Lotus Quickr: How to read the documentation offline?

Currently the Lotus Quickr documentation is only available online.

To read the documentation offline you have two possibilities:

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Print the online documentation either to a printer or to a PDF file.

You can do this by clicking on the small arrow which appears when you move the mouse pointer over a topic:

Then you select “Print this topic” or “Print this topic and subtopics”:

A disadvantage is that you only can print 100 topics at one time. So you have to print the whole documentation in smaller pieces.

The other possibility to read the documentation offline is to install the “IBM User Interface Help System built on Eclipse”.

This is the same help system used online but runs on your local PC. You can download the help system here.

After you installed the help system (you will need to have Java installed also) you need to install the Quickr documentation plugins. As far as I know there is currently no official download site available. So in the meantime you can download them from my private FTP server (unfortunately not very fast). I will update the link as soons as it is officially available.

IBM Lotus Domino: Change HTTP Password requests show error in ADMIN4.NSF

After upgrading a hub server this weekend to Domino R7 we had the problem that all HTTP Password Change requests in the ADMIN4.NSF ran into an error and the HTTP passwords were no longer changed:

Person documents for the ‘Name(s) acted upon’ were found in multiple trusted directories for which this server is the Administration Server.

Person documents for Joe User/Acme were found in two trusted directories used by AcmeServer/SVR/Acme: Acme’s Address Book and AmceCo Extended Directory Catalog.

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We only found some hints which said that we should remove the administration server from the Extended Directory Catalog. But this directory catalog did not have an admin server defined in our environment.

The problem was that the extended directory catalog was set to “Trusted” in the directory assistance database. This is necessary on the mail and application servers (because users from other domains should be able to authenticate) but not necessary on the hub server.

So we set this directory catalog to “Untrusted” on the hub server and the admin requests were successful again.

IBM Lotus Quickr: Error when trying to install offline-components

When trying to install the Lotus Quickr Offline components you might get the following error message:

Unable to download file German.dat. The German language resources are not supported by the server.

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Solution:

Quickr uses the DOLS (Domino Offline Services) components for offline usage. The server tries to display DOLS specific messages in the language which is defined in the default locale for Windows.

So if the defaut locale in Windows is set to “German” the server tries to display the messages in the German language.

To avoid this message you either have to switch your locale to English (which normally is not desired…) or you can enforce the server to display all DOLS related messages in English by adding the following key to the Windows registry:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Lotus\DOLS]
“LanguagePreset”=”English”

If you want to display the messages in the default language of the locale (e.g. in German) you should be able to do this by installing the multi-language pack on your Domino server. (I did not verify this by myself!)

Update:

I just tested it with the German language pack for Domino installed and it works without the need to use the registry key mentioned above (and in this case the german DOLS software will be downloaded).

IBM Lotus Quickr: How to create a new place type (template)?

Within Quickr you can create templates (called “place types”) which you can use to create new places with the same configuration. Below there is a summary of how you create new place types:

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  1. Create a place based on an existing place type which meets your requirements (e.g. Standard place for teams)
  2. Give this place a name so that you can recognize the place as the master of your new place type (e.g. start the name with “MASTER “. This is important as you will need this master place in case you want to change your place type later.
  3. Customize the structure (e.g. add/delete/rename folders, add rooms etc.) and the look and feel (e.g. themes etc.) of your place
  4. Customize members (e.g. add a super user group to the “SuperUsers”, delete all other members from, add standard members/groups to the place (e.g. a group for all users of a company departement etc.)
  5. If your master place if configured correctly you can configure the place type options (“Customize -> PlaceType Options”)
  6. Set “Allow PlaceTypes to be created from this place?” to “Yes” and enter a description for this kind of place which will be displayed later in the place type selection list.
  7. You can also upload an icon (GIF/JPEG) with a size of max. 100x80px and a link to a web page where you can find more information about this place type (e.g. how to use it etc.)
  8. If you want to have the current members along with their rights copied to any new place you create from this place type set “Include the current members of this place in places created from the PlaceType?” to “Yes”, otherwise to “No”. This is useful to have already a administration group added to the “SuperUsers” in every new team place.
  9. You can disallow place managers the right to change member information and access rights within the place by setting “Show the Members page? “to “No”.
  10. You can disallow place managers the right to change the table of content of the place (e.g. adding new folders etc.). For this you have to set “Allow managers to make changes to the table of contents?” to “No”.
  11. You also can configure what menu items will be displayed in the “Customize” menu. Attention: It seems that this setting cannot be changed in already created places even if you change this in the template later.
  12. If you have configured all place type options you are ready to copy your master place into a template.
  13. As an administrator choose “Work with templates” on the Quickr homepage.
  14. Click “Create PlaceType” and give the place type a descriptive name. You also have to choose from what master team place the place type should be inherited from.
  15. You then can reorder the place types (e.g. move all you customized place type to the beginning of the liste) and also hide place types which should not be displayed in the list of place types.
  16. You are now read to create new places based on your newly created place type.

