Category Archives: IBM/Lotus

It’s that time of the year – IBM Champion nominations are open!

Posted on by Posted in Community, IBM/Lotus Leave a comment

ChampionDefinition

Today the nominations opened for IBM Champions in three categories:

  • IBM Social Business (AKA Lotus, ICS, ESS)
  • IBM Power Systems
  • IBM Middleware (AKA Tivoli, Rational, WebSphere)

Here is how IBM presents it:

Do you know someone who deserves to be an IBM Champion? 

The IBM Champion program recognizes innovative thought leaders in the technical community. An IBM Champion is an IT professional, business leader, or educator who influences and mentors others to help them make the best use of IBM software, solutions, and services, shares knowledge and expertise, and helps nurture and grow the community.

If you know anyone matching the description above, go to https://ibm.biz/NominateChamps and nominate that person!

You can read more about IBM Champions on Wikipedia as well as on the IBM website.

MWLUG schedule now available!

Posted on by Posted in Community, IBM/Lotus, MWLUG, Programming Leave a comment

The session schedule for MWLUG in Atlanta is now online. The conference is less than 4 weeks, and there is a very strong lineup of speakers. Many have been presenting in the Best Practices track at Lotussphere fo years, and this conference is well worth attending. The cost is only $50, and there are still inexpensive flights left. Registration is still open, as I write this.

I will present my session AD102 Break out of the box – Integrate existing Domino data with modern websites on Wednesday afternoon, starting at 4.30pm. Hope to see you in Atlanta!

MWLUG in Atlanta – I will be presenting!

Posted on by Posted in Bootstrap, Community, IBM/Lotus, jQuery, Lotusscript, MWLUG, Web Development 1 Comment

It is less than 7 weeks left until MWLUG, the Midwest Lotus User Group conference. This year the conference takes place in Atlanta, between August 19 and 21. During the three days there will be over 40 technical session and workshops on collaboration, receptions and networking opportunities, as well as access to experts of IBM solutions, both from IBM and other companies. The topics includes application development, system administration, best practices, customer buisness cases and innovation/future plans by IBM. Breakfast and lunch is included for two days as well. And all this for the cost of only $50 per person! The event takes place at Ritz-Carlton in downtown Atlanta. There is a block of rooms reserved at a special conference rate of $149.00 per night.

One of the sessions will also mark my personal debute as a speaker at a conference. I will present “Break out of the box – Integrate existing Domino data with modern websites” where I will talk about how to integrate websites built either within Domino or on other platforms with backend data that resides in a Domino database. I will talk about how you can build a modern looking website using tools like jQuery and Bootstrap and seamlessly integrate them with existing data on your trusty Domino server using JSON and Ajax. I will also provide plenty of example code ready for you to bring home and start playing with.

A number of IBM Champions will be presenting, as well as IBMers and other industry experts. So no matter your interest, I am sure you will find plenty of good sessions. I am sure I will have a hard time picking which sessions to attend!

So what are you waiting for? Go to http://www.mwlug.com and register! See you there!

 

Code – Get date range as years, months and days

Posted on by Posted in IBM/Lotus, Lotusscript, Programming 1 Comment

There is a question in the IBM DeveloperWorks forum for Notes/Domino 8 about how to calculate the number of years, months and days between two dates. Then the poster wanted to calculate the sum of two such date ranges and return that as years, months and days as well.

Since the lack of formatting in the forum makes it hard to read the code, I decided to simply post it here on my blog. As always, there are several ways to write the code. One could for example use Mod (a very under-used function that many developers don’t even know about) to help calculate the number of years, months and days.

I also include a function I use to calculate the number of business days between two dates. This could be used to calculate how long a ticket has been open in a help desk system, where you usually don’t want to include Saturday and Sunday in the count.
Simply change diffOne = Days(startDate,endDate) to diffOne = BusinessDays(startDate,endDate).

Enjoy!

