Domino Thoughts

In a tweet a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that Chris W and I were testing out creating Quickr Entry places, and how much fun admins have creating XML. To create an entry place you use a qptool command that requires either individual user email addresses, or you can use an XML file to create places in batch mode.  Gee, seems like fun, manually creating and XML file that looks like (adapted from the Quickr InfoCenter):



There had to be an easier way, so I tweeted that I'd look into it. After all, laziness is the mother of invention. Well, last week when I was in Reno, instead of playing blackjack or craps, I set out to create a script to create the XML file. After a little trial and error, I've got two files, one to take all the entries in the Domino directory and pulls their email addresses into an XML file, and the other pulls selected entries in.  Import them into either your Domino directory if you want to run the either agent, and then you can run the agent.

The resulting XML file can then be uploaded to the Quickr server and used with the qptool command to create the places. Check out the Quickr InfoCenter article for the details.

Hope you find this useful!  I'm sure there's someone that will improve it, and if so, please post any updates here so we can all share.

GenerateXMLAll.lss
GenerateXMLSelected.lss

Once again, our local Great Strides walk for Cystic Fibrosis is fast approaching.  My son, Andrew, was diagnosed with CF when he was 4 and has been an extremely healthy CF patient.  Last October, he was hospitalized for the first time to have mucus blockage cleared from his sinuses. His surgeon estimated his blockage was 85%, and he was amazed he wasn't complaining more about sinus pain. He spent a week in the hospital getting a "CF tune-up" and had a PICC line inserted in his arm so he could have IV drugs three times a day for a few weeks once he got home.  There was plenty of Xbox playing during that month!

This annual event is the major fund raising event for the CF Foundation and the funds raised are used to help fund research towards finding a cure for CF. This year we are especially positive due to recent results from a phase 2 trial of a  compound that targets the basic defect that causes CF.  This drug was developed in partnership between the CF Foundation and Vertex Pharmaceutical.  Due to the relatively small size of the CF population (about 30K in the US), funds from other sources are difficult to come by, so the CF Foundation has taken the lead and been very creative in finding ways to get research done to find a cure.

The CF Foundation is an organization that makes the most of every dollar donated, more than 90 cents of each dollar goes to research. I invite you to make a donation using the link on the right side of my home page, of if you're reading via a feed, go here.  Thanks for every donation!

As my slightly cryptic tweets over the past week may have led you to believe, I've left my former employer for a new gig.  On Monday, I started with Lotus911 as a consultant for the "left coast".  I'm in Kennesaw, GA currently, at the "worldwide headquarters," spending the next couple of weeks getting to know everyone and getting settled in my new role.  And what is that new role?  I'm going to be the Lotus911 presence in the "southwest" and other parts, working with clients in the region as well as helping provide expanded support for the rest of the country when the office in Georgia closes.  

It's a great opportunity that I couldn't pass up, and I'm very excited to be here finally.  The last two weeks was a lot of head down time, trying to tie up loose ends and transferring as much of what I know about the former employer's Domino and eLearning infrastructure as I could. This week is getting into assisting customers and learning about the Lotus911 way of doing things. Been so busy, I didn't have time to blog about it until this morning.

Once I finish my stay here, I'll be working at the home office with clients remotely, and travelling to clients as needed.  So, if you're a Lotus customer in the "southwestern" US, or anywhere in the West, drop me a line if you need assistance.  And, as you might expect, clients in Hawaii looking for on-site help are always welcome! :-)

Muscle memory is interesting.  With the change to "Applications" from "databases", my fingers still try Alt+F+D+D to delete a database, but all that happens in the 8 client is the File menu stays open.  It'll take a while before the I get trained on Alt+F+A+D.

We've been seeing the DWA error "Sorry, but we can't process your request" in DWA lately with Firefox users.  Hadn't been able to pinpoint it, and didn't really have the need to research it too much, but saw a new technote today that gives a workaround.  The issue is caused by a missing line in the httpd.conf file used by the HTTP server. Basically, if you're at DWA 6 or 7, you can create a response header rule to have the JAR file that's causing the error be seen as the proper MIME type by Firefox.  If you're using DWA 8, the file has moved so you must edit the httpd.conf file.

Here's a screenshot of what the rule would look like:

Last week I posted that the BES 4.1.5 had been announced as available, and well....it wasn't.  Seems RIM got a little ahead of themselves.  Checking the RIM Software life cycle page for the  availability date, it's slipped again until April 15.  Let's hope it's fully cooked by then and ready for use.

Maybe the marketing side will get the update as well.

Just got the announcement about the availability of service pack 5 for BES 4.1, unfortunately, it's not on the download site yet.  Keep checking.

More info...

With the spring forward of DST this weekend in the US, it's a good time to check and make sure no new DST-uncompliant devices or calendars have gotten into your environment.  This is very easy with new Blackberry and other handheld devices.  It's possible that a new device came into service without the DST patch, or a newer "fixed" version of the OS, and your user hasn't noticed it yet.  (I know - never in your environment! But play along, anyway...)

As a reminder, the Blackberry DSTquery program is available at the Blackberry DST site. Just ignore the "2007" bit.  You can download the query tool which will check your BES servers to see if any devices served by them are in need of the update. After that, it's either an easy re-deployment of the existing DST upgrade patch via a software configuration, or a quick email to the user to go to http://www.blackberry.com/dst2007 and install the patch.

While you're at it, why not check your Notes calendars for DST issues again.  You can run the Lotus provided agents in a report mode to see if anything's changed.  An ounce of prevention...

Check out my articles on DST from last year, and you'll get some links to other good content on the subject from last year.  Here's hoping Congress doesn't change it all back at the end of the year!

Last week, a user reported an issue with whiteboards and application sharing using our Sametime 8 server.  I looked into it a little and then couldn't reproduce the error.  All other meetings that week went off without a problem.  Checking the new technotes, I found this one on  Domino and Sametime performance issues traced to Windows Server 2003 Scalable Networking Pack.

One of the issues it resolves is where "Application sharing and screen sharing appear slow or appear to hang."  Exactly the problem we saw in one meeting with a large group of attendees.  As we know, Sametime can bring out all the strange issues with the network, both physical and the network stack on servers, so you'll want to take a look at this technote and determine how you'd like to proceed.

After what must be weeks without a Quickr hotfix (a veritable eternity!), Hotfix 11 was released today for Quickr servers running Domino 7.0.2 on the i5 platform.  I've been waiting for this one for a couple of weeks because it resolves an issue we're having with certain Active Directory configurations.  It also is a rollup of other fixes previously put out on Windows.  Totaled, I counted 26 fixes since the previous HF3 for i5.  Going in tonight, and we'll see how it works in the morning!