How to: Deploy Notes 9.0 IFR2 though Wiget and update site

In the last days IBM has released Notes 9.0 IFR2. Here you can find the related technote.
Obviously we can install manually but we can also make a deploy through Domino

All you need is

• update site db on your Domino
• Notes 9.0 IFR2
• 15 minutes

First download and unzip the fix and you will have the following files and folders

At this point we have to import this IFR2 on our UpdateSite db (domino infocenter link about updateSite )
Click on  "Import Local Update Site" and select  site.xml

Wait some time for import and sign of all Fix Files

now we can see the Features imported on server

Now from Actions -> Show URLs, we have to copy the update site url 

From Notes Client go to configure new Widget from Update Site

Insert the URL of update site DB you have copied previously

select all features and go ahead

Now we will have the Widget installed on this Notes workstation , after that we have to publish on Widget Catalog selecting  "publish to catalog" 

Insert a Title and Save the document

At this point we have the Widget on Catalog and available to manual install.

If we like to provide automated deploy we have to insert the widget in a Category inserted in Desktop policy. 

We could use this steps to install and deploy other things to Notes like dictionary.

UPDATE: updated the way to obtain the updateSite URL, many thanks to Ralf Petter

Italian version of this article

Do not use Notes client single logon.

IBM has issued a Security Bulletin for Notes Client single logon feature.

Notes Client Single Logon uses an operating system communication mechanism for password transmission between Windows and Notes that can be attacked by malicious code planted on the user workstation to reveal the user password. To prevent the potential for attack, disable Notes Client Single Logon and instead opt to use the more secure Notes Shared Login or Notes Federated Login.

For more details see here

How to centrally deploy for users Sametime settings like Meeting Server Hostname or enable Sametime Advanced

Deploying a Sametime Community Server to customer is very easy because you can set the hostname and some other setting, using a Domino Policy with Desktop Setting,

Preferences -> Instant Messaging

If you have installed Sametime Meeting or Sametime Adanced you can also set all settings through Desktop setting but is a little bit less easy than Community.
We have to go inside the Desktop Setting and go to

Custom Settings -> Managed Settings

and set the parameters we need

These are the field to fill:

• Item                
• Value             
• Plug-in name

and  you can also choose if that parameter must be to deployed with  Enforce o as Set Initial Value.

e.g.

To Enable Sametime Advanced on Sametime Client (starting from 8.5.2) you have to set

• Item   ---> enableAdvanced
• Value ---> true
• Plug-in name com.ibm.collaboration.realtime

And at next Policy refresh you will see the Sametime Advanced panel in sidebar.

Some functionality require more "managed setting" to be applied, like Sametime Meeting server because we have to provide 3 settings to the client (host , port and protocol)

To set the Sametime Meeting Server :

• Item   --->      meetingServerHostName        ServerPort                               useHTTPS
• Value --->     meeting.contoso.com                     443                                     true
• Plugin --->     for all 3 com.ibm.rtc.meetings.shelf

At next Notes policy refresh you will have a meeting server named meeting.contoso.com with https on tcp port 443 deployed.

If you like to have client already logged-in you have to tell also if client have to use Sametime Community Credential (by default this value is true) ,but you have also to tell to Sametime Meeting client the Community hostname using the following parameter

• Item     --->   communityServerName
• Value   --->   community.contoso.com
• Plugin   --->   com.ibm.rtc.meetings.shelf

This is only an example of Sametime settings you can manage from Domino Policy and Desktop Setting, here on official Sametime Wiki you can find the complete list of all setting we can use (from livetext to widget, sound and so on..) . Very useful !

First language pack group available for Domino 9.0 and Notes 9.0

8SE8M3TNXSQ2 

Today IBM has released the first group of language pack, Below you can see the schedule of all regional language pack that I've found here


23-Apr for G1 (Catalan, German, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, French, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian).
04-Jun for G2a (Finish, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Dutch)
23-Jul for G2b/G3 (Greek, Slovenian, Thai, Turkish, Russian, IB Portuguese, Hungarian, Slovakian, Hebrew, Kazakh, Polish, Czech).