Option Public
Option Declare

Type Components
	yearCount As Integer
	monthCount As Integer
	dayCount As Integer	
End Type

Sub Initialize
	'*** Declare variable for componentized date 
	Dim compOne As Components
	Dim compTwo As Components
	Dim compSum As Components
	'*** Declare variables for day difference count
	Dim diffOne As Integer
	Dim diffTwo As Integer 
	'*** Declare start and end date variables
	Dim startDate As String
	Dim endDate As String
	
	'*** First date range
	startDate = "01/01/2011"
	endDate = "03/02/2013"
	diffOne = Days(startDate,endDate)
	Call DayCountToComponents(diffOne, compOne)
	MsgBox compOne.yearCount & " years " & _
	compOne.monthCount & " months " & compOne.dayCount & " days"
	
	'*** Second date range	
	startDate = "04/03/2012"
	endDate = "08/17/2015"
	diffTwo = Days(startDate,endDate)
	Call DayCountToComponents(diffTwo, compTwo)
	MsgBox compTwo.yearCount & " years " & _
	compTwo.monthCount & " months " & compTwo.dayCount & " days"
	
	'*** Sum of first and second date range
	Call DayCountToComponents(diffOne + diffTwo, compSum)
	MsgBox compSum.yearCount & " years " & _
	compSum.monthCount & " months " & compSum.dayCount & " days"
End Sub


%REM
	Function DayCountToComponents
	Description: Convert day count to years, month and days
%END REM
Function DayCountToComponents(dayCount As Integer,components As Components) As Boolean
	Dim daysLeft As Integer
	On Error GoTo errHandler
	components.yearCount = Int(dayCount/365)
	daysLeft = dayCount - components.yearCount * 365
	components.monthCount = Int(daysLeft/30)
	daysLeft = dayCount - (components.yearCount * 365) - (components.monthCount * 30) 
	components.dayCount = daysLeft
	'*** Return
	DayCountToComponents = True
exitFunction:
	Exit Function
errHandler:
	DayCountToComponents = True
	Resume exitFunction	
End Function

%REM
	Function Days
	Description: Get the number of days between two dates
%END REM
Function Days(startDate As Variant,endDate As Variant) As Integer
	Days = Int(CDbl(CDat(endDate))-CDbl(CDat(startDate)))
End Function

%REM
	Function BusinessDays
	Description: Get the number of business days (Monday-Friday) between two dates
%END REM
Function BusinessDays(startDate As Variant,endDate As Variant) As Integer
	Dim startDT As NotesDateTime
	Dim endDT As NotesDateTime
	Dim cnt As Integer 
	On Error GoTo errHandler
	Set startDT = New NotesDateTime(startDate)
	Set endDT = New NotesDateTime(endDate)
	cnt = 0
	Do Until CDbl(startDT.Lslocaltime) > CDbl(endDT.Lslocaltime)
		If Weekday(startDT.Lslocaltime)<7 Then
			If Weekday(startDT.Lslocaltime)>1 Then
				cnt = cnt + 1
			End If	
		End If
		Call startDT.Adjustday(1, True)  
	Loop 
	BusinessDays = cnt
exitFunction:
	Exit Function
errHandler:
	BusinessDays = 0
	Resume exitFunction	
End Function

 

Code – Read from and Write to Windows Registry in Lotusscript

Posted on by Posted in Lotusscript, Notes/Domino, Programming 3 Comments

A question was posted in the IBM DeveloperWorks forum for Notes/Domino 8 about the possibility to detect from within Notes if a computer is equipped with a touch screen. The answer was that you have to check if a specific DLL is installed, which is done though the registry.

The original posted then asked how to do that in Lotusscript, so I deceded to simply post some code I am using. I did not write this code, and I don’t know who originally did. I think I may have taken some VB code and simply adapted it for Lotusscript. I plan to rewrite this a s a class when I have some time. In the mean time, here is the code.

 

Option Public
Option Declare

Dim REG_NONE As Long 
Dim REG_SZ As Long 
Dim REG_EXPAND_SZ As Long
Dim REG_BINARY As Long 
Dim REG_DWORD As Long 
Dim REG_DWORD_LITTLE_ENDIAN As Long
Dim REG_DWORD_BIG_ENDIAN As Long
Dim REG_LINK As Long
Dim REG_MULTI_SZ As Long
Dim REG_RESOURCE_LIST As Long
Dim REG_FULL_RESOURCE_DESCRIPTOR As Long

Declare Function RegCloseKey Lib "advapi32.dll" (Byval hKey As Long) As Long

Declare Function RegCreateKeyEx Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegCreateKeyExA" (Byval hKey As Long, _
Byval lpSubKey As String, Byval Reserved As Long, Byval lpClass As String, _
Byval dwOptions As Long, Byval samDesired As Long, Byval lpSecurityAttributes As Long, _
phkResult As Long, lpdwDisposition As Long) As Long

