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Category User Groups

I'm sure most of you are aware of the Lotus User Group site, but how up to date is it? I'm not pointing out that I have seen any inaccuracies, far from it as I find the site excellent, but I see for us here in Europe there is no Swedish user group - which I find hard to believe, nor Finnish - though I have heard rumours of one being set up.

As you all know, the community is one of the real strengths of Notes but there are still Notes professionals who don't participate despite a thriving group in their area, and corners of the world that are not covered.

So the point of this post is simple; if you aren't involved in a user group at all then please follow these steps:
Go to http://lotususergroup.org/usergroups.nsf/Rugs#top and see if there is one for your area.
If there is one, go to their website.
Look for the next event, visit the forums, register. Do whatever you can to get involved and feel the Lotus love.

If there isn't, post in the forums about it or post a reply here because if there is a group that isn't listed then someone might point you in the right direction. If there is no user group, the more people there are that would be interested in your area, the more chance that someone (maybe you) will take the initiative and set one up and spread the Lotus love where you are.

Fundamentally, at Teamstudio we want the Notes community to thrive and will do whatever we can to strengthen it. One of these ways is through user groups and we look to support user groups wherever we can, whether it is through sponsorship, speaker slots or something less visible. So if you run a user group, feel free to contact us so that we can work together to make your user group a beacon for the Notes community in your country or region.

Posted by Grant Norman At 10:29 AM | Location Huntingdon, England | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Category Teamstudio Products

Top 3 tool features

Was training a new starter here the other day and was discussing which parts of the Teamstudio tool suite are the most valuable.  The obvious answer is Configurator because it just saves so much time finding stuff in the design every day, but most people know about Configurator already. Most people also know about CIAO and it potentially saves a company more money than any other tool, especially when linked with Build Manager.  

This discussion though was more about the hidden gems of functionality that most customers never discover or see the value of until they actually use the tool.  One example is the audit functionality in Analyzer.  Most customers use the documentation only and don't look at the audit, but the power of the audit to check parts of the design against pre-written rules or standards makes it a sort of automated code review, which increases the value to the development team many times over.  

So this is where I throw this open to the readership; what are your 3 favourite features of Teamstudio tools?  To get the ball rolling, here are mine:

1. Snapper's Undo Buffer - It saves having to remember to take a copy of the element before making a change.  I didn't know about Snapper before working here and even though I've been developing in Notes for 14 years it has saved my bacon on more occasions than I care to remember.  If only I had it 10 years ago.
2. Design Manager's Code Snippets - Simple re-use of the little loops, lookups and handy bits of code that I have collected over the years. Up there with Configurator on actual time saved purely because I use it so many times a day.
3. Validator's Resolver - Easily resolve data differences in documents. Having previously worked with a mammoth database with data quality issues I'd have loved to have had this to be able to sort out duplicate data entries. Other tools have similar functionality but the UI for Resolver makes it almost easy enough to give to users.  In fact the whole of Validator almost makes the list as the way it can automatically find documents with problems on a daily basis meaning the end users have fewer issues to call the support desk for.

Posted by Grant Norman At 7:27 AM | Location Huntingdon, UK | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Category Notes 8.5

8.5 has been Gold for a couple of months now and it seems to be pretty well received by the community, the reviewers and the analysts.  And I've seen much advise saying to upgrade as soon as you can.  In fact Bill posted this today:
"Basically, there’s no excuse now. It’s a downturn, you've gotta save money and admin costs in your environment. Get those servers upgraded. "

How does 8.5 save admin costs?  DAOS & ID vault are the golden tickets for admins it seems and with good reason.  Ed has summarised some of the savings being seen in the field and they are very, very impressive.  So, is 8.5 all things to all admins?  It could well be.

But how about the people that really matter, the users?  I've just upgraded my desktop to 8.5 and first impressions are positive.  Little annoyances, like the missing selection gutter, have been resolved and if it proves to be stable then my colleagues will be happy too as many of them have been having problems with 8.0.2.  So, is 8.5 all things to all users? It could well be.

Now let’s turn to the devs.  The 8.5 launch was heralded as the time when building Notes & Domino apps entered the 21st century because of the Eclipse factor, but is it the start of the renaissance or another false dawn?   If I have a small box full of stuff and put the small box into a bigger box with greater capacity, my stuff is still restricted by the dimensions of the original small box.  That is how I see DDE in 8.5.  DDE is now running on Eclipse, but the old Domino restrictions are still in place.  Search & replace is not round-trippable (or it is a bug if you prefer - see comment14) , the element comparison is awkward to say the least because they are based on DXL.  XPages are great for web dev, but they don't work in the Notes client.  So, is 8.5 all things to all devs? Almost certainly not!

