Lotus Connections 3.0: a Technical View on What's New

ITM04
Connections 3.0: a Technical
View on What's New
Stuart McIntyre
Collaboration Matters

This Session
Stuart McIntyre is one of the very few people who could get his hands on version 3.0 of IBM Lotus
Connections.While the product is still in beta, Stuart is allowed to give you a sneak preview and tell
you a couple of things that otherwise cannot yet be revealed.
He will do his presentation from a more technical view: what has changed since 2.5, what
difference to scaling, how will organisations upgrade, what customisation is available and more.This
session is quite technical and interesting only for those who have actually seen and 'touched' Lotus
Connections before.
Please note:
Lotus Connections 3.0 is beta software, thus some or all features may change before GA.
All screenshots in this presentation are from the Lotus Greenhouse.

Your Host
Stuart McIntyre
Technical Director, Collaboration Matters
Connections Specialist
Blogger/Twitterer/Podcaster/Evangelist
Feel free to contact me:
facebook.com/stuartmcintyre
twitter.com/stuartmcintyre
www.linkedin.com/in/mcintyre
stuart@collaborationmatters.com
blog.collaborationmatters.com
lotusconnectionsblog.com
quickrblog.com
lotusliveblog.com
lotusphereblog.com

Some Questions...
Who do you work for?
a Lotus Customer?
an IBM Business Partner?
IBM?

Some Questions...
Who do you work for?
a Lotus Customer?
an IBM Business Partner?
IBM?
What role do you have?
Administrator?
Developer?
Manager/Executive?
Consultant?

More Questions...
Lotus Connections 2.5
Seen it?
Used it in anger?
Installed/conﬁgured/administered?

More Questions...
Seen it?
Used it in anger?
Installed/conﬁgured/administered?
Seen presentations on it (Lotusphere 2010 etc.)?
Seen it live (demonstrations, Greenhouse)?
Used it (beta, Greenhouse)?

First, a note...
We have a lot of material...
And only 45 minutes to cover it in...
45 minutes????!???!

Our Agenda
Introduction to Connections 2.5
What’s coming in Connections 3.0?
What changes are ‘under the covers’?
On Connections 2.5 now? How do we get to 3.0?
Administration changes
What next?
Q&A

Introducing LC2.5
Whilst only a point-release, LC2.5 was probably the most signiﬁcant update to product so far
Announced on 18th August, shipped on 28th August
Generated massive demand for adoption amongst existing users and outside

Lotus Connections 2.5Blogs
Communities
Bookmarks
Activities
Profiles
Homepage
Wikis
Files

Create, find, join, and work with
communities of people who share a
common interest, responsibility, or area
of expertise
Use a weblog to present your idea and
get feedback from others; learn from the
expertise and experience of others who
blog
Save, organize and share bookmarks;
discover bookmarks that have been
qualified by others with similar interests
& expertise
Organise your work, plan next steps, and
easily tap your expanding professional
network to help execute your everyday
deliverables, faster
Quickly find the people you need by
searching across your organisation and
connecting to others.
Profiles
Bookmarks
Communities
ActivitiesBlogs
Homepage
Manage your attention by viewing
relevant social data aggregated across
your subscriptions, notifications, and
network of colleagues.
WikisFiles
Upload and share any type of file with
colleagues and communities. Store
versions and view downloads, comments
and ratings.
Create wiki spaces for individuals,
groups, and communities to coauthor
pages. View changes across pages,
ratings, and comments.
All your social software needs
ready for business

Principal new features:
River of news
Status updates
Customisable Communities
Improved Discussion Forums
Files & Wikis
Mobile Interface

What’s New in Connections 3.0?

What’s New in Connections 3.0?
Global Navigation and Theme (including drop-down menus)
Home Page/News – improved news feed and integration of status updates, email digest
Communities – invitations, improved Files integration,Activities integration, sub-
communities, My Communities views
Forums – standalone service, tags, question/answer topics
Proﬁles – DoYou Know,Things in Common, Social Path widgets, tabbed Proﬁle format
Files – collections changed to folders including drag and drop
Wikis – improved use of real estate, drag and drop navigation, My Wikis views
Blogs – improved authoring including new editor and more consistent navigation and entries
lists
Linked Value – SharePoint/Communities integration, new portlets, status updates Lotus
Notes sidebar plug-in

Global Navigation and Theme
Featuring drop-down menus
Fully customisable by administrators
Extensible

Getting Started
Detailed step-by-step introduction to Lotus
Connections capabilities

Improved Homepage Updates
Proﬁles status updates integrated into Homepage
Updates and Watchlist integrated into news feed

Improved Notifications
Includes option to receive
notifications aggregated
into digests
Central preferences for
how to get notified about
different types of content
Ability to follow different
types of content like blogs
and communities

Community Membership &
Invitations
Now much easier to see who has been invited to a
community
Can resend or revoke invites

Community Files
Files can be added to a
community directly, or now from
Connections Files feature
Tagging and commenting on ﬁles
now available inside
Communities

Sub-communities
Allows Communities to be
sub-divided
Separate membership for each
sub-community
Easy to create and manage
Can have own logo and/or
theme
Sub-community has own
widgets - forum, bookmarks,
ﬁles, blog, activities, wiki, feeds
etc.