Declare Function RegOpenKeyEx Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegOpenKeyExA" (Byval hKey As Long, _
Byval lpSubKey As String, Byval ulOptions As Long, Byval samDesired As Long, _
phkResult As Long) As Long

Declare Function RegSetValueExString Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegSetValueExA" (Byval hKey As Long, _
Byval lpValueName As String, Byval Reserved As Long, Byval dwType As Long, Byval lpValue As String, _
 Byval cbData As Long) As Long

Declare Function RegSetValueExLong Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegSetValueExA" (Byval hKey As Long, _
Byval lpValueName As String, Byval Reserved As Long, Byval dwType As Long, lpValue As Long, _
Byval cbData As Long) As Long 

Declare Function RegQueryValueExString Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegQueryValueExA" _
(Byval hKey As Long, Byval lpValueName As String, Byval lpReserved As Long, lpType As Long, _
Byval lpData As String, lpcbData As Long) As Long

Declare Function RegQueryValueExLong Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegQueryValueExA" _
(Byval hKey As Long, Byval lpValueName As String, Byval lpReserved As Long, lpType As Long, _
lpData As Long, lpcbData As Long) As Long

Declare Function RegQueryValueExNULL Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegQueryValueExA" _
(Byval hKey As Long, Byval lpValueName As String, Byval lpReserved As Long, lpType As Long, _
Byval lpData As Long, lpcbData As Long) As Long

' --- Registry key values
Const HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT = &H80000000
Const HKEY_CURRENT_USER = &H80000001
Const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002
Const HKEY_USERS = &H80000003
Const HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG = &H80000005

' --- Registry return values
Const ERROR_NONE = 0
Const ERROR_BADDB = 1
Const ERROR_BADKEY = 2
Const ERROR_CANTOPEN = 3
Const ERROR_CANTREAD = 4
Const ERROR_CANTWRITE = 5
Const ERROR_OUTOFMEMORY = 6
Const ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER = 7
Const ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED = 8
Const ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETERS = 87
Const ERROR_NO_MORE_ITEMS = 259

' --- Registry access key
Const KEY_ALL_ACCESS = &H3F
Const REG_OPTION_NON_VOLATILE = 0


Sub Initialize
	REG_NONE = 0
	REG_SZ  = 1
	REG_EXPAND_SZ = 2
	REG_BINARY = 3
	REG_DWORD = 4
	REG_DWORD_LITTLE_ENDIAN = 4
	REG_DWORD_BIG_ENDIAN = 5
	REG_LINK = 6
	REG_MULTI_SZ = 7
	REG_RESOURCE_LIST = 8
	REG_FULL_RESOURCE_DESCRIPTOR = 9
End Sub


Function SetValueEx(Byval lngHKey As Long, strValueName As String, lngType As Long, varValue As Variant) As Long
	Dim lngValue As Long
	Dim strValue As String
	
	Select Case lngType
	Case REG_SZ
		strValue = varValue & Chr(0)
		SetValueEx = RegSetValueExString(lngHKey, _
		strValueName, _
		0&, _
		lngType, _
		strValue, _
		Len(strValue))
	Case REG_DWORD
		lngValue = varValue
		SetValueEx = RegSetValueExLong(lngHKey, _
		strValueName, _
		0&, _
		lngType, _
		lngValue, _
		4)
	End Select
End Function


Sub RegistryCreateKey(dblHiveID As Double, strBaseKey As String, strKey As String, strData As String)
	Dim lngResult As Long
	Dim lngDisplay As Long
	Dim intReturn As Integer
	
	lngResult = 0
	lngDisplay = 0
	intReturn = RegCreateKeyEx(Byval dblHiveID, _
	Byval strBaseKey, _
	Byval 0&, _
	Byval "REG_SZ", _
	Byval 0&, _
	Byval KEY_ALL_ACCESS, _
	Byval 0&, _
	lngResult, _
	lngDisplay)
	intReturn = RegSetValueExString(Byval lngResult, _
	Byval strKey, _
	Byval 0&, _
	Byval 1&, _
	Byval strData, _
	Byval Len(strData))
End Sub 


Function RegistryGetValue(dblHiveID As Double, strKeyName As String, strValueName As String, _
strDefaultValue As Variant) As Variant
	Dim lngReturn As Long    ' result of the API functions
	Dim lngHKey As Long      ' handle of opened key
	Dim varValue As Variant  ' setting of queried value
	