But let us not be too despondent, it looks like 8.5 could be more renaissance than false dawn as 8.5.1 is hopefully just around the corner and looks like it will be the start of Lotus immersing DDE in Eclipse a bit more and utilising some of the power and functionality that is on offer.  Referring back to my box analogy, 8.5.1 could take the stuff out of the small box and put it in the bigger box directly, meaning the small box is no longer restrictive.  It may not solve the search & replace issues as that is down to DXL and is not likely to be fixed so soon, but at least it should see XPages on the Notes client and the API will open up a bit and give more plug in and tool capabilities.  So, is 8.5.1 all things to all devs? It could well be.

So what is best for everyone?  Bill suggests upgrading your servers now, and he has not been alone in saying this, and as far as the production servers go, I'd agree.  Of course, if production is going to 8.5, then so should the test environment.  But the development environment is where you need to carefully consider your next move, and I believe should be pegged back to 8.0.

The admin benefits of 8.5 don't apply to the development environment to any great degree, so the compelling argument evaporates.  The downside of upgrading to 8.5 and not waiting for 8.5.1 is exposing your development, and therefore the applications, to a great risk because 8.5 has too many gaps that can be exploited by human error and process requirements.  

While it is a shame that you can't get going implementing Xpages in everything by staying on 8.0, Xpages are only web compatible in 8.5 so the loss is irrelevant for at least half the applications.  Where there are web apps that must be built or re-worked using Xpages before 8.5.1 arrives, this is where you need to weight up the priorities - upgrade to what is fundamentally an incomplete, flawed release, or wait until 8.5.1 and adjust deadline accordingly.

Posted by Grant Norman At 7:46 AM | Location Huntingdon, UK | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Category Lotus Notes Notes Threats
We are all conditioned to the FUD emitted from the nether region of Redmond's marketing machine, more so at this time of year, so I would not have been surprised if the following was just a trick to get users to block Notes.



Thankfully, Jan Schulz has posted the results of his investigation into the probable cause.

Posted by Grant Norman At 7:14 AM | Location Huntingdon, UK | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Category Notes 8
Bruised But Not Beaten

Last week I upgraded my laptop from 7.01 to 8.02, and the design of my mail file to ND8 too. My desktop PC has been on the various flavours of 8 for a year (though not 8.5 beta), with 8.01 the only version causing any problems by seemingly corrupting my bookmarks.nsf at increasingly frequent intervals. And I've been using Symphony with increasing confidence to the extent that I have uninstalled MS Office on the desktop. With this success I have been increasingly smug to colleagues and friends about open source software and Microsoft's downfall from the collaborative and productivity suite spaces.

However, I had 3 problems in the first 2 days since my laptop & mail upgrade that left me turning the air blue;

read more

Posted by Grant Norman At 7:12 AM | Location Huntington, UK | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Category Twitter Collaboration
If I look at what I've done this morning:

• I registered on Twitter this morning as I got wind someone tweeted a problem with the tools.
• I logged in to Facebook after 5 months away from it, to see if there are any new groups on the Notes theme.
• I've updated my LinkedIn profile, joined a couple of Notes groups and found some people that I consider worthy of my network.
• I'm now up to date on my 100 or so RSS feeds as I like to keep my finger on the pulse within the Notes community, particularly Europe, as well as a quick catch up with the world at large.
• Of course, also currently writing a blog entry.

This isn't a list I can reproduce in its entirety daily, but can I afford to leave anything out?

Whilst I consider it important in my role to keep myself informed of what is happening in the European Notes community, I can't help feeling that it’s counter productive to try to track everything without missing something. The more feeds I subscribe to, the longer it takes to keep them in check, resulting in less time available in a busy day. Will Twitter pose the same problem? If information from an RSS feed is a bite sized chunk, how much is a tweet? How many tweets to the bite? How long before I can't see the wood for the trees?

(read more)

Posted by Grant Norman At 8:55 AM | Location Huntingdon, UK | Permalink | Comments (3) |      

Category UKLUG Notes 8.5
Its a quiet time here at UKLUG right now, most delegates are in one of the 2 sessions currently being held and that gives us sponsors a chance to see each others products, update notes on customer & prospect conversations, test technical queries or practice juggling.