New Forum Service
Forums have moved
from being part of
Communities to being
standalone feature
Can have both
Community-based and
standalone forums
Easy to see:
Which forums user is
taking part in
Open/Answered
Questions

Profile Improvements
Social Path widgets
Tabbed Profile format
Much cleaner UI
‘Follow’ as well as
‘Connect’
Profile Improvements

Files Folders
Collections
changed to
Folders
Allows more
granular
management of
ﬁles
Can be public,
shared or private
Can be ‘pinned’
to make easier to
access
Includes ‘drag and
drop’

Wiki Usability
Improved use of
real estate
‘Drag and drop’
navigation changes
Improved ‘My
Wikis’ views

Authoring Blogs
New Rich Text Editor
Improved Moderation

And Much Much More...
Check out Suzanne Livingston’s session for all the details on Connections 3.0
improvements
Tomorrow at 15:00

What changes are ‘under the
covers’?
The interesting bit!

First Up, Pre-requisites
There are a number of framework pre-requisites that must be met before installation of
Lotus Connections
They’ve changed substantially for Connections 3.0...

System Requirements (Frameworks)
LC2.5 LC3.0
WAS
WAS 6.1.0.23
WAS ND 6.1.0.23
WAS ND 7.0.0.7
DB
DB2 9.1.6, 9.5.3
Oracle 10g 10.2.0.4
MS SQL 2005 Enterprise
DB2 9.5, 9.7
Oracle 10g 10.2.0.4
MS SQL 2005 Enterprise
HTTP WAS/IHS 6.1.0.23 WAS/IHS 7.0.0.7
LDAP
ITDS 6.0.0.3, 6,1
Lotus Domino 7.0.2, 8.0.x, 8.5.x
MS AD 2003
Sun Java System Directory Server 5.2
Sun Java Platform Standard Edition 6.0
Novell eDirectory 8.8
IBM TDI 6.1.1 FP 6
ITDS 6.2.0.1
Lotus Domino 8.5.x
MS AD 2003,ADAM MS 2008
Sun Java System Directory Server 6.3
Novell eDirectory 8.8.5
TDI 7.0

System Requirements (OS)
LC2.5 LC3.0
Server OS
Windows 2003 32 bit Standard & EE
Windows 2008 64 bit Enterprise Edition
AIXVersion 5.3 TL10(System i/p)
SLES10.0 32 bit
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) AS/ES
Version 4.0 Update 7(x86-32)
Windows 2008 64 bit Enterprise
Edition
AIX 6.1, 64 bit kernel support
SLES10 32 bit
RedHat 5.4 64 bit
Linux on System z – SLES 10 and
RedHat 5.4
Client OS
Windows XP Pro,Vista
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED)
10.0 x86-32
Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger x86-32
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard x86-32
Windows XP Pro,Vista, 7 32 bit (and
64 bit toleration)
RedHat Desktop 5.4
Mac OS X 10.6

System Requirements (Client)
LC2.5 LC3.0
Browser
Windows 2008 64 bit Enterprise Edition
AIXVersion 5.3 TL10(System i/p)
SLES10.0 32 bit
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) AS/ES
Version 4.0 Update 7(x86-32)
Firefox 3.5 (Win/RH/Mac)
Safari 4.0.5 (Mac)
IE6 (WinXP)
IE7 (WinXP, Vista)
IE8 (WinXP, Vista, 7)
Mobile
Apple iPhone, iPod Touch
Nokia Series 60 v3.x, v5.x
Android 2.x
Apple iPhone, iPod Touch
Nokia Series 60 v3.x, v5.x
Android 2.x

Installation and Upgrade
The installation procedure has changed signiﬁcantly
Installation now much faster:
Actual installer still take approximately an hour
But start-to-ﬁnish now approximately 60% of Connections 2.5 install time
Upgrades from Connections 2.5.0.2 to Connections 3.0 will be supported

The New Installer
Connections 3.0 installer is based on the newest install technology – IBM Rational Install
Manager (2.5 was based on Install Shield). This is the same as used for Lotus Sametime 8.5.
The new installer has a more ﬂexible GUI
Supports installation of multiple product simultaneously
Integrates install/uninstall/upgrade/modify into one GUI
Connections 3.0 installer supports Network Deployment version of WAS only
No longer support Stand-alone deployment (still able to migrate from 2.5 stand-alone to
3.0 ND)
Connections 3.0 installer supports installing multiple nodes at the same time
The installer will run directly against Deployment Manager and Managed Node rather than
on unmanaged nodes (like 2.5)
Connections 3.0 installer is faster with reduced post-install steps
!"
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!15(*44$/*1,45$6$/+&3.7($5,4,7(2&1

Installing a New Environment
High-level overview of installation process:
Pre-install steps
Prepare WebSphere Application Server environment
Install Deployment Manager and Node1
Install Node2/Node3/...
Add node
Configure Security/LDAP
Create Connections databases
Populate Profiles database
Install using installer
Post-Install
Add Blogs admin
Configure IBM HTTP Server