	On Error Goto RegistryGetValueError
	lngReturn = RegOpenKeyEx(dblHiveID, strKeyName, 0, _
	KEY_ALL_ACCESS, lngHKey)
	lngReturn = RegistryQueryValueEx(lngHKey, strValueName, varValue)
	RegCloseKey (lngHKey)
	If (varValue = "") Then
		RegistryGetValue = strDefaultValue
	Else
		RegistryGetValue = varValue
	End If
	Exit Function
RegistryGetValueError:
	RegistryGetValue = strDefaultValue
End Function


Function RegistryQueryValueEx(Byval lngHKey As Long, Byval strValueName As String, _
varValue As Variant) As Long
	Dim lngDataPntr As Long
	Dim lngReturn As Long
	Dim lngType As Long
	Dim lngValue As Long
	Dim strValue As String
	
	On Error Goto RegistryQueryValueExError
    ' Determine the size and type of data to be read
	lngReturn = RegQueryValueExNULL(lngHKey, strValueName, 0&, _
	lngType, 0&, lngDataPntr)
	If (lngReturn <> ERROR_NONE) Then
		Error 5
	End If
	Select Case lngType
        ' For strings
		Case REG_SZ:
			strValue = String(lngDataPntr, 0)
			lngReturn = RegQueryValueExString(lngHKey, _
			strValueName, 0&, _
			lngType, strValue, lngDataPntr)
			If (lngReturn = ERROR_NONE) Then
				varValue = Trim(Left(strValue, lngDataPntr - 1))
			Else
				varValue = FullTrim("")		'returns empty
			End If
   	     ' For DWORDS
		Case REG_DWORD:
			lngReturn = RegQueryValueExLong(lngHKey, _
			strValueName, 0&, _
			lngType, lngValue, lngDataPntr)
			If (lngReturn = ERROR_NONE) Then
				varValue = lngValue
			End If
		Case Else
            ' all other data types not supported
			lngReturn = -1
	End Select
RegistryQueryValueExExit:
	RegistryQueryValueEx = lngReturn
	Exit Function
RegistryQueryValueExError:
	Resume RegistryQueryValueExExit
End Function

Coming Soon – Interesting Webinars

Posted on by Posted in Community, IBM/Lotus, Notes/Domino, Verse Leave a comment

The Notes training company TLCC has two very interesting webinars coming up, especially for anyone that were not able to attende ConnectED in January. On May 14 the IBM development team will talk about the Domino development landscape, including new features for Domino on-premises as well as for the cloud through IBM Bluemix. IBM:ers Pete Janzen, Martin Donnelly and Brian Gleeson will be featured.

Then on June 16 the IBM product team will be featured. Scott Vrusho and Scott Souder is going to talk about where Notes, Domino and Verse are heading, while Dave Kern and Kevin Lynch will talk about recent security related changes to the Domino server.

You can find out more at http://www.tlcc.com/admin/tlccsite.nsf/pages/xpages-webinar

IBM Verse – Features I would like to see

Posted on by Posted in Cloud, IBM/Lotus, Verse 1 Comment

I have been testing IBM Verse Preview a little now, and I have compiled a list of some features I would like to see implemented. I have not included things in the UI (User Interface), because it is clear that part is still being polished/developed, and have some ways to go. I am going to focus on actual functionality, the UI items I will wait with until we are closer to the official March 31 launch date.

 

Connect IBM Verse to GMail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail

This is needed for several reasons. First to import existing calendar entries, contacts (including pictures, e.g. in Google Contact) and even existing email. Say the last 3 months or 6 months or even 12 months of email.

The connection should also be used to retrieve any new email coming to those acounts and display them in Verse. This way Verse can act as a federated email client, replacing the need to login to 3 or 4 different webmail systems. This requires one more function: the ability to change the sender address to match the account it was sent to. For example, if I get a mail delivered to texasswede@gmail.com and it get imported into IBM Verse, when I respond to it I need to be able to select that texasswede@gmail.com is the sender, not karl-henry.martinsson@ibmverse.com. Outlook Express could do this this 15 years ago…

 

Signatures (including graphic elements)

Nobody will be taking Verse serious if you can’t create a signature for your outgoing email. Even for personal mail that is pretty much required today, and if you are trying to showcase a product intended for enterprises, don’t cripple it like this.

