM directly, and keeping the contractual terms of the Certified Instructor Authorized Independent Training Provider for IBM Software Training Delivery Guide.
In order to ensure compliance, it is important to maintain contact with the Instructor Program. This is done via the information provided by you in your Partnerworld profile and instructor application. You must keep this information complete and up to date in order to stay in good standing and avoid losing access to private sites.
At the bare minimum, your Partnerworld profile must contain an approved instructor application, a signed instructor agreement, your primary candidate ID (and only your primary candidate ID), your email address, your IBM ID and company name/contact information.
The Instructor Program recommends you check your Partnerworld profile once a quarter, to ensure your information is still accurate.
Most of these are located on the Certified Lotus Instructor Private Site. Only Instructors with an IBM ID can access this site.
IBM Certified Instructor Program for Lotus Software
IBM Certified Lotus Instructor Day 2008
IBM Lotus Notes 8 Courses, Product Information and Instructor Certifications
Purchase Instructor Guides
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LOTUS EDUCATION
LOTUSUSERGROUP.ORG
Editor: Scott Treggiari
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LotusUserGroup.org supports the worldwide community of Lotus technology professionals. We provide support and tools to encourage:
- Communication and collaboration to facilitate the sharing of e ideas and experiences among Lotus professionals
- Technical expertise in Lotus software
- Growth of community via local and virtual user groups
- Collaboration between community members and the Lotus software organization and other vendors/business partners
Membership in LotusUserGroup.org is free. Click here and register to become a member
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