I've only managed to attend 3 sessions so far due to commitments on the stand but to briefly summarise: Ed Brill's keynote was excellent. I am glad that Ed came over and supported UKLUG. He mentioned a commitment to release 8.5.1 & 8.5.2 next year, plus Notes 9 (or whatever its called) in 2010 - The future is bright in Notes Domino land.

Gurupalooza, facilitated by Bob Balaban, which was enlightening as the beer had come out by then, with one peach dropped in that can't be blogged about. Many questions were in Ed's direction as expected, but everyone else pitched in with juicy gems of their own.

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Posted by Grant Norman At 10:08 AM | Location London, UK | Permalink | Comments (4) |      

Category RAD Application Development Development Tips and Tricks Best Practices
On Ben Poole's recent post (Starting a New Project?) I commented that many people we speak to consider some of the things on Ben's list to be anti-RAD. They see RAD as being quick and flexible, yet too often this translates to sloppy and cutting corners in practice. This of course implies the things on Ben's list are a bad thing for Notes development, or at the very least, not suited to the way these devs work.

On first read of Ben's, it brought The Joel Test to mind even though Ben's is primarily looking at Domino. Both are sensible, sound lists of simple steps that can be undertaken by pretty much any team. Tips and suggestions like the contents on the list make you look better, make your life easier and help Domino utilise principles that apply to the majority of development platforms in use today. How can they be sacrificed to appease deadlines when they should be worshipped on the altar of the development gods?"

Which is the better guide list? Tough call. Domino development is not such a special case when it comes to the simple requirements of using source code control or simple, regular builds. If Notes pros & managers accepted this, I believe they would be able to increase the quality and robustness of their apps, delivering a more cost effective service to their organisation at the same time. After all, we all have a vested interest in making sure the Redmond monster doesn't creep in at Notes' expense.

Finally, if you are going to UKLUG this week, come over and say hello at the Teamstudio area.

Posted by Grant Norman At 9:32 AM | Location Huntingdon, UK | Permalink | Comments (1) |      

Category Web Browsers
Firefox 3 went live on Firefox Download Day, though the time of release and being in the UK meant I downloaded it the day after (Washington Post article). Never mind, I've now had a quick look around and it looks nice enough, but one thing both bothers me and makes me chuckle about the Firefox steam train. Is it really the greatest thing since sliced bread?

As an Opera user I get frustrated about the trumpeting of Firefox as Opera deserves to have as big a noise made about it and a larger market share as a result, but any gain in Opera share is likely to be at the expense of Firefox rather than the devil that is IE, so the winner is M$. On the other hand, I like the nice smug feeling when I use mouse gestures, speed dial and so on, without having to hunt for plug-ins and subsequent slow down in my browsing experience. Feel free to find comparisons with the Win/Mac/Linux and also Lotus/M$ collaboration battles.

I've had Firefox installed since 0.9, but it’s never been my browser of choice. I'm certainly not an IE fan, though I do confess to having had IE4 as my main browser for a time 10 years ago, but that was because Netscape 4 was slower than a sloth addicted to opiates. My main browser has been Opera since v5 and I am currently on v9.5. With v5 I had all sorts of compatibility problems and had to resort to IE for secure sites, but now I come across very few sites that I prefer to browse in Firefox or IE and speed has always been Opera's strong point. (There is a newer test here with some interesting additional points in the comments)

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Posted by Grant Norman At 11:34 AM | Location Huntingdon, UK | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Category Notes 8.5
Since the launch of the 8.5 beta we've had lots of customers asking us where we stand regarding Designer in Eclipse, and whether their investment in our tools is safe. Its a tough one to answer as I can't give an official corporate response, but there are 3 key facts to consider.

1 - Notes & Domino is our business.
2 - We have been doing this for 12+ years and have no plans on retiring.
3 - We have always been in the position to provide 'added value'.

Work it out from that :¬)

Specifically on whether our tools work in the 8.5 beta or not - our tools are never supported until the gold release versions of Notes/Domino. Run them at your own risk in 8.5

Posted by Grant Norman At 10:28 AM | Location Huntingdon, UK | Permalink | Comments (1) |      

Category Notes 8
With IBM's announcement of the impending beta of ND8.5 (I picked it up via Ed Brill) I am especially jealous of those going to ILUG or DNUG who will get more exposure to it as I am not one of the lucky Teamstudio minions who gets to go to either one of these. I am particularly pleased to see the range of platforms released with the Beta and might even try to get it running on my little Linux box at home, especially as the Designer client is included too. The chances I'll be able to get my hands on a Mac to try it are remote though, but I'm sure I'll see it in screenshots on Messrs Mooney & Buchan's blogs amongst others, or even in the slides which will no doubt be available for download at some point.

