IBM Connections 5.5: Custom Community Themes based on the new Connections 5.5 (Hikary ) design

If you would like to create a custom theme fpr IBM COnnections 5.5 Communities according to the description in the Wiki, you need to keep the following in mind:

  • The reference to the default theme files in the documentation is wrong. The correct jar file to use is “com.ibm.social.hikari.theme_*.jar” instead of “com.ibm.oneui3.styles_*.jar” otherwise you will not get the correct files for the Hikari theme but the old Gen4 theme files (IBM will correct the documentation here)
  • You also need to make sure that you delete the TEMP and WSTEMP folders of ALL Connections application servers (path e.g. “/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/AppSrv01/(ws)temp/”) and restart also ALL your application servers. It is not sufficient to just delete the temp files of the InfraStructure cluster and restart that one (although both Common.ear and Communitie.ear resides on that cluster).
  • Double check that you have no typo in the path name of the CSS files in your communities-config.xml. They must match exactly the names you use in the themes folder.
  • You can use a “custom.css” file within your custom theme folder to specifiy your theme changes so that you do not need to modify the default theme css files.

If you miss one of these steps you might end up with a community theme which looks like the old Gen4 theme from IBM Connections 5.0

Be also aware that, if you have customized the Connections theme itself, you need to make these changes also for every custom Community theme.

 

IBM Connections 5.5: Error using the Rich Content app in a Community

In a Connections environment, where you have changed the permissions so that only authenticated users can use Connections (by setting all “reader” roles in all Websphere applications to “All Authenticated in Application’s Realm”), you are no longer able to use the Rich Content app within a Community.

If you add the app to the Community you see the message “The page could not be created due to an error”.

To solve the issue, set the role “reader” for the WAS application “RichTextEditor” back to “Everyone”. This application does, by default, not allow anonymous access so that this is not a problem.

After restarting the application, your “Rich Text” app should work as normal.

IBM Connections 5.5: February iFix LO87626 available

This is a required update for IBM Connections 5.5, so please download and install this iFix from FixCentral. Make sure you have installed the other IBM Connections 5.5 iFixes as well (especially the prerequisite fixes  LO87330 and LO87487).

Update 2016-02-17:

I just tried to install it on my test environment and got some issues afterwards. As long as I have not found out the root cause (not sure if it is the hotfix installation or something else) I recommend to install it only on a test environment where you can go back easily to the state before).

Update 2016-02-18:

It seems to be an issue with command line install. This did not work for me all the time. Installing via the Wizard succeeded. Have a PMR opened for that.

SSL Certificate Issue with Ephox Textbox.io Editor in IBM Connections 5.5

After I installed the Ephox Textbox.io editor in IBM Connections 5.5 as described here everything worked perfect in Firefox and Internet Explorer. However opening the editor in Google Chrome displayed the following error message “The spelling service was not found: (https://server.example.com/ephox-spelling/).”

If you look at a Fiddler trace you see that the request “https://server.example.com/ephox-spelling/1/correction” returns an Error 500.

Looking at the SystemOut.log of the server where you have Ephox spell checking deployed displays several error messages complaining about untrusted SSL certificates:

Root cause:

The server used SSL certificates for which there was not Root resp. Intermediate Certificate present in the default Java trust store of the Websphere Java SDK. I needed to manually add both root and intermediate certificate to this trust store (you probably have already added these certificates to the Websphere Cell Default Truststore; but this is another one trust store!).

To do that, run the following commands on all Websphere Application Server nodes (you need to adapt the names and path names of your certificate files):

After you have done that and restarted the Websphere Clusters, your Ephox Textbox.io editor should work also with Google Chrome.

Battery Backup for my Raspberry Pi

I just installed a battery backup for my Raspberry Pi to prevent file system corruption and data loss in case of a power failure. I choose the UPS Pico from PImodules. This module also has a Real Time clock on board which is something the Pi is natively missing. On the web page of PImodules there is a detailed description how to install and configure the module.

First tests were successful. It recognizes a power loss and if the power does not restore within a few minutes it will automatically run a clean shutdown of the Pi. After power is restored again it boots up automatically again.

As the Pi with the power module did no longer fit into the case I was using before, I also bought a new case (UPS Pico Case B+) with enough space to host the power modul including the battery.

So far I am very satisfied.

