Provisioning Sametime Connect’s plug-in preferences

If  you want to set some preferences for the Sametime Connect client remotely you can do this via an update site. How to create such an update site and how to configure your Sametime server that these preferences will be forced to the clients as soon as they log in is described in these technotes:

Provisioning Sametime Connect’s plug-in preferences

Automatically updating Sametime 7.5.x Connect clients

Although both technotes are for Sametime 7.5.x the same procedure will work with the current 8.5.x clients.

In the first technote you will also find a sample update site where you just need to adapt the preference settings you want to deploy. You can find a list of the valid settings for the current 8.5.1 client in the infocenter.

There are two things I would like to mention as they are not obvious:

The sample for the setting “URL for UIM Proviosioning” in STCONFIG.NSF is a bad one. You will find “http:///STclientupdate/site.xml”. This should better read “http://<full host name of your update site server>/STclientupdate/site.xml”. So, do NOT forget to specifiy the full URL to your site.xml including the host name. Sametime will NOT add that automatically …

And in the sample update site you will find the following line in the “feature.xml” within the “<required>” section:

<import feature=”com.ibm.collaboration.realtime.application.feature“ version=”7.5.1“ match=”equivalent“ />

This means, that the update will only be applied if you do have exactly the Sametime 7.5.1 installed. If you want to only apply that for another client version, e .g. 8.5.1  you need to change “7.5.1” to “8.5.1”. If you want to apply the settings to all clients with version 7.5.1 or above you need to change the line to:

<import feature=”com.ibm.collaboration.realtime.application.feature“ version=”7.5.1“ match=”greateOrEqual“ />

Provisioning Sametime Connect’s plug-in preferences

Personal Support Requests

In the last weeks I got more and more requests for support for Quickr or Sametime via my website (mail, chat etc.). Unfortunately, due to lack of time, I normally will not be able to anwer them.

I am actively participating in the Lotus Quickr and Lotus Sametime forums and I will publish things I see during my daily work here in the blog or in my Quickr and Sametime wikis.

If you still have questions which you do not get answered or problems which cannot be solved I would kindly ask you to open an official support request with IBM.

If you need further assistance, me any my collegues from IBM Software Services Lotus will be glad to assist you officially. Just contact your IBM representative for that.

So, I am very sorry that I cannot answer support requests directly addressed to me and I ask for your understanding…

SNAPP-On Modules for Lotus Quickr (Domino)

SNAPPS just published some great enhancement modules for Lotus Quickr (Domino):

Favorites is a commonly requested feature for Quickr and exists in the J2EE version but not the Domino version. Consulting companies including SNAPPS have designed interfaces for many companies to have a Favorites feature, but each of these efforts has been unique to the client. Now, we’ve taken an approach that with one line of code and a single Domino database, enables this enhancement to the Quickr experience for everyone in your organization.

The Custom HTML Module gives you the ability to add your own tab to the My Places area, and place anything on that tab – from simple HTML with images to complex JavaScript and deep functionality. The new tab is server-wide, so it can be used for common purposes such as Privacy Policies, Company News, System Statistics, links to email administrators, password reset requests – the possibilities are limited only by your development needs. And, if you do not have web developers on staff, SNAPPS can build the Custom HTML Module for you.

There is also a demo video available on YouTube.

There are more  modules to come in the near future:

Modules under development include modules for administrators to more easily administer the server, aggregation modules that will combine data from multiple places, messaging and workflow modules, user activity modules, and modules to manage users across multiple places.

Modules under development include modules for administrators to more easily administer the server, aggregation modules that will combine data from multiple places, messaging and workflow modules, user activity modules, and modules to manage users across multiple places.

Troubleshooting Lotus Sametime 8.5 using WAS configuration files and logs

Describes several WebSphere Application Server configuration files and logs that can be helpful for determining the current configuration of Lotus Sametime 8.5 and troubleshooting issues that occur in the Sametime environment.

The topics covered in the document are:

  • WebSphere Application Server configuration files in the context of Sametime
  • How to manually synchronize Sametime configuration changes
  • How to automate synchronization of nodes
  • WebSphere Application Server log files in the context of Sametime
  • How to enable Trace for WebSphere Application Server based Sametime servers
  • How to bind ports

This document can be downloaded from here.

Sametime 8.5: Taking over control needs peer to peer connection

In Sametime 8.5 you can share your screen with other users in a meeting room even if you do not have a direct network connection. It is sufficient that every participant can reach the meeting server.

However if someone wants to take over control of another user’s screen he must be able to establish a direct peer-to-peer connection to the user who shares the screen.. Otherwise the user does not get a “Take control” button.

This might e.g. be the case if there is a firewall between both workstations and the port 22222 is not open between both partners.

You can check if there is a peer to peer connection between the the user who wants to take over control and the sharing user with the following command on a Windows command line:

netstat -an | find “22222”

If there is no connection on that port found, then there is no peer to peer connection established and that is the reason why taking over control is not possible.