New email message in Verse (left) vs GMail (right)

New email message in Verse (left) vs GMail (right)

 

Allow custom usernames and aliases

In all/most other systems I use the nickname TexasSwede. In IBM Verse I have to be karl-henry.martinsson, which is longer, harder to remember (and to get right for people) and also annoying to have to type every time I login. Talking about login, the login screen does not remember my username and I have to enter my username as well as the domain. Not fun, especially when the mailbox times out every 30 minutes. If you like to keep your mail open all day, that is not useful.

While we are on the subject of account/user settings, it would be nice to be able to change the password…

 

Make Verse freemium, not crippleware

Nobody will bother testing IBM Verse if you are limited to 25 emails per 24 hour period and a 500 MB mailbox. Even GMail had 2GB at it’s launch in 2004 (if I recall correctly). I am sure there are many other things in the full version that have been removed in the preview version (if it has been developed yet). From what I understand, there is quite a bit of work left on the full (paid) version as well…

 

Mail Rules

For any kind of corporate/enterprise email you need rules to sort incoming mail into folders. With the integration of Watson in IBM Verse, this should be easier than ever. We should be able to get the most accurant and most powerful email rules ever seen. Of course, with a 25 email per day limitation, nobody will have enough mail in their Verse account to eventest the analytics part of the product.

 

Support more browsers

At least Internet Explorer 10/11 should be supported. Many companies are still standardized on IE, no matter what you think about that product. I know that as late as last year, certain security certificates for banks in Sweden required even older version of Internet Explorer

In addition I have also heard reports that Safari did not work because the version installed with the operating system wasn’t supported. IBM requires pretty much the latest versions of the browsers for Verse to work. They do some fairly advanced browser sniffing, but the error message you get just tell you that your browser is not supported. That message should be much more precise. If you have Firefox 31 and Firefix 32 is needed, that should be explained.

 

Mail sent to non-existing users

If you send a mail to a non-existing user (for example of you type the address wrong, perhaps dropping one s from my last name) you get a non-delivery notification saying “User john.doe@ibmverse.com does not exist in Domino Directory”. We are all happy that Verse is built on top of the reliable and robust .NSF infrastructure from Notes and Domino, but it would be nice to use more descriptive and less confusing messages. What’s wrong with “The user john.doe@idmverse.com does not exist, please check the email address.”

 

IBM dropped the ball on IBM Verse

Posted on by Posted in Cloud, IBM/Lotus, Verse 6 Comments

At IBM ConnectED in January IBM promised that all attendees would get early access to the next generation web-based email presented at the conference, IBM Verse. Jeff Schick initially promised it for february, but after several emails where the attendees were offered to sign up, it got very very quiet. Today the real invitation finally arrived in my mailbox, and I signed up. After signing up I was told it would take up to a day before my mailbox would be setup and available, but after about 30 minutes I got the welcome email.

What I noticed is that there are a number of functions not working or not available yet. This is something one would expect of a beta product, so not something I react negative to, even if it would have been nice to see a more polished product being introduced, even if it just labeled “IBM Verse Preview”. Among the functions missing is a way to create a mail signature. There is also a limit to 25 emails in a 24 hour period, as well as no more than 10 recipients for any email. Storages is limited to 500 MB.

According to a response in the support forum, IBM have dropped the Freemium idea. IBM Verse Preview replaces it, and will be just a demo version to try to get customers to buy the full version, where signatures and other features not present in the crippled Preview version will be available.

If you want to hear Jeff Schick announce the Freemium version (and personally invite ConnectED attendees to get early access to Verse Freemium), watch this video (starts at 42 minutes in):

In my opinion, IBM need to drop the 25 email and 10 recipient limit, increase the mailbox to at least 2 GB and add at least the functionality GMail offers, which include signatures (with graphics). Then there is quite a bit of polish left, if you mail a non-existing user you get the message “User XXX not listed in Domino Directory”. Yes, we are all happy that IBM Verse actually uses Domino and .NSF for mail storage, but it should probably be hidden from users.

There are also parts that look totally different, a lot of Connections stuff like profile settings, inviting users to your network, etc. Finally, Internet Explorer should be supported. Not that it is my favorite browser, but many companies are still standardized on that browser.

In my opinion, IBM dropped the ball. As my instructors in the Swedish army would have said: “Do it over, do it right”.  IBM Verse has potential, but not as crippleware.