Target Installation Environment
On DMgr, can either:
install WAS ND from scratch (Cell
profile), or
create a Cell profile in existing WAS
using PMT
On additional nodes:
Either:
install WAS ND from scratch
(AppSvr profile), or
create a Cell profile in existing
WAS using PMT, choosing AppSvr
profile
add new nodes to DMgr
Configure security/LDAP on DMgr
(federated repositories, as for
Connections 2.5)

Creating Databases
New Database Wizard for Connections 3.0
“Nanny mode” enables you to look into the detailed commands the Wizard runs,
selected by default
Streamlined Wizard reduces number of questions asked
Population Wizard much improved too
Uses TDI 7.0

Installing the Connections code
Install using installer
Prepare content store directories
Prepare database driver on all nodes
Copy installer to DMgr machine
Start installer
Restart WAS env
Restart DMgr/node (DMgr should always be started ﬁrst and stopped last)
Full synchronize (on DMgr console)
Start all cluster (on DMgr console)

The New Installer
New Installation Manager process
Still defaults to c:Program Files on
Windows
Don’t do it!! (avoid spaces)
Installation path must be empty
Detects WAS installation
directory
New topology options:
Small/Medium/Large
Asks for DB password once if
selected (yay!)

Post Install
Much simplified over Connections 2.5
Install and configure HTTP and Plug-in
Configure Blogs

On Connections 2.5 now?
How do we get to 3.0?

More Questions!!

More Questions!!
How many of you have Connections 2.5 in place?

More Questions!!
How many of you have Connections 2.5 in place?
Already at Connections 2.5.0.2?

Upgrading to Connections 3.0
DB migration
In-place upgrade (always backup before you proceed)
DB wizard or manual upgrade (using SQL scripts)
Side-by-side
Install 2.5 DB on new host
Using db transfer tool or local DB tools to transfer DB
DB upgrade using DB wizard (or manual steps)
Application migration (effectively always side-by-side)
New install LC 3.0 on WAS 7.0
Migrate conﬁguration and content store using migration tool
Same process for migrating a 2.5 stand-alone and 2.5 ND in terms of migration tool
Migration framework remains the same as 2.5

And from an Admin perspective?

User Lifecycle Management
Add a consistent concept of “state” in Lotus Connections - active and inactive
Employees no longer located in the user repository can be inactivated in Connections
An employee can be re-activated
Net beneﬁts:
Make easier and solve issues around the reuse of emails and logins
Enhanced user experience
Background process keeping in sync user data across all LC databases
Infrastructure pushing user meta-data from Proﬁles to other LC services
Keep in sync display name, email, logins, directory id and state
Lower the administrative complexity -no longer needed to run administrative WSAdmin
commands against all services!
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User Lifecycle Management
Marked with a specific style in membership lists
Business card and Profiles page
Omitted from typeahead components used for Notification/Membership/Access Control
Can no longer be added to a network
Can be hidden from search results (Profiles)
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/ (-+:4;"</.8"-"3,46/=/6"3.>?4"/0"@4@A4+38/,"?/3.3
/ '23/0433"6-+;"-0;"B+*=/?43",-14
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)*0.+*?
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Globalisation
Globalization and ignoring punctuation in searches
Default behaviour is to ignore accents – the and thé are equivalent
Can enable language sensitivity (via WSAdmin)
Requires recreation of index
Results in larger index
Can choose to ignore punctuation (via WSAdmin)
These marks will be removed from search terms

New Server Metrics
Bookmarks, Communities, Files, Homepage, Proﬁles, Search and Wikis
E.g.
Number of users
Most popular tags
Size of Files libraries
Search indexing times
Each service has its own access URL, eg:
http://<servername.com:port>/communities/service/html/servermetrics
http://<servername.com:port>/dogear/toolbox/servermetrics
Details will be in the Infocenter under each service

Activities Scheduler
Prior to Connections 3.0, Activities used the Quartz scheduler
Now using the WebSphere scheduler
Consistent with other Connections services
Changes to Activities scheduled tasks are not migrated forward
Must be re-conﬁgured in oa-conﬁg.xml or via WSAdmin

Search Index
Multiple nodes
Indexes can be managed across several nodes
Temporary directories can be configured for each node to store the files for indexing
You can remove a node from the index management table when it is removed from a
cluster
Scripted backup
A task can be scheduled to backup the index
Purging content
Allows admin to delete content for a specific application, rather than deleting and
recreating the whole index (Yay!)

What Next?
If you have Connections 2.5,
do not stand still!
Try out the Connections 3.0 instance in the Lotus
Greenhouse
Look out for more details on the new release
(Suzanne’s session, Techtalks, webcasts etc.)
Evangelise, drive adoption, socialise your
organisation (and your customers, partners,
friends...)!
Image: http://www.slideshare.net/Niezette/100-pictures-for-powerpoint-presentations

Remember...
But in truth, social software
users do and the business
problems the tools address.
Jakob Nielsen, Usability Guru

Did you know?
lotusinfocenters.com
lotuswikis.com
planetlotus.org
thisweekinlotus.com

Lotus Connections 3.0: a Technical View on What's New

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