This are the Italian PartNumber

Notes

windows CIJ70IT
windows basic CIJ7AIT
windows des+admin CIJ7KIT
debian CIJ8RIT
mac CIJ9EML


Domino
windows CIJ9SIT
linux aix CIJB0IT

I had big surprise when I saw the notes+dev+admin Italian that was not translated in previous releases (if this was not a mistake in description..)

Notes 9 - inline preview of image attachments

In Notes 9 when attaching an image to a mail, it is shown inline as preview

Not a revolution but a nice feature indeed.

Ctrl + R not enabled by default

Just installed Notes 9 GA. I noticed that by default not all the keyboard shortcuts work.

Ctrl + R does not, while Ctrl + 1 ( or 2 or 3 ) does. In order to enable Ctrl + R need to go in Preferences -> Basic Notes client configuration then scroll to the bottom of the list of options and check "Enable alternate keyboard shortcuts".

Domino 9 Social Edition available on Partnerworld

The new Domino 9.0 Social Edition is available on Partnerworld.

Here some PartNuber you could use to download

Part Number

Domino 9 32 Windows CIBM0EN
Domino 9 64 Windows CIBM1EN
Domino 9 32 Linux xSeries CIBM4EN
Domino 9 64 Linux xSeries CIGW3EN
Domino Open Social Component for linux xSeries64 CIHU1EN
Domino Open Social Component for linux xSeries32 CIF0MEN
Domino Open Social Component for Win CIF0KEN
Notes 9 Windows CIB8LEN
Notes 9 Des Admin Windows CIB9AEN
Notes 9 linux deb CIB8NEN rpm CIB8MEN
Notes 9 Mac CIB8PEN
Traveler 9 Linux CIB96ML
Traveler 9 Windows CIB95ML

Notes Dictionary and remote distribution with widget and policy

Starting from Notes 8.5.1 language dictionaries are also shipped in Xtaf format with update site, and this could be useful because we could use for remote install.

On the first we have to download the dictionaries from Partnerworld you could see some 2 Part number below or look this technote for the others:

Product	Operating System	Part Number
IBM Lotus Notes XTAF Dictionaries V8.5.3 for Windows and Linux Multilingual	Windows; Linux	CI243ML
IBM Lotus Notes XTAF Dictionaries V8.5.3 for Mac Multilingual	Mac	CI244ML

After download we have to unzip the file and we will see the update site to the dictionaries:

Now we have obtained the update site of dictionary we could choose to make a local install going to Notes client menu

File-> Application ->Install

or we could make a centralize installation importing the update site of dictionary in a Domino Update Site resident in one of our servers (here more info about that) and making a widget.

The update site is a Domino Database (from template updatesite.ntf) we could use to manage and install Notes client plugin remotely.

Now we have to open the updatesite db and use the button "Import Local Update Site" make the upload of the dictionary we would like to distrubute and after that we have to look the Database ID of the updatesite.nsf 

Now we have to construct a link  

nrpc://<server>/__<id>/site.xml

where id is the updatesite.nsf Database ID (file ->application-> properties) and server the server name where db is stored

From a Notes Client with ID with widgets publisher rights  ( here wiki about widgets catalog creation) we have to set a new widget pointing to the updatesite.nsf:

Now we have to insert the previous link pointing to our updatesite.nsf (the nrpc link previously explained) and select the correct dictionary (in case we have many imported). Now we could click finish and we will have the Widget to publish to the catalog

At this point you have to choose if users will have to install the widget from the catalog manually or if you prefer to distribute them from a Notes Desktop Policy (after deploy a Notes will ask the restart to enable the new feature).

In the screenshot below you could see mine Italian widget where i've set Plattform and Category for distribution:

I've tried also with Notes 9.0 public beta client and the widget works fine ( for now the xtaf  was made by IBM for 8.5.3).

If you like to set the new dictionary to be the default you have to distribute also a notes.ini parameter with  SPELL_LANG=XXX where XXX is the dictionary code. The change works after a Notes restart.  

Here you could find a table with all dictionaries code.