Some other things to consider:

  • You can change the configuration of a template later by changing the master template of this place type first. Then you have to edit the place type and choose “Yes” for the option “Update this PlaceType with the latest changes from…”. All changes in the master place will be automatically written to the place type and will be visible for any newly created place.
  • You can update already existing places with the new template information by using the QPTOOL command on the Domino console. See here for the possible options
  • You cannot create a place type from a place where the expanded memebership was activated
  • The size of a place must be less than 1 GB to be used as a place type
  • The place which you are using as the source for a place type should NOT be deleted later. Otherwise you will no longer be able to change the design of your place type!!
  • You should have a picture for you place type handy (format: GIF / JPEG; size max. 100×80 px)

IBM Lotus Quickr: International Language Support

To display non-English characters correctly you must set up the server to generate output using UTF-8 encoding. See the Installation section of the infocenter for more information. I would recommend to do this always even if you are using an English server.

To enable people who use double-byte character set (DBCS) languages, such as Japanese or Chinese, to use My Places, you must enable single sign-on authentication on the server. In addition, you have to add the NOTES.INI variable “Country_Language=xx[-xx]” to configure the DBCS language to use. You have to re-index all views in the place catalog afterwards. See the Configuring section of the infocenter for more information.

Please be aware that you have to use an external directory to support DBCS languages within user names This is not supported with the Quickr internal directory.

IBM Lotus Quickr: How to change sort-order in directory search-results?

To change the sort order of the directory search results within Quickr to the look-and-feel used in germany (“Lastname, Firstname” instead of “Firstname, Lastname”) you have to add the following lines to XPCONFIG.XML:

<user_directory> 
    <ldap> 
      <member_lookup_ui> 
        <column_name> 
          <person>sn, givenname</person> 
        </column_name> 
        <column_disambiguate> 
          <person>(mail)</person> 
        </column_disambiguate> 
      </member_lookup_ui> 
    </ldap> 
  </user_directory> 

This will display “Lastname, Firstname” in the first column and “(e-mail-address)” in the second column.

Beware of the fact that this only works for LDAP directories. I am not aware of any possibility to change the sort order for the Domino directory.

Installation Lotus Quickr for Domino

As I did just finish my first test installation of Lotus Quickr for Domino I summarize the necessary steps below to hav eit handy the next time I have to do an installation again:

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Install Domino Server

  • Install Domino 7.0.2 together with Fixpack 1
  • Choose to set up HTTP services.
  • Use a Domino server certifier that includes no more than two organizational units (OUs). For example, the certifier /OU=Dallas/OU=Div1/O=Acme is acceptable, but the certifier /OU=Sales/OU=Dallas/OU=Div1/O=Acme is not acceptable. Otherwise the internal names of local users defined in Lotus Quickr places will be truncated and these users will be unable to log in to the server.

Install Quickr

  • Stop Domino Server before running SETUP.EXE
  • In the “Specify name and password” window, type the user name and password for the first Lotus Quickr server administrator. Specify the name for a new, local administrator. Do no specify the name of the Lotus Domino server administrator or any other name from a user directory that Lotus Quickr uses.

Install latest Quickr Hotfix

You can obtain the latest fixes for Quickr on FixCentral.

The current fix is HF6 and is located in the repositiry “8.0.0.0-Quickr-Multi-IF_GA-Update01_Domino”. All hotfixes which do not have “Domino” in its name are for the J2EE version of Quickr.

Enable the Domino Servlet Engine

  • From IBM Lotus Notes® or the Domino Administrator, open the Domino Directory (names.nsf) on the server.
  • Open the Server document.
  • Click Internet Protocols > Domino Web Engine.
  • Below Java Servlets, select Domino Servlet Manager in the Java servlet support field.
    Save and close the document.

Configure Single Sign On

For detailed information how to do this see this chapter in the administrators guide.

Important: If you do NOT configure SSO you will see strange behaviours of Quickr (e.g. you will have to re-authenticate when switching pages, you appear to be logged off (although you are not.., you do not see the small arrows where you can choose context sensitive menu options etc.) So this step really has to be done even if you only working with one server.

Enabling UTF-8 character encoding for non-English server versions

It seems to be a good idea to do this also on the english version (at least it should not do any harm)
From IBM Lotus Notes® or the Domino Administrator, open the Lotus Domino Directory (names.nsf) on the server.

  • Open the Server document for the server and click Edit Server.
  • Click Internet Protocols > Domino Web Engine.
  • In the Character Set section, select Yes in the Use UTF-8 for output field.
  • Click Save & Close.
  • Restart the HTTP task.

Modify the following TCP/IP registry settings on Windows servers

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters]
“TcpTimedWaitDelay”=dword:0000001e
“MaxUserPort”=dword:0000fffe
“TcpWindowSize”=dword:0000ffff
“MaxFreeTcbs”=dword:00011940
“MaxHashTableSize”=dword:0000fff

You can use this REG file to automate that.

Edit QPCONFIG.XML in the Domino data directory if necessary

See more detailled information about what can be configured in the QPCONFIG_SAMPLE.XML file and in the Administrators guide

Nicht wundern …

… über die vielen alten Einträge die heute upgedated wurden. Da in letzter Zeit vermehrt Einträge zu anderen Lotus-Produkten wie Notes/Domino veröffentlich wurden und dies vermutlich in der nächsten Zeit auch so bleibt, habe ich die Kategorien ein wenig umorganisiert.