Posted by Grant Norman At 10:05 AM | Location Huntingdon, UK | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Category Development
Sitting at the moment waiting for my porridge to heat up, something has been nagging at the back of my head for a couple of days: if a fix or update is urgent enough to break the golden rule of "no changes in production" why wait for an overnight refresh for the design of the live NSF to be refreshed?

Quick question to those that handle admin duties, particularly if you have a Dev head too: how often does a Design Refresh not work fully for you?

Update: burnt the porridge. Too much thinking, too early in the morning.

Posted by Grant Norman At 11:57 AM | Location Huntingdon, UK | Permalink | Comments (5) |      

Category Notes Threats Migration
Mr Buchan recently posted (on a Sunday of all days!) about the problems with running both Notes & Exchange as mail systems. The title of this post is a line about mail migration projects in Bill's Thinkpiece that summed it up for me and got the cogs whirring inside my loaf.

As I work closely with the Teamstudio sales team and I often hear from them when a long-standing, solid customer of many years decides to move away from Notes, or migrates their mail from Notes to Exchange. As a supplier, by the time we hear this, it is usually too late to affect the decision and our contact is rarely the person who has made the decision anyway.

If only we could reach that person far upstairs, or along the over lit corridor, who thinks they are helping those hard working IT chaps and saving their company money. We would try to explain that it is basically a decision based upon a flawed idea, fraught with medium term cost problems and short term functionality differences and one that will potentially set their internal system's development back years. We have accepted back as customers many companies who decided to move away, but changed their minds once the scope and cost of the migration has become apparent.

When it comes to an application platform migration, there is little chance that there will be another RAD platform with built in communication systems that is better than Notes. And remember, Notes--Yeah it can do that too!

Posted by Grant Norman At 11:18 AM | Location Huntingdon, UK | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Category Worst Practices
In today's regulatory environment, the days of anything-goes and ad-hoc development practices are numbered. It's time for Notes development managers to bring a more mature, planned development process to their teams to help safeguard against human errors. Developers will come to see how a more organized and predictable development process makes their lives easier and their work more productive.

Here are a few of the worst practices I’ve seen in Notes development…

Lack of Documentation: Applications without documented code are inevitably harder to maintain, troubleshoot and fix. When staff turnover occurs, any residual memory of coding history is likely lost. Compliance auditors tend to zero in on undocumented procedures as prime trouble spots.

No Records or Log Files to Track Changes: Even without any programmer's notes, a log file showing who changed each design element and when it was changed could help lay down an audit trail. If a log file is not generated, even this set of clues will not exist.

No Separation of Development, Testing and Production: Any mature development process is separated into major milestones when deliverables are passed on to the next set of hands. Each team should have dedicated systems, which are not accessible by the other teams. Allowing developers to access, change or test production systems in an enterprise is a recipe for disaster. All changes should be limited to a central master copy of the design. Any compliance auditor would be sure to flag a lack of separation as a very risky process.

Manual Procedures for Build and Deployment: Building and deploying applications manually, often with only a clipboard for guidance, rely on human memory and concentration. Something as simple as answering a phone call can distract a person long enough to miss a critical step in the process.

Inadequate Testing: Testing is a different skill from coding. Every developer knows that debugging can take far longer than the original development process. Cutting corners on testing for any significant application is a short-sighted approach that a compliance auditor is unlikely to miss.

Lack of control producing parallel version: Virtually every application requires fixes to be applied at some stage and also most applications have the next set of requirements planned and ready to be built. The problem is that both sets of changes have different timescales, manual copies are created which inevitably leads to confusion and human error when the time comes to make sure both versions have all fixes and new features.

Posted by Grant Norman At 1:17 PM | Location | Permalink | Comments (5) |      

Category ALM
In a server room far, far away...

I’m sure it has been brought up before, but something occurred to me while watching Empire Strikes Back with my son… that is the story of Notes against Microsoft has many similarities, and characters to the story of the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire. (more)

Posted by Grant Norman At 11:16 AM | Location Huntingdon, UK | Permalink | Comments (5) |