Erfahrungen mit “musicals.com” bzw. “heidpark.com”

Wir haben heute zwei Gutscheine für einen Musicalbesuch eingelöst, die wir bei “Heidpark” (http://www.heidpark-heidpark.com) bzw. “http://www.musicals.com” erworben hatten. Wir können aufgrund dieser Erfahrung nur davon abraten, bei diesen Seiten Musical-Gutscheine oder -Karten zu erwerben. Und zwar aus folgenden Gründen:

  • Für 2 Karten für das Musical “Aladdins” in Hamburg haben wir in der Preiskategorie A zusammen 30 EUR mehr bezahlt, als wenn wir die Karten heute bei Stage Entertainment auf deren Webseite direkt bestellt hätten.
  • Um die Gutscheine einzulösen, muss man diese nun per Post an die Firma Heidpark senden und bekommt dann (hoffentlich) die Karten im Anschluss zugesandt. Das kostet nun noch mal 2,85 EUR an Porto (Einwurf-Einschreiben).

Ganz ehrlich: Wir fühlen uns übers Ohr gehauen und werden dort ganz sicher nichts mehr bestellen.

Update 13.02.2016:

Heute kamen die Ticket und eine Rechnung. Es wurden jetzt auch noch zusätzlich 9,80 EUR “Auftrags- und Versandpauschale” abgerechnet (und bereits abgebucht), die auf der Webseite jedenfalls nicht sofort erkennbar waren und am Telefonat bei der Bestellung auch nicht erwähnt wurden. Jetzt reicht es mir. Ich werde, wenn die Firma auf meine Mail von heute nicht reagiert, die Lastschrift widerrufen und den Betrag ohne die 9,80 EUR dann überweisen. Dann werden wir uns halt um den Betrag vor Gericht streiten. Ausserdem werde ich die Verbraucherberatung einmal über die Geschäftspraktiken informieren.

Update 19.02.2016:

Heidpark hat nun versprochen, die “Auftrags- und Versandpauschale” zu erstatten … Die Verbraucherberatung kennt die Beschwerden, kann aber nicht viel tun.

Issue with IBM Connections 5.5 CCM file download via HTTP server

I tried to configure file download via HTTP server for IBM Connections Content Manager (CCM) as described in the IBM Connections 5.5 info center.

However, changing the “fncs-sitePrefs.properties” file in the “FNCS_HOME/configure/explodedformat/fncs/WEB-INF/classes” directory and restarting Filenet and FNCS application did NOT work for me.

I needed to copy the changed file manually also to

(overwriting the existing one. Caution: There was an additional statement “enablePropertySheetTemplateMinMax=true” in that version of the file which I first copied into my properties file before copying!).

If you do have more than one CCM server you need to copy that file to the other servers profile directory as well.

After a restart of CCMCluster I now can see subfolders appearing in CCMCACHE so I would say the file download is now working via HTTP server.

I am not sure when the changed file from “FNCS_HOME/configure/explodedformat/fncs/WEB-INF/classes directory” should be copied to the application server profile. But I think this will only happen if you redeploy the FNCS application in Websphere.

Update:

I guess the documentation is missing the step “Reconfiguring FileNet Collaboration Services” after changing anything in “fncs-sitePrefs.properties” file … After that the changes in the file should be redeployed to all nodes.

IBM Connections 5.5: File Upload via HTTP Server (Documentation error)

If you try to configure file upload via HTTP server in Connections 5.5 as described in the infocenter, you will get an error similar to this if you try to start the HTTP server afterwards:

httpd: Syntax error on line 958 of /opt/IBM/HTTPServer/conf/httpd.conf: Syntax error on line 5 of /opt/IBM/HTTPServer/conf/ic_fileupload.conf: Can’t locate API module structure `ibm_local_upload_module’ in file /opt/IBM/HTTPServer/modules/mod_ibm_upload.so: /opt/IBM/HTTPServer/modules/mod_ibm_upload.so: undefined symbol: ibm_local_upload_module

Root Cause:

There are two typos in the documentation. The documentation says:

However the correct line for including the file upload module should be:

 

Update: Someone has now created an official technote.

Update 02.02.2016:

There are other documentation errors on that page:

Most of the RewriteRule statements (for both activities and files) above are missing a blank before “/ihs”. So the rules are not used and you are unable to upload files bigger than the size you have specified for IHS upload in files-config.xml.

Example:

should read (see the blank before “/ihs”):

Update 24.05.2017 (thanks to Cristoph Stoettner):

The path name for the shared directory for “Files” seems also to be wrong.

should read correctly: